2:11 The Lord will terrify them, 1
for 2 he will weaken 3 all the gods of the earth.
All the distant nations will worship the Lord in their own lands. 4
3:6 “I destroyed 5 nations;
their walled cities 6 are in ruins.
I turned their streets into ruins;
no one passes through them.
Their cities are desolate; 7
no one lives there. 8
1 tn Heb “will be awesome over [or, “against”] them.”
2 tn Or “certainly.”
3 tn The meaning of this rare Hebrew word is unclear. If the meaning is indeed “weaken,” then this line may be referring to the reduction of these gods’ territory through conquest (see Adele Berlin, Zephaniah [AB 25A], 110-11). Cf. NEB “reduce to beggary”; NASB “starve”; NIV “when he destroys”; NRSV “shrivel.”
4 tn Heb “and all the coastlands of the nations will worship [or, “bow down”] to him, each from his own place.”
5 tn Heb “cut off.”
6 tn Heb “corner towers”; NEB, NRSV “battlements.”
7 tn This Hebrew verb (צָדָה, tsadah) occurs only here in the OT, but its meaning is established from the context and from an Aramaic cognate.
8 tn Heb “so that there is no man, without inhabitant.”