View Zephaniah 3 in the note window.
Jerusalem threatened for her wickedness, ver. 1 - 7.
A promise of a glorious reformation, ver. 8 - 13.
And deliverance consequent upon it, ver. 14 - 20.
1: To her - Jerusalem.
2: The voice - Of God by his mercy and judgments crying aloud.
3: Her princes - Persons of principal place and authority.
Lions - Which hunt for prey, and are ever affrighting or devouring.
Wolves - Insatiable and cruel, like wolves of the evening, whetted
with hunger. Gnaw not the bones - They leave nothing but the bones
to be eaten on the morrow.
4: Her prophet - So called, false prophets.
Light - Unstable and inconstant.
Violence to the law - Wresting it by perverse interpretation.
5: In the midst - Observing all. Not do iniquity - He will judge
them righteously. Every morning - Daily he discovers his displeasure
against the wicked. Faileth not - Lets no season slip to convince them,
by public and visible punishments. The unjust - But the wicked Jews
proceed without shame, and without fear.
6: The nations - Of old, the Canaanites, lastly the ten tribes,
and later yet, the Assyrians.
7: I said - I thought (speaking after the manner of men).
Thou - O Jerusalem. Fear me - For the many and great judgments
executed upon others. I punished them - In some measure.
8: Therefore - Since you will not be amended.
Wait ye - Attend my resolution. Until - Until I rise up to destroy
first, and next to take the spoil. Upon them - The incorrigible Jews.
Devoured - Consumed as if burnt up. My jealousy - That jealousy
wherewith God is jealous for his own glory.
9: A pure language - I will give them a pure way of worshipping me,
the issue of a pure heart.
10: My dispersed - The praying remnant of the scattered Jews shall
return to their own land, and bring themselves an offering unto the Lord.
11: Thy doings - Thy sins formerly committed. In thy pride - Proud
formalists. No more be haughty - Ye shall no more boast, because of
the city, or the temple.
12: Of thee - In Judea and Jerusalem.
13: Shall feed - Shall enjoy peace and plenty.
15: Taken away - Abolished, and put an end to the judgments
thy sins brought upon thee. Thine enemy - The Babylonian.
Is in the midst - He is returned to redeem and govern thee.
Any more - While thy carriage is as becomes my presence with
thee, thou shalt neither fear, nor feel the like evils.
18: Sorrowful - That mourn their distance from the solemn worship
of God. Who are of thee - Thy children. Reproach - The taunts of their
enemies.
19: Undo - I will break their power and dissolve their kingdom.
That halteth - Who is in trouble and ready to fall.
Driven out - Into remote countries.
20: A praise - So the universal church of the first - born will be, in
the great day. And then the Israel of God be made a name and a praise
to all eternity.
