November 14th, 2020

This Sunday, as we get to the end of the church year, we get to a ‘major’ topic from a ‘minor’ prophet. The Old Testament reading for this Sunday deals with the End Times and is from Zephaniah [1:7-16], the book of the Bible that is near the end of the Old Testament.

This prophet is sometimes confused with Zechariah. This prophet is earlier in time than Zechariah—Zephaniah is before the exile, whereas Zechariah is after it—and in the placement of the Old Testament books, Zephaniah is also before Zechariah. This short book of three chapters is hidden in between Habakkuk and Haggai. In fact, Zephaniah’s name means ‘Yahweh hides’. In the very first verse of the book, Zephaniah makes a ‘great reveal’, and his bloodline is connected to King Hezekiah.  

More important than that is the word of Yahweh that Zephaniah has to share. And it is a significant one.

This Sunday’s text is a significant one. It speaks of ‘the great day of the LORD’ (see verse 14). But I would like to suggest looking at the verses which come immediately after Zephaniah 1:1 and are right before this Sunday’s text. Looking over them would help to get an idea of the context and the bigger picture.

In one way, the following is NOT a literal translation of Zephaniah 1:2-6; most of the parts of this text were translated literally, but some words were translated in a way that would fit with their unique context and their placement within this text:

To gather things close, I will bring to a close everything from upon the face of the ground, declares Yahweh. I will bring to a close man and beast, I will bring to a close birds of the air and fish of the sea, and the building blocks with the wicked ones, and I will cut off the man from upon the face of the ground, declares Yahweh.

And I will stretch out my hand upon Judah and upon all the ones dwelling of Jerusalem, and I will cut off from this, the place, the remnant of the Baal, the name of the idolaters with the priests—and with ones bowing down upon the roofs, to the host of the heavens, and with the ones bowing down, the ones swearing to Yahweh, and the ones swearing by Molech—and with the ones turning back from after Yahweh, and who neither seek Yahweh nor do they ask of him.

The first paragraph of the above text is especially difficult to translate. In Hebrew, these two verbs are similar in sound but have a very different meaning: ‘to gather together’ and ‘to put to an end’. The word ‘close’ was used in two different ways (and is pronounced in two different ways) to reflect this unusual combination. I do NOT understand the Hebrew text to have a mistake.

The parts of creation mentioned in the first paragraph seem to be listed in the opposite order in which they were created. It is in the first chapter of Genesis that God created birds and fish, then beasts, and then man. The order in Zephaniah goes in the opposite direction, and during this part, it seems that the Hebrew text avoids the use of the definite article (‘the’), but then, when there is the phrase, ‘the building blocks with the wicked ones’, this definitely starts the use of the definite article.

What does a building block have to do with a wicked one? This is one of those verses that has the following footnote in the NIV (See the Concordia Self-Study Bible): ‘The meaning of the Hebrew for this line is uncertain.’ The ESV translates ‘building blocks’ as ‘rubble’ and has this footnote (See The Lutheran Study Bible): ‘Or stumbling blocks (that is, idols).’ The basic meaning of the word is to stumble or overthrow.

I did not choose to translate the phrase literally as ‘stumbling blocks’ because that does not fit well with the progression made with the list of created things. I used the words ‘building blocks’ to bring more prominence to the wicked and to fit with something that would still cause a significant amount of trouble, something that, in this case, would make a person stumble. This phrase is also something that would fit at the head of a list of things that were created. This is NOT to say that God did not create ex nihilo. But this IS to say that what is evil in this world is significant; we see that literally every day.
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It is a good thing to remember that some things will not last forever … and that the good stuff will.