Zephaniah 1:1-18

The Problem of Assyria

Book of Zephaniah

Gordon Churchyard

About the problem of Assyria

Assyria was a country to the north and east of Israel. For many years, it ruled most of the world. Nahum, Habakkuk and Zephaniah lived then. In 722 *B.C. the *Assyrians destroyed Israel. *B.C. means ‘years Before Christ came to the earth’. Israel was a country where 9 or 10 of the tribes (very large families) of the *Jews lived. Judah was a country to the south of Israel. It had two or three *tribes in it: Judah, Benjamin and perhaps Simeon. Jerusalem was the capital of Judah.

The *Assyrians destroyed Israel. The *Assyrians took the people who lived in Israel away to Assyria. They did not take people away from Judah. But soon the *Assyrians started to tell people in Judah what they must do. Sargon the Second and Sennacherib were kings of Assyria. They made people in Judah pay money to Assyria. After that, Judah was not really a free country. Its people were the servants of Assyria.

The *Assyrians were very cruel people. Graham Scroggie tells us some of the things that they did. (He tells us in his book, The Unfolding Drama of Redemption.) They threw away the dead bodies of soldiers. They threw them like dirt. They put lots of human heads together on the ground. They burnt the sons and daughters of their enemies. They burnt their enemies’ cities. They killed many people. The ground was red with blood. They put men on to sticks that had sharp points. They threw dead bodies on to the mountains and into the rivers. The water in the rivers could not move! They cut the hands from kings. They fixed them to walls. They left their bodies for animals to eat. They did many other bad things also.

After about 750 *B.C. Nineveh became the capital of Assyria. It was on the east side of the River Tigris. There was a wall round it. The wall was nearly 100 kilometres long and nearly 40 metres high. It was very wide. Three horses and their chariots could drive together on it. A chariot was a special box without a front or a lid. Soldiers rode in them and horses pulled them. 600 000 people lived in Nineveh. They grew food inside the walls of the city. It fed all the people. The king lived in a big house called a palace. It was very, very nice. Nineveh had beautiful gardens. The gardens had rare plants and animals. The word ‘rare’ means ‘hard to find’. Foreign slaves built all this! They built *temples, *palaces, libraries. They built many other great buildings. They met to *praise their gods in the *temples. (They told their gods that they were great.)

People thought that Assyria was very strong. They thought that nobody could destroy it. They thought that nobody would beat Assyria. They thought that nobody would destroy Nineveh! But Assyria had problems. In 626 *B.C. one of their strongest kings died. Then there were only weak kings. Two other countries became very strong. They were the Scythians and the *Babylonians. We do not know much about the Scythians. The *Babylonians destroyed Nineveh in 612 *B.C.

We want to think about how Nahum, Habakkuk and Zephaniah come into this story.

They were prophets. They lived about 625 *B.C. A prophet tells us what God is thinking. He tells us what God will do. Bible students think that Nahum came first. He said that God would send someone to destroy Nineveh. People who *trusted God would be safe, he said. ‘*Trusted God’ means ‘believed that God would help them’. He probably said this between 660 and 620 *B.C. Then came Zephaniah, about 630 *B.C. He said that the *Assyrian Empire would soon finish. An empire was all the countries that a king ruled. God would save people that *trusted in him, Zephaniah said. Then came Habakkuk. This was about 615 *B.C. The *Babylonians (also called the Chaldeans) would destroy Assyria. Habakkuk said that. But he also said something very important. It is in the *New Testament too. God’s people would live. But they had to *trust in God.

Not all Bible students agree with the dates above. But most students agree on this: that these three *prophets lived about 650 – 600 *B.C.

In these translations, words in brackets … (…..) … are not in the *Hebrew Bible. Nahum, Habakkuk and Zephaniah wrote their books in the *Hebrew language. Words with a *star by them are in the Word List at the end. The notes explain some of these words too.

Zephaniah

The Great Day of God

Jesus said to them, ‘You see all these things. Really, I tell you that not one stone will remain on another! Someone will knock them all down.’ (Matthew 24:2)

About Zephaniah

Zephaniah lived about 600 years *B.C. (*B.C. means ‘years Before Christ came to the earth’.) He lived in the country called Judah. Perhaps he knew Jeremiah or Habakkuk. Here is a list of the kings of Judah at that time:

721-694 *B.C.	Hezekiah
694-640	Manasseh
640-639	Amon
639-609	Josiah
609	Jehoahaz
609-598	Jehoiakim
598	Jehoiachin
597-586	Zedekiah

These dates come from a book called ‘The Oxford Bible Atlas’. Hezekiah was a good king. Some Bible students think that he was Zephaniah’s great-great-grandfather (his grandfather’s grandfather) (Zephaniah 1:1). Manasseh was a bad king. He hurt many people that really loved God. And he killed many of those people. But God did not let him kill other people that loved God. Zephaniah was one of them. The word Zephaniah means ‘The *LORD hides’. ‘*LORD’ is a special name for God that his servants use. The *LORD hid Zephaniah from Manasseh.

When Amon died, Zephaniah probably helped Josiah. Josiah stopped people doing the bad things that Manasseh and Amon had made them do. We call this ‘Josiah’s reform’. ‘Reform’ means ‘to do good things instead of bad things’. Zephaniah made a list of the bad things (Zephaniah 1:4-6-9). One of the things on the list was that they obeyed false gods.

Some of these false gods were gods in Assyria and Babylon. The *Assyrians ruled that part of the world until 612 *B.C. This meant that they also ruled Judah. Manasseh, Amon and Josiah had to obey the kings of Assyria. Then the *Babylonians destroyed Assyria. After that, the *Babylonians ruled that part of the world. The last kings of Judah, from Josiah to Zedekiah, had to obey the kings of Babylon. The Book of Nahum tells us about the time when the *Babylonians would destroy Assyria. Zephaniah said that God would destroy Assyria in Zephaniah 2:13. There is more about Assyria in the notes at the beginning of Nahum in this set of books.

Zephaniah’s book is a short one. But he wrote the words ‘the day of the *LORD’, or ‘the great day of the *LORD’, or ‘that day’ many times. In Chapter s 1 and 2, it is the day (or days) when God will punish people. He will punish the people who do not obey him. ‘Punish people’ means ‘hurt people because they have done wrong things’. But in Zephaniah 3:9-20, ‘that day’ means something else. It means: ‘On that day you will not be ashamed because of what you have done.’ (See Zephaniah 3:11.) This tells us that some people will ‘look for the *LORD’ (Zephaniah 2:3). And those people will find him. This will make God so happy that he will sing with his people, (Zephaniah 3:17)!

So we find three messages in Zephaniah:

• 1:1-2:3 and 3:1-7 God will *punish his people in Judah that do not obey him;

• 1:2-3; 2:4-15 and 3:8 God will also *punish bad people from other countries;

• 3:9-20 God will be very kind to people who look for him. And he will be kind to people who obey him.

In this translation, words in brackets … (…..) … are not in the *Hebrew Bible. Zephaniah wrote his book in the *Hebrew language. The word list at the end explains words with a *star by them.

Chapter 1

v1 (This is) the message from the *LORD that came to Zephaniah. (He was) the son of Cushi, who was the son of Gedaliah. Gedaliah was the son of Amariah, who was the son of Hezekiah. (The message from the *LORD came) when Josiah, the son of Amon, was King of Judah.

v2 I will completely remove everything from on the earth, says the *LORD.

v3 I will remove people and animals. I will remove birds (that fly) in the air. And (I will remove) fishes (that swim) in the sea. (I will remove) bad people with all their bits of buildings. I will take away every man and woman from the earth, says the *LORD.

v4 I will lift up my hand against Judah and against all the people that live in Jerusalem. And I will remove from this place the last bits of *Baal that are there. Also, (I will remove) all the *priests of (*Baal and the) other false gods.

v5-6 Also, (I will remove):

• the people that *bow down on the roofs (of their houses) to the stars in the sky;

• the people that *bow down to the *LORD. But they promise to obey the *LORD and (the false god) Malcam;

• the people that have turned away. And they do not follow the *LORD;

• the people that have not looked for the *LORD. And they have not prayed to him.

v7 Remain quiet in front of the *LORD God because the day of the *LORD is near. And (remain quiet) because the *LORD has prepared a *sacrifice. He has made ready the people that he has asked to come.

v8 This will happen on the day of the *LORD’s *sacrifice. (The *LORD says) ‘I will *punish the people with authority and the sons of the king. (I will *punish) everyone who wears foreign clothes.

v9 And on that day I will *punish everyone that jumps over a *doorstep. Also, (I will *punish) everyone who fights in his master’s house. Also, (I will *punish everyone) who tells lots of *lies (in his master’s house).’

v10 ‘And on that day’, says the *LORD, ‘(people will) hear people who are crying at the *Fish Gate. (They will hear) people who are crying very much in the *Second Quarter. And (they will hear) a very loud noise from *The Hills.’

v11 (God) has killed all the people who buy things. And he has killed all the people who sell things. Everyone who weighs *silver is dead. So everyone who lives in *The Market should cry.

v12 And in that day, I will go through Jerusalem with lights. And I will *punish the people that are like *wine on their *lees. They are the people that say *in their hearts, ‘The *LORD will not do anything, neither good nor bad.’

v13 (People) will rob them of all the valuable things that they have. And (people) will destroy their houses. The people in Jerusalem will build houses but they will never live in them. They will plant *vines but they will never drink the *wine from them.

v14 The great day of the *LORD is near. It is near and it is coming very fast. Listen! The day of the *LORD is *bitter. (It makes) the strong soldier cry aloud!

v15-16 That day will be:

• a day (when the *LORD is) angry;

• a day (when people are) not happy and they have much pain;

• a day when there are storms that destroy everything;

• a day that is dark because there is no light;

• a day that the clouds make very dark;

• a day when the *trumpet makes a noise in the war against strong cities and corner *towers.

v17 (The *LORD says) ‘I will make people very *unhappy.’ And they will walk like people that cannot see (where they are going). (This will be) because they have not obeyed the *LORD. (He will) pour out their blood like sand and (he will pour out) their bodies like animal dirt.

v18 On the day when the *LORD is angry, neither their *silver nor their gold will be able to save them. He will make an end, a very quick end, to all the people who live on the earth. So he will burn all the earth in the fire of his *jealousy.

Notes on Zephaniah Chapter 1

Verses 2-3 God will remove everything from the earth. The *Hebrew Bible says ‘from the face of the earth’. This is how they described the outside of the earth. Bible students are not sure what ‘with all their bits of buildings’ means. It may mean their houses that God has destroyed. It may mean their false gods. Whatever it means, God will destroy everything on the earth!

Verse 4 ‘Lift up my hand’ means ‘raise my hand to hit or *punish’. The people in Judah and Jerusalem had a false god called *Baal. The *priests were the servants of the false gods. The *LORD had his *priests also. They were his servants in his house (the *Temple) in Jerusalem.

Verse 5 ‘Bow down’ means ‘bend in front of and become the servant of’. In verses 4-6, we find three things that made God angry:

• his people *served (or were servants of) false gods like *Baal and Malcam; Malcam was also called Molech;

• people tried to work for the true God and false gods at the same time;

• people made the stars in the skies into their gods.

Verses 7-8 A *sacrifice was something that people burned for their gods. Usually it was an animal. But sometimes it was a man, a woman or a child. In this verse, ‘the people that he has asked to come’ are the *sacrifice. The *LORD says that he will kill many of his people in Judah. This is how he will *punish them. The ‘people with authority’ are the leaders of Judah. To ‘wear foreign clothes’ may mean ‘to do what the *Assyrians do’. That is, bend down to false gods. Perhaps the *Jews also dressed like *Assyrians.

Verse 9 To ‘jump over a doorstep’ means this: They did not step on the stone on the floor where the door was. Perhaps they thought that the false gods wanted them to jump over it. (See 1 Samuel 5:4-5.) The *LORD did not want them to jump over it.

Verses 10-11 These verses give a name to several places in Jerusalem:

• The Fish Gate was in the north of the city. You went through it to

• the Second Quarter, where people bought and sold things.

• The Hills may be another part of the city that we do not know about.

• The Market was an important place in Jerusalem, where people bought and sold things.

*Silver is a metal of great value, like gold.

Verse 12 Here is a picture of God who is looking for bad people. These are people that are ‘like *wine on their lees’. ‘*Wine’ is a drink with alcohol in it. People make it. Bad material falls under the *wine. They cannot use the bad material. This bad material is lees. Some people think that everything is good. They are ‘people that are like *wine on their lees’. They think that everything bad has fallen away. ‘Say in their hearts’ means ‘think’. The *Jews believed that you thought in your heart. They thought that God would not do anything good or bad. He would not give them help or *punish them. Today, we say that people like this do not believe in God.

Verse 13 Vines are plants that have fruit called grapes. People make *wine from the grapes. The verse means that God will *punish the people. He will kill them. The grapes that they grow will not become *wine. He will destroy them before that happens.

Verse 14 ‘Bitter’ means the opposite of sweet. The day of the *LORD is like something bitter. So people will not like it. Even strong soldiers will think that it is very bad!

Verse 16 They made trumpets from the hard bones that grew on the heads of cows and goats. The trumpets made a noise a bit like music when they blew into them. Sometimes people had to come and fight in a war. They used trumpets to tell the people. The towers were strong parts at the corners of city walls. They were usually higher than the walls.

Verse 17 On the day of the *LORD, people will be unhappy (the opposite of happy). They will not be able to walk easily. They will walk as if they were drunks.

Verse 18 In this verse, there is an important word from the Book of Isaiah. It is the word *jealousy. It means two things in English:

• bad thoughts that you have because someone has something (or somebody). And you want that thing or person

• when you do good things for somebody that you love.

God loves his people. So he kills their enemies. So he makes his people safe. This is not good for the enemies, but it is good for God’s people!

This publication is written in EasyEnglish Level A (1200 words)

Assyrians ~ these people came from the country called Assyria.
Jew ~ a person who is born from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their children.
tribe ~ a very large family.
temple ~ God’s house in Jerusalem; or the house of any god.
palace ~ a building where the king lives.
praise ~ tell someone how great they are (or words that do it).
Babylonians ~ these people came from the country called Babylon.
trust ~ believe that someone will be good to you; believe what someone says.
trust ~ believe that someone will be good to you; believe what someone says.'New Testament ~ the last part of the Bible, which the writers wrote after Christ’s birth.
prophet ~ he or she says what God is saying; or he says what God will do.
Hebrew ~ the language that the Jews spoke.
Jew ~ a person who is born from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their children.
LORD ~ a special name for God that only his servants should use.
Lord ~ someone with authority; also a name for God. (It is not the same Hebrew word as LORD.)
Hebrew ~ the language that the Jews spoke.
Jew ~ a person who is born from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their children.
punish ~ hurt people because they have done bad things.
Baal ~ a false god; people in the countries called Judah and Israel served him before the Jews came.
serve ~ to be servants of somebody like a king or a god.
Jew ~ a person who is born from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their children.
priest ~ a special servant of God, or a false god.'bow down ~ bend in front of and become the servant of.
sacrifice ~ something that people burned for their gods; usually it was animals but sometimes it was food or people.
doorstep ~ the stone on the floor where the door is.
lies ~ words that are not true.'Fish Gate ~ a place in Jerusalem.'Second Quarter ~ a place in Jerusalem.'The Hills ~ a place in Jerusalem.
silver ~ a metal of great value, like gold.'The Market ~ a place in Jerusalem.
wine ~ a drink with alcohol in it; people make it from grapes (a fruit).
lees ~ the dirt that falls under the wine when people make wine.
wine ~ a drink with alcohol in it; people make it from grapes (a fruit).'in their hearts ~ what they thought.
vine ~ a plant that grows a fruit called the grape.
bitter ~ the opposite of sweet.
trumpet ~ people blew into a trumpet; it made a noise a bit like music.
tower ~ a tall building.
unhappy ~ the opposite of happy.'jealous/jealousy ~ perhaps someone else loves the person that you love; then you feel jealous; or, when you do good things for somebody that you love.
temple ~ God’s house in Jerusalem; or the house of any god.
serve ~ to be servants of somebody like a king or a god.
silver ~ a metal of great value, like gold.
wine ~ a drink with alcohol in it; people make it from grapes (a fruit).