Zephaniah 1:14-16

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Zephaniah 1:14-18

Nothing could be expressed with more spirit and life, nor in words more proper to startle and awaken a secure and careless people, than the warning here given to Judah and Jerusalem of the approaching destruction by the Chaldeans. That is enough to make the sinners in Zion tremble?that it is the day of the Lord, the day in which he will manifest himself by taking vengeance on them. It is the great day of the Lord, a specimen of the day of judgment, a kind of doom?s-day, as the last destruction... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Zephaniah 1:14

The great day of the Lord is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly ,.... Not the day of judgment, but the day of God's vengeance upon the Jews, which yet bore some resemblance to that day of the Lord, and it may be therefore so called; as the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans had some likeness to it, and therefore the signs of the one and of the other are given together by our Lord in Matthew 24:1 and this was a day in which he would do great things, by the Chaldeans, and against... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Zephaniah 1:15

That day is a day of wrath ,.... Both of the wrath of God against his people for their sins; these judgments being the effects of his wrath, provoked by their iniquities; and of the wrath and cruelty of the Chaldeans, exercised in a furious manner: a day of trouble and distress ; to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, they being taken and led captive, their houses plundered and demolished, and the whole city and temple laid in ruins: a day of wasteness and desolation ; of the whole... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Zephaniah 1:16

A day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities ,.... The trumpet of the enemy, sounding the alarm of war against the fenced cities of Judea, which were taken before Jerusalem; calling and gathering the soldiers together, and animating them to the assault of them; and blowing them in a way of triumph; and as expressive of victory, having got possession of them: and against the high towers ; or "corners" F24 פנות "pinnas", Montanus, Castalio; "angulos", Junius &... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Zephaniah 1:14

The great day of the Lord is near - It commenced with the death of the good king Josiah, who was slain by Pharaoh-necho at Megiddo, and continued to the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Zephaniah 1:15

That day is a day of wrath - See Isaiah 22:5 ; (note); Jeremiah 30:7 ; (note); Joel 2:2 ; (note), Joel 2:11 ; (note); Amos 5:18 ; (note); Zephaniah 1:18 ; (note), and the notes there. From the fourteenth to the sixteenth verse inclusive there is a most beautiful amplification of the disasters that were coming on Jerusalem; the invasion, incursion, attack, carnage, confusion, horrible din occasioned by the sound of the trumpet, the cries of the people, and the shrieks and groans... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Zephaniah 1:14

Verse 14 The Prophet in this verse expresses more clearly what I have already stated—That God would be the author of all the evils which would happen to the Jews; for as they grew more insensible in their sins, they more and more provoked God’s wrath against themselves. It is therefore no common wisdom to consider God’s hand when he strikes or chastens us. This is the reason why the Prophet now calls the attention of the Jews to God, that they might not fix their minds, as it is commonly done,... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Zephaniah 1:15

Verse 15 The Prophet shows here how foolish they were who extenuated God’s vengeance, as hypocrites and all wicked men are wont to do. Hence he accuses the Jews of madness, that they thought that the way of reconciliation would be easy to them, when they had by their perverseness provoked God to come against them as an armed enemy. For though the ungodly do not promise to themselves anything of God’s favor, yet they entertain vain imaginations, as though he might with no trouble be pacified:... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Zephaniah 1:1-18

Part I. THE JUDGMENT UPON ALL THE WORLD , AND UPON JUDAH IN PARTICULAR . read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Zephaniah 1:1-18

We learn from ver. 1 that Zephaniah received from the Lord his message to Judah in the days of Josiah, the last of the godly and reforming kings, who, after the gross corruption of the preceding reigns of Manasseh and Amon, restored to a large extent the purity of the worship of God, and was the means of bringing about a certain kind and degree of repentance and amendment in the people. Probably, however, the major part of Zephaniah's prophecy belongs to the early part of Josiah's reign,... read more

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