Zefanya 1:7

1:7 Be silent before the Lord God, ¹ 

for the Lord’s day of judgment ²  is almost here. ³ 

The Lord has prepared a sacrificial meal; ⁴ 

he has ritually purified ⁵  his guests.

Zefanya 2:2-3

2:2 before God’s decree becomes reality ⁶  and the day of opportunity disappears like windblown chaff, ⁷ 

before the Lord’s raging anger ⁸  overtakes ⁹  you –

before the day of the Lord’s angry judgment overtakes you!

2:3 Seek the Lord’s favor, ¹⁰  all you humble people ¹¹  of the land who have obeyed his commands! ¹² 

Strive to do what is right! ¹³  Strive to be humble! ¹⁴ 

Maybe you will be protected ¹⁵  on the day of the Lord’s angry judgment.

[1:7]  ¹ tn Heb “Lord Lord.” The phrase אֲדֹנָי יְהוִה (adonai yÿhvih) is customarily rendered by Jewish tradition as “Lord God.”

[1:7]  ² tn Heb “the day of the Lord.”

[1:7]  sn The origin of the concept of “the day of the Lord” is uncertain. It may have originated in the ancient Near Eastern idea of the sovereign’s day of conquest, where a king would boast that he had concluded an entire military campaign in a single day (see D. Stuart, “The Sovereign’s Day of Conquest,” BASOR 221 [1976]: 159-64). In the OT the expression is applied to several acts of divine judgment, some historical and others still future (see A. J. Everson, “The Days of Yahweh,” JBL 93 [1974]: 329-37). In the OT the phrase first appears in Amos (assuming that Amos predates Joel and Obadiah), where it seems to refer to a belief on the part of the northern kingdom that God would intervene on Israel’s behalf and judge the nation’s enemies. Amos affirms that the Lord’s day of judgment is indeed approaching, but he declares that it will be a day of disaster, not deliverance, for Israel. Here in Zephaniah, the “day of the Lord” includes God’s coming judgment of Judah, as well as a more universal outpouring of divine anger.

[1:7]  ³ tn Or “near.”

[1:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “a sacrifice.” This same word also occurs in the following verse.

[1:7]  sn Because a sacrificial meal presupposes the slaughter of animals, it is used here as a metaphor of the bloody judgment to come.

[1:7]  ⁵ tn Or “consecrated” (ASV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[2:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “before the giving birth of a decree.” For various alternative readings, see J. J. M. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah (OTL), 187-88.

[2:2]  ⁷ tn The second half of the line reads literally, “like chaff it passes by a day.” The translation above assumes the “day” is the brief time God is giving the nation to repent. The comparison of this quickly passing opportunity to chaff is consistent with the straw imagery of v. 1.

[2:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “the fury of the anger of the Lord.” The synonyms are combined to emphasize the extreme degree of the Lord’s anger.

[2:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “comes upon.” This phrase occurs twice in this verse.

[2:3]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “seek the Lord,” but “favor” seems to be implied from the final line of the verse.

[2:3]  ¹¹ tn Or “poor.” The precise referent of this Hebrew term is unclear. The word may refer to the economically poor or to the spiritually humble.

[2:3]  ¹² tn The present translation assumes the Hebrew term מִשְׁפָּט (mishpat) here refers to God’s covenantal requirements and is a synonym for the Law. The word can mean “justice” and could refer more specifically to the principles of justice contained in the Law. In this case the phrase could be translated, “who have promoted the justice God demands.”

[2:3]  ¹³ tn Heb “Seek what is right.”

[2:3]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “Seek humility.”

[2:3]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “hidden.” Cf. NEB “it may be that you will find shelter”; NRSV “perhaps you may be hidden.”