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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.

The word of the Lord which came unto Zephaniah — Which is (by interpretation) God’s secretary, or, hidden one, Psalms 27:5 ; Psalms 83:3 . Or, as Jerome and some others will have it, God’s watchman, Ezekiel 33:7 . A fit name for a prophet.

The son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, … — These were, if not prophets (as the Jewish doctors make them), yet men famous in the Church ( Hebraei Prophetarum patres, quotquot nominatim recensentur, ipsos quoque prophetas fuisse dicunt ); as were Alexander and Rufus, though they be but mentioned and no more, Mark 15:21 .

In the days of Josiah — Who reigned thirty-one years, but, being in his minority, began not to reform religion, much corrupted in the days of his idolatrous father, Amon, till the eighteenth year of his reign, 2 Kings 22:1 ; 2 Kings 23:23 , whether before or after the reformation, "the word of the Lord came unto Zephaniah," interpreters agree not. Jeremiah (his contemporary) began not to prophesy till the thirteenth year of Josiah’s reign, Jeremiah 1:1-2 , at what time (viz. in his twelfth year) he had begun to reform with a great deal of zeal, 2 Chronicles 34:3 , but also he met with a great deal of opposition from the princes and people who had been woefully hardened and abituated in their idolatry under Manasseh and Amon, and therefore with much difficulty drawn off. Zephaniah and Jeremiah were singular helps, no doubt, to that peerless king in his zealous undertakings for God. But why he should send to Huldah, the prophetess, rather than to either of them, 2 Kings 22:13 , what other reason can be given but that she dwelt in the college at Jerusalem, and so was next at hand? And why he went up against Pharaoh Necho, and sent not first to any prophet to ask their advice, what can we say but this, that sometimes both grace and wit are asleep in the holiest and wariest breasts? and that the best of God’s saints may be sometimes miscarried by their passion, to their cost?

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I will utterly consume all [things] from off the land, saith the LORD.

I will utterly consume all things from off the land — Exordium plane tragicum. A tragic beginning of a terrible sermon. Hard knots must have hard wedges; hard hearts, heavy menaces; yea, handfulls of hell fire must be cast into the faces of such, that they may awake out of the snare of the devil, by whom they are held captive at his pleasure, 2 Timothy 2:26 . It is in the Hebrew, gathering I will gather all things, … q. d. g. I will pack up, I will take mine own, and be gone. Converram et convasabo omnia, I will sweep away all by the besom of my wrath, and leave a clean hand behind me, for the sins of those that dwell therein. The doubling of this denunciation, colligendo colligam, importeth the certainty, verity, and vehemence thereof.

Saith the Lord — Dictum Iehovae. You may believe it, therefore; for every word of his is sure, and cannot be broken, John 10:35 , may not be slighted or shifted off, Hebrews 12:25 .

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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.

I will consume man and beast — Heb. I will gather as Zephaniah 1:2 them, and cast them away as they do the sweepings of the house. See the word used in this sense, Psalms 26:9 , "Gather not my soul with sinners," … God gathered his people for a better purpose; both while they are alive, Psalms 27:10 , and when they die, Isaiah 57:1 . The righteous is taken away (Heb. gathered) from the evil to come: as a shepherd gathereth his sheep when a storm is coming; or as a master of a family doth his jewels, when his house is on fire. But as for the wicked, they are gathered too, but it is for slaughter, as beasts in a pound, malefactors in a prison; and at the last day the tares shall be gathered and bundled up together for hell’s furnace, Matthew 13:41-42 .

I will consume the fowls of the heaven — Made for man’s use, to be to him for food, Genesis 9:2 , for health and for delight, as companions of his life; hence it is threatened as a judgment to him to lose them, Jeremiah 4:25 , and here.

And the fishes of the sea — Made likewise for man’s use to feed him, Numbers 11:5 ; Numbers 11:22 Luke 24:42 ; hence the Latin piscis of pasco, to feed, and the Hebrew Berechah for a fishpool; the word signifieth a blessing, Genesis 12:2 cf. Nehemiah 2:20 . Now the Lord here threateneth destruction to beasts, birds, and fishes, not by the way of hyperbole, as the Rabbis dream; but because in common calamities, in warlike tumults, and when God will destroy a people indeed, the beasts also are killed, the fowls hunted away, the fishpools wasted, … Let those that will not believe this look into Illyricum, Thracia, Macedonia, Greece, and various parts of Turkey, laid utterly desolate and empty both of men and other creatures. Jerome upon this text, and likewise upon Hosea 4:3 , affirmeth the same of his native country, wasted so with war, ut praeter coelum et coenum, et crescentes vipres et condensa silvarum, cuncta perierint, that besides air and earth, and briers and forests, all was destroyed. And that we may not wonder at this severity of God, hear what the same Father saith elsewhere of his ungracious countrymen (Epist. ad Chremat.): In men patria deus Venter est, et in diem vivitur, et sanctior est ille qui ditior: In my country their belly is their god, their glory is in their shame, they mind earthly things: and so their end hath been destruction, and utter desolation, as Philippians 3:19 . Gualther’s note here is very good; herein we may observe, saith he, the judgment of God and his wonderful providence; that whereas we see in populous places rivers and pools to abound with fish, woods and fields with birds and beasts, though they be continually caught and carried away; yet where there lack men to make use of them, there are few or none to be found. For as they were all made for man, so when men are consumed they also are consumed, as is here threatened. Non ita temere fieri putemus. Let us not think this to happend rashly. Let God’s hand herein be acknowledged, and his anger appeased by faith in Christ Jesus and repentance from dead works, that our land may be sowed with the seed of men and of beasts.

And the stumblingblocks of the wicked — Those Balaam’s blocks, those moments and monuments of idolatry, that so much offend God, and cause offence and ruin to those that worship them (as Eucherius interpreteth it), who are here called wicked, with an accent, and by a speciality.

And I will cut off man from off the land — Even the better sort of men too, who shall be wrapped up together with the wicked in the common calamity. The good figs as well as the bad are packed to Babylon; but with this difference that God will there set his eyes upon the good for good, Jeremiah 24:6 , as the grain is cut down as well as the weeds, but for better purpose.

Saith the Lord — Who hath spoken it twice that you may once well observe it, and lay it to heart.

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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;

I will also stretch out mine hand upon Judah — To whom I have so long stretched out my hand in vain to reclaim them, Isaiah 65:2 Proverbs 1:25 . If God do but put forth his hand to afflict, as Satan solicited him to do against Job, Job 1:11 ; Job 2:5 , who can abide it? but if he stretch it out as here, woe be to those that must feel the weight of it! His hand is a mighty hand, 1 Peter 5:6 , the same that spans the heavens, and holds the earth as a very little thing, Isaiah 40:15 . "Lord," saith David (who had felt it in part), "who knoweth the power of thine anger? Even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath." q.d. Let a man fear thee never so much, he is sure to feel thee much more who falleth under the stroke of thine heavy hand. Oh keep out of his fingers, who can crush us to death before the moth, Job 4:19 .

And upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem — Who are therefore worse than others because they should be better; and shall fare the worse for their external privileges wherein they glory.

And I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place — That which remained since Josiah’s reformation, 2 Kings 23:3-5 , saith Diodati, shall a nation be born at once? Isaiah 66:8 .

And the name of the Chemarims — Baal’s chimney chaplains, they are translated idolatrous priests, 1 Chronicles 23:5 . But because we find them here mentioned as distinct from the priests, therefore many expositors hold that they were certain ministers of their idolatry different from the priests; such as the monks are among the Papists. The Vulgate rendereth it Aedituos, underlings to the other priests: Elias in Tisby, saith they were such as were shut up in cloisters, Chemarim Atrati they are called, either from their black garments, or because they were smutched with burning incense, or from the brandmarks they had superstitiously set upon their bodies, or because of their pretended fiery zeal and fervency in their religion, such as are the Sacrifici Seraphici among the Papists, who falsely and foolishly call them the lights of the world, sc. to light them into utter darkness.

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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 worship the host of heaven upon the housetops — Called elsewhere the Queen of heaven, the constellations and heavenly bodies: whom they thought to worship so much the more acceptably, if in an open place and on high, in the very sight of the stars. Observent ista qui hodie Astrologiam iudiciariam profitentur, saith Gualther, Let those among us observe this who profess judiciary astrology; for these worship the stars no less than did the heathens of old, and do openly bring in heathenism again; while (first) they call the stars by the names of those heathenish deities, that ought to be abolished; and next, they subject to those stars all events of things, yea, man himself as touching all his manners and fortunes, which the Scripture affirmeth to depend upon the eternal providence of God alone. This is intolerable impiety, and they that fall into it, shall not escape the just judgment of God.

And them that worship and that swear by the Lord (or to the Lord, consecrating themselves as by oath to his service), and that swear by Malcham — That is, by their king, as the Egyptians did of old, Genesis 42:15 . The Spaniards at this day, in the pride of their monarchy, are grown also to swear by the life of their king. There are a sort of mongrel Christians in the East called Melchites, as one would say of the king’s religion, because they resolved to do as Melech the king commanded them, though it were to make a mixture of religions, as these in the text would, and as our late moderators, Sancta Clara and others, of whom one said well, that they had made a pretty show, had there been no Bible, to tell us, that the jealous and just God hateth and plagueth halting between two, lukewarmness and neutrality in religion, all dough baked duties, speckled birds, ploughing with an ox and an ass, mingled seeds, linseywoolsey garments, Leviticus 19:19 . Upon which text the Douay doctor’s note is, here all participation with heretics and schismatics is forbidden. But by Malcham most understand here an idol of the Ammonites, otherwise called Molech, served in Tophet near to Jerusalem, and in the mount of Olives, called therefore the mount of corruption, 2 Kings 23:13 . Which God could not but see as often as he looked out of the sanctuary. These worshippers of Malcham would not utterly renounce the true God, but they would set up others with him as partners: this would not be endured. Such were of old the Samaritans among the Jews, the Ebionites among the Christians, the Papists to this day, who swear by God and saints, and pray to God and his saints, and commit themselves to them (together with God) as their tutelars and patrons.

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And them that are turned back from the LORD; and [those] that have not sought the LORD, nor enquired for him.

And them that are turned back from the Lord — Not gross idolaters, but yet treacherous backsliders, that fall off from their former forwardness, that turn from the holy commandments, 2 Peter 2:21 , that depart a post Dominum, from after the Lord, as the Hebrew here hath it, apostates, those worst of men, that do not only not fulfil after the Lord, as Caleb, but utterly forsake him. A heavier judgment awaiteth such. "God shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity," Psalms 125:5 .

And those that have not sought the Lord, nor enquired after him — Diligently sought him, Hebrews 11:6 , zealously inquired after him, as after a lost jewel, Jeremiah 29:13 . God will visit for unzealousness; and curse those that do his work carelessly, cursorily, in a perfunctory, formal, bedulling way.

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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.

Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord God — When his hand is upon thy back let thy hand be on thy mouth. Chat not against him, murmur not at his menaces, but stand mute before him. He is the Lord God, Three in One, and One in Three: thou art also always in his presence, which thou canst not flee from them, Psalms 139:7 , therefore see Habakkuk 2:20 , See Trapp on " Habakkuk 2:20 " and the rather because God stands over thee with his judgments.

For the day of the Lord is at hand — Wherein he will powerfully declare himself to be a God that cannot lie, and that his wrath is quo diuturnior eo minacior, the longer in coming the heavier it lands. This was soon after fulfilled in the death of their good King Josiah, with whom died all the peace and prosperity of that people: and Judea often changed her masters, but not her miseries, till at length she was carried captive to Babylon.

For the Lord hath prepared a sacrifice — That is, a bloody slaughter of you, by the cruel Chaldees, who shall sacrifice you, that have so much gloried in the multitude of your sacrifices: and God shall glorify himself as much now in your just destruction as ever he did in your forefathers’ commendable devotion.

He hath bid his guests — The Babylonians, and (after they have filled themselves) the birds and beasts, as Revelation 19:17-18 , so that ye shall have sepulturam insepultam, a graceless burial.

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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.

And it shall come to pass in the day of the Lord’s sacrifice — Or, good cheer; for at their sacrifices they used to feast their friends; and here the Lord is providing dainties for his guests; viz. the flesh of princes, gallants, courtiers, Zephaniah 1:9 , merchants, Zephaniah 1:11 , who use to eat the fat and drink the sweet, "nourishing their hearts as in a day of slaughter," James 5:5 ; and now also for a day of slaughter, when the beasts shall tear their flesh and the birds bare their bones.

That I will punish the princes and the king’s children — Who might seem to be safest of any, and farthest off from danger; but God’s hand can easily reach them, and shall do with the first, because their faults fly fast abroad upon those two wings of example and scandal. See this threatening fulfilled in Josiah’s sons, those degenerate plants, Heroum filii noxae. Jehoahaz ambitiously stepped into his father’s throne before his elder brother, and was soon after carried down to Egypt, and there slain. Jehoiakim, the elder brother, succeeded him; but rebelling against the King of Babylon, he was carried captive, and dying by the way, was buried with the burial of an ass, being cast out, to be torn by birds and beasts, according to this prophecy, Jeremiah 22:19 . Jechoniah came after, and was likewise carried into captivity: but because he hearkened to Jeremiah, persuading him to yield, and to go into voluntary banishment, he had some good days toward his latter end, Jeremiah 52:31-32 . Lastly Zedekiah, another son of Josiah, was made king; who as he was worse than the former, so he sped worse. See Jeremiah 39:6-7 . Potentes potenter torquebantur. The powerful are twisted powerfully.

And all such as are clothed with strange apparel — Those gallants, that imitated in their raiment those whom they most inclined to; some the Egyptians, others the Babylonians. A vanity not known in England, they say, till the wars in Holland. And (as ex malls moribus bonae leges ) then first were great ruffs, with huge wide sets, and cloaks reaching almost to the ankles, no less uncomely than costly, restrained by proclamation (Camd. Eliz. 215). Now, what so common with our fashion mongers (against whom this is a stinging and a flaming text) than to be clothed with strange apparel, a la mode de France especially, and other Popish countries? But what saith one, borrow not (fashions) of the Egyptians; if you do you may get their boils and botches; of the Polonians, lest you get the plica Polonica in your hairy scalps; of the French, lest the lues Gallica befall you. Oh what enemy of thine hath taught thee so much vanity? said Mr John Fox to his son, returning from his travels, and attired in a loose outlandish fashion. (Hist. of Modern Divin.) Those that affected the Babylonian habit were sent captives to Babylon, Ezekiel 23:15 , and those proud dames (whose wardrobe is inventoried, Isaiah 3:16-24 ) were a cause that the mighty men fell in battle, Isaiah 3:25-26 . Seneca complaineth, that many in his time were more solicitous of their attire than of their good behaviour; and that they had rather the commonwealth should be troubled than their locks and set looks. And doth not our age abound with such fantastic Cincinnatuli?

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