Sofonías 1:9

9 En aquel día castigaréa cuantos evitan pisar el umbral,[a]a los que llenan de violencia y engañola casa de sus dioses.[b]

Sofonías 1:9 Meaning and Commentary

Zephaniah 1:9

In the same day also will I punish all those that leap on
the threshold
Not in a ludicrous way, who, by dancing and leaping, made sport for persons, and brought their masters much gain, as the damsel possessed with a spirit of divination did, ( Acts 16:16 ) rather, that entered rashly and irreverently into the house of God; or else in an idolatrous way, who, when they went into an idol's temple, did not tread upon the threshold, but leaped over it, as the priests of Dagon, after the fall of that idol on the threshold, ( 1 Samuel 5:4 1 Samuel 5:5 ) . So the Targum,

``and I will visit all those that walk in the laws (or according to the customs) of the Philistines;''
whose idol Dagon was: but it seems better to interpret it of such, who, seeing houses full of good things, in a rude, bold, insolent manner, thrust themselves, or jumped into them, and took away what they pleased; or when they returned to their masters' houses with their spoil, who set them on, and encouraged them in these practices, leaped over the threshold for joy of what they had got, as Aben Ezra observes; which agrees with what follows: which fill their masters' houses with violence and deceit;
that is, with goods got by rapine and force, and by fraudulent ways and methods: this is to be understood of the servants of great men, who, to feed the ambition and avarice of their masters, used very oppressive methods with inferior persons to get their substance from them, and gratify their masters. Cocceius interprets these "three" verses of the day of Christ's coming in the flesh being at hand, when the true sacrifice should be offered up, and God would call his people to feed by faith upon it; when all civil power and authority in the sanhedrim and family of David should be removed from the Jews; and all friendship with the nations of the world, signified by likeness of garments; and the priestly dignity, the priests, according to him, being those that leaped over the threshold; that is, of the house of the Lord, the temple, and filled it with the spoil of widows' houses, unsupportable precepts, and false doctrines.

Sofonías 1:9 In-Context

7 ¡Silencio ante el SEÑOR omnipotente,porque cercano está el día del SEÑOR;ha preparado el SEÑOR un sacrificioy ha purificado a sus invitados!
8 En el día del sacrificio del SEÑORcastigaré a los funcionarios y oficiales del rey,y a cuantos se visten según modas extrañas.
9 En aquel día castigaréa cuantos evitan pisar el umbral,a los que llenan de violencia y engañola casa de sus dioses.
10 »Aquel día se oirán gritos de auxilio,desde la puerta del Pescado,gemidos desde el Barrio Nuevo,y gran quebranto desde las colinas—afirma el SEÑOR—.
11 »¡Giman, habitantes del Barrio del Mercado!Aniquilados serán todos sus mercaderes,exterminados cuantos comercian con plata.

Footnotes 2

  • [a]. "evitan pisar el umbral" . Alusión a una práctica supersticiosa; véase 1S 5:5.
  • [b]. "la casa de sus dioses" . Alt. "el palacio de su señor" .
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