The Day of the Lord, An Introduction to Zephaniah

The short three-chapter book of Zephaniah comes from the reign of Josiah, around 610-640 BC. The northern kingdom of Israel is gone. Nabopolassar, father of Nebuchadnezzar, is rising to power in the Babylonia while Necho II of Egypt is threatening in the west. A quarter century after Josiah's death, Babylonia will destroy Jerusalem and carry the citizens of the southern kingdom, Judah, into exile.

The Setting

See 2 Kings 22:1-23:30 and 2 Chronicles 34-35 for a description of the reign of Josiah, including the religious reformation of that time. Since Zephaniah calls for a reformation in Judah, it is possible that Zephaniah speaks before those reforms or in the midst of reform. Zephaniah speaks after the reforms of Josiah since he seems to be very aware of parts of the Old Testament covenant (particularly Deuteronomy) that were discovered by Josiah in the renovation of the temple.

During this time, the Assyrian Empire, which had assimilated the northern kingdom of Israel, was in decline. That empire was weakened by invasions of the Scythians from southern Russia. Babylon was slowly growing in the east and would threaten Jerusalem after Josiah's reign. Zephaniah forecasts the destruction of Nineveh (2:13-15), an event that occurred in 612 BC.

Outline

The scroll of Zephaniah falls into three parts, parts that are not reflected in the three medieval chapter divisions. Those parts are:

• Zephaniah 1:1-2:3, A day of darkness approaches the whole earth; it focuses on Judah.
• Zephaniah 2:4-3:8, Judgment is announced for countries around Judah, and then finally, Judah.
• Zephaniah 3:9-3:20, A remnant survives and enters a new Eden.

Resources and References

For the book of Zephaniah, I have relied on the following resources:

• a commentary by Larry Walker in the seventh volume of the Expositor's Bible Commentary.
• a commentary by J. Alec Motyer in The Minor Prophets: A Commentary on Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, edited by Thomas Edward McComiskey, 2018. (Motyer has also been a major source for my study in Isaiah and Haggai.)

There are other resources online.

• Amongst the online commentaries provided by EasyEnglishBible, is an online commentary on Zephaniah.
• The Gospel Coalition now has a set of online commentaries. Here is their commentary on Zephaniah.
• I highly recommend the Bible Project video on Zephaniah.

I place hyperlinks in pink, created so that one can click on a link and see the linked site open in another window... and go down a rabbit hole if they wish!