Zephaniah 3:7

The just LORD is in the midst thereof; he will not do iniquity: every morning doth he bring his judgment to light, he faileth not; but the unjust knoweth no shame. The Jews regard not God's justice manifested in the midst of them, nor His judgments on the guilty nations around. Verse 5. THE JUST LORD. Why then are ye so unjust? IS IN THE MIDST THEREOF. He retorts on them their own boast, "Is not the Lord among us?" (Micah 3:11.) True, He is, but it is for another end from what ye think (Calvin) - namely, to lead you by the example of His righteousness to be righteous (Leviticus 19:2, "Ye shall be holy: for I the Lord your God am holy;...

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....

Verse 7. _SURELY THOU WILT FEAR ME_] After so many displays of my sovereign power and judgments. _BUT THEY ROSE EARLY_] And instead of returning to God, they practised every abomination. They were diligent to find out times and places for their iniquity. This is the worst state of man....

I SAID, SURELY THOU WILT FEAR ME - God speaks of things here, as they are in their own nature. “It could not but be,” that in the very presence of the Hand of God, destroying others but as yet sparing them, they must learn to fear Him; they must stand in awe of Him for His judgments on others; they must be in filial fear of Him for His loving longsuffering toward themselves. “Thou ‘wilt’ receive instruction,” corrected and taught through God’s correction of others and the lighter judgments on themselves, as Solomon says, “I looked, I set my heart: I saw, I received instruction” Proverbs 24:32. He saith, “receive,” making it man’s free act. God brings it near, commends it to him, exhorts, entreats, but leaves him the awful power to “receive” or to refuse. God speaks with a wonderful tenderness. “Surely thou ‘wilt’ stand in awe of Me; thou ‘wilt’ receive instr

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

I SAID, SURELY THOU WILT FEAR ME,.... This is spoken after the manner of men; as if God should say within himself, and reason in his own mind, upon a view of things, surely the people of the Jews will take notice of my judgments executed on other nations, and will stand in awe of me on account of them; and fear to offend me, lest the same calamities should come upon them; this, humanly speaking, might be reasonably thought would be the case: THOU WILT RECEIVE INSTRUCTION; by these judgments, taking warning by them; repent, reform, and amend, and thereby escape the like: SO THEIR DWELLING SHOULD NOT BE CUT OFF; or, "its dwelling"; the dwelling of the city of Jerusalem, the houses in it; the dwelling places of the inhabitants of it; the singular being put for the plural; unless the temple should be meant, as Abendana interprets it; and so it may be rendered "his dwelling" c; their house,...

FEAR (_ See Scofield) - (Psalms 19:9). _...

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...

CORRUPTED, &C. Reference to Pentateuch (Genesis 6:12, same word). App-92....