THE
PULPIT COMMENTARY, F,DJTET) BY TRR
VERY REV. H. D. M. SPENCE, D.D., DEAll or GLOUOE8TBB;
AND BY THI!:
REV. JOSEPH S. EXELL, M.A.
ZEPI--IANIAH. @X}lOSftfon
BY REV. W. J. DEANE, M.A.., BEC'l'OB 01' .U HBIL
~omflttfe1 BY REV. S. D. HILLMAN, B.A.
1};1omflfrs br1 1:7arious 5autf)ors. REV. T. WHITELAW, D.D. REV. J. S. 0.A.NDLISH, D.D. BEV, D. THOM.AS, D.D.
NEW EDITION,
FUNK & W.A.GNALLS COMPANY LONDON AND NEW YORK 1906 THE BOOK OF ZEPHANIAH.
INTRODUCTION.
§ I. SUBJECT OF THE Boox. THE prophecy of Zephaniah has been called by Kleinert the Dies irm of the Old Testament ; and there is much truth in this designation. It is, indeed, replete with announcements of judgment to come; it is wholly occupied with this subject and its consequences, and exhortations foa.nded thereon; not t.hat this is the final object of the prophecy, but it is introduced uniformly as being the means of establishing righteousness in the earth, making God's power known, purging out the evil, and developing the good. The prophet is inspired with the idea of the universal judgment which shall affect the whole world; he sees this anticipated by particular visitations on certain heathen nations ; he sees heathendom generally over- thrown; he warns his own countrymen of the punishment that awaits them ; and he looks forward to the salvation of Israel when all these things have come to pass. The book is one continuous prophecy divided into three parts; it contains, perhaps, many utterances condensed into one systematic whole, which comprises the threat of judgment, the exhortation to repentance, aud the promise of salvation. The prophet begins abruptly with announcing the judgment upon the whole world, upon idolaters, aud specially upon Judah for its iniquity; he describes the terrible character of this judgment, and upon whom it shall fall, viz. the chieftains who affect Gentile habits and oppress others, upon the traders who exact usury, upon the faithless who have no belief in Divine providence (oh. i.). Having depicted the day of the Lord, he exhorts the people to repentance, and urges the righteous to persevere that they may be protected in the time of distress. He gives a reason for this exhortation by a more extended announcement of the Divine judgment which shall fall upon nations far and near-Philistines, Moabites, Ammonites, Ethiopians, .A.ssyrians, yea, and upon Jerusalem herself, whose princes, judges, and prophets shall be justly punished. This disphy of vengeauce shall lead to a reverential awe of the Name of the Lord, and prepare the 1i lN'l'RODUC'l'ION 'l'O
"·ay for the pure worship of God (cb. ii. 1-iii. 8). 'l'his inirodnces tho nnnonncement of Messianic hopes. The nations shall serve the Lord with one accord; Israel shall return from its dispersion, purified and humbled, the enl being purged away; it shall be safe under God's special care, and shall rejoice in happiness undisturbed; the oppressor shall be destroyed, and the holy nation sball be "a name and a praise among all people of the earth" (eh. iii. 9-20). The prophecy of Zephaniah is in some respects supplementary to that ef Habakkn.k. The latter had foretold the punishment of Judah through the Chaldeans; the former shows how the jndgment will affect, not the Jews only, but pagan nations also, yea, the whole earth; but he does not name nor accurately describe the instruments of this vengeance, This reticence ha.s given occasion to much speculation on the part of critics. Those who believe in the predictive element of prophecy, and acknowledge the inspiration of Divine foreknowledge in the utterances of the prophets, have no difficulty in seeing the fulfilment of the announced judgment in the action of the Chaldeans, whom Zephaniah, in agreement with the gene- ral and comprehensive character of his oracle, does not specifically name. But Hitzig and those who reject all definite prophecy take much pains to discover an enemy to whom the prophet could allude without resorting to !iupernatural knowledge. They find this convenient invader in the horde of Scythians who, as Herodotus relates (i. 103-106), burst into Media, went thence towards Egypt, were bought off by Psammetichus, and on their return a few stragglers plundered a temple at .Ascalon. This inroad is reported to have happened about the time that the prophecy' was uttered. But Herodotus's account of the Scythians, when carefully examined, is proved to be full of inaccuracies; and even this gives no support to the figment of their attack on the Jews, of whose existence they were probably unaware; nor to any destruction of the nations mentioned by Zephaniah effected by them. Whether it was revealed to the prophet that the Chaldeans were to be the executors of the Divine vengeance, or whether the exaot instruments were not identified in his view (the law of moral government being present to his mind rather than any definite circumstances), the fact remains that he announces certain events which we know were not ·fulfilled by any pro- ceedings of Scythians, but were exactly accomplished by the Chaldeans ( see note on eh. i. 7). The peculiarity in Zephaniah's prophecy is the extension of his view to all lands and nations, their spiritual concerns, their future condition. While cursorily announcing the fate of Jerusalem, he dwells chiefly upon the exercise of God's power upon the exte~or kingdoms of the world, and how they are ordained to work out his great purposes. § JI. AUTHOB. Of Zephaniah we know absolutely nothing but what he himself mentions in the superscription of his book. No information can be gathered from THF, BOOK OF ZEPHANJAH. iii