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.

² I will utterly consume all things from off the land, saith the LORD.

³ I will consume man and beast; I will consume the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the sea, and the stumblingblocks with the wicked; and I will cut off man from off the land, saith the LORD.

⁴ I will also stretch out mine hand upon Judah, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place, and the name of the Chemarims with the priests;

⁵ And them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops; and them that worship and that swear by the LORD, and that swear by Malcham;

⁶ And them that are turned back from the LORD; and those that have not sought the LORD, nor enquired for him.

⁷ Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord GOD: for the day of the LORD is at hand: for the LORD hath prepared a sacrifice, he hath bid his guests.

⁸ And it shall come to pass 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 strange apparel.

⁹ In the same day also will I punish all those that leap on the threshold, which fill their masters' houses with violence and deceit.

¹⁰ And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD, that there shall be the noise of a cry from the fish gate, and an howling from the second, and a great crashing from the hills.

¹¹ Howl, ye inhabitants of Maktesh, for all the merchant people are cut down; all they that bear silver are cut off.

¹² And it shall come to pass at that time, that I will search Jerusalem with candles, and punish the men that are settled on their lees: that say in their heart, The LORD will not do good, neither will he do evil.

¹³ Therefore their goods shall become a booty, and their houses a desolation: they shall also build houses, but not inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, but not drink the wine thereof.

¹⁴ The great day of the LORD is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the LORD: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly.

¹⁵ That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness,

¹⁶ A day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high towers.

¹⁷ And I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the LORD: and their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as the dung.

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 shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.

World Behind This Chapter

Explore the people, places, language, history, and material world connected to Zephaniah 1.

QUESTIONS WORTH EXPLORING

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When was Zephaniah written?

SCHOLARLY DEBATE

The book’s heading locates Zephaniah in the reign of King Josiah, 640–609 BCE. Some readers place the warnings before Josiah’s reform program, while others allow a later point in his reign or subsequent editing. The chapter itself does not settle that narrower date.

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Where were Jerusalem’s Fish Gate, Second Quarter, and Maktesh?

WHAT REMAINS UNCERTAIN

The Fish Gate probably opened toward the city’s northern side, and the Second Quarter was a later expansion of Jerusalem. Maktesh, literally “mortar” or “hollow,” appears to be a commercial district, but its exact location is unresolved.

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What worship practices does Zephaniah 1 name?

The chapter refers to Baal, astral worship from rooftops, Milcom or Molech, and people who combine allegiance to YHWH with another oath. These references portray a varied religious landscape rather than one uniform practice across Judah.

WORTH A CLOSER LOOK

Artifacts

Examine a household figurine from seventh-century Judah

This ceramic pillar figurine was found at Lachish and dates to roughly the eighth–seventh centuries BCE. Figurines like it occur widely in Judahite domestic settings. Its precise divine identity and use are debated, so it offers material context for the chapter’s religiously varied world without identifying the object with a particular practice named by Zephaniah.

View the object →

⌘ Research PathsCurated links for exploring this chapter 3

Language & Literature2

• Zephaniah 1 in Hebrew and EnglishMechon Mamre

  Presents the Hebrew poem beside an English translation. Useful for examining the chapter’s sweeping creation vocabulary, repeated “day” language, sounds heard from Jerusalem’s districts, sacrificial metaphor, commercial terms, and densely accumulated images of darkness, distress, and military alarm.

• Zephaniah 1: Texts in ConversationIntertextual Bible

  Collects connections involving creation reversed, astral worship, foreign clothing, threshold rituals, the day of the LORD, sacrificial imagery, Jerusalem searched with lamps, ruined houses, darkness, trumpet alarms, and silver and gold rendered powerless.

Artifacts & Manuscripts1

• Judean Weight Bearing a Winged Royal SymbolBritish Museum

  Visible stone weight bearing a winged scarab design sometimes associated with the royal administration of Judah. Although it cannot be linked to Josiah or Zephaniah directly, it illuminates the governmental and commercial world behind the chapter’s references to royal officials, merchants, silver, and Jerusalem’s market district.