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 1,16 Zeph 1,16
We grope for the wall like the blind; yea, we grope as they that have no eyes: we stumble at noonday as in the twilight; {Or, we are in dark places like the dead}among them that are lusty we are as dead men.
Walk about Zion, and go round about her;Number the towers thereof;
My anguish, my anguish! {Another reading is, I will wait patiently}I am pained at {Hebrew: the walls of my heart.}my very heart; my heart is disquieted in me; I cannot hold my peace; because {Or, as otherwised read, my soul heareth}thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.
Mark ye well her bulwarks; {Or, Traverse}Consider her palaces:That ye may tell it to the generation following.
Destruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is laid waste: suddenly are my tents destroyed, and my curtains in a moment.
For {Or, Jehovah of hosts hath a day}there shall be a day of Jehovah of hosts upon all that is proud and haughty, and upon all that is lifted up; and it shall be brought low;
and upon all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan,
and upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up,
and upon every lofty tower, and upon every fortified wall,
Flee for safety, ye children of Benjamin, out of the midst of Jerusalem, and blow the trumpet in Tekoa, and raise up a signal on Beth-haccherem; for evil looketh forth from the north, and a great destruction.
For the palace shall be forsaken; the populous city shall be deserted; {Or, Ophel}the hill and the watch-tower shall be for dens for ever, a joy of wild asses, a pasture of flocks;
The snorting of his horses is heard from Dan: at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones the whole land trembleth; for they are come, and have devoured the land and all that is in it; the city and those that dwell therein.
Blow ye the cornet in Gibeah, and the trumpet in Ramah: sound an alarm at Beth-aven; {Or, After thee, Benjamin!}behind thee, O Benjamin.
{Or, The trumpet to thy mouth! As an eagle against the house of Jehovah!}Set the trumpet to thy mouth. As an eagle he cometh against the house of Jehovah, because they have transgressed my covenant, and trespassed against my law.
Shall the trumpet be blown in a city, and the people not be afraid? shall evil befall a city, and Jehovah hath not done it?
For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, that march through the breadth of the earth, to possess dwelling-places that are not theirs.
{Hebrew: He, and so in verse 8, 9.}They are terrible and dreadful; their judgment and their dignity proceed from themselves.
Their horses also are swifter than leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves; and their horsemen {Or, spread themselves}press proudly on: yea, their horsemen come from far; they fly as an eagle that hasteth to devour.
They come all of them for violence; {Hebrew: the eagerness (or, assembling) of their faces is &c.}the set of their faces is {Or, towards the east}forwards; and they gather captives as the sand.
{Or, And they scoff &c.}Yea, he scoffeth at kings, and princes are a derision unto him; he derideth every stronghold; for he heapeth up dust, and taketh it.
He stood, and {Or, shook}measured the earth;He beheld, and drove asunder the nations;And the eternal mountains were scattered;The everlasting hills did bow; {Or, His ways are everlasting}His goings were as of old.