Zephaniah 1:14
in Zephaniah 1The great Day of the LORD is near—near and coming quickly. Listen, the Day of the LORD! Then the cry of the mighty will be bitter.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
The great day of Jehovah is near, it is near and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of Jehovah; the mighty man crieth there bitterly.
KJV
The great day of the Lord is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the Lord: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly.
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This verse in Zephaniah 1
Commentary
9 notes on this verse(Verse 13, 14.) And their strength shall be for plunder, and their houses for desolation. And they shall build houses, but not inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, but not drink their wine. The great day of the Lord is near, it is near and hastens quickly. LXX: And their strength shall be for robbery, and their houses shall be destroyed. And they shall build houses, but shall not live in them; and they shall plant vineyards, but shall not drink their wine, for the great day of the Lord is near; it is near and hastens quickly.
This site's exposition
and hasteth greatly
on Zephaniah 1:14-16
The great day of the Lord is near doubles its own word for emphasis, near, it is near, and the mighty man, the professional soldier who should fear nothing, is the one heard crying bitterly, since no strength turns this day aside. Verse 15's sevenfold list, wrath, trouble, distress, wasteness, desolation, darkness, gloominess, piles synonym on synonym rather than adding new information, the repetition itself built to overwhelm, and this list supplied much of the Latin vocabulary of the medieval Dies Irae hymn, a reception the bench notes without claiming the hymn as commentary on the verse. The trumpet and alarm against fenced cities and high towers in verse 16 name the very defenses Judah trusted in as the day's specific targets.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers2 voices
With reference to that day the prophet Amos says, "Woe to them that desire the Day of the Lord. To what end is this Day of the Lord for you? The day itself is darkness and not light." The prophet Zephaniah says the same thing: …
A commentator
CyprianTreatise XII. Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews, TESTIMONIES AGAINST THE JEWS 12:3.61 · Written before 258.
proposed
The lust of possessions and money are not to be sought for. In Solomon, in Ecclesiastes: "He that loves silver shall not be satisfied with silver." Also in Proverbs: "He who holds back the corn is cursed among the people; but blessing is on the head of him that communicates it." Also in Isaiah: "Woe to them who join house to house, and lay field to field, that they may take away something from their neighbor. Will you dwell alone upon the earth?" Also, in Zephaniah: "They shall build houses, and shall not dwell in them; and they shall appoint vineyards, and shall not drink the wine of them, because the Day of the Lord is near." Also in the Gospel according to Luke: "For what does it profit a man to make a gain of the whole world, but that he should lose himself?"
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
5 And them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops; and them that worship and that swear by the L ORD , and that swear by Malcham; 6 And them that are turned back from the L ORD ; and those that have not sought the L ORD , nor enquired for him.
quarantine:scripture (2026-07-29) — scripture-overlap:88%@v5-6
The great day of the Lord is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly,....
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
The great day of the Lord is near - It commenced with the death of the good king Josiah, who was slain by Pharaoh-necho at Megiddo, and continued to the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar.
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
voice of . . . day of . . . Lord--that is, Jehovah ushering in that day with a roar of vengeance against the guilty (Jer 25:30; They who will not now heed (Zep 1:12) His voice by His prophets, must heed it when uttered by the avenging foe. mighty . . . shall cry . . . bitterly--in hopeless despair; the might on which Jerusalem now prides itself, shall then fail utterly.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase+unbalanced-parens
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
The great Day of the Lord is near - The prophet again expands the words of Joel, accumulating words expressive of the terrors of that Day, showing that though “the great and very terrible Day of the Lord” Joe 2:31, (Joel had said) “a day of darkness and gloominess, of clouds and of thick darkness” Joe 2:2, “which was then coming and nigh at hand” Joe 2:1, had come and was gone, it was only a forerunner of others; none of them final; but each, because it “was” a judgment and an instance of the justice of God, an earnest and forerunner of other judgments to the end. Again, “a great Day of the Lord was near.” This Day had itself, so to speak, many hours and divisions of the day. But each hour tolleth the same knell of approaching doom. Each calamity in the miserable reigns of the sons of Josiah was one stroke in the passing-bell, until the de struction of Jerusalem by the Chaldaeans, for the time closed it. The judgment was complete. The completeness of that excision made it the more an image of every other like day until the final destruction of all which, although around or near to Christ, shall in the Great Day be found not to be His, but to have rejected Him. Jerome: “Truly was vengeance required, ‘from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, whom they slew between the temple and the altar’ Mat 23:35, and at last when they said of the Son of God, “His blood be upon us and upon our children” Mat 27:25, they experienced a bitter day, because they had provoked the Lord to bitterness; a Day, appointed by the Lord, in which not the weak only but the mighty shall be bowed down, and wrath shall come upon them to the end. For often before they endured the wrath of the Lord, but that wrath was not to the uttermost. […]
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
wherein the mighty man cries bitterly The mighty man will cry out with a bitter voice.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 4 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
14 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| קָר֤וֹב | karov | [is] near | H7138 → | 77 times |
| יוֹם־ | yom- | [the] day of | H3117 → | 2304 times |
| יְהוָה֙ | yahweh | Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
| הַגָּד֔וֹל | hagadol | <the> great | H1419 → | |
| קָר֖וֹב | karov | near | H7138 → | 77 times |
| וּמַהֵ֣ר | umaher | and hurrying | H4118 → | |
| מְאֹ֑ד | meod | exceedingly | H3966 → | |
| ק֚וֹל | kol | [the] sound of | H6963 → | 506 times |
| י֣וֹם | yom | [the] day of | H3117 → | 2304 times |
| יְהוָ֔ה | yahweh | Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
| מַ֥ר | mar | bitter | H4751 → | |
| צֹרֵ֖חַ | tzoreach | [is] shouting out | H6873 → | |
| שָׁ֥ם | sham | there | H8033 → | |
| גִּבּֽוֹר׃ | gibor | a warrior | H1368 → |
קָר֤וֹב[is] near
karovH7138 →77 times
יוֹם־[the] day of
yom-H3117 →2304 times
יְהוָה֙Yahweh
yahwehH3068 →6520 times
הַגָּד֔וֹל<the> great
hagadolH1419 →
קָר֖וֹבnear
karovH7138 →77 times
וּמַהֵ֣רand hurrying
umaherH4118 →
מְאֹ֑דexceedingly
meodH3966 →
ק֚וֹל[the] sound of
kolH6963 →506 times
י֣וֹם[the] day of
yomH3117 →2304 times
יְהוָ֔הYahweh
yahwehH3068 →6520 times
מַ֥רbitter
marH4751 →
צֹרֵ֖חַ[is] shouting out
tzoreachH6873 →
שָׁ֥םthere
shamH8033 →
גִּבּֽוֹר׃a warrior
giborH1368 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
1 Thessalonians 4:16For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will be the first to…
it leads to
- 1 Corinthians 15:51–52
Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—
- Revelation 1:7
Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him—even those who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. So shall it be! Amen.
- Matthew 24:30–31
At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds…
- 1 Corinthians 15:23
But each in his own turn: Christ the firstfruits; then at His coming, those who belong to Him.
- Matthew 16:27
For the Son of Man will come in His Father’s glory with His angels, and then He will repay each one according to what he has done.
- 1 Corinthians 15:51–52
Through
Malachi 4:5Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and awesome Day of the LORD.
it leads to
- Luke 1:17
And he will go on before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to…
- Matthew 17:10–13
The disciples asked Him, “Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?”
- Mark 9:11–13
And they asked Jesus, “Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?”
- Luke 1:17
Where this verse is studied
By subject
Judgment35 verses
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Studies3
On this verse
On this chapter
About Zephaniah
This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Carl Friedrich Keil, The Twelve Minor Prophets; Cassiodorus, EXPOSITION OF THE PSALMS 6:1; Cyprian, Treatise XII. Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews, TESTIMONIES AGAINST THE JEWS 12:3.61; Edward Bouverie Pusey, The Minor Prophets: A Commentary; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Zephaniah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.