2:15 This is how the once-proud city will end up 1 –
the city that was so secure. 2
She thought to herself, 3 “I am unique! No one can compare to me!” 4
What a heap of ruins she has become, a place where wild animals live!
Everyone who passes by her taunts her 5 and shakes his fist. 6
3:8 Therefore you must wait patiently 7 for me,” says the Lord,
“for the day when I attack and take plunder. 8
I have decided 9 to gather nations together
and assemble kingdoms,
so I can pour out my fury on them –
all my raging anger.
For 10 the whole earth will be consumed
by my fiery anger.
1 tn Heb “this is the proud city.”
2 tn Heb “the one that lived securely.”
3 tn Heb “the one who says in her heart.”
4 tn Heb “I [am], and besides me there is no other.”
5 tn Heb “hisses”; or “whistles.”
6 sn Hissing (or whistling) and shaking the fist were apparently ways of taunting a defeated foe or an object of derision in the culture of the time.
7 tn The second person verb form (“you must wait patiently”) is masculine plural, indicating that a group is being addressed. Perhaps the humble individuals addressed earlier (see 2:3) are in view. Because of Jerusalem’s sin, they must patiently wait for judgment to pass before their vindication arrives.
8 tn Heb “when I arise for plunder.” The present translation takes עַד (’ad) as “plunder.” Some, following the LXX, repoint the term עֵד (’ed) and translate, “as a witness” (cf. NASB, NIV, NRSV). In this case the Lord uses a legal metaphor to picture himself as testifying against his enemies. Adele Berlin takes לְעַד (lÿ’ad) in a temporal sense (“forever”) and translates “once and for all” (Zephaniah [AB 25A], 133).
9 tn Heb “for my decision is.”
10 tn Or “certainly.”