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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comJamieson Fausset Brown Commentary - Zephaniah 3:7 - 3:7
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
I said, Surely, etc. - God speaks after the manner of men in condescension to man’s infirmity; not as though God was ignorant of the future contingency, but in their sense, Surely one might have expected ye would under such circumstances repent: but no!
thou - at least, O Jerusalem! Compare “thou, even thou, at least in this thy day” (Luk 19:42).
their dwelling - the sanctuary [Buxtorf]. Or, the city. Compare Jesus’ words (Luk 13:35), “Behold, your house is left unto you desolate” (Lev 26:31, Lev 26:32; Psa 69:25); and used as to the temple (Mic 3:12). “Their” is used instead of “thy”; this change of person implies that God puts them to a greater distance.
howsoever I punished them - Howsoever I might have punished them, I would not have cut off their dwelling. Calvin, “Howsoever I had marked them out for punishment” because of their provocations, still, if even then they had repented, taught by My corrections, I was ready to have pardoned them. Maurer, “Altogether in accordance with what I had long ago decreed (ordained) concerning you” (Deu 28:1-14, and, on the other hand, Deu 28:15-68; Deu 27:15-26). English Version, or Calvin’s view, is better.
rose early, and corrupted, etc. - Early morning is in the East the best time for transacting serious business, before the relaxing heat of midday comes on. Thus it means, With the greatest earnestness they set themselves to “corrupt all their doings” (Gen 6:12; Isa 5:11; Jer 11:7; Jer 25:3).