Discovery BoxZephaniah 1:1 
Context1:1 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 1:9-11
Context1:9 On that day I will punish all who leap over the threshold, 3
who fill the house of their master 4 with wealth taken by violence and deceit. 5
1:10 On that day,” says the Lord,
“a loud cry will go up 6 from the Fish Gate, 7
wailing from the city’s newer district, 8
and a loud crash 9 from the hills.
1:11 Wail, you who live in the market district, 10
for all the merchants 11 will disappear 12
and those who count money 13 will be removed. 14
Zephaniah 1:14
Context1:14 The Lord’s great day of judgment 15 is almost here;
it is approaching very rapidly!
There will be a bitter sound on the Lord’s day of judgment;
at that time warriors will cry out in battle. 16
Zephaniah 2:5
Context2:5 Those who live by the sea, the people who came from Crete, 17 are as good as dead. 18
The Lord has decreed your downfall, 19 Canaan, land of the Philistines:
“I will destroy everyone who lives there!” 20
Zephaniah 2:13
Context2:13 The Lord 21 will attack the north 22
and destroy Assyria.
He will make Nineveh a heap of ruins;
it will be as barren 23 as the desert.
Zephaniah 3:9
Context3:9 Know for sure that I will then enable
the nations to give me acceptable praise. 24
All of them will invoke the Lord’s name when they pray, 25
and will worship him in unison. 26
Zephaniah 3:18
Context3:18 “As for those who grieve because they cannot attend the festivals –
I took them away from you;
they became tribute and were a source of shame to you. 27
1 tn Heb “The word of the
2 tn Heb “in the days of.” The words “Zephaniah delivered this message” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
3 sn The point of the statement all who hop over the threshold is unclear. A ritual or superstition associated with the Philistine god Dagon may be in view (see 1 Sam 5:5).
4 tn The referent of “their master” is unclear. The king or a pagan god may be in view.
5 tn Heb “who fill…with violence and deceit.” The expression “violence and deceit” refers metonymically to the wealth taken by oppressive measures.
6 tn The words “will go up” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
7 sn The Fish Gate was located on Jerusalem’s north side (cf. 2 Chr 33:14; Neh 3:3; 12:39).
8 tn Heb “from the second area.” This may refer to an area northwest of the temple where the rich lived (see Adele Berlin, Zephaniah [AB 25A], 86; cf. NASB, NRSV “the Second Quarter”; NIV “the New Quarter”).
9 tn Heb “great breaking.”
10 tn Heb “in the Mortar.” The Hebrew term מַכְתֵּשׁ (makhtesh, “mortar”) is apparently here the name of a low-lying area where economic activity took place.
11 tn Or perhaps “Canaanites.” Cf. BDB 489 s.v. I and II כְּנַעֲנִי. Translators have rendered the term either as “the merchant people” (KJV, NKJV), “the traders” (NRSV), “merchants” (NEB, NIV), or, alternatively, “the people of Canaan” (NASB).
12 tn Or “be destroyed.”
13 tn Heb “weigh out silver.”
14 tn Heb “be cut off.” In the Hebrew text of v. 11b the perfect verbal forms emphasize the certainty of the judgment, speaking of it as if it were already accomplished.
15 tn Heb “The great day of the
16 tn Heb “the sound of the day of the
17 tn Heb “Kerethites,” a people settled alongside the Philistines in the coastal areas of southern Palestine (cf. 1 Sam 30:14; Ezek 25:16). They originally came from the island of Crete.
18 tn Heb “Woe, inhabitants of the coast of the sea, nation of Kerethites.” The Hebrew term הוֹי (hoy, “ah, woe”), is used to mourn the dead and express outwardly one’s sorrow (see 1 Kgs 13:30; Jer 22:18; 34:5). By using it here the prophet mourns in advance the downfall of the Philistines, thereby emphasizing the certainty of their demise (“as good as dead”). Some argue the word does not have its earlier connotation here and is simply an attention-getting interjection, equivalent to “Hey!”
19 tn Heb “the word of the
20 tn Heb “I will destroy you so there is no inhabitant [remaining].”
21 tn Heb “He”; the referent (the
22 tn Heb “he will stretch out his hand against the north.”
23 tn Or “dry.”
24 tn Heb “Certainly [or perhaps, “For”] then I will restore to the nations a pure lip.”
sn I will then enable the nations to give me acceptable praise. This apparently refers to a time when the nations will reject their false idol-gods and offer genuine praise to the one true God.
25 tn Heb “so that all of them will call on the name of the
26 tn Heb “so that [they] will serve him [with] one shoulder.”
27 tn Heb “The ones grieving from an assembly I gathered from you they were, tribute upon her, a reproach.” Any translation of this difficult verse must be provisional at best. The present translation assumes three things: (1) The preposition מִן (min) prefixed to “assembly” is causal (the individuals are sorrowing because of the assemblies or festivals they are no longer able to hold). (2) מַשְׂאֵת (mas’et) means “tribute” and refers to the exiled people being treated as the spoils of warfare (see R. D. Patterson, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah [WEC], 385-86). (3) The third feminine singular suffix refers to personified Jerusalem, which is addressed earlier in the verse (the pronominal suffix in “from you” is second feminine singular). For other interpretive options see Adele Berlin, Zephaniah (AB 25A), 146.
