Zephaniah 2:11

2:11 The Lord will terrify them, ¹ 

for ²  he will weaken ³  all the gods of the earth.

All the distant nations will worship the Lord in their own lands. ⁴ 

Zephaniah 3:17

3:17 The Lord your God is in your midst;

he is a warrior who can deliver.

He takes great delight in you; ⁵ 

he renews you by his love; ⁶ 

he shouts for joy over you.” ⁷ 

[2:11]  ¹ tn Heb “will be awesome over [or, “against”] them.”

[2:11]  ² tn Or “certainly.”

[2:11]  ³ tn The meaning of this rare Hebrew word is unclear. If the meaning is indeed “weaken,” then this line may be referring to the reduction of these gods’ territory through conquest (see Adele Berlin, Zephaniah [AB 25A], 110-11). Cf. NEB “reduce to beggary”; NASB “starve”; NIV “when he destroys”; NRSV “shrivel.”

[2:11]  ⁴ tn Heb “and all the coastlands of the nations will worship [or, “bow down”] to him, each from his own place.”

[3:17]  ⁵ tn Heb “he rejoices over you with joy.”

[3:17]  ⁶ tc The MT reads, “he is silent in his love,” but this makes no sense in light of the immediately preceding and following lines. Some take the Hiphil verb form as causative (see Job 11:3) rather than intransitive and translate, “he causes [you] to be silent by his love,” that is, “he soothes [you] by his love.” The present translation follows the LXX and assumes an original reading יְחַדֵּשׁ (yÿkhaddesh, “he renews”) with ellipsis of the object (“you”).

[3:17]  ⁷ tn Heb “he rejoices over you with a shout of joy.”