Zephaniah 1 The Great Day of the Lord
Zephaniah 1 The Great Day of the Lord
Zephaniah 1:1-18 The Great Day of the Lord
Zephaniah 1:1
1 The word of the Lord which came to Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah.
Zephaniah 1:2-3
2
“I will utterly consume everything
From the face of the land,”
Says the Lord;
3
“I will consume man and beast;
I will consume the birds of the heavens,
The fish of the sea,
And the stumbling blocks (idols) along with the wicked.
I will cut off man from the face of the land,”
Says the Lord.
utterly consume = make a complete end of
Jeremiah 8:13
“I will surely consume them,” says the Lord.
“No grapes shall be on the vine,
Nor figs on the fig tree,
And the leaf shall fade;
And the things I have given them shall pass away from them.” ’ ”
Zephaniah 1:4-6
4
“I will stretch out My hand against Judah,
And against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
I will cut off every trace of Baal from this place,
The names of the idolatrous priests with the pagan priests—
5
Those who worship the host of heaven on the housetops;
Those who worship and swear oaths by the Lord,
But who also swear by Milcom;
6
Those who have turned back from following the Lord,
And have not sought the Lord, nor inquired of Him.”
2 Kings 23:4-5
4 And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, the priests of the second order, and the doorkeepers, to bring out of the temple of the Lord all the articles that were made for Baal, for Asherah, and for all the host of heaven; and he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel.
5 Then he removed the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense on the high places in the cities of Judah and in the places all around Jerusalem, and those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun, to the moon, to the constellations, and to all the host of heaven.
Milcom = Malcam, an Ammonite god, Molech
1 Kings 11:5; Jeremiah 49:1
1 Kings 11:5
For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.
Jeremiah 49:1
Against the Ammonites.
Thus says the Lord:
“Has Israel no sons?
Has he no heir?
Why then does Milcom inherit Gad,
And his people dwell in its cities?
Leviticus 18:21
21 And you shall not let any of your descendants pass through the fire to Molech, nor shall you profane the name of your God: I am the Lord.
Zephaniah 1:7
7
Be silent in the presence of the Lord God;
For the day of the Lord is at hand,
For the Lord has prepared a sacrifice;
He has invited (set apart, consecrated) His guests.
Zephaniah 1:8-9
8
“And it shall be,
In the day of the Lord’s sacrifice,
That I will punish the princes and the king’s children,
And all such as are clothed with foreign apparel.
9
In the same day I will punish
All those who leap over the threshold,
Who fill their masters’ houses with violence and deceit.
Zephaniah 1:10-11
10
“And there shall be on that day,” says the Lord,
“The sound of a mournful cry from the Fish Gate,
A wailing from the Second Quarter,
And a loud crashing from the hills.
11
Wail, you inhabitants of Maktesh (a market district of Jerusalem, Mortar) !
For all the merchant people are cut down;
All those who handle money are cut off.
Zephaniah 1:12-13
12
“And it shall come to pass at that time
That I will search Jerusalem with lamps,
And punish the men
Who are settled in complacency,
Who say in their heart,
‘The Lord will not do good,
Nor will He do evil.’
13
Therefore their goods shall become booty,
And their houses a desolation;
They shall build houses, but not inhabit them;
They shall plant vineyards, but not drink their wine.”
Zephaniah 1:14-16
14
The great day of the Lord is near;
It is near and hastens quickly.
The noise of the day of the Lord is bitter;
There the mighty men shall cry out.
15
That day is a day of wrath,
A day of trouble and distress,
A day of devastation and desolation,
A day of darkness and gloominess,
A day of clouds and thick darkness,
16
A day of trumpet and alarm
Against the fortified cities
And against the high towers.
Zephaniah 1:17
17
“I will bring distress upon men,
And they shall walk like blind men,
Because they have sinned against the Lord;
Their blood shall be poured out like dust,
And their flesh like refuse.”
Zephaniah 1:18
18
Neither their silver nor their gold
Shall be able to deliver them
In the day of the Lord’s wrath;
But the whole land shall be devoured
By the fire of His jealousy,
For He will make speedy riddance
Of all those who dwell in the land.