Therefore wait ye for me, saith Jehovah, until the day that I rise up to the prey; for my determination is to assemble the nations, that I may gather the kingdoms together, to pour upon them mine indignation, -- all my fierce anger for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy.
The eighth verse is the hinge of Zephaniah 3. The chapter has just laid out Jerusalem's corruption in full. God does not tell the faithful to fix it. He tells them to wait, while He announces a plan to gather every nation for one final judgment.
The word "therefore" points back to the verse before. God rose early to warn. The people rose early to sin. One writer traces the link:
As Jehovah rose early to send them messages and warnings, they rose early to indulge in their wickedness. So the sentence follows.
God speaks here to the faithful few inside a guilty nation. Nothing was left for them to do but wait:
Jehovah had shown them such loving-kindness. He had been so near to them. But they would not listen. So Israel — unnamed — sinks to the level of the nations, who are the objects of God's just judgment. The remnant is called (v. 8) to wait for Jehovah alone, who is about to carry out this judgment. Nothing touched the hardened hearts of the people, so the remnant must await the moment when Jehovah rises up to the prey. Until that moment nothing could be done. Israel would not listen. Judgment did not belong to the remnant. And this judgment alone could put an end to their distress.
That waiting has stretched far beyond Zephaniah's lifetime:
They are as a nation to wait for Him, till the day comes in which He arises to execute the judgment of the nations. It has been a long waiting. Centuries have come and gone. His earthly people have wandered among the nations of the world. There they have been a byword and a curse, yet witnesses for Him too. Still they are waiting for "that day," the day which closes the times of the Gentiles.
What sounds terrifying to the nations is the very thing that rescues the faithful:
So the remnant is encouraged to wait for this time of judgment from the Lord, when He would rise up to the prey. This alone would set them free. This alone would teach the nations to call on the Lord and serve Him with one consent.
God calls the gathering of the nations His own decision. One writer reads Jerusalem's state in the prophet's day as a picture of a far later scene, and finds here a key to prophecy:
The prophet views the present state of Jerusalem as prophetic of its condition immediately before the appearing of the Lord. This is a very important declaration, as it gives the key to unlock the Old Testament prophecies. It teaches plainly that God will carry out His purposes for Israel, despite their humiliating and complete failure to meet their responsibility. It also teaches that judgment will open the period of blessing for this world under Messiah's reign. Many think blessing on the earth will simply grow and grow, until the knowledge of the Lord covers it as the waters cover the sea. This verse sets that idea completely aside.
One writer states plainly how Israel and the nations will be reached in that day:
The gospel will not reach Israel and the nations. Neither will any other testimony of God's patience and grace. "The LORD has made himself known; he has executed judgment" (Ps. 9:16). "When your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness" (Isa. 26:9).
The fire of God's jealousy is not the end of the story but the doorway into a settled era of good on this earth:
The day of judgment on the living opens the predicted era of earth's blessedness. An earlier prophet calls it "the year of the LORD's favor, and the day of vengeance of our God." How strange that good men overlook what God's word makes so plain! Only the blinding power of tradition explains it. Scripture reveals an age to come. It is distinct from the present age, and it comes before the judgment of the great white throne (Rev. 20). In that age God's mercy will bless the nations far and wide.
- Therefore — God rose early to warn; the people rose early to sin. So the call comes: wait.
- Wait — judgment was never the task of the faithful few. Only God's own action could end their distress.
- Long — the waiting has run through centuries of scattering, still fixed on "that day" that closes the times of the Gentiles.
- Gathered — God Himself will assemble the nations. Messiah's reign of blessing comes through judgment, not through slow improvement.
- Then — the fire of His jealousy clears the ground for an age in which mercy reaches the nations far and wide.
For then will I turn to the peoples a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of Jehovah, to serve him with one consent.
Zephaniah 3:8 ends with the whole earth burned up by the fire of God's jealousy. Verse 9 opens with "For at that time" and turns from wrath to blessing: God gives the peoples a pure speech, and nations that once served idols call on His name together.
The writers quoted below use an older translation. It reads "a pure language" and "to serve him with one consent."
This blessing is not the present age slowly improving. One writer points to the word that fixes the order:
Note this scripture well. It says, "THEN will I turn to the people a pure language." When? When will this general turning or conversion happen? Clearly when this great gathering and judgment of the nations has taken place. THEN the millennium will begin, and not until then.
One writer points to the Hebrew word behind "peoples":
I will only point out that "people" in the original is plural: Ammim, not Goyim, which means Gentiles. I think it is the word used in the original for all nations that are not seen as shut out from the covenant.
Some read the verse as a picture of the gospel spreading through the world. One writer disagrees:
This does not mean the people of Israel. It means the peoples among the nations who are in relationship with Jehovah. But it does not follow that the spread of Christianity, and any check it has given to idolatry around the world, is what is predicted here. Scripture reveals an age to come. It is distinct from the present age, and it comes before the judgment of the great white throne (Revelation 20). In that age God's mercy will bless the nations far and wide. This, and not Christianity properly so called, is what the verse sets out.
One writer clears away two wrong readings before giving the plain sense:
Some have used this verse to support an imagined restoration of the gift of tongues. Luther paraphrased it this way: "Then I will cause the nations to be preached to in another way, with friendly lips, so that they may call on the name of the Lord." But the text does not support that reading. It means that the nations which escaped the judgment-wrath of the day of the Lord will be converted. Because they are converted, they will call upon the Lord with pure lips. All idolatry will cease, and all will serve the Lord as one man.
One writer sees the scattering of languages at Babel undone here:
We are told that the nations of that kingdom — "the world to come" — will worship the Lord the God of Israel with one life or language. The confusion of Babel will be at an end. Pentecost gave a sample of it.
One writer applies the verse to Christians today, and asks what could produce such unity:
A moment is coming when God's power will so take hold in the world that, under the mastery of that power, His earthly people will serve Him with one consent — or "one shoulder," as the margin reads. Can you tell me anything or anybody that could weld together every brother and sister in this room so that we all should serve with one consent? We have different measures, different appreciations and perhaps different desires. The only thing that can make this company, or any other company, serve with one shoulder is the power of God. And in this present age the power of God is in the Holy Spirit. As room is made for the power of the Holy Spirit, He binds the saints together in service with one consent — and in no other way.
Commentators differ. One writer links the "pure language" to the revival of Hebrew among returning Jews:
The Jews returned in such large numbers, from all parts of the world, speaking some seventy languages. So Israel had to have one official language shared by all. The revival of the pure Hebrew language was the best and happiest solution to the difficulty… Is this not a deeply interesting fulfilment of a prophecy?
Other writers read "the peoples" as the Gentile nations, not Israel. They place the fulfilment after the day of the Lord.
- Then — the promise has a date. Blessing follows the fire of God's jealousy, not the slow improvement of the present world.
- Peoples — the Hebrew word is plural. The promise reaches the nations, not Israel alone: all who are not shut out from the covenant.
- Pure — the change is a converted lip. Idolatry ends and the nations call on the name of the Lord.
- One — God reverses Babel. What judgment scattered, His power welds into one shoulder, one service.
- Differ — some writers see Hebrew's revival as a first instalment. Others hold that the whole promise waits for the age to come.