Zephaniah 1:1

Introduction

1:1 This is the prophetic message that the Lord gave to 1  Zephaniah son of Cushi, son of Gedaliah, son of Amariah, son of Hezekiah. Zephaniah delivered this message during the reign of 2  King Josiah son of Amon of Judah:

Zephaniah 1:5

1:5 I will remove 3  those who worship the stars in the sky from their rooftops, 4 

those who swear allegiance to the Lord 5  while taking oaths in the name of 6  their ‘king,’ 7 

Zephaniah 1:8

1:8 “On the day of the Lord’s sacrificial meal,

I will punish the princes 8  and the king’s sons,

and all who wear foreign styles of clothing. 9 

Zephaniah 3:15

3:15 The Lord has removed the judgment against you; 10 

he has turned back your enemy.

Israel’s king, the Lord, is in your midst!

You no longer need to fear disaster.

1 tn Heb “The word of the Lord which came to.”

2 tn Heb “in the days of.” The words “Zephaniah delivered this message” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

3 tn The words “I will remove” are repeated from v. 4b for stylistic reasons. In the Hebrew text vv. 4b-6 contain a long list of objects for the verb “I will remove” in v. 4b. In the present translation a new sentence was begun at the beginning of v. 5 in keeping with the tendency of contemporary English to use shorter sentences.

4 tn Heb “those who worship on their roofs the host of heaven.” The “host of heaven” included the sun, moon, planets, and stars, all of which were deified in the ancient Near East.

5 tc The MT reads, “those who worship, those who swear allegiance to the Lord.” The original form of the LXX omits the phrase “those who worship”; it may have been accidentally repeated from the preceding line. J. J. M. Roberts prefers to delete as secondary the phrase “those who swear allegiance” (J. J. M. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah [OTL], 168).

6 tn Heb “those who swear by.”

7 tn The referent of “their king” is unclear. It may refer sarcastically to a pagan god (perhaps Baal) worshiped by the people. Some English versions (cf. NEB, NASB, NRSV) prefer to emend the text to “Milcom,” the name of an Ammonite god (following some LXX mss, Syriac, and Vulgate) or “Molech,” a god to whom the Israelites offered their children (cf. NIV, NLT). For a discussion of the options, see Adele Berlin, Zephaniah (AB 25A), 75-77.

8 tn Or “officials” (NRSV, TEV); NLT “leaders.”

9 sn The very dress of the royal court, foreign styles of clothing, revealed the degree to which Judah had assimilated foreign customs.

10 tn Heb “your judgments,” that is, “the judgments directed against you.” The translation reflects the implications of the parallelism.