ZEPHANIAH, the ninth of the minor prophets in the Bible. His ancestry is traced to his great-grandfather Hezekiah, who may, in spite of 2 Kings xx. 18, xxi. i, be the well-known king of Judah (c. 720-690). This would agree fairly with the title (i. 1) which makes the prophet a contemporary of King Josiah (c. 637), and this in turn appears to agree (a) with the internal conditions (i. 4-6, cf. 2 Kings xxiii. 4, 5, 12) which, it is held, are evidently earlier than Josiah's reforms (621) ; (b) with the denunciation of the royal household, but not of the (young) king himself (i. 8, iii. 3) ; (c) with the apparent allusion in ch. i. to the invasion of the Scythians (perhaps c. 626), and (d) with the anticipated downfall of Assyria and Nineveh (ii. 13, 612 B.c.). Although one single leading motive runs through the book of Zephaniah there are abrupt transitions which do not depend on modern subjective considerations of logical or smooth thought, but are material and organic changes representing different groups of ideas. The instruments of Yahweh's anger (ch. i.) are not so real or prominent on the political horizon as, for example, in Isaiah, Jeremiah or Habakkuk. The Scythian inroad and its results for Judah and Philistia are less important when it is observed that the doom upon Philistia, the vengeance upon Moab and Ammon, and the promises for Judah (ch. ii.), belong to a large group of prophecies against certain historic enemies (Edom included) who are denounced for their contempt, hostility and intrusion. The prophecies are in large measure associated tradition ally with the fall of Jerusalem, and to some such calamity, and not to the inroad of the Scythians, the references to the "remnant" and the "captivity" refer. The anticipation of future events is of course conceivable in itself ; but the promises (in ch. ii.) pre suppose events other and later than those with which the Scythians were connected. On the other hand, a prophecy relating to Scyth ians may have been re-shaped to apply to later conditions, and on this view it is explicable why the indefinite political convul sions should be adjusted to the exile and why the gloom should be relieved by the promise of a territory extending from the Mediterranean to the Syrian desert (ii. 7, 9). After a period of punishment (cf. book of Lamentations) Yahweh's jealousy against the semi-heathen Judah has become a jealousy for his people, and we appear to move in the thought of Haggai and Zechariah, where the remnant are comforted by Yahweh's return and the dispersed exiles are to be brought back (cf. Zech. i. 14-17, viii. 2-17). But in ch. iii. other ideas are manifest. Israel's enemies have been destroyed, her own God Yahweh has proved his loyalty and has fulfilled his promises, but the city remains pol luted (vv. 1-7, cf. Isa. lviii. seq.; Malachi). Once more doom
is threatened, and once more we pass over into a later stage where Yahweh has vindicated his supremacy and Zion is glorified. Instead of the realities of history we have the apocalyptical feature of the gathering of the nations (v. 8) ; the thought may be illustrated from Zech. xii. 6, where Jerusalem is tacked, purged and delivered, and from Zech. xiv. where the city is actually captured and half the people are removed into captivity (cf. Zeph. iii. 11 purging, 15 removal of the enemy, 18-20 return of the captivity). The goal is the vindication of Israel and of Israel's God, and the establishment of universal monotheism (ii. I I, iii. 9 seq.). The foe which threatened Judah has become the chastiser of Ethiopia and Assyria (ii.) and the prelude to the golden age (iii., cf. Ezek. xxxviii. seq.).
If Jer. iv. 5—vi. 30 originally referred to the Scythians, it has been revised to refer to the Chaldeans ; also in Ezek. xxxviii. seq. a northern foe becomes associated with the great world-judgment. Also, in Isaiah and Zechariah, notably, older and later groups of prophecies are preserved, whereas here the new preludes and new sequels suggest that the original nucleus has passed through the hands of writers in touch with those vicissitudes of thought which can be studied more completely elsewhere. It is not to be supposed that the elimination of all later passages and traces of revision will give us Zephaniah's prophecies in their original extent. In fact the internal religious and social conditions in i. 4-6 or iii. 1-4 do not compel a date before Josiah's reforms. The doom of Cush is still in the future in Ezek. xxx. 4; and if the impending fall of Nineveh (ii. 13) implies an early date, yet it is found in writings which have later additions (Nahum), or which are essentially later (Jonah, cf. Tobit xiv. 4 [LXX.], 8, io, Is) ; cf. also the use of Assyria for Babylon (Ezra vi. 22) or Syria (Zech. x. o). Historical references in prophecies are not always decisive (Ezek. xxxii., for example, looks upon Edom and Sidon as dead), and while the continued revision of the book allows the pre sumption that the tradition ascribing its inception to the time of Josiah may be authentic, it is doubtful how much of the original nucleus can be safely recognized.
BisuodRApHY.-The commentaries on (all or portions of) the Minor Prophets by A. B. Davidson (Carob. Bible, 1896) ; G. A. Smith (1928) ; W. Nowack (1903) ; K. Marti (19o4 ; especially valuable) ; Driver (Cent. Bib., 1906) ; Van Hoonacker (1908). (S. A. C.)