Zephaniah 3
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Chapter 3
Chapter Overview:
Verses:
Jerusalem threatened for her wickedness, ver. 1 - 7.
A promise of a glorious reformation, ver. 8 - 13.
And deliverance consequent upon it, ver. 14 - 20.
| 3:1 | To her - Jerusalem. |
| 3:2 | The voice - Of God by his mercy and judgments crying aloud. |
| 3:3 | Her princes - Persons of principal place and authority.Lions - Which hunt for prey, and are ever affrighting or devouring.Wolves - Insatiable and cruel, like wolves of the evening, whetted with hunger. Gnaw not the bones - They leave nothing but the bones to be eaten on the morrow. |
| 3:4 | Her prophet - So called, false prophets.Light - Unstable and inconstant.Violence to the law - Wresting it by perverse interpretation. |
| 3:5 | In the midst - Observing all. Not do iniquity - He will judge them righteously. Every morning - Daily he discovers his displeasure against the wicked. Faileth not - Lets no season slip to convince them, by public and visible punishments. The unjust - But the wicked Jews proceed without shame, and without fear. |
| 3:6 | The nations - Of old, the Canaanites, lastly the ten tribes, and later yet, the Assyrians. |
| 3:7 | I said - I thought (speaking after the manner of men).Thou - O Jerusalem. Fear me - For the many and great judgments executed upon others. I punished them - In some measure. |
| 3:8 | Therefore - Since you will not be amended.Wait ye - Attend my resolution. Until - Until I rise up to destroy first, and next to take the spoil. Upon them - The incorrigible Jews.Devoured - Consumed as if burnt up. My jealousy - That jealousy wherewith God is jealous for his own glory. |
| 3:9 | A pure language - I will give them a pure way of worshipping me, the issue of a pure heart. |
| 3:10 | My dispersed - The praying remnant of the scattered Jews shall return to their own land, and bring themselves an offering unto the Lord. |
| 3:11 | Thy doings - Thy sins formerly committed. In thy pride - Proud formalists. No more be haughty - Ye shall no more boast, because of the city, or the temple. |
| 3:12 | Of thee - In Judea and Jerusalem. |
| 3:13 | Shall feed - Shall enjoy peace and plenty. |
| 3:15 | Taken away - Abolished, and put an end to the judgments thy sins brought upon thee. Thine enemy - The Babylonian.Is in the midst - He is returned to redeem and govern thee.Any more - While thy carriage is as becomes my presence with thee, thou shalt neither fear, nor feel the like evils. |
| 3:18 | Sorrowful - That mourn their distance from the solemn worship of God. Who are of thee - Thy children. Reproach - The taunts of their enemies. |
| 3:19 | Undo - I will break their power and dissolve their kingdom.That halteth - Who is in trouble and ready to fall.Driven out - Into remote countries. |
| 3:20 | A praise - So the universal church of the first - born will be, in the great day. And then the Israel of God be made a name and a praise to all eternity. |