none shall make them afraid. 14. Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel; be glad, and rejoice with all thy heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. 15. The Lord hath taken away thy judgments; he hath cast out thine enemy: the king of Israel, the Lord, is in the midst of thee: thou shalt not see evil any more. 16. In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear thou not; and to Zion, Let not thine hands be slack. 17. The Lord thy God in the - midst of thee is mighty: he will save; he will rejoice over thee with joy: he will rest in his love; he will joy over thee with singing

19. Behold, at that time, I will undo all that afflict thee and I will save her that halteth, and gather her that was driven out: and I will get them praise and fame in every land where they have been put to shame. 20. At that time, I will bring you again, even in the time that I gather you: for I will make you a name and a praise among all people of the earth; when I turn back your captivity before your eyes, saith the Lord.

COMMENTARY.

I wish not to deny, that Zephaniah may be considered as here predicting the Babylonian captivity of Judah, the sacking of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, and the destruction of the literal Nineveh, together with some of the conquests of Nebuchad

nezzar.

nezzar *. But I think, that the whole context of the prophecy decidedly forbids us to limit it to those events; compels us to believe, that in them it received only an inchoate accomplishment; and directs us to look for its ultimate completion to the last dispersion of Judah, to the sacking of Jerusalem by the Romans, and to the yet future day in which Antichrist will be overthrown and the converted of Judah restored by the instrumentality

some great maritime nation. In fact, the prophecy contains many matters which must be exclusively thus referred: and yet those matters are so interwoven into the very body of the prediction, that they cannot with any propriety be considered in an insulated state. As the inchoate accomplishment of the prophecy comes not within the limits of my plan, I shall confine myself to what I believe will be its ultimate accomplishment; premising, that Mr. Lowth thinks like myself, that many parts of it are to be referred to the last ages for their full completion †.

The prophet begins with foretelling the captivity of the Jews, primarily alluding to the Babylonian captivity, but ultimately directing our attention to that into which they were led by the

* See Bp. Newton's Dissert. IX-Mr. Lowth in loc.—and Dr. Gray's Key, p. 482-485.

+ See the preceding notes on the prophecy itself extracted from Mr. Lowth's commentary.

6

Romans

Romans. He introduces the Lord solemnly declaring, that he will utterly consume all things from off the land, both man and beast, both fish and fowl; and repeating, as if particularly to engage our notice, that he will cut off man from off the land. The whole of this threat plainly denotes, that there should be, what another prophet styles, a great forsaking in the midst of the land of Judea t. After this general denunciation, the Lord proceeds to particulars. He divides the men of Judah and Jerusalem into two classes; and, inasmuch as they have both grievously sinned though in very different manners, he threatens that he will stretch out his hand upon them all. They who worship Baal and the host of heaven, turning back from the Lord or apostatizing from him, and not seeking and inquiring for him; and they, who worship and swear by the Lord, even swear by their king: all these shall alike experience the divine vengeance. Hence it is plain, since the worshippers of Jehovah are thus involved in one common fate with the worshippers of Baal, and since God himself equally represents the punishment of both as being a judicial infliction, that these worshippers of Jehovah could not have wor→ shipped him in spirit and in truth; but that their

* These words, as well as the whole passage, shew, that a dispersion of Judah is here predicted. I cannot, with Dr. Gray, limit the prophecy to the mere extirpation of idolatry by Josiah. ↑ Isaiah vi. 12.

worship,

worship, although untainted with idolatry, was ne vertheless an abomination unto him.

This double description exactly accords with the state of the Jews in the time of our Lord's first advent. Part of them were idolaters; and part of them, while they abhorred idolatry, and worshipped the true God, yet made void the law by their traditions, and rejected the promised Messiah. The existence of this second class requires no proof; and, as for the first," it is "said indeed, that, after the return from Ba-, "bylon, the Jews scrupulously avoided idolatry, " and have continued untainted with it to this day. But, generally as this is asserted by all commen

tators, one after another, it is not true. Among "the restored Jews there was indeed no public "idolatry, patronised by the government, as there "had been in times before the captivity, particu

larly in the reign of Ahaz. But, from the time "of Antiochus Epiphanes to the last moments of the "Jewish polity, there was a numerous and power"ful faction, which in every thing. affected the "Greek manners; and this Hellenising party were "idolaters to a man * >> Both these classes are equally threatened by the Lord, and were equally carried away captive, when his righteous judgment cut off man, that is the whole multitude of the people, from off the land.

* From this description of the state of the Jews at the era of their dispersion by the Romans, Zephaniah proceeds to foretell the sacking of Jerusalem by Titus. And first he announces, that he is about to treat of the great sacrifice, and the great day, of the Lord. In the prophetic language, a sacrifice is very frequently used to typify a great slaughter; and by the day of the Lord we are generally to understand the day either of the first or secónd advent. Here the day of the first advent is intended, which is considered as including within itself the destruction of Jerusalem and the overthrow of the Jewish polity by the Romans*. Zephaniah declares, that at that time there shall be a cry from the fish-gate, and a great crashing from the hills, and a howling from that part of Jerusalem which was called Mishnah or the second city: that those, who dwelt in the valley or deep glen which divides the upper city from the lower city shall howl, inasmuch as the metaphorical Canaanites or the idolatrous Hellenists are cut offt: that the Lord will search Jerusalem

* See Matt. xxiv. 15-28. I have already observed, that, when the prophecy is considered as primarily relating to the Babylonian captivity, this siege of Jerusalem must mean its siege by the Chaldeans.

"The original reads the people of Canaan, which word sig"nifies a merchant (Hos. xii. 7.); but the Chaldee understands "it of those who resemble the Canaanites in their idolatries "and corrupt manners: so Judah's mother is called an Hittite, " and