Zephaniah and a Pure Language
“The word of the LORD which came unto Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah” (Zephaniah 1:1).
Frequently, we might pass over the opening lines of a book in the Bible that list lineages of the prophet. In Zephaniah it is unusual to trace back a prophet’s paternal line over four generations, and no equivalent may be found in any other prophet. It is very reasonable to conclude that Zephaniah was a direct descendant of King Hezekiah and that this prophetic book comes from the days of good King Josiah. The suggestion that Zephaniah’s warnings may have urged the good Josiah to special zeal seems reasonable.
KING JOSIAH’S REFORMS
King Josiah began to reign when he was eight years old, and he reigned in Jerusalem 31 years (2 Chronicles 34:1-3). King Josiah did that which is right in the sight of the Lord, for he walked in the ways of David his father. Josiah’s reforms were one of the brightest periods in Judah’s history. Since Josiah reigned 31 years until he was 39 years old, he did not live out a natural life span. He was to die battling an Egyptian army at Megiddo.
In the eighth year of his reign (age 16), King Josiah began to seek after the God of David his father. Of course we cannot emphasize enough the importance of training up a child in the way he should go and its wonderful fruitage (Proverbs 22:6). The problem facing Josiah was that the two-tribe kingdom of Judah and Benjamin that he ruled had continued following in the ways of false gods, even in Jerusalem.
In the twelfth year of his reign (age 20) Josiah purged Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, the groves, the carved images, and the molten images. It seems as though Josiah personally oversaw this purging. The molten images were broken in pieces, and Josiah and his team made dust of them and spread this dust upon the graves of them that sacrificed unto the idols. When this company doing the purging found any of the priests of Baal, it is certain that they were executed, but let us have no sympathy for these priests, for they were murderers and practiced the most debased and abominable forms of child sacrifice. Until Josiah’s reform the altars of Baal lay just outside of the walls of Jerusalem. “And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom (just beneath the walls of Zion on the southwestern corner of Jerusalem), to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart” (Jeremiah 7:31).
The purging of Josiah did not stop at the old borders of the ten-tribe kingdom, which now were peopled by the Samaritans (2 Kings 17:24). Josiah continued his purge throughout the cities of Manasseh and Ephraim. He got to the extreme northern border where Naphtali once had lived. What a good king!
Yet, at the same time, the dire prophecies of Zephaniah served as a warning.
King Josiah, Israel’s last good king.
REPAIRING THE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON
Josiah ordered the repair of the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem in year 18 of his reign at age 26. Even more remarkably, “Hilkiah the priest found a book of the law of the LORD given by Moses.” Possibly, this was not a copy but might have actually been the original manuscript that Moses had written (2 Chronicles 34:14-16).
We find that in the temple complex there lived a prophetess named Hulda. She had charge of the wardrobe. Like Zephaniah, Hulda foretells a coming disaster. “Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof, even all the curses that are written in the book which they have read before the king of Judah” (2 Chronicles 34:24-25). It is within this framework we need to read the opening of Zephaniah, “and I will cut off man from off the land, saith the LORD. I will also stretch out mine hand upon Judah, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem” (Zephaniah 1:2-3).
Josiah and his supporters were sincere in their reforms, but the resistance to reform was even stronger, hence Zephaniah records, “and I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place, and the name of the Chemarims (idol- priests) with the priests (nominal priests of Jehovah); And them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops; and them that worship and that swear by the LORD, and that swear by Malcham (an idol named “the king”); And them that are turned back from the LORD; and those that have not sought the LORD, nor enquired for him” (Zephaniah 1:4-6).
There were some faithful Levites and people, for there is always a remnant of faithful belief, but the Lord had strong condemnation for those who were nominally serving in His name, while at the same time worshiping the host of heaven. This sort of mixed worship happens too frequently. It is more the rule than the exception. The Lord is a jealous God, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3). The Lord never says, “You have gone through the right form of worship. If you now practice some other form of worship once you leave the temple, that is your business.” No, the Lord wants our hearts fully committed.
THE GREAT PASSOVER
Josiah was faced with these two prophecies of national disaster, for both Zephaniah and Hulda prophesied disaster. Josiah understood how grievously departed from the covenant the people of Judah were, and in grief Josiah ripped his clothes. Because of his contrition, Josiah was told, “Behold, I will gather thee to thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace” (2 Chronicles 34:28).
In Zephaniah there is no allusion to this extension of grace, and this suggests that the visions were written before the varied reform efforts by Josiah.
Recognizing that the Lord is gracious, Josiah not only solemnized the nation’s covenant with the Lord, but had the people celebrate a great Passover, “And there was no Passover like to that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet” (2 Chronicles 35:17-18). Once again there is a suggestion of Grace. Between the great Passover of Josiah (year 18) and the unnecessary death of Josiah (year 31) we find 31-18 = 13 years.
The stern warnings of Zephaniah’s prophecy apply, “Seek ye the LORD, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the LORD’s anger” (Zephaniah 2:3).
In context, we see that Zephaniah holds a much bigger picture of the closing experiences of this age in the time of trouble. There is also a much bigger picture of the deliverance. One of the messages of the church to those who have a heart set in the right direction is that they need to put into action these words of Zephaniah and to seek righteousness, and to seek meekness, that they might be hid in the day of the Lord’s anger.
The church today is in a covenant by sacrifice, and we are promised that we are enfolded and protected by the Lord’s wings (Psalm 91:4). We have a special privilege, and we want to encourage even those who have not given their lives in a covenant by sacrifice to recognize that these words are instructions to all the earth. We are told in the second Psalm that the kings should “kiss the son” (Psalm 2:12); that is, seek closer communion and receive instruction.
JUDGMENT EAST AND WEST
The punishment promised in Zephaniah was not to fall solely on Judah. First, looking to the West from Jerusalem, Zephaniah announces judgment against Philistia. “Gaza shall be forsaken, and Ashkelon a desolation” (Zephaniah 2:4-6). Next, turning and looking to the East, Zephaniah announces judgment against Ammon and Moab. “Therefore as I live, saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Surely Moab shall be as Sodom, and the children of Ammon as Gomorrah” (Zephaniah 2:9).
JUDGMENT SOUTH
Turning to the South, Zephaniah announces judgment against Egypt. “Ye Ethiopians also, ye shall be slain by my sword” (Zephaniah 2:12). But there seems to be a problem here. Why speak of the “Ethiopians” and not the “Egyptians?” Why did Zephaniah not report the Lord’s words as, “You Egyptians also, shall be slain with my sword?”
The Greek historian Herodotus writing ~440 BC records that in Egypt’s very long history, “there were eighteen Ethiopian kings” (Histories, Book 2:100.1). Current scholarship, in support, places this 25th dynasty in power for over a century1. The Biblical record shows that one of the “Ethiopian” kings, already was projecting military power sufficient to challenge Assyria in the days of Hezekiah and Isaiah (2 Kings 19:8-9, Isaiah 37:8-9). During the siege of Jerusalem by the Assyrian king Sennacharib, Tirhaka (Taharqa), brother of the Nubian Pharaoh of Egypt (and later to come to the throne himself), marched in support of their ally Hezekiah. During this invasion, we know from the record of the prophet Isaiah and Kings that the Lord wrought a great deliverance. The angel of the Lord smote the host of the Assyrians, and in one night the slain were “one hundred eighty five thousand men.” The Pharaoh identified as “So” in 2 Kings 17:4 (possibly Osorkon), to whom the 10-tribe kingdom appealed for aid a few years earlier, may have been from the rival Western Egyptian region trying to regain power.2
Four generations later, during the time of Zephaniah’s prophecy, the portion of Egypt to the south of the Nile delta (Upper Egypt) still was under the control of the Nubians who held Thebes. 3 By the end of the reign of Josiah the Nubian control of Memphis and Thebes came to an end, fulfilling the words of the prophecy and the judgment on the South.
JUDGMENT NORTH
Lastly, turning North, Zephaniah announced judgment against Assyria itself. That abominable nation was faltering and was soon to fall to the emerging world power of Babylon.
“And he will stretch out his hand against the north, and destroy Assyria; and will make Nineveh a desolation, and dry like a wilderness” (Zephaniah 2:13).
The ruins of Nineveh lay on the edge of modern Mosul, Iraq, and continue to be in the news. Once again, the forces of power have turned the city into a desolation.
DEVASTATION OF ASSYRIA AND JOSIAH’S DEATH
This judgment on the North — Assyria — came when the Assyrian army, or rather, the Assyrians with their wild and unreliable allies from the north known as the Scythians (Saka-Ta, Great Russians) gathered to make a stand at Carchemish. Marching against Assyria from the East were the Babylonians and the Medes. The Nubian Egyptian allies of Judah had been driven out, and a native Egyptian monarchy under Pharaoh Necho II now held nearly all of Egypt.
Josiah, at the reading of the lost Book of the Law
“In his [Josiah’s] days Pharaoh Nechoh king of Egypt went up against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates: and King Josiah went against him; and he [Necho] slew him [Josiah] at Megiddo, when he had seen him” (2 Kings 23:28-29).
Both the tragic action by Josiah, bringing his untimely death, along with questions of why he would intervene at Megiddo, so far from the territory of Judah, have proven puzzling. Part of the confusion is linked to translating two different Hebrew words in the passage quoted as “against.” Some have suggested that Necho II was marching not to fight “against” Assyria, but to assist the Assyrians. To quote from the conclusion of one scholar: “Josiah’s motive becomes crystal-clear if we assume that he was fully aware of the vital importance of delaying the Egyptian advance.”
In that case he proceeded to Megiddo knowing only too well the risk involved but in the hope that, by forcing Necho to deploy his forces, he would have effectively sealed the doom of the Assyrian king. Thus, it seems very probable that the last of the great Jewish kings laid down his life in a truly heroic and entirely successful bid to avenge the dreadful wrongs his nation had suffered at the hands of Assyria.” 4
Did Josiah do the right thing, laying down his life in a heroic action? There is no record of Josiah enquiring of the Lord as to His will in taking this military action. 2 Chronicles 35:20- 27 gives an account of Josiah’s death, giving Pharaoh Necho the last word (verses 21-22) and faulting Josiah for not heeding these words:
“But he [Necho] sent ambassadors to him [Josiah], saying, What have I to do with thee, thou king of Judah? I come not against thee this day, but against the house wherewith I have war: for God commanded me to make haste: forbear thee from meddling with God, who is with me, that he destroy thee not. Nevertheless Josiah would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself, that he might fight with him, and hearkened not unto the words of Necho from the mouth of God, and came to fight in the valley of Megiddo” (2 Chronicles 35:21-22).
Pharaoh Necho II
Josiah may well have known that these reassuring words from Egypt were not the whole truth. Josiah disguised himself, and came to fight in the valley of Megiddo, but “the archers shot at king Josiah; and the king said to his servants, Have me away; for I am sore wounded. His servants therefore took him out of that chariot, and put him in the second chariot that he had; and they brought him to Jerusalem, and he died” (2 Chronicles 35:22-24).
However reasonable Josiah’s motives may have appeared to human reasoning, by not enquiring of the Lord, and by not fighting openly, this good king met his end. Subsequently, history was to prove that the Babylonians were even more powerful and determined to conquer Judah than the Assyrians.
Following Josiah, Jehoiakim and Zedekiah were both weak vassal kings, each with an undistinguished rule of 11 years. As the kingship of the house of David closed, Jerusalem itself would lay charred and broken with the temple of Solomon looted and destroyed.
PLUNDERING THE PHILISTINES
As Babylon consolidated power, the fearsome Scythian cavalry — barely under any control in the best of times – made a lightning raid looting and plundering along the entire Mediterranean coast from Phoenicia to Egypt. This was during the reign of Pharaoh Necho II’s son Psammeticus. This devastation is not recorded in the Bible, because it touched no portion of Judah; however it is found in Herodotus (Histories, Book 1:105).4 At this time, the most celebrated Philistine temple in Ashkelon, honoring Astarte the “Queen of Heaven,” was plundered.
What of the judgment on Ammon and Moab? This judgment took hundreds of years to be accomplished, but these great trading centers have not been rebuilt unto this day.
A PICTURE OF THE KINGDOM
“Therefore wait ye upon me, saith the LORD, until the day that I rise up to the prey: for my determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them mine indignation, even all my fierce anger: for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy” (Zephaniah 3:8).
This is not simply for the purpose of bringing down these nations. If we close the Bible at this point we miss the beauty and the grace of our great Heavenly Father. For the Lord promises that He will turn to the people a “pure language” that they may call upon his name to serve him with one consent (Zephaniah 3:9). The footnote in Rotherham’s translation explains the Hebrew is literally “one shoulder.” This is as a group pushing against a cart to move it.
While the special promises of the closing chapter focus on the restoration of Israel, Zephaniah adds that suppliants would come from beyond the rivers of Ethiopia (Zephaniah 3:10). This depicts how widespread the blessings of the kingdom will be, for only the truth really answers to the needs of man’s heart.
Pride, arrogance, wrongdoing, and lies shall be taken away in the Kingdom (Zephaniah 3:11-13). As precious as the joyful singing of Zion and Jerusalem shall be in that day (Zephaniah 3:14), we have the assurance that the voice of Jehovah God himself shall be raised in joyful song (Zephaniah 3:17). The prophecy closes with the promise that the very names of Zion and Jerusalem will then be praise throughout the earth. What wisdom and comprehensiveness in God’s great Divine Plan of the Ages for all mankind!
— Br. Richard Doctor
(1) Bennett, Robert A., “Africa and the Biblical Period,” The Harvard Theological Review, Volume 64, No. 4 (1971), pages 483-500. The father of Zephaniah (1:1) is “Cushi” (H3570), a word usually translated “Ethiopian” (H3569) as in Zephaniah 2:12; someone from the land of “Cush” (H3568), “Ethiopia” Zephaniah 3:10, or any of the lands of Cush’s heritage; portions of Iraq, South India, or sub-Saharan Africa. The suggestion is that Zephaniah’s grandmother may have had Nubian heritage.
(2) Christensen, Duane L., “The Identity of ‘King So’ in Egypt (2 Kings XVII 4), Vetus Testamentum, Volume 39, fasc. 2 (April 1989), pages 140-153 (“the complex political situation in Egypt has made it difficult to achieve any scholarly consensus … [and] four remaining options [are possible].”)
(3) Baer, Klaus, “The Libyan and Nubian Kings of Egypt: Notes on the Chronology of Dynasties XXII to XXVI,” Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Volume 32, No. 1/2 (January – April 1973), pages 24ff.
(4) Edwin Yamauchi, “The Scythians: Invading Hordes from the Russian Steppes,” The Biblical Archaeologist, Volume 46, No. 2 (Spring 1983), pages 90-99. (Comment: Saka-Ta = Scythians. Ma- Saka-Ta = Massagetae = From (having left) the land of the Saka hordes.)