place to new and wholesome ones; the wicked will have been
removed.* Disaster and suffering were interpreted as signs of
Yahweh's anger against sin, hence such afflictions were as brand-
marks of shame, known and read of all men. CJ. Is. 54'' 65'". The
removal of the relative clause as a gloss is unwarranted, since
it takes away the necessary definition of the 'deeds' mentioned;
metrical necessities cannot outweigh the requirements of the
thought. f — For then I will take away thy proudly exulting ones
from the midst of thee] In Is. 13^, this designation is applied to the
Medes as the warriors of Yahweh; here it denotes the officials,
viz. priests, prophets, judges, etc., who jauntily ignore the re-
quirements of Yahweh and rejoice in their owti self-sufficiency.
A process of sifting will be resolutely carried through. — And thou
wilt no more be haughty in my holy mountain] Haughtiness, arro-
gance and pride were always offensive to the prophets who without
exception were the friends and champions of the poor and lowly.
The mountain in question is, of course, Mt. Zion, made holy by the
presence of Yahweh in his temple. — 12a. And I will leave in the
midst of thee a people humble and poor] It is safe to say that weak-
ness and poverty do not exhaust the content of these adjectives,
even if they form a large part of it. It is not so much Israel's
standing on battle-fields, in markets, and at courts that is meant,
as a state of mind and heart, an attitude toward God; cf. Mi. 6'
Is. 66^ Mt. f- ^ This conception of the ideal religious life came
late in Israel's history; v. on 2'.
Str. Ill describes the Israel that is to be as the exact opposite
of the Israel that now is. Schw. felt the need of supplementing
v. ^"^^ in some way; hence supposed that something had been lost
at the end of the verse. This supposition becomes unnecessary,
if V. ""^ be read with v. ^^*, a proceeding which secures excellent
sense and at the same time gives lines i and 2 of Str. Ill their
proper length. J — 12b, 13. TJie remnant of Israel will take refuge in
the name of Yahweh] They will recognise Yahweh as their only
• Hd., Stei., Now., Marti. t Contra Fag..
J So Marti, Now.k, Fag., Roth., Du..
252 ZEPHANIAH
but all-sufTicient source of strength. The Israelites of the past
have at times scouted Yahweh's aid and when shaken out of their
own self-sufficiency by the shock of great calamities have turned to
the gods of the nations for help rather than to their own God; cj.
j5. 6. 12 ^g ^ consequence of this positive confidence in Yahweh,
the Israel of the days to come will not be guilty of offences such as
have characterised its past. — They will not do wickedness, nor will
they speak lies] An abiding faith in Yahweh will keep them from
the perverse and devious ways of the ungodly. Sure of themselves
and their God, they will have no need to take refuge in lies. This
writer evidently sees a vital connection between morality and re-
b'gion. — Nor will there be found in their mout/is a deceitful tongue]
The emphasis laid here upon this vice is a reflection of the fact
that lying and cheating have always been most prevalent practices
among Semites and are, even at the present day. — For they will
feed and lie down with none to disturb them] A common figure in
prophecy; cf Is. 14'*' if Ez. 34^^- '^ Mi. 4' 7" Jb. ii'^ Lying and
kindred sins are largely due to fear and need. In the coming age,
such incentives to vice will be lacking, for all will enjoy abundance
and none will be left who could or would do injury to any.
The strophical divisions of this poem are clearly indicated by the log-
ical analysis of the progress of the thought. The poetic lines are just
as clearly shown by the movement of the parallelism. The rhythm is
prevailingly hexameter, v^ith a few descents to pentameter.
Vv. '• '" constitute a disturbing element within this oracle. They seem
to be foreign to, if not also later than, their present context; so Now.,
GASm., BDB., Grimm {Lt App. 87/.), Dr., Cor., Bu.^e^ch.^ Marti,
Siev., Beer, Fag.. The main ground for this opinion is the fact that they
manifest a totally different attitude toward the nations from that of v. s.
In the latter, the nations are destined to be destroyed; here they are to
be converted. Moreover, the 'for' of v. ' is without any significance in
the present context; the purification of the nations is surely no reason for
their destruction; nor can it justify the 'wait' of v. « unless the purifica-
tion is to involve the punishment of the wicked within Israel as well as
that of those without. But this is not stated and is too important a state-
ment to have been taken for granted. Still further, the elimination of
w. '• '0 leaves a good connection between vv. « and •'.
The date of w. '-" is open to discussion. Some scholars regard them,
with or without w. '• •", as the work of Zephaniah; so e. g, Dav., Now.,
3"^' 253
GASm., Or., Hal., Dr., Cor., Bu.^^"'^*'-, van H., Stk.. Others assign
them to a later age; so e. g. Sta."^^', 644/., Schw., We., Marti, Siev.,
Beer, Fag., Roth., Du., Kent. The argument for their genuineness rests
largely upon what seems an impossible exegesis of v. s; viz. that it is
the logical continuation of v. ' and is addressed to the pious in Judah,
who are bidden to wait until Yahweh shall have gathered the nations and
by means of them inflicted punishment upon the ungodly oppressors
within Judah itself. But this involves passing over O'ij and pid'^cc,
the nearest and the most natural antecedents of the pronoun in Dn'''^j>
and seeking its antecedent in the distant ir^n-.i>n iD^jcn of v. '. Nat-
urally interpreted, v. ' becomes a promise to Judah that the nations who
have oppressed her will be destroyed. Judah, on the other hand, is to
be cleansed and saved (w. "â– i^). This sharp discrimination between
the heathen and Judah does not appear in Zephaniah's picture of the
day of doom in ch. i. Likewise, the characterisation of Judah as 'hum-
ble and poor' (v. '2) holds up an ideal of religion which belongs to Is-
rael's last days (c/. 2^). The frank recognition of the doctrine of the rem-
nant also belongs in the later period of Israelitish life. The abrupt man-
ner in which the trend of thought is changed in v. » is a further indication
that the present consecution of thought is not the original one. After
V. ', we expect an announcement of dire disaster upon the wicked Is-
raelites; but instead we get such an announcement against the nations.
Not improbably, the original conclusion of this oracle, expressing some
unfavourable judgment upon Judah, was deliberately dropped and the
present passage put in its place; cf. Grimm, Lt. App. S7 ff..
8. According to the Mas., this is the only verse in the OT. which con-
tains all the letters of the Heb. alphabet, including the final forms, r,
however, does not appear here.— i3n] (SH = ''?n; so Marti, Now."^,
Siev., Fag., Roth..— ny.';'] Rd. n;:'^, with <S & ®; so Hi., Schw., Gr., We.,
GASm., Now., Marti, Or., van H., Roth., Fag., Du.. 10 infuturum.
Hal. •f'vh- — IDn"^] CS cvva-ywiii. — •'xap'^] Rd. r3il'?, with <S toO daU-
^affdai and & ©; so Schw., We., Now., Marti, Dr., Siev., van H., Fag..
Gr. v^hlS— ni3'^=D] <S /SacrtXerj.- 'spt] (g^AQr HP, 48, 153, 233 om.;
so GASm..— 9. Sn liJ.iN] = S ion, i S. lo^, i. e. 'bestow upon by way
of exchange.'— 0''ap Sn] Gr. 'CJJ Sn, Schw. d>dj,:S Bach. c>cj> Sd.—
noa'] Bach, nns'^o. — mna] (S eh yeveav avr^s = nnna. Aq. G
i^eiKeyiiivov; cf. H electum; so &.— sSd] (& irdvrai. H omnes.—
'•> 0'-'2] Marti, •'zz-z ; so Fag., Roth..— nj;-*^] Marti, n.3>;^; so Fag.. Roth.
13;'^,— 33r] <S & = yoke.— 10. ^xid 03 i-irj.'] Rd. 013 na nnv; so Hal..
CS^ HP. 48, â– KpocSi^ofian iv diennapfji^voi^ fxov. (6^-2 HP. 26, 40,
106, 130, 153, 198, 233, 239, 311 and & om.; &" has it in marg.; HP.
22, 97, 238 have it under asterisk. (S-* "• ^ ^"'^•' (postea ras) trpoaM^ofXixi
(HP. 62, 86, 147, irpoffS^xofMi) roiis iKerevovrds /xe (95, 185, p-era) tQv
i<Tirappi4vo}V (36, 51, 132, 228, 240, di€(nrapp.4vuv). S iKereuovrd /le
254 ZEPHANIAH
T^Kva ruv SieffKopirifffi^vuv iiir^ ifwv, "& inde supplices mei, filii disper-
sorum meorum. Gr. 'iJi 'Tir^^. Schw. -ixidj-j inN. Bach, '3 ippj?,:
"•xn. OortEin-, '>xiflj3 •>'? nn;>. Ew. bis for •'xid; so Gr., Dav. (?),
Hal., Dr. (?). Roth, ■•nat ^2'<-\p\ Ew. connects >nnj? with inp^(Ez. 8'0,
which seems to mean 'odour,' and renders 'my perfumes,' which serves
as the obj. of the vb. with 'd in apposition. But the textual basis of
Ez. 81' is too uncertain to permit its use as a guide to interpretation here.
The usual rendering 'my suppliants' derives it from inj? 'to pray,' a well-
known vb.. But the ambiguity as to the persons so designated and the
fact that this form occurs nowhere else make it more probable that the
text is here at fault. The usual rendering of â– 'XiiJ na, viz. 'daughter of
my dispersed ones,' is met by three difficulties; (i) na in such titles is
regularly connected only with proper names, e. g. aSm^ na , O'lti'a na
D''Sj na .IT'S na; the notable exception, ^oy. na, frequent in Jeremiah,
is not closely analogous to this case where the governing noun is in the
pi.; (2) the pass, prtc, y\2, nowhere else occurs; (3) the uncertainty as to
whether 'd na is subj. or obj. of the vb. The reading 012 involves an
error in only one letter and dittog. of the initial •■of the foil. vb.. na here
may be taken as 'daughter' (c/. 'd. of the Chaldeans') or as = n^'a, cf.
py n'a ,a'aa> n'^a, bit Yakln, etc.; no and na are at times confused {cf.
Qr. and Kt. in Is. 10"). Hommel's interpretation of 'd 'a {v. s.) rests
upon three contentions; (1) that Gush is not Ethiopia, but a region in
S. Arabia; (2) that 'd 'a follows the analogy of other Semitic plant-
names (c. g. bint el 'inab = 'wine'; bandt en-ndr = 'nettle'), is to be
connected with the S. Ar. ^cdx (found in Glaser, No. 1083, 1. 4, between
the names of two kinds of incense), and is the name of some special
variety of incense; and (3) that the \/ "iny originally meant 'to offer
incense.* On this basis, the rendering would be, 'my incense-bearers
will bring a costly kind of incense as my ofifering.' But the identifica-
tion of Gush with S. Arabia finds little favour because of insufficient
evidence (so Ko., Filnf neue arab. Landschqflsnamen [1902] and Ed.
Meyer, Die Israeliten und ihre N achbarstdmme [1906], 315-317; contra
Glaser, Skizze d. Gesch. u. Geogr. Arabiens, II, 23- Hommel, Aufsdtze
und Abhandlungen, No. VIII; Ghe. art. Gush, EB.; Wkl. KAT.', 137,
144); the use of na with a plant-name is without analogy in Heb.; and
the connection of nny with incense has no support in Heb. outside of the
dubious passage, Ez. 3'. — '>nnjn] Rd. >p'n.3?:, with 05; so Ew., Schw.. —
11. 'n ova] & joins to v. " and takes first clause as a question, "wilt
thou not blush, etc.?" — ah] Stei., Hal. nS. — nnajS] An inf. cstr. in n__;
cf. Ges.^*". — 12. iDm] Gr. -pm; so We., Oort'^™-, Now.. — '^ oa'a]
Roth. •>p?'3. — 13. '' nnxu'] (6 joins with v. « as subj. of iDn, — 'yi nS]
= 'p kVi.
^1.-20 255
§9- THE WORLD-WIDE RENOWN OF REDEEMED
ISRAEL (3^^=^°).
In two strs. of unequal length, a late writer contrasts the Israel
of the coming Golden Age with the Israel as known in his own time.
Str. I bids the people of Yahweh rejoice because Yahweh is
about to repulse all their foes and to favour his own people with
his gracious presence henceforth (w. "• ^^- "). Str. II declares
that Yahweh is to destroy all Israel's oppressors, rescue her af-
flicted ones and make his people the object of the world's praise
(w. ''â– '').
(^RY aloud, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel!
Be glad and rejoice with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem.
Yahweh has taken away thine opponents, he has turned aside thine enemies.
The king of Israel is in the midst of thee; thou wilt no more see calamity.
Yahweh, thy God, is in the midst of thee, a warrior who delivers.
He will rejoice over thee with gladness; he will renew thee in his love.
T WILL take away those smiting thee, and those bringing reproach upon thee.
Behold, I will deal with all thine oppressors at that time;
And I will deliver the halt, and the outcast I will gather.
And I will make them a praise and renown in all the earth.
Str. I exhorts the community of the pious to rejoice enthusi-
astically in the evidences of the return of Yahweh's favour.— 14.
Cry aloud, O daughter of Zion; sJiout, O Israel] The context shows
that joyous exclamations are called for. 'Israel' is used as the
name of the chosen people of Yahweh, a common usage long after
Israel proper had ceased to exist. It is quite unnecessary to change
with (g to 'daughter of Jerusalem';* cf. Mi. 2^^ je. 17" 50^^ «•
Ez. 4^- " 6^ ^-.—Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter
of Jerusalem] Cf Zc. 9^ Is. 54\ In 'daughter' the people in gen-
eral are personified. The smaller towTis, villages and hamlets
surrounding a large city were known as its 'daughters'; e. g. Nu.
21-^- ^2 I Ch. 2^; hence it was an easy step to the thought of the
inhabitants of these smaller places as the daughter of the mother
city {cf. 2 S. 2'®). As Jerusalem came to occupy more and more
the central place in Hebrew thought, and as the territory dwindled
to smaller and smaller proportions, it became perfectly natural to
* Contra Now..
256 ZEPHANIAH
represent the capital as the mother of the entire community. The
same usage obtained, however, with regard to Egypt (Je. 46"- ^*),
Babylon (Is. 47^), Edom (La. 4*), Sidon (Is. 23^^) and Tarshish
(Is. 23*°). — 15. YaJnveh has removed thine opponents ; he has put
thine enemies out of the way] The prophet transports himself in
imagination to the future for which he so ardently longs and pro-
ceeds to describe it as though it were actually realised. This
contemplated repulse of the foe is the ground of the rejoicing called
for in V. ". The afflicted and distressed condition of Judah at the
time of the actual writing of this passage is thus taken for granted.
M has "thy judgments" for "thine opponents," i. e. the calami-
ties that have come upon thee as penalties for thy sins. But the
parallelism calls for a word denoting persons. — The king of Israel
is in the midst of thee] The name " Yahweh" inserted in IH after
"Israel" is a correct interpretation of the phrase "king of Israel"
(f/. V. ^''), but is due to a glossator, as is shown by the awkwardness
of the syntax and the undue length of the line. The representa-
tion of Yahweh as Israel's king is a familiar OT. view; cf. Is. 6"
41^' 44^ Ps. 90^^ Ob. ^^ Similar conceptions among other Semitic
peoples are attested by the names Melek, Moloch, Milcom and the
like, bestowed upon their gods; v. note on i^. Yahweh's presence
in Israel is a guarantee of security and prosperity for his people.
— Thou wilt no more see disaster] The Hebrew text here wavers
between 'see' and 'fear'; (S and agree upon the former; H
follows the latter; while ©compromises by incorporating both read-
ings in its rendering. Either reading furnishes admirable sense,
the essential meaning being the same in either case. To ' see ' here
means to realise as a personal experience; cf. Je. 5^^ Is. 44*^. — 16.
At this point an editorial addition appears, which does not con-
form to the metrical norm of the context and does introduce a
foreign element between w. ^^ and " which naturally go together.*
— In that day, it will he said to Jerusalem, "Fear not, O Zion; let
not thy hands drop"] The language calls up the picture of a man
at work upon a hard task suddenly letting go of his work in despair;
cf. 2 S. 4^ Is. 13' Je. 6^* Heb. i2^l — 17. Here the original oracle is
resumed. — Yahweh, thy God, is in the midst of thee, a warrior who
* So Marti, Fag.; cj. Roth, who drops only the introductory words in the third person.
3"-" 257
delivers] This line is chiefly an elaboration of the last line of v. ^\
For similar descriptions of Yahweh as a warrior bringing deliv-
erance, cf. Is. 9® 42'^ Je. 14^ 20". The primitive conception of
Yahweh as he who fights in behalf of his own people has been
transformed into the thought of him who fights in behalf of the
righteous, not because they are, it is true, his people, but because
of their righteousness. — He will rejoice over thee with gladness] The
imaginaiy stand-point is here abandoned and the writer frankly
looks to the future. — He will renew thee in his love] M reads,
"he will be silent in his love." This has been interpreted in
widely different ways. Some explain as, 'he will because of his
love keep silent regarding his people's sins';* others, 'God's love
will be so strong and deep as to hush motion or speech; it will be
silent ecstasy ';t while one explains the silence as due to Yah-
weh's meditative planning of good deeds toward Israel. J But the
thought of silence seems wholly out of keeping with the spirit of
the context and is definitely in conflict with the 'shout' or 'ring-
ing cry ' of the next line, though the latter is probably a later ac-
cretion. Hence recent interpreters, for the most part, have ques-
tioned the correctness of the text. Many have followed ^, but
with differing interpretations; e. g. he will do new things {cf. Is.
43*^) the like of which have not heretofore been known ;§ or, he
renews his love;** or, he renews himself in his love;ff or, with the
rendering given above,Jt through the manifestations of favour in-
spired by his love for thee, he will restore thee to pristine vigour
and glory, giving thee newness of life. This is a thought, not ex-
actly parallel to that of the other half of the line as we should ex-
pect, but at least not wholly foreign to the context, and it is based
upon a text from which M might easily have arisen. To drop
the phrase, as some do,§§ on the ground that it records the lament of
a reader, does not adequately explain it, while it complicates the
textual and metrical situation. Where it stands, it exactly con-
forms to the measure of the line. — He will exult over thee with
shouting as in the days of a festival] This line, which incorporates
* So Mau., Hd.. t So Dav., Or.. X Hal..
§ Hi.. ** Buhl, ZAW. V, 183; GASm.; Du.. tt Ew..
Xi Gr., Now.. §§ So Bach., Marti, Siev., Now.^, Fag..
258 ZEPHANIAH
the first two words of v. ^^ as reproduced by (5, seems to be an
editorial expansion suggested by the shout of v. ". It adds little
or nothing to the thought of the foregoing line and it reflects the
late priestly point of view in its reference to the days of festal as-
sembly. M, which opens v. '^ with the last two words of this
line, presents a very diflScult, if not wholly unintelligible text, RV.
renders, 'them that sorrow for the solemn assembly'; AV., 'sor-
rowful for the feast'; and others, 'those grieved afar from the as-
sembly,' * or 'them that are removed from the solemn assembly.' f
But in addition to this ambiguity, the difl5culties presented by the
phrase as it stands are insuperable. It cannot be satisfactorily
accounted for as a part of v. '*, for no suitable logical connection
between it and the remainder of the verse can be discovered. Nor
is there any apparent reason why the phrase should hold so em-
phatic a position at the head of the sentence. Nor can the text
of (^ and ^ be derived from M- Consequently, some have aban-
doned the phrase, and indeed the whole of v. ^^, as hopeless; J
while others exercise great ingenuity in attempts to discover a
satisfactory substitute. (|'s rendering seems to indicate the way
of escape for this phrase, at least. The joyous shout on the festal
occasion is, of course, that of the worshippers, and to this the joy
of Yahweh is likened. This affords an interesting side-light upon
the spirit and attitude of the devotees of the later priestly law.
Str. II represents Yahweh himself as telling how he will con-
vert Judah's present disastrous state into one of security and glory.
— 18. / will remove those smiting thee and those bringing reproach
upon thee] On the basis of M, the verb must be taken as govern-
ing the two words which have here been connected with v. ^^.
The remainder of the verse, however, is unintelligible. RV.
reads, 'who were of thee; to whom the burden upon her was a
reproach." § But 'of thee' is literally 'from thee,' a wholly
un-Hebraic idiom for the expression of the idea of 'belonging
to.' Furthermore, the ellipsis of the words ' to whom ' is too violent
and the meaning 'burden' is nowhere else applicable to nt^wQ.
* Hi., Mau., Dav., Dr.(?), Or.. t Dr. (?); similarly G.\Sm..
t So e. g. Schw., Roth..
§ Similarly AV., with the variation, 'to whom the reproach of it was a burden.'
3". .. ,59
RVm. is even less satisfactory, viz. 'they have been sorrowful
for the solemn assembly which I took away from thee, for the lift-
ing up of reproach against her.' This involves a difficult ellipsis of
'which,' an almost impossible S}'ntax in 'they have been sorrow-
ful,' and the insertion of the preposition 'for' before 'the lifting
up.' Still another attempt to make sense is,* 'sorrowful for the
feast which I broke ofif are certain of thee, thou land over which
reproach is raised.' But 'broke off' is an unauthenticated trans-
lation of the verb, 'certain of thee' is an im paralleled Hebrew
idiom and constitutes an impossible subject of the sentence, and
'is raised ' is a very free rendering of ' lifting up.' Several scholars
follow (^ more or less closely and render, 'thy smitten ones I will
gather; woe, whosoever lifts up reproach upon her.' But this is
at best a rather disjointed utterance. A smoother text with an
appropriate meaning is furnished in, 'I will take away from thee
shame and will lift reproach from upon thee.'f But the word
'shame' is too far removed from any resemblance to M- The
translation here suggested rests partly upon (^ and partly upon
& and presupposes a text from which HI might have been de-
rived with relative ease. As thus read, the line promises the over-
throw of Israel's foes who have afflicted her and made her an
occasion for the taunts of all the surrounding peoples. It is un-
necessary to drop any part of the line or to transfer it to another
context.! — 19« Behold, I will deal with all thine oppressors at that
time] A statement all the more terrible for its indefinite and gen-
eral character. It leaves available all the terrors of divine might
for the execution of wrathful judgment upon tyranny and iniquity.
For a similarly indefinite use of the idiom 'deal with,' cf. Ez. 22"
2^25. 29 Jq 2i2 Ps. 109^^ The 'time' referred to is, of course, the
great day of Yahweh, upon which all of Israel's wrongs are to be
made right. — And I will rescue the halt and the outcast I will
gather] Cf. Mi. 4^- ^ Ez. 34^^ Zc. ii*«. The terms 'halt' and 'out-
cast' are applied to the dispersion as a whole. They suggest the
homeless and crippled condition of the Hebrew people scattered
among the nations, like a flock of sheep without a shepherd. —
* Ew.. t Marti.
X Conlra Fag. who om. ^CD 'DDDN as a gloss; and Now. and van H. who tr. the same phrase
to follow Ninn 3rj in v. •».
26o ZEPHANIAH
And I will make them a praise and a name in all the earth] Those
who have been an object of the scorn and contempt of the nations
are now to become the object of envy and renown the world over.
This is a fitting climax to a prophecy of restoration.* <3| adds
at the end of this line the phrase, their shame] This has always
caused difficulty to translators and interpreters. (^ treated it as
a verb, 'and they will be ashamed'; but this calls for a different
text and, even at that, is very poorly suited to this context. U
considered it as in the construct relation with the preceding word,
'land of their shame'; but this involves an anomaly in Hebrew
grammar. Others render, 'whose shame was in all the earth ';f
and this is the easiest disposition of the phrase, if it must be re-
tained. But even this would naturally call for a dififerent order of
words in M and places an imnatural emphasis upon the preceding
'them,' viz. 'I will make them a praise whose shame, etc.'. Hence
it is, on the whole, better to omit the phrase either as a gloss or as
a corrupt dittog. of DDTlin w' HS' ''2^*Z*2 in v. ^".—20. This verse
is generally recognised as being only a weak variant or repetitious
expansion of v. ^^,X which adds nothing to the thought already ex-