Bible Commentaries
Zephaniah 2

Verses 1-4

The first movement of the prophecy is the prophet's declaration of the coming judgment of Jehovah. This he announced in general terms, then described more particularly its procedure and character.

This description opened with a comprehensive announcement, "I will utterly consume all things from off the face of the ground, saith Jehovah." Zephaniah then showed that to be a description of the creation in so far as it had become evil: man and the sphere of his dominion, the stumbling-blocks, with the wicked and the race, were to be consumed. The local application was that judgment would descend on Judah and Jerusalem, falling on those who had practiced idolatry, those who had indulged in mixed worship, those who had backslidden from following the Lord, and those who had never sought or inquired after Him.

Proceeding to describe more particularly the judgment, the prophet announced the presence of Jehovah for the purpose of judgment. The stroke of that judgment would fall first on the princes, then on the extortioners, also on the merchantmen, and, finally, on those who were living on their wealth in idleness and indifference.

The prophet finally gave a graphic description of the day in which men would walk as blind, none being able to deliver them because Jehovah would make "an end . . . a terrible end, of all them that dwell in the land."

Verses 1-15

After this declaration, the prophet uttered his great appeal, first to the nation as a whole, calling on it to pull itself together before the opportunity for repentance should pass, before the hour of judgment should arrive.

As though conscious that that larger appeal would be unavailing, he turned to the remnant, to such as were the "meek of the earth," and urged them to renewed devotion. This appeal he enforced by argument, in which he again set forth the fact of the coming judgment on the nations, interspersing his declaration with words of hope concerning the remnant.

He first addressed the nations on the West, proclaiming that they would be utterly destroyed, and that in their place the remnant of the house of Judah would feed their flocks. He next turned to the nations on the East, declaring that they would become a perpetual desolation, and that the remnant would inhabit their lands.

He then turned to those on the South, announcing that they would be slain by the sword.

Finally, he declared that those on the North would be destroyed and their cities made a desolation.