Zephaniah 2 Chapter Introduction

Structure and Formatting

This chapter is the second of the three major parts of the book of Zephaniah. (See the outline in the introduction to the book.) This part begins with a warning to the people of Judah and Jerusalem (verses 1–3), and it then describes how Yahweh will punish the Philistines (verses 4–7), Moab and Ammon (verses 8–11), Ethiopia (verse 12), and Assyria (verses 13–16).

The ULT sets the lines of this chapter farther to the right on the page than the rest of the text because they are poetry.

Translation Issues in This Chapter

Litany

In verses 1 and 2, Zephaniah uses the litany form, as he did four times in chapter 1. See the discussion of the litany form in the introduction to chapter 1, and see how you formatted the litanies in that chapter. You may wish to present the general statement in verse 1 without any indentation and then put each sentence of verse 2 on a separate line. The format might look something like this:

> Gather yourselves together! Yes, gather, O nation not desired, > before the bringing forth of the decree, > before the day passes like chaff, > before the burning of the nose of Yahweh does not come upon you, > before the day of the nose of Yahweh does not come upon you.