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

Woe to her who is rebellious and defiled, The oppressive city! 2She obeyed no voice, She accepted no discipline. She did not trust in the Lord, She did not approach her God. 3Her leaders within her are roaring lions, Her judges are wolves at evening; They have no bones to gnaw in the morning.

Zephaniah 3:1 word by word

ה֥וֹי מֹרְאָ֖ה וְנִגְאָלָ֑ה הָעִ֖יר הַיּוֹנָֽה׃Read the interlinear

• Woeהוֹיhôy · woe!H1945
• rebelliousמָרָהmârâh · to rebelH4784
• defiledגָּאַלgâ'al · to defileH1351
• oppressiveיָנָהyânâh · to oppressH3238
• cityעִיר‛îyr ‛âr ‛âyar · cityH5892

Cross-references for Zephaniah 3:1

• Leviticus 1:16He shall also remove its craw with its feathers and throw it beside the altar eastward, to the place of the fatty ashes.
• Isaiah 5:7For the vineyard of the Lord of armies is the house of Israel, And the people of Judah are His delightful plant. So He waited for justice, but behold, there was bloodshed; For righteousness, but behold, a cry for help.
• Isaiah 30:12Therefore this is what the Holy One of Israel says: “Since you have rejected this word And have put your trust in oppression and crookedness, and have relied on them,
• Isaiah 59:13Offending and denying the Lord, And turning away from our God, Speaking oppression and revolt, Conceiving and uttering lying words from the heart.
• Jeremiah 6:6For this is what the Lord of armies says: “Cut down her trees And pile up an assault ramp against Jerusalem. This is the city to be punished, In whose midst there is only oppression.
• Jeremiah 22:17“But your eyes and your heart Are intent only upon your own dishonest gain, And on shedding innocent blood, And on practicing oppression and extortion.”
• Ezekiel 22:7They have treated father and mother with contempt among you. They have oppressed the stranger in your midst; they have oppressed the orphan and the widow among you.
• Amos 3:9Proclaim on the citadels in Ashdod and on the citadels in the land of Egypt and say, “Assemble yourselves on the mountains of Samaria and see the great panic within her and the oppressions in her midst.
• Amos 4:1Hear this word, you cows of Bashan who are on the mountain of Samaria, Who exploit the poor, who oppress the needy, And say to their husbands, “Bring now, that we may drink!”
• Micah 2:2They covet fields, so they seize them; And houses, so they take them. They exploit a man and his house, A person and his inheritance.
• Zechariah 7:10and do not oppress the widow or the orphan, the stranger or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another.’
• Malachi 3:5“Then I will come near to you for judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, those who oppress the wage earner in his wages or the widow or the orphan, and those who turn away the stranger from justice and do not fear Me,” says the Lord of armies.

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