Zephaniah

Zephaniah records the word of the LORD that came to Zephaniah the son of Cushi, whose genealogy is traced four generations back to Hizkiah (Hezekiah), suggesting royal blood. He prophesied in the days of Josiah king of Judah, making him a contemporary of the young Jeremiah, and his preaching against Baal worship and idolatrous priests fits the years before or during Josiah's great reformation. Among the Minor Prophets, Zephaniah is the great preacher of 'the day of the LORD,' a phrase that dominates the book.

The prophecy opens with sweeping judgment: God will utterly consume all things from off the land, cutting off the remnant of Baal, those who swear by Malcham, and those settled on their lees who say the LORD will do neither good nor evil. The great day of the LORD is near, a day of wrath, trouble, and darkness. Judgment then circles the nations: Philistia, Moab and Ammon, Ethiopia, and proud Nineveh. Jerusalem herself, the filthy and polluted oppressing city, is indicted along with her princes, judges, prophets, and priests.

Yet Zephaniah ends in some of the warmest hope in the prophets. God will leave an afflicted and poor people who trust in the name of the LORD; He will turn to the peoples a pure language. The King of Israel in the midst of Zion will save, and rejoice over His people with joy, resting in His love and joying over them with singing.