Matthew Henry on Zephaniah 3:1-7
One would wonder that Jerusalem, the holy city, where God was known, and his name was great, should be the city of which this black character is here given, that a place which enjoyed such abundance of the means of grace should become so very corrupt and vicious, and that God should permit it to be so; yet so it is, to show that the law made nothing perfect; but if this be the true character of Jerusalem, as no doubt it is (for God's judgments will make none worse than they are), it is no wonder that the prophet begins with woe to her. For the holy God hates sin in those that are nearest to him, nay, in them he hates it most. A sinful state is, and will be, a woeful state.
I. Here is a very…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Zephaniah 3:6
I had hoped that My people by My judgments on other nations would be led to amendment; but they are not, so blinded by sin are they.
towers--literally, "angles" or "corners"; hence the towers built at the angles of their city walls. Under Josiah's long and peaceful reign the Jews were undisturbed, while the great incursion of Scythians into Western Asia took place. The judgment on the ten tribes in a former reign also is here alluded to.
Adam Clarke on Zephaniah 3:6
I have cut off the nations - Syria, Israel, and those referred to, Isa 36:18, Isa 36:20. - Newcome.
John Gill on Zephaniah 3:6
I have cut off the nations,.... Utterly destroyed them, as the Philistines, Moabites, Ethiopians, and Assyrians, as in the preceding chapters; all which were done before the coming of Christ in the flesh; and by which instances the Jews should have took warning, lest by their sins they should provoke the Lord to destroy their nation, city, and temple:
their towers are desolate; built on their frontiers, or on the walls of their cities, to defend them; these were demolished, and laid waste, and of no use: or, "their corners" (b); towers being usually built on the angles or corners of walls. Some interpret this of their princes, nobles, and great men, who were destroyed; see Zechariah 10:4,…
