Zephaniahchapter 2
15 verses · Zephaniah · 640 to 622 BC · The Twelve
Seek the LORD, all you humble of the earth who carry out His justice. Seek righteousness; seek humility. Perhaps you will be sheltered on the day of the LORD’s anger.
Introduction
Zephaniah, The Twelve, Zephaniah Overview.
Zephaniah's second oracle was spoken in the reign of Josiah, while Assyria still stood as the great power of the age. It opens with a call to Judah and then turns outward to the peoples on every side of the small kingdom. Its first hearers knew these neighbours well, as trading partners, raiders and old enemies. The chapter is laid out as a circuit of the compass, west, east, south and north. Listen for the one command given to the humble before the circuit begins. Listen also for what happens to the land of each people once it falls.
Context
- Who
- Judeans who assumed the great powers would always be there
- What
- A call to Judah to seek the LORD, followed by oracles against the Philistines, Moab and Ammon, Cush and Assyria.
- Where
- Judah first, then the Philistine coast to the west, Moab and Ammon to the east, Cush to the south and Nineveh in Assyria to the north.
- When
- In the reign of Josiah, most likely in the 630s or 620s BC, while Nineveh still stood; the city fell in 612 BC.
- Why
- To urge the humble to seek the LORD before the day of His anger, and to show that the judgment reaches every nation around Judah.
Historical context
The four Philistine cities named, Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod, and Ekron, were the surviving members of the old five-city league on the coastal plain, sitting on the trade road between Egypt and the north. The prophecy that their country will become pastures with huts for shepherds and folds for flocks describes what happens when a trading corridor loses its cities.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
Moab and Ammon held the plateau east of the Dead Sea, and the comparison to Sodom and Gomorrah is pointed, since both nations traced their descent to Lot, who escaped that destruction. A land of nettles and salt pits is a literal description of the terrain near the Dead Sea's southern shore, where salt was harvested from evaporation flats.
Cush means the Nile kingdoms south of Egypt, which had actually supplied a ruling dynasty in Egypt within recent memory. Naming them shows the sweep is not limited to Judah's neighbours.
The oracle against Nineveh was spoken while Assyria was still the greatest power on earth, and it came true within a generation. The Babylonian Chronicle records the city's fall in 612 BC to a coalition of Medes and Babylonians. Zephaniah's picture of flocks lying down in her midst, with desert birds roosting on her fallen column capitals, describes a capital left as pasture, which is what the mounds at the site were until excavation began.
Significance
The chapter opens with an instruction, and it is the only door offered: seek the LORD, all you humble of the land, who do his commands; seek righteousness, seek humility, perhaps you may be hidden on the day of the LORD's anger.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
For hearers, the sweep across the nations answered a practical question. If judgment is coming on Judah, what about the powers that have bullied Judah for a century? Zephaniah's answer is that the day of the LORD is not a local event, and Nineveh, the city that had terrified the whole region, is on the list.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
The site's own table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, probed for this lane, printed no weekly portion and no Haftarah from this chapter, and no festival reading for the book. That table carries the Haftarah of each of the fifty-four weekly portions and the books read whole at the feasts, and it carries nothing for the special Sabbaths or the fast days. This card therefore names no public reading of the chapter and leaves that question to a source that holds those readings.
The corpus joins the chapter to the weeks of the Torah portions through the works arranged by portion. Under the ninth verse it carries Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Ki Teitzei 3:1 and Midrash Tanchuma, Ki Teitzei 2:1.
How it is read
One commentator on this chapter carries English in the corpus. Rashi is quoted from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY, and every quotation of it is held to fifty words or fewer because the translation is modern. His lemmas, which carry the verse in the Judaica Press wording, are never quoted here.
Rashi reads the call to gather in the first verse as a call to repent. The second of his two notes says "Conform your deeds to the will of Your Maker". The time is short in the second verse, which he glosses as "Before the arrival of the decree" (Rashi on Zephaniah 2:1:2 and 2:2:1).
The oracles on the nations he ties to that call. At the fourth verse God speaks to Judah: "if you will do so, [as in verse 1,] I will visit retribution upon your evil neighbors; Philistia, Ammon, and Moab". He adds that "The prophet proceeds to mention them [the neighbors] in [geographical] order" (Rashi on Zephaniah 2:4:1). On Ashdod at noon he gives two readings. The second says Ashdod "was a place to pasture sheep, and it is hard for the sheep to go out at noontime" (Rashi on Zephaniah 2:4:2).
At the fifth verse Rashi sets the Targum beside the plain sense. Jonathan reads the Cherethites as a people marked for destruction. Rashi answers that "the nation of the Cherethites is a province of the Philistines; its name is Cherethi", and he points to the raid in 1 Samuel 30:14 (Rashi on Zephaniah 2:5:2). The pastures of the sixth verse he explains as "a temporary dwelling where the shepherds eat bread in the morning" (Rashi on Zephaniah 2:6:1).
Rashi grounds the word against Moab and Ammon in the exile. When Israel was led toward the land of the Chaldeans through their land, "they would taunt them and say, “Why are you suffering? Aren’t you going to your father’s house?" (Rashi on Zephaniah 2:8:1). The sentence that Moab shall be like Sodom he reads as a return: "Was not your father, Lot, from Sodom?" (Rashi on Zephaniah 2:9:1). At the twelfth verse he reads the word on the Cushites as spoken of the time Israel was exiled beyond the rivers of Cush. At the thirteenth verse he locates the north: "Assyria is on the north, neighboring on Babylon" (Rashi on Zephaniah 2:12:1 and 2:13:1).
Sefaria holds no English version of the other entries of the corpus on this chapter. They are cited by ref alone: Ibn Ezra at 2:3:1, 2:6:1, 2:7:1 and 2:10:1, and Radak at 2:3:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries forty rabbinic locators on this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. On the first verse it holds Bava Batra 60b:3, Bava Metzia 107b:15, Eikhah Rabbah 3:14 and Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Bava Metzia 9:4. It holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 2:1, Ein Yaakov, Bava Batra 3:8, Ein Yaakov, Sanhedrin 2:3, Jerusalem Talmud Taanit 2:1:8, Midrash Tehillim 53:1 and Sanhedrin 18a:11 there as well. On the third verse it holds Avot DeRabbi Natan, Recension B 24:2, Bamidbar Rabbah 8:4, Chagigah 4b:10 and Eikhah Rabbah 3:10. It holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Khagigah 1:6, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Yevamot 8:5, Ein Yaakov, Khagigah 1:4, Ein Yaakov, Yevamot 8:7 and Jerusalem Talmud Chagigah 2:1:4 there as well. On the fourth verse it holds Ein Yaakov, Megillah 1:7, Megillah 6a:12 and Megillah 6a:15. On the fifth verse it holds Bereshit Rabbah 28:5, Kiddushin 72a:3 and Shir HaShirim Rabbah 1:4:3. On the ninth verse it holds Bereshit Rabbah 41:3, Eikhah Rabbah 1:38, Eikhah Rabbah, Petichta 9 and Midrash Lekach Tov on Lamentations 1:10:1.
It holds Midrash Lekach Tov, Genesis 13:5:1, Midrash Lekach Tov, Genesis 40:19:2, Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Ki Teitzei 3:1, Midrash Tanchuma, Ki Teitzei 2:1 and Midrash Tannaim on Deuteronomy 23:5:7 there as well. On the thirteenth verse it holds Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai 15:12, Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Shirah 9:4 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 251:3. On the fourteenth verse it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sotah 9:15, Ein Yaakov, Sotah 9:15 and Sotah 48a:16. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Zephaniah 2:1:1 to 2:15:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Zephaniah 2:3:1, 2:6:1, 2:7:1 and 2:10:1, cited by ref only; Sefaria holds no English version; Radak, Radak on Zephaniah 2:3:1, cited by ref only; Sefaria holds no English version; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/zephaniah/2.json, the 40 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, printing no portion and no Haftarah for this chapter and no festival reading for this book.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Seek the LORD, all you meek of the earth
Zephaniah 2:1-3
O shameful nation: The call to "gather together" goes to the "shameful nation", summoning it to repentance "before the decree takes effect." Verse 3 closes on "Perhaps you will be sheltered," from the root of the name Zephaniah, the LORD hides. The seeking is commanded while the shelter stays a possibility.
Zephaniah 2:1
“Gather yourselves--to a religious assembly, to avert the judgment by prayers (Joe 2:16) [GROTIUS]. Or, so as not to be dissipated "as chaff" (Zep 2:2). The Hebrew is akin to a root meaning "chaff." Self-confidence and corrupt desires are the dissipation from which they are exhorted to gather themselves [CALVIN].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Zephaniah 2:1
“The word signifies either, 1. Not desiring, that has not any desires towards God or the remembrance of his name, is not desirous of his favour or grace, but very indifferent to it, has no mind to repent and reform. "Yet come together, and see if you can stir up desires in one another." Thus God is often found of those that sought him not, nor asked for him, Isa. lxv.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
before the decree takes effect: The Hebrew says, literally, before the decree gives birth. John Gill pictures the decree as a woman near her time. The day then passes like chaff, and the time to gather is short.
Zephaniah 2:2
“Before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff,.... Which was like a woman big with child, ready to be delivered.”
1 more voice on this verse
Zephaniah 2:2
“MAURER puts it parenthetically, "the day (that is, time) passes as the chaff (that is, most quickly)." CALVIN, "before the decree bring forth" (the predicted vengeance), (then) the chaff (the Jews) shall pass in a day, that is, in a moment, though they thought that it would be long before they could be overthrown.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Seek the LORD, all you humble of the earth: The call to seek comes three times, for the LORD, for righteousness and for humility, and goes to the humble who already keep His justice. It offers shelter with no guarantee. Albert Barnes reads the verse as a call to the faithful to persevere.
Zephaniah 2:3
“Seek ye the Lord - He had exhorted sinners to penitence; he now calls the righteous to persevere and increase more and more. He bids them “seek diligently” , and that with a three-fold call, to seek Him from whom they received daily the three-fold blessing Num 6:23-26, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as he had just before threatened God’s impending judgment with the same use of the mysterious number, three.”
Gaza forsaken; the seacoast left for the remnant of Judah
Ashdod will be driven out: Four of the five Philistine cities are named, the same four Amos names at 1:6-8, and Gath is absent from both lists. "Ashdod will be driven out at noon," the hour of rest become the hour of ruin. "Ekron will be uprooted" like a plant pulled out by its root.
Zephaniah 2:4
“Gaza shall be forsaken - This prophecy is against the Philistines. They had been greatly harassed by the kings of Egypt; but were completely ruined by Nebuchadnezzar, who took all Phoenicia from the Egyptians; and about the time of his taking Tyre, devastated all the seignories of the Philistines. This ruin we have seen foretold by the other prophets, and have already remarked its exact fulfillment.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Zephaniah 2:4
“Gaza shall be forsaken--In the Hebrew there is a play of similar sounds, Gaza Gazubah; Gaza shall be forsaken, as its name implies. So the Hebrew of the next clause, Ekron teeakeer. at the noonday--when on account of the heat Orientals usually sleep, and military operations are suspended (2Sa 4:5).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Zephaniah 2:5-7
O nation of the Cherethites!: Cherethites is a name for the Philistines that Gill and Barnes connect with Crete. Calling the land "Canaan" widens the judgment to the whole coast by its older name. At verse 7 the remnant of Judah "will lie down in the evening among the houses of Ashkelon."
Zephaniah 2:5
“The “woe” having been pronounced on the five cities apart, now falls upon the whole nation of the Cherethites or Philistines. The Cherethites are only named as equivalent to the Philistines, probably as originally a distinct immigration of the same people . The name is used by the Egyptian slave of the Amalekite 1Sa 30:14 for those whom the author of the first book of Samuel calls Philistines 1Sa 30:16. Ezekiel uses the name parallel with that of “Philistines,” with reference to the destruction which God would bring upon them .”
1 more voice on this verse
Zephaniah 2:5
“This land is yet to be possessed ( five lords of the Philistines ), so that they wrongfully kept Israel out of the possession of it ( Judg. iii. 3 ), which is now remembered against them. For, though the rights of others may be long detained unjustly, the righteous God will at length avenge the wrong.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
the seacoast will become a land of pastures: Where the Philistine cities stood, shepherds will water flocks at wells and pen them in folds. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown hear a play on sounds, for the Hebrew word for the wells echoes the name Cherethites in verse 5. The crowded coast becomes grazing land.
Zephaniah 2:6
“Instead of a thick population and tillage, the region shall become a pasturage for nomad shepherds' flocks. The Hebrew for "dug cisterns," Ceroth, seems a play on sounds, alluding to their name Cherethites (Zep 2:5): Their land shall become what their national name implies, a land of cisterns. MAURER translates, "Feasts for shepherds' (flocks)," that is, one wide pasturage.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Zephaniah 2:6
And the sea-coasts shall be dwellings - Newcome considers כרת keroth as a proper name, not cottages or folds. The Septuagint have Κρητη, Crete, and so has the Syriac. Abp. Secker notes, Alibi non extat כרת, et forte notat patriam των כרתים. “The word כרת is not found elsewhere, and probably it is the name of the country of the Cherethim.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The coast will belong to the remnant of the house of Judah: The Philistine land passes to the survivors of Judah. Albert Barnes notes that the word for this portion is the one used when the land was first assigned to Israel. The LORD attends to them in mercy, as He visited His people at Exodus 4:31.
Zephaniah 2:7
“And the coast shall be - Or probably, “It shall be a portion for the remnant of the house of Judah.” He uses the word, employed in the first assignment of the land to Israel ; and of the whole people as belonging to God, “Jacob is the ‘lot’ of His inheritance” Deu 32:9. “The tract of the sea,” which, with the rest, was assigned to Israel, which, for its unfaithfulness, was seldom, even in part, possessed, and at this time, was wholly forfeited, should be a portion for the mere “remnant” which should be brought back.”
1 more voice on this verse
Zephaniah 2:7
“Judah--those of the Jews who shall be left after the coming calamity, and who shall return from exile. feed thereupon--namely, in the pastures of that seacoast region (Zep 2:6). visit--in mercy (Ex 4:31).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Moab and Ammon will be like Sodom and Gomorrah
Zephaniah 2:8-10
the reproach of Moab: Moab and Ammon, Lot's descendants, are judged for "the reproach of Moab and the insults of the Ammonites." Verse 9 makes them "like Sodom" and "like Gomorrah," the cities their ancestor fled in Genesis 19. "The remnant of My people will plunder them," the same reversal given the Philistine coast.
Zephaniah 2:8
“I have heard the reproach of Moab - God punished them for the cruel part they had taken in the persecutions of the Jews; for when they lay under the displeasure of God, these nations insulted them in the most provoking manner. See on Amo 1:13 (note), and Gen 19:25 (note); Deu 29:23 (note); Isa 13:19 (note); Isa 34:13 (note); Jer 49:18 (note); Jer 50:40 (note).”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Zephaniah 2:8
“Nay, God not only takes notice of, but interests himself in the reproaches cast on his people, because they are his; and it is certain that those who look with disdain upon the people of the Lord of hosts thereby dishonour the Lord of hosts himself. See this very thing charged on Moab and Ammon, Ezek. xxv. They are both laid under the same doom.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The LORD of Hosts swears by His own life. Moab and Ammon are compared to Sodom and Gomorrah, the two cities Lot fled in Genesis 19, though both peoples descend from Lot. Albert Barnes grounds the oath in John 5:26, where the Father has life in Himself.
This they shall have in return for their pride: Verse 10 names the cause of the ruin of Moab and Ammon, their pride and their taunting of the LORD's people. An insult against Judah counts as an insult against the LORD of Hosts. Matthew Henry makes the same point on verse 8.
Zephaniah 2:10
“This shall they have for their pride - Literally, “This to them instead of their pride.” Contempt and shame shall be the residue of the proud man; the exaltation shall be gone, and all which they shall gain to themselves shall be shame. Moab and Ammon are the types of heretics . As they were akin to the people of God, but hating it; akin to Abraham through a lawless birth, but ever molesting the children of Abraham, so heretics profess to believe in Christ, to be children of Christ, and yet ever seek to overthrow the faith of Christians.”
2 more voices on this verse
Zephaniah 2:10
“This shall they have for their pride,.... This calamity shall come upon their land, the land of the Moabites and Ammonites, for their pride, which often goes before a fall; and has frequently been the cause of the ruin of kingdoms and states, and of particular persons; and indeed seems to have been the first sin of the apostate angels, and of fallen man.”
Zephaniah 2:10
“Because they have reproached - See on Zep 2:8 (note).”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
He starves all the gods: "The LORD will be terrifying to them when He starves all the gods of the earth," the idols cut off from the offerings. Then "the nations of every shore will bow in worship to Him, each in its own place." Malachi 1:11 carries the same worldwide worship.
Zephaniah 2:11
“Heathen nations must be converted; when the gospel gets ground, by it men shall be brought to worship him who lives for ever (for that is the command of the everlasting gospel, Rev. xiv. 7 ), every one from his place; they shall not need to go up to Jerusalem to worship the God of Israel, but wherever they are, they may have access to him.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Zephaniah 2:11
“It does not mean, as in Isa 2:2; 14:16 that they shall come from their several places to Jerusalem to worship [MAURER]. all . . . isles of . . . heathen--that is, all the maritime regions, especially the west, now being fulfilled in the gathering in of the Gentiles to Messiah.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Ethiopia slain, and Nineveh made a dry waste
"You too, O Cushites, will be slain by My sword" is the whole oracle against Cush. A Cushite house had ruled Egypt, so a sword on Cush also reaches toward Egypt. The book turns back to Cush at 3:10, where worshipers bring an offering from beyond its rivers.
Zephaniah 2:12
“Nebuchadnezzar was God's sword, the instrument in his hand with which these and other enemies were subdued and punished, Ps. xvii. The Assyrians, and Nineveh the head city of their monarchy, are next set to the bar, to receive their doom: He that is God's sword will stretch out his hand against the north, and destroy Assyria, and make himself master of it.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Zephaniah 2:12
“Ye Ethiopians also - Nebuchadnezzar subdued these. See Jer 46:2, Jer 46:9; Eze 30:4, Eze 30:10. See also on Amo 9:7 (note).”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Zephaniah 2:13-15
and destroy Assyria: In one stanza the oracle against Assyria gives Nahum's whole message: Nineveh becomes "a desolation, as dry as a desert," a city left without water. "This carefree city" says to herself, "I am it, and there is none besides me," the boast Isaiah 47:8 gives Babylon.
Zephaniah 2:13
“Zephaniah began by singling out Judah amid the general destruction, “I will also stretch out My Hand upon Judah” Zep 1:4; he sums up the judgment of the world in the same way; “He will stretch out, or, Stretch He forth, “His Hand against the north and destroy Asshur, and make Nineveh a desolation.” Judah had, in Zephaniah’s time, nothing to fear from Assyria. Isaiah Isa 39:6 and Micah Mic 4:10 had already foretold, that the captivity would be to Babylon. Yet of Assyria alone the prophet, in his own person, expresses his own conformity with the mind of God.”
1 more voice on this verse
Zephaniah 2:13
“Here he passes suddenly to the north. Nineveh was destroyed by Cyaxares and Nabopolassar, 625 B.C. The Scythian hordes, by an inroad into Media and thence in the southwest of Asia (thought by many to be the forces described by Zephaniah, as the invaders of Judea, rather than the Chaldeans), for a while interrupted Cyaxares' operations; but he finally succeeded.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Herds will lie down in her midst: Nineveh's ruins become a place for herds and wild birds, and its cedar paneling lies open to the weather. Adam Clarke wrote in 1832 that the city's exact site was still unknown and placed it near Mosul. The palace of kings becomes a roost for owls.
Zephaniah 2:14
“And flocks shall lie down in the midst of her - Nineveh was so completely destroyed, that its situation is not at present even known. The present city of Mossoul is supposed to be in the vicinity of the place where this ancient city stood. The cormorant קאת kaath; and the bittern, קפד kippod.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Nineveh's boast borrows the claim the LORD makes for Himself in Isaiah 45:5 and 6, that there is no other. Isaiah 47:8 puts the same boast in Babylon's mouth. Passersby answer the ruin with hissing and a shaken fist.
Zephaniah 2:15
“Yet so it is, as the prophet foretold. there is none beside me--This peculiar phrase, expressing self-gratulation as if peerless, is plainly adopted from Isa 47:8.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Keep studying
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Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Carl Friedrich Keil, The Twelve Minor Prophets; Edward Bouverie Pusey, The Minor Prophets: A Commentary; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Calvin, Commentaries on the Twelve Minor Prophets; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.