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Zephaniah 3:2-4
New English Translation
Zephaniah 3:2-4
New English Translation
2 She is disobedient;[a]
she has refused correction.[b]
She does not trust the Lord;
she has not sought the advice of[c] her God.
3 Her princes[d] are as fierce as roaring lions;[e]
her rulers[f] are as hungry as wolves in the desert,[g]
who completely devour their prey by morning.[h]
4 Her prophets are proud;[i]
they are deceitful men.
Her priests have defiled what is holy;[j]
they have broken God’s laws.[k]
Footnotes
- Zephaniah 3:2 tn Heb “she has not listened to a voice.” Refusing to listen is equated with disobedience.
- Zephaniah 3:2 tn Heb “she has not received correction.” The Hebrew phrase, when negated, refers elsewhere to rejecting verbal advice (Jer 17:23; 32:33; 35:13) and refusing to learn from experience (Jer 2:30; 5:3).
- Zephaniah 3:2 tn Heb “draw near to.” The translation assumes that the expression “draw near to” refers to seeking God’s will (see 1 Sam 14:36).
- Zephaniah 3:3 tn Or “officials.”
- Zephaniah 3:3 tn Heb “her princes in her midst are roaring lions.” The metaphor has been translated as a simile (“as fierce as”) for clarity.
- Zephaniah 3:3 tn Traditionally “judges.”
- Zephaniah 3:3 tn Heb “her judges [are] wolves of the evening,” that is, wolves that prowl at night. The translation assumes an emendation to עֲרָבָה (ʿaravah, “desert”). For a discussion of this and other options, see Adele Berlin, Zephaniah (AB 25A), 128. The metaphor has been translated as a simile (“as hungry as”) for clarity.
- Zephaniah 3:3 tn Heb “they do not gnaw [a bone] at morning.” The precise meaning of the line is unclear. The statement may mean these wolves devour their prey so completely that not even a bone is left to gnaw by the time morning arrives. For a discussion of this and other options, see Adele Berlin, Zephaniah (AB 25A), 129.
- Zephaniah 3:4 sn Applied to prophets, the word פֹּחֲזִים (pokhazim, “proud”) probably refers to their audacity in passing off their own words as genuine prophecies from the Lord (see Jer 23:32).
- Zephaniah 3:4 tn Or “defiled the temple.”sn These priests defiled what is holy by not observing the proper distinctions between what is ritually clean and unclean (see Ezek 22:26).
- Zephaniah 3:4 tn Heb “they treated [the] law violently.”
New English Translation (NET)
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