Zephaniah 1:17

Zephaniah 1:17 in other versions

• King James Version (KJV)And I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the Lord: and their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as the dung.
• New International Version (NIV)“I will bring such distress on all people that they will grope about like those who are blind, because they have sinned against the Lord. Their blood will be poured out like dust and their entrails like dung.
• English Standard Version (ESV)I will bring distress on mankind, so that they shall walk like the blind, because they have sinned against the Lord; their blood shall be poured out like dust, and their flesh like dung.
• New King James Version (NKJV)“I will bring distress upon men, And they shall walk like blind men, Because they have sinned against the Lord; Their blood shall be poured out like dust, And their flesh like refuse.”

Context of Zephaniah 1:17

15The Lord will be very angry at that time. It will be a time when there will be trouble. On that day, he will destroy everything bad. It will be very dark. At that time, there will be thick dark clouds. 16At that time, people will make a noise with trumpets. They will shout when they go to fight in a war. In the fight, they will try to destroy the strong walls of cities. And they will try to destroy the strong high parts of the walls. I will cause trouble for people. So they will walk like people who cannot see. This is because they have not obeyed the Lord. Their blood will fall to the ground. Yes, they will fall to the ground and they will die. After that, they will be nothing. 18Their money will not save them, on the day when the Lord is angry. He watches. And he is angry when his people love other gods. So he will send fire on the earth. Yes, he will quickly kill all the people who live in Judah.

Zephaniah 1:17 word by word

וַהֲצֵרֹ֣תִי לָאָדָ֗ם וְהָֽלְכוּ֙ כַּֽעִוְרִ֔ים כִּ֥י לַֽיהוָ֖ה חָטָ֑אוּ וְשֻׁפַּ֤ךְ דָּמָם֙ כֶּֽעָפָ֔ר וּלְחֻמָ֖ם כַּגְּלָלִֽים׃Read the interlinear

Words taken from the KJV.

• And I will bring distressצָרַרtsârar · to constrainH6887
• upon menאָדָם'âdâm · manH120
• that they shall walkהָלַךְhâlak · to go: walkH1980
• like blind menעִוֵּר‛ivvêr · blindH5787
• because they have sinnedחָטָאchâţâ' · to sinH2398
• against the Lordיְהֹוָהyehôvâh · LORDH3068
• and their bloodדָּםdâm · bloodH1818
• shall be poured outשָׁפַךְshâphak · to pour: pourH8210
• as dustעָפָר‛âphâr · dustH6083
• and their fleshלְחוּםlâchûm lâchûm · intestineH3894
• as the dungגֵּלgêlel · dungH1561

Cross-references for Zephaniah 1:17

• Deuteronomy 28:28The Lord will make you crazy and blind. He will confuse your thoughts.
• Psalms 79:3The blood of your servants has poured out all over the streets of Jerusalem. There is nobody left there to bury their bodies.
• Isaiah 29:10It is the Lord who has caused you to be like that. He has caused you to be completely asleep. He has shut the eyes of your prophets and he has covered the heads of your seers.
• Isaiah 59:9Because of that, God's justice is far away from us. He has not come to save us. We look for light to come to us, but everything is dark. We need some light in our lives, but all we have is darkness.
• Lamentations 4:14Those leaders walked in the streets like men who cannot see. There was blood on their clothes and everybody was afraid to touch them.
• Matthew 15:14Do not listen to what the Pharisees say. They are blind, but they try to show people which way to go. A blind person cannot lead another blind person. If he does, then both of them will fall into a deep hole.’
• John 9:40Some of the Pharisees who were there with him heard this. They asked Jesus, ‘Do you mean that we are also blind?’
• Romans 11:7So we can say this: Israel's people did not all find what they were looking for. Only those people that God had chosen received it. But the other people of Israel became unable to understand God's message.
• 2 Corinthians 4:4Those people do not accept God's good news. The god of this world has confused their minds. They cannot see the light that the good news brings. That message teaches about the great power of Christ, who shows us exactly what God is like.
• 2 Peter 1:9But some people do not live in these good ways. They do not think that these things are important. They are like blind people. They cannot really see anything properly. They have forgotten that God has made them clean from all the sins that they did in past times.
• 1 John 2:11But if someone hates other believers, he is still living in a bad way. He is like someone who is walking in the dark. He cannot see where he is going. He is like a blind person. He cannot understand God's true message.
• Revelation 3:17You say, ‘I am rich. God has helped me to have many things. I do not need anything more.’ But you do not know how very poor you are really! You are like people who cannot see. You are like people who are without clothes. Really, other people should feel very sorry for you.
• Isaiah 24:5The people who live on the earth have caused it to become unclean. They have not obeyed God's laws. They have turned against his teaching. They have not obeyed the covenant that God made with them for ever.
• Isaiah 50:1This is what the Lord says to his people: ‘Did I send your mother away, like a man sends away his wife? Where is the paper to say why I have sent her away? Did I sell you to pay people that I was in debt to? Where is the paper that shows the reason for my debt? Listen! I sold you because of your sins. I sent your mother away because you have not obeyed me.
• Isaiah 59:12Lord, you see all the bad things that we have done. Our many sins show that we are wrong. We know about the wrong things that we have done. We agree that our sins are many.
• Jeremiah 2:17You Israelites have caused this to happen. The Lord your God was leading you on the right way. But you decided not to follow him any longer.

Commentaries on Zephaniah 1:17

• Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 17They shall walk like blind men - Be in the most perplexing doubt and uncertainty; and while in this state, have their blood poured out by the sword of their enemies, and their flesh trodden under foot.Read the comment
• Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 17I will bring distress upon men - I will hem them in, in anguish on all sides. God Himself shall meet them with His terrors, wherever they turn. “I will hem them in, that they may find it so”. That they shall walk like blind men - Utterly bereft of counsel, seeing no more than the blind which way to turn, grasping blindly and franticly at anything, and going on headlong to their own destruction. So God forewarned them in the law; “Thou shalt grope at noon…Read the comment
• Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 14-18Verses 14-18 This warning of approaching destruction, is enough to make the sinners in Zion tremble; it refers to the great day of the Lord, the day in which he will show himself by taking vengeance on them. This day of the Lord is very near; it is a day of God's wrath, wrath to the utmost. It will be a day of trouble and distress to sinners. Let them not be laid asleep by the patience of God. What is a man profited if he gain the whole world, and lose…Read the comment
• Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 17walk like the blind: This is an example of God's justice (see also Romans 1:21–32). God’s people were blind in their moral choices and in their relationship with him. They could not see what was right or wrong (see Exodus 23:8; Romans 2:19; 1 John 2:11). Because they sinned against the Lord and disobeyed his commands, they received the punishments promised in God’s covenant (Deuteronomy 28:28–29).Read the comment
• Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 1717. like blind men--unable to see whither to turn themselves so as to find an escape from existing evils. flesh--Hebrew, "bread"; so the Arabic term for "bread" is used for "flesh" (Mt 26:26).Read the comment

Topics related to Zephaniah 1:17

• War
• Wicked (People)

In the dictionaries

• Crashing
• Wasteness
• Molech; Moloch
• Zephaniah, Book of

Commentaries on Zephaniah 1

• Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
• Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
• Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
• Tyndale Open Study Notes
• Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
• Rashi on Tanakh
• Calvin’s Commentaries
• Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
• John Wesley’s Notes
• Geneva Bible Translation Notes
• Kingcomments
• Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
• Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
• Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
• Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
• EGW Writings