Bible Commentaries

This judgment will speedily come. Zephaniah 1:7. “Be silent before the Lord Jehovah! For the day of Jehovah is near, for Jehovah has prepared a slaying of sacrifice, He has consecrated His called.” The command, “Be silent before the Lord,” which is formed after Habakkuk 2:20, and with which the prophet summons to humble, silent submission to the judgment of God, serves to confirm the divine threat in Zephaniah 1:2-6. The reason for the commanding Hush! (keep silence) is given in the statement that the day of Jehovah is close at hand (compare Joel 1:15), and that God has already appointed the executors of the judgment. The last two clauses of the verse are formed from reminiscences taken from Isaiah. The description of the judgment as zebhach , a sacrifice, is taken from Isaiah 34:6 (cf. Jeremiah 46:10 and Ezekiel 39:17). The sacrifice which God has prepared is the Jewish nation; those who are invited to this sacrificial meal (“called,” 1 Samuel 9:13) are not beasts and birds of prey, as in Ezekiel 39:17, but the nations which He has consecrated to war that they may consume Jacob (Jeremiah 10:25). The extraordinary use of the verb hiqdiish (consecrated) in this connection may be explained from Isaiah 13:3, where the nations appointed to make war against Babel are called mequddâshı̄m , the sanctified of Jehovah (cf. Jeremiah 22:7).

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