This quiz, Zephaniah, looks at the fate of the Gentiles.
The ninth of the Minor Prophets, and the thirty-sixth book in the Bible is the Book of Zephaniah. Zephaniah was the great-great-grandson of Hezekiah, the good and godly King of Judah. The prophet lived during the reign of the later King Josiah, who was also a good king, reviving his realm's worship of God.
Zephaniah warns about God's coming day of judgement, starting with Judah, then moving on to the surrounding Gentile (non-Jewish) nations. But as with the other prophets, Zephaniah goes on to tell us of God's promise to return His people's status in the future.
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God is disappointed at what has become of His chosen people. They worship other gods, the stars and planets, or no god at all.
Zephaniah 1:4-6 "I will also stretch out mine hand upon Judah, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place, and the name of the Chemarims with the priests; and them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops; and them that worship and that swear by the Lord, and that swear by Malcham; and them that are turned back from the Lord; and those that have not sought the Lord, nor enquired for him" |
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Here is just one of the times Zephaniah uses the term:
Zephaniah 1:7 "Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord God: for the day of the Lord is at hand: for the Lord hath prepared a sacrifice, he hath bid his guests." |
God wanted the people to wear simple clothes, like their ancestors, not the expensive fancy clothes of foreigners. Zephaniah feared that foreign influences were eroding the Jewish faith.
Zephaniah 1:8-9 "And it shall come to pass in the day of the Lord’s sacrifice, that I will punish the princes, and the king’s children, and all such as are clothed with strange apparel. In the same day also will I punish all those that leap on the threshold, which fill their masters’ houses with violence and deceit" |
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Even the fortified places will not be spared from God's wrath.
Zephaniah 1:15-16 "That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high towers" |
Zephaniah urges everyone to change their ways before it is too late.
Zephaniah 2:1-3 "Gather yourselves together, yea, gather together, O nation not desired; before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you, before the day of the Lord’s anger come upon you. Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord’s anger" |
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Once the mightiest city on earth, Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, is to become ruins.
Zephaniah 2:13-15 "And he will stretch out his hand against the north, and destroy Assyria; and will make Nineveh a desolation, and dry like a wilderness. And flocks shall lie down in the midst of her, all the beasts of the nations: both the cormorant and the bittern shall lodge in the upper lintels of it; their voice shall sing in the windows; desolation shall be in the thresholds: for he shall uncover the cedar work. This is the rejoicing city that dwelt carelessly, that said in her heart, I am, and there is none beside me: how is she become a desolation, a place for beasts to lie down in! every one that passeth by her shall hiss, and wag his hand" |
The princes and judges are compared to lions and wolves, both predatory, whilst the prophets pursue their own ends and the priests defy the holy laws.
Zephaniah 3:1-4 "Woe to her that is filthy and polluted, to the oppressing city! She obeyed not the voice; she received not correction; she trusted not in the Lord; she drew not near to her God. Her princes within her are roaring lions; her judges are evening wolves; they gnaw not the bones till the morrow. Her prophets are light and treacherous persons: her priests have polluted the sanctuary, they have done violence to the law" |
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This is so that all may worship God in unity after the Jews who were dispersed around the world have returned home.
Zephaniah 3:9-10 "For then will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the Lord, to serve him with one consent. From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia my suppliants, even the daughter of my dispersed, shall bring mine offering" |
All people on earth will worship God when His kingdom comes, and the Jewish people themselves shall be worthy of praise.
Zephaniah 3:20 "At that time will I bring you again, even in the time that I gather you: for I will make you a name and a praise among all people of the earth, when I turn back your captivity before your eyes, saith the Lord" |
Zephaniah 1:1-3
"The word of the Lord which came unto Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hizkiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah.
I will utterly consume all things from off the land, saith the Lord.
I will consume man and beast;
I will consume the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the sea,
and the stumblingblocks with the wicked;
and I will cut off man from off the land, saith the Lord"