Zephaniah 2:13

2:13 The Lord ¹  will attack the north ² 

and destroy Assyria.

He will make Nineveh a heap of ruins;

it will be as barren ³  as the desert.

Zephaniah 2:5

2:5 Those who live by the sea, the people who came from Crete, ⁴  are as good as dead. ⁵ 

The Lord has decreed your downfall, ⁶  Canaan, land of the Philistines:

“I will destroy everyone who lives there!” ⁷ 

Zephaniah 3:6

The Lord’s Judgment will Purify

3:6 “I destroyed ⁸  nations;

their walled cities ⁹  are in ruins.

I turned their streets into ruins;

no one passes through them.

Their cities are desolate; ¹⁰ 

no one lives there. ¹¹ 

Zephaniah 1:3

1:3 “I will destroy people and animals;

I will destroy the birds in the sky

and the fish in the sea.

(The idolatrous images of these creatures will be destroyed along with evil people.) ¹² 

I will remove ¹³  humanity from the face of the earth,” says the Lord.

Zephaniah 2:11

2:11 The Lord will terrify them, ¹⁴ 

for ¹⁵  he will weaken ¹⁶  all the gods of the earth.

All the distant nations will worship the Lord in their own lands. ¹⁷ 

Zephaniah 1:2

The Lord’s Day of Judgment is Approaching

1:2 “I will destroy ¹⁸  everything from the face of the earth,” says the Lord.

Zephaniah 1:6

1:6 and those who turn their backs on ¹⁹  the Lord

and do not want the Lord’s help or guidance.” ²⁰ 

Zephaniah 1:11

1:11 Wail, you who live in the market district, ²¹ 

for all the merchants ²²  will disappear ²³ 

and those who count money ²⁴  will be removed. ²⁵ 

Zephaniah 1:5

1:5 I will remove ²⁶  those who worship the stars in the sky from their rooftops, ²⁷ 

those who swear allegiance to the Lord ²⁸  while taking oaths in the name of ²⁹  their ‘king,’ ³⁰ 

Zephaniah 1:4

1:4 “I will attack ³¹  Judah

and all who live in Jerusalem. ³² 

I will remove ³³  from this place every trace of Baal worship, ³⁴ 

as well as the very memory ³⁵  of the pagan priests. ³⁶ 

Zephaniah 3:7

3:7 I thought, ³⁷  ‘Certainly you will respect ³⁸  me!

Now you will accept correction!’

If she had done so, her home ³⁹  would not be destroyed ⁴⁰ 

by all the punishments I have threatened. ⁴¹ 

But they eagerly sinned

in everything they did. ⁴² 

Zephaniah 2:9

2:9 Therefore, as surely as I live,” says the Lord who commands armies, the God of Israel,

“be certain that Moab will become like Sodom

and the Ammonites like Gomorrah.

They will be overrun by weeds, ⁴³ 

filled with salt pits, ⁴⁴ 

and permanently desolate.

Those of my people who are left ⁴⁵  will plunder their belongings; ⁴⁶ 

those who are left in Judah ⁴⁷  will take possession of their land.”

[2:13]  ¹ tn Heb “He”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[2:13]  ² tn Heb “he will stretch out his hand against the north.”

[2:13]  ³ tn Or “dry.”

[2:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “Kerethites,” a people settled alongside the Philistines in the coastal areas of southern Palestine (cf. 1 Sam 30:14; Ezek 25:16). They originally came from the island of Crete.

[2:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “Woe, inhabitants of the coast of the sea, nation of Kerethites.” The Hebrew term הוֹי (hoy, “ah, woe”), is used to mourn the dead and express outwardly one’s sorrow (see 1 Kgs 13:30; Jer 22:18; 34:5). By using it here the prophet mourns in advance the downfall of the Philistines, thereby emphasizing the certainty of their demise (“as good as dead”). Some argue the word does not have its earlier connotation here and is simply an attention-getting interjection, equivalent to “Hey!”

[2:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “the word of the Lord is against you.”

[2:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “I will destroy you so there is no inhabitant [remaining].”

[3:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “cut off.”

[3:6]  ⁸ tn Heb “corner towers”; NEB, NRSV “battlements.”

[3:6]  ⁹ tn This Hebrew verb (צָדָה, tsadah) occurs only here in the OT, but its meaning is established from the context and from an Aramaic cognate.

[3:6]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “so that there is no man, without inhabitant.”

[1:3]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “And the stumbling blocks [or, “ruins”] with the evil”; or “the things that make the evil stumble.” The line does not appear in the original form of the LXX; it may be a later scribal addition. The present translation assumes the “stumbling blocks” are idolatrous images of animals, birds, and fish. See J. J. M. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah (OTL), 167, and Adele Berlin, Zephaniah (AB), 73-74.

[1:3]  ¹¹ tn Heb “cut off.”

[2:11]  ¹³ tn Heb “will be awesome over [or, “against”] them.”

[2:11]  ¹⁴ tn Or “certainly.”

[2:11]  ¹⁵ 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]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and all the coastlands of the nations will worship [or, “bow down”] to him, each from his own place.”

[1:2]  ¹⁶ tn The Hebrew text combines the infinitive absolute of אָסַף (’asaf, “gather up, sweep away”) with a Hiphil prefixed first person form of סוּף (suf, “come to an end”; see Jer 8:13 for the same combination). This can be translated literally, “Sweeping away, I will bring to an end.” Some prefer to emend the text so that the infinitive and finite form of the verb are from the same root (“I will certainly sweep away,” if from אָסַף [cf. NEB, NIV, NRSV]; “I will certainly bring to an end,” if from סוּף). For a discussion of proposals see J. J. M. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah (OTL), 167, 169.

[1:6]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “turn back from [following] after.”

[1:6]  ²⁰ tn Heb “who do not seek the Lord and do not inquire of him.” The present translation assumes the first verb refers to praying for divine help and the second to seeking his revealed will through an oracle. Note the usage of the two verbs in 2 Chr 20:3-4.

[1:11]  ²² tn Heb “in the Mortar.” The Hebrew term מַכְתֵּשׁ (makhtesh, “mortar”) is apparently here the name of a low-lying area where economic activity took place.

[1:11]  ²³ tn Or perhaps “Canaanites.” Cf. BDB 489 s.v. I and II כְּנַעֲנִי. Translators have rendered the term either as “the merchant people” (KJV, NKJV), “the traders” (NRSV), “merchants” (NEB, NIV), or, alternatively, “the people of Canaan” (NASB).

[1:11]  ²⁴ tn Or “be destroyed.”

[1:11]  ²⁵ tn Heb “weigh out silver.”

[1:11]  ²⁶ tn Heb “be cut off.” In the Hebrew text of v. 11b the perfect verbal forms emphasize the certainty of the judgment, speaking of it as if it were already accomplished.

[1:5]  ²⁵ tn The words “I will remove” are repeated from v. 4b for stylistic reasons. In the Hebrew text vv. 4b-6 contain a long list of objects for the verb “I will remove” in v. 4b. In the present translation a new sentence was begun at the beginning of v. 5 in keeping with the tendency of contemporary English to use shorter sentences.

[1:5]  ²⁶ tn Heb “those who worship on their roofs the host of heaven.” The “host of heaven” included the sun, moon, planets, and stars, all of which were deified in the ancient Near East.

[1:5]  ²⁷ tc The MT reads, “those who worship, those who swear allegiance to the Lord.” The original form of the LXX omits the phrase “those who worship”; it may have been accidentally repeated from the preceding line. J. J. M. Roberts prefers to delete as secondary the phrase “those who swear allegiance” (J. J. M. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah [OTL], 168).

[1:5]  ²⁸ tn Heb “those who swear by.”

[1:5]  ²⁹ tn The referent of “their king” is unclear. It may refer sarcastically to a pagan god (perhaps Baal) worshiped by the people. Some English versions (cf. NEB, NASB, NRSV) prefer to emend the text to “Milcom,” the name of an Ammonite god (following some LXX mss, Syriac, and Vulgate) or “Molech,” a god to whom the Israelites offered their children (cf. NIV, NLT). For a discussion of the options, see Adele Berlin, Zephaniah (AB 25A), 75-77.

[1:4]  ²⁸ tn Heb “I will stretch out my hand against,” is an idiom for hostile action.

[1:4]  ²⁹ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[1:4]  ³⁰ tn Heb “cut off.”

[1:4]  ³¹ tn Heb “the remnant of Baal.”

[1:4]  ³² tn Heb “name.” Here the “name” is figurative for the memory of those who bear it.

[1:4]  ³³ tc Heb “of the pagan priests and priests.” The first word (כְּמָרִים, kÿmarim) refers to idolatrous priests in its two other appearances in the OT (2 Kgs 23:5, Hos 10:5), while the second word (כֹּהֲנִים, kohanim) is the normal term for “priest” and is used of both legitimate and illegitimate priests in the OT. It is likely that the second term, which is omitted in the LXX, is a later scribal addition to the Hebrew text, defining the extremely rare word that precedes (see J. J. M. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah [OTL], 167-68; cf. also NEB, NRSV). Some argue that both words are original; among the modern English versions that include both are NASB and NIV. Possibly the first word refers to outright pagan priests, while the second has in view once-legitimate priests of the Lord who had drifted into idolatrous practices. Another option is found in Adele Berlin, who translates, “the idolatrous priests among the priests,” understanding the second word as giving the general category of which the idolatrous priests are a part (Zephaniah [AB 25A], 75).

[3:7]  ³¹ tn Heb “said.”

[3:7]  ³² tn Or “fear.” The second person verb form (“you will respect”) is feminine singular, indicating that personified Jerusalem is addressed.

[3:7]  ³³ tn Or “dwelling place.”

[3:7]  ³⁴ tn Heb “cut off.”

[3:7]  ³⁵ tn Heb “all which I have punished her.” The precise meaning of this statement and its relationship to what precedes are unclear.

[3:7]  ³⁶ tn Heb “But they got up early, they made corrupt all their actions.” The phrase “they got up early” probably refers to their eagerness to engage in sinful activities.

[2:9]  ³⁴ tn The Hebrew text reads מִמְשַׁק חָרוּל (mimshaq kharul, “[?] of weeds”). The meaning of the first word is unknown. The present translation (“They will be overrun by weeds”) is speculative, based on the general sense of the context. For a defense of “overrun” on linguistic grounds, see R. D. Patterson, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah (WEC), 347. Cf. NEB “a pile of weeds”; NIV “a place of weeds”; NRSV “a land possessed by nettles.”

[2:9]  ³⁵ tn The Hebrew text reads וּמִכְרֵה־מֶלַח (umikhreh-melakh, “and a [?] of salt”). The meaning of the first word is unclear, though “pit” (NASB, NIV, NRSV; NKJV “saltpit”), “mine,” and “heap” (cf. NEB “a rotting heap of saltwort”) are all options. The words “filled with” are supplied for clarification.

[2:9]  ³⁶ tn Or “The remnant of my people.”

[2:9]  ³⁷ tn Heb “them.” The actual object of the plundering, “their belongings,” has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[2:9]  ³⁸ tn Heb “[the] nation.” For clarity the “nation” has been specified as “Judah” in the translation.