Zephaniah 2 commentary

ZEPHA IAH 2 COMME TARY
EDITED BY GLE PEASE
Judah and Jerusalem Judged Along With the
ations
Judah Summoned to Repent
1 Gather together, gather yourselves together,
you shameful nation,
BAR ES, "Having set forth the terrors of the Judgment Day, the prophet adds an
earnest call to repentance; and then declares how judgments, forerunners of that Day,
shall fall, one by one, on those nations around, who know not God, and shall rest upon
Nineveh, the great beautiful ancient city of the world. Jerome: “See the mercy of God. It
had been enough to have set before the wise the vehemence of the coming evil. But
because He willeth not to punish, but to alarm only, Himself calleth to repentance, that
He may not do what He threatened.” Cyril: “Having set forth clearly the savageness of
the war and the greatness of the suffering to come, he suitably turns his discourse to the
duty of calling to repentance, when it was easy to persuade them, being terrified. For
sometimes when the mind has been numbed, and exceedingly bent to evil, we do not
readily admit even the will to repent, but fear often drives us to it, even against our will.
He calls us then to friendship with Himself. For as they revolted, became aliens, serving
idols and giving up their mind to their passions, so they would, as it were, retrace their
steps, and lay hold of the friendship of God, choosing to serve Him, nay and Him Alone,
and obey His commandments. Wherefore, while we have time, while the Lord, in His
forbearance as God, gives way, let us enact repentance, supplicate, say weeping,
“remember not the sins and offences of my youth” Psa_25:7; let us unite ourselves with
Him by sanctification and sobriety. So shall we be sheltered in the day of wrath, and
wash away the stain of our falls, before the Day of the Lord come upon us. For the Judge
will come, He will come from heaven at the due season, and will reward each according
to his work.”
Gather yourselves together, yea gather together - o, rather, “Sift yourselves,
yea sift” . The exact image is from gathering stubble or dry sticks, which are picked up
one by one, with search and care.
So must men deal with the dry and withered leaves of a past evil life. The English
rendering however, comes to the same meaning. We use, “collect oneself” for bringing

oneself, all one’s thoughts, together, and so, having full possession of oneself. Or
“gathering ourselves” might stand in contrast with being “abroad,” as it were, out of
ourselves amid the manifoldness of things seen. Jerome: “Thou who, taken up with the
business of the world, hurriest to and fro amid divers things, return to the Church of the
saints, and join thyself to their life and assembly, whom thou seest to please God, and
bring together the dislocated members of thy soul, which now are not knit together, into
one frame of wisdom, and cleave to its embrace.” “Gather yourselves” into one, wherein
ye have been scattered; to the One God, from whom they had wandered, seeking
pleasure from His many creatures; to His one fold and Church, from which they had
severed themselves outwardly by joining the worship of Baal, inwardly, by serving him
and his abominable rites; joining and joined to the assembly of the faithful, by oneness
of faith and life.
In order to repent, a man must know himself thoroughly; and this can only be done by
taking act by act, word by word, thought by thought, as far as he can, not in a confused
heap or mass, as they lie in any man’s conscience, but one by one, each picked up apart,
and examined, and added to the sear unfruitful heap, plucking them as it were, and
gathering them out of himself, that so they may, by the Spirit of burning, the fire of
God’s Spirit kindling repentance, be burned up, and not the sinner himself be fuel for
fire with them. The word too is intensive, “Gather together all which is in you,
thoroughly, piece by piece” (for the sinner’s whole self becomes chaff, dry and empty).
To use another image, “Sift yourselves thoroughly, so that nothing escape, as far as your
diligence can reach, and then - “And gather on,” that is, “glean on;” examine yourselves,
“not lightly and after the manner of dissemblers before God,” but repeatedly, gleaning
again and again, to see if by any means anything have escaped: continuing on the search
and ceasing not.
The first earnest search into the soul must be the beginning, not the end. Our search
must be continued, until there be no more to be discovered, that is, when sin is no more,
and we see ourselves in the full light of the presence of our Judge. For a first search,
however diligent, never thoroughly reaches the whole deep disease of the whole man; the
most grievous sins hide other grievous sins, though lighter. Some sins flash on the
conscience, at one time, some at another; so that few, even upon a diligent search, come
at once to the knowledge of all their heaviest sins. When the mist is less thick, we see
more clearly what was before one dark dull mass of imperfection and misery. : “Spiritual
sins are also with difficulty sifted, (as they are,) by one who is carnal. Whence it
happens, that things in themselves heavier he perceives less or very little, and conscience
is not grieved so much by the memory of pride or envy, as of impurities and crimes.”
So having said, “Sift yourselves through and through,” he says, “sift on.” A diligent
sifting and search into himself must be the beginning of all true repentance and pardon.
: “What remains, but that we give ourselves wholly to this work, so holy, and needful?
“Let us search and try our ways and our doings” , and let each think that he has made
progress, not if he find not what to blame, but if he blame what he finds. Thou hast not
sifted thyself in vain, if thou hast discovered that thou needest a fresh sitting; and so
often has thy search not failed thee, as thou judgest that it must be renewed. But if thou
ever dost this, when there is need, thou dost it ever. But ever remember that thou
needest help from above and the mercy of Jesus Christ our Lord Who is over all, God
blessed forever.” The whole course of self-examination then lies in two words of divine
Scripture. And withal he warns them, instead of gathering together riches which shall
“not be able to deliver them in the day of trouble,” to gather themselves into themselves,
and so “judge” themselves “thoroughly , that they be not judged of the Lord” 1Co_11:31-
32.

O nation not desired - o, that is, having nothing in itself to be desired or loved, but
rather, for its sin, hateful to God. God yearneth with pity and compassion over His
creatures; He “hath a desire to the work of His Hands” . Here Israel is spoken to, as what
he had made himself, hateful to God by his sins, although still an object of His tender
care, in what yet remained to him of nature or grace which was from Himself.
CLARKE, "Gather yourselves - Others, sift yourselves. Separate the chaff from
the wheat, before the judgments of God fall upon you. O nation not desired - unlovely,
not delighted in; hated because of your sin. The Israelites are addressed.
GILL, "Gather yourselves together,.... This is said to the people of the Jews in
general; that whereas the judgments of God were coming upon them, as predicted in the
preceding chapter Zep_1:1, it was high time for them to get together, and consider what
was to be done at such a juncture; it was right to call a solemn assembly, to gather the
people, priests, and elders, together, to some one place, as Joel directs, Joe_1:14 the
inhabitants of Jerusalem to the temple, and the people of the land to their respective
synagogues, and there humble themselves before the Lord; confess their sins, and
declare their repentance for them; and pray that God would show favour to them, and
avert his wrath and judgments from them: or, "gather the straw" (y); from yourselves,
and then gather it from others, as follows: or, "first adorn yourselves", and "then others",
as in the Talmud (z); and the sense is the same with the words of Christ, "first cast out
the beam out of thine own eye", &c. Mat_7:3 and the meaning of both is, first correct
and amend yourselves, and then reprove others: this sense is given by the Jewish
commentators, and is approved by Gussetius (a): or "search yourselves" (b); as some
render the word; and that very diligently, as stubble is searched into, or any thing
searched for in it; let the body of the people inquire among themselves what should be
the cause of these things; what public sins prevailed among them, for which they were
threatened with an utter destruction; and let everyone search into his own heart and
ways, and consider how much he has contributed to the bringing down such sad
calamities upon the nation: thus it became them to search and inquire into their state
and circumstances of affairs, in a way of self-examination; or otherwise the Lord would
search them in a way of judgment, as threatened Zep_1:12 or "shake out" (c), or "fan
yourselves", as others; remove your chaff by repentance and reformation, that you be not
blown away like chaff in the day of God's wrath, as afterwards suggested:
yea, gather together; or "search", or "shake out", or "fan", as before: this is repeated,
to show the necessity and importance of it, and the vehemency of the prophet in urging
it:
O nation not desired; by other nations, but hated by them, as Abarbinel observes; not
desirable to God or good men; not amiable or lovely for any excellencies and goodness in
them, but the reverse; being a disobedient and rebellious people; a seed of evildoers,
laden with iniquity, who, from the crown of the head to the sole of the feet, were full of
wounds, bruises, and putrefying sores; or of disorders and irregularities, sins and
transgressions, comparable to them; and therefore, instead of being desirable, were
loathsome and abominable: or, as some render the word, "O nation void of desire" (d);
or "not affected" with it; who had no desire after God, and the knowledge of his will;
after his word and worship; after a return unto him, and reconciliation with him; after

his favour, grace, and mercy; not desirous of good things, nor of doing any. So the
Targum,
"gather together, and come, and draw near, this people who desire not to return to the
law.''
Joseph Kimchi, from the use of the word in the Misnic language, renders it, "O nation
not ashamed": of their evil works, being bold and impudent; and yet, such was the
goodness and grace of God to them, that he calls them to repentance, and gives them
warning before he strikes the blow.
HE RY, "Here we see what the prophet meant in that terrible description of the
approaching judgments which we had in the foregoing chapter. From first to last his
design was, not to drive the people to despair, but to drive them to God and to their duty
- not to frighten them out of their wits, but to frighten them out of their sins. In
pursuance of that he here calls them to repentance, national repentance, as the only way
to prevent national ruin. Observe,
I. The summons given them to a national assembly (Zep_2:1): Gather yourselves
together. He had told them, in the last words of the foregoing chapter, that God would
make a speedy riddance of all that dwelt in the land, upon which, one would think, it
should follow, “Disperse yourselves, and flee for shelter where you can find a place.”
When the decree had absolutely gone forth for the last destruction of Jerusalem by the
Romans, that was the advice given (Mat_24:16), Then let those who are in Judea flee
into the mountains; but here it is otherwise. God warns, that he may not wound,
threatens, that he may not strike, and therefore calls to the people to use means for the
turning away of his wrath. The summons is given to a nation not desired. The word
signifies either, 1. Not desiring, that has not any desires towards God or the
remembrance of his name, is not desirous of his favour or grace, but very indifferent to
it, has no mind to repent and reform. “Yet come together, and see if you can stir up
desires in one another.” Thus God is often found of those that sought him not, nor asked
for him, Isa_65:1. Or, 2. Not desirable, no ways lovely, nor having any thing in them
amiable, or which might recommend them to God. The land of Israel had been a
pleasant land, a land of delight (Dan_11:41); but now it is unlovely, it is a nation not
desired, to which God might justly say, Depart from me; but he says, “Gather together
to me, and let us see if any expedient can be found out for the preventing of the ruin.
Gather together, that you may in a body humble yourselves before God, may fast, and
pray, and seek his face. Gather together, to consult among yourselves what is to be done
in this critical juncture, that every one may consider of it, may give and take advice, and
speak his mind, and that what is done may be done by consent and so may be a national
act.” Some read it, “Enquire into yourselves, yea, enquire into yourselves; examine your
consciences; look into your hearts; search and try your ways; enquire into yourselves,
that you may find out the sin by which God has been provoked to this displeasure
against you, and may find out the way of returning to him.” Note, When God is
contending with us it concerns us to enquire into ourselves.
JAMISO , "Zep_2:1-15. Exhortation to repent before the Chaldean invaders come.
Doom of Judah’s foes, the Philistines, Moab, Ammon, with their idols, and Ethiopia and
Assyria.
Gather yourselves — to a religious assembly, to avert the judgment by prayers

(Joe_2:16) [Grotius]. Or, so as not to be dissipated “as chaff” (Zep_2:2). The Hebrew is
akin to a root meaning “chaff.” Self-confidence and corrupt desires are the dissipation
from which they are exhorted to gather themselves [Calvin]. The foe otherwise, like the
wind, will scatter you “as the chaff.” Repentance is the gathering of themselves meant.
nation not desired — (Compare 2Ch_21:20), that is, not desirable; unworthy of the
grace or favor of God; and yet God so magnifies that grace as to be still solicitous for
their safety, though they had destroyed themselves and forfeited all claims on His grace
[Calvin]. The Margin from Chaldee Version has, “not desirous,” namely of returning to
God. Maurer and Gesenius translate, “Not waxing pale,” that is, dead to shame. English
Version is best.
K&D 1-3, "Call to conversion. - Zep_2:1. “Gather yourselves together, and gather
together, O nation that dost not grow pale. Zep_2:2. Before the decree bring forth (the
day passes away like chaff), before the burning wrath of Jehovah come upon you,
before the day of Jehovah's wrath come upon you. Zep_2:3. Seek Jehovah, all ye
humble of the land, who have wrought His right; seek righteousness, seek humility,
perhaps ye will be hidden in the day of Jehovah's wrath.” The summons in Zep_2:1 is
addressed to the whole of Judah or Israel. The verb qōshēsh, possibly a denom. from
qash, signifies to gather stubble (Exo_5:7, Exo_5:12), then generally to gather together
or collect, e.g., branches of wood (Num_15:32-33; 1Ki_17:10); in the hithpoel, to gather
one's self together, applied to that spiritual gathering which leads to self-examination,
and is the first condition of conversion. The attempts of Ewald and Hitzig to prove, by
means of doubtful etymological combinations from the Arabic, that the word possesses
the meanings, to grow pale, or to purify one's self, cannot be sustained. The kal is
combined with the hiphil for the purpose of strengthening it, as in Hab_1:5 and Isa_
29:9. Nikhsâph is the perf. nipahl in pause, and not a participle, partly because of the ‫ּא‬‫ל‬
which stands before it (see however Ewald, §286, g), and partly on account of the
omission of the article; and nikhsâph is to be taken as a relative, “which does not turn
pale.” Kâsaph has the meaning “to long,” both in the niphal (vid., Gen_31:30; Psa_84:3)
and kal (cf. Psa_17:12; Job_14:15). This meaning is retained by many here. Thus Jerome
renders it, “gens non amabilis, i.e., non desiderata a Deo;” but this is decidedly
unsuitable. Others render it “not possessing strong desire,” and appeal to the paraphrase
of the Chaldee, “a people not wishing to be converted to the law.” This is apparently the
view upon which the Alex. version rests: ᅞθνος ᅊπαίδευτον. But although nikhsâph is used
to denote the longing of the soul for fellowship with God in Psa_84:3, this idea is not to
be found in the word itself, but simply in the object connected with it. We therefore
prefer to follow Grotius, Gesenius, Ewald, and others, and take the word in its primary
sense of turning pale at anything, becoming white with shame (cf. Isa_29:22), which is
favoured by Zep_3:15. The reason for the appeal is given in Zep_2:2, viz., the near
approach of the judgment. The resolution brings forth, when that which is resolved upon
is realized (for yâlad in this figurative sense, see Pro_27:1). The figure is explained in the
second hemistich. The next clause ‫וגו‬ ‫מוֹץ‬ ְⅴ does not depend upon ‫ם‬ ֶ‫ר‬ ֶ‫ט‬ ְ , for in that case the
verb would stand at the head with Vav cop., but it is a parenthesis inserted to strengthen
the admonition: the day comes like chaff, i.e., approaches with the greatest rapidity, like
chaff driven by the wind: not “the time passes by like chaff” (Hitzig); for it cannot be

shown that yōm was ever used for time in this sense. Yōm is the day of judgment
mentioned in Zep_1:7, Zep_1:14-15; and ‫ר‬ ַ‫ב‬ ָ‫ע‬ here is not to pass by, but to approach, to
come near, as in Nah_3:19. For the figure of the chaff, see Isa_29:5. In the second ‫ם‬ ֶ‫ר‬ ֶ‫ט‬ ְ
is strengthened by ‫ּא‬‫ל‬; and ‫ף‬ፍ ‫רוֹן‬ ֲ‫,ח‬ the burning of wrath in the last clause, is explained by
‫יי‬ ‫ף‬ፍ ‫,יוֹם‬ the day of the revelation of the wrath of God.
Zep_2:3
But because the judgment will so speedily burst upon them, all the pious especially -
‛anvē hâ'ârets, the quiet in the land, οι πραεሏς (Amo_2:7; Isa_11:4; Psa_37:11) - are to seek
the Lord. The humble (‛ănâvım) are described as those who do Jehovah's right, i.e., who
seek diligently to fulfil what Jehovah has prescribed in the law as right. Accordingly,
seeking Jehovah is explained as seeking righteousness and humility. The thought is this:
they are to strive still more zealously after Jehovah's right, viz., righteousness and
humility (cf. Deu_16:20; Isa_51:1, Isa_51:7); then will they probably be hidden in the
day of wrath, i.e., be pardoned and saved (cf. Amo_5:15). This admonition is now still
further enforced from Zep_2:4 onwards by the announcement of the coming of
judgment upon all the heathen, that the kingdom of God may attain completion.
CALVI , "The Prophet, after having spoken of God’s wrath, and shown how
terrible it would be, and also how near, now exhorts the Jews to repentance, and
thus mitigates the severity of his former doctrine, provided their minds were
teachable. We hence learn that God fulminates in his word against men, that he may
withhold his hand from them. The more severe, then, God is, when he chastises us
and makes known our sins, and sets before us his wrath, the more clearly he testifies
how precious and dear to him is our salvation; for when he sees us rushing
headlong, as it were, into ruin, he calls us back by threatening and chastisements.
Whenever, then, God condemns us by his word, let us know that he will be
propitious to us, if, touched with true repentance, we flee to his mercy; for to effect
this is the design of all his reproofs and threatening.
There follows then a seasonable exhortation, after the Prophet had spoken of the
dreadfulness of God’s vengeance. Gather yourselves, he says, gather, ye nation not
worthy of being loved. Others read—Search among yourselves, search; and
interpreters differ as to the root of the verb; some derive it from ‫,קשש‬ koshesh, and
others from ‫,קוש‬ kush; while some deduce the verb from the noun ‫קש‬ kosh, which
signifies chaff or stubble. But however this may be, I consider the real meaning of
the Prophet to be—Gather yourselves, gather; for this is what grammatical
construction requires. I do not see why they who read search yourselves, depart
from the commonly received meaning, except they think that the verb gather does
not suit the context; but it suits it exceedingly well. Others with more refinement
read thus—Gather the chaff, gather the chaff, as though the Prophet ridiculed the
empty confidence of the people. But as I have already said, he no doubt shows here
the remedy, by which they might have anticipated God’s judgment, with which he
had threatened them. He indeed compares them to stubble, as we find in the next

verse, but he shows that still time is given them to repent, so that they might gather
themselves, and not be dissipated; as though he said—The day of your scattering is
at hand; ye shall then vanish away like chaff, for ye shall not be able to stand at the
breath of the Lord’s wrath. But now while God withholds himself, and does not put
forth his hand to destroy you, gather yourselves, that ye may not be like the chaff.
There are then two parts in this passage; the first is, that if the Jews abused, as
usual, the forbearance of God, they would become like the chaff, for God’s wrath
would in a moment scatter them; but the Prophet in the meantime reminds them
that a seasonable time for repentance was still given them; for if they willingly
gathered themselves, God would spare them. Before then the day of Jehovah’s
wrath shall come; gather, he says, yourselves (90)
But the way of gathering is, when men do not vanish away in their foolish
confidences, or when they do not indulge their own lusts; for whenever men give
loose reins to wicked licentiousness, and thus go astray in gratifying their corrupt
lusts, or when they seek here and there vain confidences, they expose themselves to a
scattering. Hence the Prophet exhorts them to examine themselves, to gather
themselves, and as it were to draw themselves together, that they might not be like
the chaff. Hence he says,—gather yourselves, yea, gather, ye nation not loved
Some take the participle ‫,נכסף‬ necasaph, in an active sense, as though the Prophet
had said that the Jews were void of every feeling, and had become wholly hardened
in their stupidity. But I know not whether this can be grammatically allowed. I
therefore follow what has been more approved. The nation is called not worthy of
love, because it did not deserve mercy; and God thus amplifies and renders
illustrious his own grace, because he was still solicitous about the salvation of those
who had willfully destroyed themselves, and rejected his favor. Though then the
Jews had by their depravity so alienated themselves from God, that there was no
reason why he should save them, he yet still continued to call them back to himself.
It is therefore a remarkable proof of the unfailing grace of God, when he shows love
to a nation wholly worthy of being hated, and is concerned for its safety. (91)
He then adds, Before the decree brings forth. Here the Prophet asserts his own
authority, and that of God’s other servants: for the Jews thought that all
threatening would come to nothing, as it is the case with most men at this day who
deride every true doctrine, as though it were nothing but an empty sound. Hence the
Prophet ascribes birth to his doctrine. It is indeed true, that the word decree has a
wider meaning; but the Prophet does not speak here of the hidden counsel of God.
He therefore calls that a decree, which God had already declared by his servants:
and the meaning is, that it is not beating the air when God denounces his vengeance
on sinners by his Prophets, but that it is a fixed and unchangeable decree, which
shall at length be effected. But the similitude of birth is most apposite; for as the
embryo lies hid in the womb, and then emerges in due time into light; so God’s
vengeance, though hid for a time, will yet in due season be accomplished, when God
sees that men’s wickedness is past a remedy. We now understand why the Prophet
says, that the time was near when the decree should bring forth.

Then he says, Pass away shall the chaff in a day. Some read, Before the day comes,
when the stubble (or chaff) shall pass away. But I take ‫,יום‬ ium, in another sense, as
meaning that the Jews shall quickly pass away as the chaff; the like expression we
have also met in Hosea. He says then that the Jews would perish in a day, in a short
time, and as it were in a moment; though they thought that they would not be for a
long time conquered. Pass away, he says, shall they like chaff (92)
Then he adds, Before it comes, the fury of Jehovah’s wrath; the day of Jehovah’s
wrath, gather ye yourselves. He says first, before it comes upon you, the fury of
wrath, and then, the day of wrath. He repeats the same thing; but some of the words
are changed, for instead of the fury of wrath, he puts in the second clause, the day of
wrath; as though he had said, that they were greatly deceived if they thought that
they could escape, because the Lord deferred his vengeance. How so? For the day,
which was nigh, though not yet arrived, would at length come. As when one trusting
in the darkness of the night, and thinking himself safe from the danger of being
taken, is mistaken, for suddenly the sun rises and discovers his hiding-place; so the
Prophet intimates, that though God was now still, it would yet be no advantage to
the Jews: for he knew the suitable time. Though then he restrained for a time his
wrath, he yet poured it forth suddenly, when the day came and the iniquity of men
had become ripe.
Marckius considers that the nation is here described as having “no desire,” that is
for that which was good, and that its torpidity and indifference as to religion is what
is set forth. And such is the view of Cocceius; it had no thirst for righteousness, no
desire for the kingdom of God—the mark of an unregenerated mind.—Ed.
As the chaff passing away will be the day:
Both Marckius and Henderson regard this as the meaning. Then the whole verse
might be thus translated—
2.Before the bringing forth of the decree,
(As the chaff passing away will be the day,)
Before it shall come upon you,
The burning of Jehovah’s anger;
Before it shall come upon you,
The day of the anger of Jehovah.
Literally it is, “Before it shall not come,” etc., or, “During the time when it shall not
come,” etc. [ ‫בטרם‬ ] may be rendered “while;” then the version would be—
While it shall not come upon you,
The burning of Jehovah’s anger;
While it shall not come upon you,
The day of the anger of Jehovah.
There are several MSS. which omit the two first lines; but evidently without reason.

They are retained in the Septuagint.
Possibly the second line may refer to the speedy execution of “the decree,” that its
day would pass quickly. Its birth, or its bringing forth was its commencement; and
the second line may express its speedy execution: it would be carried into effect with
the quickness by which the chaff is carried away by the wind—
As the chaff passing away will be its day.
The word [ ‫עבר‬ ] is, in either case, a participle, and the auxiliary verb is understood,
as often is the case in Hebrew, and must partake of the tense of the context.—Ed.
COFFMA , "Verse 1
The first three verses of this chapter must be understood in the light of the first
chapter. Zephaniah established the theme of the whole prophecy as the judgment of
all mankind (Zephaniah 1:1-3), and devoted the rest of the chapter to the judgment
of Jerusalem and Judah, using terminology that includes glimpses of both the final
judgment of all men, and the more immediate and particular judgment of
Jerusalem. "He now exhorts the righteous to seek the Lord and strive after
righteousness an humility, that they may be hidden in the day of the Lord"[1]
(Zephaniah 2:1-3). "These verses have the utility of distinguishing the remnant from
the nation, which is not desired."[2] The stern tone of these verses is criticized by
some because there is no mention of God's mercy; but as Carson said, "We are not
to understand that Zephaniah thought otherwise than that all our hopes of ultimate
salvation begin in the mercy and grace of God."[3] Early nineteenth century critics
in support of their subjective attacks upon the integrity of the prophecy usually
removed these three verses as an interpolation or insisted that they were addressed
to the Philistines;[4] but such attacks upon the prophecy were incapable of being
accepted. John D. W. Watts (1975), a highly respected, present-day scholar has this:
"(The passage) is addressed to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. The people of God are
usually called "a people" and the word "nation" is used mainly for the heathen so
that it became a synonym for heathen. But here Jerusalem is deliberately classed
with foreign nations, as in Zephaniah 3:1-7. It had become so foreign in its ways
that it seemed to belong more to them than to God."[5]
As for the allegations that these verses (or any other portion of the prophecy) are the
work of some post-exilic "editor"; "There is no manuscript evidence for
omission."[6] The arrogant subjective imaginations of Biblical critics are no valid
substitute for MS authority. The "imaginations" of scholars today are no more
trustworthy than were the imaginations of mankind before the flood, when "The
imaginations of men were evil, and only evil, continually" (Genesis 6:5).
The balance of the chapter (Zephaniah 2:4-15) pronounces God's judgment upon
the heathen nations to the west, east, south, and north of Jerusalem, in such a
manner as to present the judgments as a type of the Eternal Judgment, the general
theme of the book. This echo of the Great Assize dominates Zephaniah and

produces magnificent overtones of the Messianic Age and the kingdom of Jesus
Christ.
Zephaniah 2:1
"Gather yourselves together, yea, gather together, O nation that hath no shame."
"Gather yourselves together ..." is a call for repentance.
"O nation that hath no shame ..." Many scholars comment on uncertainties in the
text here; and Powis Smith has listed a number of possible translations of this place,
thus:
"O nation unabashed; O nation undisciplined; O nation unlovable; O nation that
does not desire to be converted to the law; O nation that never paled (at the fear of
God); O nation not desired; O nation hated; O nation that hath no longing (after
God)."[7]
Despite all such possibilities, the general meaning is clear.
TRAPP, " Gather yourselves together, yea, gather together, O nation not desired;
Ver. 1. Gather yourselves together, yea, gather together] Excutite vos, iterumque
excutite. Fan yourselves, yea, fan yourselves (Tremell.). The precept is doubled, as it
is likewise umbers 3:40, 2 Corinthians 13:5, to show the necessity of our doing it,
as also the utility if well done; and, lastly, our crossness and averseness thereunto,
together with God’s exceeding great desire that it should be thoroughly done for our
greatest good. Grievous things he had threatened in the former chapter; all which to
prevent, he here prescribeth them a course of self-examination, and thereupon
sound conversion; so true is that of an ancient, Ideo minatur Deus ut non puniat,
God doth therefore threaten that he may not punish (Isidore). It is as if God should
thus say, Behold, thou art in danger of destruction; is it not therefore high time to
search, yea, to be serious and exact in the scrutiny? to gather thy dispersed wits
together, to summon the sobriety of thy senses before the bar of thy best judgment?
to consider and consult what is fit to be done in this case? to have thine eyes in thine
head, with Solomon’s wise man? Ecclesiastes 2:14; yea, to have thine eyes like the
windows in Solomon’s temple, broad inward, 1 Kings 6:4. Men’s minds are
naturally as ill set as their eyes; they turn neither of them inward. Lamiae or witch-
like, they are sharp sighted abroad to discern other men’s faults; but blind at home
to take notice of their own. ature shows no sin: What is our iniquity or our sin?
said those in Jeremiah, when wrath was even breaking out upon them, Jeremiah
16:10; so Hosea 12:8. Men deal with their souls as some do with their bodies; who,
when their beauty is decayed, they desire to hide it from themselves by false glasses,
and from others by painting; so their sins, from themselves by false glosses, and
from others by excuses. But he that thus hideth his sins cannot prosper, Proverbs
28:13, he must not look for Gaius’s prosperity, 3 John 1:2, but for further hardness
of heart, Proverbs 28:14, and horror of conscience, Psalms 32:3. For God will not
rap up men’s bones before they are set, nor lap up their sores before they are

searched. Wherefore search you, search you, O nation, &c. Search yourselves to the
quick, sift you to the bran, lay your hands upon your hearts, thrust them deep into
your bosoms, with Moses, so shall you take them out again leprous as snow, Exodus
4:6. Commune with your consciences and be still, or, make a pause, Psalms 4:4, lay
a peremptory charge upon them to be true to you, and to do their office impartially,
in laying open how many transgressions are wrapt up in your sins, Leviticus 16:21,
in bringing them all forth to you, as they in Ezra brought forth the vessels of the
sanctuary, by number and by weight, in their circumstances and aggravations, Ezra
8:34. Why should God say unto thee of thy sins, as once Samuel did to Jesse of his
sons, Are these all thy children? Conscience, if not charged to the contrary, and well
watched, will either lie to thee, as Gehazi did to his master; or, at least, subtract a
part of thy sins, as Ananias and Sapphira did a part of the price. Search, therefore,
and follow your work close, that ye may say, with Ephraim, Jeremiah 31:19, After
that I was made known to myself, I repented; and, with David, I examined my ways,
and finding all out of order, "I turned my feet to thy testimonies," Psalms 119:59.
O nation not desired] As not desirable; having nothing of worth in thee wherefore
any should be found of thee, or seek any further after thee. Daniel was a man of
desires, Daniel 9:23. David a man after God’s own heart. Moses fair to God, Acts
7:20. The saints are the desired ones of all nations, as some read that text, Haggai
2:7, ut veniant desiderati omnium gentium (Jun.). The precious sons of Zion
comparable (not to silver only, as the word here used importeth, but) to fine gold,
Lamentations 4:2. As for the wicked, they are all dross, Ezekiel 22:18-19, and God
doth so little desire them, as that he putteth them away, or maketh them to cease as
dross, Psalms 119:119, and commandeth others to do the like by them, Proverbs
25:4-5. Some take the words in the active sense, and render them, O nation not
desirous; viz. to search thy ways and turn again to me. Thou that hast no mind to be
dealing with thyself, or to draw nigh to me, but hadst as lief be knocked on the head
as do either: Gens vacua desiderio. O nation, void of any good desires. Whereas tota
Christiani hominis vita sanctum desiderium est, the whole life of a good Christian is
one continous desire after God, his kingdom, and the righteousness thereof,
Matthew 6:33; he followeth after it, Proverbs 21:21, as an apprentice followeth his
trade, though he be not his craftsmaster. Some faint desires, luskish longings, short
winded wishes, may be found in a wicked man; but they rise not up to the full height
of well knit resolution for God. Like they are to meteors that are carried above the
earth, but not united to the element of fire; therefore they fall and return to their
first principles; like ice, which melteth in the day and hardeneth again in the night;
like the sluggard in his bed, that puts out his arm to rise, and then pulls it in again,
see Psalms 78:34; Psalms 78:38.
WHEDO , "Verses 1-3
EXHORTATIO TO REPE TA CE, Zephaniah 2:1-3.
As the Book of Zephaniah is arranged now, Zephaniah 2:1-3, is connected closely
with Zephaniah 2:4-15. The exhortation to repentance (Zephaniah 2:1-3) is thought
to be enforced by the announcement of a terrible judgment upon all nations of the

earth, Judah and Jerusalem included (Zephaniah 2:4 to Zephaniah 3:8). It seems
preferable, however, to consider these verses the conclusion of chapter i, since a call
to repentance addressed to Judah has a more natural connection with a threat upon
Judah (Zephaniah 1:2-18) than with a threat upon the nations (Zephaniah 2:4-15).
1. Gather yourselves together, yea, gather together — The meaning of the Hebrew
underlying this translation is uncertain. The verb seems to be a derivative from a
noun stubble, chaff, straw; hence its primary meaning is to “gather straw” or
“stubble” (Exodus 5:7; Exodus 5:12). This is not suitable here. In umbers 15:32-
33, and in 1 Kings 17:12, it is joined to the noun “wood,” which indicates that it may
be used in the more general sense, “gather.” This is the meaning given to the verb in
this passage in the ancient versions as well as by the English translators. Some have
suggested “bow yourselves, and be bowed,” or “turn pale, and be pale,” or “be
ashamed, yea, be ashamed,” but these meanings cannot be established for the
Hebrew verb. In view of the uncertainty it is not strange that various emendations
have been suggested, but certainty cannot be had. If the common English translation
is retained the interpretation also is uncertain. Some interpret the expressions
metaphorically in the sense of “recollect yourselves,” as if the prophet were
exhorting the people to search their hearts, to consider their ways, not to permit any
longer their minds to be distracted by the things contrary to the will of Jehovah.
This would be very appropriate, but it is doubtful whether this metaphorical
meaning can be given to the verb. Others understand it literally, either in the sense
of coming together for a religious assembly, or in the sense of crowding together in
terror. An appeal to attend a religious assembly is out of place here, and the other
interpretation takes no notice of the close connection that exists between Zephaniah
2:1-2. Much uncertainty remains. The most suitable verb would be, “be ashamed,
yea, be ashamed.”
O nation not desired — R.V., “O nation that hath no shame.” The common meaning
of the verb is “to long,” “to desire,” “to yearn” (Genesis 31:30; Job 14:15), but “not
desired,” or margin, “not desirous,” seems inappropriate here. If the idea inherent
in the verb is retained it would be better to render, “O people which has no longing”
(that is, for God), but if this were the thought “for God” could not be omitted
(compare Psalms 84:2). The rendering “that hath no shame,” which is very
appropriate here, finds support in Talmudic usage, and is not altogether foreign to
the root meaning of the Hebrew verb, “to be pale” or “colorless.” The Hebrew term
for silver is derived from the same root, literally, “the pale metal.” Paleness is
caused by fright or terror. ow, to the Hebrew to be ashamed was practically the
same as to be confounded, both ideas being expressed by the same verb; one is
ashamed because he is confounded. Hence, to be pale (as a result of fright) may be
equivalent to to be ashamed. A suitable sense would be secured by reading the verse,
“Be ashamed, yea, be ashamed, O people that hath no shame.” The prophet, after
announcing the terrible judgment, looks about him and sees that his message has
produced no effect. Aroused by the indifference of the listeners, he appeals to them
to give some expression of contrition, else they will be utterly annihilated.
BE SO , "Verse 1-2

Zephaniah 2:1-2. Gather yourselves together, &c. — Assemble yourselves to make a
public humiliation: see Joel 2:16. O nation not desired — Or coveted, as the word
‫נכס‬ Šproperly signifies. The Vulgate renders it, non amabilis, not lovely; and the
Greek, το απαιδευτον, uninstructed, or, that will not receive instruction; that is, not
to be amended but by the discipline of God’s judgments. Before the decree bring
forth, before the day, &c. — Before the decree of God shall bring forth the day that
shall be like the passing of chaff; that is, wherein the wicked shall be dispersed, as
the chaff is by the wind. God’s consuming the wicked is often compared in Scripture
to the dispersing of chaff.
CO STABLE, "Verse 1-2
Zephaniah called the shameless people of Judah to gather together, evidently in a
nationwide public assembly, to repent (cf. Zephaniah 1:6; Joel 2:12-14). They
needed to do so before the Lord"s decree to punish them took effect and His
burning anger overtook them. ineveh had repented at the preaching of Jonah , and
the Lord relented from judging it. Perhaps He would do the same if the Judeans
repented. That day was coming as swiftly as chaff blows before the wind, so they
needed to act immediately.
Verses 1-3
4. A call to repentance2:1-3
This section of the book ( Zephaniah 1:4 to Zephaniah 2:3) concludes with an appeal
to the Judeans to repent and so avoid the punishment destined to come on them if
they did not repent.
"The prophet meant in that terrible description of approaching judgments not to
drive the people to despair, but to drive them to God and to their duty-not to
frighten them out of their wits, but to frighten them out of their sins." [ ote:
Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, p1168.]
EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE COMME TARY, "Verses 1-3
THE PROPHET A D THE REFORMERS
Zephaniah 1:1-18 - Zephaniah 2:3
TOWARDS the year 625, when King Josiah had passed out of his minority, and was
making his first efforts at religious reform, prophecy, long slumbering, woke again
in Israel. Like the king himself, its first heralds were men in their early youth. In
627 Jeremiah calls himself but a boy, and Zephaniah can hardly have been out of
his teens. For the sudden outbreak of these young lives there must have been a large
reservoir of patience and hope gathered in the generation behind them. So Scripture
itself testifies. To Jeremiah it was said: "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew
thee, and before thou earnest forth out of the womb I consecrated thee." [Jeremiah
1:5] In an age when names were bestowed only because of their significance, both
prophets bore that of Jehovah in their own. So did Jeremiah’s father, who was of
the priests of Anathoth. Zephaniah’s "forbears" are given for four generations, and

with one exception they also are called after Jehovah: "The Word of Jehovah which
came to Sephanyah, son of Kushi, son of Gedhalyah, son of Amaryah, son of
Hizkiyah, in the days of Joshiyahu, Amon’s son, king of Judah." Zephaniah’s great-
great-grandfather Hezekiah was in all probability the king. His father’s name
Kushi, or Ethiop, is curious. If we are right, that Zephaniah was a young man
towards 625, then Kushi must have been born towards 663, about the time of the
conflicts between Assyria and Egypt, and it is possible that, as Manasseh and the
predominant party in Judah so closely hung upon and imitated Assyria, the
adherents of Jehovah put their hope in Egypt, whereof, it may be, this name Kushi
is a token. The name Zephaniah itself, meaning "Jehovah hath hidden," suggests
the prophet’s birth in the "killing-time" of Manasseh. There was at least one other
contemporary of the same name-a priest executed by ebuchadrezzar. Of the
adherents of Jehovah, then, and probably of royal descent, Zephaniah lived in
Jerusalem. We descry him against her, almost a clearly as we descry Isaiah. In the
glare and smoke of the conflagration which his vision sweeps across the world, only
her features stand out definite and particular: the flat roofs with men and women
bowing in the twilight to the host of heaven, the crowds of priests, the nobles and
their foreign fashions: the Fishgate, the ew or Second Town, where the rich lived,
the heights to which building had at last spread, and between them the hollow
mortar, with its markets, Phoenician merchants, and money-dealers. In the first few
verses of Zephaniah we see almost as much of Jerusalem as in the whole book either
of Isaiah or Jeremiah.
For so young a man the vision of Zephaniah may seem strangely dark and final. Yet
not otherwise was Isaiah’s inaugural vision, and as a rule it is the young and not the
old whose indignation is ardent and unsparing. Zephaniah carries this temper to the
extreme. There is no great hope in his book, hardly any tenderness, and never a
glimpse of beauty. A townsman, Zephaniah has no eye for nature; not only is no fair
prospect described by him, he has not even a single metaphor drawn from nature’s
loveliness or peace. He is pitilessly true to his great keynotes: "I will sweep, sweep
from the face of the ground; He will burn," burn up everything. o hotter book lies
in all the Old Testament. either dew nor grass nor tree nor any blossom lives in it,
but it is everywhere fire, smoke, and darkness, drifting chaff, ruins, nettles, salt-pits,
and owls and ravens looking from the windows of desolate palaces. or does
Zephaniah foretell the restoration of nature in the end of the days. There is no
prospect of a redeemed and fruitful land, but only of a group of battered and hardly
saved characters: a few meek and righteous are hidden from the fire and creep forth
when it is over. Israel is left "a poor and humble folk." o prophet is more true to
the doctrine of the remnant, or more resolutely refuses to modify it. Perhaps he died
young.
The full truth, however, is that Zephaniah, though he found his material in the
events of his own day, tears himself loose from history altogether. To the earlier
prophets the Day of the Lord, the crisis of the world, is a definite point in history:
full of terrible, Divine events, yet "natural" ones - battle, siege, famine, massacre,
and captivity. After it history is still to flow on, common days come back and Israel
pursue their way as a nation. But to Zephaniah the Day of the Lord begins to

assume what we call the "supernatural." The grim colors are still woven of war and
siege, but mixed with vague and solemn terrors from another sphere, by which
history appears to be swallowed up, and it is only with an effort that the prophet
thinks of a rally of Israel beyond. In short, with Zephaniah the Day of the Lord
tends to become the Last Day. His book is the first tinging of prophecy with
apocalypse: that is the moment which it supplies in the history of Israel’s religion.
And, therefore, it was with a true instinct that the great Christian singer of the Last
Day took from Zephaniah his keynote. The "Dies Irae, Dies Illa" of Thomas of
Celano is but the Vulgate translation of Zephaniah’s "A day of wrath is that day."
evertheless, though the first of apocalyptic writers, Zephaniah does not allow
himself the license of apocalypse. As he refuses to imagine great glory for the
righteous, so he does not dwell on the terrors of the wicked. He is sober and
restrained, a matter-of-fact man, yet with power of imagination, who, amidst the
vague horrors he summons, delights in giving a sharp realistic impression. The Day
of the Lord, he says, what is it? "A strong man-there!-crying bitterly."
It is to the fierce ardor, and to the elemental interests of the book, that we owe the
absence of two features of prophecy which are so constant in the prophets of the
eighth century. Firstly, Zephaniah betrays no interest in the practical reforms which
(if we are right about the date) the young king, his contemporary, had already
started. There was a party of reform, the party had a program, the program was
drawn from the main principles of prophecy and was designed to put these into
practice. And Zephaniah was a prophet and ignored them. This forms the dramatic
interest of his book. Here was a man of the same faith which kings, priests, and
statesmen were trying to realize in public life, in the assured hope-as is plain from
the temper of Deuteronomy-that the nation as a whole would be reformed and
become a very great nation, righteous and victorious. All this he ignored, and gave
his own vision of the future: Israel is a brand plucked from the burning; a very few
meek and righteous are saved from the conflagration of a whole world. Why?
Because for Zephaniah the elements were loose, and when the elements were loose
what was the use of talking about reforms? The Scythians were sweeping down
upon Palestine, with enough of God’s wrath in them to destroy a people still so full
of idolatry as Israel was; and if not the Scythians, then some other power in that
dark, rumbling orth which had ever been so full of doom. Let Josiah try to reform
Israel, but it was neither Josiah’s nor Israel’s day that was falling. It was the Day of
the Lord, and when He came it was neither to reform nor to build up Israel, but to
make visitation and to punish in His wrath for the unbelief and wickedness of which
the nation was still full.
An analogy to this dramatic opposition between prophet and reformer may be
found in our own century. At its crisis, in 1848, there were many righteous men rich
in hope and energy. The political institutions of Europe were being rebuilt. In our
own land there were great measures for the relief of laboring children and women,
the organization of labor, and the just distribution of wealth. But Carlyle that year
held apart from them all, and, though a personal friend of many of the reformers,
counted their work hopeless: society was too corrupt, the rudest forces were loose,

" iagara" was near. Carlyle was proved wrong and the reformers right, but in the
analogous situation of Israel the reformers were wrong and the prophet right.
Josiah’s hope and daring were overthrown at Megiddo, and, though the Scythians
passed away, Zephaniah’s conviction of the sin and doom of Israel was fulfilled, not
forty years later, in the fall of Jerusalem and the great Exile. Again, to the same
elemental interests, as we may call them, is due the absence from Zephaniah’s pages
of all the social and individual studies which form the charm of other prophets.
With one exception, there is no analysis of character, no portrait, no satire. But the
exception is worth dwelling upon: it describes the temper equally abhorred by both
prophet and reformer-that of the indifferent and stagnant man. Here we have a
subtle and memorable picture of character, which is not without its warnings for
our own time.
Zephaniah heard God say: "And it shall be at that time that I will search out
Jerusalem with lights, and I will make visitation upon the men who are become
stagnant upon their lees, who say in their hearts, Jehovah doeth no good and doeth
no evil." The metaphor is clear. ew wine was left upon its lees only long enough to
fix its color and body. If not then drawn off it grew thick and syrupy-sweeter indeed
than the strained wine, and to the taste of some more pleasant, but feeble and ready
to decay. "To settle upon one’s lees" became a proverb for sloth, indifference, and
the muddy mind. "Moab hath been at ease from his youth and hath settled upon his
lees, and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel; therefore his taste stands in
him and his scent is not changed." [Jeremiah 48:11] The characters stigmatized by
Zephaniah are also obvious. They were a precipitate from the ferment of fifteen
years back. Through the cruel days of Manasseh and Amon hope had been stirred
and strained, emptied from vessel to vessel, and so had sprung, sparkling and keen,
into the new days of Josiah. But no miracle came, only ten years of waiting for the
king’s majority and five more of small, tentative reforms. othing Divine happened.
They were but the ambiguous successes of a small party who had secured the king
for their principles. The court was still full of foreign fashions, and idolatry was
rank upon the housetops. Of course disappointment ensued-disappointment and
listlessness. The new security of life became a temptation; persecution ceased, and
religious men lived again at ease. So numbers of eager and sparkling souls, who had
been in the front of the movement, fell away into a selfish and idle obscurity.
The prophet hears God say, "I must search Jerusalem with lights" in order to find
them. They had "fallen from the van and the freemen"; they had "sunk to the rear
and the slaves," where they wallowed in the excuse that "Jehovah" Himself "would
do nothing-neither good," therefore it is useless to attempt reform like Josiah and
his party, "nor evil," therefore Zephaniah’s prophecy of destruction is also vain.
Exactly the same temper was encountered by Mazzini in the second stage of his
career. Many of those who with him had eagerly dreamt of a free Italy fell away
when the first revolt failed-fell away not merely into weariness and fear, but, as he
emphasizes, into the very two tempers which are described by Zephaniah,
skepticism and self-indulgence.
All this starts questions for ourselves. Here is evidently the same public temper,

which at all periods provokes alike the despair of the reformer and the indignation
of the prophet: the criminal apathy of the well-to-do classes sunk in ease and
religious indifference. We have today the same mass of obscure, nameless persons,
who oppose their almost unconquerable inertia to every movement of reform, and
are the drag upon all vital and progressive religion. The great causes of God and
Humanity are not defeated by the hot assaults of the Devil, but by the slow,
crushing, glacier-like masses of thousands and thousands of indifferent nobodies.
God’s causes are never destroyed by being blown up, but by being sat upon. It is not
the violent and anarchical whom we have to fear in the war for human progress, but
the slow, the staid, the respectable. And the danger of these does not lie in their
stupidity. otwithstanding all their religious profession, it lies in their real
skepticism. Respectability may be the precipitate of unbelief. ay, it is that, however
religious its mask, wherever it is mere comfort, decorousness, and conventionality;
where, though it would abhor articulately confessing that God does nothing, it
virtually means so- says so (as Zephaniah puts it) in its heart, by refusing to share
manifest opportunities of serving Him, and covers its sloth and its fear by sneering
that God is not with the great crusades of freedom and purity to which it is
summoned. In these ways, respectability is the precipitate which unbelief naturally
forms in the selfish ease and stillness of so much of our middle-class life. And that is
what makes mere respectability so dangerous. Like the unshaken, unstrained wine
to which the prophet compares its obscure and muddy comfort, it tends to decay. To
some extent our respectable classes are just the dregs and lees of our national life;
like all dregs, they are subject to corruption. A great sermon could be preached on
the putrescence of respectability-how the ignoble comfort of our respectable classes
and their indifference to holy causes lead to sensuality, and poison the very
institutions of the home and the family, on which they pride themselves. A large
amount of the licentiousness of the present day is not that of outlaw and disordered
lives, but is bred from the settled ease and indifference of many of our middle-class
families.
It is perhaps the chief part of the sin of the obscure units, which form these great
masses of indifference, that they think they escape notice and cover their individual
responsibility. At all times many have sought obscurity, not because they are
humble, but because they are slothful, cowardly, or indifferent. Obviously it is this
temper which is met by the words, "I will search out Jerusalem with lights." one
of us shall escape because we have said, "I will go with the crowd," or "I am a
common man and have no right to thrust myself forward." We shall be followed
and judged, each of us for his or her personal attitude to the great movements of our
time. These things are not too high for us: they are our duty; and we cannot escape
our duty by slinking into the shadow.
For all this wickedness and indifference Zephaniah sees prepared the Day of the
Lord-near, hastening, and very terrible. It sweeps at first in vague desolation and
ruin of all things, but then takes the outlines of a solemn slaughter-feast for which
Jehovah has consecrated the guests, the dim unnamed armies from the north. Judah
shall be invaded, and they that are at ease, who say "Jehovah does nothing" shall be
unsettled and routed. One vivid trait comes in like a screech upon the hearts of a

people unaccustomed for years to war. "Hark, Jehovah’s Day!" cries the prophet.
"A strong man-there!-crying bitterly." From this flash upon the concrete he returns
to a great vague terror, in which earthly armies merge in heavenly; battle, siege,
storm, and darkness are mingled, and destruction is spread abroad upon the whole
earth. The first shades of Apocalypse are upon us.
We may now take the full text of this strong and significant prophecy. We have
already given the title. Textual emendations and other points are explained in
footnotes.
"I will sweep, sweep away everything from the face of the ground oracle of Jehovah-
sweep man and beast, sweep the fowl of the heaven and the fish of the sea, and I will
bring to ruin the wicked and cut off the men of wickedness from the ground- oracle
of Jehovah. And I will stretch forth My hand upon Judah; and upon all the
inhabitants of Jerusalem: and I will cut off from this place the remnant of the Baal,
the names of the priestlings with the priests, and them who upon the housetops bow
themselves to the host of heaven, and them who swear by their Melech, and them
who have turned from following Jehovah, and who do not seek Jehovah nor have
inquired of Him."
"Silence for the Lord Jehovah! For near is Jehovah’s Day. Jehovah has prepared a
slaughter, He has consecrated His guests."
"And it shall be in Jehovah’s day of slaughter that I will make visitation upon the
princes and the house of the king, and upon all who array themselves in foreign
raiment; and I will make visitation upon all who leap over the threshold on that day,
who fill their lord’s house full of violence and fraud. "And on that day oracle of
Jehovah-there shall be a noise of crying from the Fishgate, and wailing from the
Mishneh, and great havoc on the Heights. Howl, O dwellers in the Mortar, for
undone are all the merchant folk, cut off are all the money-dealers. "And in that
time it shall be, that I will search Jerusalem with lanterns, and make visitation upon
the men who are become stagnant upon their lees, who in their hearts say, Jehovah
doeth no good and doeth no evil. Their substance shall be for spoil, and their houses
for wasting " ear is the great Day of Jehovah, near and very speedy. Hark, the Day
of Jehovah! A strong man-there!-crying bitterly A Day of wrath is that Day! Day of
siege and blockade, day of stress and distress, day of darkness and murk, day of
cloud and heavy mist, day of the war-horn and battle-roar, up against the fenced
cities and against the highest turrets! And I will beleaguer men, and they shall walk
like the blind, for they have sinned against Jehovah; and poured out shall their
blood be like dust, and the flesh of them like dung. Even their silver, even their gold
shall "not avail to save them in the day of Jehovah’s wrath, and in the fire of His
zeal shall all the earth be devoured, for destruction, yea, sudden collapse shall He
make of all the, inhabitants of the earth."
Upon this vision of absolute doom there follows a qualification for the few meek and
righteous. They may be hidden on the day of the Lord’s anger; but even for them
escape is only a possibility ote the absence of all mention of the Divine mercy as the

cause of deliverance. Zephaniah has no gospel of that kind. The conditions of escape
are sternly ethical-meekness, the doing of justice and righteousness. So austere is
our prophet.
"O people unabashed! before that ye become as the drifting chaff before the anger
of Jehovah come upon you, before there come upon you the day of Jehovah’s wrath;
seek Jehovah, all ye meek of the land who do His ordinance, seek righteousness, seek
meekness, peradventure ye may hide yourselves in the day of Jehovah’s wrath."
PETT, "Verses 1-3
Chapter 2 YHWH’s Judgment Will Also Come On The Surrounding ations For
Their Sins.
A Final Plea to Judah and Jerusalem (Zephaniah 2:1-3).
Zephaniah 2:1-2
“Gather yourselves together, yes, gather together,
O nation which has no shame (or ‘is not longed for’),
Before the decree brings forth,
The day passes as the chaff,
Before the fierce anger of YHWH comes on you,
Before the day of YHWH’s anger comes on you.”
The ‘shameless’ (a translation based on an Aramaic root) or ‘not longed for’ (i.e.
unloved = the literal Hebrew) people of Judah are commanded to come together, to
assemble themselves, before God’s decree produces its final result in the coming of
the invader. Before ‘the day passes as the chaff’. The chaff is the waste matter which
is rapidly blown away once the threshing of the grain takes place. So as quickly as
the chaff is blown away will the time pass before God visits them in judgment. The
idea is that they should come together to consider their position and repent before it
is too late, before YHWH’s fierce anger comes on them. For all too soon will come
the day of YHWH’s anger.
SIMEO , "REPE TA CE URGED
Zephaniah 2:1-3. Gather yourselves together, yea, gather together, O nation not
desired; before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, before the
fierce anger of the Lord come upon you, before the day of the Lord’s anger come
upon you. Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his
judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of
the Lord’s anger.
I the preceding chapter, the most dreadful judgments are denounced against the
whole Jewish nation. That devoted people are represented as a sacrifice, which God
himself has prepared to be devoured by their enemies, whom he has invited as
guests to come and prey upon them [ ote: Zephaniah 1:7.]. Yet, as God afforded

space for repentance to the inevites, notwithstanding the apparent immutability of
his decree against them, so he does here to his own people the Jews. By the voice of
his prophet he bids them “gather themselves together” for the purpose of national
humiliation, and repent, before the threatened judgments come upon them. And, if
they in their national capacity will not hear his voice, he bids the meek and contrite
among them to abase themselves, that they at least may be preserved amidst the
general wreck.
A similar exhortation is at all times seasonable; since at all times there are the
heaviest judgments impending over the ungodly, and since by true and timely
penitence they may be averted.
To analyze this passage, will be to enervate its force. I shall therefore ground upon it
a general address, having respect to its main import, and prosecuting in an
unartificial way its more prominent topics. Know then, that
The most dreadful judgments hang over an ungodly world—
[There is a day wherein “God will judge the world by that man whom he hath
ordained, even by our Lord Jesus Christ.” That day is called “the day of wrath and
of the revelation of the righteous judgment of God;” and “the day of the perdition of
ungodly men [ ote: Romans 2:5. 2 Peter 3:7.].” But the terrors of that day who can
conceive? Who can form any idea of what is meant by that wrath of God, which is
revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men [ ote: Romans 1:18.]?”
Who can imagine what it is to be “cast into the lake that burneth with fire and
brimstone,” where “the worm,” that gnaws the conscience, “dieth not, and the fire is
not quenched?” In a word, the “power of his anger who can tell [ ote: Psalms
90:11.]?”]
To escape those judgments should be the one concern of every living man—
[There is no man who is not justly exposed to them: all are trangressors of God’s
holy law, and consequently obnoxious to the curse which it denounces against sin.
All then, as with one heart and one mind, should unite in deprecating the
displeasure of their God, and in “fleeing for refuge to the hope set before them” in
the Gospel — — — Hear this, “O people not desired:” whether through the
hardness of your hearts ye are not desired by God, or through your ignorance of
him are not desirous of his favour, (for the prophet’s expression may be understood
in either way;) you should not lose an hour in embracing the proffered mercy. If
once “the decree bring forth,” there will be an end of all possibility of obtaining
mercy to all eternity. “As the tree falls, so will it lie” for ever and ever. O, then let all
of you “gather yourselves together,” and, as the word also imports, “search
yourselves,” ere it be too late. For your immortal souls’ sake, repent, I beseech you,
without delay, “before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you, before the day of
the Lord’s anger come upon you.”]
To those who have any measure of humility and contrition, this truth will approve

itself as most unquestionable and most important—
[Prevalent as impiety is to a vast extent, there are some, I trust, “who have wrought
God’s judgment,” and laboured in sincerity to fulfil his will. Such, it might be
supposed, would be most self-confident. But the very reverse is their experience: the
more observant they have been of the Lord’s statutes, the more will they be
humbled under a sense of their defects: they are, and ever will be, “the meek of the
earth.” To such then we address ourselves with the greater hope of success: “Seek ye
the Lord, all ye meek of the earth.” You have already shewn that you think God is
to be feared: your very attainments, small as they may be, yet testify in your behalf
that you are neither “undesirous,” or “undesired.” You have chosen God; and that
is a proof that God has previously chosen you [ ote: John 15:16.]. Relax not then
your endeavours: be not contented to have run well for a season: press forward,
forgetful of all that you may have attained: “never be weary in well-doing,” lest you
“turn back,” and “your last end be worse than your beginning.”]
But let your humiliation be such as God requires—
[“Seek righteousness, seek meekness;” “seek righteousness” in the way wherein God
has appointed it to be obtained, even by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; who, by his
own obedience unto death, has brought in an everlasting righteousness for the
justification of the ungodly; and by his efficacious and all-sufficient grace will
“sanctify you throughout, in body, soul, and spirit.” Rest not in any thing short of
the full possession of Christ and all his benefits: but labour night and day, till “he is,
of God, made unto you wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and
redemption.” Particularly “seek meekness” also; for that is the grace which God
most delights in: “the broken and contrite heart he will not despise;” on the
contrary, he will come down from the highest heavens to testify his regard for it,
and to make it his habitation [ ote: Isaiah 57:15.]. If there be one grace more than
another which distinguishes the more advanced Christian, it is that of humility. Job
was a “perfect” man before his sufferings; but, after them, his attainments in grace
were exceedingly enlarged; and then it was that he “abhorred himself in dust and
ashes.” Do ye also aspire after perfection in every grace; but learn most of all to
“lothe yourselves,” when you have the most confident hope that “God is pacified
towards you [ ote: Ezekiel 16:63.].”]
It shall then assuredly prove effectual for the salvation of your souls—
[“Repent,” says the prophet, “and turn from all your transgressions; so iniquity
shall not be your ruin.” Where the judgments are of a temporal nature, the true
penitent may hope that God will put a difference between him and others [ ote:
Ezekiel 9:4.]; but in reference to judgments that shall be inflicted in the eternal
world, he may be sure of it. The sheep and the goats shall have their appropriate
places assigned them; and the wheat be treasured up in the gamer, whilst “the chaff
is burnt up with unquenchable fire.” Were there but a peradventure concerning
this, it were quite sufficient to encourage our deepest penitence: but it is not a
matter of uncertainty: it not only “may be,” but shall be: and not the smallest grain

of true wheat shall ever be lost [ ote: Amos 9:9.]. Did Jesus, even in the days of his
flesh, lose one whom the Father had given him? o: “nor will he ever suffer one to
be plucked out of his hands.” “Their lives are now hid with Christ in God; and
therefore when He, who is their life, shall appear, they also shall appear with him in
glory [ ote: Colossians 3:3-4.].”]
PULPIT, "
§ 1. The prophet urges all to examine their ways before the day of the Lord come;
and he prays the righteous to seek the Lord more earnestly, in order that they may
be safe in the judgment.
Zephaniah 2:1
Gather yourselves together. So the versions; and this rendering is probably correct.
The prophet calls upon his nation to assemble themselves together in order to take
mutual counsel or to make general confession and supplication to God. Another
rendering, based on some alteration of letters, is, "Set yourselves to be ashamed;
yea, be ashamed" (comp. Isaiah 46:8). Yea, gather together. The LXX. renders the
two words, συνάχθητε καὶ συνδέθητε, "be ye gathered and bound together;" "Id
est," says Jerome, "estote vobis caritatis vinculo copulati." O nation not desired;
Vulgate, gens non amabilis — a litotes for abominable, hated for its sins, unworthy
of God's love and care. The Septuagint rendering, ἀπαίδευτον, "unchastened,"
points to the meaning affixed by the Chaldee paraphrase, that does not wish to be
converted," having no desire for amendment; like what is said in Jeremiah 2:30,
"they received no correction." Others render, "which does not turn pale," i.e. which
is not ashamed, comparing Isaiah 29:22. The verb kasaph seems to have this
meaning in niphal, according to Talmudic use; but its usual signification is "to
pine" or "long for." The Revised Version gives in the margin, "that hath no
longing" — a rendering adopted by Professor Gandell, implying that the people are
quite satisfied with their present condition, and have no aspiration for anything
better or higher (comp. Hosea 12:8). This is a very apposite interpretation; but there
is no sufficient ground for rejecting the translation of the Authorized Version, which
is supported by high authority, is agreeable to the use of the word, and affords a
satisfactory sense.
BI 1-3, "Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth.
Sin and repentance, the bane and antidote
An exhortation to the men of Judah to repent ere the Chaldean invaders approach and
wreak destruction on their land.
I. Sin exposes man to ruin. It was sin, in the form of idolatry and gross immorality, that
exposed the Jewish people to the terrible doom that was now hanging over them.
1. The suffering that follows sin is sometimes very terrible. Sin brings to a people
famines, pestilences, wars, hells.
2. The suffering expresses God’s antagonism to sin. “The fierce anger of the Lord,”
or, as Henderson has it, the “burning anger of Jehovah.” The connection between sin

and misery is a beneficent arrangement. It is well that misery should pursue wrong.
II. That repentance delivers man from ruin.
1. The preparation for repentance. “Gather yourselves together.” It is well for sinners
in the prospect of their doom to meet and confer concerning their relations to
Almighty God.
2. The nature of repentance. “Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth”; or, as
Henderson renders it, “Seek ye Jehovah, all ye humble of the earth.” There are two
seekings here.
(1) The seeking of God. He is “not far from every one of us.” But we are all away
from Him in sympathy. The other seeking is—
(2) The seeking of goodness. “Seek righteousness, seek goodness.”
3. The urgency of repentance. “Before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as
the chaff, before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you, before the day of the
Lord’s anger come upon you.” (Homilist.)
Seek righteousness, seek meekness.
True way of seeking God
The prophet defines what the true and rightful way of seeking God is, and that is, when
righteousness is sought, when humility is sought. By righteousness he understands the
same thing as by judgment; as though he had said, “Advance in a righteous and holy
course of life, for God will not forget your obedience, provided your hearts grow not
faint, and ye persevere to the end.” We hence see that God complains, not only when we
obtrude external pomps and devices, I know not what, as though He might like a child be
amused by us; but also when we do not sincerely devote our life to His service. And he
adds humility to righteousness; for it is difficult even for the very best of men not to
murmur against God when He severely chastises them. We indeed find how much their
own delicacy embitters the minds of men when God appears somewhat severe with
them. Hence the prophet, in order to check all clamours, exhorts the faithful here to
cultivate humility, so that they might bear patiently the rigour by which God would try
them, and might suffer themselves to be ruled by His hand (1Pe_5:6). The prophet
requires humility, in order that they might with composed minds wait for the
deliverance which God had promised. They were not in the interval to murmur, nor to
give vent to their own perverse feelings, however severely God might treat them. We may
hence gather a profitable instruction. The prophet does not address here men who were
depraved, and had wholly neglected what was just and right, but he directs his discourse
to the best, the most upright, the most holy: and yet he shows that they had no other
remedy, but humbly and patiently to bear the chastisement of God. It then follows that
no perfection can be found among men, such as can meet the judgment of God. (John
Calvin.)
It may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord’s anger.—
Prayer and providence
Zephaniah could not promise the people exemption from the trials that should come

upon them from the Chaldeans. But neither was it possible for him, or any other, to say
how much, in the way of mitigation of those threatened evils, might be effected by
prayer, by effort, by an humble seeking unto the Lord their God. “It may be”—a theology
from which these words should be excluded, would, if it met with universal acceptance,
go far towards turning the world upside down. It would paralyse all the powers of our
religious nature. It would take from under us all grounds for trusting in a moral
providence. Let certainty, in relation to the Divine Being, be as fixed a thing as you will, I
must have some room left for a peradventure—must be permitted to believe that there
are possibilities in the future of indeterminate issue. This indeterminateness may be
looked at in two different ways.
I. As it bears upon the principles of a Divine administration. Is the use of such language
as “ it may be,” compatible with that fixed order of procedure by which, it is commonly
assumed, the Almighty governs the world?
1. These words suppose, if they do not directly affirm, the doctrine of a moral
providence; as opposed to the doctrine of fatalism; or of irresistible necessity. There
is a constant, continuous, moral superintendence over the affairs of men, for moral
purposes. God never permits secondary agencies to go out of His own hands. This
view is not more a disclosure of revelation, than it is an essential element of our first
conceptions of an Infinite Being. On the Christian showing of what God is, we cannot
admit His existence without admitting His providence also. Of course nothing more
is contended for, than the fact of a special providence overruling the affairs of men.
Of the methods of our preservation, or deliverance, in trying circumstances, we often
know nothing.
2. Take the words “it may be,” as against that unchanging fixity of natural laws,
which it is the fashion of a modern philosophy to make the grand autocratic power in
the universe of God. The form of the objection is, that since cause and effect, in the
natural world, are joined together by a nexus of undeviating certainty, all prayer for
the modification of events, occurring in the order of physical law, is “absurd.” But
this not only limits the agency of the Divine Being in the natural world, but strikes at
the root of all our conceptions of God as a moral governor. God and nature, upon
this theory, make up the universe, and the only relation which God has to nature is to
keep the wondrous machine going. A high and impersonal abstraction governs all
things. Free moral agents, in this apparatus of eternal sequences, there are none,
either in relation to God or man. What is the foundation fallacy of this reasoning?
But prayer asks for no violation of any inevitable law of sequence. It is merely an
appeal to Infinite Wisdom to devise some method for our relief. This is the fault we
charge upon the so-called scientific objection. It assumes that all the events in this
world’s history, however intimately affecting man’s happiness, depend for their
accomplishment on physical laws only, rather than, as they do, upon those laws
liable to be modified in their operation by the intervention or volition of moral
agents. Just here, where a fixed thing is intercalated with an unfixed thing, room is
left for the putting forth of human effort, and the offering up of faithful prayer. The
assumption is entirely gratuitous that, in praying against any form of apprehended
danger, I expect the laws of the material world to be suspended, or altered, or put out
of course, in any miraculous way. My prayer only goes upon the supposition that
there are multitudinous agencies in God, which may be employed to turn a
threatened evil aside, or to modify its operation before it reaches me.
II. Consider the subject in relation to human agency. Or what man may and ought to do
towards the same object.

1. Seek the Lord by earnest prayer.
2. Take care not to stipulate for any particular form of relief. (D. Moore, M. A.)
The saint’s hiding-place
Notice the matter of the exhortation to the godly, which is, “To seek the Lord, to seek
righteousness, to seek meekness.” The subjects or persons upon whom this exhortation
falls. “The meek of the earth.” And the motive pressing thereto. “It may be ye shall be hid
in the day of the Lord’s anger.” Ye shall surely be hidden from the wrath to come, and it
may be from the wrath present.
I. God hath His days of anger. Take anger properly for a passion, and then there is none
in God. Take anger for the effects and fruits thereof, and so it is not with God as mercy
is. Yet He hath His days of anger. The more excellent a person, the sooner he is moved to
anger. Now there is most excellency in God, and therefore sin being a contempt of Him,
He cannot but be moved to anger. Anger is the dagger that love wears to save itself, and
to hurt all that wrongs the thing loved: there is infinite love in God, and therefore there
must needs be anger too. God has three houses that He puts men into: an house of
instruction, an house of correction, an house of destruction. It is not in itself unlawful to
be angry, only your anger must be unto reformation, as God’s is. If there be wrath m
God, how infinitely are our souls bound unto Jesus Christ, by whom we are delivered
from the wrath to come, reconciled to God, and made friends to Him. And being friends,
His very wrath and anger are our friends also.
II. In days of angst, God is very willing to hide, save, and defend His people. God knows
how to deliver from danger by danger, from death by death, from misery by misery.
Much of the saints’ preservation is put into the hand of angels. Those that hide the saints
are sure to be hidden by God. Those that keep the word of God’s patience, have a
promise to be hidden by God. Those are sure to be hidden by God in evil times, that fear
not the fears of men. And those that remain green and flourishing in their religion,
notwithstanding all the ,scorching heats of opposition that do fall on them. And the
“meek of the earth shall be hidden by God.
III. Though God is willing to hide His own people in evil times, yet He doth sometimes
leave them at great uncertainties. They have more than a “may be” for their eternal
salvation. But as for our temporal and outward salvation, God doth sometimes leave His
people to a “may be.” God loves to have His people trust to the goodness of His nature.
IV. When His people have only a “may be,” it is their duty to seek unto God. There is no
such way to establish our thoughts as to commit our ways unto God. The text points
unto three things—
1. Seek the Lord Himself, not His goods, but His goodness.
2. Seek righteousness.
3. Seek truth.
V. If any man can do any good in the day of God’s anger, it is the meek of the earth.
Therefore the text calls on them specially to seek the Lord. The meek have the promise of
the earth. The meek do most honour Christ, the way of Christ, and the Gospel. A meek
person leaves his cause with God and his revenge to Him. The meek person is most fit
for the service of God. Hereby, even your meekness, ye walk as becometh the Gospel, ye
inherit the earth, are made like unto Jesus Christ, have a great power and credit in

heaven for yourselves and others, and shall be hidden in the evil day. (W. Bridge, M. A.)
Divine discipline
(with chap. 3. Zep_3:11-12):—The prophet spoke, and in fact it happened that judgment
fell; the nations passed, Israel was chastised; it went into captivity. And there did come
back that meek, that poor, that afflicted people, despised even of the Samaritans—those
feeble Jews. They came back trusting in Jehovah; they laid the foundations of that
piteous and miserable new temple. Its very foundations cause contempt; those who
remember the old temple could but weep. But this new temple was to be clothed with a
glory which the old temple had never known. It was the religion of humanity that Was to
come out from that regenerated and purged people—that little band of the meek of the
earth. Brethren, we speak of poetical justice, and we mean by that generally when we
want to see the lines of ideal actions clear and unblurred. We have to look to our great
works of fiction, to some great drama, or poem, or novel, and there, if they are great of
their kind, we see the ideal lines of Divine judgment, and of human progress, standing
out clear and vivid in that which the imagination of the artist conceives. And the artist
must conceive it for us, and teach us through these ideal lines, because, in the most of
our ordinary experience, the lines of Divine action, of human experience, are blurred and
confused in the mixture and confusion of this common earthly scene. But it is not always
so. There are days of the Lord. The days of the Lord are the moments in history when the
ideal issues appear, and the Divine hand is plain. Such a moment was the judgment and
the restoration of Israel. There have been other such moments in history, like the decay
of Spain, like the French Revolution, like the collapse of Napoleon. There are moments
in history when God bares His arms and speaks plainly. It might be so again one day
upon what is proud and exalting in this English nation of ours. Anyway, God does it.
Beyond our sight He will do it, or m our sight from time to time He does it. That is the
Divine method. Always, it is through this discipline, whereby God must single out for
progress those who will consent to be chastened into meekness. But for to-day let us
leave again the scene of political and social history, and trace this method of God again
in the individual soul. There again, the method of Divine discipline, the method whereby
we, individual after individual, are prepared for effective fruitfulness, is this same
method of chastening. One after another, in our pride and our haughtiness, we have to
be chastened into that quality which—it is the very paradox of Divine justice—is the one
really strong and effective quality in the progress of the human soul, and it is meekness.
Disciplined into effective meekness—that is the verdict which might be written upon the
history of every single human soul which fulfils in any real measure the purpose of God.
Englishmen are proud; we know it. In a certain way we are proud of being proud. Look
round about in the world. What are the spectacles, the strange and overpowering
spectacles, which we behold of the insolence of human pride? From time to time the
record of some millionaire in America or South Africa or England is laid bare to us—
some one who confessedly, and before the eyes of men, bids defiance to all the laws of
mercy, and simply sets himself to scrape together gold, almost professedly making gold
his god, and trampling under foot the laws of mercy and of justice and of consideration.
And there are smaller men who never rise into note, or come before the public either in
their rise or their catastrophe, who are in their humbler sphere doing the same thing. Or,
look at him, that rich young man, that Superbus, who feels that the land is made for him.
Look at him as he goes out into life with his preposterous claim for amusement, for
luxury, for self-satisfaction, with the recklessness of his selfish lusts, as he does despite
to every law that ought to bind men in mercy and consideration and purity, because he

must gratify his passion at all costs in that claim for amusement, in that almost riotous
estimation of himself; so that, as one looks at him in his arrogance, one wonders why
God stands it, and why a very little thunderbolt is not sent about its business to despatch
him there in the impotence of his vanity. God does not strike them with thunderbolts;
God has other methods. He is the Father of each one. In slow and patient silence God
waits; God provides for them His judgment. It waits upon them; it will come at last in
this world, so that we can see it; or beyond this world, where it is dark to our vision, God
will judge them. But the question is this—When the judgment falls, how will it strike?
Surely they will know that God is God, they will know at the last it is the fool that saith in
his heart, “There is no God.” Yes, they will know that they were fools. But the question is,
in what disposition of mind? Will it be to them mere punish-meat, mere retribution, or
will it be to them purging, healing, disciplining chastisement? That is the question. No
question so far as the intention of God is concerned; in God’s intention these judgments
are for chastisement, for discipline, for recovery. But there is a soul that has worked
itself into a stubbornness which will not bend, and perforce can only be broken. That is
the question. Pharaoh is in the old story raised up in the scene of human history, to
stand as the type of the soul that must be broken because it will not bend. But, on the
other hand, our Bible, Old and New Testament, is full of the gracious pictures of those
whom the chastisement of God has slowly, and at last, disciplined into that effective
meekness which is the one charm, the beauty of the children of God. Moses, brought up
in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and in the splendid opportunities of that court—we
read of him how, in the pride of strong manhood, he went out to be the deliverer of his
people. He met with nothing but rebuffs. “Who made thee a leader and deliverer?” and
he fled alarmed and baffled, and, in the back side of the desert, through the long
discipline of silence, away from all political interests, Moses learned the lesson of
meekness, and he goes back, that old call of God not withdrawn, now effective because
meek. Moses was very meek. “O Lord, I am not eloquent, neither now nor since. Thou
hast spoken unto Thy servant.” Pass to the New Testament. Think of those words to
Peter, “When thou wast young, thou girdest thyself; when thou shalt be old, others shall
gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not.” It is the record of experience of
every one. Limitations crowd in upon us. There are multitudes of things which in our
hateful arrogance we thought we would do. We find we cannot do them. Limitations
close in upon us—hindrances, disappointments, sufferings, pain. How are we to bear it
all? Are we to become all the more querulous, resentful, irritating, or is each stroke of
the Divine discipline to be the learning to us all a lesson, so that all the more, stroke after
stroke, the soul learning its limitations, is forced into the line of Divine correspondence,
and made meek is made effective? So it was with the proud and the impulsive Peter, so
that that late writing of his, that epistle of his, is full, as hardly any other book of the
New Testament is full, of the rich power of the spirit of meekness. Or Saul the Pharisee,
yielding at last with one blow to the Divine claim, and becoming, for all that Jewish pride
of his, once and for ever the slave of the meek Jesus. These are the meek of the earth;
because they are meek, therefore, in the kingdom of God, the effective—the men who do
fruitful things, the men whose work lasts because they are the followers of Him who was
meek and lowly in heart. Jesus had no pride to be overcome. What are you expecting of
this human life of yours? It matters so much what we expect. Pleasure, success? Ah, yes!
There is in this human heart of ours an inextinguishable thirst for happiness. And it is
there, God-given. Do not listen to those altruistic philosophers of our modern time who
would tell us that to have care for ourselves is simple and radical selfishness. Nay, the
Bible throughout is true to what I call the ineradicable instinct of the human heart. God
made us, and because He made us we are made for happiness, we are made to realise
ourselves. But the question is, How? Look for happiness, make it your aim, hunt for

pleasure, and you are baffled. It is by the law of indirectness that we are to realise
happiness. He that sayeth his life, seeketh his own life, he shall lose it; he that loseth it,
he shall save it. That is the law. Here in this world we are set to gain character. So we are
to expect discipline. It is one of the simple laws of human life, character develops by
discipline, develops through pain. “Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth.” Therefore
this is the point, a point of supreme importance when you come to think about your life.
Am I, I as I am to-day, I being the sort of man I am, am I yielding myself so that God by
disciplining me can make me meek and, in meekness, effective? That very thing which I
have always said is the one thing I could not stand, when it comes, as it probably does
come, if I set myself too much to rebel against it—when it comes, how do I take it? Have
I that measure of spiritual insight and thoughtfulness which enables me to say, “This is
just that moulding, graving tool which is so necessary to rub off that sharp angle, to blot
out that dark stain, to do this or that or the other necessary work in my character? “ Do I
regard it as the trenchant treatment of the surgeon who is to again make me sound?
Humiliation is the way to humility. Learn the lesson which the humiliation contains for
us, to become the wiser man, the more docile while not the less resolute. That is the
discipline of God—point by point, step by step, biting after biting of the tool, smiting
after smiting of the hammer. So it is, moulding after moulding of the Divine hand, we
are to be brought into shape. Now, I say it, there is not a day of our life in which it does
not make a real vital difference whether we have had this expectation in our will, our
intelligence, our heart, so that when the blow, little or great, comes, the disappointment,
be it never so trivial, it may teach us the lesson. The little humiliation may come on its
way and speed on as a messenger which has fulfilled its obligation and done its duty. For
it has taught us something, and we go to bed something wiser men and women than we
got up in the morning. There is hardly a department of life in which there are not great
and vital changes which are needed. Yes, but are we fit to do them? That is the question.
Perhaps we have willingness, but have we what is a part of meekness—patience? Do we
arrive with our enthusiasm, our ideal enthusiasm, and then shrink altogether from the
task of drudgery? Because you know there are only two qualities by which anything
finally effective can be done—enthusiasm and drudgery, and they are no good apart. Or,
is it vanity? Yes, I offered myself to work on that particular committee, I offered myself
to do that good job which surely was for the bettering of mankind. But then I thought
that I was to be secretary, or I was to be put into the chair, and somebody else who
surely had no better claim than I was put there. Or, is it the refusal of pain? There it is,
the pain, the ugliness, the dirt, and squalor, and to do anything effective I must be in
contact with the pain and the dirt and the ugliness and the squalor. I must not be hiding
myself from my own flesh. But I shrink from it, I think I cannot bear it, and the task is
undone, and the Kingdom of God makes not the progress it might make because I am
not with the meek and the patient, with the sorrowful and the suffering. Or, is it
prayerlessness? I have my schemes, my plans, but I do not keep myself in
correspondence with God. It is my own pride that guides me, my own ideas, my own
schemes. The question is, whether in the larger or less sphere we will mould, mould to
the Divine hand, or whether we will be that obstinate stuff, that moral character that will
not mould, and which becomes the vessel of wrath, the vessel which the Divine Potter,
after patient trying, finds unmalleable, and at the last must cast aside as of a stuff that
will not make under the Divine hand. That is it, the Divine Potter would mould you. And
is there anything to the spiritual imagination so beautiful, anything so lovely to think
about, as the discipline of the soul, conscious of the hand of God upon it, and, for all its
occasional wilfulness and sins and faults, ever coming back to be moulded according to
the plan and will of the Divine Potter, according to the love of our Father, Who chastens
us into effective meekness that at the last we may share in the glory of His kingdom as

things that have realised their end in that fruitfulness which belongs to the meek? That
is the consciousness which every Christian soul is sooner or later meant to have. (Bishop
Gore.)
2 before the decree takes effect
and that day passes like windblown chaff,
before the Lord’s fierce anger
comes upon you,
before the day of the Lord’s wrath
comes upon you.
BAR ES, "Before the decree bring forth - God’s word is full (as it were) of the
event which it foretelleth; it contains its own fulfillment in itself, and “travaileth” until it
come to pass, giving signs of its coming, yet delaying until the full time. Time is said to
bring forth what is wrought in it. “Thou knowest not, what a day shall bring forth.”
Before the day pass as the chaff - Or, parenthetically, “like chaff the day passeth
by.” God’s counsels lie wrapt up, as it were, in the womb of time, wherein He hides them,
until the moment which He has appointed, and they break forth suddenly to those who
look not for them. The mean season is given for repentance, that is, the day of grace, the
span of repentance still allowed, which is continually whirling more swiftly by; and woe,
if it be fruitless as chaff! Those who profit not by it shall also be as chaff, carried away
pitilessly by the whirlwind to destruction. Time, on which eternity hangs, is a slight,
uncertain thing, as little to be counted upon, as the light dry particles which are the sport
of the wind, driven uncertainly here and there. But when it is “passed,” then “cometh,”
not “to” them, but “upon” them, from heaven, overwhelming them, “abiding upon” Joh_
3:36 them, not to pass away, “the heat of the anger of Almighty God.” This warning he
twice repeats, to impress the certainty and speed of its conming Gen_41:32. It is the
warning of our Lord, “Take heed, lest that day come upon you unawares” Luk_21:34.
GILL, "Before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff,....
Which was like a woman big with child, ready to be delivered. The decree of God
concerning the people of the Jews was pregnant with wrath and ruin for their sins, and
just ripe for execution; and therefore, before it was actually executed, they are exhorted
as above; not that the decree of God which was gone forth could be frustrated and made
void by anything done by them; only that, when it was put into execution, such as
repented of their sins might be saved from the general calamity; which they are called
upon to do before the day come appointed by the Lord for the execution of this decree;

Zephaniah 2 commentary

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Zephaniah 2 commentary