Discovery BoxZephaniah 2:11 
Context2:11 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
Zephaniah 3:6
Contexttheir 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
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. 9
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.”
9 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.
