Discovery BoxZephaniah 3:2
Contextshe refuses correction. 2
She does not trust the Lord;
she does not seek the advice of 3 her God.
Zephaniah 1:7
Context1:7 Be silent before the Lord God, 4
for the Lord’s day of judgment 5 is almost here. 6
The Lord has prepared a sacrificial meal; 7
he has ritually purified 8 his guests.
Zephaniah 2:11
Context2:11 The Lord will terrify them, 9
for 10 he will weaken 11 all the gods of the earth.
All the distant nations will worship the Lord in their own lands. 12
Zephaniah 3:17
Context3:17 The Lord your God is in your midst;
he is a warrior who can deliver.
He takes great delight in you; 13
he renews you by his love; 14
he shouts for joy over you.” 15
Zephaniah 3:4
Context3:4 Her prophets are proud; 16
they are deceitful men.
Her priests defile what is holy; 17
they break God’s laws. 18
Zephaniah 2:7
Context2:7 Those who are left from the kingdom of Judah 19 will take possession of it. 20
By the sea 21 they 22 will graze,
in the houses of Ashkelon they will lie down in the evening,
for the Lord their God will intervene for them 23 and restore their prosperity. 24
Zephaniah 2:9
Context2:9 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, 25
filled with salt pits, 26
and permanently desolate.
Those of my people who are left 27 will plunder their belongings; 28
those who are left in Judah 29 will take possession of their land.”
Zephaniah 2:2
Context2:2 before God’s decree becomes reality 30 and the day of opportunity disappears like windblown chaff, 31
before the Lord’s raging anger 32 overtakes 33 you –
before the day of the Lord’s angry judgment overtakes you!
Zephaniah 1:15
Context1:15 That day will be a day of God’s anger, 34
a day of distress and hardship,
a day of devastation and ruin,
a day of darkness and gloom,
a day of clouds and dark skies,
Zephaniah 1:5
Context1:5 I will remove 35 those who worship the stars in the sky from their rooftops, 36
those who swear allegiance to the Lord 37 while taking oaths in the name of 38 their ‘king,’ 39
Zephaniah 1:8-9
Context1:8 “On the day of the Lord’s sacrificial meal,
I will punish the princes 40 and the king’s sons,
and all who wear foreign styles of clothing. 41
1:9 On that day I will punish all who leap over the threshold, 42
who fill the house of their master 43 with wealth taken by violence and deceit. 44
[3:2] 1 tn Heb “she does not hear a voice” Refusing to listen is equated with disobedience.
[3:2] 2 tn Heb “she does not receive correction.” The Hebrew phrase, when negated, refers elsewhere to rejecting verbal advice (Jer 17:23; 32:33; 35:13) and refusing to learn from experience (Jer 2:30; 5:3).
[3:2] 3 tn Heb “draw near to.” The present translation assumes that the expression “draw near to” refers to seeking God’s will (see 1 Sam 14:36).
[1:7] 4 tn Heb “Lord
[1:7] 5 tn Heb “the day of the
[1:7] 7 tn Heb “a sacrifice.” This same word also occurs in the following verse.
[1:7] 8 tn Or “consecrated” (ASV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).
[2:11] 7 tn Heb “will be awesome over [or, “against”] them.”
[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.”
[3:17] 10 tn Heb “he rejoices over you with joy.”
[3:17] 11 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] 12 tn Heb “he rejoices over you with a shout of joy.”
[3:4] 13 sn Applied to prophets, the word פֹּחֲזִים (pokhazim, “proud”) probably refers to their audacity in passing off their own words as genuine prophecies from the
[3:4] 14 tn Or “defile the temple.”
[3:4] 15 tn Heb “they treat violently [the] law.”
[2:7] 16 tn Heb “the remnant of the house of Judah.”
[2:7] 17 tn Or “the coast will belong to the remnant of the house of Judah.”
[2:7] 18 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] 19 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] 20 tn Or “will care for them.”
[2:7] 21 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).
[2:9] 19 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] 20 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] 21 tn Or “The remnant of my people.”
[2:9] 22 tn Heb “them.” The actual object of the plundering, “their belongings,” has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[2:9] 23 tn Heb “[the] nation.” For clarity the “nation” has been specified as “Judah” in the translation.
[2:2] 22 tn Heb “before the giving birth of a decree.” For various alternative readings, see J. J. M. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah (OTL), 187-88.
[2:2] 23 tn The second half of the line reads literally, “like chaff it passes by a day.” The translation above assumes the “day” is the brief time God is giving the nation to repent. The comparison of this quickly passing opportunity to chaff is consistent with the straw imagery of v. 1.
[2:2] 24 tn Heb “the fury of the anger of the
[2:2] 25 tn Heb “comes upon.” This phrase occurs twice in this verse.
[1:15] 25 tn Heb “a day of wrath.” The word “God’s” is supplied in the translation for clarification.
[1:5] 28 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] 29 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] 30 tc The MT reads, “those who worship, those who swear allegiance to the
[1:5] 31 tn Heb “those who swear by.”
[1:5] 32 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
[1:8] 31 tn Or “officials” (NRSV, TEV); NLT “leaders.”
[1:8] 32 sn The very dress of the royal court, foreign styles of clothing, revealed the degree to which Judah had assimilated foreign customs.
[1:9] 34 sn The point of the statement all who hop over the threshold is unclear. A ritual or superstition associated with the Philistine god Dagon may be in view (see 1 Sam 5:5).
[1:9] 35 tn The referent of “their master” is unclear. The king or a pagan god may be in view.
[1:9] 36 tn Heb “who fill…with violence and deceit.” The expression “violence and deceit” refers metonymically to the wealth taken by oppressive measures.
