16 December Zephaniah 3:14-20
To appreciate the significance of these verses, we need to know what has gone before.
Chapter 1 speaks of a universal day of judgement; chapter 2 focusses on Judah’s enemies; then criticism comes closer to home at the beginning of chapter 3, where those who should have been giving leadership in Jerusalem are castigated. Ever decreasing circles!
In the background lurks the threat of an unnamed enemy – probably the Assyrians, still powerful at the beginning of Josiah’s reign (1:1).
(The references to wrongdoing in Jerusalem may suggest a time before Josiah’s reform came into effect [see 2 Kings 23]). But then the judgmental mood alters, and the prophet looks forward to things changing dramatically (3:11-13).
Our passage is psalm-like, and is thought by many to be a later addition reflecting the situation after the fall of Babylon, when ‘Babel sounds’ were literally no more. God could turn fortunes round. Those disconnected by exile could dare to hope for a return. Old divisions no longer applied. Those formerly excluded could be welcomed into the community of God’s people.
Rex Mason (The Oxford Bible Commentary, p.606) aptly describes Zephaniah as ‘a thoroughly radical prophetic book – a charter for the “little people” of all corrupt societies’.
Adrian Curtis
Saviour God,
changer of hearts,
restorer of fortunes,
welcomer of the outcast,
thank you that you rejoice to accept all into your community of love, and that you are always with us, ever ready to renew us. Amen.
