Commentary on the Twelve Prophets

Commentary on the Prophet Zephaniah

COMMENTARY ON THE PROPHET ZEPHANIAH lessed zephaniah delivered this prophecy at no great distance in time from blessed Habakkuk, dealing in his prophecy with the present in the time of Josiah, king of Judah, as the book indicates.1 A short time after him the Babylonians attacked Jerusalem, and made a vast number of dispositions affecting the tribe of Judah, killing many and taking a great number off into captivity. They also plundered Jerusalem, and in particular set on fire the divine Temple and all the most beautiful of the city’s buildings; they even went further and dismantled its walls to prevent the inhabitants being in a position to have any security, should some be inclined that way. Chapter One The following, then, is the customary title of the book. The word of the Lord that came to Zephaniah, son of Cushi, son of Gedaliah , son of Amariah, son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah, son of Amon, king of Judah (v.1), in which he indicated who the prophet is from whom he is descended and at what period he delivers the prophecy. He begins the prophecy of future events as follows. Everything is to disappear utterly from the face of the earth, says the Lord (v.2). The ten tribes, you see, had altogether been taken captive; the Assyrians had gained control of them and had even attacked Jerusalem with the intention of taking it as well. But after they suffered that terrible blow from the angel, 1. Like modern commentators, Theodore found little in the book of Habakkuk to date it precisely apart from its mention of (Chaldeans or) Babylonians . They are also the foreign villains looming here, too, in his view, though the title confines Zephaniah’s ministry to Josiah’s reign, 640–609. 286 all who survived the punishment from the angel looked to flight in deep fear.2 The result of this was that the situation of Jerusalem was restored to complete peace. Since, then, the magnitude of the punishment of the Assyrians did not bring to their senses the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the tribe of Judah , the captivity of the ten tribes did not cause them to fear, and they also persisted in lawlessness and impiety no less than the others, of necessity for that reason he began to say this, that there was nothing for it but that the survivors would disappear, removed from the land of promise and taken off into captivity for the reason that those who remained behind also were seen to offend no less than the others. Now, it was right for him to make his disclosure by way of a sentence3 to bring out that [452] they had made themselves responsible for this by what they had done—hence God was obliged to deliver such a sentence on them. After saying in general terms, Everything is to disappear, he goes on in detail, People are to disappear, cattle are to disappear, birds of the air and fish of the sea; the godless will become weak, and I shall remove the lawless from the face of the earth, says the Lord (v.3). By way of hyperbole he associates people, cattle, birds, and fish, or also in figurative fashion , as is usual with him,4 in such a way that birds refer to the mighty ones lording it over the others, and fish to those of the populace crawling on their bellies on account of the extremely abject condition. He goes on to give the reason, The godless will become weak, and I shall remove the lawless from the face of the earth, says the Lord: those addicted to impiety and lawlessness will fall foul of total weakness, victims of the enemy’s hand; the rest will COMMENTARY ON ZEPHANIAH 1 287 2. See 2 Kgs 19.35, 2 Chr 32.21, Is 37.36–38. This massacre (in 702) and the Babylonian capture of Jerusalem (587) are the two key reference points for Theodore in his historical backgrounding of The Twelve. 3. Theodore, we have seen, can be sensitive to prophetic genres; his modern counterpart, Smith, puts it this way, “This pericope is in the form of a judgement oracle.” 4. Again Theodore anticipates the observation of Smith, “All of Zephaniah is poetry with the exception of 1.1 and 2.10–11.” He goes on to include a phrase, “and the godless will become weak,” not found in all forms of the...