Zephaniah 1:1

The word of the Lord which came unto Zephaniah the son of Cushi,.... This is the title of the book, which expresses the subject matter of it, the word of the Lord; the word of prophecy from the Lord,

The word of the LORD which came unto Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hizkiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah.

CHAPTER 1 The word; the declaration of the purpose of God, either spoken audibly, or clearly manifested by signs. Of the Lord, God of Israel; here is the Divine authority of this prophecy with which the prophet's word is seconded. Which came: the precise manner how it came we need not inquire into; Zephaniah did not hammer out of his own brain any such news, he received from God what he communicated to them. Zephaniah; by derivation of the name. it is one hidden of the Lord, whom God doth hide, or God's secretary; or else one that is God's Watchman, whom God hath set over the house of Judah, as Ezekiel is said to be, Ezekiel 3:17. The son of Cushi, & c. his pedigree here gives us no certainty what his progenitors were, whether prophets, or only eminent known men; or whether he were, as some think him, the great-grandson of Hezekiah, the name being the same. In the days of Josiah; before the captivity; he was then contemporary with Jeremiah and Ezekiel. prophesied before the captivity, and foretells much like what Jeremiah or Ezekiel did. Amon; whose reign was very full of impiety and idolatry, and hastened the captivity upon Judah. This Amon sacrificed to all the carved images which Manasseh had made, 2 Chronicles 33:22.

Zephaniah 1:1 The word of the LORD which came unto Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hizkiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah.Ver. 1. The word of the Lord which came unto Zephaniah] Which is (by interpretation) God’ s secretary, or, hidden one, Psalms 27:5; Psalms 83:3. Or, as Jerome and some others will have it, God’ s watchman, Ezekiel 33:7. A fit name for a prophet. The son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, &c.] These were, if not prophets (as the Jewish doctors make them), yet men famous in the Church ( Hebraei Prophetarum patres, quotquot nominatim recensentur, ipsos quoque prophetas fuisse dicunt); as were Alexander and Rufus, though they be but mentioned and no more, Mark 15:21. In the days of Josiah] Who reigned thirty-one years, but, being in his minority, began not to reform religion, much corrupted in the days of his idolatrous father, Amon, till the eighteenth year of his reign, 2 Kings 22:1; 2 Kings 23:23, whether before or after the reformation, "the word of the Lord came unto Zephaniah," interpreters agree not. Jeremiah (his contemporary) began not to prophesy till the thirteenth year of Josiah’ s reign, Jeremiah 1:1-2, at what time (viz. in his twelfth year) he had begun to reform with a great deal of zeal, 2 Chronicles 34:3, but also he met with a great deal of opposition from the princes and people who had been woefully hardened and abituated in their idolatry under Manasseh and Amon, and therefore with much difficulty drawn off. Zephaniah and Jeremiah were singular helps, no doubt, to that peerless king in his zealous undertakings for God. But why he should send to Huldah, the prophetess, rather than to either of them, 2 Kings 22:13, what other reason can be given but that she dwelt in the college at Jerusalem, and so was next at hand? And why he went up against Pharaoh Necho, and sent not first to any prophet to ask their advice, what can we say but this, that sometimes both grace and wit are asleep in the holiest and wariest breasts? and that the best of God’ s saints may be sometimes miscarried by their passion, to their cost?

(1-6) Judgment on Judah and Jerusalem is impending on account of a religious apostacy of manifold forms and degrees. The wide range of this judgment.

THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ZEPHANIAH Chronological Notes relative to this Book, upon the supposition that it was written in the twelfth year of the reign of Josiah, king of Judah -Year from the Creation, according to Archbishop Usher, 3374. -Year of the Julian Period, 4084. -Year since the Flood, 1718. -Year from the vocation of Abram, 1291. -Year from the foundation of Solomon's temple, 382. -Year since the division of Solomon's monarchy into the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, 346. -Year since the conquest of Coroebus at Olympia, usually called the first Olympiad, 147. -Third year of the thirty-seventh Olympiad. -Year from the building of Rome, according to the Varronian computation, 124. -Year of the era of Nabonassar, 118. -Year since the destruction of the kingdom of Israel by Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, 92. -Year before the birth of Christ, 626. -Year before the vulgar era of Christ's nativity, 630. -Cycle of the Sun, 24. -Cycle of the Moon, 18. -Eighteenth year of Phraortes, king of Media. This monarch is supposed by some to have been the same with the Arphaxad of the Apocrypha. -Eleventh year of Philip I., king of Macedon. -Twenty-second year of Archidamus, king of Lacedaemon, of the family of the Proclidae. -Fifteenth year of Eurycrates II., king of Lacedaemon, of the family of the Eurysthenidae. -Twenty-ninth year of Cypselus, who had seized upon the government of Corinth. -Forty-second year of Psammitichus, king of Egypt, according to Helvicus. -Tenth year of Kiniladachus, king of Babylon, according to the same chronologer. This monarch was the immediate predecessor of Nabopolassar, the father of Nebuchadnezzar. -Second year of Sadyattes, king of Lydia. -Eleventh year of Ancus Martius, the fifth king of the Romans. -Twelfth year of Josiah, king of Judah. CHAPTER I This chapter begins with denouncing God's judgments against Judah and Jerusalem, 1-3. Idolaters, and sinners of several other denominations, are then particularly threatened; and their approaching visitation enlarged on, by the enumeration of several circumstances which tend greatly to heighten its terrors, 4-18. NOTES ON CHAP. I Verse 1. The word of the Lord which came unto Zephaniah] Though this prophet has given us so large a list of his ancestors, yet little concerning him is known, because we know nothing certain relative to the persons of the family whose names are here introduced. We have one chronological note which is of more value for the correct understanding of his prophecy than the other could have been, how circumstantially soever it had been delivered; viz., that he prophesied in the days of Josiah, son of Amon, king of Judah; and from the description which he gives of the disorders which prevailed in Judea in his time, it is evident that he must have prophesied before the reformation made by Josiah, which was in the eighteenth year of his reign.

Chap. 1 The Title 1. The word … unto Zephaniah] The name Zephaniah means, He whom Jehovah has hid, that is, treasures, or protects. The name is not uncommon, Jeremiah 21:1; Jeremiah 52:24; Zechariah 6:10. the son of Hizkiah] Hizkiah or Hezekiah may be the king of that name. It is unusual to carry the genealogy of a prophet further up than his father, and the exception in the present case suggests that Hezekiah, the last link in the chain, was a person of distinction. See Introduction, § 1. in the days of Josiah … king of Judah] The words “king of Judah” refer to Josiah, not to his father Amon. Josiah reigned b.c. 639–608. The Book The Book has two great divisions: First, ch. Zephaniah 1:2 to Zephaniah 3:8, a threat of judgment on the world: on Judah and the nations; and secondly, a promise of salvation equally universal, ch. Zephaniah 3:9-20. The judgment is that of the great day of the Lord. The prophet represents it as universal, but concentrating itself on Judah, ch. Zephaniah 1:2 to Zephaniah 2:3; then as involving the nations, ch. Zephaniah 2:4-15; and finally he speaks of Judah and the nations together, ch. Zephaniah 3:1-8. The passage ch. Zephaniah 1:2 to Zephaniah 2:3 has these divisions: (1) Judgment on all created things, and especially on Judah and Jerusalem (Zephaniah 1:2-7); (2) the classes in Jerusalem whom God will search out and punish (Zephaniah 1:8-13); (3) the terrors of the day of the Lord (Zephaniah 1:14-18); (4) exhortation to men to seek righteousness that they may be hid in the day of the Lord’s anger (ch. Zephaniah 2:1-3).

The word of the Lord which came unto Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hezekiah - It seems likely that more forefathers of the prophet are named than is

1. The title. The word of Jehovah which came — See on Hosea 1:1. For the genealogy of the prophet see p. 505; for the date of his ministry, pp. 506ff.