Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Zephaniah · About this commentary
The Great Day of Yahweh Is Near
Zephaniah 1:14-18
14 The great day of Yahweh is near. It is near and hurries greatly, the voice of the day of Yahweh. The mighty man cries there bitterly. · WEB
The most concentrated description of that day in Scripture, piled up without relief — and its point is that nothing purchased can buy an exemption.
The great day of Yahweh is near, near and hurrying. Then the piling begins: a day of wrath, of distress and anguish, of trouble and ruin, of darkness and gloom, of clouds and blackness, of trumpet and alarm. Six pairs in two verses, with no verbs to slow them. Joel and Amos use the same darkness Joel 2:2 Amos 5:18, but nowhere is it stacked like this.
Verse 17 gives the reason in one clause — because they have sinned against Yahweh — and the effect in another: men walking like the blind. The picture is of people who cannot find their way in a city they know.
Verse 18 closes on money, which is where the chapter has been heading since the silver-laden merchants of verse 11. Neither silver nor gold will be able to deliver them. And then the phrase that will return at Zephaniah 3:8 to close the whole judgment: the land devoured by the fire of his jealousy.
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