Zephaniah 3:1
in Zephaniah 3Woe to the city of oppressors, rebellious and defiled!
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Woe to her that is rebellious and polluted! to the oppressing city!
KJV
Woe to her that is filthy and polluted, to the oppressing city!
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This verse in Zephaniah 3
Commentary
9 notes on this verse(Chapter 3, verses 1 onwards) Woe to the provoking and redeemed city: the dove did not hear the voice and did not receive discipline. It did not trust in the Lord and did not approach its God. Its princes are in its midst, like roaring lions. Its judges are wolves of the evening, they do not leave anything for the morning. Its prophets are insane, unfaithful men. Its priests have defiled the holy, they have acted unjustly against the law. The Lord is righteous; he will not do injustice.
This site's exposition
the oppressing city
on Zephaniah 3:1-2
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.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
[Jerusalem] was like this for refusing to the end to hear the word of the prophet sent to it and not accepting in any way the instruction from that source. Though seeming to undergo a change for a while, once more it went back to …
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
Woe to her that is filthy, and polluted,....
Sin is the filthiness and pollution of persons and places, and makes them odious in the sight of the holy God. She wrongs her neighbours and inhabitants; she is the oppressing city. Never any place had statutes and judgments so righteous as this city had, and yet, in the administration of the government, never was more unrighteousness.
By way of promise of mercy and grace, which God had yet in reserve for them. Two general heads of promises here are:-- 1. That God would bring in a glorious work of reformation among them, cleanse them from their sins, and bring them home to himself; many promises of this kind here are,
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
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!” .
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)
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).
Wo to her that is filthy - This is a denunciation of Divine judgment against Jerusalem.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
Woe to her who is filthy and polluted Until now, Zephaniah was speaking of Ninveh, but now he refers to Jerusalem: Woe to her who is destined to be plundered and sullied like dung. It will be polluted with the filth of its iniquity.
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
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ה֥וֹי | ho | woe to! | H1945 → | |
| מֹרְאָ֖ה | moreah | [the] filthy [one] | H4754 → | |
| וְנִגְאָלָ֑ה | venigalah | and [the] defiled [one] | H1351 → | |
| הָעִ֖יר | hair | the city | H5892 → | 1090 times |
| הַיּוֹנָֽה׃ | haiyonah | which oppresses | H3238 → |
ה֥וֹיwoe to!
hoH1945 →
מֹרְאָ֖ה[the] filthy [one]
moreahH4754 →
וְנִגְאָלָ֑הand [the] defiled [one]
venigalahH1351 →
הָעִ֖ירthe city
hairH5892 →1090 times
הַיּוֹנָֽה׃which oppresses
haiyonahH3238 →
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
Malachi 3:5“Then I will draw near to you for judgment. And I will be a swift witness against sorcerers and adulterers and perjurers, against oppressors of the widowed and fatherless, and against those who defraud…
it leads to
- James 5:8–9
You, too, be patient and strengthen your hearts, because the Lord’s coming is near.
- Deuteronomy 27:19
‘Cursed is he who withholds justice from the foreigner, the fatherless, or the widow.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Hebrews 13:4
Marriage should be honored by all and the marriage bed kept undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers.
- Deuteronomy 5:11
You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not leave anyone unpunished who takes His name in vain.
- James 5:4
Look, the wages you withheld from the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts.
- James 5:8–9
Through
Zechariah 7:10Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. And do not plot evil in your hearts against one another.’
it leads to
- Jeremiah 5:28
They have grown fat and sleek, and have excelled in the deeds of the wicked. They have not taken up the cause of the fatherless, that they might prosper; nor have they defended the…
- Isaiah 1:23
Your rulers are rebels, friends of thieves. They all love bribes and chasing after rewards. They do not defend the fatherless, and the plea of the widow never comes before them.
- Jeremiah 5:28
Through
Isaiah 30:12Therefore this is what the Holy One of Israel says: “Because you have rejected this message, trusting in oppression and relying on deceit,
it leads to
- Isaiah 31:1–3
Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who trust in their abundance of chariots and in their multitude of horsemen. They do not look to the Holy…
- Isaiah 31:1–3
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies3
On this verse
On this chapter
About Zephaniah
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); 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 Theodore of Mopsuestia, COMMENTARY ON ZEPHANIAH 3:1-2.