What follows is the word that Yahweh gave to Zephaniah during the reign of King Josiah of Judah (640-609 B.C.). This "word"includes all that the Lord told the prophet that He also led him to record for posterity (cf. Hos. 1:1; Joel 1:1; Mic. 1:1). This was a divine revelation that God gave through one of His servants the prophets.
Zephaniah recorded his genealogy, the longest genealogy of a writing prophet in any prophetical book. It goes back four generations to Zephaniah's great-great-grandfather, Hezekiah. As noted in the "Writer"section of the Introduction above, it is impossible to prove or to disprove that this Hezekiah was the king of Judah by that name. Chronologically he could have been since people married quite young during Israel's monarchy. I think this Hezekiah probably was the king since the name was not common and since it would make sense to trace the prophet's lineage back so far if Hezekiah was an important person (cf. Zech. 1:1). Normally the writing prophets who recorded their ancestors named only their fathers (cf. Jon. 1:1; Joel 1:1). We have no complete genealogy of King Hezekiah's descendants in the Old Testament.
Zephaniah's prophecies are all about "the day of the LORD."He revealed two things about this "day,"first, that it would involve judgment (1:2-3:8) and, second, that it would eventuate in blessing (3:9-20). The judgment portion is the larger of the two sections. This judgment followed by blessing motif is common throughout the Prophets. Zephaniah revealed that judgment would come from Yahweh on the whole earth, Judah, Israel's neighbors, Jerusalem, and all nations. The arrangement of this judgment section of the book is chiastic.
AJudgment on the world 1:2-3
BJudgment on Judah 1:4-2:3
CJudgment on Israel's neighbors 2:4-15
B'Judgment on Jerusalem 3:1-7
A'Judgment on the all nations 3:8
Having finished the revelation dealing with God's judgment of the world in a coming day (1:2-3:8), Zephaniah now announced that He would bring great blessing to all humankind after that judgment (3:9-20). As in the section of the book on judgment, he revealed God's plans for the Gentile nations briefly first and then spoke extensively about His plans for Israel.
