Zephaniah 3:18

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. ¹ 

Zephaniah 3:7

3:7 I thought, ²  ‘Certainly you will respect ³  me!

Now you will accept correction!’

If she had done so, her home ⁴  would not be destroyed ⁵ 

by all the punishments I have threatened. ⁶ 

But they eagerly sinned

in everything they did. ⁷ 

Zephaniah 2:15

2:15 This is how the once-proud city will end up ⁸  –

the city that was so secure. ⁹ 

She thought to herself, ¹⁰  “I am unique! No one can compare to me!” ¹¹ 

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

Everyone who passes by her taunts her ¹²  and shakes his fist. ¹³ 

[3:18]  ¹ 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.

[3:7]  ² tn Heb “said.”

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

[3:7]  ⁴ tn Or “dwelling place.”

[3:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “cut off.”

[3:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “all which I have punished her.” The precise meaning of this statement and its relationship to what precedes are unclear.

[3:7]  ⁷ 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.

[2:15]  ³ tn Heb “this is the proud city.”

[2:15]  ⁴ tn Heb “the one that lived securely.”

[2:15]  ⁵ tn Heb “the one who says in her heart.”

[2:15]  ⁶ tn Heb “I [am], and besides me there is no other.”

[2:15]  ⁷ tn Heb “hisses”; or “whistles.”

[2:15]  ⁸ 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.