Read Different Translations of this Book Classical Commentaries on this Book
Zephaniah

538 B.C. marked the return of the first Jews from the Babyloanian exile and two years later work began on rebuilding the Temmple. Within the next year (535 B.C.) the progress stop under intense opposition and great discouragement.
Zephaniah

The Written Prophecy of Zephaniah

By H. A. (Buster) Dobbs 
I.  Introduction.
    A.  The man.
        1.  The only information we have about Zephaniah is in the 
            beginning of his book. 
        2.  He was probably not the son of Hezekiah who reigned as 
            king of Judah at about this time.
            a.  The prophet was from a respected family, as is indicated by 
                the genealogy given in the opening verse of the book.
            b.  If Zephaniah's family had not been distinguished, the list of 
                ancestors would probably not have been given.
        3.  The name Zephaniah means either "The Lord hath hid," or 
            "The Lord's watchtower."
    B.  The Background.
        1.  Zephaniah prophesied during the days of Josiah, king of 
            Judah.
        2.  The prophet must have delivered his message early in the 
            reign of Josiah and may have been part of the influence that 
            caused the king to institute reforms.
        3.  Zephaniah came just before Jeremiah and just after Isaiah.
II.  The book.
     A.  Judgment upon all nations, especially upon Judah (1:1-18).
         1.  The word of the Lord came to the prophet (1:1).
         2.  The whole world to be punished for ignoring the moral law 
             of the universe (1:2-3).
         3.  The judgment will fall especially upon Jerusalem and Judah 
             (1:4-6).
             a.  The greater the privilege, the heavier the judgment (1:4).
             b.  Jerusalem and Judah guilty of Idolatry (1:4).
             c.  The Jews had also become star-gazers (1:5).
         4.  The judgment is described (1:7-13).
             a.  Princes, traders, and the immoral to be objects of God's 
                 wrath (1:8-9).
             b.  The destruction to be total (1:10-13).
         5.  The day of judgment is near and its devastation will be great 
             (1:14-18).
             a.  The time of accounting is at hand (1:14).
             b.  It will be a bitter day of wrath, distress , anguish, 
                 darkness, and doom (1:15-17).
             c.  Wealth and power will not protect against an angry God 
                 (1:18).
     B.  A plea for repentance (2:1 to 3:8).
         1.  All the people of earth are to consider their ways (2:1-3).
             a.  Seek Jehovah while there is time -- the hour comes  
                 when it will be too late to seek him (2:2).
             b.  The meek and the righteous are urged to repair their way 
                 before the Lord (2:3).
         2.  Punishment on many nations, beginning with the Philistines 
             (2:4-7).
         3.  Moab and Ammon also to be punished (2:8-10).
         4.  Jehovah will demonstrate once again his power over idols 
             (2:11).
         5.  Ethiopians and Assyrians to be destroyed (2:12-15).
         6.  If God punishes heathens for their immorality (idolatry), his 
             covenant people will surely not escape (3:1-5).
         7.  God's righteous judgments on heathen nations should cause 
             Judah to reconsider and repent (3:6-8).
     C.  Promise of future blessings for Israel and the whole world 
         (3:9-20).
         1.  Israel to be restored (3:9-10).
             a.  God seeks people of  "pure language" to serve him (3:9).
             b.  The redeemed shall bring gifts to Jehovah (3:10).
         2.  Israel to be purified (3:11-13).
             a.  The proud shall be cast down  (3:11); The meek and 
                 humble shall remain (3:12).
             b.  The remnant of  Israel will do no wrong and speak no 
                 lies, but will have peace (3:13).
         3.  Israel to be comforted and blessed (3:14-20).
             a.  The joy of Jerusalem will be great for there is no joy like 
                 the joy of salvation (3:14).
             b.  When God is in the midst of a people, fear and distress 
                 cease (3:15-16).
             c.  If God is for us, who can be against us (3:17).
             d.  Israel and Judah to be restored and worship Jehovah in 
                 purity and with joy (3:18-20).
Zephaniah

Zephaniah - Jehovah has concealed, or Jehovah of darkness. (1.) The son of Cushi, and great-grandson of Hezekiah, and the ninth in the order of the minor prophets. He prophesied in the days of Josiah, king of Judah (B.C. 641-610), and was contemporary with Jeremiah, with whom he had much in common.
Zephaniah, book of the Old Testament, one of the 12 short prophetic books known as the Minor Prophets. The book has been traditionally attributed to the 7th-century BC Hebrew prophet Zephaniah. In the first part (1:1-2:3), all of Judah is condemned to destruction for defiling the worship of God through the practice of foreign religious rites. In the second part (2:4-15), judgment and destruction are prophesied for enemy nations. In the third part (chapter 3), Jerusalem specifically is condemned to destruction for refusing to change its corrupt ways. The last section of the book ,3:14-20, a psalmlike passage praising God for the future glorious restoration of the remnant of Judah.
ZEPHANIAH, ninth in order of the minor prophets, prophesied "in the days of Josiah" (Zep 1:1), that is, between 642 and 611 B.C. The name means "Jehovah hath guarded," literally, "hidden" (Ps 27:5 Ps 83:3). The specification in the introductory heading, of not only his father, but also his grandfather, and great-grandfather, and great-great-grandfather, implies that the latter were persons of note, or else the design was to distinguish him from another Zephaniah of note at the time of the captivity. The Jews' supposition, that persons recorded as a prophet's ancestors were themselves endowed with the prophetic spirit, seems groundless. There is no impossibility of the Hezekiah, who was Zephaniah's great-great-grandfather, being King Hezekiah as to the number of generations; for Hezekiah's reign of twenty-nine years, and his successor's reign of fifty-five years, admit of four generations interposing between. Yet the omission of the designation, "king of Judah," is fatal to the theory (compare Pr 25:1 Isa 38:9).

He must have flourished in the earlier part of Josiah's reign. In Zep 2:13-15 he foretells the doom of Nineveh, which happened in 625 B.C.; and in Zep 1:4 he denounces various forms of idolatry, and specially that of Baal. Now Josiah's reformation began in the twelfth and was completed in the eighteenth year of his reign. Zephaniah, therefore, in denouncing Baal worship, co-operated with that good king in his efforts, and so must have prophesied somewhere between the twelfth and eighteenth years of his reign. The silence of the historical books is no argument against this, as it would equally apply against Jeremiah's prophetical existence at the same time. Jewish tradition says that Zephaniah had for his colleagues Jeremiah, whose sphere of labor was the thoroughfares and market places, and Huldah the prophetess, who exercised her vocation in the college in Jerusalem. The prophecy begins with the nation's sin and the fearful retribution coming at the hands of the Chaldeans. These are not mentioned by name, as in Jeremiah; for the prophecies of the latter, being nearer the fulfilment, become more explicit than those of an earlier date. The second chapter dooms the persecuting states in the neighborhood as well as Judea itself. The third chapter denounces Jerusalem, but concludes with the promise of her joyful re-establishment in the theocracy.