Reflections on Zephaniah 1

Zephaniah 01 (Contemporary English Version)


1. I am Zephaniah, the son of Cushi, the grandson of Gedaliah, the great-grandson of Amariah, and the great-great-grandson of Hezekiah. When Josiah son of Amon was king of Judah, the LORD gave me this message.
   
2. I, the LORD, now promise to destroy everything on this earth--
   
3. people and animals, birds and fish. Everyone who is evil will crash to the ground, and I will wipe out the entire human race.
   
4. I will reach out to punish Judah and Jerusalem-- nothing will remain of the god Baal; nothing will be remembered of his pagan priests.
   
5. Not a trace will be found of those who worship stars from their rooftops, or bow down to the god Milcom, while claiming loyalty to me, the LORD.
   
6. Nothing will remain of anyone who has turned away and rejected me.
   
7. Be silent! I am the LORD God, and the time is near. I am preparing to sacrifice my people and to invite my guests.
   
8. On that day I will punish national leaders and sons of the king, along with all who follow foreign customs.
   
9. I will punish worshipers of pagan gods and cruel palace officials who abuse their power.
   
10. I, the LORD, promise that on that day noisy crying will be heard from Fish Gate, New Town, and Upper Hills.
    
11. Everyone in Lower Hollow will mourn loudly, because merchants and money changers will be wiped out.
    
12. I'll search Jerusalem with lamps and punish those people who sit there unworried while thinking, "The LORD won't do anything, good or bad."
    
13. Their possessions will be taken, their homes left in ruins. They won't get to live in the houses they build, or drink wine from the grapes in their own vineyards.
    
14. The great day of the LORD is coming soon, very soon. On that terrible day, fearsome shouts of warriors will be heard everywhere.
    
15. It will be a time of anger-- of trouble and torment, of disaster and destruction, of darkness and despair, of storm clouds and shadows,
    
16. of trumpet calls and battle cries against fortified cities and mighty fortresses.
    
17. The LORD warns everyone who has sinned against him, "I'll strike you blind! Then your blood and your insides will gush out like vomit.
    
18. Not even your silver or gold can save you on that day when I, the LORD, am angry. My anger will flare up like a furious fire scorching the earth and everyone on it."
    

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Zephaniah and his prophecy preceded Habakkuk, the focus of our previous reflections, by just a few years. Zephaniah prophesied coming doom for Judah that still had not come in Habakkuk's day and Habakkuk had grown impatient. Neither did Zephaniah identify God's instrument of destruction, so Habakkuk was appalled to learn from God that He planned to use Babylon.

Zephaniah begins and ends this first chapter of his prophesy with reference to a world-wide destruction. It is unclear what the reference points to specifically unless it is of the end-time destruction of the earth. How this might be associated with the pending doom for Judah Zephaniah speaks of is also unclear unless the pending doom for Judah is seen as a preview of the greater destruction at the end-time. At that time there will be a reversal of creation. Man and animal will be swept away, followed by birds and fish. This is in reverse order to their appearance at creation.

Concerning the pending destruction for Judah, God planned to cut off every vestige of Baal worship along with all other ungodly practices. This included pagan priest, those non-Levitical priests appointed by the kings, and also idolatrous priests, those Levitical priests who turned from God to a superstitious faith. In addition God would cut off those who worshiped the heavenly bodies, those who combined the worship of God with worship of other gods, and also those who were religiously indifferent. These didn't worship other gods, but they also didn't worship the true God. The most detestable thing man can do is worship gods of man's imagination, crediting them with what God has done for them.

Invariably when Judah took on the worship practices of other nations her moral practices also became detestable. So Judah's moral practices are addressed next. Zephaniah mentions the king's sons who dressed in foreign clothing. This was probably a sign of their adoption of foreign values as well. Also mentioned was the stealing and ill-gotten gain of the merchants. Thus Zephaniah mentions those "who skip over the threshold," the outcry from the Fish Gate, and the silencing of the merchants of the Hollow. All references to their unethical business practices. God was going to make a diligent search of Jerusalem for those who had become comfortable with such detestable practices. Many were so comfortable with their unethical practices they would say to themselves, "The Lord will not do good or evil." In other words, they convinced themselves that since they had become complacent about such practices God had also become complacent.

The chapter concludes with Zephaniah's warning that time was running out for Judah. "The great Day of the LORD is near, near and rapidly approaching," he said. Further, he says, "That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of destruction and desolation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness, a day of trumpet blast and battle cry against the fortified cities, and against the high corner towers.