Zephaniah 3.1-Disaster is Coming Upon the Rebellious, Unclean, Oppressive People of Jerusalem
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Wednesday June 8, 2016
Zephaniah: Zephaniah 3:1-Disaster is Coming Upon the Rebellious, Unclean, Oppressive People of Jerusalem
Lesson # 60
Zephaniah 3:1 Woe to her who is rebellious and defiled, the tyrannical city! (NASB95)
The prophet Zephaniah is employing the figure of asyndeton in order to express the solemn nature of this statement here in Zephaniah 3:1 which is a description of the city of Jerusalem in the seventh century B.C.
This figure also is designed to motivate unregenerate Jews and Jewish believers in apostasy to repent.
“Woe to” is the interjection hôy (הוֹי), which indicates dissatisfaction and discomfort and occurs entirely in the prophetic literature of the Old Testament with one exception (1 Kings 13:30).
It can be translated “woe, alas” but in today’s English a better translation would be “disaster” since the word pertains to a sudden calamitous event bringing great damage, loss, or destruction.
The word expresses the God of Israel’s dissatisfaction with the people of Jerusalem and also expresses the fact that God will surely judge them by bringing disaster to them resulting in their experiencing tremendous adversity and suffering for their unrepentant sinful lives.
“To her who is rebellious” is the feminine singular qal active participle form of the verb mārāʾ (מָרָא), which can be interpreted two different ways.
The first is that the word means “obstinate, rebellious” since the word pertains to a condition of opposing legitimate authority and so openly defying this authority but it could also mean “filthy, soiled, befouled, unclean” and so to be impure, as an extension of the meaning of dung as by-product of the body.
This interpretation is supported by the fact that this verb could be interpreted as being derived from רֹאִי (ro’i,“excrement”; see Jastrow 1436 s.v. רֳאִי) and the following participle gā∙ʾǎl, “stained,” supports this interpretation (cf. NEB “filthy and foul”; NRSV “soiled, defiled”).
However, this verb could also be interpreted as being derived from the verb marah (מָרָה, “to rebel”).
If this is case the term should be translated “rebellious” (cf. NASB, NIV “rebellious and defiled”).
This interpretation is supported by the content of Zephaniah 2:2 which asserts that the people of Jerusalem did not obey the voice of the prophets, and accepted no instructions and did not trust in the Lord and did not draw near to Him.
Also, the following participle gā∙ʾǎl can support the meaning of “rebellious” as well since being rebellious would defile one in the eyes of God.
Therefore, I believe there is more evidence for the interpretation that this verb mārāʾ means “rebellious” rather than “filthy” since the latter interpretation cannot use verse 2 as support.
“Defiled” is the feminine singular niphal passive participle form of the verb gāʾal (גָּאַל), which means “unclean, defiled” in the sense of causing oneself to become ceremonially unclean and thus not acceptable to God under the Mosaic Law.
“The city” is the articular feminine singular noun ʿîr (עִיר), which refers to the city of Jerusalem and contains the figure of metonymy meaning that the city of Jerusalem is put for her inhabitants.
“Tyrannical” is the articular feminine singular qal active participle form of the verb yānâ (יָנָה), which means “to oppress” since the word pertains to causing the oppression of another weaker person with an emphasis that this violates a moral standard.
Zephaniah 3:1 Disaster is coming upon the people of the rebellious and thus unclean city. They are characterized by oppression! (My translation)
Zephaniah 3:1-7 contains an announcement of judgement against the city of Jerusalem.
That the city being described in Zephaniah 3:1-7 is the city of Jerusalem is indicated by the description of her in Zephaniah 3:2-4 and in particular Zephaniah 3:2 which describes this city as not drawing near to “her” God.
Also, this city is described as not trusting in “the Lord,” which is the name God uses in relation to His covenant people Israel and is not used by the Gentiles of God.
Furthermore, Zephaniah 3:4 asserts that this city’s priests profaned or defiled the “sanctuary” which is a reference to the temple.
He also asserts that these people had done violence to “the law,” which is a reference to the Mosaic Law.
This prophecy recorded in Zephaniah 3:1-7 is not only directed at those Jews living in the seventh century B.C. in Zephaniah’s day but also those living in this city during the seventieth week of Daniel.
This is indicated by the fact that the seventieth week contains the final last three years of God disciplining the nation of Israel and her capital city Jerusalem for their disobedience.
Zephaniah 3:1 thus declares that disaster is coming upon the people of Jerusalem living in the seventh century B.C. and those living during the seventieth week.
The purpose of this prophetic declaration is so that these people would repent since if God’s intention was to destroy them, He would not give them this warning but simply exercise His judgment.
For the unregenerate in Zephaniah’s day in the seventh century B.C, this would involve changing their attitude toward the God of Israel by forsaking their idols and trusting in the God of Israel and worshipping Him only.
For the unregenerate living during the seventieth week of Daniel, this would involve changing their attitude toward Jesus Christ by forsaking their idols and worshipping Him alone.
By doing so, these unregenerate individuals would avoid facing God’s wrath not only while living but also they would avoid facing God’s wrath in the lake of fire for all of eternity.
For the regenerate in apostasy in Zephaniah’s day in the seventh century B.C., repentance would involve confession of sin to be restored to fellowship with Him followed by obedience to the various commands and prohibitions in the Mosaic Law in order to maintain this fellowship.
For the regenerate in apostasy living during the seventieth week of Daniel, repentance would involve confession of sin to be restored to fellowship followed by obedience to the various commands and prohibitions in the gospel of Jesus Christ in order to maintain that fellowship.
By doing so, these believers would avoid being disciplined by God.
In Zephaniah 3:1, these Jews living in Jerusalem during the seventh century B.C. and those living during the seventieth week of Daniel are described as “rebellious” which means that they oppose God’s authority and so openly defy His authority.
For those living during the seventh century B.C., God’s authority was expressed through the prophets living during that time like Zephaniah as well as the written revelation they received up to that point which would include the Mosaic Law.
For those living during the seventieth week, God’s authority would be expressed by gospel of Jesus Christ and both Old and New Testament canons.
These Jews are also described in Zephaniah 3:1 as being “unclean” in the sense that they are ceremonially unclean and thus not acceptable to God according to the Mosaic Law.
The problem of this uncleanness is resolved for the unregenerate Jew in the seventh century B.C. by forsaking their idols and trusting in the God of Israel.
For the regenerate Jew in apostasy, this problem is resolved through confession of sin to be restored to fellowship with God and obedience to the Mosaic Law to maintain that fellowship.
For the unregenerate Jew living during the seventieth week, this problem of uncleanness is resolved by forsaking their idols and trusting in Jesus Christ as Savior by obeying the gospel of Jesus Christ.
For the regenerate Jew in apostasy, this problem is resolved by the confession of sin to be restored to fellowship with God which is maintained by obedience to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Zephaniah 3:1 describes the Jews living in Jerusalem in the seventh century B.C. and those living during the seventieth week of Daniel as being characterized by oppression which means that they took advantage of and exploited the poor so that they were violating the command to love their neighbor as themselves.
The people of Jerusalem are also described as characterized by oppression because of their evil and deplorable treatment of the prophets and the greatest of all the prophets, Jesus Christ.
Jerusalem murdered many of the prophets of Israel and put to death Jesus Christ by handing Him over to the Romans to be crucified.
God’s judgment against the Jewish people has been in the past much more severe than His judgment of the Gentiles because the Jewish people received greater revelation than the Gentiles (cf. Rom. 9:1-5).
The Jewish people are the recipients of the Abrahamic, Palestinian, Davidic and New covenants as well as the Mosaic Law and the tabernacle or temple worship.
Furthermore, the Messiah was Jewish and the gospel of Jesus Christ was given to the Jews since Jesus Christ selected the apostles who were Jewish to proclaim it throughout the world to both Jew and Gentile.
Consequently, their judgment during the seventieth week of Daniel will be much more severe than the judgment of the Gentiles because they have received greater revelation than the Gentiles.