Zephaniah 3:12-18

3:12 I will leave in your midst a humble and meek group of people, ¹ 

and they will find safety in the Lord’s presence. ² 

3:13 The Israelites who remain ³  will not act deceitfully.

They will not lie,

and a deceitful tongue will not be found in their mouth.

Indeed, they will graze peacefully like sheep ⁴  and lie down;

no one will terrify them.”

3:14 Shout for joy, Daughter Zion! ⁵ 

Shout out, Israel!

Be happy and boast with all your heart, Daughter Jerusalem!

3:15 The Lord has removed the judgment against you; ⁶ 

he has turned back your enemy.

Israel’s king, the Lord, is in your midst!

You no longer need to fear disaster.

3:16 On that day they will say ⁷  to Jerusalem,

“Don’t be afraid, Zion!

Your hands must not be paralyzed from panic! ⁸ 

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

he is a warrior who can deliver.

He takes great delight in you; ⁹ 

he renews you by his love; ¹⁰ 

he shouts for joy over you.” ¹¹ 

3:18 “As for those who grieve because they cannot attend the festivals –

I took them away from you;

they became tribute and were a source of shame to you. ¹² 

[3:12]  ¹ tn Heb “needy and poor people.” The terms often refer to a socioeconomic group, but here they may refer to those who are humble in a spiritual sense.

[3:12]  ² tn Heb “and they will take refuge in the name of the Lord.”

[3:13]  ³ tn Or “the remnant of Israel.”

[3:13]  ⁴ tn The words “peacefully like sheep” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[3:14]  ⁵ sn This phrase is used as an epithet for the city and the nation. “Daughter” may seem extraneous in English but consciously joins the various epithets and metaphors of Israel and Jerusalem as a woman, a device used to evoke sympathy from the reader.

[3:15]  ⁶ tn Heb “your judgments,” that is, “the judgments directed against you.” The translation reflects the implications of the parallelism.

[3:16]  ⁷ tn Heb “it will be said.” The passive construction has been translated as active for stylistic reasons.

[3:16]  ⁸ tn Heb “your hands must not go limp.”

[3:17]  ⁹ tn Heb “he rejoices over you with joy.”

[3:17]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ tn Heb “he rejoices over you with a shout of joy.”

[3:18]  ¹² tn Heb “The ones grieving from an assembly I gathered from you they were, tribute upon her, a reproach.” Any translation of this difficult verse must be provisional at best. The present translation assumes three things: (1) The preposition מִן (min) prefixed to “assembly” is causal (the individuals are sorrowing because of the assemblies or festivals they are no longer able to hold). (2) מַשְׂאֵת (mas’et) means “tribute” and refers to the exiled people being treated as the spoils of warfare (see R. D. Patterson, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah [WEC], 385-86). (3) The third feminine singular suffix refers to personified Jerusalem, which is addressed earlier in the verse (the pronominal suffix in “from you” is second feminine singular). For other interpretive options see Adele Berlin, Zephaniah (AB 25A), 146.