Zephaniahchapter 3
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Speaks with:Zephaniah 2×2Isaiah 11×2Micah 4×2Isaiah 60×2Jeremiah 6×1Isaiah 59×1
Summary
Chapter summary
The last city named is his own: 'Woe to her that is rebellious and polluted! to the oppressing city!': she obeyed not the voice, received not correction, trusted not in Jehovah. Princes are roaring lions, judges evening wolves, prophets treacherous, priests profaning the sanctuary; and in the middle of it, 'Jehovah in the midst of her is righteous… every morning doth he bring his justice to light.' God gathers the nations to pour out his indignation. Then turns the whole book: peoples given a pure language to call on his name with one consent, and an afflicted people left who take refuge in him. Zion is told to sing, for 'he will joy over thee with singing' (3:17).
Context
Prophecy · Zephaniah — Zephaniah overview
- A. 1–7 Woe to the rebellious city that takes no correction
- B. 8–13 A pure language, and a meek remnant left in her midst
- C. 14–20 Sing, daughter of Zion — he will rejoice over you with singing
The outline
A.Woe to the rebellious city that takes no correctionvv. 1 to 7
Read vv. 1 to 7 →B.A pure language, and a meek remnant left in her midstvv. 8 to 13
Read vv. 8 to 13 →C.Sing, daughter of Zion — he will rejoice over you with singingvv. 14 to 20
Read vv. 14 to 20 →
The world behind this chapter
Zephaniah 3The history
The officials are called roaring lions and the judges evening wolves that leave nothing until morning. Wolves hunting at dusk are at their hungriest after a day without food, and stripping a carcass bare overnight was familiar to any shepherd. The comparison is about appetite, not ferocity.
The four offices are listed together — officials, judges, prophets, and priests — and each fails in its own way. The prophets are called reckless and treacherous men; the priests profane what is holy and do violence to the law, which meant twisting the very rulings they were appointed to teach.
The contrast drawn is with God himself, described as being in her midst every morning, showing forth his justice — the temple's daily morning sacrifice is the picture, God keeping the appointment while the men in the courts do not. And the unjust knows no shame is the diagnosis: not ignorance, but the loss of the capacity to be embarrassed.
The turn at the end includes a promise about language. God says he will give the peoples a pure lip, so that all of them may call on the name of the LORD and serve him shoulder to shoulder — a deliberate reversal of Babel, where language was confused to scatter people.
What it meant to them
The people described as surviving are not the powerful. They are a humble and lowly remnant who take refuge in the name of the LORD, do no injustice, speak no lies, and are not afraid — a small, honest, unafraid people, which is the opposite of everything the chapter has just described.
The ending is one of the tenderest sentences in the prophets, and it is about God's own feelings: the LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will quiet you by his love, he will exult over you with loud singing. The King who is in the midst of Israel is there, in the end, singing. That day comes when he reigns on the earth, and it has not come yet.
Sources cited
- Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament: The Minor Prophets
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews, Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Zephaniah 3. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
Connections from this chapter
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.