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!
• New King James Version (NKJV)Woe to her who is rebellious and polluted, To the oppressing city!
• New Living Translation (NLT)What sorrow awaits rebellious, polluted Jerusalem, the city of violence and crime!

Context of Zephaniah 3:1

Woe to her who is rebellious and defiled, the oppressing city! 2She listens to no voice; she accepts no correction. She does not trust in the Lord; she does not draw near to her God. 3Her officials within her are roaring lions; her judges are evening wolves that leave nothing till the 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 1:16He shall remove its crop with its contents and cast it beside the altar on the east side, in the place for ashes.
• Isaiah 5:7For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting; and he looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, an outcry!
• Isaiah 30:12Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel, "Because you despise this word and trust in oppression and perverseness and rely on them,
• Isaiah 59:13transgressing, and denying the Lord, and turning back from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart lying words.
• Jeremiah 6:6For thus says the Lord of hosts: "Cut down her trees; cast up a siege mound against Jerusalem. This is the city that must be punished; there is nothing but oppression within her.
• Jeremiah 22:17But you have eyes and heart only for your dishonest gain, for shedding innocent blood, and for practicing oppression and violence."
• Ezekiel 22:7Father and mother are treated with contempt in you; the sojourner suffers extortion in your midst; the fatherless and the widow are wronged in you.
• Amos 3:9Proclaim to the strongholds in Ashdod and to the strongholds in the land of Egypt, and say, "Assemble yourselves on the mountains of Samaria, and see the great tumults within her, and the oppressed in her midst."
• Amos 4:1"Hear this word, you cows of Bashan, who are on the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to your husbands, 'Bring, that we may drink!'
• Micah 2:2They covet fields and seize them, and houses, and take them away; they oppress a man and his house, a man and his inheritance.
• Zechariah 7:10do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor, and let none of you devise evil against another in your heart."
• Malachi 3:5"Then I will draw near to you for judgment. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts.

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