Zephaniah 3:11-17

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Zephaniah 3:11 sn The second person verbs and pronouns are feminine singular, indicating that personified Jerusalem is addressed here.
2. Zephaniah 3:11 tn Heb “In that day you will not be ashamed because of all your actions, [in] which you rebelled against me.”
3. Zephaniah 3:11 tn Heb “the arrogant ones of your pride.”
4. Zephaniah 3:12 tn Heb “needy and poor people.” The terms often refer to a socioeconomic group, but here they may refer to those who are humble in a spiritual sense.
5. Zephaniah 3:12 tn Heb “and they will take refuge in the name of the Lord.” sn Safety in the Lord’s presence. From the time the Lord introduced his special covenant name (Yahweh) to Moses, it served as a reminder of his protective presence as Israel’s faithful deliverer.
6. Zephaniah 3:13 tn Or “the remnant of Israel.”
7. Zephaniah 3:13 tn The words “peacefully like sheep” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
8. Zephaniah 3:14 sn This phrase is used as an epithet for the city and the nation. “Daughter” may seem extraneous in English but consciously joins the various epithets and metaphors of Israel and Jerusalem as a woman, a device used to evoke sympathy from the reader.
9. Zephaniah 3:15 tn Heb “your judgments,” that is, “the judgments directed against you.” The translation reflects the implications of the parallelism.
10. Zephaniah 3:16 tn Heb “it will be said.” The passive construction has been translated as active for stylistic reasons.
11. Zephaniah 3:16 tn Heb “your hands must not go limp.”
12. Zephaniah 3:17 tn Heb “he rejoices over you with jubilation.” The term שִׂמְכָּה (simkah) can mean joy or the expression of joy. In light of the last line of the verse, this line may imply shouts of joy.
13. Zephaniah 3:17 tc The MT reads, “he remains silent in his love,” a Hiphil form of the stative verb חָרַשׁ (kharash, “to be silent, deaf”). But this does not make sense in light of the expressions of joy in the preceding and following lines. All other cases of the Hiphil of this verb mean to act silently, maintain silence, or the like. This is normal for stative verbs in the Hiphil, where they often mean to behave with the attribute expressed by the root. Some commentators appeal to Job 11:3 as a possible causative use, “Should your boasting silence men?” But in fact the verse should be understood as “should men remain silent at your boasts?” The LXX reads “he will renew you with his love,” implying יְחַדֵּשׁ (y^ekhaddesh), a Piel from the root חָדַשׁ (khadash, “to make new, restore”). This assumes the confusion of ד (dalet) and ר (resh) in the MT. The direct object “you” should be understood either through ellipsis or by possible haplography, with the כ (kaf) having been dropped before the similar looking ב (bet) beginning the next word. Renewal is a fitting concept after judgment (cf. Lam 5:21).
14. Zephaniah 3:17 tn Heb “he rejoices over you with a shout of joy.”