- ZEPHANIAH, Son of Cushi, and Grandson of Gedaliah; he was of the Tribe of Simeon, according to Epiphanius, and of the Mountain of Sarabata, a Place not mentioned in Scripture. The Jews are of opinion,1 that the Ancestors of Zephaniah, recited at the Beginning of his Prophecy, were all Prophets themselves. Some have pretended, without any Foundation for it, that he was of an illustrious Family. We have no exact Knowledge, either of his Actions, or the Time of his Death. He lived under King Josiah, who began to reign in the Year of the World 3363, before Christ 637, before the Vulgar Æra 641. The
3 Description that Zephaniah gives of the Disorders that prevailed in his Time in Judah, gives occasion to judge, that he prophesied before the eighteenth Year of Josiah; that is, before this Prince had reformed the Abuses and Corruptions that prevailed in his Dominions.2 Besides, he foretels the Destruction of Nineveh,3 which could not fall out before the sixteenth Year of Josiah, by allowing, with Berosus, twenty-one Years to the Reign of Nabopolassar over the Chaldeans. Therefore we must necessarily place the Beginning of Zephaniah’s Prophecy at the Beginning of the Reign of Josiah.
The first Chapter of this Prophet is a general Threatning against all the People whom the Lord had appointed to the Slaughter; against Judah, against those that step over the Threshold, by which he means the Philistines. (See 1 Sam. v. 5. Therefore neither the priests of Dagon, nor any that come into Dagon’s house, tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod, unto this day.) Then in the Second Chapter he inveighs against Moab, against Ammon, against Cush, against the Phœnicians and Assyrians. There he foretels the Fall of Nineveh, which happened in the Year of the World 3378. The Third and last Chapter has two Parts: The first contains Invectives and Threatnings against Jerusalem; and the second gives comfortable Assurances of a Return from the Captivity, and of a happy and flourishing Condition.
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