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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Zephaniah 3:7 - 3:7
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In Zep 3:7 and Zep 3:8 the prophet sums up all that he has said in Zep 3:1-6, to close his admonition to repentance with the announcement of judgment. Zep 3:7. “I said, Only do thou fear me, do thou accept correction, so will their dwelling not be cut off, according to all that I have appointed concerning them: but they most zealously destroyed all their doings. Zep 3:8. Therefore wait for me, is the saying of Jehovah, for the day when I rise up to the prey; for it is my right to gather nations together, to bring kingdoms in crowds, to heap upon them my fury, all the burning of my wrath: for in the fire of my zeal will the whole earth be devoured.” God has not allowed instruction and warning to be wanting, to avert the judgment of destruction from Judah; but the people have been getting worse and worse, so that now He is obliged to make His justice acknowledged on earth by means of judgments. אָמַרְתִּי, not I thought, but I said. This refers to the strenuous exertions of God to bring His justice to the light day by day (Zep 3:5), and to admonitions of the prophets in order to bring the people to repentance. תִּירְאִי and תִּקְחִי dna תִּ are cohortatives, chosen instead of imperatives, to set forth the demand of God by clothing it in the form of entreating admonition as an emanation of His love. Lâqach mūsâr as in Zep 3:2. The words are addressed to the inhabitants of Jerusalem personified as the daughter of Zion (Zep 3:11); and מְעוֹנָהּ, her dwelling, is the city of Jerusalem, not the temple, which is called the dwelling-place of Jehovah indeed, but never the dwelling-place of the nation, or of the inhabitants of Jerusalem. The clause which follows, and which has been very differently interpreted, כֹּל אֲשֶׁר פָּקַדְתִּי עָלֶיהָ, can hardly be taken in any other way than that in which Ewald has taken it, viz., by rendering kōl as the accusative of manner: according to all that I have appointed, or as I have appointed everything concerning them. For it is evidently impracticable to connect it with what precedes as asyndeton, because the idea of יָבוֹא cannot be taken per zeugma from יִכָּרֵת, and we should necessarily have to supply that idea. For hikkârēth does not in any way fit in with אֲשֶׁר פָּקֵדְתִּי, whether we take פָּקַד עַל in the sense of charge, command, appoint (after Job 34:13; Job 36:23), or in that of correct, punish. For the thought that God will cut off all that He has appointed concerning Jerusalem, would be just as untenable as the thought that He will exterminate the sins that have been punished in Jerusalem. But instead of repenting, the people have only shown themselves still more zealous in evil deeds. Hishkı̄m, to rise early, then in connection with another verb, adverbially: early and zealously. Hishchı̄th, to act corruptly; and with ‛ălı̄lōth, to complete corrupt and evil deeds (cf. Psa 14:1). Jehovah must therefore interpose with punishment.
Zep 3:8
With the summons chakkū lı̄, wait for me, the prophecy returns to its starting-point in Zep 3:2 and Zep 3:3, to bring it to a close. The persons addressed are kol ‛anvē hâ'ârets, whom the prophet has summoned in the introduction to his exhortation to repentance (Zep 2:3), to seek the Lord and His righteousness. The Lord calls upon them, to wait for Him. For the nation as such, or those who act corruptly, cannot be addressed, since in that case we should necessarily have to take chakkū lı̄ as ironical (Hitzig, Maurer); and this would be at variance with the usage of the language, inasmuch as chikkâh layehōvâh is only used for waiting in a believing attitude of the Lord and His help (Psa 33:20; Isa 8:17; Isa 30:18; Isa 64:3). The lı̄ is still more precisely defined by לְיוֹם וגו, for the day of my rising up for prey. לְעַד does not mean εἰς μαρτύριον = לְעֵד (lxx, Syr.), or for a witness (Hitzig), which does not even yield a suitable thought apart from the alteration in the pointing, unless we “combine with the witness the accuser and judge” (Hitzig), or, to speak more correctly, make the witness into a judge; nor does לְעַד stand for לָעַד, in perpetuum, as Jerome has interpreted it after Jewish commentators, who referred the words to the coming of the Messiah, “who as they hope will come, and, as they say, will devour the earth with the fire of His zeal when the nations are gathered together, and the fury of the Lord is poured out upon them.” For “the rising up of Jehovah for ever” cannot possibly denote the coming of the Messiah, or be understood as referring to the resurrection of Christ, as Cocceius supposes, even if the judgment upon the nations is to be inflicted through the Messiah. לְעַד means “for prey,” that is to say, it is a concise expression for taking prey, though not in the sense suggested by Calvin: “Just as lions seize, tear in pieces, and devour; so will I do with you, because hitherto I have spared you with too much humanity and paternal care.” This neither suits the expression chakkū lı̄, according to the only meaning of chikkâh that is grammatically established, nor the verses which follow (Zep 3:9, Zep 3:10), according to which the judgment to be inflicted upon the nations by the Lord is not an exterminating but a refining judgment, through which He will turn to the nations pure lips, to call upon His name. The prey for which Jehovah will rise up, can only consist, therefore, in the fact, that through the judgment He obtains from among the nations those who will confess His name, so that the souls from among the nations which desire salvation fall to Him as prey (compare Isa 53:12 with Isa 52:15 and Isa 49:7). It is true that, in order to gain this victory, it is necessary to exterminate by means of the judgment the obstinate and hardened sinners. “For my justice (right) is to gather this.” Mishpât does not mean judicium, judgment, here; still less does it signify decretum, a meaning which it never has; but justice or right, as in Zep 3:5. My justice, i.e., the justice which I shall bring to the light, consists in the fact that I pour my fury upon all nations, to exterminate the wicked by judgments, and to convert the penitent to myself, and prepare for myself worshippers out of all nations. לִשְׁפֹּךְ is governed by לֶאֱסֹף וגו. God will gather together the nations, to sift and convert them by severe judgments. To give the reason for the terrible character and universality of the judgment, the thought is repeated from Zep 1:18 that “all the earth shall be devoured in the fire of His zeal.” In what follows, the aim and fruit of the judgment are given; and this forms an introduction to the announcement of salvation.