Old Testament

Zephaniah 1

Indictment of Judah, Day of Wrath

7 passages

Overview

Anchored by the prophet's royal lineage and divine commission, Zephaniah's opening chapter moves from God's declaration of cosmic judgment reversing creation itself, through a precise legal indictment of Judah for idolatry, syncretism, and spiritual indifference, to a terrifying portrait of the imminent Day of Yahweh — a day of darkness and consuming wrath from which no wealth or human power can provide refuge.

Passages

1The Word Arrives: Lineage, Authority, and the God Who Speaks into History 2–3Universal Cosmic Judgment: The Sweeping Away of All Creation 4–6The Hand Extended: God's Judgment on a Divided Heart 7–9The Day of Yahweh's Sacrifice: Judgment on the Ruling Class 10–13The Cry of Desolation: Judgment Spreads Through Jerusalem 14–16The Great Day of Yahweh: A Day of Wrath and Darkness 17–18No Escape from Divine Wrath: The Consuming Fire of God's Jealousy

Study Resources

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Zephaniah 1

¹Yahweh’s word which came to Zephaniah, the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah, the son of Amon, king of Judah.

²I will utterly sweep away everything from the surface of the earth, says Yahweh. ³I will sweep away man and animal. I will sweep away the birds of the sky, the fish of the sea, and the heaps of rubble with the wicked. I will cut off man from the surface of the earth, says Yahweh. ⁴I will stretch out my hand against Judah and against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place—the name of the idolatrous and pagan priests, ⁵those who worship the army of the sky on the housetops, those who worship and swear by Yahweh and also swear by Malcam, ⁶those who have turned back from following Yahweh, and those who haven’t sought Yahweh nor inquired after him.

⁷Be silent at the presence of the Lord Yahweh, for the day of Yahweh is at hand. For Yahweh has prepared a sacrifice. He has consecrated his guests. ⁸It will happen in the day of Yahweh’s sacrifice that I will punish the princes, the king’s sons, and all those who are clothed with foreign clothing. ⁹In that day, I will punish all those who leap over the threshold, who fill their master’s house with violence and deceit.

¹⁰In that day, says Yahweh, there will be the noise of a cry from the fish gate, a wailing from the second quarter, and a great crashing from the hills. ¹¹Wail, you inhabitants of Maktesh, for all the people of Canaan are undone! All those who were loaded with silver are cut off. ¹²It will happen at that time, that I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and I will punish the men who are settled on their dregs, who say in their heart, “Yahweh will not do good, neither will he do evil.” ¹³Their wealth will become a plunder, and their houses a desolation. Yes, they will build houses, but won’t inhabit them. They will plant vineyards, but won’t drink their wine.

¹⁴The great day of Yahweh is near. It is near and hurries greatly, the voice of the day of Yahweh. The mighty man cries there bitterly. ¹⁵That day is a day of wrath, a day of distress and anguish, a day of trouble and ruin, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness, ¹⁶a day of the trumpet and alarm against the fortified cities and against the high battlements. ¹⁷I will bring such distress on men that they will walk like blind men because they have sinned against Yahweh. Their blood will be poured out like dust and their flesh like dung. ¹⁸Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them in the day of Yahweh’s wrath, but the whole land will be devoured by the fire of his jealousy; for he will make an end, yes, a terrible end, of all those who dwell in the land.

Zephaniah 2