ZEPHANIAH (r143tY ; Sept Io0ovias, taken 7: from a participial form according to Bleek), the ninth in order of the minor prophets, both in the Hebrew and Greek copies of the Scriptures (Hie ronym. Prolog. ad Paul. et Eustoch.) Author.—The name of this prophet has been variously explained. Disputes upon it arose as early as the time of Jerome, for in his Commentary on this book he says, Nomen Sophoniw alii speculam, alii arcanum Dei, transtulerunt.' The word was thus derived either from ilDV, he saw beyond, or It% he hid, with the common affix ri4. The old father made it a matter of indifference which etymon he adopted, as both, according to him, give virtually the same sense,—the commis sion of a prophet being virtually that of a watch man or seer, and the burden of his message, some secret revealed to him by God. Abarbanel (Pref. in Ezeh.) adheres to the latter mode of derivation,. and the psendo-Dorotheus, following the former, translates the prophet's name by the Greek parti ciple oworehni. Hiller, taking the term from In, renders it abscondidit se—i.e. delituit Jehovah' (Onomast. sub voce), but Simonis (Onomast. V. T.) gives the true signification, one sanctioned by Gesenius—` abscondidit—i.e. custodivit Jehovah,' Jehovah hath guara'ed, the verb In being used of divine protection in Ps. xxvii. 5 ; and lxxxiii. 4. The name seems to have been a common one among the Jews. Contrary to usual custom the pedigree of the prophet is traced back for four generations— the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hizkiah.' This formal record of his lineage has led many to sup pose that Zephaniah had sprung from a noble stock (Cyril, Pral. ad ZOlz.), and the occurrence of the highest name in the list, which in the Hebrew text is spelled and pointed in the same way as that rendered Hezekiah in the books of Kings and Chronicles, has induced some to identify it with that of the good king, and to pronounce the prophet a cadet of the royal house of Judah. Kimchi is. very cautious in his opinion, and leaves the point undecided ; but Aben-Ezra concludes that Zepha niah was descended from Hezekiah ; and his opinion has been followed by Huet (Demonstrat. Evangel. Propos. iv. 3o3), and by Eichhom, Hengstenberg.
Havernick, Keil, Hitzig, Bleck, and Strauss. -The
conjecture has little else to recommend it than the mere occurrence of the royal name. But it was not a name confined to royalty ; and had it been the name of the pious monarch to which Zepha niah's genealogy is traced, his official designation, king of Judah,' might have been subjoined, in order to prevent mistake. Such an addition is found in connection with his name in Prov. xxv. and Is. xxxviii. 9. It forms no objection to affirm that the phrase king of Judah' is added to Josiah, and to avoid repetition may have been omitted after Hizkiah, for such regard to euphony, such finical delicacy, is no feature of Hebrew composition. On the other hand the argument of Carpzov (Introd. P. 414), copied by Rosenmtiller (Proermium in Zeph.), against the supposed connection of the prophet with the blood royal, is of no great weight. These critics say that from Hezekiah to Josiah, in whose reign Zephaniah flourished, are only three generations, while from Hezekiah to Zephaniah four are reckoned in the first verse of the prophecy. But as Hezekiah reigned twenty-nine years, and his successor sat on the throne no less than fifty five years, there is room enough in so long a period for the four specified descents ; and Ainariah, though not heir to the crown, may have been older than his youthful brother Manasseh, who was crowned at the age of twelve. As there was at least another Zephaniah, a conspicuous personage at the time of the captivity, the parentage of the prophet may have been recounted so minutely to prevent any reader from confounding the two indi viduals. The Jews absurdly reckon that here, as in other superscriptions, the persons recorded as a prophet's ancestors were themselves endowed with the prophetic spirit. The so-called Epiphanius (De Vitas Prophet. cap. xix.) asserts that Zephaniah was of the tribe of Simeon, of the hill Sarabatha, dm!, tipous l'apapaOci. The existence of the pro phet is known only from his oracles, and these contain no biog-raphical sketch ; so that our know ledge of this man of God comprises only the fact and results of his inspiration. It may be safely inferred, however, that he laboured with Josiah in the pious work of re-establishing the worship of Jehovah in the land.