Zephaniah 1:14

1:14-18 This warning of approaching destruction, is enough to make the sinners in Zion tremble; it refers to the great day of the Lord, the day in which he will show himself by taking vengeance on them. This day of the Lord is very near; it is a day of God's wrath, wrath to the utmost. It will be a day of trouble and distress to sinners. Let them not be laid asleep by the patience of God. What is a man profited if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? And what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? Let us flee from the wrath to come, and choose the good part that shall never be taken from us; then we shall be prepared for every event; nothing shall separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Not the day of judgment, but the day of God's vengeance upon the Jews, which yet bore some resemblance to that day of the Lord, and it may be therefore so called; as the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans had some likeness to it, and therefore the signs of the one and of the other are given together by our Lord in Matthew 24:1 and this was a day in which he would do great things, by the Chaldeans, and against the Jews; and this is represented as very "near"; and repeated again for the confirmation of it, and to arouse the thoughtless and careless about it, and who put away this evil day far from them; yea, it is said to make great haste, and to fly away swiftly, even faster than time usually does; though in common it has wings ascribed unto it: even the voice of the day of the Lord; in which the Lord's voice will be heard; not his voice of grace and mercy, as in the day of salvation; but of wrath and vengeance, which will be terrible; hence it follows: the mighty men shall cry there bitterly; not the voice of the mighty men besieging the city, making a hideous noise to animate the soldiers in making the assault, as some; but the mighty men within the city of Jerusalem besieged, who, when they see the city broken up, would be in the utmost terror, and cry bitterly, like women and children, being quite dismayed and dispirited; even the men of war upon the walls, and in the garrisons, with their officers and generals; and if this would be the case with them, how must it be t

Zephaniah 1:14-16 . The great day of the Lord is near — The time of God’s executing his terrible judgments is nigh at hand. Even the voice, &c. — The word even is not in the Hebrew. This latter part of the sentence may, it seems, be better rendered thus: The voice of the day of the Lord is bitter, and it vehemently resoundeth there. Or, Then the mighty man crieth out. The general sense is, that great noise, or distraction, should attend the taking of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans. That day is a day of wrath, &c. — That time will be a time of executing wrath. A day of wasteness and desolation — Hebrew, שׁאה ומשׁואה , of tumult and devastation. A day of darkness and gloominess, &c. — Of perplexity, terror, and dismay. A day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities — A day of attacking and taking fortified cities and strong holds, the attacks on which were used to be made by the sound of trumpets; and probably trumpets sounded all the time of the attack, as also when an entrance was gained into them.

The great day; not the day of general judgment, but the day in which the great God will bring his great armies against Judah and Jerusalem, and do great things by those armies. Of the Lord; appointed, foretold, and now actually brought on them by the Lord. It is near; very near; it is doubled to show the nearness of it, and to assure us it is so. And hasteth greatly; your enemies’ eagerness for the prey, your sins and security, and the Lord’s justly provoked anger, hasten this day. The voice; it is within hearing, the sound of it is in mine ears, methinks you might hear it also. The mighty man, the valiant and stout-hearted among the Jews, they who should support others, shall be really to sink themselves, and as much need a cordial themselves. Shall cry there bitterly; their courage broken, they shall cry out most vehemently, or like hopeless women.

14. voice of … day of … Lord—that is, Jehovah ushering in that day with a roar of vengeance against the guilty (Jer 25:30; Am 1:2). They who will not now heed (Zep 1:12) His voice by His prophets, must heed it when uttered by the avenging foe. mighty … shall cry … bitterly—in hopeless despair; the might on which Jerusalem now prides itself, shall then fail utterly.

Verses 14-18. - § 5. To arouse the self-confident sinners, the prophet here enlarges upon the near approach and terrible nature of this coming judgment. Verse 14. - Having signified the victims of the judgment, Zephaniah recurs to what he had said in ver. 7, and enforces upon his hearers its near approach. The great day of the Lord ( Joel 2:1, 11 ). Even the voice of the day of the Lord. The day is so close at hand, that the sound of its coming can be heard. Some translate, "Hark! the day of Jehovah." The mighty man shall cry ( crieth ) there bitterly . There, on the battlefield, the hero is panic-stricken, and cries out for fear. The Greek and Latin Versions connect "bitter" with the former clause. Thus the Vulgate, Vox dies Domini amara ; Septuagint, Φωνὴ ἡμέρας Κυρίου πικρὰ καὶ σκληρὰ τέτακται , "The voice of the day of the Lord is made bitter and harsh." Zephaniah 1:14

14 . The great day of the Lord is near ] The day is called “great and terrible,” Joel 2:31 ; Malachi 4:5 , and is always represented as near, Isaiah 13:6 ; Joel 2:1 ; Joel 2:11 (see notes on Zephaniah 1:7 ). Even the voice of the day ] Rather as an exclamation: hark! the day of the Lord! or, the sound of the day of the Lord! shall cry there bitterly ] lit. crieth out there —the scene being before the prophet’s view. It is not necessary to take there in a temporal sense, then , a meaning not quite certain even in Proverbs 8:27 (cf. Jdg 5:11 ; Hosea 10:9 ; Psalm 14:5 ; Psalm 66:6 ; Psalm 133:3 ). As to the idea expressed comp. Isaiah 13:7-8 , “all hands shall be feeble and every heart of man shall melt; and they shall be dismayed.” Jeremiah 30:5-7 . With “crieth out bitterly” cf. Isaiah 33:7 , “the ambassadors of peace weep bitterly.” 14–18 . The terrors of the Day of the Lord The day of the Lord is described as a day of battle and assault upon the fenced cities, but also as a day of darkness and supernatural terrors. In Arabic the term “day” often means “battle-day,” as the “day of Bedr,” and this may have been its original application in Hebrew; cf. Isaiah 9:4 , “in the day of Midian.” The day of the Lord is the day of His self-revelation to judge evil and bring His work of redemption among men to completion.

On the one side His revelation of Himself fills men with terror and anguish, on the other side it is the cause of universal gladness, for the oppressions under which the world groaned come to an end and the reign of God begins: “The Lord is King! let the earth rejoice, let the multitude of the isles be glad … for he cometh to rule the earth; he shall rule the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity” ( Psalm 97:1 ; Psalm 98:9 ). Sometimes the terrors of the day of the Lord are represented as due to His manifestation of Himself and the convulsions of nature that accompany His appearing, “when he arises to shake terribly the earth” ( Isaiah 2:10-22 ); at other times, besides the supernatural gloom and terrors that surround Him when He appears, He is represented as using some terrible distant nation as the instrument by which He executes His judgment (Isaiah 13, and the present passage). The judgment of the day of the Lord is a judgment on the known world, on Israel and the historical nations lying within its horizon, and the nation that executes the judgment is some fierce and wild people emerging from the dark places of the earth lying beyond the confines of the known world. There is thus a certain inconsistency in the representation: though the judgment be universal the nation that executes it does not come within its scope.

The great Day of the Lord is near - The prophet again expands the words of Joel, accumulating words expressive of the terrors of that Day, showing that though "the great and very terrible Day of the Lord" Joel 2:31 , (Joel had said) "a day of darkness and gloominess, of clouds and of thick darkness" Joel 2:2 , "which was then coming and nigh at hand" Joel 2:1 , had come and was gone, it was only a forerunner of others; none of them final; but each, because it "was" a judgment and an instance of the justice of God, an earnest and forerunner of other judgments to the end. Again, "a great Day of the Lord was near." This Day had itself, so to speak, many hours and divisions of the day. But each hour tolleth the same knell of approaching doom. Each calamity in the miserable reigns of the sons of Josiah was one stroke in the passing-bell, until the de struction of Jerusalem by the Chaldaeans, for the time closed it. The judgment was complete. The completeness of that excision made it the more an image of every other like day until the final destruction of all which, although around or near to Christ, shall in the Great Day be found not to be His, but to have rejected Him.