Matthew Henry on Zephaniah 1:14–end
Nothing could be expressed with more spirit and life, nor in words more proper to startle and awaken a secure and careless people, than the warning here given to Judah and Jerusalem of the approaching destruction by the Chaldeans. That is enough to make the sinners in Zion tremble - that it is the day of the Lord, the day in which he will manifest himself by taking vengeance on them. It is the great day of the Lord, a specimen of the day of judgment, a kind of doom's-day, as the last destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans is represented to be in our Saviour's prediction concerning it, Mat 24:27.
I. This day of the Lord is here spoken of as very near. The vision is not for a great while to co…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Zephaniah 1:16
the trumpet--namely, of the besieging enemy (Amo 2:2).
alarm--the war shout [MAURER].
towers--literally "angles"; for city walls used not to be built in a direct line, but with sinuous curves and angles, so that besiegers advancing might be assailed not only in front, but on both sides, caught as it were in a cul-de-sac; towers were built especially at the angles. So TACITUS describes the walls of Jerusalem [Histories, 5.11.7].
Adam Clarke on Zephaniah 1:15
That day is a day of wrath - See Isa 22:5 (note); Jer 30:7 (note); Joe 2:2 (note), Joe 2:11 (note); Amo 5:18 (note); Zep 1:18 (note), and the notes there. From the fourteenth to the sixteenth verse inclusive there is a most beautiful amplification of the disasters that were coming on Jerusalem; the invasion, incursion, attack, carnage, confusion, horrible din occasioned by the sound of the trumpet, the cries of the people, and the shrieks and groans of the dying, are pointed out with great force and mighty effect.
John Gill on Zephaniah 1:16
A day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities,.... The trumpet of the enemy, sounding the alarm of war against the fenced cities of Judea, which were taken before Jerusalem; calling and gathering the soldiers together, and animating them to the assault of them; and blowing them in a way of triumph; and as expressive of victory, having got possession of them:
and against the high towers; or "corners" (x); towers being usually built corner-wise, and full of corners, and on the corners of walls of cities; sometimes these signify princes, magistrates, and great men, Zechariah 10:4.
(x) "pinnas", Montanus, Castalio; "angulos", Junius & Tremellius, Burkius.
