I will utterly take away everything from off the face of the ground, saith Jehovah
Zephaniah spoke while Josiah was king, a man who tore down idols and called his people back to God's word. Yet the prophet's first words announce that God will sweep everything off the earth — so how far does that sweep reach, and does anything survive it?
(Older translations read this verse as "I will utterly consume all things from off the land.")
William Kelly sets the prophecy in Josiah's good days. Blessing, he notes, leaves those who refuse it worse off than before.
The blessing God gives calls for deep thankfulness for the souls it reaches, and for praise to His own mercy. Yet it truly leaves those who reject it in a worse moral state than before. In the end it always speeds up the downward course of the mass of the people, and so brings in a time of deeper ruin. So we see that only a short time lay between Josiah's bright burst of devoted effort for God's glory and the terrible evils that followed. Those evils brought an unbearable judgment from God on the guilty people. Zephaniah was one of those who spoke in the LORD's name during these hopeful times.
Does "the land" mean Israel's territory or the whole earth? Arno Gaebelein points to the rest of the book for the answer.
We should not take "the land" as Israel's land only; it means the earth. Other passages confirm that Zephaniah's vision of judgment reaches wider than the land and the people. The great day comes upon men everywhere (1:17); it is universal (2:4-15); the prophet even names the islands of the nations (2:11).
Verse 2 gives the sweep. The verse after it lists what will go. Kelly asks why the list runs so wide.
Through Zephaniah the Lord then announces the complete destruction that is coming. He does not give a general sentence only; He lists the details one by one… The completeness of the ruin would prove the hand of the LORD. Why else beast as well as man? Why birds of heaven and fish of the sea? But the root lay in the stumbling blocks (the idols) of the wicked, and they would all perish together.
Why should fish and birds share a sentence passed on human sin? One writer answers that the pollution spread from man to everything around him.
Man had become offensive in the sight of God. He had polluted the land with his idolatry and deeds of violence. He had drawn in even the beasts, birds and fish. His sin had defiled the whole creation. Nothing was left but for him to disappear under God's judgment from the scene that Christ is to fill.
Some have used this verse to prove that the wicked simply stop existing. Frederick Grant answers one such writer, then shows what "destroy" and "perish" mean elsewhere in Scripture.
Take Zephaniah 1:2-3, for example… These are some of Mr. Hastings' own texts, brought forward to prove the annihilation of the wicked! The cause must be weak that needs such arguments.
Our translators used both "destroy" and "perish" for ruin, where the thing stayed in ruins and did not come to an end… So we also read, "the land perishes," and "the valley also shall perish." Again and again Scripture says that Israel was to be "destroyed" — and after that had come upon her, God would still bring her back from captivity. In none of these cases is there an end of the thing destroyed.
The sweeping away is not the last word. The same writer sees the pattern again in the gospel: judgment first, then a new start.
We have to learn, first of all, that man in the flesh is completely offensive to God because of his sin, and must be removed in judgment. The believer can see this done for him in the cross of Christ… But in raising Him from among the dead, God in a sense starts the history of man again. This time it is man of a new order — the order of Christ.
- Cause. Josiah's reform was real, but rejected blessing leaves people worse than before. That is what sped up the ruin Zephaniah announces.
- Scope. "The land" here means the earth, not Israel alone. The rest of the book spreads the judgment to men everywhere and to all the nations.
- Reason. Man's idolatry and violence defiled creation itself. So the sentence names beast, bird and fish beside him, and traces the root to the idols.
- Limit. "Consume" means ruin, not the end of existence. Scripture says the same of Israel, whom God later brought back. The verse proves nothing for annihilation.
- Result. The clearing leaves a scene for Christ to fill. The believer sees that pattern already: judged at the cross, raised in Christ as a man of a new order.
I will take away man and beast; I will take away the fowl of the heavens and the fishes of the sea, and the stumbling-blocks with the wicked, and I will cut off mankind from off the face of the ground, saith Jehovah.
God speaks here in the first person, and every line takes something away: man, beast, birds, fish, and man himself. Two questions press on any reader. Why are animals swept up in a judgment on human sin? And how far does "the earth" reach?
Zephaniah spoke during the reign of Josiah, whose reforms tore down idols across the land. One writer notes how little that outward change did for the nation, and how short the reprieve was.
It is not wise to expect more than a partial and passing good done to people through the grace of God. God gives blessing, and that calls for deep thankfulness for the souls helped and praise to His own mercy. But it leaves those who reject it in a worse moral state than before... So we see that only a short space separated Josiah's bright burst of devoted effort for God's glory from the terrible evils that followed and brought an unbearable judgment from God on the guilty people.
The list is strange on purpose. No invading army kills the fish of the sea.
The Lord then announces through Zephaniah the clean destruction that is coming. He does not give a general sentence only. He lists the details... How complete the ruin is would prove the hand of Jehovah. Why else beast as well as man? Why birds of heaven and fish of the sea? But the root lay in the stumbling-blocks (or idols) of the wicked, who should all perish together. So the cutting off of man from the face of the land (or earth) closes this firm sentence of Jehovah. The judgment should be universal.
The creatures did nothing, yet they fall under the sentence too. One writer traces this back to what man had already done to the world around him.
The opening chapter declares a judgment that is wide and complete. Man had become offensive in the sight of God. He had polluted the land with his idolatry and deeds of violence. He had drawn in even the beasts, birds and fishes. His sin had defiled the whole creation, and there was nothing for it but for him to disappear under the judgment of God from the scene which Christ is to fill.
The ESV says "the rubble with the wicked." Older translations read "the stumbling-blocks with the wicked," and that points to what the wicked had set up for themselves. Commentators also read the reach of the verse as wider than Judah.
Then comes the announcement of the judgment. It is to consume all things from off the face of the land: man and beast, the birds of heaven, the fish of the sea. It is to end the stumbling blocks of the wicked, that is, their idols and idol worship. Do not take "the land" as Israel's land only. It means the earth. Other passages confirm that Zephaniah's judgment vision reaches wider than the land and the people.
Some argue from words like "consume" and "cut off" that the wicked simply stop existing. One writer answers that this mixes up two very different events.
One of the most common mistakes made by that class of annihilationists is this. They confuse two things. One is the destruction of the wicked out of the earth, which makes way for the great promised blessing for it. The other is the eternal judgment, when the earth and heavens flee away... For them, destruction out of the earth seems no different from final judgment. We will look at the difference later, but the passages quoted speak for themselves.
The book does not end with this judgment. The emptying of the scene has a purpose beyond itself.
Judgment, however, never closes the scene. As we said, glory touches judgment in the ways of God. Judgment cleans out the vessel, and then glory fills it. It takes away what hinders the presence of the Lord. Then God sets up the kingdom and displays it, as Zephaniah, together with all the prophets, shows us.
- Timing. These words came while a reforming king was at work. Outward change does not cancel God's sentence, and blessing that people refuse leaves them worse than before.
- Cause. Man polluted the land with idolatry and violence. His sin defiled the whole creation, so beast, bird and fish fall under the sentence with him.
- Completeness. No army could reach the fish of the sea. Naming them shows whose hand this is: the judgment is God's own, and it is universal.
- Root. The "stumbling blocks" are the idols. They perish together with the wicked who set them up, so the sin and its object fall in one stroke.
- Purpose. Commentators read the reach as the earth, not Judah alone. They also read the emptying as preparation: judgment cleans out the vessel so that glory can fill it, and clears the scene for Christ.
And I will stretch forth my hand upon Judah, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place, the name of the Chemarim with the priests;
Zephaniah has just threatened the whole land. Now the warning narrows to one address: Judah and Jerusalem, the place where God's name was known. Why does judgment fall hardest there, and why was Baal worship still alive under a king who was cleaning up the nation?
The hand stretched out is not aimed first at foreign nations but at God's own land and city. One writer traces this through the whole book:
From first to last he is clearly occupied with the day of Jehovah on Jerusalem. The land and the Jewish remnant are fully in view for that day. The reign of the last God-fearing king did not stop it or put it off… If Jehovah must judge His people, all the world must bow; no nation can escape. What Nebuchadnezzar did was only a first instalment of a great and complete judgment. Yet Jehovah had to begin with His land, people, and city, as in Zephaniah 1.
Zephaniah prophesied while Josiah was cleaning up the nation. Yet he speaks as if nothing had changed. One writer explains why:
A great reformation was under way. Like all reformation, it ended in deformation. That produced a reaction, and the reaction plunged the house of Judah into its final turning away from God. The reformation seems to have been mainly an outward one. In their hearts the people still longed for the idols and the detestable practices that went with them.
One writer asks why this outward improvement was not enough:
But why could God not rest in the outwardly improved state of Judah in Josiah's day? He looked beneath the surface. He looked for what was real: a tender conscience, and a heart that bowed to His word. He did not find it… Nothing less than thoroughness will ever satisfy God.
A remnant is what is left over. Baal worship had already been cut back, yet even the leftovers come under the sentence. Where the ESV says "idolatrous priests," older translations keep the Hebrew word "Chemarim," and the writers quoted here use it. One writer explains both names:
The remnant of Baal will be cut off, and the Chemarim with the priests. Whatever is left of idolatry will then be wiped out completely. Baal was the idol god of the Phoenicians and Canaanites. The word means "lord" or "owner," and sexually immoral practices went along with his worship. Chemarim is the name of the idolatrous priests who ran the high places. The kings of Judah appointed them to that service (2 Kings 23:5).
The verse names two groups in one breath: the idol-priests "along with the priests." That pairing is the offence:
The Chemarim are idolatrous priests. The Bible names them only here and in 2 Kings 23:5 and Hosea 10:5, and Gesenius thought they were called this because of their black priestly dress. What made this idolatry so offensive was the joining of the idols of the nations with Jehovah. To be what we might call a plain, outright idolater was not nearly so evil as to show that you know the true God and yet put false gods on a level with Him.
Josiah had already moved against these very men:
Josiah puts down the Chemarim, the priests the kings of Judah had set up to burn incense to false gods… He completely breaks off fellowship with a religion that had dared to despise the only gathering centre for the people, even though that religion had separated itself from idolatry. In this we find instruction for the day in which we live.
The chapter names offenders one by one instead of condemning the nation in bulk:
There is Judah, and there is Jerusalem, and the nations all around them, north, south, east, and west. All come in for this common and complete exposure, down to the smallest distinctions. The remnant of Baal, the name of the Chemarim with the priests, idolaters, those who swear by the Lord and by Malcham, the backsliders, the careless, and those who wear foreign clothing — God visits each one separately. The candle of the Lord searches out those who have settled down in comfort and who despise the fear of judgment. Nothing escapes.
- Begins at home. God stretches out His hand first on Judah and Jerusalem; if He must judge His own people, no nation can expect to escape.
- Outward only. Josiah's reform changed the surface. The people's hearts still wanted the idols, so the prophet announces judgment as if the revival had not happened.
- Remnant. God marks even the leftovers of Baal worship, a cult already cut back, for complete removal.
- Mixture. The idol-priests stand "along with the priests": the real offence is putting false gods on a level with the God they claim to know.
- Nothing escapes. God searches out each group with a candle, down to the careless and the comfortable.
and them that bow down to the host of the heavens upon the housetops; and them that bow down to Jehovah, that swear by [him], and swear by Malcham;
Zephaniah preached while King Josiah was tearing down the altars of Judah. Yet his message is not praise. It is a list of people God means to cut off, and they are not open pagans. They are people who bow to God and then bow to something else.
The name in the second half of the verse belongs to an idol. The people who swore by it were not outsiders to Israel's faith.
An idol worshipped by some Jews who also professed to worship Jehovah. Zeph. 1:5. Some judge it to have been the same as Molech.
Commentators differ on which idol is meant:
God could still see the followers of Baal there. He could see the Chemarim, the idol priests named in 2 Kings 23:5 and Hosea 10:5, margin. He could see those who worshipped the host of heaven, and those who swore by Jehovah and by Malcham, or "their king," that is, Baal.
(The ESV renders the name "Milcom.")
The first group in the verse climbed to the flat roofs of their houses to bow to the stars. One writer ties this to a habit still alive today.
Verses 5 and 6 name other forms of idolatry. They worshipped the host of the heavens from their housetops. They worshipped the stars and studied their movements, as if the stars could help them and give them a revelation. Astrology, still practised so widely among civilized nations today, is an ancient cult (2 Kings 21:3, 5; Jer. 8:2; 19:13). Others used the Holy Name of Jehovah and at the same time used the name of Malcham. It was all a turning back from Jehovah and a dishonouring of His Name.
The sin named here is not abandoning God. It is keeping Him and adding to Him. One commentator argues that this is the sharper offence of the two:
What made this idolatry so offensive was that they joined the idols of the nations to Jehovah. To be a plain, outright idolater was not nearly as evil as to show that you know the true God and yet put false gods on a level with Him. It is exactly this outrage against God that the verse describes here.
The same writer shows how small such a compromise looks to the people who allow it:
There may be no deliberate plan to abandon His worship. It may only be what they count a small thing: occasional conformity to idolatry while they still profess His name. But God refuses any such unholy compromise. He refuses it quite apart from the danger, for those who allow it, of full revolt from Him. It strikes at His majesty, at holiness and truth, and He will not tolerate it.
Josiah was a godly king, and his clean-up of the land was real. It still did not save the nation.
Josiah was a deeply godly man. He was strict and zealous against whatever dishonoured the name of Jehovah, and above all he bowed his own heart to the word of God. None of this set the nation right. No doubt there were then, as always, bright hopes among the best people of the land. So it mattered greatly that God should make His mind on the matter known. Then no one, even if fooled for a moment, would be bitterly disappointed in the end.
What God was looking for, He did not find:
But why could God not be satisfied with the outward improvement in Judah in Josiah's day? He looked beneath the surface. He looked for something real, for a tender conscience, for hearts bowed to His word. He did not find them.
The same divided heart is alive now. One writer names its modern form:
For most professing Christians today it is the Lord and some form of the world, some addition to Himself. It is the mixed worship of the Samaritans, who served the Lord and their own gods at the same time (2 Kings 17:33). It is a sad admission that the Lord is not enough to satisfy, and a love of pleasure more than a love of God.
- Named: Malcham was an idol served by people who also claimed to serve God — read by some as Molech, by others as "their king."
- Mixed: They did not drop God. They kept Him and added other gods on top — stars on the roof, oaths sworn to both.
- Worse: To know the true God and still set false gods beside Him is a greater outrage than plain, open idolatry.
- Rejected: God refuses such "occasional conformity" outright. He looked beneath Josiah's reform for a real, tender heart, and did not find it.
- Repeated: The same divided heart lives on as "the Lord and some form of the world" — an admission that the Lord alone is not enough.
and them that turn back from after Jehovah, and that do not seek Jehovah, nor inquire for him.
Zephaniah closes a list of people God will cut off from Jerusalem with the quietest group of all: not Baal-worshippers or star-gazers, but people who drifted away, and people who never came near at all. Is ignoring God safer than fighting Him?
The verse does not name one group but two, and their histories are not the same.
There might be both — two quite different classes. Some had acknowledged Jehovah to a degree, and then abandoned Him with contempt and insult. Others had never even been stirred on the surface to care for Him or to inquire after Him.
The same pairing turns up in Paul's letters. Commentators point to his words about the vengeance that falls on those who do not know God and those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The original language makes it as plain as possible that two classes will suffer this vengeance. Those who do not know God are one class. Those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ are the other. This makes the judgment of the living even more solemn, because it reaches so widely... Those who do not know God may mark out the people who were too indifferent to pay attention to the gospel. Those who do not obey the gospel will be the people who deliberately rejected Christ. But a common doom will be their portion. (Compare Zeph. 1:6.)
Verse 6 closes a list, and the list explains it. The people named just before were not swapping God for an idol. They were keeping both.
What made this idolatry so offensive was the joining of the idols of the nations with Jehovah. To be a plain, out-and-out idolater was not nearly as evil as to show that you know the true God and still put false gods on a level with Him. That is the outrage against God singled out here.
One writer reads the sins listed just before — star-worship on the rooftops, divided oaths — as adding up to what verse 6 names.
They worshipped the stars. They studied their movements as if the stars could help them and reveal things to them. Astrology, practiced so widely among civilized nations today, is an old cult... Others used the Holy Name of Jehovah, and at the same time they used the name of Malcham. All was a turning back from Jehovah and dishonoring His Name.
The timing is the sharpest thing about this verse. Zephaniah spoke under Josiah, a good king who was clearing idolatry out of the land. God still says the people are not seeking Him.
Zephaniah prophesied in the days of that good king Josiah, and yet the burden of his message was judgment. The king tried hard, and he set a reformation going. Even so, the people clearly stayed stubbornly tied to their heathen idolatries and superstitions.
Commentators differ over when Zephaniah spoke. Some hold that this very list of sins shows he prophesied before the reform began, and that his preaching may have helped to start it.
Many scholars believe Zephaniah prophesied even before king Josiah's reformation. That reformation started in Josiah's 18th year, around 622 BC. References such as Zephaniah 1:4-6, 8-9, 12 and 3:1-3, 7 support this view. It is possible that Zephaniah's own ministry brought king Josiah and the people back to God.
The charge in verse 6 is that they did not seek Him. The next chapter turns that same word into an invitation. It goes not to the nation as a whole but to a smaller group inside it — the people older translations call "the meek of the earth."
We see there are these two calls. The nation gets a fitting warning, but the remnant of righteous Jews gets an earnest appeal. These were "the meek of the earth." "Seek the LORD, all you humble of the land, who do his just commands; seek righteousness; seek humility; perhaps you may be hidden on the day of the anger of the LORD" (ESV).
- Two classes. The verse names people who turned back from God, and people who never sought Him at all.
- One doom. Commentators link this with Paul's pairing of those who do not know God and those who do not obey the gospel. Different roads, but "a common doom will be their portion."
- Mixture, not just idols. Knowing the true God and still putting false gods on a level with Him is worse than plain idolatry.
- Revival is no cover. Zephaniah spoke in the days of good king Josiah. An official reformation did not change hearts still tied to their heathen idolatries.
- Seek Him. The charge of not seeking becomes the remedy one chapter later: "Seek the LORD, all you humble of the land... perhaps you may be hidden on the day of the anger of the LORD."
Be silent at the presence of the Lord Jehovah; for the day of Jehovah is at hand; for Jehovah hath prepared a sacrifice, he hath hallowed his guests.
Zephaniah opens with an order to be quiet. The Lord Himself has stepped forward, and His day is near. He has prepared a sacrifice and invited guests, though the prophet never says who they are.
This silence is not the quiet of worship. It is what happens when God rises up to act.
The prophet sees the Lord rising up, as it were, out of His holy dwelling. He comes out in judgment to carry out the purposes just announced. Thinking of what this will mean for people, the prophet cries, "Be silent, all flesh, before the Lord." For when the day of His wrath comes, who will be able to stand? … All flesh may well fall silent before Him. He comes out to strike the earth in judgment, and also to deliver His people.
Which day does Zephaniah mean? One writer places it in the future, and warns against confusing it with a phrase that sounds much like it.
The day of Jehovah plays an important part in Zephaniah's prophecy. It is not the time of the then imminent destruction of Jerusalem but the time of the Messiah's reign which is still to come. This day will start with the Messiah's appearing to judge the nations and will include the following time of the millennial reign of peace. The New Testament calls it "the day of the Lord." Do not mix this up with the "first day of the week." Revelation 1:10 calls that day "the Lord's day" (the day belonging to the Lord).
If the day was near then, why has it still not come?
The prophet said "is at hand"; but God's long-suffering deferred its full execution, and defers it still.
The Lord Himself prepares this sacrifice and calls the guests. The ESV says He "consecrated" them; older translations read that He "bid," or invited, them. One writer points to where the New Testament shows the scene.
The Lord has prepared His sacrifice and invited His guests. It is the supper of the great God, to which He invites His guests. Read in connection with this Revelation 19:17-18.
Revelation 19 holds a second supper too, and the two could not be further apart.
Revelation 19 sets two suppers before us — the supper of "the Lamb," and the supper of "the great God." The supper of the Lamb is a scene of joy in heaven. Those called to it are blessed. It is a marriage supper. The supper of the great God comes out of the solemn, terrifying judgment that ends the history of the earth as it now is. It is the judgment of this present rebellious world, when the birds of the air feed on the bodies of the Lord's allied enemies.
Zephaniah names the sacrifice and the guests, then moves on. One writer sees in that silence how Scripture holds together.
He does not go into the scene, as Ezekiel and John do. He never tells us what the sacrifice or the feast is, or who the guests are. For the perfect harmony of Scripture has its main voices and its quieter undertones. Here and there it gives certain truths and mysteries the leading part; at other times it only assumes the same truths, or touches on them in passing. All this gives us the welcome, unforced harmony that lives in every part of the book. It shows us that one hand sweeps all the chords.
One writer ties our willingness to speak of that day to how we live.
Where truth is high and practice is low, no one can testify honestly to the day of the Lord. It then does not hold the place in our daily service that it has in the word of God. That day deals with the world by God's removal of evil here below. Put it in the place of our proper hope, and the heart is not satisfied. We must not live in it or on it, because it is not the right food for the soul. Still it is a solemn and necessary truth to hold up before our own eyes and before everyone else's.
- Silence — The hush is not devotion. It is what happens when God rises out of His holy dwelling to judge.
- Near — The day is not Jerusalem's fall. It begins when the Messiah appears to judge the nations, and opens into His reign of peace. It stays near because God's patience keeps putting it off.
- Prepared — The Lord has already made the sacrifice ready and invited the guests. Revelation 19:17-18 shows the scene Zephaniah only names.
- Two suppers — The same chapter holds two meals: the Lamb's marriage supper, a scene of joy, and the supper of the great God, which ends this world's history.
- Honest — Where practice is low, no one testifies honestly to that day. Hold it before your own eyes and before everyone else's.
And it shall come to pass in the day of Jehovah's sacrifice, that I will punish the princes, and the king's sons, and all such as are clothed with foreign apparel.
Zephaniah spoke while Josiah was still king. Josiah was clearing idolatry out of the land — yet the prophet names the king's own household as a target of God's judgment. Why does judgment start with the officials and the king's sons? And what is so wrong with the clothes they wore?
The book opens under a good king, but it never mentions his reforms.
Zephaniah — his name means "Treasured of Jehovah" — prophesied in the days of Josiah. Josiah was a godly king, and his faith and energy had produced a clear revival in the outward state of Israel. But this book takes no notice of that revival. It goes straight to a declaration of God's sweeping judgment, in which He consumes everything from the land. The revival was outward only. At heart the nation stayed exactly as it was, and this became clear as soon as Josiah died.
One writer reads this verse as a word to parents and their children.
The prophet Zephaniah prophesied during the reign of Josiah. He had something special to say about the young princes, and about the king's children. He spoke about those very young men who would soon be kings, and about their sisters too… These are days when our young people are strongly tempted to wear strange clothes. But they will do well, and their parents will do well, to remember this. Strange clothes were part of the cause of the terrible downfall of the Kingdom of Judah.
George C. Willis (older translations say "strange apparel"; the ESV says "foreign attire")
The same writer traces this foreign clothing back to the start of Israel's life in the land.
We saw that the beginning of Israel's history in their own land was spoiled by a Babylonian garment (Joshua 7:21). How strange that a Babylonian garment also brings that history to a close. Babylon speaks to us of the world… In the early days of Israel's history there was spiritual energy to put the evil away. But even in the days of Josiah, even in his own family, there was no such energy. The king's children wore that strange, foreign clothing in the open. In the early days it was hidden in a tent. Now it was worn boldly and openly — the badge and mark and proof of where their hearts belonged.
This verse belongs to a list that runs through the whole chapter. It leaves nobody out.
In this day of the Babylonian, which we are looking at with Zephaniah, everything is judged. There is Judah, and there is Jerusalem. There are the peoples around them: Edom, the Philistines, the Ammonites, the Ethiopians and the Assyrians. North, south, east and west, all come in for this common and complete exposure, down to the smallest detail. The remnant of Baal, the name of the idolatrous priests along with the priests, idolaters, those who swear by the Lord and by Malcham, the backsliders and the careless, and those who wear strange clothes — God visits each one on his own… Nothing escapes.
Commentators differ on how far the prophecy reaches. One writer looks at the Babylonian invasion. Another looks past it to a still future day.
The day of the Lord is at hand. That statement confirms our reading: this prophecy points to the future day. The Lord has prepared His sacrifice and invited His guests. It is the supper of the great God… Read Revelation 19:17-18 alongside this. Verses 8-13 describe what that day will bring. The Lord will deal with all the evildoers.
One writer applies this to how believers live today.
Where truth is high and practice is low, no one can testify honestly to the day of Jehovah… If we were truthful, with hearts exercised by His grace, we would wait for Christ freely and gladly. And we would not knowingly allow anything that goes against His mind and would call forth His judgment. For instance, we often find this self-deceit in a Christian who lives in worldliness. It leads him to say that at least his heart is not in it.
- Surface. Josiah's reform changed how the nation looked, not its heart. Zephaniah passes over the revival and announces judgment.
- Sons. The blow falls first on the officials and the king's own children. They were the next rulers, raised in a godly king's house.
- Signal. Babylonian clothing was the badge of where their hearts already belonged. What was once hidden in a tent, they now wore in the open.
- Search. This chapter names each group on its own: priests, idolaters, waverers, the careless, the fashionable. Nothing escapes.
- Sacrifice. God calls that day His own sacrifice, and He invites guests to it. Some writers link this to the supper of the great God in Revelation 19. High truth with low practice cannot testify to that day.
And in that day will I punish all those that leap over the threshold, who fill their master's house with violence and deceit.
Zephaniah is describing the day when the Lord comes to deal with Jerusalem. After naming the king's household, He turns to the servants who cross a threshold by force and fill their master's house with what they seize. Why does God take such notice of crime in a private house? And does anyone stand outside the reach of that day?
The verse opens with "on that day," tying it to the sacrifice the Lord has prepared in the verses just before. One commentator reads the whole paragraph as a single announcement.
The day of the Lord is at hand. That statement confirms our reading that this prophecy refers to the future day. The Lord has prepared His sacrifice and invited His guests. It is the supper of the great God. Read this together with Revelation 19:17-18. Verses 8-13 describe what that day will bring. The Lord will deal with all the evildoers.
The two words name what these men bring home. One writer points to the same pair, and to the one Man in whom neither was found.
"Violence" and "deceit," the two things that characterize sin, were both entirely absent from Him. Violence marks the strong, and deceit the weak. But He had "done no violence, and there was no deceit in His mouth."
Force and fraud are the two tools. Another writer puts their punishment in the same breath as the punishment of the royal family.
On the day of His sacrifice, His hand would fall on the king, the prince, and the king's children. Violence and deceit would receive their just reward.
The plunder is taken from neighbours and poured into a master's house. Why then does the Lord say He will punish it Himself? The law had already settled that question in the offering required for trespass.
The offerings for guilt or trespass fall into two classes. The first is wrongs done in the holy things of Jehovah, or by breaking one of Jehovah's commands and finding it out later. The second is wrongs that Jehovah counts as done against Him, even though they are not offences against holy things or against His commands, like the first. They are acts of fraud and violence, with deceit, against other people.
The threshold-leapers are the openly violent, the ones everybody can see. But the verses that follow move on to merchants, to silver-carriers, and finally to a search of the city by lamplight — and the point of that search is that hidden guilt is no safer than public guilt.
There will be alarm and chastening from God everywhere… Not only those who were openly violent — no one would escape, no class or condition.
Another writer notes that the judgment is exact. Each person is measured by what he has done.
Idolaters, backsliders, the careless, and those who wear foreign clothing are all visited one by one. The lamp of the Lord searches out those who are complacent, and who despise the fear of judgment. Nothing escapes. All is naked and open to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. And the Judge of all the world does right; those who have deserved many stripes get them, while others are beaten with as few; for God is no respecter of persons.
One writer explains what such a judgment is for. He also explains why the invasion by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, was only a beginning.
Divine judgment must clear away all offences, so that righteousness by grace may flourish… If Jehovah must judge His people, all the world must bow. No nation can escape. What Nebuchadnezzar did was only the first installment of a great and complete judgment. Yet Jehovah had to begin with His land, His people, and His city, as in Zephaniah 1.
- The day. "On that day" belongs to the day of the Lord's sacrifice. Verses 8-13 describe what that day brings. The Lord deals with every evildoer in it.
- The charge. Violence and deceit are the two marks of sin. Force belongs to the strong, fraud to the weak. Both receive their just reward.
- The count. Robbery and fraud against people are wrongs God counts as done against Himself. So He punishes them Himself.
- The reach. The openly violent are only the beginning. The search moves on by lamplight until no class or condition is left out. Nothing escapes.
- The result. Judgment clears away the offences so that righteousness by grace may flourish. It starts with God's own land, people and city, not with the nations.
And in that day, saith Jehovah, there shall be the noise of a cry from the fish-gate, and a howling from the second [quarter], and a great crashing from the hills.
The Lord ties this announcement to "that day." He then traces its sound across Jerusalem: a cry at one gate, a wail in one district, a crash from the hills. These are real streets in a real city. Why does God name them? And did anyone in Jerusalem stand outside the map?
These are not three separate disasters. One sound sweeps the whole city, and the next verse carries the wail on to the merchants.
It will be universal alarm and chastening from God. "Howl, you inhabitants of Maktesh, for all the merchant people are cut down; all who carry silver are cut off." … Not only those who were openly violent — no one would escape, no class or condition.
Older English versions read "the second," as if a word were missing. In fact it is the name of a district, and two other passages name it.
Zephaniah 1:10, "a howling from the second" — rather "Mishneh," a part of Jerusalem. See 2 Kings 22:14; 2 Chronicles 34:22, in the margin.
That cross-reference is worth following. It shows who lived in this district, and who the king's men went to when they needed a word from God.
"And Hilkiah, and those the king had appointed, went to Huldah the prophetess ... now she dwelt in Jerusalem in the second quarter [of the town]; and they spoke with her to that effect" (2 Chronicles 34:22, older translation). Why they did not inquire of Jeremiah, or Zephaniah, who lived at the same time as Josiah, is uncertain.
The cry starts at the Fish Gate, and the gate's place on the wall explains why.
This gate stood in the northern part of Jerusalem. Along with "the gate of the old [wall]", it was especially open to enemy attack. The Assyrian armies came from the north to surround the city and lay siege to it.
It would be easier to read this as a threat against foreign nations. But God starts at home, and no nation escapes what follows.
The reign of the last godly king did not stop it or put it off. The general spread of evil revolt would only be surer once that check was gone. God's judgment must clear away every offence, so that righteousness by grace can flourish. … If Jehovah must judge His people, the whole world must bow; no nation can escape. What Nebuchadnezzar did was only the first instalment of a great and complete judgment. Yet Jehovah had to begin with His land, His people, and His city, as in Zephaniah 1.
Zephaniah preached during a national reform. His book passes over it without a word.
Zephaniah prophesied in the days of Josiah, a godly king whose faith and energy had produced a marked revival in the outward state of Israel. But this book takes no notice of that revival. Instead it goes straight into a declaration of the sweeping judgment of God — His completely consuming everything from the land. The apparent revival was outward only. The nation's real condition at heart stayed the same as before, and this became clear as soon as Josiah died.
The verse turns on two words: "that day." We can hold a truth in words and still avoid it in practice.
It matters greatly that we hold and testify "that day" — not only the coming of the Lord but His day. … there may be an unwillingness to face the solemn truth of the day of Jehovah. Where there is high truth and low practice, no one can honestly testify to the day of Jehovah. … Yet it is a solemn and necessary truth to hold up before our own eyes and before everyone else's.
- The day — "That day" is the day of the Lord. The three place names put it on a map: a gate, a district, and the hills.
- The gate — The cry starts at the Fish Gate. It stood on the north side, the part of the wall most open to attack.
- The quarter — "The Second" is a real district, Mishneh. It is the neighbourhood where Huldah the prophetess lived, and where the king's men came to hear from God.
- The reach — The noise covers the whole city because the judgment does. Not only the openly violent are struck; no class or condition escapes.
- The lesson — A king's reform could not put the day off, and Zephaniah does not even mention it. God begins with His own city. What we will not face, we will not testify to.
Howl, ye inhabitants of Maktesh; for all the people of Canaan are cut down, all they that are laden with silver are cut off.
Zephaniah calls out one district of Jerusalem by name and tells it to mourn. Why does the market quarter get its own line in a list of judgments? And what happens to money on the day God acts?
The Hebrew name is Maktesh, which the ESV translates "the Mortar." Commentators place it in a real part of the city — the business quarter:
A district in or near Jerusalem where merchants traded. Zephaniah 1:11. The Targum associates it with the Kidron valley.
The name comes from a household object, and the picture explains what is coming:
Maktesh in Zephaniah 1:11 means "of a mortar" or "hollow place" in a rock. The same Hebrew word occurs in Judges 15:19 and Proverbs 27:22. It probably means Jerusalem, where they would be pounded by their enemies as in a mortar.
A mortar is a bowl. A pestle pounds grain to powder inside it. The traders live in the bowl, and their enemies are the pestle.
The phrase behind "merchant people" is not a neutral trade description. The Hebrew word is the same one used for the old inhabitants of the land:
In some places the term Canaanite seems to include any of the people living in Canaan, as in Joshua 17:12-13, Nehemiah 9:24, Obadiah 20 and Zechariah 14:21. The same Hebrew word is translated "merchant" in Job 41:6, Proverbs 31:24 and Isaiah 23:8. So Zechariah 14:21 may mean "there shall no more be the merchant in the house of the Lord of hosts." Compare John 2:16.
In God's own city, His people carried the name of the land's old inhabitants.
The verse sits in a long list of groups marked for judgment. One writer walks through that list and reaches the traders:
Not merely those who were openly violent — no one should escape, no class or condition. They say in their heart, "The LORD will not do good, nor will he do ill."… Therefore "their goods shall be plundered, and their houses laid waste. Though they build houses, they shall not inhabit them; though they plant vineyards, they shall not drink wine from them" — that is, they will be struck at the very point of their unbelief.
Their unbelief was quiet: they assumed God would do nothing, good or bad. The judgment hit the goods they trusted.
Another writer reads the whole chapter and notices how the judgment sorts people. It does not fall as one shapeless disaster. It reaches each group by name:
In this day of the Chaldean, which we are now looking at with Zephaniah, everything is judged… The remnant of Baal, the name of the Chemarim (the idol-priests) along with the priests, idolaters, those who swear by the Lord and by Malcham, the backsliders and the careless, those who wear strange clothing — all are visited one by one… Nothing escapes. All is naked and open to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. And the Judge of all the world does right; those who have deserved many blows get them, while others are beaten with few; for God shows no partiality. He gives to every man according to his deeds.
That is why "all who weigh out silver" get a clause of their own. God counts item by item.
These traders trust the silver they weigh out. The day the chapter announces leaves it useless:
When that day comes the wicked will perish; distress will be on everyone. They will walk like blind men — that is, trying to find a way to escape, but not able to find one. Nothing will be able to deliver from the fury of that day; neither silver nor gold will be worth anything.
Commentators differ on the timing. One writes of the invasion that fell on Jerusalem in the prophet's own time. Another looks on to a future day of wrath.
- Named. Maktesh, which the ESV calls the Mortar, was Jerusalem's trading quarter. Its name means a bowl where a pestle pounds grain. Enemies would pound the city the same way.
- Traded. One Hebrew word means both trader and Canaanite. In God's own city, His people went by the name of the land's old inhabitants.
- Complacent. The traders said in their hearts that God would do neither good nor harm. Judgment struck at that very point and plundered the goods they trusted.
- Itemised. Idolaters, careless backsliders, priests, traders — the judgment visits each group in turn. It passes over no class and no condition, and each receives according to his deeds.
- Worthless. The traders live by their silver, and silver is the one thing that cannot buy them a way out. On that day gold and silver are worth nothing.
And it shall come to pass at that time, [that] I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and punish the men that are settled on their lees, that say in their heart, Jehovah will not do good, neither will he do evil.
Zephaniah describes the day the Lord comes to deal with Jerusalem. Here His judgment turns from the violent to the comfortable: settled people who are sure God does nothing either way.
God searches the city with lamps — older translations say "candles." The guilty everyone could see were not the only ones exposed.
Not merely those who were openly violent — no one would escape, no class or condition.
Darby names what the light exposes. It is not only sin, but the thinking behind it.
He would search Jerusalem as with candles, and make manifest the folly of those who denied His intervention either for good or for evil.
The ESV calls these men complacent. Older translations say they are "settled on their lees" — a picture from winemaking. It names a condition, not an act.
"Wines on the lees" are wines left undisturbed on their sediment to mature. Isaiah 25:6. The expression "settled on the lees" is used figuratively of Moab, which had not been disturbed as other nations. Jeremiah 48:11. It is also used of those in Jerusalem who stayed indifferent and undisturbed among evils that God had threatened to punish. Zephaniah 1:12. A very telling picture of this poor, apathetic world, and of the self-satisfied and unconcerned spirit of the professing Christian world.
The sin named here is not scandal but stagnation — a life nothing has ever stirred, thickening on its own sediment.
Notice what these people say — not that God does not exist, but that He does nothing. The blow lands where their confidence lay.
They will be struck at the very point of their unbelief… They denied the day of the LORD completely. They said the LORD would do neither good nor harm. He was a God who took His ease, as they did.
Men at ease invented a God at ease. Kelly calls this "Sadduceanism before the Sadducees" — the same unbelief a much later Jewish party would carry under that name.
A lamp is for close work. This search covers a whole region, and still weighs each case on its own.
In this day everything is judged. There is Judah, and there is Jerusalem, and the peoples around them; north, south, east and west, all come in for this common and complete exposure, and that in all its fine distinctions. The candle of the Lord searches out those who are settled on their lees, and who despise the fear of judgment. Nothing escapes. All is naked and open to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. And the Judge of all the world does right. Those who have deserved many lashes get them, while others are beaten with as few. God shows no partiality. He repays every person according to his deeds.
Mackintosh turns the same picture on believers. God does not leave His own to settle; He keeps moving them on.
The man of faith cannot be left to settle on his lees. He must be poured from one vessel to another. The child of God must move from class to class in the school of Christ. When he has mastered the difficulties of one class, by grace, he is called to wrestle with those of the next.
- Creed — The complacent do not deny God; they deny that He acts. Kelly's phrase for it is a God "who took His ease as they did" — deity remade in the image of their own comfort.
- Condition — "Settled on the lees" is wine left resting on its sediment. The sin is not scandal but stagnation, the mark of an apathetic world and an unconcerned religion.
- Candle — God's answer to hidden complacency is light. The search reaches every class and condition. A quiet life hides no one.
- Correspondence — The blow falls where the unbelief lay. It also falls by measure: many lashes for some, few for others, each repaid according to his deeds.
- Cure — God will not let His own settle. He pours them from vessel to vessel and moves them class by class through the school of Christ.
And their wealth shall become a booty, and their houses a desolation; and they shall build houses, and not inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and not drink the wine thereof.
This verse answers verse 12, where the Lord searches Jerusalem with lamps and finds men settled in comfort, sure that He will do neither good nor harm. The blow falls on what they own, and the question is why God aims there.
The men in view were not the openly violent. They were the comfortable, who assumed God would never act at all.
"At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps." Not only those who were openly violent — no one was to escape, no class or condition. They "say in their heart, the LORD will not do good, nor will He do ill." … Therefore "their goods shall be plundered, and their houses laid waste"; that is, they shall be struck at the very point of their unbelief. … They said the LORD would do neither good nor harm: He was a God who took His ease as they did.
This plundering belongs to a day. When that day comes, a cry goes up from the city gates, and it exposes the thinking that made these men feel safe.
The day of the LORD would bring a cry from the gates of Jerusalem. He would search Jerusalem as with lamps, and make plain the folly of those who denied that He would step in either for good or for evil.
The blow came through an invading army, and nothing escaped its search. Each case was measured, and no one suffered more than was due.
In this day of the Babylonian invasion, which we are looking at here with Zephaniah, everything is judged. The lamp of the Lord searches out those who are complacent, and who despise the fear of judgment. Nothing escapes. All is naked and open to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. And the Judge of all the world does right; those who have deserved many stripes get them, while others are beaten with few; for God shows no favouritism. He renders to every man according to his deeds.
This loss was the standing cost of disobedience for an Israelite: you lose the good of your own work. It reached further than houses and vineyards.
When disobedient to God, an Israelite might build a house and never live in it, or he might plant a vineyard and never enjoy its fruits. Their livestock might be slaughtered before their eyes, but not for their benefit, or livestock might be taken by force and never returned.
Losing goods is only part of it. The people caught in that day look for a way out and find none.
When that day comes the wicked will perish; distress will be upon all. They will walk like blind men, that is, trying to find a way to escape, but not able to find one. Nothing will be able to deliver from the fury of that day, neither silver nor gold will be of any use.
The loss is not the last word. The same picture returns in a coming day — vineyards planted, and this time His people drink the wine.
"Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD … I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel, and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine. … I will plant them on their land, and they shall never again be uprooted out of the land that I have given them, says the LORD your God." Very wonderful will be the change over the face of creation, and all a testimony to Christ.
- Settled. The people judged here were not rebels. They were the comfortable, sure God would do neither good nor harm. He struck them at the very point of their unbelief.
- Searched. The lamp that searches Jerusalem exposes the folly of denying that God ever steps in. No class or condition escapes it.
- Seized. Goods, houses and vineyards go, and silver and gold buy no escape from that day. God renders to every man according to his deeds — many stripes or few.
- Sentenced. This was always what disobedience cost an Israelite: a house you never live in, a vineyard whose fruit you never taste.
- Restored. God reverses the picture in the coming day. His people plant vineyards and drink their wine, never uprooted again — all a testimony to Christ.
The great day of Jehovah is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly. The voice of the day of Jehovah the mighty man shall cry there bitterly.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of ruin and desolation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and gross darkness,
Zephaniah piles up word after word for one single day. Three questions sit behind the pile: what makes God's anger burn like this, when does this day arrive, and can anyone survive it?
Earlier in the chapter the prophet names specific sins. Here he names the day itself. One writer follows the chapter to this point:
The day of Jehovah would send up a cry from the gates of Jerusalem. He would search Jerusalem with candles and expose the folly of those who denied that He would step in, either for good or for evil. The prophet then states the terrors of the day of Jehovah in general but very forceful terms. The fire of His jealousy would devour the whole land.
The opening words of this verse were later carried into a famous hymn about judgment. And the day itself leaves no way out:
In 1250 Thomas of Celano wrote his famous hymn about judgment. He took the words "Dies irae, dies illa" from the Latin translation of the first sentence of this verse. When that day comes the wicked will perish. Distress will be on everyone. They will walk like blind men, trying to find a way to escape but unable to find one. Nothing will be able to save them from the fury of that day. Neither silver nor gold will be of any use.
The judgment does not stop with the openly violent. It reaches people who had quietly decided that God would never act at all, and that is where the blow falls:
It was not only the openly violent. No one would escape, no class and no rank. They "say in their heart, Jehovah will not do good, nor will He do evil." It is the unbelief of the Sadducees before the Sadducees existed. "Their goods shall be plundered, and their houses laid waste. Though they build houses, they shall not inhabit them; though they plant vineyards, they shall not drink wine from them." That is, they are struck at the very point of their unbelief.
(The Sadducees were a Jewish group of a later day who held the same unbelief.)
The invader in view here is the Chaldean, the conqueror from Babylon. One writer says this real man also stood for something far larger:
But the Chaldean was not only a real person, but a representative one. In the prophets he points forward to coming and final judgments. His sword visited not only Judah and Jerusalem, but the surrounding nations. His was a day in which the God of all the earth was rising up, and the world had to keep silent. It was a miniature, or first instalment, of the judgment of all the nations. It was "the day of the Lord," in spirit or in principle.
Some readers merge this dark day with the moment Christ gathers His own to Himself. The clouds and gloom rule that out:
But that day surely comes: "a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness." It is impossible to apply this to the Lord's coming to receive His saints, caught up to meet Him. Could anyone want a clearer example of the folly of treating the day of Jehovah, with its terrors for the earth, as the same thing as Christ's coming to take His own on high? Will His presence, which gathers us to Him above, be in any way "a day of gloom and thick clouds"? The confusion is an obvious blunder.
Judgment is not the end of the story. One writer shows what it clears the way for:
Judgment never closes the scene. In the ways of God, glory touches judgment. Judgment cleans out the vessel, and then glory fills it. It removes whatever stands in the way of the presence of the Lord. Then God sets up His kingdom and displays it, as Zephaniah and all the prophets show us.
This day is not only something to believe. It is something to say out loud, and to live:
It is very important that we hold and testify to "that day" — not only the coming of the Lord but His day. Where truth is high and practice is low, no one can testify honestly to the day of Jehovah. It then does not hold the place in our daily service that it holds in the word of God.
- The day named. The prophet turns from naming sins to naming the day. God searches Jerusalem with candles, and nothing stays hidden.
- The day earned. God struck the doubters at the very point of their doubt. They said He would do neither good nor evil, and they built houses they never lived in.
- The day rehearsed. Babylon's sword was a miniature of the judgment of all nations; the real day still lies ahead.
- The day distinguished. Clouds and thick darkness cannot describe Christ gathering His own to meet Him above. The two events are not the same.
- The day answered. Judgment cleans out the vessel so that glory can fill it. Those who hold this truth honestly will match their practice to it.
a day of the trumpet and alarm, against the fenced cities and against the high battlements.
The list of names for the day of the Lord ends here with noise. A trumpet sounds, an army shouts, and the target is the strongest thing a nation owns: its walled cities and high towers. Two questions follow. Whose day is this? And why do the best defences men can build fall when it comes?
Zephaniah spoke while a godly king was cleaning up the nation, yet his message ignores the improvement.
Zephaniah prophesied in the days of Josiah, a godly king whose faith and energy had produced a marked revival in the outward state of Israel. But this book takes no notice of this revival. Instead it moves straight to a declaration of the sweeping judgment of God, who will completely consume everything from the land. The revival only looked real on the outside. At heart the nation stayed the same as before.
The phrase behind this list, "the day of the Lord," has a fixed sense in Scripture. One writer marks off what it touches.
"The day of Jehovah" in Scripture always deals with the world. It deals with living men and their works on the earth, and at last with the frame and elements of the universe itself… Nothing can be plainer. It is judicial in character, and it concerns the world where people live.
Some read this as nothing more than an ancient invasion. One writer points to something far larger.
Critics see nothing here but some invasion of the land by hostile forces. But it is the same great day, the high point of all the past ages, when Jehovah is revealed… When that day comes the mighty man will cry out in bitterness. He cannot save himself from the storm of judgment.
The blast is not only an army's signal. One writer reads the Lord's trumpet as His public case against evil.
The Lord God blowing the trumpet speaks of His declared testimony against evil which all the world will hear.
The verse aims at the fortified city and the high rampart — precisely where people feel safest. One writer states plainly what happens to such confidence.
Great fortifications, strong natural borders, and every possible build-up of military force will be worthless when the day of the Lord opens. He is wiser and stronger than men. Everything will collapse before Him.
The people of Zephaniah's day had told themselves that God would do neither good nor harm. The day announced here answers that.
"The great day of Jehovah is near, it is near, and comes hurrying on, even the voice of the day of Jehovah." They denied it completely. They said Jehovah would do neither good nor harm. He was a God who took His ease, as they did.
Kelly ties our ability to speak of that day to the way we live.
It is very important that we hold and testify to "that day"… Where there is high truth and low practice, no one can testify honestly to the day of Jehovah. It then loses the place in our daily service that it has in the Word of God.
The prophet's own name carries an answer to the alarm he announces. It points away from walls to a Person.
Zephaniah means "hidden of the Lord." In a very special way he foretells how the "hidden ones" will be brought through the storm and stress of the last days into the joy and glory of the millennial world. And it is in this connection that our thoughts are turned to Christ. Who but He could be the hiding-place of these godly Jews?… In Him they will find their refuge.
- Warning — The alarm sounds during a national reform. The change was only outward, and the nation's heart had not changed.
- Scope — The day of the Lord is not one ancient invasion. It is God's judicial dealing with the world, with living men and their works on earth.
- Target — The trumpet and war cry name fortified cities and high towers. Walls and military strength will be worthless when that day opens.
- Exposure — The people said God would do neither good nor harm. The day they denied is near and hurrying on.
- Refuge — The prophet's name means "hidden of the Lord." He points past walls to Christ, the hiding place of the "hidden ones" in that day.
And I will bring distress upon men, and they shall walk like blind men; for they have sinned against Jehovah; and their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as dung
Zephaniah has been announcing a judgment on Judah and Jerusalem that will miss no one. Here he reaches what that day feels like: people groping in helpless distress, because they have sinned against the Lord. Which day is this? Why blindness? And can anyone find shelter?
This distress belongs to a day Scripture keeps naming. One writer sums up its reach:
"The day of the LORD" in Scripture always deals with the world, with living men and their works on the earth, and finally with the frame and elements of the universe itself… Nothing can be plainer. It is clearly judicial, and it concerns the world people live in.
Another writer answers those who read the chapter as nothing more than an ancient invasion:
Critics see nothing here but an invasion of the land by hostile forces. But it is the same great day, the climax of all the ages before it, when the LORD reveals Himself… When that day comes the mighty man will cry out in bitterness, for he cannot save himself from the storm of judgment.
The blindness pictures a hunt for escape, not a failure to see the danger:
When that day comes the wicked will perish, and distress will come on everyone. They will walk like blind men — that is, trying to find a way of escape and not able to find one. Nothing will be able to rescue them from the fury of that day. Neither silver nor gold will be of any use.
Earlier in the chapter, Zephaniah shows what that sin looked like. It included a settled belief that God would never act at all:
"At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps." Not just those who were openly violent — no one would escape, no class or condition. They "say in their heart, the LORD will do neither good nor harm"… they will be struck at the very point of their unbelief.
The same thoroughness runs through the whole book, and the judgment is measured out with care:
There is Judah, and there is Jerusalem. There are the peoples around them — Edom, the Philistines, the Ammonites, the Ethiopians and the Assyrians. North, south, east and west, all come in for this same complete exposure, down to its finest distinctions… Nothing escapes. All is naked and open to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. And the Judge of all the world does right: those who have deserved many stripes get them, while others are beaten with few, for God shows no favouritism. He repays every man according to what he has done.
One writer ties honest testimony about this day to how a person lives:
Where there is high truth and low practice, no one can honestly testify to the day of the LORD… It will never do to live in it or on it, because it is not the right food for the soul. Still it is a solemn and necessary truth to hold up before our own eyes and the eyes of everyone else… For instance, we keep finding this self-deceit where a Christian lives in worldliness, which leads him to say that at least his heart is not in it.
One writer traces the same order in the gospel — judgment first, then a place to hide:
This prophecy does not refer to Christians, but to Jews. Yet we may see a close parallel between what Zephaniah unfolds and what the gospel makes known to us. We have to learn, first of all, that man in the flesh is utterly offensive to God because of his sin, and must be got rid of in judgment. The believer can see this carried out for him in the cross of Christ. Man, the world, sin, himself — all are judged and removed from the eye of God in the death of Christ… But in raising Him from among the dead God starts the history of man again… He becomes the hiding place, the shelter, of His people.
- Day. This is the day of the LORD. It deals with living men and their works on the earth — judicial, not just one ancient invasion.
- Cause. The distress is not random trouble. The reason given is sin against the Lord, including the quiet unbelief that says He will do neither good nor harm.
- Search. God searches Jerusalem with lamps. No class or condition escapes, and each one gets what he has deserved.
- Blindness. People grope like the blind because they want a way out and cannot find one. Even the strong man cries bitterly, because he cannot save himself.
- Shelter. At the cross God judged man and sin. In the risen Christ His people have a hiding place.
their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them, in the day of Jehovah's wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy for a full end, yea, a sudden [end], shall he make of all them that dwell in the land.
Zephaniah 1 ends in total loss: wealth that cannot buy safety, and a land swallowed by fire. The verse raises two hard questions. What is this "day of the wrath of the LORD"? And how far does it reach?
This last verse names the day the whole chapter has been building toward. One commentator separates it from "the day of Christ" and marks what it always means in Scripture:
It is "the day of Christ" that more directly affects a Christian. "The day of the LORD" in Scripture always deals with the world. It deals with living people and their works on the earth, and at last with the frame and elements of the universe itself... Nothing can be plainer. It is a matter of judgment, and judgment on the world where people live.
The same writer says Zephaniah's whole message turns on that day, and that people have never liked hearing it:
Is he not clearly taken up from first to last with the day of the LORD on Jerusalem?... God's judgment must clear away every offence, so that righteousness by grace may flourish. Few truths offend the proud and lawless Christian world more than the Lord's unexpected dealing with the living... If the LORD must judge His people, all the world must bow; no nation can escape.
Money is the one thing that has always worked. The verse says it stops working. A comment on this chapter puts it bluntly:
When that day comes the wicked will perish; distress will be upon all. They will walk like blind men, that is, trying to find a way to escape, but not able to find one. Nothing will be able to deliver from the fury of that day, neither silver nor gold will avail anything.
Riches are not worthless — they are worthless then. Writing on Proverbs, one commentator marks the exact boundary of what wealth can do, and names what takes its place:
Riches cannot turn away or hold back God's displeasure, however much they may shield and rescue a person in man's day. "Riches do not profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death."
The fire here is not a loss of temper. God is jealous because His love will not share:
He is a consuming fire, because He is holy. He will not put up with evil, and must burn away what is worthless in us. He is also jealous because He will not allow any rival a place in the hearts of those He loves. He must have the whole heart, because He alone is worthy of it, and He alone can fill and satisfy it forever.
Many people split the God of love from the God of wrath. One writer holds them together, and traces where God's jealousy comes from:
God's jealousy has its source in His love for His chosen people... He is jealous over His people, so that they will not serve other gods. And because He is a jealous God, a holy God who hates sin, He must punish whatever is against His character... God is the God of Love as much as He is the God of Wrath. He must be that or He would not be the God of Light and Holiness. He cannot afford to let evil go on forever.
Commentators differ over how far this fire reaches. Older translations read the verse as "the whole land," and one writer takes that to mean Judah:
The whole land should be devoured by the fire of His jealousy. We have here the whole land — Jerusalem and Judah — judged in the great day of God.
Another reads it wider, and points to the rest of the book as evidence:
The land does not mean only Israel's land; it means the earth... The great day comes upon men everywhere (1:17); it is universal (2:4-15); all the isles of the nations are mentioned (2:11).
The chapter ends with a clean sweep, and the reason lies further back — man's sin had reached beyond himself:
He had dragged in even the animals, the birds and the fish. His sin had defiled the whole creation. There was nothing left but for God's judgment to remove him from the scene that Christ is to fill. And so God will make "a full and sudden end... of all the inhabitants of the earth."
The sweep is total, yet one door stays open. Summarising the whole book, one writer traces its arc from judgment to comfort:
He lets the righteous see ("it may be you will be hidden in the day of the LORD's anger") that, since it is the day of the LORD, no one should escape... He ends with the richest comfort for the godly remnant. They are called to wait for the LORD until He carries out His sentence on the gathered kingdoms. Then He delivers His people, now poor and meek, rejoices over Zion, and rests in His love.
- Cause — rivalry. God names the fire after His jealousy, because He will not share the hearts He loves with any rival.
- Currency — worthless. Silver and gold shield a man in man's day; in God's day they buy nothing.
- Substitute — righteousness. What wealth cannot do, righteousness does: it delivers from death.
- Reach — total. Commentators differ on whether "the land" means Judah or the whole earth. Either way, no nation escapes.
- Result — a cleared scene. Sin had defiled creation itself. Judgment clears the scene for Christ to fill, and the poor and meek find comfort and shelter in that day.