Zephaniah 3:16 Kommentar

We now return to Jerusalem, and must again hear what God has to say to her, I. By way of reproof and threatening, for the abundance of wickedness that was found in her, of which divers instances are given, with the aggravations of them (Zep 3:1-7). II. By way of promise of mercy and grace, which God had yet in reserve for them. Two general heads of promises here are: - 1. That God would bring in a glorious work of reformation among them, cleanse them from their sins, and bring them home to himself; many promises of this kind here are (Zep 3:8-13). 2. That he would bring about a glorious work of salvation for them, when he had thus prepared them for it (Zep 3:14-20). Thus the "Redeemer shall come to Zion," and to clear his own way, shall "turn away ungodliness from Jacob." These promises were to have their full accomplishment in gospel-times and gospel-graces.

In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, fear thou not, &c.] Do not be afraid of any enemies; neither outward ones, the armies of Gog and Magog, the Turk, who will threaten, and will attempt to dispossess them of their land, now returned to it; nor inward and spiritual enemies, sin, Satan, death, and hell, being all vanquished and subdued by Christ: this will be said, not by the enemies themselves, who will confess they have no power to stand before the mighty God, as Aben Ezra; but either by the prophets of the Lord, or by the people themselves, encouraging one another, every man his neighbour, as Kimchi; or rather by the Lord himself, as the Septuagint and Arabic versions supply it, ``the Lord shall say to Jerusalem;'' this will be said at the time of the Jews' conversion, when reinstated in their own land, and shall be threatened with another remove from it, which they will have no reason to fear: [and to] Zion, Let not thine hands be slack; weak, remiss, hang down through fear of mind, and fainting of spirit; and so unfit to meet the enemy, or perform duty; but, on the contrary, pluck up a good heart, be of good courage, fear not the enemy, be vigorous, active, and diligent, in the performance of the service of the Lord, animated by the following considerations:

(Verse 14 and following) Praise, daughter of Zion, shout for joy, Israel, rejoice and exult with all your heart, daughter of Jerusalem. The Lord has taken away your judgment, he has turned away your enemies: the Lord, the King of Israel, is in your midst, you will no longer fear evil. On that day, it will be said, Jerusalem, do not be afraid: Zion, let your hands not be weak: the Lord your God, in your midst, is mighty he will save, he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will quiet you with his love: he will exult over you with praise. I will gather those who turned away from the law, because they were from you, so that you will no longer have reproach against them. Rejoice, daughter of Zion; proclaim, daughter of Jerusalem, rejoice and delight with all your heart, daughter of Jerusalem. The Lord has taken away your iniquities, he has redeemed you from the hand of your enemies, the Lord, the king of Israel, is in your midst: you will no longer see evil. In that time, says the Lord, Jerusalem, have confidence, Zion, let your hands not be weak: the Lord your God, who is mighty, will save you, he will bring joy upon you, and renew you in his love, and he will rejoice over you with delight, as on a solemn day: I will gather your broken ones. Woe to anyone who receives reproach upon it. It does not seem strange, as we have often said, that Hebrew chapters end differently from the Greek Septuagint and the Latin. For where there is a different sense of translation, there must necessarily be different beginnings or endings. The Jews, who expect Christ to come, promise themselves all these things, which we who have received Christ have already obtained with him. Therefore, if anyone, especially among the new wise men of the Christians, whose names I will not mention in order not to appear to harm anyone, thinks that prophecy has not yet been fulfilled, let him know that he falsely bears the name of Christ and has a Jewish soul, having only the circumcision of the body. For if these things have not yet been done, but are to come, we have believed in vain in the coming of the Savior. But in vain do we understand that the mystery, which has been kept secret from eternal times, is fulfilled in us who do not believe, and is now manifested through the prophetic Scriptures and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Finally, let us consider the order of the reading, and we will see that it is said to pertain not to the Jews, but to the Church of Christ. For after that which went before (My judgement concerning the nations, that they might receive kings, even unto that place where it is said: They shall call upon the name of the Lord, and shall serve him under one yoke. And I will take of my dispersed into Ethiopia, and they shall offer to me victims. And in that day there shall be no more a Pharao in the land of Egypt: but the Assyrian shall be his king, because they would not be converted. And the remnant of the house of Israel, and they that shall escape of the house of Jacob, shall lean upon the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. A remnant shall be converted, the remnant, I say, of Jacob, to the mighty God. For if thy people, O Israel, shall be as the sand of the sea, a remnant of them shall be converted. Consummation, and that determined, shall overflow justice. Because the Lord God of hosts shall make a consumption, and an abridgment in the midst of all the land. The Holy Spirit, preaching about the general consummation of the world, speaks: Rejoice, daughter of Zion, proclaim, daughter of Jerusalem, be glad and delight with all your heart, daughter of Jerusalem. For every soul of the Church, which is established on the watchtower and contemplates peace, rejoices and is glad that its iniquities have been removed and redeemed by Him who redeemed all with His precious blood. For Christ has become wisdom for us from God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption (I Cor. I, 30). And the king of Israel, who dwells among us, redeemed us, saying: I and my Father will come, and we will make our abode with him (John XIV, 23); and I will dwell and walk among them (Lev. XXVI, 12): and we will no longer see evil, but only think and do virtues. In that day, says the Lord, we will see peace, and placed on high, let not your hands be dissolved, who also said through Isaiah: Strengthen the weak hands, and let your works be strong (Isaiah XXXV, 3). For the Lord is strong, against whom no one can resist: your savior, he himself will restore to you the joy that you have lost, and after casting off the old man, he will make you walk in the new, and he will do all this out of his love: not because of your merit, but because of his mercy. And he will rejoice in you, and delight in you, receiving your salvation like a rich sacrifice of your solemnity; and he himself will say to you: I will gather your contrite ones; for a contrite and humble heart, God will not despise. (Psalm 50:19); and, a crushed reed he will not break. (Isaiah 42). But for now, if we want to understand the second coming of the Savior. Moreover, because the prophet Zechariah encourages Zion and Jerusalem to similar joy, and Matthew says that this same prophecy was fulfilled in the first coming of Christ (Matt. 21), we are compelled by necessity, or rather we are led by the very order of truth, which is said in Zephaniah, not to hope for what is to come, but for what has already happened. For it is written in Zechariah: Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; proclaim, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, your king comes to you, righteous and saving: he is humble and riding on a donkey (or a colt) (Zech. 9:9). These things are said according to the Septuagint. However, according to the Hebrew, the Church is commanded to praise and Israel is commanded to rejoice, perceiving God with understanding, and to exult and be joyful with their whole heart in the place of peace, to which it was said: Peace I give to you, my peace I leave with you (John 14:27). For in the end and consummation of the world, he took away his judgment, by no means judging or reproving it, but saving it; and he turned away his enemies, the hordes of demons. The Lord God of Israel will be in its midst: it will no longer fear evil. On that day it will be said to Jerusalem: O thou free city, thou shalt no longer serve with thy sons, but thou shalt be the mother of the saints (Galatians IV). Fear not, O Zion (for thou art indeed Jerusalem): none of thy works shall be destroyed, nor shalt thou mourn for the things which thou hast done (or, shalt thou lament, Isaiah 54:9). The Lord thy God, who will save thee, is strong and mighty: he himself will dwell in the midst of thee, he will rejoice over thee with gladness and joy, and he will silence thy sins with love (or, with peace), wherewith he hath loved thee: and he will exult over thee with praise, either because thou art praiseworthy, or because thou singest praises with thine own (people). Just as the Eagle, or, as it is interpreted, the Aquila, gathers those who have strayed from you, because they were from you, that is, those who had fled from your bosom through vice and sin, and had come under the power of demons, when the state of all things is restored, they will come to you, and you will no longer allow any reproach against your lost children. Let us know that what we have said is nonsense (), in Hebrew it is the same as the Latin language, and therefore it is placed by us as it was in Hebrew: so that we may know that the Hebrew language is the mother of all languages, which is not for this time to discuss. But I marvel at Aquila and the Septuagint, because we translated them, in that place namely where we said: I will gather because they were from you: instead of, they were, they translated it as woe, or οἴ: which Aquila always puts not for lamenting, but for calling and crying out: Haja (), for the beginning of the word signifies 'they were,' the past tense in the plural number, either were or had been. I know that this will be bothersome to the reader, who, if he notices, will not accuse me of writing controversies and declamations, nor of rejoicing in commonplaces: but rather will criticize me for playing in the manner of rhetoricians, rather than blame me for dwelling in so great obscurities, as is worthy of one lingering.

I am aware that some commentators understood this [text to apply to] the return from Babylon and the renovation of Jerusalem, and I do not contradict their words: the prophecy applies also to what happened at that time. But you can find a more exact outcome after the incarnation of our Savior: then it was that he healed the oppressed in heart in the washing of regeneration, then it was that he renewed human nature, loving us so much as to give his life for us. After all, “greater love than this no one can show than for one to lay down one’s life for one’s friend,” and again, “God so loved the world as to give his only-begotten Son so that everyone believing in him might not be lost but have eternal life.”

The prophet reproves Jerusalem, and all her guides and rulers, for their obstinate perseverance in impiety, notwithstanding all the warnings and corrections which they had received from God, Zep 3:1-7. They are encouraged, however, after they shall have been chastised for their idolatry, and cured of it, to look for mercy and restoration, Zep 3:8-13; and exited to hymns of joy at the glorious prospect, Zep 3:14-17. After which the prophet concludes with large promises of favor and prosperity in the days of the Messiah, Zep 3:18-20. We take this extensive view of the concluding verses of this chapter, because an apostle has expressly assured us that in Every prophetical book of the Old Testament Scriptures are confined predictions relative to the Gospel dispensation. See Act 3:24.

Fear thou not - Thou shalt have no more captivities nor national afflictions. Let not thine hands be slack - This may refer, first, to the rebuilding of the temple of God, after the return from Babylon; and, secondly, to their diligence and zeal in the Christian Church.

RESUMPTION OF THE DENUNCIATION OF JERUSALEM, AS BEING UNREFORMED BY THE PUNISHMENT OF OTHER NATIONS: AFTER HER CHASTISEMENT JEHOVAH WILL INTERPOSE FOR HER AGAINST HER FOES; HIS WORSHIP SHALL FLOURISH IN ALL LANDS, BEGINNING AT JERUSALEM, WHERE HE SHALL BE IN THE MIDST OF HIS PEOPLE, AND SHALL MAKE THEM A PRAISE IN ALL THE EARTH. (Zep. 3:1-20) filthy--MAURER translates from a different root, "rebellious," "contumacious." But the following term, "polluted," refers rather to her inward moral filth, in spite of her outward ceremonial purity [CALVIN]. GROTIUS says, the Hebrew is used of women who have prostituted their virtue. There is in the Hebrew Moreah; a play on the name Moriah, the hill on which the temple was built; implying the glaring contrast between their filthiness and the holiness of the worship on Moriah in which they professed to have a share. oppressing--namely, the poor, weak, widows, orphans and strangers (Jer 22:3).

Let not thine hands be slack-- (Heb 12:12). Do not faint in the work of the Lord.

To give still greater emphasis to his exhortation to repentance, the prophet turns to Jerusalem again, that he may once more hold up before the hardened sinners the abominations of this city, in which Jehovah daily proclaims His right, and shows the necessity for the judgment, as the only way that is left by which to secure salvation for Israel and for the whole world. Zep 3:1. "Woe to the refractory and polluted one, the oppressive city! Zep 3:2. She has not hearkened to the voice; not accepted discipline; not trusted in Jehovah; not drawn near to her God. Zep 3:3. Her princes are roaring lions in the midst of her; her judges evening wolves, who spare not for the morning. Zep 3:4. Her prophets boasters, men of treacheries: her priests desecrate that which is holy, to violence to the law." The woe applies to the city of Jerusalem. That this is intended in Zep 3:1 is indisputably evident from the explanation which follows in Zep 3:2-4 of the predicates applied to the city addressed in Zep 3:1. By the position of the indeterminate predicates מוראה and נגאלה before the subject to which the hōi refers, the threat acquires greater emphasis. מוראה is not formed from the hophal of ראה (ἐπιφανής, lxx, Cyr., Cocc.), but is the participle kal of מרא = מרה or מרר, to straighten one's self, and hold one's self against a person, hence to be rebellious (see Delitzsch on Job, on Job 33:2, note). נגאלה, stained with sins and abominations (cf. Isa 59:3). Yōnâh does not mean columba, but oppressive (as in Jer 46:16; Jer 50:16, and Jer 25:38)), as a participle of yânâh to oppress (cf. Jer 22:3). These predicates are explained and vindicated in Zep 3:2-4, viz., first of all מוראה in Zep 3:2. She gives no heed to the voice, sc. of God in the law and in the words of the prophets (compare Jer 7:28, where קול יהוה occurs in the repetition of the first hemistich). The same thing is affirmed in the second clause, "she accepts no chastisement." These two clauses describe the attitude assumed towards the legal contents of the word of God, the next two the attitude assumed towards its evangelical contents, i.e., the divine promises. Jerusalem has no faith in these, and does not allow them to draw her to her God. The whole city is the same, i.e., the whole of the population of the city. Her civil and spiritual rulers are no better. Their conduct shows that the city is oppressive and polluted (Zep 3:3 and Zep 3:4). Compare with this the description of the leaders in Mic 3:1-12. The princes are lions, which rush with roaring upon the poor and lowly, to tear them in pieces and destroy them (Pro 28:15; Eze 19:2; Nah 2:12). The judges resemble evening wolves (see at Hab 1:8), as insatiable as wolves, which leave not a single bone till the following morning, of the prey they have caught in the evening. The verb gâram is a denom. from gerem, to gnaw a bone, piel to crush them (Num 24:8); to gnaw a bone for the morning, is the same as to leave it to be gnawed in the morning. Gâram has not in itself the meaning to reserve or lay up (Ges. Lex.). The prophets, i.e., those who carry on their prophesying without a call from God (see Mic 2:11; Mic 3:5, Mic 3:11), are pōchăzı̄m, vainglorious, boasting, from pâchaz, to boil up or boil over, and when applied to speaking, to overflow with frivolous words. Men of treacheries, bōgedōth, a subst. verb, from bâgad, the classical word for faithless adultery or apostasy from God. The prophets proved themselves to be so by speaking the thoughts of their own hearts to the people as revelations from God, and thereby strengthening it in its apostasy from the Lord. The priests profane that which is holy (qoodesh, every holy thing or act), and do violence to the law, namely, by treating what is holy as profane, and perverting the precepts of the law concerning holy and unholy (cf. Eze 22:26).