Zephaniah 2:5

2:5 Those who live by the sea, the people who came from Crete, ¹  are as good as dead. ² 

The Lord has decreed your downfall, ³  Canaan, land of the Philistines:

“I will destroy everyone who lives there!” ⁴ 

Zephaniah 1:11

1:11 Wail, you who live in the market district, ⁵ 

for all the merchants ⁶  will disappear ⁷ 

and those who count money ⁸  will be removed. ⁹ 

Zephaniah 1:13

1:13 Their wealth will be stolen

and their houses ruined!

They will not live in the houses they have built,

nor will they drink the wine from the vineyards they have planted.

Zephaniah 3:6

The Lord’s Judgment will Purify

3:6 “I destroyed ¹⁰  nations;

their walled cities ¹¹  are in ruins.

I turned their streets into ruins;

no one passes through them.

Their cities are desolate; ¹² 

no one lives there. ¹³ 

Zephaniah 1:4

1:4 “I will attack ¹⁴  Judah

and all who live in Jerusalem. ¹⁵ 

I will remove ¹⁶  from this place every trace of Baal worship, ¹⁷ 

as well as the very memory ¹⁸  of the pagan priests. ¹⁹ 

Zephaniah 1:18

1:18 Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them

in the day of the Lord’s angry judgment.

The whole earth ²⁰  will be consumed by his fiery wrath. ²¹ 

Indeed, ²²  he will bring terrifying destruction ²³  on all who live on the earth.” ²⁴ 

Zephaniah 2:15

2:15 This is how the once-proud city will end up ²⁵  –

the city that was so secure. ²⁶ 

She thought to herself, ²⁷  “I am unique! No one can compare to me!” ²⁸ 

What a heap of ruins she has become, a place where wild animals live!

Everyone who passes by her taunts her ²⁹  and shakes his fist. ³⁰ 

[2:5]  ¹ 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]  ² 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]  ³ tn Heb “the word of the Lord is against you.”

[2:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “I will destroy you so there is no inhabitant [remaining].”

[1:11]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ tn Or “be destroyed.”

[1:11]  ⁸ tn Heb “weigh out silver.”

[1:11]  ⁹ 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.

[3:6]  ⁹ tn Heb “cut off.”

[3:6]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “corner towers”; NEB, NRSV “battlements.”

[3:6]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² tn Heb “so that there is no man, without inhabitant.”

[1:4]  ¹³ tn Heb “I will stretch out my hand against,” is an idiom for hostile action.

[1:4]  ¹⁴ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[1:4]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “cut off.”

[1:4]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the remnant of Baal.”

[1:4]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “name.” Here the “name” is figurative for the memory of those who bear it.

[1:4]  ¹⁸ 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).

[1:18]  ¹⁷ tn Or “land” (cf. NEB). This same word also occurs at the end of the present verse.

[1:18]  ¹⁸ tn Or “passion”; traditionally, “jealousy.”

[1:18]  ¹⁹ tn Or “for.”

[1:18]  ²⁰ tn Heb “complete destruction, even terror, he will make.”

[1:18]  ²¹ tn It is not certain where the Lord’s words end and the prophet’s words begin. It is possible that Zephaniah begins speaking in the middle of v. 17 or at the beginning of v. 18 (note the third person pronouns referring to the Lord).

[2:15]  ²¹ tn Heb “this is the proud city.”

[2:15]  ²² tn Heb “the one that lived securely.”

[2:15]  ²³ tn Heb “the one who says in her heart.”

[2:15]  ²⁴ tn Heb “I [am], and besides me there is no other.”

[2:15]  ²⁵ tn Heb “hisses”; or “whistles.”

[2:15]  ²⁶ sn Hissing (or whistling) and shaking the fist were apparently ways of taunting a defeated foe or an object of derision in the culture of the time.