The Pulpit Commentary — Zephaniah — Section 15

HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS Vers.1-6.-.Aprophet of doom. I. THE :MEANING OF HIS NAME. Zephaniah, "One whom Jehovah hides." Hiding in the day of calamity a blessing promised to them that fear God (Ps. xxxt 19, 20), who are therefore styled God's hidden ones (Ps. lxxxiii. 4), and may confidently reckon upnn God's extending to them his protecting care in the midst· of peril (Ps. xxvii. 5), yea, may even boldly flee unto him to hide them (Ps. cxliii. 9). ; II. 'fHE DIGNITY OF ms PERSON. The scion of a kingly house, "the son of Gushi, the son of Ged~liah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hezekiah." Mentioned here, not because they had been prophets, but probably because they had been celebrated persons, perhaps good men, these ancestors of Zephaniah-three of them, like himself, with Jehovah in his name-may have been introduced to show that the prophet, while descended from the good King Hezekiah, belonged to a different branch of the family from Manasseh and Amon; proceeded from the line in which Hezekiah's goodness was transmitted, and thus hnd more than royal blood in his veins (not always an advantage) -hereditary piety in his soul. III. THE TIME OF HIS APPEARING. 1. 'l'he agefi:ud. (1) "The days of Josiah, the son of Amon, King of Judah;" i.e. not before B.o. 640, when Josiah began to reign. (2) Before the fall of Nineveh (eh. ii. 13), which took place in B.o. 625. (3) Probably o.fter Josiah's reformation had begun and before it was completed, since the prophet speaks of a" remnant of Baal" as existing at the time when he began to prophesy. (4) Hence the date of Zephaniah may be placed between Josiah's twelfth and eighteenth yeo.rs, or between B,o. 628-622 (Hitzig, Keil, and Delitzsch), though by 12 THE BOOK OF ZEPHANIAH. [on. 1. 1-18, ----- ------------------------- some interpreters (Ewald, Havemick, Pusey) it has been fixed earller--to wit, prior to J osiah's twelfth year. 2. Its character declared. (1) Generally, as regards the whole land of J uclah, an age of widely spread, deeply seated, and well-nigh inourablo w1ckedness,_of deplorable religious apostasy, of intensely debasing idolatry, of shu.me- less hypocnsy, and of gross worldliness and indifference to Divine things (ver. 4). (2) Part1cnlarly1 as regards Jerusalem, an age of rebellion, disobedience, irreligiou, prayerlessnesl!, unbelief, violence, treachery, desecration of Jehovah's sanctuary, insensibility to correction, and deep-seated immorality (eh. iii. 1-4), with all of whicll the metropolis and its inhabitants were chargeable (cf. Jer. v.; vi.). IV. THK souncE OF ms INSPIRATION. "The word of Jehovah." Whether this came to him by direct revelation through voice (Jer. i. 4) or vision (Isa. i. 1; ii. 1), or indirectly by meditation on the moral and political condition of his countrymen as well as on the character of Jehovah and the laws of righteousness by which he uoverns the universe, is not said and need not be inquired into. It suffices to know that the prophet claimed for his message that it had been expressly given him-put into his heart and mouth-by Jehovah; while his predictions certainly were such as could not have been announced without the aid of Divine inspiration. Y. THE BURDEN OF HIS PROPHECY. Judgment. 1. Divine. The instrument is not mentioned ; the first cause alone is placed in the foreuround-" I will utterly consume;"" I will cut off;" " I will stretch out mine hand." 1'be present-day tendency is to set God iu the background, if not to deny his agency altogether, alike in the production of material phenomena and in the superintendence of the social, moral, and political worlds, and to concentrate attention principally, if not exclusively, upon what are merely God's instruments. The prophet's way of looking at men and tbiugs accorded more with sound philosophy and true science, not to say sincere religion, than the practice prevailing in many so-called enlightened circles to-day. 2. Universal. The judgment should embrace the wide earth. "All"-" man and beast, the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the sea, the stumbling-blocks and the wicked "-should be arraigned at J ebo,ab's bar. If the language pointed not to a general judgment of men and nations at the end of the world, it at least emphasized the thought that no part of the world, no age or nation, could escape the ordeal of appearing before Heaven's tribunal or eiude the grasp of Divine retribution. The terms in which Jehovah declares his purpose to visit the wicked with destruction are such as to show that the complete fulfilment of the prophecy can only be reached in the great and terrible day of the Lord at the close of time (cf. Isa. xxiv.1-23). 3. Particular. While enclosing the whole world in its sweep, the threatened judgment should fall with a special stroke i.Ipon Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem-as it were beginning with the house of God (1 Pet. iv. 17). That the instruments of judgment would be the Scythians of \\"hom Herodotus (i. 15, 103, 106; iv. 10, 12) speaks as having invaded Upper and Higher Asia (Bitzig, Ewald, Bertbeau), is not supported by sufficient evidence, whilst the fact that neither Herodotus nor the Old 'l'estament reports any conquest of Jerusalem by them seems decisive against their being considered the executors of J!:hovah's wrath. The agents actually employed were the Chaldeans (2 Kings xxv. 9), though it was not Zepbaniah's purpose to indicate by whom the judg~ents should be carried out. 4. Complete. Thorough-going; upon both the world 1n general and JuJa.h in particular. "I will utterly consume all from off the face of the ground, saith Jehovah." (1) As regards the world, the destruction should be as wide-sweeping as had been that of the Deluge (Gen. vii. 21). (2) As regards Judah and Jerusalem, the purgation as effective. "The remnant of Baal should be cut off,'' i.e. root and branch extirpated, or the work of extirpation, if alrea'.ly begun, should be carried fon'<'ard till not a vesticre of the hated idol-worship should be seen. (a) First, the idolatrous priests of both kinds should be swept away-the Chemarim, or "the priests wbr,:n the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of J udab and in the places round about Jerusalem" (2 Kings xxiii. 6; Hos. x. 5); and the priests, not" the idolatrous priests in the stricter sense" (Keil), but the unworthy priests of Jehovah who bad either secretly or openly favoured the prevailing Baal- worship (Fausset, Farrar). (b) Next, the idol-worshippers of both kinds should be cut ~ff-the thorough-paced devotees of the heathen cultus, who worshipped the host or heaven upon the house-lops, aud the temporizers who tried to combine the worship Oil. I. 1-18,] THE BOOK OF Z~PHANIAH. 13