Zefanya 1:3

1:3 “I will destroy people and animals;

I will destroy the birds in the sky

and the fish in the sea.

(The idolatrous images of these creatures will be destroyed along with evil people.) ¹ 

I will remove ²  humanity from the face of the earth,” says the Lord.

Zefanya 1:12

1:12 At that time I will search through Jerusalem with lamps.

I will punish the people who are entrenched in their sin, ³ 

those who think to themselves, ⁴ 

‘The Lord neither rewards nor punishes.’ ⁵ 

Zefanya 2:7

2:7 Those who are left from the kingdom of Judah ⁶  will take possession of it. ⁷ 

By the sea ⁸  they ⁹  will graze,

in the houses of Ashkelon they will lie down in the evening,

for the Lord their God will intervene for them ¹⁰  and restore their prosperity. ¹¹ 

[1:3]  ¹ tn Heb “And the stumbling blocks [or, “ruins”] with the evil”; or “the things that make the evil stumble.” The line does not appear in the original form of the LXX; it may be a later scribal addition. The present translation assumes the “stumbling blocks” are idolatrous images of animals, birds, and fish. See J. J. M. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah (OTL), 167, and Adele Berlin, Zephaniah (AB), 73-74.

[1:3]  ² tn Heb “cut off.”

[1:12]  ³ tn Heb “who thicken on their sediment.” The imagery comes from wine making, where the wine, if allowed to remain on the sediment too long, will thicken into syrup. The image suggests that the people described here were complacent in their sinful behavior and interpreted the delay in judgment as divine apathy.

[1:12]  ⁴ tn Heb “who say in their hearts.”

[1:12]  ⁵ tn Heb “The Lord does not do good nor does he do evil.”

[2:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “the remnant of the house of Judah.”

[2:7]  ⁷ tn Or “the coast will belong to the remnant of the house of Judah.”

[2:7]  ⁸ tc Heb “on them,” but the antecedent of the masculine pronoun is unclear. It may refer back to the “pasture lands,” though that noun is feminine. It is preferable to emend the text from עֲלֵיהֶם (’alehem) to עַל־הַיָּם (’al-hayyam, “by the sea”) an emendation that assumes a misdivision and transposition of letters in the MT (cf. NEB “They shall pasture their flocks by the sea”). See J. J. M. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah (OTL), 192.

[2:7]  ⁹ tn The referent of the pronominal subject (“they”) is unclear. It may refer (1) to the shepherds (in which case the first verb should be translated, “pasture their sheep,” cf. NEB), or (2) to the Judahites occupying the area, who are being compared to sheep (cf. NIV, “there they will find pasture”).

[2:7]  ¹⁰ tn Or “will care for them.”

[2:7]  ¹¹ tn Traditionally, “restore their captivity,” i.e., bring back their captives, but it is more likely the expression means “restore their fortunes” in a more general sense (cf. NEB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).