Zefanya 2:12

2:12 “You ¹  Ethiopians ²  will also die by my sword!” ³ 

Zefanya 3:15

3:15 The Lord has removed the judgment against you; ⁴ 

he has turned back your enemy.

Israel’s king, the Lord, is in your midst!

You no longer need to fear disaster.

Zefanya 1:3

1:3 “I will destroy people and animals;

I will destroy the birds in the sky

and the fish in the sea.

(The idolatrous images of these creatures will be destroyed along with evil people.) ⁵ 

I will remove ⁶  humanity from the face of the earth,” says the Lord.

[2:12]  ¹ sn Though there is no formal introduction, these words are apparently spoken by the Lord (note my sword).

[2:12]  ² tn Heb “Cushites.” This is traditionally assumed to refer to people from the region south of Egypt, i.e., Nubia or northern Sudan, referred to as “Ethiopia” by classical authors (not the more recent Abyssinia).

[2:12]  ³ tn Heb “Also you Cushites, who lie dead by my sword.”

[3:15]  ⁴ tn Heb “your judgments,” that is, “the judgments directed against you.” The translation reflects the implications of the parallelism.

[1:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “And the stumbling blocks [or, “ruins”] with the evil”; or “the things that make the evil stumble.” The line does not appear in the original form of the LXX; it may be a later scribal addition. The present translation assumes the “stumbling blocks” are idolatrous images of animals, birds, and fish. See J. J. M. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah (OTL), 167, and Adele Berlin, Zephaniah (AB), 73-74.

[1:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “cut off.”