Tree of Life Version
Zephaniah 3:1
1Oy to the oppressive city— filthy and defiled!
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
Oy to the oppressive city— filthy and defiled! 2She did not obey; she took no correction. She did not trust in Adonai. She did not draw near to her God. 3Her princes within her are roaring lions. Her judges are wolves of the night, leaving nothing but bones for morning.
Read all of Zephaniah 3Zephaniah 3:1 word by word
ה֥וֹי מֹרְאָ֖ה וְנִגְאָלָ֑ה הָעִ֖יר הַיּוֹנָֽה׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Zephaniah 3:1
- Leviticus 1:16Also he is to cut out its digestive tract with its filth, and cast it beside the altar on the east side, into the place of the fat ashes.
- Isaiah 5:7For the vineyard of Adonai-Tzva’ot is the house of Israel, and the people of Judah the planting of His delight. He looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed, for righteousness, but behold, a cry!
- Isaiah 30:12Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel: “Because you despise this word, and trust in oppression and rely on perversity,
- Isaiah 59:13transgressing and denying Adonai, turning back from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering lying words from the heart.
- Jeremiah 6:6For thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot: “Chop down her trees! Raise a siege ramp at Jerusalem. This city must be punished— in her midst is only oppression.
- Jeremiah 22:17“But your eyes and your heart are only on your unjust gain, and on shedding innocent blood, and committing extortion and fraud.”
- Ezekiel 22:7Father and mother have been treated with contempt; the outsider has been oppressed in your midst; the orphan and the widow have been mistreated in you.
- Amos 3:9Proclaim on the citadels in Ashdod and the citadels in the land of Egypt: “Assemble on Samaria’s mountains: Behold the great tumult within it, even the oppression within it.”
- Amos 4:1Hear this word, you cows of Bashan, who are on Samaria’s hill, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to their masters: “Bring, so we may drink.”
- Micah 2:2They covet fields, so they seize them, or houses, and take them away. So they oppress a man and his house— a man and his inheritance.
- Zechariah 7:10Do not oppress the widow or the orphan, the outsider or the poor. Furthermore, do not let any of you devise evil against one another in your heart.’
- Malachi 3:5“Then I will draw near to you in judgment, and I will be a swift witness against sorcerers, adulterers, perjurers those who extort a worker’s wage, or oppress the widow or an orphan, those who mislead a stranger. They do not fear Me,” says Adonai-Tzva’ot.
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
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
Tree of Life Version — © 2015 The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society
Commentaries