Zephaniah 2:1
in Zephaniah 2Gather yourselves, gather together, O shameful nation,
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Gather yourselves together, yea, gather together, O nation that hath no shame;
KJV
Gather yourselves together, yea, gather together, O nation not desired;
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This verse in Zephaniah 2
Commentary
10 notes on this verse(Chapter 2, verses 1, 2.) Come together, gather, o unlovable nation: before the command gives birth, like passing dust, to the day: before the wrath of the fury of the Lord comes upon you, before the anger of the indignation of the Lord comes upon you. LXX: Gather and collect, o unlearned nation: before you become like a passing flower of the day: before the wrath of the Lord comes upon you: before the day of the anger of the fury of the Lord comes upon you.
This site's exposition
O nation not desired
on Zephaniah 2:1-3
The command to gather yourselves together, addressed to Judah and read by the bench as ironic, the nation not desired repeating the very indifference just condemned in chapter 1, calls the people to assemble in repentance before the decree they cannot outrun takes effect. Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth in verse 3 answers the search with candles of 1:12, offering the one shelter the chapter names, and it may be ye shall be hid plays directly on the prophet's own name, Zephaniah, hidden of the Lord. The threefold seek, seek the Lord, seek righteousness, seek meekness, is read by the bench as the book's positive center, repentance answered not with a guarantee but with a possibility that still commends the seeking.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers2 voices
One of the prophets rightly spoke of this relation to those who had fallen into negligence: "Be gathered again and tied back together, you undisciplined nation, before you become like the flower that passes away." A disciple can also be said to "attach" himself to a teacher in terms of a love of study, and we too can attach ourselves to one another not in one fashion only but in many. In short, when someone assists another in a task, should we not consider that he has been conjoined by will to the one who receives his assistance? It seems to us that this is exactly what these innovators mean by conjunction. You must have heard how they stupidly maintain that God the Word assumed a man, as if he were a different Son to himself, and then proposed him as a kind of assistant to his designs so that he underwent the trial and death, came to life again, rose up to heaven, and even sat upon the throne of the ineffable Godhead? With arguments such as these have they not completely and utterly proven that this man is altogether different from the true and natural son?
Struggle, my beloved, for the time is near and the days have been shortened. There is no father who instructs his children, there is no child who obeys his father; good virgins are no longer; the holy fathers have died on all sides; the mothers …
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
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.
), and this inferred from the revelation of God's wrath against them in the foregoing chapter. A denunciation of the judgments of God against several of the neighbouring nations that had assisted, or rejoiced in, the calamity of Israel.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens
Gather yourselves together,....
3 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
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].
Gather yourselves - Others, sift yourselves. Separate the chaff from the wheat, before the judgments of God fall upon you. O nation not desired - unlovely, not delighted in; hated because of your sin. The Israelites are addressed.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Having set forth the terrors of the Judgment Day, the prophet adds an earnest call to repentance; and then declares how judgments, forerunners of that Day, shall fall, one by one, on those nations around, who know not God, and shall rest upon Nineveh, the great beautiful ancient city of the world. Jerome: “See the mercy of God. It had been enough to have set before the wise the vehemence of the coming evil.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
Gather yourselves together Gather and assemble together as in (Exod.:12) “To Gather a gathering.”
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. 5 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
5 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| הִֽתְקוֹשְׁשׁ֖וּ | hitkosheshu | gather yourselves together | H7197 → | |
| וָק֑וֹשּׁוּ | vakooshu | and gather together | H7197 → | |
| הַגּ֖וֹי | hagoy | O nation | H1471 → | 561 times |
| לֹ֥א | lo' | not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| נִכְסָֽף׃ | nikhsaf | ashamed | H3700 → |
הִֽתְקוֹשְׁשׁ֖וּgather yourselves together
hitkosheshuH7197 →
וָק֑וֹשּׁוּand gather together
vakooshuH7197 →
הַגּ֖וֹיO nation
hagoyH1471 →561 times
לֹ֥אnot
lo'H3808 →5168 times
נִכְסָֽף׃ashamed
nikhsafH3700 →
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
Esther 4:16“Go and assemble all the Jews who can be found in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day, and I and my maidens will fast…
it leads to
- Acts 20:24
But I consider my life of no value to me, if only I may finish my course and complete the ministry I have received from the Lord Jesus—the ministry of testifying to the good…
- 2 Chronicles 20:3
Jehoshaphat was alarmed and set his face to seek the LORD. And he proclaimed a fast throughout Judah.
- Joel 2:12–17
“Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “return to Me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning.”
- Luke 9:24
For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.
- Genesis 18:19
For I have chosen him, so that he will command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just, in order that…
- Acts 20:24
Through
Joel 1:14Consecrate a fast; proclaim a solemn assembly! Gather the elders and all the residents of the land to the house of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD.
it leads to
- Joel 2:15–16
Blow the ram’s horn in Zion, consecrate a fast, proclaim a sacred assembly.
- Joel 2:15–16
Through
2 Chronicles 20:4So the people of Judah gathered to seek the LORD, and indeed, they came from all the cities of Judah to seek Him.
it leads to
- Psalms 50:15
Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor Me.”
- Psalms 50:15
Through
Nehemiah 8:1At that time all the people gathered together in the square before the Water Gate, and they asked Ezra the scribe to bring out the Book of the Law of Moses, which the LORD…
it leads to
- Ezra 7:6
this Ezra came up from Babylon. He was a scribe skilled in the Law of Moses, which the LORD, the God of Israel, had given. The king had granted Ezra all his requests, for…
- Ezra 7:6
Where this verse is studied
On this page
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); Cyril of Alexandria, ON THE UNITY OF CHRIST; Edward Bouverie Pusey, The Minor Prophets: A Commentary; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Zephaniah; John Calvin, Commentaries on the Twelve Minor Prophets; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Pachomius the Great, INSTRUCTIONS 49.