But I will leave in your midst a people humble and lowly. They shall seek refuge in the name of the LORD,
Zephaniah has just described a city stripped of everyone who boasted. The verse turns from what God takes away to what He leaves behind. Why does God answer national pride with a small, hurting people? And why is their only strength a name they lean on? Older translations read "an afflicted and poor people… they shall trust in the name of the LORD," and the writers below quote it that way.
What God leaves behind
God does not simply empty the city. He also chooses who stays, and He chooses by a rule that turns human judgment upside down.
The Christian's FriendNow notice this: what is least and most despised among men is where God finds His pleasure. God will leave a "poor and afflicted people" in the middle of Jerusalem. They are poor in spirit and humbled before God because of the many sorrows they have passed through. And it is these who will trust in the name of Jehovah, as their Rock of Ages.
Poverty first, then the throne
This lowliness is not the end of their story. One writer links it to the rule these people will one day hold, and warns against reading the verse as a picture of today.
William Kelly"I will also leave in the midst of you an afflicted and poor people." They need moral integrity as well as true lowliness before God can entrust them with the throne. They are destined to have the first dominion. Before that they will know a humbling, not by circumstances only but by grace in spirit. This will fit them for their future greatness.
The same writer is firm about the timing. This change is the fruit of grace, he says, but it does not picture the gospel age we live in now. It belongs to the new age still to come.
Trust that replaces deceit
Their trust stands against the habits these people had become known for. One writer roots those habits in centuries of being hunted, and points to the change that ends them.
William KellyAnd the afflicted and poor people "shall trust in the name of Jehovah. The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity, nor speak lies." These are the very faults they became so notorious for during their sorrowful and often persecuted stay among the nations… Where people do not know grace in Christ, persecution breeds such deceit in speech, and wrongdoing in many other ways. But the change is at hand, and it is announced here… Every old outward cause for fear will go. And even before that, the grace of God will have produced a moral change within them.
The people Jesus called blessed
Jesus opens the Sermon on the Mount with the same description. One writer reads those opening blessings as a picture of this future company.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinWe must not forget that there is also a direct application to the believing remnant of Israel. They will be waiting in the middle of great tribulations, persecutions and sufferings for the kingdom to come. When the kingdom at last comes, at the return of the King, the Son of Man, they will enter in. Let us look at the first four beatitudes from this standpoint. This people will be poor in spirit.
A character worth borrowing
Two writers apply the verse beyond its own setting. One finds the same two types — the proud and the afflicted — in Laodicea, a church addressed in Revelation.
F. B. HoleThere was a minority who were like that "afflicted and poor people" of whom we read in Zephaniah 3:12. These are in contrast with "those who rejoice in your pride" and are "haughty," spoken of in the previous verse. The majority at Laodicea were of this haughty type. Yet the Lord's rebukes and chastenings did not fall on them, as they did on the minority.
Another turns it into a rule for how believers should carry themselves while they wait.
J. N. DarbyFor us it is what God says to Israel — "I will leave in the midst of you an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of the Lord." It is true that we have joys and a source of service they cannot have then. But as a remnant in the middle of a ruined age, which is one side of our position, this is the spirit in which we have to walk.
Summary
- Pride removed. God takes away those who rejoice in their pride. Whoever is left in the city is there by His choice, not by chance.
- Poverty given. The affliction is not an accident. It is a humbling by grace in spirit, and it is where God finds His pleasure.
- Trust placed. They lean on the name of the Lord as their Rock of Ages. It is the one strength the proud never thought they needed.
- Truth produced. Centuries of persecution bred lying and deceit. Grace ends them by changing the heart, not just the circumstances.
- Throne inherited. These same poor people receive the first dominion. Commentators differ on how far the verse applies today. All agree God still honours this character.