ZEPHANIAH, zef-a-nra, the ninth in order of the Scriptural writers known as the minor prophets. His pedigree is traced back for four generations. He is the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hezekiah and he is supposed to have been of noble, if not of royal, ancestry. His brief but pregnant prophecy was delivered just after the time of the first appearance of Jere miah (626 a.c.)—that is, in the first half of the reign of Josiah. The next preceding prophet was Micah, who died in the early part of the reign of Manasseh. But the condition of the whole of western Asia, including Palestine, por tended a speedy upheaval. Above all, Nineveh was beginning its memorable decline after the death of its king. Assur-banipal (668-626 Lc.). Morally and religiously the jewish nation had improved but little since the degeneracy that had followed the death of Hezekiah, and Josiah's reform (621 ac.) had not yet begun, if we may judge the invectives of the prophet against idolatrous practices. Zephaniah was ap parently a descendant of King Hezekiah.
The Prophet's Zephaniah spoke and wrote primarily for the correction and warning of Judah and Jerusalem, though he draws Illustrations from the sins and fates of other peoples. The culmination of these is found in the iniquities, the pride and the speedy fall of Nineveh. His prophecy extends to three chapters in the Bible. A division into four parts is as follows: The threatening: ch. i (1), the whole world
—that is, the Semitic world—is to undergo exemplary punishment, particularly Jerusalem and its apostates from Jehovah (ver. 1-6). (2) The classes of people who are to be thus visited — the royal house, the nobles, the wealthy traders, the careless and defiant generally— are characterized, and their chastisement set forth in language largely figurative (ver. 7-18).
The lessons from the nations: ch. ii. God's own people are warned to repent in time (ver. 1-3), and so avoid the doom that is about to fall upon the Philistines (ver. 4-7), Moab (vet. 8.-11), Egypt, under the name of Ethiopia (ver. 12), and finally Assyria and Nineveh (ver. 13 15).
The remonstrance: ch. iii, 1-7. Rebellious and obstinate Jerusalem is urged to repent by the righteous and re.isonable God, in view of coming woes; for the lesson of the fate of other nations has so far been unheeded.
The promised redemption: ch. iii, 8-20. (1) The faithful remnant is bidden to wait and trust. It shall survive the ruin of the nations. be joined by exiled brethren from far and near, and rest in 9uiet content (ver. 8-13). (2) Jos. ous thanksgiving is now in place, for Jebosah is in the midst of Jerusalem, to comfort and bless his people. Their reproach is taken away: dispersion and captivity are at an end.