Zephaniah 3.3-Zephaniah Indicts the Political and Military Leadership of Judah and Her Judges
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday June 16, 2016
Zephaniah: Zephaniah 3:3-Zephaniah Indicts the Political and Military Leadership of Judah and Her Judges
Lesson # 63
Zephaniah 3:3 Her princes within her are roaring lions, her judges are wolves at evening; They leave nothing for the morning. (NASB95)
“Her princes within her are roaring lions” is composed of the following: (1) masculine plural construct form of the noun śar (שַׂר), “princes” (2) third person feminine singular pronominal suffix hîʾ (הִיא), “her” (3) preposition b (בְּ), “within” (4) masculine singular construct form of the noun qereb (קֶרֶב), “within” (5) third person feminine singular pronominal suffix hîʾ (הִיא), “her” (6) feminine plural construct form of the noun ʾărî (אֲרִי), “lions” (7) masculine plural qal active participle form of the verb šāʾag (שָׁאַג), “roaring.”
The noun śǎr is in the plural and means “leaders” referring to the religious, military leaders of the city of Jerusalem in the seventh century B.C. as well as those who will live during the seventieth week of Daniel.
This is indicated by the construct state of this word which means that it is governing the word which follows it and is expressing a genitive relation to this word which is the third person feminine singular pronominal suffix hîʾ, which means “her” referring to the city of Jerusalem.
The noun qereb means “midst” since it pertains to the location of something or someone in the middle, the center or “the midst” of something or someone or a group of people and here it refers to “the midst” of the city of Jerusalem and is used in relation to the military and political leaders of this city.
This is indicated by the construct state of this noun which means that this noun is governing the word which follows it and is expressing a genitive relation with this word which is the third person feminine singular pronominal suffix hîʾ, which means “her” referring once again to the city of Jerusalem.
The noun qereb is also the object of the preposition b, which means “within” since it functions as a marker of position or location within a geographical area, defined by the objects around it.
Therefore, this prepositional phrase indicates that these military and political leaders are located within the midst of the city of Jerusalem.
The plural form of the noun ʾărî means “lions” but is used in a figurative extension of a lion which is a large strong heavily built mammal.
A lion is a social cat which resides in open and rocky areas chiefly of sub-Sahara Africa though once widely distributed throughout Africa and southern Asia that has a tawny body with a tufted tail and a shaggy blackish or dark brown mane in the male.
Here this noun is used of the military and political leaders of the city of Jerusalem as a figurative extension of a lion.
The construct state of this noun means that it is governing the word which follows it and is expressing a genitive relation with this word which is the masculine plural qal active participle form of the verb šāʾag which means “roaring” since it pertains to the sound of a lion and is a full loud prolonged deep cry.
The participle form of this verb functions as an attributive adjective meaning it is ascribing the attribute of roaring to the noun ʾărî, “lions.”
“Her judges are wolves at evening” is composed of the following: (1) masculine plural qal active participle construct form of the verb šāpaṭ (שָׁפַט), “judges” (2) third person feminine singular pronominal suffix hîʾ (הִיא), “her” (3) masculine plural construct form of the noun zĕʾēb (זְאֵב), “wolves” (4) masculine singular noun ʿereb (עֶרֶב), “evening.”
The verb šā·p̄ǎṭ means “to judge” since it pertains to adjudicating a matter between two parties in a court or a less formal setting, implying both the authority to punish and finality of the decision.
The construct state of this substantive participle means that it is governing the word which follows it and is expressing a genitive relation with this word, which is the third person feminine singular pronominal suffix hîʾ, which means “her” referring again to the city of Jerusalem.
The genitive relation is possession indicating that these judges belong to the city of Jerusalem or a have a relationship with this city as a judge.
The noun zĕʾēb is in the plural and means “wolves” since it pertains to a predatory, carnivorous canine mammal, related to the dog family that usually hunts in packs.
Here it is used of judges of the city of Jerusalem as a figurative extension of wolves.
The construct state of this noun means that it is governing the word which follows it.
It also means that it is expressing a genitive relation with this word which is the noun ʿereb which means “evening” since it pertains to the period of time related to the setting of the sun, from late or very late afternoon to the beginning of the dark night time.
The genitive relation between these two words is explicative which means the genitive specifies a subtype or genus within the broader category of the construct noun.
Therefore, the idea is that Jerusalem’s judges are like wolves, that is, they are like wolves that prowl about at night for prey.
“They leave nothing for the morning” is composed of the following: (1) negative particle lōʾ (לֹא), “nothing” (2) third person masculine plural qal active perfect form of the verb gāram (גָּרַם), “they leave” (3) preposition l (לְ), “for” (4) articular masculine singular noun bō·qěr (בֹּקֶר), “the morning.”
The verb gāram means “to leave” since it pertains to keeping an object which has value to the subject safe, implying for further use.
Here it is used as a figurative extension of a lion leaving some of it prey for the morning.
The third person masculine plural form of this verb is of course referring to Jerusalem’s judges.
The word’s meaning is emphatically negated by the negative particle lōʾ which means “absolutely nothing” since it is a marker of emphatic negation.
Therefore, these two words indicate that Jerusalem’s judges were like wolves which prowl for prey during the evening who “leave absolutely nothing” for the morning.
Zephaniah 3:3 Her leaders within her midst are roaring lions. Her judges are wolves, that is wolves that prowl during the evening. They leave absolutely nothing for the morning. (My translation)
Zephaniah 3:3 contains a description of the city of Jerusalem’s political and military leaders as well as her judges who not only ruled in her during the seventh century B.C. but also those who will rule within her during the seventieth week of Daniel.
This indicated by the fact that the seventieth week of Daniel is the last seven years of the Lord disciplining the nation of Israel for her disobedience.
If you recall, Daniel was given a prophecy which is recorded in Daniel 9:24-27.
This prophecy is called by theologians and expositors of the Bible “the Seventy Weeks of Daniel,” which are actually four hundred ninety prophetic years.
These verses dealt with the period of the Times of the Gentiles in which God would be disciplining the nation of Israel for her disobedience and Gentile nations will be the dominant powers and Israel is subject to these nations.
In this verse, the prophet describes the political and military leadership of this city during these two distinct time periods as acting like roaring lions.
This description indicates that these political and military leaders were ruthless in ruling the people of Jerusalem and Judah just like a lion is ruthless in devouring its prey.
It means that these leaders oppressed the people of Jerusalem and the nation of Judah as a whole whether it was through extremely high taxes, dishonesty and murder to retain or gain more power.
The idea is that like a lion roars after killing its prey so the leaders of Jerusalem do the same after killing an adversary or one under their authority to retain power or gain more power and thus, they were greedy for power and wealth.
They should have been shepherding the people under their authority but instead they were devouring the people.
Then, Zephaniah proceeds to describe the judges of Jerusalem during these two distinct time periods as being like wolves that prowl during the evening for prey.
Again, the idea is that just like wolves look to kill their innocent prey at night so the judges of Jerusalem do the same in that they kill innocent people by their judicial decisions which are motivated by lust for money and power and influence and it implies that they imprisoned innocent people for their own selfish gain.
Instead of protecting the rights of the poor, orphaned or widow, they took advantage of these people who could not help themselves and were taken advantage of by the rich and powerful (cf. Ezek. 22:12, 25-28; Hab. 1:8; Is. 1:23; Mic. 3:11; Jer. 22:17).
Zephaniah also describes these judges as acting like wolves who leave absolutely nothing for the morning.
This last description describes total and complete selfishness of these judges in that just like wolves will selfishly leave absolutely nothing of its prey for the morning for other animals to eat so these judges will make decisions which will benefit them and not the people they were to serve.
Like the political and military leaders of the nation, the judges were greedy for power and money.
In relation to the people they were to serve, these judges were like wolves among sheep.
So here in Zephaniah 3:3, the prophet Zephaniah is describing people in authority who were evil and corrupt.
These individuals were delegated authority by God and were accountable to Him and yet they were not faithful in carrying out their responsibilities.