The Pulpit Commentary — Zephaniah — Section 26

I. As A DAY OF ENORMOUS BA.ORIFICE. "Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord God: for the de.y of the Lord is at hand: for the Lord hath prepared a sacrifice." A sacrifice I 1. It is an enormous sacrifice of life. Several c1asses are referred to here as the victims of this war. (1) Royalty. "I will punish the prince~, and the king'~ children, and all such as are clothed with strange apparel." The reference is here probably to the princes of the royal house, to the children of the king who would be on the throne at the time of the fulfilment of the prophecy. In 2 Kings xxv. 7 it is said that Nebuchadnezzar slew the sons of King Zedekiah before his eyes. When the savage and bloodthirsty lions of war are let loose, they are regardless of all social distinction ; they seize the princes as well as paupers. No class in society, perhaps, as a rule, deserve the destruction more than the rulers of the people. They for the most part create the wars, and often deserve to be struck down. Through all history they have generally been the war-makers. War is their own child, and their child sometimes strikes them down. (2) Another class referred to is the nobility. "In the same day also will I punish all those that leap on the threshold, which fill their masters' houses with violence and deceit." Some suppose that there is a. reference here to the Philistine custom of not treading on the "threshold," which a.rose from the head and hands of Dagon being cut off on the threshold before the ark (1 Sam. v. 5). It scarcely matters; reckless men in power a.re referred to-men that fill their masters' houses with violence and deceit. "The servants of princes," says Calvin." who have gotten prey like hounds for their masters, leap exultingly on their masters' threshold, or on the threshold of the houses which they break into." War sometimes, and in~urrectionary war always, strikes savagely at the higher classes. It plays sad havoc with aristocracies; it sets manors in flames, and treads coronets in the dust. (See another and more probable interpretation in the Exposition.) (3) Another class referred to is that of the traders. "Howl, ye inhabitants of Maktesh, for all the merchant people are cut down: all they that bear silver are cut off." Some translate Maktesh, "Mortar," a name employed for the valley of Siloam, from its hollow shape. It was a valley at the eastern extremity of Moriah, where the merchants dwelt. The invading army seizes the wealth of the country. Greedy conquerors have always had a keen eye to this. (4) Another class referred to is the masses. "A.nd it shall come to pass at that time, that I will search Jerusalem with candles, and punish the men that are settled on their lees : tha.t say in their heart, The Lord will not do good, neither will he do evil." This is not a bad description of the masses of people in a.ll ages. They are: (a) Unconspic=. Pretty well all alike, they do not stand out in the country from the generality. War has no particular aim at them, though it strikes them indiscriminately; still, though unconspicuous, war will find them out. " I will search Jerusalem with candles." (b) ReligiO'Usly indifferent. "Settled on their lees." This means crusted, hardened, like wines long left at the bottom undisturbed. "That say in their heart, The Lord will not do good, neither will he do evil." Religious indifferentism has always been the leading characteristic of the masses. Note the sacrifice of life in all these classes-the rulers and the ruled, the rich and the poor, tile ignorant and the learned, the innocent and the guilty, the young and the old, all in war form one huge sacrifice of blood. It is overwhelmingly awful to think of the Ii, es that have been sacrificed in war even since the year 1852. In the Crimean War (li:354) it is estimated that 750,000 fell; in the Italian Wa.r (1859), 45,000; in the war at Schleswig-Holstein, 3000; in the American Civil War, 800,000; in the war between Prussia., Austria, and Italy (1866), 45,000; expeditions to Mexico, Cochin China, Morocco, Paraguay, 65,000; in the Franco-German War, 215,000; 'l.'urkey massacres in Bulgaria, 25,000; total, 1,948,000. This is one of the sacrifices that war has made, not only in civilized lands, but even in Christendom during the last thirty-five years ; and the perpetrntors of these enormities call themselves Christians, professed disciples of him who said, "I came not to destroy men's lives, but to save them;" "If thine enemy hunger, feed him." 2. It is an enormous sacrifice of property. "Therefore their goods shall become a. booty, and their houses a desolation: they shall also build houses, but not inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, but not drink the wine thereof." Who can estimate the amount of property that the wars during the la.at thirty years have utterly destroyed ? The Crimean War cost £340,000,000; the Italian, £60,000,000; the American Civil War, £1,400,000,000;  THE BOOK OF ZEPHANIA.H. [on. 1, 1-18,