Zefanya 1:8

1:8 “On the day of the Lord’s sacrificial meal,

I will punish the princes ¹  and the king’s sons,

and all who wear foreign styles of clothing. ² 

Zefanya 1:10

1:10 On that day,” says the Lord,

“a loud cry will go up ³  from the Fish Gate, ⁴ 

wailing from the city’s newer district, ⁵ 

and a loud crash ⁶  from the hills.

Zefanya 2:5

2:5 Those who live by the sea, the people who came from Crete, ⁷  are as good as dead. ⁸ 

The Lord has decreed your downfall, ⁹  Canaan, land of the Philistines:

“I will destroy everyone who lives there!” ¹⁰ 

Zefanya 2:7

2:7 Those who are left from the kingdom of Judah ¹¹  will take possession of it. ¹² 

By the sea ¹³  they ¹⁴  will graze,

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

for the Lord their God will intervene for them ¹⁵  and restore their prosperity. ¹⁶ 

Zefanya 2:11

2:11 The Lord will terrify them, ¹⁷ 

for ¹⁸  he will weaken ¹⁹  all the gods of the earth.

All the distant nations will worship the Lord in their own lands. ²⁰ 

Zefanya 3:2

3:2 She is disobedient; ²¹ 

she refuses correction. ²² 

She does not trust the Lord;

she does not seek the advice of ²³  her God.

Zefanya 3:5

3:5 The just Lord resides ²⁴  within her;

he commits no unjust acts. ²⁵ 

Every morning he reveals ²⁶  his justice.

At dawn he appears without fail. ²⁷ 

Yet the unjust know no shame.

Zefanya 3:9

3:9 Know for sure that I will then enable

the nations to give me acceptable praise. ²⁸ 

All of them will invoke the Lord’s name when they pray, ²⁹ 

and will worship him in unison. ³⁰ 

Zefanya 3:17

3:17 The Lord your God is in your midst;

he is a warrior who can deliver.

He takes great delight in you; ³¹ 

he renews you by his love; ³² 

he shouts for joy over you.” ³³ 

[1:8]  ¹ tn Or “officials” (NRSV, TEV); NLT “leaders.”

[1:8]  ² sn The very dress of the royal court, foreign styles of clothing, revealed the degree to which Judah had assimilated foreign customs.

[1:10]  ³ tn The words “will go up” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[1:10]  ⁴ sn The Fish Gate was located on Jerusalem’s north side (cf. 2 Chr 33:14; Neh 3:3; 12:39).

[1:10]  ⁵ tn Heb “from the second area.” This may refer to an area northwest of the temple where the rich lived (see Adele Berlin, Zephaniah [AB 25A], 86; cf. NASB, NRSV “the Second Quarter”; NIV “the New Quarter”).

[1:10]  ⁶ tn Heb “great breaking.”

[2:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “Kerethites,” a people settled alongside the Philistines in the coastal areas of southern Palestine (cf. 1 Sam 30:14; Ezek 25:16). They originally came from the island of Crete.

[2:5]  ⁸ tn Heb “Woe, inhabitants of the coast of the sea, nation of Kerethites.” The Hebrew term הוֹי (hoy, “ah, woe”), is used to mourn the dead and express outwardly one’s sorrow (see 1 Kgs 13:30; Jer 22:18; 34:5). By using it here the prophet mourns in advance the downfall of the Philistines, thereby emphasizing the certainty of their demise (“as good as dead”). Some argue the word does not have its earlier connotation here and is simply an attention-getting interjection, equivalent to “Hey!”

[2:5]  ⁹ tn Heb “the word of the Lord is against you.”

[2:5]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “I will destroy you so there is no inhabitant [remaining].”

[2:7]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the remnant of the house of Judah.”

[2:7]  ¹² tn Or “the coast will belong to the remnant of the house of Judah.”

[2:7]  ¹³ 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]  ¹⁴ 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]  ¹⁵ tn Or “will care for them.”

[2:7]  ¹⁶ 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).

[2:11]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “will be awesome over [or, “against”] them.”

[2:11]  ¹⁸ tn Or “certainly.”

[2:11]  ¹⁹ tn The meaning of this rare Hebrew word is unclear. If the meaning is indeed “weaken,” then this line may be referring to the reduction of these gods’ territory through conquest (see Adele Berlin, Zephaniah [AB 25A], 110-11). Cf. NEB “reduce to beggary”; NASB “starve”; NIV “when he destroys”; NRSV “shrivel.”

[2:11]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and all the coastlands of the nations will worship [or, “bow down”] to him, each from his own place.”

[3:2]  ²¹ tn Heb “she does not hear a voice” Refusing to listen is equated with disobedience.

[3:2]  ²² tn Heb “she does not receive correction.” The Hebrew phrase, when negated, refers elsewhere to rejecting verbal advice (Jer 17:23; 32:33; 35:13) and refusing to learn from experience (Jer 2:30; 5:3).

[3:2]  ²³ tn Heb “draw near to.” The present translation assumes that the expression “draw near to” refers to seeking God’s will (see 1 Sam 14:36).

[3:5]  ²⁴ tn The word “resides” is supplied for clarification.

[3:5]  ²⁵ tn Or “he does no injustice.”

[3:5]  ²⁶ tn Heb “gives”; or “dispenses.”

[3:5]  ²⁷ tn Heb “at the light he is not missing.” Note that NASB (which capitalizes pronouns referring to Deity) has divided the lines differently: “Every morning He brings His justice to light; // He does not fail.”

[3:9]  ²⁸ tn Heb “Certainly [or perhaps, “For”] then I will restore to the nations a pure lip.”

[3:9]  sn I will then enable the nations to give me acceptable praise. This apparently refers to a time when the nations will reject their false idol-gods and offer genuine praise to the one true God.

[3:9]  ²⁹ tn Heb “so that all of them will call on the name of the Lord.”

[3:9]  ³⁰ tn Heb “so that [they] will serve him [with] one shoulder.”

[3:17]  ³¹ tn Heb “he rejoices over you with joy.”

[3:17]  ³² tc The MT reads, “he is silent in his love,” but this makes no sense in light of the immediately preceding and following lines. Some take the Hiphil verb form as causative (see Job 11:3) rather than intransitive and translate, “he causes [you] to be silent by his love,” that is, “he soothes [you] by his love.” The present translation follows the LXX and assumes an original reading יְחַדֵּשׁ (yÿkhaddesh, “he renews”) with ellipsis of the object (“you”).

[3:17]  ³³ tn Heb “he rejoices over you with a shout of joy.”