Zephaniah 1:1

Zephaniah (whom the Lord protects). The prophet's family line is given with care for four generations. So is the time of his prophecy: the reign of the godly Josiah, the last faithful king of Judah (Zeph. 1:1). Both Zephaniah and Habakkuk lived at the same time as Jeremiah. The time and place of these predictions are therefore easy to establish. Zephaniah spoke his "Thus says the LORD" in the land of Judea, about 630 B.C. or a few years later. That was the usual formula of the prophets.

It was of no small importance that prophets should be raised up during the time of Josiah and afterwards... Their prophecies mattered morally for this reason. The reformation under that godly prince was only partial, and no one, in Josiah's time or later, should be deceived about the facts. A wave of blessing can pass over a nation as far gone from righteousness as the Jews of that day. Nothing is more likely to deceive and disappoint. Josiah's godliness was outstanding. He showed remarkable zeal in dealing sternly with whatever dishonoured the name of Jehovah, and above all his heart bowed to the word of God. None of it set the nation right... The blessing that is given calls for deep thankfulness and praise to His mercy. Yet it really leaves the moral state of those who reject it worse than before. In the end it speeds up the downward course of the mass of the people, and so brings in a time of deeper ruin.

Zephaniah ("Treasured of Jehovah") prophesied in the days of Josiah. Josiah was a godly king, and his faith and energy had produced a marked revival in the outward state of Israel. But this book takes no notice of that revival. It moves straight to a declaration of God's sweeping judgment: He will consume everything from the land. The apparent revival was outward only. At heart the nation stayed the same as before, and that showed as soon as Josiah died.

The prophecy gives God's judgement on the witness being given at that time. It was a time of outward reformation under a godly king who trembled at God's law. The Spirit of God could read the hearts of the people. He could see the moral corruption bound up with their outward worship of God... The prophet proclaims the judgements that must fall on the land, and on Judah and Jerusalem, though with grace to the faithful remnant at the end. Within four years of the end of Josiah's reign, Nebuchadnezzar took Jerusalem, carried away the holy vessels, and the captivity of Judah began.

Zephaniah is the only prophet to mention four generations of his ancestors. Many scholars think that his forefather Hezekiah is the same person as King Hezekiah of Judah (716–687 BC). By his own statement in chapter 1:1, Zephaniah ministered in the days of Josiah, king of Judah (640–609 BC). The span of time seems short for four generations. On the other hand, his special royal descent could be the reason for this genealogy.

Zephaniah means "hidden by the LORD" or "whom the LORD hides"; his name comes into play as a comfort that the godly will be hidden in the day of the Lord.