Volume III
The Book of the Prophet Zephaniah.
With John Brown’s marginal references, notes and reflections · Vol. III, p. 1473
This prophet flourished about A.M. 3390, along with Jeremiah. His scope is to foretell the desolation of Judah and Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, and to point out the causes of it; to denounce God's wrath against the nations which assisted in, or rejoiced over, the calamities of the Jews; and to predict the glory of the Jewish nation after the captivity in Babylon and their present dispersion, and of the gospel church thereby prefigured. [Zephaniah was contemporary with Jeremiah, and delivered his predictions in the reign of Josiah. From his description of the public disorders of the land, it is evident that he must have prophesied previously to the glorious reformation effected by Josiah in the eighteenth year of his reign; and as he predicts the destruction of Nineveh, which could not have taken place sooner than the sixteenth of Josiah, the utterance of the prophecy must be referred to the commencement of his reign. The prophet foretells the invasion of the Chaldeans, and the utter desolation of Jerusalem and Judea, on account of national sins. Exhorts to repentance; pronounces judgment on the surrounding nations; exhorts to hopeful waiting for the restoration of Israel, and to joy in the salvation of God. The New Testament references to this book are Jn. 4. 21; He. 12. 12; Ja. 2.5; 5.1; Re. 19. 17-19. C. One marked characteristic of this book is its comprehensiveness. The prophecies do not apply to one kingdom or people merely, but extend to all those judgments and providential dealings by which God upholds his dominion upon earth. Bucer has well remarked regarding this prophecy that, 'If any person desires to see all the secret oracles of the Old Testament prophets reduced to one short summary, he has only to read the book of Zephaniah. In this respect he differs very widely from all the minor prophets, and is even more extensive in his range than Isaiah himself.' P.]