A title means God has out of sight, or even God of darkness.

(One.) A boy of Cushi, & outstanding-grandson of Hezekiah, and a ninth in the sequentially of the minor prophets. He prophesied in the times of Josiah, king of Judah (B.C. 641-610), & was coeval by using Jeremiah, with whom he experienced tremendously within green.

A Book of Zephaniah, which contains his prophecies, consists of:

(a) An introduction (1:1-6), announcing a judgment of the globe, & the judgment upon Israel, because of their transgressions.

(b) A description of the judgment (1:7-18).

(c) An exhortation to search God when there exists however instance (2:1-Three).

(d) A announcement of judgment on the pagan (2:4-15).

(e) A battle of poitiers misery of Jerusalem (3:1-7).

(f) A promise of salvation (3:8-20).

(Ii.) A boy of Maaseiah, a "second priest" inside a reign of Zedekiah, typically mentioned in Jeremiah when getting been sent from either the king to inquire (Jer. 21:1) on a coming woes which he experienced denounced, & to entreat a prophet's intercession that a judgment threatened may exist as averted (Jer. Twenty-nine:25, Xxvi, 29; 37:3; 52:24). He, along by having another captive Jews, was kill per king of Babylon "at Riblah in the land of Hamath" (Deuce Kings 25:21).

(Ternary.) The Kohathite root of the prophet Samuel (Unity Chr. 6:36).

(Quaternion.) A father of Josiah, a priest world health organization dwelt within Jerusalem while Darius issued a rescript that the temple should become rebuilt (Zech. 6:10).

I personally. DATE

A date of the Prophet's activity fell in the reign of King Josias (641-11). Sophonias is one of the pack Prophets whose chronology is fixed by a accurate date in the introductory verse of the book. Under them retiring kings, Amon & Manasse, idolatry experienced been introduced in the virtually all shameful forms (especially a cult of Baal & Astarte) into the City of god, & sustaining this foreign cult come a foreign culture & a great corruption of lesson. Josias, a king sustaining a anointed sceptre, wished to put an prevent to the frightful devastation in the sanctum. One of a virtually all great champions & consultant of this reform was Sophonias, & his writing remains one of a first documents for the understanding of the era of Josias. A Prophet placed a ax at a root of a religious & moral corruption, once, within look at of the idolatry which got penetrated possibly into the sanctuary, he threatened to "destroy out of this place the remnant of Baal, and the names of the . . . priests" (we personally, Quadruplet), & pleaded for the go to to the simplicity of their fathers instead of the luxurious foreign wear which was worn especially around aristocratical circles (i, Eighter). a age of Sophonias was besides a severest & decisive time period, because a lands of Anterior Asia were overrun by foreigners owing to the migration of the Seythians in the go decades of the seventh century, & because Jerusalem, the city of the Prophets, was just two or three decades prior to its downfall (586). A far-seeing watcher in Sion's crenelation saw this catastrophe come on: "for the day of the Lord is near" is the effect of his preaching (we, Sevener). "The great day of the Lord is near, it is near and exceeding swift: . . . That day is a day of wrath, a day of tribulation and darkness and obscurity, a day of clouds and whirlwinds" (we, 14-15).

Deuce. CONTENTS

the book of the Prophet naturally contains around its terzetto chapters simply a sketch of the fundamental ideas of the preaching of Sophonias. A scheme of the book within its present form is when follows:

(the) i personally, Two-ii, Three. A threatening of the "day of the Lord", the Dies irae dies illa of the Old Testament. a judgment of the Lord might descend around Juda & Jerusalem as a penalization for the nasty degeneracy in religious life (we, Four-7a); it may touch everthing classes of the humans (we, 7b-1Three), & is attended using all the horrors of a horrible catastrophe (we, 14-18); so, launder penance & search the Lord (2, One-3).

(b) two, Four-15. Non simply across Jerusalem, however all across a completely gloexist as (urbi et orbi), on top a peoples around all a quaternary regions of a heavens, might a h& of a Lord be stretched--westward all on top a Philistines (Four-7), eastward above the Moabites & Ammonoid (8-11), southward over the Ethiopians (Xii), & to the north over the Assyrians and Ninivites (13-15).

(c) By having the favorite threat (threesome, One-8). A Prophet so turns once again to Jerusalem: "Woe to the provoking, and redeemed city. . . She hath not hearkened to the voice, neither hath she received discipline"; a most serious reckoning is called upon of a blue blood & a administrators of a law (when the leading classes of the civil community), & of the Prophets & priests, when the directors of public worship.

(five hundred) ternion, 9-20. a comforting prophecy, or even prophetical glimpse at a Kingdom of God of the first, where all the globe, united inside of these faith & of these worship, might turn to of these God, & the goods of the Messianic Kingdom, whose capital is the girl of Sion, is enjoyed. A catholicity of a judgment too when of the redemption is and so forcibly expressed around Sophonias that his book can be think of the "Catholic Epistle" of the Old Testament.

(e) the previous exhortation of Sophonias (triad, 9-20) likewise has a Messianic colouoring, although does'nt to an extent corresponding sustaining Isaias.

Trio. CHARACTER OF THE PROPHET

Sophonias' prophecy is non strongly differentiated from either more prophecies such as that of Amos or even Habacuc, these are confined to the range of thought most common to completely prophectic exhortations: threats of judgment, exhortation to penance, promise of Messianic salvation. For this understanding Sophoniwhen may exist as repute a nature & severity of Hebrew Prophets and as a final case of the prophetical language. He doesn't search a glory of an original writer, however borrows freely each ideas & style from either a older Prophets (especially Isaias & Jeremias). A resemblances to a Book of Deuteronomy can be explained per fact that this book, incurred in the Josian reform, was so the centre of religious interest. A language of Sophoniwhen is vigorous & earnest, as get a seriousness of a cycle, however is loose from either the gloomy elegiac tone of Jeremias. Around occasionally passages it becomes pathetic & poetic, forswearing yet attaining the authoritative diction or even even poetic flight of a Nahum or Deutero-Isaias. There exists something solemn in a manner where a Lord is & so oft introduced when a speaker, and the phrase of judgment lessens on the silent globe (we, Seven). Apart from either a couple plays in words (cf. especially deuce, Little joe), Sophonias eschews whole rhetorical & poetic ornamentation of language. When to a logical & rhythmic build of a various exhortations, he has 2 strophes of the number 1 sketch (i personally, 7 & 14) by using the equivalent opening ("the day of the Lord is near"), & closes the 2nd sketch by having the anthem (two, Fifteen)--a favorite practice of his paradigm, Jeremias. a calibrated development of the sentiment to the climax in the scheme is expressed per fact that the survive sketch contains an alive & hanker lyrical anthem to Jerusalem (troika, Fourteen sqq.). Inside Christian painting Sophonias is represented doubly; either sustaining a lantern (on to we, Twelve: "I will search Jerusalem with lamps") or even clad inside a togthe & bearing a scroll bearing when text the beginning of the anthem "Give praise, O daughter of Zion" (3, Fourteen).

See Also
Benjamin Zephaniah (poet)