Zephaniah 3:4

3:1-7 The holy God hates sin most in those nearest to him. A sinful state is, and will be, a woful state. Yet they had the tokens of God's presence, and all the advantages of knowing his will, with the strongest reasons to do it; still they persisted in disobedience. Alas, that men often are more active in doing wickedness than believers are in doing good.

Her prophets are light and treacherous persons,.... The false prophets, as the Targum and Kimchi explain it: these seem to design the lawyers spoken of in the New Testament, whose business it was to interpret the law to the people; these were "light" men, good for nothing, of no worth and value; light in knowledge, as Kimchi gives the sense of the word; men of no brains; empty headed men, that had no substantial knowledge; giddy, unstable, and inconstant, and compliant with the humours and vices of the people; men of no gravity in their countenance, speech, and conversation.

Schultens (a), from the use of the word in the Arabic language, renders it "proud", as these men were, proud boasters; for, though they had but a superficial knowledge of things, they boasted of much, and carried it with a haughty and insolent air to the common people: and they were "treacherous" to God, and to his truths, and to the souls of men, and took away the key of knowledge from them; and particularly were so to Christ, of whom they were the betrayers and murderers, delivering him up into the hands of the Gentiles to be scourged and crucified, Matthew 20:18 , her priests have polluted the sanctuary; the temple; by selling, or suffering to be sold in it, various things, whereby it became a den of thieves, which once was called a house of prayer, Matthew 21:12 and also our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the sanctuary or temple was a type, by denying, blaspheming, and reproaching him, and by shedding his blood: they have done violence to the law; by not teaching it as they should; and by their false glosses, senses, and interpretations of it; and by the traditions of the elders they preferred unto it, and whereby they made it void; see Matthew 5:1 and Matthew 15:1. (a) Animadv. Philol. in Job, p. 144.

Her prophets; by education, profession, and unwarranted practice called so, false prophets; such Zedekiah, and probably Chenaanah, &c., were. Are light; unstable and inconstant, ready to comply with humours which they should have reproved, 1 Kings 22:13 . Treacherous persons; men of treacheries, whatever pleasing temper they seem to be of, yet still they design treachery; the Hebrew seems to run it higher, treacheries in the abstract. Her priests, of the house of Levi, of the stock of Aaron, have polluted the sanctuary; bound by office to keep holy the sanctuary, have defiled it, and all that is holy. Have done violence to the law; wresting it by perverse interpretation to what sense best serveth a corrupt mind.

Verse 4. - Her prophets. These are the false prophets, who have no true mission from God (comp. Micah 2:11 ; Micah 3:5 ). Light ; either, frivolous or empty boasters. The word means properly, "boiling over," like water. Vulgate, vesani ; Septuagint, πνευματοφόροι , which means, probably, not "inspired by an (evil) spirit," but "carried away by the wind," "light" (comp. Matthew 11:7 ). Treacherous persons; literally, men of treacheries , who uttered their own fancies as if they were commissioned by God, and so really opposed him whom they professed to represent ( Jeremiah 23:32 ). Her priests have polluted the sanctuary ( what is holy ). Not the temple only, but all that has to do with God's service, worship, rites, sacrifices; they make no distinction between what is sacred and what is profane ( Ezekiel 22:26 ). They have done violence to the Law. Chiefly, doubtless, by distorting its meaning, and neither observing it themselves nor teaching others to keep it. Zephaniah 3:4

4 . Her prophets are light ] Both the idea and the expression find a parallel in Jeremiah 23:32 , “I am against them that prophesy false dreams, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their lightness” (R.V. vain boasting ); cf. Lamentations 2:14 ; Ezekiel 22:28 . The figure expressed by “light” is that of the boiling over of water ( Genesis 49:4 ; Jdg 9:4 ), and the word characterizes the prophets as vapourers, extravagant and arrogant in their own imaginations and conceits, their minds lacking the restraint of the word of God under which the true prophets spoke. treacherous persons ] lit. men of treacheries , or, perfidiousnesses. The precise sense is not clear. The verb to deal treacherously is often used of falsehood or perfidy toward God; Jeremiah 3:20 , “as a wife dealeth treacherously against her husband so have ye dealt treacherously against me O house of Israel;” Hosea 6:7 . The idea, however, that the prophets dealt unfaithfully with God in giving out the imaginations of their own heart as His word to men (Hitzig), is rather strained. In the ethical writings of the Old Testament, such as the Proverbs, “treacherous dealer” is often parallel to “wicked” ( Proverbs 2:22 ; Proverbs 11:6 ; Proverbs 21:18 ; cf. Habakkuk 1:13 ), and means one who acts untruly or wrongfully in regard to moral law.

Jeremiah frequently taxes the prophets of his day with immoral conduct ( Jeremiah 23:14 , Jeremiah 29:23 ). have polluted the sanctuary ] Rather: have profaned that which is holy . Ezekiel 22:26 offers a complete parallel: “Her priests have done violence to my law, and have profaned mine holy things; they have put no difference between the holy and profane, between the clean and the unclean.” The last words explain at least one way of doing “violence” or wrong to the law. Jeremiah 2:8 makes similar charges against the various official classes.

Her prophets are light - , boiling and bubbling, up, like water boiling over , empty boasters claiming the gift of prophecy, which they have not; "boldly and rashly pouring out what they willed as they willed;" promising good things which shall not be. So they are "her" prophets, to whom they "prophesy smooth things" (see Micah 2:11 ), "the prophets of this people" not the prophets of God; "treacherous persons" (literally, men of treacheries) wholly given to manifold treacheries against God in whose Name they spake and to the people whom they deceived. Jerome: "They spake as if from the mouth of the Lord and uttered everything against the Lord." "The leaders of the people," those who profess to lead it aright, Isaiah says, "are its misleaders" ( Isaiah 9:15 ( Isaiah 9:16 in English)). "Thy prophets," Jeremiah says, "have seen vain and foolish things for thee; they have seen for thee false visions and causes of banishment" Lamentations 2:14 . Her priests have polluted her sanctuary - Literally, "holiness," and so holy rites, persons Ezra 8:28, things, places (as the sanctuary), sacrifices.

All these they polluted, being themselves polluted; they polluted first themselves, then the holy things which they handled, handling them as they ought not; carelessly and irreverently, not as ordained by God; turning them to their own use and self-indulgence, instead of the glory of God; then they polluted them in the eyes of the people, "making them to abhor the offering of the Lord" 1 Samuel 2:17, since, living scandalously, they themselves regarded the Ministry entrusted to them by God so lightly. Their office was to "put difference between holy and unholy and between clean and unclean, and to teach the children all the statutes which the Lord hath spoken unto them by Moses" Leviticus 10:10-11; that they "should sanctify themselves and be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy" (Leviticus 11:44; Leviticus 19:2, etc.). But they on the contrary, God says by Ezekiel, "have done violence to My law and have profaned My holy things; they have made no difference between holy and profane, and have taught none between clean and unclean" Ezekiel 22:26. "Holy" and "unholy" being the contradictory of each other, these changed what God had hallowed into its exact contrary. It was not a mere short-coming, but an annihilation (so to speak), of God's purposes. Cyril: "The priests of the Church then must keep strict watch, not to profane holy things. There is not one mode only of profaning them, but many and divers.