Zephaniah 1:1 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Zephaniah 1:1
The word of the LORD which came unto Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hizkiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah.
a word · noun, common masculine singular construct
LORD
יְהוָ֣הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
Zephaniah
צְפַנְיָה֙tze.fan.Yah
H6846
Tsephanjah · proper noun, a man's name
son
בֶּןben-
H1121
a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine singular construct
Cushi
כּוּשִׁיKûwshîy
H3570
Cushi
son
בֶןven-
H1121
a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine singular construct
Gedaliah
גְּדַלְיָ֔הge.dal.Yah
H1436
Gedaljah · proper noun, a man's name
son
בֶּןben-
H1121
a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine singular construct
Amariah
אֲמַרְיָ֖ה'a.mar.Yah
H568
Amarjah · proper noun, a man's name
son
בֶּןben-
H1121
a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine singular construct
Hizkiah
חִזְקִיָּ֑הchiz.ki.Yah
H2396
Chizkijah · proper noun, a man's name
days
בִּימֵ֛יbi.Mei
H3117
a day (as the warm hours) · preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct
Josiah
יֹאשִׁיָּ֥הוּyo.shi.Ya.hu
H2977
Joshijah · proper noun, a man's name
son
בֶןven-
H1121
a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine singular construct
Amon
אָמ֖וֹן'a.Mon
H526
Amon · proper noun, a man's name
king
מֶ֥לֶךְMe.lekh
H4428
a king · noun, common masculine singular construct
Judah
יְהוּדָֽהye.hu.Dah
H3063
Jehudah (or Judah) · proper noun, a place name
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Jeremiah 1:2 To whom the word of the LORD came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.
2 Chronicles 34:1-33 Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem one and thirty years.
2 Kings 22:1-20 Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty and one years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Jedidah, the…
Jeremiah 25:3 From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, even unto this day, that is the three and twentieth year, the word of the…
Ezekiel 1:3 The word of the LORD came expressly unto Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar; and the hand…
Hosea 1:1 The word of the LORD that came unto Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the d…
2 Peter 1:19 We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the d…
2 Timothy 3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Zephaniah 1:1-6
Here is, I. The title-page of this book (Zep 1:1), in which we observe, 1. What authority it has, and who gave it that authority; it is from heaven, and not of men: It is the word of the Lord. 2. Who was the instrument of conveying it to the church. His name was Zephaniah, which signifies the servant of the Lord, for God revealed his secrets to his servants the prophets. The pedigree of other prophets, whose extraction we have an account of, goes no further back than their father, except Zecharias, whose grandfather also is named. But this of Zephaniah goes back four generations, and the highest mentioned is Hizkiah; it is the very same name in the original with that of Hezekiah king of Juda…
The word of the Lord which came unto Zephaniah - Though this prophet has given us so large a list of his ancestors, yet little concerning him is known, because we know nothing certain relative to the persons of the family whose names are here introduced. We have one chronological note which is of more value for the correct understanding of his prophecy than the other could have been, how circumstantially soever it had been delivered; viz., that he prophesied in the days of Josiah, son of Amon, king of Judah; and from the description which he gives of the disorders which prevailed in Judea in his time, it is evident that he must have prophesied before the reformation made by Josiah, which was…
The word of the Lord which came unto Zephaniah the son of Cushi,.... This is the title of the book, which expresses the subject matter of it, the word of the Lord; the word of prophecy from the Lord, as the Targum; and shows the divine authority of it; that it was not of himself, nor from any man, but was of God; as well as describes the penman of it by his descent: who or what this his father was; whether a prophet, according to the rule the Jews give, that, when the name of a prophet and his father's name are mentioned, he is a prophet, the son of a prophet; or, whether a prince, a person of some great family, and even of the blood royal, as some have thought, is not certain; or who those…
The Church Fathers
(Chapter I, Verse 1) The word of the Lord that came to 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 Ammon, king of Judah. The Septuagint similarly. The Hebrews report that the father or grandfather of any prophet is mentioned in the title, indicating that they themselves were also prophets. Therefore, Amos, one of the twelve prophets, who said, 'I am not a prophet, nor am I the son of a prophet, but I am a herdsman and a gatherer of sycamore fruit' (Amos 7:14), does not have his father's name mentioned in the title. If this is true, Sophonias the prophet, whom we are now attempting to explain, received a prophetic name, so to speak, and was born from the glorious lineage of his ancestors; for he had Chusi as his father, Godolias as his grandfather, Amarias as his great-grandfather, and Ezechias as his great-great-grandfather: and he himself completed such a team of horses as the last charioteer. Some have translated the name Sophonias as "watchtower," others as "hidden by the Lord." Therefore, whether it is interpreted as a watchtower or as hidden by the Lord, both meanings apply to the prophet. For it is said also to Ezekiel: Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel (Ezek. III, 17). And in another place: The Lord does nothing unless he reveals his secret to his servants, the prophets. And the title of the ninth psalm is interpreted as for the hidden things of the son. Therefore, this prophet, who was in the watchtower and stationed on high, and knew the mysteries of the Lord, was the son of Cush (which is interpreted as humility, or my Ethiopian, about whom we will discuss later), and he also had a grandfather named Godoliah, who is called the greatness of the Lord, and a great-grandfather named Amariah, who also turns into the word of the Lord: and a great-great-grandfather named Hezekiah, which means the strength of the Lord. About the strength of the Lord, the word of the Lord was born. And from the word of the Lord, the magnitude of the Lord was born. And from the magnitude of the Lord, humility was born, so that when someone reaches perfection, they may say: I am not worthy to be called an apostle (I Corinthians 9). And that in the Psalms: Lord, my heart is not exalted, nor are my eyes lofty (Psalm 130:1). Up until now, we have stumbled like one in a…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Amariah — Said by Jehovah. (1.) One of the descendants of Aaron by Eleazar (1 Chr. 6:7, 52). He was probably the last of the high priests of Eleazar’s line prior to the transfer of that office to Eli, of the…
Gedaliah — Made great by Jehovah. (1.) the son of Jeduthum (1 Chr. 25:3, 9). (2.) The grandfather of the prophet Zephaniah, and the father of Cushi (Zeph. 1:1). (3.) One of the Jewish nobles who conspired…
Hezekiah — Whom Jehovah has strengthened. (1.) Son of Ahaz (2 Kings 18:1; 2 Chr. 29:1), whom he succeeded on the throne of the kingdom of Judah. He reigned twenty-nine years (B.C. 726-697). The history of this…
Hizkiah — An ancestor of the prophet Zephaniah (1:1).
Zephaniah — Jehovah has concealed, or Jehovah of darkness. (1.) The son of Cushi, and great-grandson of Hezekiah, and the ninth in the order of the minor prophets. He prophesied in the days of Josiah, king of…
Amariah · 5. — 5.
Amon · 2. King of — 2. King of
Cushi · 3. Father of Zephaniah — 3. Father of Zephaniah
Gedaliah · 4. Ancestor of Zephaniah — 4. Ancestor of Zephaniah
Hizkiah · An ancestor of Zephaniah — An ancestor of Zephaniah
Prophets · Mentioned in scripture: Zephaniah — Mentioned in scripture: Zephaniah
Zephaniah · 3. A prophet in the days of Josiah — 3. A prophet in the days of Josiah
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Zephaniah 1:1
1. The word of the LORD which came unto Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hizkiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah.
1. Sermo Jehovae, qui fuit ad Zephaniam, filium Chusi, filii Gedoliae, filii Amariae, filii Chizkiae, in diebus Josiae, filii Amon, regis Jehudah.
Zephaniah first mentions the time in which he prophesied; it was under the king Josiah. The reason why he puts down the name of his father Amon does not appear to me. The Prophet would not, as a mark of honor, have made public a descent that was disgraceful and infamous. Amon was the son of Manasseh, an impious and wicked king; and he was nothing bet…
Zep 1:1 contains the heading, which has been explained in the introduction. Zep 1:2 and Zep 1:3 form the preface. - Zep 1:2. "I will sweep, sweep away everything from the face of the earth, is the saying of Jehovah. Zep 1:3. I will sweep away man and cattle, sweep away the fowls of heaven, and the fishes of the sea, and the offences with the sinners, and I cut off men from the face of the earth, is the saying of Jehovah." The announcement of the judgment upon the whole earth not only serves to sharpen the following threat of judgment upon Judah and Jerusalem in this sense, "Because Jehovah judges the whole world, He will punish the apostasy of Judah all the more;" but the judgment upon the w…
Zephaniah’s message from the Lord warns about worldwide judgment (1:1-6) and exhorts his readers to repent (1:7-13) before the devastation overtakes them (1:14-18) and to seek the Lord and live righteously and humbly before him in the hope that they may be spared his judgment (2:1-3).
1:1 The Lord gave this message: Zephaniah was a prophet, God’s spokesman. • Hezekiah probably indicates the king of that name (see 2 Kgs 18:1–20:20).
