The word of Jehovah which came unto Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amarah, the son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah.
I will utterly consume all things from off the face of the ground, saith Jehovah.
I will consume man and beast; I will consume the birds of the heavens, and the fishes of the sea, and the stumblingblocks with the wicked; and I will cut off man from off the face of the ground, saith Jehovah.
And I will stretch out my hand upon Judah, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place, and the name of the Chemarim with the priests;
and them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops; and them that worship, that swear to Jehovah and swear by {Or, their king}Malcam;
and them that are turned back from following Jehovah; and those that have not sought Jehovah, nor inquired after him.
Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord Jehovah; for the day of Jehovah is at hand: for Jehovah hath prepared a sacrifice, he hath consecrated his guests.
And it shall come to pass in the day of Jehovah's sacrifice, that I will {Hebrew: visit upon.}punish the princes, and the king's sons, and all such as are clothed with foreign apparel.
And in that day I will {Hebrew: visit upon.}punish all those that leap over the threshold, that fill their master's house with violence and deceit.
And in that day, saith Jehovah, there shall be the noise of a cry from the fish gate, and a wailing from the {Hebrew: Mishneh.}second quarter, and a great crashing from the hills.
Wail, ye inhabitants of {Or, The mortar}Maktesh; for all {Or, the merchant people}the people of Canaan are undone; all they that were laden with silver are cut off.
And it shall come to pass at that time, that I will search Jerusalem with lamps; and I will {Hebrew: visit upon.}punish the men that are {Or, thickened}settled on their lees, that say in their heart, Jehovah will not do good, neither will he do evil.
And their wealth shall become a spoil, and their houses a desolation: yea, they shall build houses, but shall not inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, but shall not drink the wine thereof.
The great day of Jehovah is near, it is near and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of Jehovah; the mighty man crieth there bitterly.
That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness,
a day of the trumpet and alarm, against the fortified cities, and against the high {Or, corner towers}battlements.
And I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against Jehovah; and their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as dung.
Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of Jehovah's wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he will make an end, yea, a {Or, speedy}terrible end, of all them that dwell in the land.
Querverweise zu Zephanja 1,6 Zeph 1,6
It repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king; for he is turned back from following me, and hath not performed my commandments. And Samuel was wroth; and he cried unto Jehovah all night.
The wicked, in the pride of his countenance, saith, He will not require it.All his thoughts are, There is no God.
The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit:He hath ceased to be wise and to do good.
Jehovah looked down from heaven upon the children of men,To see if there were any that did {Or, deal wisely}understand,That did seek after God.
But as for such as turn aside unto their crooked ways,Jehovah will lead them forth with the workers of iniquity.Peace be upon Israel.
They are all gone aside; they are together become filthy;There is none that doeth good, no, not one.
Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evil-doers, children that deal corruptly! they have forsaken Jehovah, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are estranged and gone backward.
Yet thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob; but thou hast been weary of me, O Israel.
For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.
They are all hot as an oven, and devour their judges; all their kings are fallen: there is none among them that calleth unto me.
Hast thou not procured this unto thyself, in that thou hast forsaken Jehovah thy God, when he led thee by the way?
There is none that understandeth,There is none that seeketh after God;
And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah hath not returned unto me with her whole heart, but feignedly, saith Jehovah.
how shall we escape, if we neglect so great a salvation? which having at the first been spoken through the Lord, was confirmed unto us by them that heard;
Thou hast rejected me, saith Jehovah, thou art gone backward: therefore have I stretched out my hand against thee, and destroyed thee; I am weary with repenting.
Again, when a righteous man doth turn from his righteousness, and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumblingblock before him, he shall die: because thou hast not given him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteous deeds which he hath done shall not be remembered; but his blood will I require at thy hand.
Though thou, Israel, play the harlot, yet let not Judah {Or, become guilty}offend; and come not ye unto Gilgal, neither go ye up to Beth-aven, nor swear, As Jehovah liveth.
For Israel hath behaved himself stubbornly, like a stubborn heifer: now will Jehovah feed them as a lamb in a large place.
And my people are bent on backsliding from me: though they call them to him that is on high, none at all will {Or, lift himself up}exalt him.
But {Some ancient authorities read the righteous one.}my righteous one shall live by faith:And if he shrink back, my soul hath no pleasure in him.
But we are not {Greek: of shrinking back.}of them that shrink back unto perdition; but of them that have faith unto the {Or, gaining}saving of the soul.
For, uttering great swelling words of vanity, they entice in the lusts of the flesh, by lasciviousness, those who are just escaping from them that live in error;
promising them liberty, while they themselves are bondservants of corruption; for of {Or, what}whom a man is overcome, of the same is he also brought into bondage.
For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of {Many ancient authorities read our.}the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein and overcome, the last state is become worse with them than the first.
For it were better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy commandment delivered unto them.
It has happened unto them according to the true proverb, {Proverbs 26:11.}The dog turning to his own vomit again, and the sow that had washed to wallowing in the mire.