Zephaniah 2:7

2:7 Those who are left from the kingdom of Judah ¹  will take possession of it. ² 

By the sea ³  they ⁴  will graze,

in the houses of Ashkelon they will lie down in the evening,

for the Lord their God will intervene for them ⁵  and restore their prosperity. ⁶ 

Zephaniah 2:11

2:11 The Lord will terrify them, ⁷ 

for ⁸  he will weaken ⁹  all the gods of the earth.

All the distant nations will worship the Lord in their own lands. ¹⁰ 

[2:7]  ¹ tn Heb “the remnant of the house of Judah.”

[2:7]  ² tn Or “the coast will belong to the remnant of the house of Judah.”

[2:7]  ³ tc Heb “on them,” but the antecedent of the masculine pronoun is unclear. It may refer back to the “pasture lands,” though that noun is feminine. It is preferable to emend the text from עֲלֵיהֶם (’alehem) to עַל־הַיָּם (’al-hayyam, “by the sea”) an emendation that assumes a misdivision and transposition of letters in the MT (cf. NEB “They shall pasture their flocks by the sea”). See J. J. M. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah (OTL), 192.

[2:7]  ⁴ tn The referent of the pronominal subject (“they”) is unclear. It may refer (1) to the shepherds (in which case the first verb should be translated, “pasture their sheep,” cf. NEB), or (2) to the Judahites occupying the area, who are being compared to sheep (cf. NIV, “there they will find pasture”).

[2:7]  ⁵ tn Or “will care for them.”

[2:7]  ⁶ tn Traditionally, “restore their captivity,” i.e., bring back their captives, but it is more likely the expression means “restore their fortunes” in a more general sense (cf. NEB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[2:11]  ⁷ tn Heb “will be awesome over [or, “against”] them.”

[2:11]  ⁸ tn Or “certainly.”

[2:11]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and all the coastlands of the nations will worship [or, “bow down”] to him, each from his own place.”