Zephaniah 3:1

Woe to her that is filthy and polluted, to the oppressing city! WOE TO HER THAT IS FILTHY. Maurer translates, from a different root [mowrª'aah, from maaraah (H4784), to rebel], 'rebellious' 'contumacious' "Filthy" refers to her inward moral filth, in spite of her outward ceremonial purity (Calvin). Grotius says the Hebrew is used of women who have prostituted their virtue [from raa'aah (H7200), to look down upon: 'made a public show (or example) of' as an immodest woman, Matthew 1:19 ]. The sense 'contumacious' accords with Zephaniah 3:2, "She obeyed not the voice." There is in the Hebrew mor'aah a play on the nam...

The Prophet speaks here again against Jerusalem; for first, the Jews ought ever to have been severely reproved, as they were given to many sins; and secondly, because there was always there some seed which needed consolation: and this has been the way pursued, as we have hitherto seen, by all the Prophets. But we must also bear in mind, that the books now extant were made up of prophetic addresses, that we might understand what was the sum of the doctrine delivered. The Prophet here makes this charge against the Jews, that they were _polluted and become filthy_. And he addresses Jerusalem, where the sanctuary was; and it might therefore seem to have been superior to other cities; for God had not in vain chosen that as the place for his worship. But the Prophet shows how empty and fallacious was any boasting of this kind; for the city which God had consecrated for himself had polluted its...

1-7 The holy God hates sin most in those nearest to him. A sinful state is, and will be, a woful state. Yet they had the tokens of God's presence, and all the advantages of knowing his will, with the strongest reasons to do it; still they persisted in disobedience. Alas, that men often are more active in doing wickedness than believers are in doing good....

CHAPTER III _The prophet reproves Jerusalem, and all her guides and rulers,_ _for their obstinate perseverance in impiety, notwithstanding_ _all the warnings and corrections which they had received from_ _God_, 1-7. _They are encouraged, however, after they shall have been_ _chastised for their idolatry, and cured of it, to look for_ _mercy and restoration_, 8-13; _and exited to hymns of joy at the glorious prospect_, 14-17. _After which the prophet concludes with large promises of_ favour and prosperity in the days of the Mes

The “woe,” having gone round the pagan nations, again circles round where it began, the “Jerusalem that killed the prophets and stoned those that were sent unto her” Matthew 23:37. Woe upon her, and joy to the holy Jerusalem, the “new Jerusalem Revelation 3:12; Revelation 21:10, the Jerusalem which is from above, the mother of us all,” close this prophecy; both in figure; destruction of her and the whole earth, in time, the emblem of the eternal death; and the love of God, the foretaste of endless joy in Him. WOE - “Rebellious and polluted;” “thou oppressive city!” . The address is the more abrupt, and bursts more upon her, since the prophet

EXPOSITION. ZEPHANIAH 3:1 § 6. The prophet turns to Jerusalem, and warns her that, if God punishes the heathen, he will not spare the hardened sinners in Judah. ZEPHANIAH 3:1 WOE TO HER! This is addressed to Jerusalem, as is seen by Zephaniah 3:2. FILTHY; rather, _rebellious, i.e._ against God. The LXX; mistaking the word, renders ἐπιφανής, "notable." So the Syriac. Jerome has _provocatrix. _The true sense is seen by the expansion of the term in Zephaniah 3:2. polluted by her many sins. Jerome, follo

WOE TO HER THAT IS FILTHY, AND POLLUTED,.... Meaning the city of Jerusalem, and its inhabitants; not as before the Babylonish captivity, but after their return from it, under the second temple, as Abarbinel owns; and even as in the times before and at the coming of Christ, and the preaching of his apostles among them; as the whole series of the prophecy, and the connection of the several parts of it, show; and there are such plain intimations of the conversion of the Gentiles, and of such a happy state of the Jews, in which they shall see evil no more, as can agree with no other times than the times of the Gospel, both the beginning and latter part of them. The character of this city, and its inhabitants, is, that it was "filthy", and polluted with murders, adulteries, oppression, rapine, and other sins: our Lord often calls them a wicked and an adulterous generation; and yet they preten...

CHAPTER S 2-3:8 The Call to Repentance in View of the Judgment _ 1. The call to repentance (Zephaniah 2:1) _ 2. The judgment of the Philistines (Zephaniah 2:4) 3. The judgment of Moab and Ammon (Zephaniah 2:8) 4. The judgment of the other nations (Zephaniah 2:11) 5. The woe and warning to Jerusalem and His people (Zephaniah 3:1) Zephaniah 2:1. As we found it in Joel, so it is here. In view of the co

THE SIN OF JERUSALEM CONTRASTED WITH THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF YAHWEH. From scenes of doom and desolation we are now led back in thought to the sins that drew down Yahweh's hand in wrath. Despite His constant goodness and loving-kindness Jerusalem has shown herself defiant and rebellious, deep-stained with guilt, and all the while heedless of instruction and correction, her rulers rapacious as evening wolves, her prophets boastful and faithless, giving forth their own imaginings as the very word of God, and her priests indifferent alike to the claims of holiness and the light of revelation from above. While crimes like these pollute her, she cannot escape the judgment of Yahweh; for He is righteous, and morning by morning bringeth forth justice as unfailingly as the light. The nations He has already destroyed and left without inhabitant are abiding witnesses to the righteousness of Yahweh. He...

WOE. Alas for! See note on "For", Zephaniah 2:4. HER: i.e. Jerusalem. See the Structure, p. 1272. FILTHY. rebellious. POLLUTED. Hebrew. _ga'al,_ (1) to redeem: (2) to make or deem common or unclean.. _Homonym,_ with two meanings. Not the same word as in Zephaniah 3:4....