聖書注解書

Zephaniah 1:2. I will utterly consume— I am about to take away. Houbigant, to put to death and destroy. This first chapter contains the general threatening against all the people whom the Lord had appointed to the slaughter; against Judah, and against those who leap on the threshold; that is, the Philistines. See 1 Samuel 5:5. In the second chapter he inveighs against Moab, against Ammon, against Cush, against the Phoenicians and Assyrians; and there he foretels the fall of Nineveh, which happened in the year of the world 3378. The third chapter has two parts; the first contains invectives and threatenings against Jerusalem; and the second gives comfortable assurances of a return from the captivity, and of a happy flourishing condition. Calmet.

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Zephaniah 1:3. I will consume, &c.— I will take away; namely, from the land of Judah. Houbigant; who, instead of, And the stumbling-blocks with the wicked, reads, I will bring ruin on the wicked. Others read, The stumbling-blocks of the wicked; whereby must be meant idols and their worshippers.

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Zephaniah 1:4. The name of the Chemarims, &c.— Of the [idolatrous] sacrificers with the priests. See the note on 2 Kings 23:5.

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Zephaniah 1:5. And them that worship, and that swear, &c.— And those worshippers, who, when they swear by the Lord, swear also by Melchom; that is to say, who would unite together the worship of Jehovah, and that of Melchom, the idol of the Ammonites. See 2 Kings 18:0.

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Zephaniah 1:7. He hath bid— He hath appointed his guests, that is to say, the Babylonians.

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Zephaniah 1:9. Those that leap on the threshold— Over the threshold. Houbigant. Calmet observes, that this alludes to the custom of the Philistines, when they enter the temple of Dagon; but the author of the Observations is of a different opinion. That notion can have nothing to recommend it, says he, I think, but its being supposed by so old a writer as the Chaldee paraphrast: he is of opinion, that it alludes to the custom of riding into the houses, spoken of in the note on Pro 17:19 and he observes, that such as are clothed with strange apparel, Zep 1:8 are words which, in this connection, seem only to mean the rich, who are conscious of such power and influence, as to dare in a time of oppression and danger to avow their riches, and who therefore were not afraid to wear the costly manufactures of strange countries, Eze 27:7 though they were neither magistrates, nor of a royal descent. A great number of attendants is a modern piece of oriental magnificence. It appears to have been so anciently. See Ecclesiastes 5:11. These servants now, it is most certain, frequently attend their master on horseback, richly attired, sometimes to the number of twenty-five or thirty. If they did so anciently, such a number of servants attending great men, (who are represented by this very prophet, ch. Zep 3:3 as at that time, in common, terrible oppressors) may be naturally supposed to ride into the people's houses, and having gained an admission by deceit, to force from them by violence large contributions; for this riding into houses is now practised by the Arabs, and consequently might be practised by others too anciently. It is not now peculiar to the Arabs; for Le Bruyn, after describing the magnificent furniture of several of the Armenian merchants at Julfa, that suburb of Ispahan in which they live, tells us, that the front door of the greatest part of these houses is very small, partly to hinder the Persians from entering into them on horseback, and partly that they may less observe the magnificence within. To which should be added, what he elsewhere observes, that these Armenians are treated with great rigour and insolence by the Persians. If this text refers to a violence of this sort, they are the thresholds of the oppressed over which they leaped; not the thresholds of the oppressive masters, (which some have supposed,) when they returned home loaden with the spoil. See Observations, p. 57.

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Zephaniah 1:10. A cry from the fish-gate— Which was at the entering of the city. Some render the next clause, And a howling from the middle part of the city: but Houbigant renders it, A howling from Misna; or from the second city which Manasseh built.

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Zephaniah 1:11. Maktesh— This may be interpreted, says Houbigant, rock; what follows points out the place of the city where the merchants and silversmiths lived, and which perhaps was so named from a certain rock that was situated there. Instead of, All they that bear silver, Houbigant reads, All they that are loaded with silver.

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