Age.—lt is recorded (ch. i.) that the word of the Lord came to him 'in the days of Josiah, the son of Amon, king of Judah.' We have reason for supposing that he flourished during the earlier por tion of Josiah's reign. In the second chapter (vers. 13-15) he foretells the doom of Nineveh, and the fall of that ancient city happened 625 B.C. (Raw linson's Ancient Monarchies, ii. 523). In the com mencement of his oracles also, he denounces various forms of idolatry, and specially the remnant of Baal. The reformation of Josiah began in the twelfth, and was completed in the eighteenth year of his reign. So thorough was his extirpation of the idolatrous rites and hierarchy which defiled his kingdom, that Ite burnt the groves, dismissed the priesthood, threw down the altars, and made dust of the images of Baalim. Zephaniah may have prophesied prior to this religious revolution, and prepared the way for it though some remains of Baal were yet secreted in the land, or between the twelfth and eighteenth years of the royal reformer. So Hitzig, Jahn, Keil, Knobel, Ewald, De Wette, Umbreit, Strauss, Bunsen, and Movers (Chranik. p. 234) place him ; while Eichhorn, Bertholdt, Jaeger, Delitzsch, S rahelin, Kimchi, and Abarbancl, incline to g-ive him a somewhat later date. The 'king's children' (i. 8) could not be sons of Josiah, who was but eight years old when he began to reign, nor does the name necessarily imply it ; they may have been brothers, or princes of the blood royal, or princes living at the thne when the oracle should be fulfilled. At all events, he flourished between the years B.C. 642 and B. C. 611 ; and the portion of his prophecy which refers to the destruc tion of the Assyrian empire must have been de livered prior to the year B. C. 625. The publication of these oracles was, therefore, contemporary with a portion of those of Jeremiah, for the word of the Lord came to him in the thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah. Indeed, the Jewish tradition is, that Zephaniah had for his colleagues Jeremiah and the prophetess Huldah, the former fixing his sphere of labour in the thoroughfares and market places, the latter exercising her honourable voca tion in the college in Jerusalem (Carpzov, introci. 13. 415/ • Koester (Dth Propheten, iii.) endeavours to prove that Zephaniah was posterior to Habak kuk. His arg-uments from similarity of diction are trivial, and the more so when we reflect that all circumstances combine in inducing us to fix the period of Habakkuk in the reign of Jehoiakim [HABAKKux], or immediately before the Chaldman invasion.
Contents. — The book consists of only three chapters, which form one vvhole, and are not to be separated as by Bertholdt, Eichhorn, and Knobel, into three parts, or by De Wette and Strauss into two parts. In the first, the sins of the nation are severely reprimanded, and a day of fearful retribu tion is menaced. The circuit of reference is wider in the second chapter, and the ungodly and perse cuting states in the neighbourhood of Judxa are also doomed ; but in the third section, while the prophet inveighs bitterly against Jerusalem and her magnates, he concludes with the cheering prospect of her ultimate settlement and blissful theocratic enjoyment. It has been disputed what the enemies are with whose desolating inroads he threatens Judah. The ordinary opinion is, that the foes whose period of invasion was a day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities and against the high towers' (ch. i. 16), were the Chaldmans. Hitzig, Cramer, Eichhorn, Movers, Ewald, E. Meier, and Umbreit suppose the prophet to refer to a Scythian invasion, tbe history of which bas been preserved by Herodotus (i. to5). Tbe general style of the oracle, and the sweeping vengeance which it menaces against Assyria, Philistia, Am mon, and Cush, as well as against Judah, by some g-reat and unnamed power, seem to point to the Chaldxan expedition which, under Nebuchadnez zar, laid Jerusalem waste, and carried to Babylon its enslaved population. But there may be in the prophetic grouping allusions also to the Scythian raid which poured itself through so many countries, overflowed Media as the Huns of a later day did Italy, swept into Syria and Palestine, till it was arrested by the policy of Psammetichus, who was laying siege at the time to Ashdod. This invasion
happened in the reign of the last Assyrian king, and in the period of Cyaxares and Nabopolassar (Rawlin son's Monarchies, p. 508). The nations around, from Media and Babylon down to Egypt, were in 'commotion ; war and revolution were imperil:Ling ; and amidst such restless upheavings Judah could not escape (Stark's Gaza, p. 2o9, Jena 1852). The ' contemporary prophecies of Jeremiah seem to con template the musterings, onset, and devastations of the same victorious hosts. The first part of Zephaniah's prediction is a day of clouds and of thick darkness,' but the closing section is full of light and joy : The King of Israel, the Lord, is in the midst of thee ; He will rejoice over thee with joy ; He will rest in his love.' Style.—We cannot by any means ascribe so low a character to Zephaniah's style as is done by De \Vette (Einleit. sec. 245), who brands it as being often heavy and tedious. It has not the sustained majesty of Isaiah, or the originality and force of Joel : it has no prominent feature of distinc tion ; yet its delineations are graphic, and many of its touches are bold and striking. For ex ample, in tbe first chapter the prophet groups together in his descriptions of the national idolatry several characteristic exhibitions of its forms and worship. He seizes on the more strange peculiari ties of the heathen worship--uttering denunciations on the remnant of Baal, the worshippers of Che marim, the star-adorers, the devotees of Malcham, the fanatics who clad themselves in strange apparel, and those who in some superstitious mummery leapt upon the threshold (Bochart, Hier. cap. 36). A few paronomasim occur (i. 15 and ii. 1-4) ; and occasionally there is a peculiar repetition of a lead ing word in the formation of a climax (ii. 15). Zephaniah has borrowed to a considerable extent from the earlier prophets, especially front Isaiah ; as Is. xxxiv. 11 to Zeph. 14, or Is. 8 to Zepb. 15, or Is. xviii. to Zeph. ro, or Is.
xvi. 6 to Zeph. 8. Coincidences of expression have also been noted between Zephaniah and some of his contemporaries, particularly Jeremiah (Eichh. Einleit. sec. 595 ; Rosenra. Proem. ; Strauss, p. 28). In Zeph. 5 and Jer. viii. 2, the same superstitious custom is referred to, and the phrase, settled on the lees,' is found Zeph. 12, and Jer. xlviii. r. It was altogether groundless, therefore, in some of the older critics, such as Isidore and Schmidius (Proleg-onz. in Sophon.), to style Zephaniah the abbreviator of Jeremiah. Re semblances have also been traced between Zepha niah and Amos, and between him and his succes sor Ezekiel. The language of Zephaniah is pure : it has not indeed the ease and dignity of the earlier compositions, but it wants tbe degenerate feeble ness and Aramaic corruption of the succeeding era. Zephaniah is not expressly quoted in the N. T. ; tint clauses and expressions occur which seem to have been formed from his prophecy (Zeph. 9 ; Rom. xv. 6, etc.) Commentaries. —Martini Lutheri Comment. in Sophon. Prophet. Opera Latina;—t. iv. ; Mart. Buceri Sophoizio Exp/icatio, 1528 ; Noltenii Dis sertatia Exeget. Prelim. in 1-'roph. Zeph. 1719 ; Cramer, Scythische Denkm filer in Palestina, 1777, it contains a. Comment on Zephaniah; D. von Ccelln, Observat. Exeget. Critic. ad .2',75h. Vati einia, 1818 ; P. Ewald, Zeph. udersetzt. Erlangen 1827 ; Maurer, Comnzent. Grammat. Hist. Crit. in FY-apneas Minores, p. 373, 184o ; Exeget. Hand buch z. A. T. ; die 12 Heinen Prophet. erkldrt, von F. Hitzig, 1838 ; Rosemniilleri Scholia in Proph. Min. vol. iv. ; Dr. E. Henderson On the Twelve Minor Prophets, 1845 r F. Ad. Strauss, Vaticin. zeph. Commentarils illus'rat. Berlin 1843; Umbreit die klein. Proph. 1 Th. 1846, Hamburg.—J. E.