Zephaniah 1

Zephaniah was a doomsayer and most people are not comfortable with prophets who bring messages of hardship and destruction. He speaks of the certain reprisals of not following God's way but he also speaks of the Lord's forgiveness to all who will repent of their sins and call upon Him in truth asking for His mercy and protection. Our God is a jealous God and He will not share us. We must choose whom we will serve. In the measure that we believe in His power and in His control is the measure we can receive His protection and guidance in our lives. Praise Him for His mercy, goodness and grace He gives us hidden in Christ Jesus!

2:3 Seek the Lord, all you meek of the earth,

Who have upheld His justice.

Seek righteousness, seek humility.

It may be that you will be hidden

In the day of the Lord's anger.

Zephaniah 1

1 The word of the Lord which came to Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah.

The Great Day of the Lord

2 "I will utterly consume everything

From the face of the land,"

Says the Lord;

3 "I will consume man and beast;

I will consume the birds of the heavens,

The fish of the sea,

And the stumbling blocks along with the wicked.

I will cut off man from the face of the land,"

Says the Lord.

4 "I will stretch out My hand against Judah,

And against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

4I will cut off every trace of Baal from this place,

The names of the idolatrous priests with the pagan priests—

5 Those who worship the host of heaven on the housetops;

Those who worship and swear oaths by the Lord,

But who also swear by Milcom;

6 Those who have turned back from following the Lord,

And have not sought the Lord, nor inquired of Him."

7 Be silent in the presence of the Lord God;

For the day of the Lord is at hand,

For the Lord has prepared a sacrifice;

He has invited His guests.

8 "And it shall be,

In the day of the Lord's sacrifice,

That I will punish the princes and the king's children,

And all such as are clothed with foreign apparel.

9 In the same day I will punish

All those who leap over the threshold,

Who fill their masters' houses with violence and deceit.

10 "And there shall be on that day," says the Lord,

"The sound of a mournful cry from the Fish Gate,

A wailing from the Second Quarter,

And a loud crashing from the hills.

11 Wail, you inhabitants of Maktesh!

For all the merchant people are cut down;

All those who handle money are cut off.

12 "And it shall come to pass at that time

That I will search Jerusalem with lamps,

And punish the men

Who are settled in complacency,

Who say in their heart,

'The Lord will not do good,

Nor will He do evil.'

13 Therefore their goods shall become booty,

And their houses a desolation;

They shall build houses, but not inhabit them;

They shall plant vineyards, but not drink their wine."

14 The great day of the Lord is near;

It is near and hastens quickly.

The noise of the day of the Lord is bitter;

There the mighty men shall cry out.

15 That day is a day of wrath,

A day of trouble and distress,

A day of devastation and desolation,

A day of darkness and gloominess,

A day of clouds and thick darkness,

16 A day of trumpet and alarm

Against the fortified cities

And against the high towers.

17 "I will bring distress upon men,

And they shall walk like blind men,

Because they have sinned against the Lord;

Their blood shall be poured out like dust,

And their flesh like refuse."

18 Neither their silver nor their gold

Shall be able to deliver them

In the day of the Lord's wrath;

But the whole land shall be devoured

By the fire of His jealousy,

For He will make speedy riddance

Of all those who dwell in the land.

The NKJV Study Bible says this: Zephaniah means "Hidden in the Lord," a name that relates to the principal message the prophet presented. The names of the prophets were often significantly associated with the message that God gave them to present to the people. The message of Zephaniah begins with a pronouncement of universal judgment. (These words not only introduce the particular judgment that would be pronounced upon Judah, but they also speak of the final judgment that will usher in the kingdom of God on earth (see Rev. 19). Stumbling blocks here refers to idolatry, or substitutes for God in the life and affections of a person. Because there is nothing in the universe that really may be compared to the Creator, God abhors all forms of idolatry. The people had experienced God and then turned away from Him. The complacency of the wicked people led them to believe that God is similarly complacent. Foolishly these people believed that the Lord would be inactive, neither blessing nor cursing, neither benefiting nor punishing His people. God's judgment would be so sudden and so overwhelming that the survivors would be in a state of shock, stumbling around in the dark.