Category:Zephaniah

See The Book of Zephaniah

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---excerpt from the Illustrated Bible Dictionary

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 Judah (641-610 B.C.), and was contemporary with Jeremiah, with whom he had much in common. The book of his prophecies consists of: (a) An introduction (Zephaniah 1:1), announcing the judgment of the world, and the judgment upon Israel, because of their transgressions. (b) The description of the judgment (Zephaniah 1:7). (c) An exhortation to seek God while there is still time (Zephaniah 2:1). (d) The announcement of judgment on the heathen (Zephaniah 2:4). (e) The hopeless misery of Jerusalem (Zephaniah 3:1). (f) The promise of salvation (Zephaniah 3:8). (2.) The son of Maaseiah, the "second priest" in the reign of Zedekiah, often mentioned in Jeremiah as having been sent from the king to inquire (Jeremiah 21:1) regarding the coming woes which he had denounced, and to entreat the prophet's intercession that the judgment threatened might be averted (Jeremiah 29:25, Jeremiah 29:26, Jeremiah 29:29; Jeremiah 37:3; Jeremiah 52:24). He, along with some other captive Jews, was put to death by the king of Babylon "at Riblah in the land of Hamath" (2 Kings 25:21). (3.) A Kohathite ancestor of the prophet Samuel (1 Chronicles 6:36). (4.) The father of Josiah, the priest who dwelt in Jerusalem when Darius issued the decree that the temple should be rebuilt (Zechariah 6:10).