Zephaniah 1:17

17 And I shall trouble men, and they shall walk as blind, for they have sinned against the Lord; and the blood of them shall be shed out as earth, and the bodies of them shall be as turds. (And I shall trouble people, and they shall walk as if they be blind, for they have sinned against the Lord; and their blood shall be poured out like dust, and their bodies shall be like turds.)

Zephaniah 1:17 Meaning and Commentary

Zephaniah 1:17

And I will bring distress upon men
Not upon men in general, but particularly on the men of Judea, and inhabitants of Jerusalem; and especially those that were in the fenced cities and high towers; and who might think themselves safe and secure; but, being besieged, should be distressed with famine and pestilence, and with the enemy; and more especially when stormed, and a breach made, and the enemy just entering: that they shall walk like blind men;
not knowing which way to go, where to turn themselves, what methods to take, or course to steer, no more than a blind man. The phrase is expressive of their being at their wits' ends, void of all thought and consultation: because they have sinned against the Lord;
and therefore he gives them up, not only into the hand of the enemy, but unto an infatuation of spirit, and a judicial blindness of mind: and their blood shall be poured out as dust;
in great quantities, like that, without any regard to it, without showing any mercy, and as if it was of no more value than the dust of the earth. The Targum is,

``their blood shall be poured out into the dust;''
or on it, and be drunk up by it: and their flesh as the dung;
or their carcasses, as the same paraphrase; that is, their dead bodies shall lie unburied, and rot, and putrefy, and shall be cast upon fields like dung, to fatten them. The word for "flesh", in the Hebrew language, signifies bread or food; because dead bodies are food for worms; but in the Arabic language, as Aben Ezra and Jarchi observe, it signifies "flesh".

Zephaniah 1:17 In-Context

15 That day is a day of wrath, day of tribulation and anguish, day of neediness and wretchedness, day of darknesses and mist, day of cloud and whirlwind, (That day shall be a day of anger, a day of tribulation and anguish, a day of neediness and wretchedness, a day of darknesses and mist, a day of cloud and whirlwind,)
16 day of trump and of noise on strong cities and on high corners. (a day of trumpets and of battle cries against the fortified cities and the high towers.)
17 And I shall trouble men, and they shall walk as blind, for they have sinned against the Lord; and the blood of them shall be shed out as earth, and the bodies of them shall be as turds. (And I shall trouble people, and they shall walk as if they be blind, for they have sinned against the Lord; and their blood shall be poured out like dust, and their bodies shall be like turds.)
18 But the silver of them, and [the] gold of them, shall not be able to deliver them in the day of wrath of the Lord; in fire of his fervor all earth shall be devoured, for he shall make end with hasting to all men inhabiting the earth. (But their silver, and their gold, shall not be able to save them on the day of the Lord's anger; in the fire of his fervor all the earth shall be devoured, for he shall make a hasty end to all those who inhabit the earth.)
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.