ii. Ch. ii. 4-15, judgment on the nations. Five nations are named, the Philistines, Moab and Ammon, Cush and Assyria, lying west, east, south and north of Israel. iii. Ch. iii. 1—8, renewed announcement of judgment, particularly on Jerusalem, but also on the nations, even on the whole earth. (1) Jerusalem is rebellious, polluted and full of oppression (v. 2); disobedient to God, and indifferent to His word and His operations among the nations (vv. 2, 5—7). Every class within her is corrupt: her princes violent, her judges venal and greedy (v. 3), her prophets unstable and false, and her priests profaners of that which is holy (v. 4 ff.). (2) Therefore the Lord will rise up in judgment and consume the whole earth in the fire of His jealousy (v. 8). The second division of the prophecy, the promise of salvation to the world, ch. iii. 9—20, has also three short sections: the promise to the nations (vv. 9, 10); the promise to Israel (vv. 11-13); and lastly a reference to the final condition of Israel, for ever joyful in the presence of their God (vv. 14—20). (1) In His judgments the Lord is made known unto the nations, and He purifies their lips so that they fitly call on the name of the Lord; and all peoples, even the most distant, serve Him with offerings (vv. 9, 10). (2) And Israel comes forth from the judgment chastened and no more haughty, the people's trust being in the Lord alone. And the social wrongs of former days are no more found; every one deals in rectitude and truthfulness with his neighbour (vv. 11-13). (3) The people redeemed and all their outcasts restored rejoice for ever in the Lord, who abides in the midst of them, mighty to save (vv. 14—20). The value of the Book of Zephaniah is not to be estimated by its size. In two respects it is of great importance: first, for the revelation which it gives of the religious and social condition of Jerusalem in the years preceding the Exile; and secondly, on account of the profoundly earnest moral tone by which it is pervaded. Perhaps not less remarkable is the prophet's comprehensive view of history. The history of the nations is but another name for the operations of Jehovah among them; and the goal which all these operations pursue is not the redemption of Israel merely but of mankind. The most important parts of the prophecy are ch. i. 2—ii. 3 and ch. iii. 1—13. The other parts, e.g. ch. ii. 4-15, are characterized by a narrower nationalistic spirit. The most beautiful thing in the book is the passage ch. iii. II-13. The picture of the redeemed people coming newly forth from the convulsions and afflictions of the judgment, humble and truthful, blessed, but filled with a chastened joy, is exquisite. “The immediate judgment with which Zephaniah threatened Jerusalem was averted. But his prophecy began to be fulfilled in the disasters which befell neighbouring nations. It was fulfilled yet further in those great convulsions of the nations of the East which followed shortly. It was fulfilled for Judah in the captivity and the destruction of the guilty nation. For these were all steps of progress advancing towards the great end, elements contributing to the fulness of the times, preludes to the establishment of the universal divine kingdom1." 1 Kirkpatrick, Doctrine of the Prophets, p. 262. ZEPHANIAH. THE 'HE word of the LORD which came unto Zephaniah the 1 son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hizkiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah. CHAP. I. THE TITLE. 1. The word...unto Zephaniah] The name Zephaniah means, He whom Jehovah has hid, that is, treasures, or protects. The name is not uncommon, Jer. xxi. 1, lii. 24; Zech. vi. 10. the son of Hizkiah] Hizkiah or Hezekiah may be the king of that name. It is unusual to carry the genealogy of a prophet further up than his father, and the exception in the present case suggests that Hezekiah, the last link in the chain, was a person of distinction. Introduction, § I. in the days of Josiah...king of Judah] refer to Josiah, not to his father Amon. 608. THE BOOK. See The words "king of Judah" The Book has two great divisions: First, ch. i. 2-iii. 8, a threat of judgment on the world: on Judah and the nations; and secondly, a promise of salvation equally universal, ch. iii. 9-20. The judgment is that of the great day of the Lord. The prophet represents it as universal, but concentrating itself on Judah, ch. i. 2-ii. 3; then as involving the nations, ch. ii. 4—15; and finally he speaks of Judah and the nations together, ch. iii. 1-8. The passage ch. i. 2-ii. 3 has these divisions: (1) Judgment on all created things, and especially on Judah and Jerusalem (vv. 2—7); (2) the classes in Jerusalem whom God will search out and punish (vv. 8-13); (3) the terrors of the day of the Lord (vv. 14—18); (4) exhortation to men to seek righteousness that they may be hid in the day of the Lord's anger (ch. ii. 1-3). 2 3 4 I will utterly consume all things from off the land, saith the LORD. I will consume man and beast; I will consume the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the sea, And the stumblingblocks with the wicked; And I will cut off man from off the land, saith the LORD. CH. I. 2-7. THE UNIVERSAL JUDGMENT OF THE DAY OF THE LORD. 2. from off the land] from off the face of the ground, i.e. the earth, cf. v. 3. The judgment is indiscriminate, all that lives shall be swept away. Though it is men against whom God's anger burns, the anger once kindled devours round about and consumes all created things. The sphere of man's life, the realm of his rule (Ps. viii. 6—8), is involved with himself in a common destruction. 3. Verse 3 particularises the "all things" of v. 2, cattle and fowl and fishes of the sea, and man. Hos. iv. 3, "Therefore shall the land mourn, and everyone that dwelleth therein shall languish, with the beasts of the field and the fowls of heaven; yea the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away." Similarly Ezek. xxxviii. 19, "Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel; so that the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the field and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, and all the men that are upon the face of the earth, shall shake at my presence"; cf. Is. ii. 19-21. the stumblingblocks...wicked] The words are rather obscure, and seem to disturb the connexion. The term rendered "stumblingblock occurs again Is. iii. 6, "let this ruin (the country in anarchy) be under thy hand," and Hitzig would understand it here in a somewhat similar sense, the houses, &c. "destined to become heaps" (Job xv. 28). The somewhat similar word usually rendered "stumblingblock" is used in the sense of idol, or any object or practice of false worship (Ezek. xiv. 3, 4, 7), and this sense is more probable here. But the clause introduces an idea not in harmony with the rest of the verse. 4. The prophet turns to Judah and Jerusalem. Though the Day of the Lord was the revelation of Jehovah to the world, and therefore a thing universal, the centre of the judgment in the view of the pre-exile prophets was Israel (Am. i., ii.; Is. ii., iii.), for judgment began at the house of God (Am. iii. 2). With the exile the judgment on Israel seemed to have been fulfilled, and during the exile and later the judgment of the Day of the Lord is represented as falling on the heathen world (Is. xiii.; Zech. i.—vi.), and its issue is Israel's redemption. But after the Restoration, when Israel was again a people and far from answering to its ideal, prophets have to threaten it anew with the refiner's fire of the Day of the Lord (Mal. iii. 2 ff.). I will also stretch] And I will stretch out my hand, i.e. in order to |