Chapter 1

Summary: God promises to judge the entire Earth (v.3). The “day of the Lord” will be a day of judgment. The “whole Earth” will be judged (v.18).

(1:1) Zephaniah gives us more information about his ancestry than any other prophet. It seems that he is the great-great grandson of King Hezekiah.

(1:2) Zephaniah refers to global destruction. The expression “the face of the Earth” (p^enê hāʾ^aḏāmāh) refers to God’s destruction in Noah’s day (Gen. 6:7; 7:4).

(1:3) The language pairs the creatures with their days of creation: man and beast (Day 6) and birds and fish (Day 5). Just as God created everything, he will judge everything.

(1:4) King Josiah (v.1) destroyed much Baalism (2 Chron. 34:4), but there was still a “remnant” left behind.

(1:5-6) These are all examples of idolatrous worship. The god “Milcom” is synonymous with the god “Molech” (1 Kings 11:33).

(1:7) The act of being “silent” might be compared to the hush of a courtroom before the judge reads his verdict. Regarding the “sacrifice,” Walker comments, “When the sinner will not repent and offer himself as a living sacrifice, then he himself becomes the sacrifice and victim of his own sins.”

(1:8) God will judge the leaders. Their “foreign garments” refer “to dress that imitated or reflected Egyptian or Babylonian styles, indicative of a foreign inclination of the heart.”

(1:9) This could refer to a polytheistic practice of not stepping in the realm of the temple grounds to a foreign god (cf. 1 Sam. 5:5). It could also refer to plundering the Temple of its goods.

(1:10) The “Fish Gate” was the north wall, and the “Second Quarter” was likely nearby. Even though the “hills” seems to refer to the distant hills, Walker understands this reference to refer to the hills within the city of Jerusalem.

(1:11) “Mortar” could be an unknown proper noun, or it could refer to the “market district.”

(1:12) These people seemed to think that God wouldn’t act to judge them.

(1:13) These punishments all describe the consequences for not following the Mosaic Covenant (Lev. 26:32-33; Deut. 28:30, 39; Amos 5:11; Mic. 6:15).

(1:14) The day of the Lord is called “great” in the sense that God’s judgment will be massive (cf. Joel 2:11). Far from being distant and immobile (v.12), God’s judgment was coming “very quickly.”

(1:15) All of these descriptors explain just how bad this judgment would be.

(1:16) Despite their best efforts to “fortify” and protect themselves, God’s judgment would still prevail.

(1:17) The reason for God’s judgment is clear: “Because they have sinned against the LORD.” Their “flesh” could refer to their entrails or bowels.

(1:18) Just like verse 3 above, this seems to have a universal scope.