Zephaniah 3:1-7
English Standard Version
Judgment on Jerusalem and the Nations
3 Woe to her who is rebellious and defiled,
(A)the oppressing city!
2 She listens to no voice;
(B)she accepts no correction.
(C)She does not trust in the Lord;
she does not draw near to her God.
3 (D)Her officials within her
are roaring lions;
her judges are (E)evening wolves
that leave nothing till the morning.
4 (F)Her prophets are fickle, treacherous men;
(G)her priests (H)profane what is holy;
they do violence to the law.
5 The Lord within her (I)is righteous;
he does no injustice;
every morning he shows forth his justice;
each dawn he does not fail;
but (J)the unjust knows no shame.
6 (K)“I have cut off nations;
their battlements are in ruins;
I have laid waste their streets
(L)so that no one walks in them;
their cities have been made desolate,
without a man, without an inhabitant.
7 (M)I said, ‘Surely you will fear me;
(N)you will accept correction.
Then your[a] dwelling would not be cut off
according to all that I have appointed against you.’[b]
But (O)all the more they were eager
to make all their deeds corrupt.
Footnotes
- Zephaniah 3:7 Hebrew her
- Zephaniah 3:7 Hebrew her
Zephaniah 3:1-7
International Standard Version
The Lord’s Rebuke to Jerusalem
3 Woe to this filthy, polluted, and oppressive city!
2 It won’t obey anyone.[a]
It won’t accept discipline.
It does not trust in the Lord.
It does not approach God.
3 Its national officials[b] are roaring lions;
its judges are like wolves of the night
that don’t leave the bones for the morning.
4 Its prophets are arrogant and treacherous.
Its priests have contaminated the sanctuary.
They give perverse interpretations of the Law.[c]
5 The righteous Lord who lives[d] within her will do no wrong;
he will bring justice to light morning by morning.
He never fails,
but the unjust are shameless.
The Integrity of God’s Justice
6 “I have destroyed[e] nations—
their fortifications are deserted.
I have turned their main thoroughfares into wastelands
where no one will travel.
Their cities are desolate;
as a result, not one man remains—
no, not even a single resident.
7 I have said, ‘If only you would fear me,
if only you would take my instructions to heart.’
Then their houses would not have been torn down.
I have chastened them,
but they were eager to corrupt everything they were doing.”
Footnotes
- Zephaniah 3:2 Lit. obey the voice
- Zephaniah 3:3 Lit. Her princes
- Zephaniah 3:4 Lit. They do violence to the Law
- Zephaniah 3:5 The Heb. lacks within her
- Zephaniah 3:6 Lit. have cut off
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