The Pulpit Commentary — Zephaniah — Section 6

co.rry out this purpose (comr,. Jer. xxii. 7; allusion to the circumstance of the priests Ii. 27, 28; Micah iii. 5). The pe.rticulor of Dagon abstaining from treading on the ogente intended are not specified by the threshold of their temple in consequence of prophet, whose mission wos not directed what happened to the idol at Aehdo<l (I 80.m. to o.ny such defiuition. He has to speak v. 5). His inconceivable that this merely gencrn.lly of the judgment to come, not local custom, which demonstrated the im- of those whom God should employ to fOteuce of. the false gorl, sl1ould have been inflict it. We know from other sources imported mto Judah, where, indeed, tho that the Cho.ldeane are meant, they or the worship of Dagon seems never to have mado Aesyrio.ns bciug always announced o.s the any way. TLe following clause explain8 executors of God's vengeance on hie rebel- the meaning which the Latin version inti- lious people. The notion, o.dopted hy Ewe.Id, mates, Omnem qui arroganter -ingreditur Hitzig, o.nd others, that the prophet refers super limen-all those who. carrying out to some supposed invasion of Scythians their masters' wishes, violently invade the which took pla.ce about this time, would houses of others and pillage them of their never have been started had not such contents. The expreBsion, "to leap over authors desired to eliminate the predictive the threshold," seems to have been a. element from prophetic utterances. The common term for burglary and stealing vague account of Herod .. i.105 gives no sup- with violence. Which fill their muters' port to the assertion that the Scythio.ne in- houses. These retainers plunder and steal vaded Palestine in J osiah's reign ; nor is in order that they may increase tlieir there a trace of any knowledge of such ma~ters' treasures. The king (tl,ough not iITuption in Zephaniah or Jeremiah (see Josiah) may. be meant, the plural being the Introduction, § I.). plural of maJesty, or the idol-temples. Tbe Ver. 8.-The prophet names the three LXX., followed by Jerome, renders, "who classes of people who shall be smitten in fill the house of the Lord their God." Tbis this judgment. First, the princes. In the is plainly erroneous, as there is no question day of the Lord's sacrifice (see note on here about the temple at Jerusalem. ver. 7). God is speaking; so the name of Violence and deceit; i.e. the fruits of, what the Lord is employed instead of the pro- they have extorted by, violence antl frn.ud noun (comp. Lam. iii. 66). I will p1lllish j (Jer. v. '1:7). literally, visit upon (v:er. 12; Amos iii. 14). Ver. 10.-Tbe second class which shn.11 be The princes. The heads o'ftribes and families, smitten, viz. the traders and usurers, the nobles and magistrates. The king's children enemy being represented as breaking in (sons); Septuagint, .,.1,., 0I1<ov -rou f3a,r1>..iws, upon the localities where these persons "the house of the king." The royal family, resided. The fish gate. This is gene.rally not specially the sons of Josiah, who, if they supposed to have been in the north wall of were then in exfetence, must have been the city towards its eastern extremity, and mere children, but princes of the royal to have been so called because through it house. The reference may be particularly were brought the fish from the Jordan and to the sons of the king reigning when the the Sea of Galilee, and there was a fish- judgment fell (see 2 Kings xxv. 7). '.rhe market in its immediate neighbourhood (see king himself is not mentioned as subject to Neh. iii. 3; xii. 39; 2 Chron. u:riii. H). the judgment, inasmuch as he was pious and It was probably on this side that the Chal- obedient (2 Chron. xxxiv. 27, etc.). In the deans entered Jerusalem, aeZedekiab seems mention of these" children'' Keil finds proof to have escaped from thesouth(Jer.x=ix. -1). of the late origin of the prophecy. Such The LXX. has, ci.7r0 1r-S'A..11s ci.1ro1C€J1'Tolvrwv, as are .olothed with strange apparel. This which Jerome notes as a mistake. From clause must represent the sin for which the the second di,lrict, the lower city upon the princes are "visitod." "Strange" apparel hill Acra, to the north of the old town, Zion. means " foreign" apparel, and this implied This is so called, according to one rendering, foreign manners and habits. The Israelites in 2 Kings xxii. 14 and Neh. xi. 9. A grea~ were reminded by their very dress that they orashing. Not merely the crash of fo.lliug were a peculiar people, consecrated to God's buildings, but the cry of men when a. city service (Numb. xv. 37, etc.; Deut. x.xii.12). is taken a.nd '.the inhnbitants are put to the These nobles, however, assumed the dress of sword. The hills, on which the greater part the Egyptians and other nations with which of the city was built. Keil thinks tilat the they came in contact, and, despising their hills surrounding the lower city are meant, own national customs, copied the manners viz. Bezetha, Gareb, etc., as tb.e hearer of antl vices of foreigners ( comp. lea. iii. the cry is supposed to be on Zion. 16-24; Ezek. xx. 32; 1 Ma.co. i. 11-15). Ver. 11.-Maktesh; t/1e Mortar; Sep- Ver. 9. -Those that leap on (o'l>er) the tuagint, .,.~v 1<a'Ta.1<<1eoµµlv1w, "her tha.t is threshold. These are the retainers of the broken down." The word is found in Judg. princes, etc., ntuned in ver. 8. There is no xv. 19 of o. hollow place in a rock, and it is  4- THE BOOK OF ZEPHA.NIA.H. [ou. 1. 1-18.