I. MEANING OF HIS NAME. Zephaniah, "One whom Jehovah hides." Hiding in the day of calamity a blessing promised to them that fear Go(Psalm 31:19, 20), who are therefore styled God's hidden ones (Psalm 83:4), and may confidently reckon upon God's extending to them his protecting care in the midst of peril (Psalm 27:5), yea, may even boldly flee unto him to hide them (Psalm 143:9).

II. THE DIGNITY OF HIS PERSON. The scion of a kingly house, "the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hezekiah." Mentioned here, not because they had been prophets, but probably because they had been celebrated persons, perhaps good men, these ancestors of Zephaniah - three of them, like himself, with Jehovah in his name - may have been introduced to show that the prophet, while descended from the good King Hezekiah, belonged to a different branch of the family from Manasseh and Amon; proceeded from the line in which Hezekiah's goodness was transmitted, and thus had more than royal blood in his veins (not always an advantage) - hereditary piety in his soul.

III. THE TIME OF HIS APPEARING.

1. The age fixed.

(1) "The days of Josiah, the son of Amen, King of Judah;" i.e. not before B.C. 640, when Josiah began to reign.

(2) Before the fall of Nineveh (Zephaniah 2:13), which took place in B.C. 625.

(3) Probably after Josiah's reformation had begun and before it was completed, since the prophet speaks of a "remnant of Baal" as existing at the time when he began to prophesy.

(4) Hence the date of Zephaniah may be placed between Josiah's twelfth and eighteenth years, or between B.C. 628-622 (Hitzig, Keil, and Delitzsch), though by some interpreters (Ewald, Havernick, Pusey) it has been fixed earlier - to wit, prior to Josiah's twelfth year.

2. Its character declared.

(1) Generally, as regards the whole land of Judah, an age of widely spread, deeply seated, and well nigh incurable wickedness, of deplorable religious apostasy, of intensely debasing idolatry, of shameless hypocrisy, and of gross worldliness and indifference to Divine things (ver. 4).

(2) Particularly, as regards Jerusalem, an age of rebellion, disobedience, irreligion, prayerlessness, unbelief, violence, treachery, desecration of Jehovah's sanctuary, insensibility to correction, and deep-seated immorality (Zephaniah 3:1-4), with all of which the metropolis and its inhabitants were chargeable (cf. Jeremiah 5.; 6.).

IV. THE SOURCE OF HIS INSPIRATION. "The word of Jehovah." Whether this came to him by direct revelation through voice (Jeremiah 1:4) or vision (Isaiah 1:1; Isaiah 2:1), or indirectly by meditation on the moral and political condition of his countrymen as well as on the character of Jehovah and the laws of righteousness by which he governs the universe, is not said and need not be inquired into. It suffices to know that the prophet claimed for his message that it had been expressly given him - put into his heart and mouth - by Jehovah; while his predictions certainly were such as could not have been announced without the aid of Divine inspiration.

V. THE BURDEN OF HIS PROPHECY. Judgment.

1. Divine. The instrument is not mentioned; the first cause alone is placed in the foreground - "I will utterly consume;" "I will cut off;" "I will stretch out mine hand." The present day tendency is to set God in the background, if not to deny his agency altogether, alike in the production of material phenomena and in the superintendence of the social, moral, and political worlds, and to concentrate attention principally, if not exclusively, upon what are merely God's instruments. The prophet's way of looking at men and things accorded more with sound philosophy and true science, not to say sincere religion, than the practice prevailing in many so called enlightened circles today.

2. Universal. The judgment should embrace the wide earth. "All" - "man and beast, the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the sea, the stumbling blocks and the wicked" - should be arraigned at Jehovah's bar. If the language pointed not to a general judgment of men and nations at the end of the world, it at least emphasized the thought that no part of the world, no age or nation, could escape the ordeal of appearing before Heaven's tribunal or elude the grasp of Divine retribution. The terms in which Jehovah declares his purpose to visit the wicked with destruction are such as to show that the complete fulfilment of the prophecy can only be reached in the great and terrible day of the Lord at the close of time (cf. Isaiah 24:1-23).

3. Particular. While enclosing the whole world in its sweep, the threatened judgment should fall with a special stroke upon Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem - as it were beginning with the house of God (1 Peter 4:17). That the instruments of judgment would be the Scythians of whom Herodotus (1:15, 103, 106; 4:10, 12) speaks as having invaded Upper and Higher Asia (Hitzig, Ewald, Bertheau), is not supported by sufficient evidence, whilst the fact that neither Herodotus nor the Old Testament reports any conquest of Jerusalem by them seems decisive against their being considered the executors of Jehovah's wrath. The agents actually employed were the Chaldeans (2 Kings 25:9), though it was not Zephaniah's purpose to indicate by whom the judgments should be carried out.

4. Complete. Thorough going; upon both the world in general and Judah in particular. "I will utterly consume all from off the face of the ground, saith Jehovah."

(1) As regards the world, the destruction should be as wide sweeping as had been that of the Deluge (Genesis 7:21).

(2) As regards Judah and Jerusalem, the purgation as effective. "The remnant of Baal should be cut off," i.e. root and branch, extirpated, or the work of extirpation, if already begun, should be carried forward till not a vestige of the hated idol worship should be seen.

(a) First, the idolatrous priests of both kinds should be swept away - the Chemarim, or "the priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah and in the places round about Jerusalem" (2 Kings 23:5; Hosea 10:5); and the priests, not "the idolatrous priests in the stricter sense" (Keil), but the unworthy priests of Jehovah who had either secretly or openly favoured the prevailing Baal worship (Fausset, Farrar).

(b) Next, the idol worshippers of both kinds should be cut off - the thorough paced devotees of the heathen cultus, who worshipped the host of heaven upon the house tops, and the temporizers who tried to combine the worship of Jehovah with that of Baal, offering oaths of allegiance partly to Jehovah and partly to their king, i.e. Baal.

(c) And finally, apostates and open despisers of the Jehovah religion should be punished - those who had turned back from serving Jehovah, and those who had never served him at all (ver. 6). Learn:

1. The value of an honoured and pious ancestry.

2. The light the Word of God (contained in Scripture) can cast upon the

future.

3. The certainty of a day of judgment fur men and nations.

4. The impossibility of eluding the just judgment of God.

5. The inevitable ruin of them who will not serve God.

6. The impossibility of trying to serve God and idols.

7. The danger of neglecting religion hardly less than that of apostatizing from it. - T.W.

In this text it is a sort of mixed religion that the Lord declares He will not tolerate. Impress t he necessity of decision in religion. What is the lowest amount of faith in Jesus Christ which will avail to save a man's soul?

1. What definition the Scripture gives us of true Christianity. Mark the distinction between coming to Christ and following Christ. Coming to Christ costs a man nothing; but following Christ and remaining with Christ involve the taking up the cross and the exercise of stern self-denial. True Christianity demands an entire surrender of the heart to God, a thorough abandonment of wilful sin, an unceasing vigilance against the wiles of the devil.

2. If a man has cordially embraced, with a living faith, the truth as it is in Jesus, will he — can he — be undemonstrative? By demonstrativeness is not meant talkativeness, nor can it be explained by formalism. When forms are allowed to usurp the place of the heart, they demonstrate too much. Nor is it being charitable, or regularly attending worship. By demonstrativeness is meant a quiet earnestness, which will show itself as much by what it does not as by what it does. A man cannot, in a proper sense, be undemonstrative if he has embraced, with a living faith, the "truth as it is in Jesus."

3. To what is the undemonstrativeness of the mere professor of religion traceable? Is it not that he makes God the offering of half his heart, while he gives the other half to the world?

4. Are we to call the undemonstrative true Christians, and the demonstrative advanced Christians? Let God answer. See the text. He who readeth the heart will not be mocked and trifled with. God will cut off the undecided. In the last great assize those who in their lives have halted between two opinions shall find no mercy.

(W. I. Chapman, M. A.)

A little while ago I was with some friends, going through Her Majesty's State apartments in Windsor Castle. At the end of the great banquet-hall we were shown, in a gallery above our heads, a fine organ. Now this organ, I found, was just like one of the double-hearted people; for the old man who was taking us round explained carefully that it performed double duty, having two finger-boards. At the sides from which we saw it it was played on the occasion of a royal banquet, to the delight and pleasure of those who feasted below. But on the side which we could not see it had another finger-board, and performed a wholly different service, for it was in the royal chapel, and pealed forth strains of sacred music to help the worship of those who gathered there. Well, I despised that organ for its double-dealing, though, of course, you know the organ could not help itself. It was only what it had been made, but it seemed to me like "a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways." God keep us from having two finger-beards. Do you understand what I mean. Do you see that we, who are blood-bought and made nigh to God, have the blessed privilege of being brought as worshippers into the holiest? That there we may be as beautiful instruments, in full tune for the Master's hand, that, when He strikes the chords, there may rise rich swelling notes of worship and praise to His ear and heart. Having, then, a finger-board in the holiest, in the place of worship, let us be very jealous that there be none to which the revellers of this world can have access, that no note of sympathy may be ever struck from our hearts by the world, that has rejected Christ, the David whom we own as Lord.

(A. J. Gordon, D. D.)

There should be continuity in our religious life. Some people are pious by fits and starts. They are with God in the sanctuary, but not in the shop; they drink the cup of the Lord on Sunday, and the cup of the devil on Monday. At the mouths of certain large rivers are formed what geologists call lagoons. A lagoon is a small lake separated from the sea by a bar of sand, and is filled with fresh and salt water by turns. Often a lagoon communicates exclusively with the river for months, and during this period its water is fresh. Then a breach is made in the bar of sand and there is an eruption of salt water, which for a season holds undisputed sway. In these lagoons we may find an illustration of not a few people connected with all our churches. For a time they are seemingly in communication with God and spiritual things, and these are the forces that shape and mould and colour their life. But suddenly that communication seems to break off, to be interrupted; the world rushes in through some breach of their own making, and for a season, at least, the things that are seen and temporal gain complete mastery over them. The change in their life and conduct is no less marked than the change in the waters of the lagoon. This type of Christian, this religious Reuben, will never attain to spiritual strength and ripeness, the stature of the perfect man Christ Jesus. The true follower of the Son of Man finds his illustration not in the lagoon, but in the glory of the Shechinah which shone continuously and with unabated splendour in the temple.

(W. B. Sproule.)

Amariah, Amon, Amoz, Cushi, Gedaliah, Hezekiah, Hizkiah, Josiah, Malcham, Milcom, Molech, ZephaniahFish Gate, Jerusalem, Mortar, Second QuarterFALSE, Baal, Ba'al, Chemarim, Chemarims, Cut, Cutting, Forth, Idolatrous, Inhabitants, Inhabiting, Jerusalem, Judah, Names, Pagan, Priests, Remnant, Stretch, Stretched1. The time when Zephaniah prophesied.
2. God's severe judgments against Judah.

Zephaniah 1:4

     1265   hand of God
     7245   Judah, kingdom of
     7767   priests, OT institution
     8771   idolatry, objections

Zephaniah 1:4-5

     4170   host of heaven
     4281   stars
     8747   false gods
     8748   false religion
     8831   syncretism

Zephaniah 1:4-6

     6209   pagans
     8160   seeking God
     8616   prayerlessness
     8620   prayer, practicalities
     8648   enquiring of God

Against Vain and Worldly Knowledge
"My Son, let not the fair and subtle sayings of men move thee. For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power.(1) Give ear to My words, for they kindle the heart and enlighten the mind, they bring contrition, and they supply manifold consolations. Never read thou the word that thou mayest appear more learned or wise; but study for the mortification of thy sins, for this will be far more profitable for thee than the knowledge of many difficult questions. 2. "When thou hast read and learned many …
Thomas A Kempis—Imitation of Christ

The Girdle of the City. Nehemiah 3
The beginning of the circumference was from 'the sheep-gate.' That, we suppose, was seated on the south part, yet but little removed from that corner, which looks south-east. Within was the pool of Bethesda, famous for healings. Going forward, on the south part, was the tower Meah: and beyond that, "the tower of Hananeel": in the Chaldee paraphrast it is, 'The tower Piccus,' Zechariah 14:10; Piccus, Jeremiah 31:38.--I should suspect that to be, the Hippic tower, were not that placed on the north …
John Lightfoot—From the Talmud and Hebraica

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