THE BOOK OF ZEPHANIAH

Lesson 6, Chapter 3

It must be reiterated: one should not isolate one biblical Prophet from the others. They each had something to offer about their particular era, but also about God’s abiding principles and governing dynamics that never changed. Further, Prophets can be grouped into time slots with at least 2 Prophets living and prophesying at approximately the same time. Why is this important?

Imagine, as Believers in Yeshua as Lord and Savior, if we had at our disposal but one Gospel account instead of four? What if we had but one Epistle written by but one Apostle, instead of the of twenty-one that we have? We would have obtained truth, yet it would have been greatly limited in information and in perspective. Each Gospel writer wrote at slightly different times, under different circumstances, and saw things through different lenses. Each writer of the Epistles (of which it is believed there were 7 or 8 authors), brought their own point of view, focused on certain events and personalities while downplaying others, had different takes on what each event and statement and act of Yeshua meant, etc. So, when we put them all together, we get a much deeper understanding, and a broader and more rounded context, which is invaluable in ascertaining truth. It works exactly the same way with the Prophets.

So, I have regularly quoted to you from other Prophets that were contemporaries of Zephaniah, some perhaps even known associates. It is also valuable to hear from Prophets that came just before and just after the Prophet we are studying. Perhaps the biggest thing we can gain from this approach is the staggering consistency of message, the lack of contradiction, and how the various eras flow seamlessly from the one to the next. Even more: prophecies given long before the those of the Prophet we are studying may have already come to fulfillment, or they are repeated in order to be fulfilled yet again.

Before we read all of the final chapter of Zephaniah… chapter 3… here are its opening words.

CJB Zephaniah 3:1 Woe to her who is filthy, defiled; woe to the tyrant city!

If we stopped here, and if we left this statement of Zephaniah in isolation, we would never have guessed what city is the “tyrant city”. Our minds would immediately turn to Nineveh or perhaps Babylon. But we would be wrong. Let’s hear from Jeremiah.

CJB Jeremiah 6:1–8 "Head for cover, people of Binyamin, get out of Yerushalayim! Blow the shofar in T'koa, light the beacon on Beit-Hakerem. For disaster threatens from the north, with great destruction. 2 Although she is beautiful and delicate, I am cutting off the daughter of Tziyon." 3 Shepherds advance on her with their flocks; all around her they pitch their tents, each grazing his own plot of pasture. 4 "Prepare for war against her! Get up! Let's attack at noon!" "Woe to us! for the day is waning, evening shadows are lengthening."

5 "Get up! Let's attack at night! Let's destroy her palaces!" 6 For Yehoveh-Tzva'ot says this: "Cut down her trees, and raise a siege-ramp against Yerushalayim! This is the city to be punished; in her there is nothing but oppression. 7 Just as a cistern keeps its water fresh, so she keeps her wickedness fresh! Violence and destruction are heard within her, always before me sickness and wounds.

8 Accept correction, Yerushalayim, or I will be estranged from you and turn you into a desolate waste, a land without inhabitants."

Jeremiah, a contemporary of Zephaniah, is speaking of the same thing as the opening words of Zephaniah chapter 3. And, surprisingly, the tyrant city is revealed as none other than Jerusalem! Ezekiel immediately took the reins from Zephaniah and wrote about what came next: the already predicted Babylonian exile and eventually the Jews’ return to their land. Still, looking to the past as given by the earlier Prophets, Ezekiel added more brush strokes and vivid hues to the bigger picture of what Jerusalem and Judah had become in God’s eyes, and what their future portended.

CJB Ezekiel 23:11-30 11 "Her sister Oholivah saw this; nevertheless she was worse than her sister in lusting and likewise in whoring.

I’ll briefly pause to explain that Oholivah is a figurative name that Ezekiel used to represent Jerusalem and Judah. She was the fictional younger sister of Oholah, also a figurative name used to represent Samaria and Ephraim/Israel. So, continuing in Ezekiel 23…

12 She lusted after the men from Ashur, governors and rulers, warriors dressed to perfection, skilled horsemen, all of them good-looking young men. 13 I saw that she had defiled herself; both sisters had gone down the same path. 14 She prostituted herself more than ever; because she saw wall-carvings of men, depicting the Kasdim in vermilion, 15 with sashes wrapped around their waists and flowing turbans on their heads, all of them looking like military men, the very image of men of Bavel born in the land of the Kasdim. 16 The moment she saw them, she lusted after them and sent messengers to them in the land of the Kasdim; 17 and the men of Bavel climbed into her "love bed" and defiled her with their lust. She was defiled by them, and then filled with revulsion at them. 18 Thus did she reveal her fornication and expose her private parts. When this happened, I was filled with revulsion at her, just as I had been filled with revulsion at her sister. 19 Still she kept increasing her whoring, remembering the days when she was young, fornicating in the land of Egypt. 20 Yes, she lusted after their male prostitutes, whose members are like those of donkeys and who ejaculate like stallions. 21 You yearned for the lewdness of your girlhood, when the Egyptians used to fondle your nipples and caress your young breasts. 22 "Therefore, Oholivah, here is what Adonai ELOHIM says: 'I will raise up your lovers against you, the ones who fill you with revulsion, and bring them against you from every side- 23 the men of Bavel and all the Kasdim, P'kod, Shoa and Koa, and with them all the men of Ashur, good-looking young men, all of them governors and rulers, commanders and officers, all on horseback. 24 They will advance on you armed with chariots, wagons and with an army drawn from many peoples; they will array themselves against you from every side with breastplates, shields and helmets. I will give them the authority to judge, and they will judge you as they see fit. 25 I will direct my jealousy against you, so that they will deal with you in fury- they will cut off your nose and ears, and what is left of you will die by the sword; they will seize your sons and daughters, and those who remain of you will be consumed by the fire. 26 They will strip you of your clothes and seize your fine jewels. 27 Thus I will put an end to your lewdness and your fornication brought from the land of Egypt, so that you will no longer raise your eyes toward them or remember Egypt any more.' 28 For this is what Adonai ELOHIM says: 'I am about to hand you over to those you hate, to those who fill you with revulsion; 29 and they will deal with you in hatred, seize everything you have worked for, and leave you naked and exposed- the full shame of your whoring will be exposed, your lewdness and your fornicating. 30 These things will be done to you because you have gone fornicating with the Goyim, and because you are defiled with their idols.

So, when we piece the perspective and information from these 3 different Prophets together (Jeremiah, Zephaniah, and Ezekiel), we begin to get the bigger scope and depth of idolatry and depravity to which Jerusalem and Judah had sunk. And it better explains God’s harsh action against His own people and even His own capital city where for centuries he had placed His own name.

This the much-needed context for understanding what we’re about to read in Zephaniah chapter 3.

READ ZEPHANIAH CHAPTER 3 all

In the first 2 chapters, Zephaniah has mostly focused on what Yehoveh will do to the nations (all gentiles) on a planetary-wide scale. Now, in chapter 3, that focuses turns to Jerusalem and Judah. The city of all the cities on earth that God had separated away for Himself, which was supposed to be a divine light to the world as a model for the nations to follow, instead transformed itself into a model of the world. Even though the people of Jerusalem and Judah saw themselves as righteous, God-fearing, and obedient, it was only according to their own delusions as they slowly, steadily, over the centuries had replaced God’s Word with doctrines and traditions. They thought their religiosity would substitute for truth and sincerity. God had, through earlier prophets, warned them repeatedly. Unfortunately, either the Hebrew people denied it all, or accepted the warning and changed for a while; but like that seed that falls on rocky soil, it sprouted, grew a little, and then quickly withered away and deteriorated into a wicked weed. Those with ears… hear!

CJB Zephaniah 3:1 Woe to her who is filthy, defiled; woe to the tyrant city!

As discussed, the identity of the tyrant city is not given. But, if we know what the Prophets surrounding Zephaniah had to say, and we know something of Jerusalem’s recorded history, it is clear and obvious. In fact, I’ll tell you that because of what can only be the lack of reading the other Prophets (or alternatively the beliefs and doctrines of certain translators), we have interpreters and translators going back many centuries, along with more modern Christian Bible scholars, still insist that this tyrant city is Nineveh. But the description of the offenses (and what follows in the next several verses) mean it cannot possibly be that.

The filth and defilement (many Bible versions choose the word “polluted”) are due to Jerusalem and Judah’s idolatrous worship practices that inherently involved adding pagan influences to proper Torah-based worship. While the CJB calls the city “tyrant”, most other versions used “oppressing”. A few versions interestingly chose “Jonah”; yes, as in the Prophet Jonah. Pretty strange; except when we see the word in Hebrew. The all-consonant Hebrew is yud-nun-heh (y-n-h). So, if we add in vowel sounds of one kind, we get Yonah (Jonah). If we add in different vowel sounds, we get yanah. Therefore, if an interpreter believes that this oppressing city is Nineveh, then he chooses Jonah (who reluctantly went to that city on behalf of God). But, if the interpreter sees that the city is of course Jerusalem, then he chooses yanah, which means oppressive, behaving violently, and generally doing wrong. I won’t pause at all the different words that could be vocalized differently with different vowels thus giving different meanings; I just thought I’d use this as a good object lesson and demonstration on the nuances of language translation and the importance of the perspective and beliefs of the individual translator.

“Woe to her” is the standard prophetic formula of lament. What is key is to understand that once the “woe” is pronounced, it means the warnings to repent and change are over. As of the moment the Prophet declares the woe, the prescribed punishments are locked-in. Even repentance and actual change will not change anything (although, there is some biblical example of it ever-so-slightly delaying the coming wrath).

CJB Zephaniah 3:2 She wouldn't listen to the voice, wouldn't receive correction; she didn't trust in Yehoveh, didn't draw close to her God.

“She” is referring to the city… Jerusalem… even though Jerusalem along with Judah will be dealt with collectively. And, of course, a city has no actual ears to hear, so this is meaning that the people (mostly the leaders) wouldn’t listen to God’s warnings. Because of what the word “listen” means to modern English speakers, the better choice would be to use “obey”. Even words like hear or hearken in more modern times misses the important point since they mean little more than perceiving sounds. The Hebrew is shema, which means to obey as a result of hearing. Take the concept of obedience out, and it misses the meaning of shema.

The voice is God’s, but it more indicates the voice of the Prophets God uses to deliver His oracles to His people. Put plainly, what the Prophets told the people they mostly disregarded. But it also refers to all the sources of God’s “voice” speaking to His people, primarily the Torah. The next phrase needs to hit-home hard. It is “they wouldn’t receive correction”. One could write a chapter in a book about refusing correction from an authority or a person of wisdom. It’s usually refusing correction that gets us into the most trouble as young people. If the lessons aren’t learned and it carries over into mature adulthood, the results can become catastrophic because in youth we have the time ahead of us to deal with the longer-term problems our foolishness caused and from which we can recover. But it is much less so the later in life that we get to. The issue of accepting correction is critical to following God. Therefore, there are several Proverbs about this subject.

CJB Proverbs 12:1 He who loves knowledge loves discipline, but he who hates correction is a bore.

CJB Proverbs 29:1 He who remains stiffnecked after much rebuke will be suddenly and incurably broken.

CJB Proverbs 10:17 He who observes discipline is on the way to life; but he who ignores correction is making a mistake.

All of these wisdom sayings about a refusal to accept correction ultimately are tied to the final words of Zephaniah 3:2… “she didn’t trust in Yehoveh, didn’t draw close to her God”. A wise man accepts correction because he has drawn close to God and trusts Him. What a difficult thing for humans to do! It seems that almost always we must first live with the tough consequences of blowing-off corrections, before we finally…hopefully… at some point decide to choose the better way. While this certainly applies to those who don’t know God, it also applies to those who do. Knowing and doing are quite different things. It is unfathomable that the Judean people of Jerusalem didn’t know God. They also knew the source of truth was God’s Torah. They knew Yehoveh was their God. But they chose to believe in and trust their doctrines and traditions, along with the powers of false-gods that their neighbors and their leaders taught them about, over God’s direct Word and over His sole sovereignty. Make no mistake; this problem is alive and well today among God’s Believers and Believing religious institutions because this is the dark side of the human condition.

Before we leave this verse, I want to approach it from a different direction, and to do that I want to present a more literal translation of it.

YLT Zephaniah 3:2 She hath not hearkened to the voice, She hath not accepted instruction, In Jehovah she hath not trusted, Unto her God she hath not drawn near.

What we see in the way it is constructed in the Hebrew, and in the YLT that follows that same structure, is that this verse forms 4 individual complaints or accusations. 1) Jerusalem didn’t obey God’s voice. 2) Jerusalem did not accept instruction (or better, correction). 3) Jerusalem did not trust in their God. 4) Jerusalem did not draw near to Him.

So, let’s look at these in order of what they’re telling Jerusalem and all of us who are God worshippers. 1) Jerusalem knew God in a sense and knew He had laws and commands in the Torah, but didn’t find much need to obey them. 2) When God, through His Prophets, confronted Israel with their sins and rebellion and told them what they must do to correct those problems, they refused to accept it. They insisted on continuing in their current ways. 3) Those first two things obviously indicate that they don’t actually trust the God they claim to believe in; it’s only hollow lip service and mechanical ritual. 4) To draw near to God means to seek Him constantly in a sincere relationship, and this to the exclusion of pursuing a relationship with all other gods and their ways. It is an active pursuit… not passive. Jerusalem just continued to make claims of their own righteousness without using God’s Word to measure it by.

Moving on to verse 3, this is another case where 2 consecutive verses should not have been separated from one another. Verses 3 and 4 are but one continuous thought and reads better and comes across better with a much clearer and more cohesive message when read together as one… as it was originally.

CJB Zephaniah 3:3-4 3 Her leaders there with her are roaring lions, her judges desert wolves, who don't leave even a bone for tomorrow. 4 Her prophets are reckless, treacherous men; her cohanim profane the holy and do violence to Torah.

The point of this passage is to condemn 4 classes of Jerusalem’s (Judah’s, by extension) leadership. The 4 are princes, judges, prophets, and priests. I realize the CJB says “leaders” and technically we could use that word, but it is not a good choice for this context. The Hebrew is sar. While it refers to leaders, it also tends to mostly mean monarchs; royalty. Saying leaders here sounds like it’s a general term that sums up what category judges, prophets and priests are in. Prince is the much better choice as its own particular kind of leader.

Thus, the idea is that 1) princes (even kings) in Jerusalem did not rule with the well-defined fairness and justice that God demands. Instead, like roaring lions looking for their next meal, they pounced upon any unsuspecting victim who crossed their path, and always the weakest and most helpless first.

2) Judges mean magistrates. Those who were sought in the legal system to make binding rulings on both civil and criminal matters. They, too, weren’t just. They didn’t render fair and proper verdicts in line with God’s moral law code, the Law of Moses. Instead, like powerful and ruthless wolves who hunt in packs under the cover of darkness, they found and devoured their prey so thoroughly in their unjust rulings, that not even bare bones were left over. Their unbelievable greed they were to be paid for their verdicts was insatiable.

3) Prophets is here referring to the professional prophets who go to prophet academies to get prophet credentials. These are not the few Prophets called by God to give His oracles, but rather these are self-made prophets for the purpose of vocation and making a good living. There were hundreds and hundreds of them among Israel and Judah. They prophesied for profit, so they tailored their prophesies to whatever their employer wanted to hear. Found to begin verse 4, these are called in Hebrew pachaz. It means to be reckless and careless. That is, they were reckless and careless with God’s Word and with the people that hired them to give preferable answers according to what they wanted to hear. This made them treacherous; in Hebrew bogedoth. Bogedoth comes from the root word bagad, which means adultery against God or faithlessness in a marriage relationship.

If you are paying attention, it is not needed for me to make the obvious connection to their modern-day equivalents, and the same goes for what can be said about the next leadership category, the Priests.

4) The Priests are just who you think they are: the Levite Priests. Those who performed the religious rituals and rites and conducted Temple services. These were Israel’s religious leaders; those who the people relied upon for godly knowledge and truth. The Priests were supposed to be the guardians and teachers of God’s ways and laws in the Torah. But they not only allowed their people to engage in idolatry and syncretism, they led the way. They profaned the holy and redefined God’s commands. Whatever was popular with the people was adopted as truth. In reality, their own interests came first.

CJB Zephaniah 3:5 Yehoveh, who is righteous, is there among them; he never does anything wrong. Every morning he renders his judgment, every morning, without fail; yet the wrongdoer knows no shame.

I like the way the YLT renders this verse.

YLT Zephaniah 3:5 Jehovah is righteous in her midst, He doth not do perverseness, Morning by morning His judgment he giveth to the light, It hath not been lacking, And the perverse doth not know shame.

There is so much to say about this message… and how contemporary it is for us… so we’ll take out time with it. The essence of verse 5 is that one would think that with the presence of Yehoveh right there in their midst (in the Holy Temple in Jerusalem), it would have been more than enough for the leaders and people of Jerusalem to seek righteousness and to do all that is humanly possible to deter sin as opposed to enabling it. Instead, they pretended as though God wasn’t there… or that He was deaf, dumb and blind… and did any perverse thing their fallen human nature led them to. Ezekiel said exactly the same as Zephaniah, but even more to the point.

CJB Ezekiel 22:26 Her (Jerusalem’s) cohanim have done violence to my Torah, profaned my holy things, made no difference between the holy and the common, not distinguished between unclean and clean, hidden their eyes from my shabbats, and profaned me among themselves.

What we have in Ezekiel’s prophetic statement is the same as Zephaniah’s but given in more specific covenant terminology. It is only the Law of Moses that defines and explains the difference between the holy and the common (those are actual covenant terms). It is only the Law of Moses that makes and draws the distinction between what is clean and unclean. The Law of Moses is the only source to laying out and creating God’s ordained sabbaths as covenant requirements. And, among themselves as Priests whose supreme duty is to serve God and protect His holiness, they profane Him with their behavior, their teaching, their acceptance of idolatrous Ba’al worship, and then have the audacity to hold themselves up as God’s learned representatives on earth and examples for the laymen to follow.

If the Old Testament filled with God’s Torah and the Prophets still has relevance to the lives of Yeshua followers (and it most certainly does) how can I, as your teacher (or at least one of your teachers), not point out the obvious? Otherwise, what’s the point of our diligent study if it has no application to our lives, faith, and relationship with God? The Constantinian Church leadership… meaning the everyday church leaders of today and of the past 1600 years… represents the gentile version of what is described here about Jerusalem and Judah… but they are completely blind to it (just as those priests and prophets in Zephaniah’s day were blind to their blasphemy and heresy). As a group (acknowledging the occasional exception to the rule) they do more than violence to God’s Torah; they openly abolish it and replace it with their own manmade ideas and regulations called church doctrines, or articles of faith, or canons, or catechism. Does Christianity have any idea of what God calls holy and common? Or what God calls clean and unclean? Has the institutional Church not “hidden their eyes” from God’s sabbaths and declared them no longer relevant or needed for Christians? In fact, to obey God’s instruction… or any of God’s Torah laws and commands for that matter… makes one an enemy of the Church because so very different (if not oppositional) are God’s written doctrines versus various manmade doctrines supported by the Church institutions. So, it is pretty easy for us, today, to grab hold of what Ezekiel just said, and what Zephaniah’s prophecy is stating… as a nearly perfect parallel and present image as to why God is about to pour out His terrible wrath on His own chosen people and His own holy city. It is going to happen again in the End Times. But, now as then, God’s warnings are denied and batted away.

I’ll take that one step further. Those who have decided to abandon gentile Church doctrine and instead to adopt a more classical Judaism in its place thinking it might be better aren’t much different. Judaism is not the pure embodiment of the Hebrew biblical faith any more than is gentile Christianity. I acknowledge that it might in several instances be somewhat closer; but in the end it is based more on yet another and different set of doctrines of men found in Jewish law (sometimes called Rabbinical law or Talmudic law), created by a system of Rabbis who mix elements of biblical Torah with their Jewish/Rabbinical law. It is just as much forbidden syncretism (idolatry) to mix human laws and commands with God’s laws and commands, as it is to mix pagan gods and their worship practices with the scriptural-based worship of Yehoveh, God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

The 2nd half of Zephaniah 3:5 reads: Every morning he renders his judgment, every morning, without fail; yet the wrongdoer knows no shame.

The Hebrew is a bit challenging to deal with in order to translate it correctly, but some of the challenge merely involves using more appropriate English terms that reflect our modern vocabulary. On the other hand, there is also this: this repeat of the words “every morning” as we find it in the CJB and a few other versions is actually dealing with a Hebrew play on words; that is, it is an expression. In Hebrew the term is bobboqer bobboqer. It is meant to be read: “morning by morning”. It’s just a rather flowery or even poetic way of expressing the idea of something that happens faithfully each day.

When we come to the word “judgment” in this verse it is that first case of appropriate English terms that can be problematic for us. The Hebrew is mishpat and indeed it can mean judgment. But it is meant in the neutral sense of making a determination or handing down a proper verdict (negative or positive). Yet, our minds inevitably equate judgment with wrath, and that is certainly not the case in this verse. Rather the word “justice” or “rendering a just verdict” much better captures the sense of it. So, this part of the verse means that every day without fail, God renders His perfect justice from Heaven on His people; but His people of Jerusalem (the judges and priests, mainly) pervert it and have no shame for doing so. God’s justice is meant to be administered through His judges and priests. That’s their function. They are to operate much like God’s Divine Council… that group of elohim… in Heaven. That is, God sits at the head of the Divine Council, hears the cases, and renders verdicts. The verdicts are announced to the Council members, and then the Council Members are to see that these verdicts… these acts of God’s justice… are carried out as commanded. Jerusalem’s priests and judges have exactly the same duty and marching orders. However, unlike in Heaven where God’s will is faithfully carried out, on earth (in Jerusalem) God’s will is not being faithfully fulfilled. On earth, those verdicts necessarily come from human judges who are supposed to be following God’s laws and commands, and then meting out justice based purely on that law code, because those laws and commands represent God’s mind on the subject of justice. Moving on to verse 6….

CJB Zephaniah 3:6 "I have cut off nations, their battlements are ruined; I have made their streets ruins, no one walks in them. Their cities are destroyed, abandoned, unpeopled.

Here we move from the righteousness and perfect justice of God, which has been perverted and carried out unjustly by God’s chosen people, to God’s wrath that He visited upon gentile nations. We are to understand these words as verbatim as spoken by Yehoveh and recorded by Zephaniah. We are not to assign any names to these nations, as this is meaning nations in general. No, doubt when the fulfillment of this prophecy occurs (and, in our current reference it is to the End Times), it will concern all nations who God determines is worthy of His wrath. It leaves the door slightly ajar for a few exceptions, but frankly, that’s not something I would count on.

To “cut off” nations means to destroy them and, in another dimension, to separate them from God spiritually. It is not one or the other; it is both. However, the remainder of this verse speaks strictly about the earthly/physical consequences of being cut-off. The meaning behind God saying these things is as a warning to Jerusalem and Judah. He is saying “this has already been done, and it is I that did it, and this will be your fate as well”. The hope is that the Judeans would learn to fear Him enough to diligently obey Him based on what He has done in the past. While that is the rather consensus view of most Bible scholars, I would amend that slightly and say that this is meant to get His people to listen to His warnings (rather than to deny them) and take them to heart. At this point, it would not be that if they changed (they repented) that it would alter the punishment they are going to face; that ship has sailed. But it would help them to accept that punishment (when that day arrives) in the right attitude as being just and deserved, instead of the Judeans looking skyward, hands in the air, shocked and yelling “why?”. And also, to remind those Judeans to know where it comes from, the cause of it, and what it will eventually lead to.

Next comes a list of what God did to the cities of nations, and the idea is to compare it to what He is going to do to Jerusalem. First, their battlements are ruined. The battlements are the defensive walls and towers that were built to defend the city. Done well, they were excellent protection that made any attempt to conquer that city very costly to the enemy. Then, He says that their streets were ruined. This means the enemy has defeated the battlements and entered the city. The roads and paths that sizeable cities have in them are now ruined by acts of the enemy, as their troops and horses and chariots trample them to mud and dust, and they become buried under the debris of the buildings that once stood on each side of them. Therefore, no one can walk in those once-nice roads.

And finally, those cities are destroyed, abandoned and unpeopled. The best most recent example of this for the people of Zephaniah’s day was Nineveh. Long portions of its defensive walls were knocked down. Buildings burned. Not even one part of the gigantic city remained useable or intact. The destruction was complete… so complete that no attempt was made to repair or rebuild. So, it was abandoned to be a permanent relic and monument to the folly of the people of Nineveh and its leaders. The people that lived in Nineveh left, never to return. And, here in the year 2026, Nineveh still remains a relic and abandoned. If this doesn’t resonate with the leaders and common folk of Jerusalem, nothing will.

We’ll pause here for today and begin with verse 7 next time.