Zefanya 2:10

2:10 This is how they will be repaid for their arrogance, ¹ 

for they taunted and verbally harassed ²  the people of the Lord who commands armies.

Zefanya 1:14

1:14 The Lord’s great day of judgment ³  is almost here;

it is approaching very rapidly!

There will be a bitter sound on the Lord’s day of judgment;

at that time warriors will cry out in battle. ⁴ 

Zefanya 2:8

2:8 “I have heard Moab’s taunts

and the Ammonites’ insults.

They ⁵  taunted my people

and verbally harassed those living in Judah. ⁶ 

Zefanya 2:13

2:13 The Lord ⁷  will attack the north ⁸ 

and destroy Assyria.

He will make Nineveh a heap of ruins;

it will be as barren ⁹  as the desert.

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; ¹⁰ 

he renews you by his love; ¹¹ 

he shouts for joy over you.” ¹² 

[2:10]  ¹ tn Heb “this is for them in place of their arrogance.”

[2:10]  ² tn Heb “made great [their mouth?] against” (cf. the last phrase of v. 8).

[1:14]  ³ tn Heb “The great day of the Lord.” The words “of judgment” are supplied in the translation here and later in this verse for clarity. See the note on the expression “day of judgment” in v. 7.

[1:14]  ⁴ tn Heb “the sound of the day of the Lord, bitter [is] one crying out there, a warrior.” The present translation does four things: (1) It takes מַר (mar, “bitter”) with what precedes (contrary to the accentuation of the MT). (2) It understands the participle צָרַח (tsarakh, “cry out in battle”) as verbal with “warrior” as its subject. (3) It takes שָׁם (sham, “there”) in a temporal sense, meaning “then, at that time.” (4) It understands “warrior” as collective.

[2:8]  ⁵ tn Heb “who.” A new sentence was begun here in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[2:8]  ⁶ tn Heb “and they made great [their mouth?] against their territory.” Other possible translation options include (1) “they enlarged their own territory” (cf. NEB) and (2) “they bragged about [the size] of their own territory.”

[2:13]  ⁷ tn Heb “He”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[2:13]  ⁸ tn Heb “he will stretch out his hand against the north.”

[2:13]  ⁹ tn Or “dry.”

[3:17]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “he rejoices over you with joy.”

[3:17]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² tn Heb “he rejoices over you with a shout of joy.”