Zephaniah 1 KJV
The Day of the Lord's Judgment
Zephaniah Chapter 1: The Day of the Lord's Judgment
Zephaniah traces his ancestry four generations to Hezekiah, a detail suggesting possible royal descent unique among the minor prophets and tying his message to the Davidic line during Josiahโs reign.
1he word of the LORD which came unto Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hizkiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah.
2 I will utterly consume all things from off the land, saith the LORD.
3 I will consume man and beast; I will consume the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the sea, and the stumbling blocks with the wicked: and I will cut off man from off the land, saith the LORD.
4 I will also stretch out mine hand upon Judah, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place, and the name of the Chemarims with the priests;
5 And them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops; and them that worship and that swear by the LORD, and that swear by Malcham;
6 And them that are turned back from the LORD; and those that have not sought the LORD, nor enquired for him.
7 Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord GOD: for the day of the LORD is at hand: for the LORD hath prepared a sacrifice, he hath bid his guests.
8 And it shall come to pass in the day of the LORDโs sacrifice, that I will punish the princes, and the kingโs children, and all such as are clothed with strange apparel.
9 In the same day also will I punish all those that leap on the threshold, which fill their mastersโ houses with violence and deceit.
10 And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD, that there shall be the noise of a cry from the fish gate, and an howling from the second, and a great crashing from the hills.
11 Howl, ye inhabitants of Maktesh, for all the merchant people are cut down; all they that bear silver are cut off.
12 And it shall come to pass at that time, that I will search Jerusalem with candles, and punish the men that are settled on their lees: that say in their heart, The LORD will not do good, neither will he do evil.
13 Therefore their goods shall become a booty, and their houses a desolation: they shall also build houses, but not inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, but not drink the wine thereof.
14 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.
15 That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness,
16 A day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high towers.
17 And I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the LORD: and their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as the dung.
18 Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORDโs wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.
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Did You Know?
Zephaniah traces his ancestry four generations to Hezekiah, a detail suggesting possible royal descent unique among the minor prophets and tying his message to the Davidic line during Josiahโs reign.
The phrase about leaping on the threshold (1:9) alludes to the Philistine priestsโ avoidance of Dagonโs temple floor in 1 Samuel 5, revealing how pagan superstitions had infiltrated Judahโs elite households.
Verse 7 portrays the coming invasion as a sacred meal where Judah is the sacrificial victim and foreign armies are the invited guests, reversing the usual covenantal imagery of Israel as the priestly host.
The rare term โChemarimsโ (1:4) specifically denotes black-robed Baal priests, a word appearing elsewhere only in 2 Kings 23:5, underscoring Zephaniahโs focus on eradicating a distinct class of state-sponsored idolatry.
Judgment is pronounced on the โMakteshโ (1:11), Jerusalemโs merchant quarter, because traders trusted in silver rather than the Lord, linking economic activity directly to the cosmic upheaval of the Day of Yahweh.
Commentary & Study Notes Jamieson-Fausset-Brown (1871) ยท Public Domain days of Josiah โ Had their idolatries been under former kings, they might have said, Our kings have forced us to this and that. But under Josiah, who did all in his power to reformโฆ
Classic verse-by-verse commentary on Zephaniah 1 from Jamieson, Fausset & Brown (1871). Covers: God's severe judgment on Judah for its idolatry and neglect of him: the rapid approach of the judgment, and the impossibility of escape.
- 1
- days of Josiah โ Had their idolatries been under former kings, they might have said, Our kings have forced us to this and that. But under Josiah, who did all in his power to reform them, they have no such excuse. son of Amon โ the idolater, whose bad practices the Jews clung to, rather than the good example of Josiah, his son; so incorrigible were they in sin. Judah โ Israel's ten tribes had gone into captivity before this.
- 2
- utterly consume โ from a root to "sweep away," or "scrape off utterly." See Jer 8:13, Margin, and here. from off the land โ of Judah.
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