Zephaniah 1:15

But let them hear how the prophet Zephaniah holds out over them the power of divine rebuke, saying, Behold the day of the Lord cometh, great and horrible, the day of wrath, that day; a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of cloud and whirlwind, a day of trumpet and clangour, upon all fenced cities, and upon all lofty corners. For what is expressed by fenced cities but minds suspected, and surrounded ever with a fallacious defence; minds which, as often as their fault is attacked, suffer not the darts of truth to reach them? And what is signified by lofty corners (a wall being always double in corners) but insincere hearts; which, while they shun the simplicity of truth, are in a manner doubled back upon themselves in the crookedness of duplicity, and, what is worse, from their very fault of insincerity lift themselves in their thoughts with the pride of prudence? Therefore the day of the Lord comes full of vengeance and rebuke upon fenced cities and upon lofty corners, because the wrath of the last judgment both destroys human hearts that have been closed by defences against the truth, and unfolds such as have been folded up in duplicities. For then the fenced cities fall, because souls which God has not penetrated will be damned. Then the lofty corners tumble, because hearts which erect themselves in the prudence of insincerity are prostrated by the sentence of righteousness.

(Verse 15, 16.) The voice of the day of the Lord is bitter: there the strong shall be troubled: the day of wrath, that day shall be a day of tribulation and distress, a day of calamity and wretchedness, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and whirlwinds, a day of the trumpet and the cry against fortified cities, and against the high corners. LXX: The voice of the day of the Lord is bitter and harshly appointed: there the strong shall be troubled: the day of wrath, that day shall be a day of tribulation and necessity, a day of wretchedness and perdition, a day of darkness and whirlwinds, a day of clouds and gloominess, a day of the trumpet and the cry against fortified cities, and against the high corners. According to the above, either take from the Babylonian captivity or from the extreme sufferings they endured from the Romans, over which the Lord wept for Jerusalem, saying: Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to you (Matthew 23:37), and so on. Truly, a preferred vengeance has been sought from the blood of Abel the just to the blood of Zechariah, whom they killed between the temple and the altar (2 Chronicles 24); and finally, concerning the Son of God, saying: His blood be on us and on our children, they experienced a bitter day, because they had provoked the Lord to bitterness; a day appointed by the Lord, on which not just anyone, but the strongest men are humbled, and wrath will come upon them in the end. For often, indeed, they had endured the anger of the Lord before, but that anger had not been the consummation and end (Matthew 27:25). Why now is it necessary to describe the great calamities they endured in each captivity, and how those who rejected the light of the Lord were cast into darkness and gloom, and those who refused to listen to the trumpets of the solemn days heard the clamor (or clangor) of warriors? But as for the fortified cities and high corners of Judea, which have been completely destroyed, I think that it is a judgment of the eyes rather than the ears: especially for us who now live in this province, we can see, we can prove what has been written. We can hardly see small traces of ruins in once great cities. In Shiloh, where the tabernacle and the ark of the Lord's Covenant were, we can barely see the foundations of the altar. That city of Gibeah, Saul's city, is completely…