Zephaniah 1:3

I will consume man and beast; I will consume the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the sea, and the stumbling-blocks with the wicked; and I will cut off man from off the land, saith the LORD. I WILL CONSUME MAN AND BEAST. Enumeration in detail of the "all things" (: cf. ; ). AND THE STUMBLINGBLOCKS - the idols which cause Judah to offend or stumble (Ezekiel 14:3; ). WITH THE WICKED - the idols and their worshippers, inasmuch as the latter are like the former ...

1-6 Ruin is coming, utter ruin; destruction from the Almighty. The servants of God all proclaim, There is no peace for the wicked. The expressions are figurative, speaking every where desolation; the land shall be left without inhabitants. The sinners to be consumed are, the professed idolaters, and those that worship Jehovah and idols, or swear to the Lord, and to Malcham. Those that think to divide their affections and worship between God and idols, will come short of acceptance with God; for what communion can there be between light and darkness? If Satan have half, he will have all; if the Lord have but half, he will have none. Neglect of God shows impiety and contempt. May none of us be among those who draw back unto perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul....

Verse Zephaniah 1:3. _I WILL CONSUME MAN AND BEAST_] By _war_, and by _pestilence_. Even the _waters_ shall he infected, and the _fish_ destroyed; the _air_ become contaminated, and the _fowls_ die....

THE STUMBLING-BLOCKS WITH THE WICKED - Not only shall the wicked be utterly brought to an end, or, in the other meaning of the word, “gathered into bundles to be taken away,” but all causes of stumbling too; everything, through which others can fall, which will not be until the end of all things. Then, he repeats, yet more emphatically, “I will cut off the whole race of man from the face of the earth,” and then he closes the verse, like the foregoing, with the solemn words, “saith the Lord.” All this shall be fulfilled in the Day of Judgment, and all other fulfillments are earnests of the final Judgment. They are witnesses of the ever-living presence of the Judge of all, that God does take account of man’s deeds. They speak to men’s conscience, they attest the existence of a divine law, and therewith of the future complete manifestation of that law, of which they are individual sentences...

EXPOSITION. ZEPHANIAH 1:1 Part I. THE JUDGMENT UPON ALL THE WORLD, AND UPON JUDAH IN PARTICULAR. ZEPHANIAH 1:1 § 1. _Title and inscription. _THE WORD OF THE LORD (see note on Micah 1:1). Zephaniah, "Whom the Lord shelters" (see Introduction, § II.). THE SON OF, etc. The genealogy thus introduced shows that the prophet was of illustrious descent; or it may be inserted to distinguish him from others who bore the same name.

I WILL CONSUME MAN AND BEAST,.... Wicked men for their sins, and beasts for the sins of men; and, as a punishment for them, the creatures whom they have abused to the gratifying of their lusts: I WILL CONSUME THE FOWLS OF THE HEAVEN, AND THE FISHES OF THE SEA; so that there shall be none for the use of man, which are both delicate food; the latter were not consumed at the general deluge. Kimchi thinks this is said by way of hyperbole; but it is possible for these to be consumed, as men by famine, pestilence, and captivity, and beasts by murrain; so the fowls of the air by the noisomeness of it; and the fishes of the sea, that is, such as were in the sea of Tiberias, and other lakes in Judea, by the stagnation of the waters, or by some disease sent among them; unless wicked men, comparable to them, are intended; though they are expressly mentioned, both before and after: AND THE STUMBLI...

ANALYSIS AND ANNOTATIONS CHAPTER 1 The Day of the Lord, the Day of Judgment _ 1. The judgment of all the world (Zephaniah 1:1) _ 2. The judgment will destroy the evildoers in Judah (Zephaniah 1:4) 3. The day of the Lord (Zephaniah 1:14) Zephaniah 1:1. The first verse is the superscription, and tells us, as pointed out in the introduction, of the connection of Zephaniah and the date of his prophecy. Then comes the announcement of the judgment. It is to consume all things from off the face of the land, man and beast, the fowls of heaven, the fishes of the sea, and end the stumb

THE DOOM OF JUDAH AND JERUSALEM. Zephaniah 1:2. Riding as it were on the crest of a tidal wave of destruction, which sweeps off man and beast from the face of the ground, Yahweh stretches His hand against Judah and Jerusalem, the centre of the world's offence, to cut off the priests and worshippers of Baal, together with all such as prostrate themselves before the host of heaven, mingle the worship of Yahweh with that of Molech, or otherwise prove traitor to the God of their fathers, withdrawing from His allegiance and ceasing to inquire after Him. ZEPHANIAH 1:2. GROUND: the cultivated, inhabited, civilised world. Zephaniah 1:3. For the stumbling-blocks with (a rendering as dubious as it

I WILL CONSUME. Note the Figure of speech _Anaphora_. Three times repeated. MAN. Hebrew. _'adam_ with. _eth_. humanity App-14. AND. Note the Figure of speech _Polysyndeton_ (App-6), for emphasis. STUMBLINGBLOCKS. ruin. Occurs only here, and Isaiah 3:6. Figure of speech _Metalepsis._ "Stumblingblocks" put first for the idols and idolatry, and then idolatry put for the ruin brought about by them. WITH. together with. Hebrew. _'eth_. THE WICKED. the lawless ones. Hebrew. _rasha'._ App-44....

Zephaniah 1:3 particularises the "all things" of Zephaniah 1:2, cattle and fowl and fishes of the sea, and man. Hosea 4:3, "Therefore shall the land mourn, and everyone that dwelleth therein shall languish, with the beasts of the field and the fowls of heaven; yea the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away." Similarly Ezekiel 38:19, "Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel; so that the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the field and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, and all the men that are upon the face of the earth, shall shake at my presence"; cf....