Zefanya 3:2

3:2 She is disobedient; ¹ 

she refuses correction. ² 

She does not trust the Lord;

she does not seek the advice of ³  her God.

Zefanya 3:4

3:4 Her prophets are proud; ⁴ 

they are deceitful men.

Her priests defile what is holy; ⁵ 

they break God’s laws. ⁶ 

Zefanya 3:12

3:12 I will leave in your midst a humble and meek group of people, ⁷ 

and they will find safety in the Lord’s presence. ⁸ 

Zefanya 2:15

2:15 This is how the once-proud city will end up ⁹  –

the city that was so secure. ¹⁰ 

She thought to herself, ¹¹  “I am unique! No one can compare to me!” ¹² 

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

Everyone who passes by her taunts her ¹³  and shakes his fist. ¹⁴ 

[3:2]  ¹ tn Heb “she does not hear a voice” Refusing to listen is equated with disobedience.

[3:2]  ² 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]  ³ 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).

[3:4]  ⁴ sn Applied to prophets, the word פֹּחֲזִים (pokhazim, “proud”) probably refers to their audacity in passing off their own words as genuine prophecies from the Lord (see Jer 23:32).

[3:4]  ⁵ tn Or “defile the temple.”

[3:4]  sn These priests defile what is holy by not observing the proper distinctions between what is ritually clean and unclean (see Ezek 22:26).

[3:4]  ⁶ tn Heb “they treat violently [the] law.”

[3:12]  ⁷ tn Heb “needy and poor people.” The terms often refer to a socioeconomic group, but here they may refer to those who are humble in a spiritual sense.

[3:12]  ⁸ tn Heb “and they will take refuge in the name of the Lord.”

[3:12]  sn Safety in the Lord’s presence. From the time the Lord introduced his special covenant name (Yahweh) to Moses, it served as a reminder of his protective presence as Israel’s faithful deliverer.

[2:15]  ⁹ tn Heb “this is the proud city.”

[2:15]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the one that lived securely.”

[2:15]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the one who says in her heart.”

[2:15]  ¹² tn Heb “I [am], and besides me there is no other.”

[2:15]  ¹³ tn Heb “hisses”; or “whistles.”

[2:15]  ¹⁴ 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.