Zephaniah 3:2

3:2 She is disobedient; ¹ 

she refuses correction. ² 

She does not trust the Lord;

she does not seek the advice of ³  her God.

Zephaniah 3:5

3:5 The just Lord resides ⁴  within her;

he commits no unjust acts. ⁵ 

Every morning he reveals ⁶  his justice.

At dawn he appears without fail. ⁷ 

Yet the unjust know no shame.

Zephaniah 1:6

1:6 and those who turn their backs on ⁸  the Lord

and do not want the Lord’s help or guidance.” ⁹ 

Zephaniah 2:1

The Prophet Warns the People

2:1 Bunch yourselves together like straw, ¹⁰  you undesirable ¹¹  nation,

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 3:13

3:13 The Israelites who remain ¹²  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 ¹³  and lie down;

no one will terrify them.”

Zephaniah 3:3

3:3 Her princes ¹⁴  are as fierce as roaring lions; ¹⁵ 

her rulers ¹⁶  are as hungry as wolves in the desert, ¹⁷ 

who completely devour their prey by morning. ¹⁸ 

Zephaniah 1:12

1:12 At that time I will search through Jerusalem with lamps.

I will punish the people who are entrenched in their sin, ¹⁹ 

those who think to themselves, ²⁰ 

‘The Lord neither rewards nor punishes.’ ²¹ 

Zephaniah 2:2

2:2 before God’s decree becomes reality ²²  and the day of opportunity disappears like windblown chaff, ²³ 

before the Lord’s raging anger ²⁴  overtakes ²⁵  you –

before the day of the Lord’s angry judgment overtakes you!

Zephaniah 3:11

3:11 In that day you ²⁶  will not be ashamed of all your rebelliousness against me, ²⁷ 

for then I will remove from your midst those who proudly boast, ²⁸ 

and you will never again be arrogant on my holy hill.

Zephaniah 3:7

3:7 I thought, ²⁹  ‘Certainly you will respect ³⁰  me!

Now you will accept correction!’

If she had done so, her home ³¹  would not be destroyed ³² 

by all the punishments I have threatened. ³³ 

But they eagerly sinned

in everything they did. ³⁴ 

Zephaniah 3:15

3:15 The Lord has removed the judgment against you; ³⁵ 

he has turned back your enemy.

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

You no longer need to fear disaster.

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 ³⁶  will be consumed by his fiery wrath. ³⁷ 

Indeed, ³⁸  he will bring terrifying destruction ³⁹  on all who live on the earth.” ⁴⁰ 

[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).

[3:5]  ⁴ tn The word “resides” is supplied for clarification.

[3:5]  ⁵ tn Or “he does no injustice.”

[3:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “gives”; or “dispenses.”

[3:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “at the light he is not missing.” Note that NASB (which capitalizes pronouns referring to Deity) has divided the lines differently: “Every morning He brings His justice to light; // He does not fail.”

[1:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “turn back from [following] after.”

[1:6]  ⁸ tn Heb “who do not seek the Lord and do not inquire of him.” The present translation assumes the first verb refers to praying for divine help and the second to seeking his revealed will through an oracle. Note the usage of the two verbs in 2 Chr 20:3-4.

[2:1]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew text combines a Hitpolel imperative of קָשַׁשׁ (qashash) with a Qal imperative of the same root. Elsewhere this root appears in the polel stem with the meaning “gather stubble.” Zephaniah’s command is ironic, implying the people are like stubble or straw. As such, they are vulnerable to the Lord’s fiery judgment that will quickly consume them (see 1:18). See Adele Berlin, Zephaniah (AB 25A), 96.

[2:1]  ¹¹ tn Some relate this word to an Aramaic cognate meaning “to be ashamed.” With the negative particle it would then mean “unashamed” (cf. NIV “shameful”; NRSV “shameless”). However, elsewhere in biblical Hebrew the verb means “to desire,” or with the negative particle “undesirable.” Cf. also NEB “unruly.”

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

[3:13]  ¹⁴ tn The words “peacefully like sheep” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[3:3]  ¹⁶ tn Or “officials.”

[3:3]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “her princes in her midst are roaring lions.” The metaphor has been translated as a simile (“as fierce as”) for clarity.

[3:3]  ¹⁸ tn Traditionally “judges.”

[3:3]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “her judges [are] wolves of the evening,” that is, wolves that prowl at night. The translation assumes an emendation to עֲרָבָה (’aravah, “desert”). For a discussion of this and other options, see Adele Berlin, Zephaniah (AB 25A), 128. The metaphor has been translated as a simile (“as hungry as”) for clarity.

[3:3]  ²⁰ tn Heb “they do not gnaw [a bone] at morning.” The precise meaning of the line is unclear. The statement may mean these wolves devour their prey so completely that not even a bone is left to gnaw by the time morning arrives. For a discussion of this and other options, see Adele Berlin, Zephaniah (AB 25A), 129.

[1:12]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “who thicken on their sediment.” The imagery comes from wine making, where the wine, if allowed to remain on the sediment too long, will thicken into syrup. The image suggests that the people described here were complacent in their sinful behavior and interpreted the delay in judgment as divine apathy.

[1:12]  ²⁰ tn Heb “who say in their hearts.”

[1:12]  ²¹ tn Heb “The Lord does not do good nor does he do evil.”

[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 Lord.” The synonyms are combined to emphasize the extreme degree of the Lord’s anger.

[2:2]  ²⁵ tn Heb “comes upon.” This phrase occurs twice in this verse.

[3:11]  ²⁵ sn The second person verbs and pronouns are feminine singular, indicating that personified Jerusalem is addressed here.

[3:11]  ²⁶ tn Heb “In that day you not be ashamed because of all your actions, [in] which you rebelled against me.”

[3:11]  ²⁷ tn Heb “the arrogant ones of your pride.”

[3:7]  ²⁸ tn Heb “said.”

[3:7]  ²⁹ tn Or “fear.” The second person verb form (“you will respect”) is feminine singular, indicating that personified Jerusalem is addressed.

[3:7]  ³⁰ tn Or “dwelling place.”

[3:7]  ³¹ tn Heb “cut off.”

[3:7]  ³² tn Heb “all which I have punished her.” The precise meaning of this statement and its relationship to what precedes are unclear.

[3:7]  ³³ 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.

[3:15]  ³¹ tn Heb “your judgments,” that is, “the judgments directed against you.” The translation reflects the implications of the parallelism.

[1:18]  ³⁴ tn Or “land” (cf. NEB). This same word also occurs at the end of the present verse.

[1:18]  ³⁵ tn Or “passion”; traditionally, “jealousy.”

[1:18]  ³⁶ tn Or “for.”

[1:18]  ³⁷ tn Heb “complete destruction, even terror, he will make.”

[1:18]  ³⁸ 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).