Zefanya 2:4

Judgment on Surrounding Nations

2:4 Indeed, ¹  Gaza will be deserted ² 

and Ashkelon will become a heap of ruins. ³ 

Invaders will drive away the people of Ashdod by noon, ⁴ 

and Ekron will be overthrown. ⁵ 

Zefanya 2:15

2:15 This is how the once-proud city will end up ⁶  –

the city that was so secure. ⁷ 

She thought to herself, ⁸  “I am unique! No one can compare to me!” ⁹ 

What a heap of ruins she has become, a place where wild animals live!

Everyone who passes by her taunts her ¹⁰  and shakes his fist. ¹¹ 

Zefanya 3:6

The Lord’s Judgment will Purify

3:6 “I destroyed ¹²  nations;

their walled cities ¹³  are in ruins.

I turned their streets into ruins;

no one passes through them.

Their cities are desolate; ¹⁴ 

no one lives there. ¹⁵ 

[2:4]  ¹ tn Or “for” (KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV).

[2:4]  ² tn There is a sound play here in the Hebrew text: the name Gaza (עַזָּה, ’azzah) sounds like the word translated “deserted” (עֲזוּבָה, ’azuvah).

[2:4]  ³ tn Or “a desolate place.”

[2:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “[As for] Ashdod, at noon they will drive her away.”

[2:4]  sn The reference to noon may suggest a sudden, quick defeat (see Jer 6:4; 15:8).

[2:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “uprooted.” There is a sound play here in the Hebrew text: the name “Ekron” (עֶקְרוֹן, ’eqron) sounds like the word translated “uprooted” (תֵּעָקֵר, te’aqer).

[2:15]  ⁶ tn Heb “this is the proud city.”

[2:15]  ⁷ tn Heb “the one that lived securely.”

[2:15]  ⁸ tn Heb “the one who says in her heart.”

[2:15]  ⁹ tn Heb “I [am], and besides me there is no other.”

[2:15]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “hisses”; or “whistles.”

[2:15]  ¹¹ sn Hissing (or whistling) and shaking the fist were apparently ways of taunting a defeated foe or an object of derision in the culture of the time.

[3:6]  ¹² tn Heb “cut off.”

[3:6]  ¹³ tn Heb “corner towers”; NEB, NRSV “battlements.”

[3:6]  ¹⁴ tn This Hebrew verb (צָדָה, tsadah) occurs only here in the OT, but its meaning is established from the context and from an Aramaic cognate.

[3:6]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “so that there is no man, without inhabitant.”