Zephaniah 3:11

3:8-13 The preaching of the gospel is predicted, when vengeance would be executed on the Jewish nation. The purifying doctrines of the gospel, or the pure language of the grace of the Lord, would teach men to use the language of humility, repentance, and faith. Purity and piety in common conversation is good. The pure and happy state of the church in the latter days seems intended. The Lord will shut out boasting, and leave men nothing to glory in, save the Lord Jesus, as made of God to them wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Humiliation for sin, and obligations to the Redeemer, will make true believers upright and sincere, whatever may be the case among mere professors.

In that day shall thou not be ashamed for all thy doings, wherein thou hast transgressed against me,.... Because these shall not be continued in, but repented of, and forsaken; and, besides, shall be forgiven, blotted out, covered, and remembered no more; so that they shall not be charged with them, condemned for them, or be confounded before God, angels, and men, on account of them; not but that shame always arises from a true sense of sin; and the more, as it is beheld in the glass of pardoning love, which is a branch of true evangelical repentance, at least a fruit and evidence of it, Ezekiel 16:63 but then such are not ashamed to appear before God; but can with a holy confidence stand in his sight, their sins being pardoned, and their persons justified.

This respects the Christian church or churches in Judea, the few that believed in Christ, called in a following verse the remnant of Israel Zephaniah 3:13 , at the time when the generality of the people of the Jews rejected the Messiah, and their city and temple were destroyed, and the Lord turned the pure language of the Gospel to the Gentiles: for then I will take away out of the midst of thee them that rejoice in thy pride; the Scribes and Pharisees, and those that adhered to them of the Jewish nation, who rejoiced in those things which that people generally prided themselves in and boasted of; their descent from Abraham; their observance of the rites and ceremonies of the law, and the traditions of their elders, and their external legal righteousness; and they rejoiced in their boastings of these things, which rejoicing was evil; and they, in the pride of their hearts, despised Christ and his righteousness, his Gospel, ordinances, and people, which were the things in which they transgressed against the Lord, and for which they were taken away by the sword, famine, and pestilence, at the destruction of Jerusalem: this is further explained by the next clause: and thou shall no more be haughty because of mine holy mountain: the temple; or, "in" (m) it; since it should now be destroyed: the Jews gloried in the temple, and behaved proudly and haughtily on the account of it; reckoned themselves secure, because of that; and trusted and gloried in the sacrifices there offered up,

Zephaniah 3:11 . In that day — Or, after that time; shalt thou not be ashamed for all thy doings — Thy guilt and thy punishment shall cease: thou shalt be pardoned and reformed. For then will I take away them that rejoice in thy pride — Or, greatness: or, as some render it, that exult in their pride. And thou shalt no more be haughty because of my holy mountain — That is, because of mount Zion, my temple, the sacrifices offered there, and the ordinances of my worship. I will purge out from thee those hypocrites who continue in their sins, unconcerned and unreformed, and yet rely on outward privileges, ordinances, and forms of worship. Thus Jeremiah represents them as exclaiming, The temple of the Lord! the temple of the Lord! while they little regarded the Lord of the temple. Thus the Popish clergy cry out, The church, the church, the Catholic Church! while in the mean time they neither enter into the true church themselves, nor permit those to enter that are so inclined.

In that day shalt thou not be ashamed for {i} all thy doings, wherein thou hast transgressed against me: for then I will take away out of the midst of thee them that rejoice in thy pride, and thou shalt no more be haughty because of my holy mountain. (i) For they will have full remission of their sins, and the hypocrites who boasted of the temple, which was also your pride in times past, will be taken from you.

In that day; when pardoned captives and dispersed ones shall return and serve the Lord with one consent, mourning for their sins, and seeking the Lord. Not be ashamed, with a shame of reproach and confusion: when sin is pardoned, and sinful hearts are purified, reproachful shame may well cease, Isaiah 54:4,5 . Thy doings; which are expounded in the following words: the prophet speaks of the sins they formerly committed against the Lord. Them that rejoice in thy pride; hypocrites, proud formalists, that placed all religion in the gaudy outside; these removed, and those that worship the Lord doing it in sincerity gathered together, the Lord will accept and beautify them. Thou shalt no more be haughty; thou, O nation of the Jews, formerly full of haughty thoughts of yourselves, your sacrifices, and your privileges; but you shall no more boast, or glory, or vaunt yourselves herein. Because of my holy mount; either the city, or rather the temple, on which proud hypocrites did bear themselves high formerly, when they lived in notorious sins, and yet cried, The temple of the Lord, & c., Jeremiah 7:4 , with Jeremiah 7:9,10 .

11. shalt thou not be ashamed—Thou shalt then have no cause to be ashamed; for I will then take away out of the midst of thee those who by their sins gave thee cause for shame (Zep 3:7). them that rejoice in thy pride—those priding themselves on that which thou boastest of, thy temple ("My holy mountain"), thy election as God's people, &c., in the Pharisaic spirit (Jer 7:4; Mic 3:11; Mt 3:9). Compare Jer 13:17, "mine eyes shall weep for your pride." The converted remnant shall be of a humble spirit (Zep 3:12; Isa 66:2, 10).

Verses 11-13. - § 2. Israel, restored to God's favour, shall be cleansed and sanctified. Verse 11. - In that day. When the Lord rises to seize the prey (ver. 8), when the Gentiles are converted, and Judah returns to her obedience. Shalt thou not be ashamed for all thy doings. God addresses Israel repentant and converted, and assures her that she shall not have to reproach herself any more, or to blush for her iniquities, because God blots them out, or because she sins no more as she has done. And the great help to this improvement is the abolition of the cause and incitement to sin. I will take away out of the midst of thee them that rejoice in thy pride ( thy proud triumphers , Isaiah 13:3 ). God will cut off all those who gloried in their temporal prosperity without thought of God, who in the pride of their heart walked as they pleased, deeming themselves accountable to no one, subject to no law. Such shall no longer be found in the holy nation. Haughty because of (in) my holy mountain; i.e. in the temple ( Isaiah 11:9 ). They shall no longer exult in the exclusiveness of their privileges, or feel a vain glorious confidence in their own election, or the sanctity of their temple or its provision of worship. The Gentiles should be admitted to the covenant, and share in their privileges. Here we see adumbrated the nature of the Christian Church, an organized body no longer local, insulated, but Catholic - a spiritual temple open to all believers. Zephaniah 3:11

11 . In that day shalt thou not be ashamed ] The common expression “in that day” refers to the general period spoken of in the context, here the period after the judgment, when the people of God is saved and restored. To be ashamed might mean either to feel shame for, or to bear the shame of, former doings. The first sense is the more expressive. The former things have so completely passed away that they are forgotten, and no recollection of them calls up a blush of shame ( Isaiah 54:4 ; Isaiah 65:16 ). Cf. Ezekiel 39:26 . them that rejoice in thy pride ] R.V. thy proudly exulting ones . In Isaiah 13:3 the phrase is used of Jehovah’s warriors, the Medes, filled with martial pride and exulting in battle; here it has a less dignified sense, being used of the self-confident and arrogant classes in Israel, whether prophets ( Zephaniah 3:4 ) or politicians, the people of whom Amos 6:13 speaks: “which rejoice in a thing of nought, which say, Have we not taken to us horns by our own strength?” In the prophets religion is trust in Jehovah, and irreligion or sin is insensibility to His majesty and rule, and consequent pride and self-exaltation. thou shalt no more be haughty ] Isaiah 3:16 , “Because the daughters of Zion are haughty and walk with stretched forth necks.” Jeremiah 13:15 . because of my holy mountain ] on my, &c.

In that day shalt thou not be ashamed for all thy doings - Because God, forgiving them, will blot them out and no more remember them. This was first fulfilled in the Gospel. Cyril: "No one can doubt that when Christ came in the flesh, there was an amnesty and remission to all who believed. 'For we are justified not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His great mercy.' But we have been released from shame. For 'He' hath restored us to freedom of access to God, Who for our sakes arose from the dead, and for us ascended to heaven in the presence of the Father. 'For Christ, our Forerunner, hath ascended for us now to appear in the presence of God.' So then He took away the guilt of all and freed believers from failures and shame." Peter, even in heaven, must remember his denial of our Lord, yet not so as to be ashamed or pained anymore, since the exceeding love of God will remove all shame or pain. Rup.: "Mighty promise, mighty consolation. Now, before that Day comes, the Day of My Resurrection, thou wilt be ashamed and not without reason, since thou ownest by a true confession, 'all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags' Isaiah 64:6.