Zephaniah 3:1

Zephaniah 3:1 in other versions

• King James Version (KJV)Woe to her that is filthy and polluted, to the oppressing city!
• New International Version (NIV)Woe to the city of oppressors, rebellious and defiled!
• English Standard Version (ESV)Woe to her who is rebellious and defiled, the oppressing city!
• New King James Version (NKJV)Woe to her who is rebellious and polluted, To the oppressing city!

Context of Zephaniah 3:1

It will be very bad for the city! It is like something that is dirty. Its people will not obey me. They like to fight weak people. They also like to do bad things. 2They do not listen to anyone's voice. Nobody can warn them that they are doing wrong things. They do not trust in the Lord. They do not come near to their God. 3The rulers of the city make a very loud noise with their voices like big wild animals. Its judges are like hungry wolves. They are like wolves that have even eaten all an animal's bones before morning.

Zephaniah 3:1 word by word

ה֥וֹי מֹרְאָ֖ה וְנִגְאָלָ֑ה הָעִ֖יר הַיּוֹנָֽה׃Read the interlinear

Words taken from the KJV.

• Woeהוֹיhôy · woe!H1945
• to her that is filthyמָרָאmârâ' · to flapH4754
• and pollutedגָּאַלgâ'al · to defileH1351
• to the oppressingיָנָהyânâh · to oppressH3238
• cityעִיר‛îyr ‛âr ‛âyar · cityH5892

Cross-references for Zephaniah 3:1

• Leviticus 1:16Then the priest will remove the part of the bird where the food is stored. He will throw it on the east side of the altar, with the ashes.
• Isaiah 5:7Israel's nation is like the vineyard of the Lord Almighty. Judah's people are his beautiful garden. But when the Lord looked there for justice, he found only murder! When he looked for people who were righteous, he saw that they were cruel.
• Isaiah 30:12Because of that, this is what the Holy God of Israel says: ‘You have not accepted my message. Instead, you like to be cruel and to deceive people. You believe that it will help you.
• Isaiah 59:13We have turned against the Lord. We have refused to obey him. We have chosen to be cruel to other people, and we have turned against the truth. We think about the lies that we can tell, and we use them to deceive people.
• Jeremiah 6:6This will happen because Lord Almighty has said, ‘Cut down the trees around Jerusalem. Use them to build towers to the top of the city's walls. I must punish Jerusalem. It is full of cruel people.
• Jeremiah 22:17‘But you always want to cheat people, so that you can get more riches for yourself. You make plans to kill people who have not done anything wrong. You hurt people in cruel ways.’
• Ezekiel 22:7The people in the city do not respect their parents. They have been cruel to the foreigners who live among you. They have cheated widows and children who have no family.
• Amos 3:9Tell this message now in Ashdod city. Go to the strong cities in Egypt and speak the message there. Say this: ‘Come to the mountains in Samaria. Look at the cruel things that people are doing in Samaria. Many people are afraid.’
• Amos 4:1Listen to this message, you women who live on the hill in Samaria. You are like fat cows that do not work hard for food. You are like the cows in Bashan. They eat on very good land by the Jordan river. You do not give to weak people what they need. You are not fair to poor people. Then you sit down and you say to your husbands, ‘Bring us more to drink.’
• Micah 2:2When they want fields, they take them from other people. When they want houses, they take them. These cruel people take other people's homes and fields; then those people's families have nothing.
• Zechariah 7:10Do not cheat widows or children who have no family. Do not cheat foreigners or poor people. Do not think secretly of ways to hurt each other.”
• Malachi 3:5At that time, I will come among you as your judge. I will speak clearly against those who have done wrong things. I will punish the magicians, the adulterers and those who tell lies against other people. I will punish those people who are cruel to their workers, or they deceive widows or children who have no family. And I will punish those who do not help foreigners who live among them. People who do those things show that they do not respect me.’ That is what the Lord Almighty says.

Commentaries on Zephaniah 3:1

• Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 1Wo to her that is filthy - This is a denunciation of Divine judgment against Jerusalem.Read the comment
• Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 1The “woe,” having gone round the pagan nations, again circles round where it began, the “Jerusalem that killed the prophets and stoned those that were sent unto her” Matthew 23:37. Woe upon her, and joy to the holy Jerusalem, the “new Jerusalem Revelation 3:12; Revelation 21:10, the Jerusalem which is from above, the mother of us all,” close this prophecy; both in figure; destruction of her and the whole earth, in time, the emblem of the eternal death…Read the comment
• Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 1Further reproofs for sin. (1-7) Encouragement to look for mercy. (8-13) Promises of future favour and prosperity. (14-20) Verses 1-7 The holy God hates sin most in those nearest to him. A sinful state is, and will be, a woful state. Yet they had the tokens of God's presence, and all the advantages of knowing his will, with the strongest reasons to do it; still they persisted in disobedience. Alas, that men often are more active in doing wickedness than…Read the comment
• Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 1Polluted Jerusalem (made unclean by sin and wrongdoing) had turned away from its calling to be a holy city (Isaiah 52:1).Read the comment
• Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 1-201. filthy--Maurer translates from a different root, "rebellious," "contumacious." But the following term, "polluted," refers rather to her inward moral filth, in spite of her outward ceremonial purity [Calvin]. Grotius says, the Hebrew is used of women who have prostituted their virtue. There is in the Hebrew Moreah; a play on the name Moriah, the hill on which the temple was built; implying the glaring contrast between their filthiness and the holiness…Read the comment

In the dictionaries

• Pride
• Zephaniah, Book of

Commentaries on Zephaniah 3

• 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
• Darby Translation 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