Zephaniahchapter 3
20 verses · Zephaniah · 640 to 622 BC · The Twelve
Key verse
The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing.
It stands in Sing, daughter of Zion: he will rejoice over you with singing, verses 14 to 20.
The chapter
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
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 rest of the history, and what it meant to them
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
Where the chapter sits
Zephaniah 3 falls in Jerusalem's hope restored (chapters 3). Woe to the filthy city; yet ‘the LORD thy God in the midst of thee … he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing’ (3:17).
The LORD sings. ‘He will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing.’
Before it: Judgment on the nations; call to seek, chapters 2.
The whole shape of Zephaniah→The structure of this chapter
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A. Woe to the rebellious city that takes no correction
1. (vv. 1-2)
Zephaniah 3:1
“The “woe,” having gone round the pagan nations, again circles round where it began, the “Jerusalem that killed the prophets and stoned those that were sent unto her” Mat 23:37. Woe upon her, and joy to the holy Jerusalem, the “new Jerusalem Rev 3:12; Rev 21:10, the Jerusalem which is from above, the mother of us all,” close this prophecy; both in figure; destruction of her and the whole earth, in time, the emblem of the eternal death; and the love of God, the foretaste of endless joy in Him. Woe - “Rebellious and polluted;” “thou oppressive city!” .”
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Zephaniah 3:1
“GROTIUS says, the Hebrew is used of women who have prostituted their virtue. There is in the Hebrew Moreah; a play on the name Moriah, the hill on which the temple was built; implying the glaring contrast between their filthiness and the holiness of the worship on Moriah in which they professed to have a share. oppressing--namely, the poor, weak, widows, orphans and strangers (Jer 22:3).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Zephaniah 3:2
“Lord--Distrust in the Lord as if He were insufficient, is the parent of all superstitions and wickednesses [CALVIN]. drew not near to her God--Though God was specially near to her (De 4:7) as "her God," yet she drew not near to Him, but gratuitously estranged herself from Him.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Zephaniah 3:2
“She obeyed not the voice,.... Of his servants the prophets, as the Targum, by way of explanation, adds, who warned her of her sins and of her ruin.”
the oppressing city!: The woe turns from the nations of chapter 2 back onto Jerusalem herself, filthy and polluted and oppressing, the same vocabulary just used of Nineveh now applied to the city that should have known better. Verse 2 lists four failures point by point, she obeyed not the voice, received not correction, trusted not in the Lord, drew not near to her God, a rising sequence from disobedience to unbelief the bench reads as one hardening rather than four unrelated sins. The city addressed here is the same city searched with candles at 1:12, the oracle circling back to its opening target after touring the nations around it.
2. (vv. 3-4)
Zephaniah 3:3
“Her princes within her are roaring lions,.... Or, "as roaring lions"; there being a defect of the note of similitude; which is supplied by the Targum, Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Arabic versions.”
Zephaniah 3:4
“Her prophets are light and treacherous persons,.... The false prophets, as the Targum and Kimchi explain it: these seem to design the lawyers spoken of in the New Testament, whose business it was to interpret the law to the people; these were "light" men, good for nothing, of no worth and value; light in knowledge, as Kimchi gives the sense of the word; men of no brains; empty headed men, that had no substantial knowledge; giddy, unstable, and inconstant, and compliant with the humours and vices of the people; men of no gravity in their countenance, speech, and conversation.”
1 more voice on this verse
Zephaniah 3:4
“They were so given to bantering that it was hard to say when they were serious. Their pretended prophecies were all a sham, and they secretly laughed at those that were deluded by them. Her priests, who are teachers by office and have the charge of the holy things, are false to their trust and betray it.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
her judges are evening wolves: Four offices are catalogued in turn, princes as roaring lions, judges as evening wolves who gnaw the bones so completely that nothing is left till morning, prophets light and treacherous, priests who have polluted the very sanctuary they were consecrated to guard. The bench reads the evening wolf as hungrier and more thorough than a morning hunter, the day's business finished by officials who leave their victims nothing, an image of civic corruption rather than literal predation. Priests doing violence to the law closes the list on the institution meant to teach it, the same charge Ezekiel brings against Jerusalem's priesthood in his own book.
3. (v. 5)
Zephaniah 3:5
“The just Lord--Why then are ye so unjust? is in the midst thereof--He retorts on them their own boast, "Is not the Lord among us" (Mic 3:11)? True He is, but it is for another end from what ye think [CALVIN]; namely, to lead you by the example of His righteousness to be righteous.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Zephaniah 3:5
“But, beside these “evening wolves in the midst of her,” there standeth Another “in the midst of her,” whom they knew not, and so, very near to them although they would not draw near to Him. But He was near, to behold all the iniquities which they did in the very city and place called by His Name and in His very presence; He was in her to protect, foster her with a father’s love, but she, presuming on His mercy, had cast it off.”
every morning doth he bring his judgment to light: Against the catalogue of corrupt officials the verse sets one contrast, the just Lord in the midst of the same city, faithful every morning where the evening wolves are faithless every night, the two clocks running side by side. The bench reads bringing his judgment to light as either the Lord's own righteous rule shown fresh daily or the exposure of Jerusalem's sin daily made plain, the readings named without a verdict since the Hebrew supports both. The unjust knoweth no shame is the verse's final charge, not ignorance of the standard but the loss of the capacity to feel it broken.
4. (vv. 6-7)
Zephaniah 3:6
“I had hoped that My people by My judgments on other nations would be led to amendment; but they are not, so blinded by sin are they. towers--literally, "angles" or "corners"; hence the towers built at the angles of their city walls.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Zephaniah 3:7
“Their wickedness was universal: All their doings were corrupted; and it was all owing to themselves; they could not lay the blame upon the tempter, but they alone must bear it; they themselves wilfully and designedly corrupted all their doings; for every man is tempted when he is drawn aside of his own lust and enticed.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
I made their streets waste: The Lord points Jerusalem to the very judgments chapter 2 has just pronounced on the nations as a warning already carried out before her eyes, towers desolate and streets so wasted that none passes by, meant to teach the lesson before it had to be applied at home. Verse 7's I said, Surely thou wilt fear me states the purpose plainly, the destruction of others intended as instruction rather than mere entertainment or distant news. But they rose early, and corrupted all their doings answers the intended lesson with its opposite, diligence turned toward corruption rather than correction, the same eagerness Judah shows for evil that a faithful people would show for good.
B. A pure language, and a meek remnant left in her midst
1. (v. 8)
Zephaniah 3:8
“Wait ye upon me - Expect the fulfilment of all my promises and threatenings: I am God, and change not. For all the earth - All the land of Judah.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
until the day that I rise up to the prey: Wait ye upon me turns a verse of universal indignation into an unexpected invitation, the same waiting that described predatory judges at verse 3 here commanded of the faithful as patient trust in the Lord's own timing. Rising up to the prey pictures the Lord himself as the hunter now, gathering nations and assembling kingdoms the way a lion gathers what it means to devour, judgment pronounced on the whole earth rather than one city alone. The fire of my jealousy repeats the same phrase closing chapter 1, tying the book's darkest threat to its covenant root, jealousy for a people rather than mere anger at a world.
2. (vv. 9-10)
Zephaniah 3:9
“For--The blessed things promised in this and Zep 3:10 are the immediate results of the punishment inflicted on the nations, mentioned in Zep 3:8 (compare Zep 3:19). turn to the people a pure language--that is, changing their impure language I will give to them again a pure language (literally, "lip"). Compare for this Hebrew idiom, 1Sa 10:9, Margin.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Zephaniah 3:9
“For then - In the order of God’s mercies. The deliverance from Babylon was the forerunner of that of the Gospel, which was its object. The spread of the Gospel then is spoken of in the connection of God’s Providence and plan, and time is overlooked. Its blessings are spoken of, as “then” given when the earnest was given, and the people, from whom according to the flesh Christ was to be born, were placed anew in the land where He was to be born.”
Zephaniah 3:10
“From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia,.... Either the African Ethiopia, or Arabia Chusea, which lay between Judea and Egypt: here some particular places and people are mentioned, in whom the preceding prophecy would be fulfilled.”
2 more voices on this verse
Zephaniah 3:10
“From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia - This may denote both Africa and the southern Arabia. Bochart thinks that Arabia Chusaer is meant; and that the rivers are Besor, which flows into the Mediterranean; Rhinocorura, which flows into the Lake Sirbonis; Trajanus Amnis, which flows into the Red Sea; and the river Corys. Calmet thinks that these rivers mean the Nile, which by seven mouths falls into the Mediterranean. The Nile comes from Ethiopia, properly so called; and runs through all Egypt, and falls into the sea at that part of Arabia which the Scripture calls Cush or Ethiopia.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Zephaniah 3:10
If anyone is able, insofar as he found that Israel is saved "after the full number of pagan nations," let him consider having passed over by reason the remaining period, when it is that "all serve God under a single yoke," according to what is said in Zephaniah, "And from the ends of Ethiopia they offer sacrifices to him," when, as it is said in the sixty-seventh psalm, "Ethiopia stretches forth its hand to God," and "to the kings of the earth" the word commands, saying, "Sing to the Lord, raise a psalm to the God of Jacob."
Origen of Alexandria· written before 253· HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 5:4.3patristic
a pure language: , literally a purified lip, is read by the bench most often as purified speech rather than a single restored tongue, worship cleansed of the false names and divided oaths condemned back at 1:5, so that calling on the Lord's name is no longer mixed with Malcham's. To serve him with one consent, literally with one shoulder, pictures the nations bearing a common burden together rather than merely speaking alike, a unity of service the older writers read forward to the church gathered from every tongue. Verse 10's suppliants from beyond the rivers of Ethiopia carries the same nation singled out for judgment at 2:12 now pictured bringing an offering, the reversal the book has already shown Philistia, Moab and Ammon.
3. (vv. 11-13)
Zephaniah 3:11
“In that day shalt thou not be ashamed for all thy doings - Because God, forgiving them, will blot them out and no more remember them. This was first fulfilled in the Gospel. Cyril: “No one can doubt that when Christ came in the flesh, there was an amnesty and remission to all who believed. ‘For we are justified not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His great mercy.’ But we have been released from shame.”
Zephaniah 3:12
“When the Chaldeans carried away the Jews into captivity they left of the poor of the land for vine-dressers and husbandmen, a type and figure of God's distinguished remnant, whom he sets apart for himself. They are afflicted and poor, low in the world; such God has chosen, James ii. The poor are evangelized, low in their own eyes, afflicted for sin, poor in spirit.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Zephaniah 3:13
“The remnant of Israel - The same poor people, the “true Israel” of whom God said, “I leave over” (the word is the same) “a poor people,” few, compared with the rest who were blinded; of whom the Lord said, “I know whom I have chosen” Joh 13:18. These “shall not do iniquity nor speak lies.” Cyril: “This is a spiritual adorning, a most beautiful coronet of glorious virtues.”
them that rejoice in thy pride: Shame is removed not by forgetting the transgression but by removing the proud from the city's midst, the purge the bench reads as moral rather than merely political, pride specifically named as what must go before shame can lift. Verse 12 leaves in the city's place an afflicted and poor people who trust in the name of the Lord, the same remnant theme running through the whole book from the meek of 2:3 to the hidden ones the prophet's own name carries. Verse 13's remnant that shall not do iniquity, nor speak lies, feeding and lying down with none to make them afraid, pictures Micah's vine and fig tree peace given not to the powerful but to the humbled.
C. Sing, daughter of Zion: he will rejoice over you with singing
1. (vv. 14-17)
Zephaniah 3:14
“Thus the "Redeemer shall come to Zion," and to clear his own way, shall "turn away ungodliness from Jacob." These promises were to have their full accomplishment in gospel-times and gospel-graces. The Depravity of Jerusalem. 1 Woe to her that is filthy and polluted, to the oppressing city!”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Zephaniah 3:15
“Taken away - Abolished, and put an end to the judgments thy sins brought upon thee. Thine enemy - The Babylonian. Is in the midst - He is returned to redeem and govern thee.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Zephaniah 3:15
“The spiritual and holy Zion—that is, the church, the holy multitude of the believers—is justified in Christ and only in him. By him and through him we are also saved as we escape from the harm of the invisible enemies, for we have a Mediator who was incarnated in our form, the king of all, that is, the Word of God the Father. Thanks to him, we do not see evil anymore, for we have been delivered from the powers of evil.”
Cyril of Alexandria· written before 444· COMMENTARY ON ZEPHANIAH 43patristic
Zephaniah 3:16
“Fear thou not - Thou shalt have no more captivities nor national afflictions. Let not thine hands be slack - This may refer, first, to the rebuilding of the temple of God, after the return from Babylon; and, secondly, to their diligence and zeal in the Christian Church.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Zephaniah 3:17
“The great God not only loves his saints, but he loves to love them, is pleased that he has pitched upon these objects of his love. He will joy over them with singing. He that is grieved for the sin of sinners rejoices in the graces and services of the saints, and is ready to express that joy by singing over them.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Sing, O daughter of Zion: The command to sing answers every woe and every wait of the book with unmixed joy, the daughter of Zion and daughter of Jerusalem addressed together as one people told to rejoice with all the heart rather than half measure. Verse 15's the king of Israel, even the Lord, is in the midst of thee identifies the ruler the whole book has been building toward, not a human throne restored but the Lord himself reigning in the city he searched with candles at 1:12. Verse 17 is the book's own summit and the Twelve's tenderest line, he will rejoice over thee with joy, he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing, the Lord pictured not merely forgiving Zion but singing over her, an image the bench calls unmatched anywhere else in the prophets for its warmth.
2. (vv. 18-20)
Zephaniah 3:18
“I will gather - sorrowful - This may refer to those who, during the captivity, mourned for their former religious assemblies; and who were reproached by their enemies, because they could not enjoy their religious solemnities. See Psa 137:1-9: “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song,” etc. This very circumstance may be the reference here.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Zephaniah 3:19
“Behold, at that time I will undo all that afflict thee,.... Or, "I will do" (w); their business for them; "slay" them, as the Vulgate Latin version; and make an entire destruction of them, as the Targum; bring them to utter ruin.”
1 more voice on this verse
Zephaniah 3:19
“The reproach brought upon them was therefore one of the sorest of their grievances (nothing cuts deeper to those that are in honour than disgrace does); and therefore when God returns, in mercy, to his church, it is here promised that she shall regain her credit; all the reproach shall be for ever rolled way, as Israel's at Gilgal, Josh. v. 9 .”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Zephaniah 3:20
“At that time - First, when the seventy years of the Babylonish captivity shall terminate. “I will bring you again” to your own land; and this restoration shall be a type of their redemption from sin and iniquity; and at this time, and at this only, will they have a name and praise among all the people of the earth, not only among the Jews, but the Gentiles. Before your eyes - Some read before Their eyes; that is, the eyes of all people.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Zephaniah 3:20
“The Hebrew is plural, "captivities"; to express the captivities of different ages of their history, as well as the diversity of places in which they were and are dispersed. before your eyes--Incredible as the event may seem, your own eyes with delight shall see it.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
the solemn assembly: Those sorrowful for the solemn assembly are read by the bench as exiles grieving the feasts they could no longer keep, the reproach of losing Jerusalem's worship named as a burden the Lord promises specifically to lift. Verse 19's I will undo all that afflict thee, saving her that halteth and gathering her that was driven out, picks up Micah 4:6-7's same lame and driven out remnant, the Twelve's shared vocabulary for restoration. The book's last verse turns the reproach of verse 18 into praise and fame in every land, the same nations who watched Jerusalem's shame in chapter 1 becoming witnesses of her name and praise when the Lord turns back her captivity before her own eyes.
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 →
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; 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.
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