Zephaniah 3:7
Read Zephaniah 3:7 Using Other Translations
What does Zephaniah 3:7 mean?
I said, Surely thou wilt fear me
This is spoken after the manner of men; as if God should say
within himself, and reason in his own mind, upon a view of
things, surely the people of the Jews will take notice of my
judgments executed on other nations, and will stand in awe of me
on account of them; and fear to offend me, lest the same
calamities should come upon them; this, humanly speaking, might
be reasonably thought would be the case: thou wilt receive
instruction;
by these judgments, taking warning by them; repent, reform, and
amend, and thereby escape the like: so their dwelling
should not be cut off;
or, "its dwelling"; the dwelling of the city of Jerusalem, the
houses in it; the dwelling places of the inhabitants of it; the
singular being put for the plural; unless the temple should be
meant, as Abendana interprets it; and so it may be rendered "his
dwelling" F3; their house, which was left
desolate to them, because they feared not the Lord; nor received
instruction by the example of others; nor repented of their sins,
and altered their course of life; which, if done, their dwelling
would have been preserved, ( Matthew
23:38 ) : howsoever I punished them;
or "visited" F4 them; chastised them in a gentle
manner, in order to reform them, but in vain. Some render it,
"all which I committed to them" F5; the oracles of God, his word
and ordinances, his promises, and the blessings of his goodness,
which he deposited with them, in order to do them good, and bring
them to repentance. The Targum is,
``all the good things which I have said unto them (or promised them), I will bring unto them;''and to the same sense Jarchi. The goodness of God should have brought them to repentance, yet it did not: but they rose early, [and] corrupted all their doings;
they were diligent and industrious eager and early, in the commission of sins, in doing corrupt and abominable works; receiving and tenaciously adhering to the traditions of the elders; seeking to establish their own righteousness, not submitting to Christ's; rejecting him the true Messiah; blaspheming his doctrines, despising his ordinances, and persecuting his people; besides other vices, which abounded among them; for which the wrath of God came upon them to the uttermost, as expressed in the following verse, ( Zephaniah 3:8 ) .
F3 (hnwem) "habitaculum; [vel] habitatio ejus", Pagninus, Montanus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Burkius; "mansio ejus", Cocceius.
F4 (ytdqp) "visitavi", Pagninus, Montanus, Vatablus.
F5 "Omne id quod commendavi illi", Cocceius.
