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[[Image:Zephaniah manuscript.jpg|right|thumb|300px|A 14th century manuscript showing the beginning of the Book of Zepheniah.]]
[[Image:Zephaniah manuscript.jpg|right|thumb|300px|A 14th century manuscript showing the beginning of the Book of Zepheniah.]]
The '''Book of Zephaniah''' is a book in the [[Old Testament]], and the ninth of the [[Minor Prophets]]. It has been clled "the compendium of all prophecy", containing as it does many elements found in other prophets' work,<ref>Pawson, J. David ''Unlocking The Bible'' p.544 (London, Collins; 2003) ISBN 978 0 00 716666 4</ref> such as [[Isaiah]], [[Amos]], [[Joel]] and [[Micah]]. This parallelism has been called the thread of "Godly harmony", visible "in the prophecies of such different men who have lived at totally different times but who always presented the one goal of God: the glory of the [[Messiah]] and His earthly people in the [[Millennium]], as well as the events leading up to it."<ref>Remmers, Arend ''Zephaniah and the Other Prophets'' [http://www.biblecentre.org/commentaries/ar_40_ot_zephaniah.htm Zephaniah] (2006) biblecenter.org. Retrieved 29 July 2008.</ref> The book is concerned with [[judgement]], and stands as "a powerful reminder for [[Christians]] that they also should expect God's discipline."<ref>Pawson, p.553</ref> Zephaniah warns against foreign religious practices, [[idolatry]], and those who doubt the threat of the Lord's wrath. The Day of Judgement is the key concept, with the possibility for deliverance if the people repent. The judgment will leave a "humble remnant that will seek its refuge in the Lord."<ref>Eaton, J. H. ''Obadiah, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah'' (London: SCM Press; 1961)</ref><ref>Soggin, J. A. ''Introduction to the Old Testament'' (rev ed; London; 1980)</ref>
The '''Book of Zephaniah''' is a book in the [[Old Testament]], and the ninth of the [[Minor Prophets]]. It has been called "the compendium of all prophecy", containing as it does many elements found in other prophets' work,<ref>Pawson, J. David ''Unlocking The Bible'' p.544 (London, Collins; 2003) ISBN 978 0 00 716666 4</ref> such as [[Isaiah]], [[Amos]], [[Joel]] and [[Micah]]. This parallelism has been called the thread of "Godly harmony", visible "in the prophecies of such different men who have lived at totally different times but who always presented the one goal of God: the glory of the [[Messiah]] and His earthly people in the [[Millennium]], as well as the events leading up to it."<ref>Remmers, Arend ''Zephaniah and the Other Prophets'' [http://www.biblecentre.org/commentaries/ar_40_ot_zephaniah.htm Zephaniah] (2006) biblecenter.org. Retrieved 29 July 2008.</ref> The book is concerned with [[judgement]], and stands as "a powerful reminder for [[Christians]] that they also should expect God's discipline."<ref>Pawson, p.553</ref> Zephaniah warns against foreign religious practices, [[idolatry]], and those who doubt the threat of the Lord's wrath. The Day of Judgement is the key concept, with the possibility for deliverance if the people repent. The judgment will leave a "humble remnant that will seek its refuge in the Lord."<ref>Eaton, J. H. ''Obadiah, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah'' (London: SCM Press; 1961)</ref><ref>Soggin, J. A. ''Introduction to the Old Testament'' (rev ed; London; 1980)</ref>
The book also closely parallels the [[Book of Revelation]]. Both have the same basic structure:
The book also closely parallels the [[Book of Revelation]]. Both have the same basic structure:
An otherwise obscure prophet from the distant past is thus revealed as being central to Christian understanding of the future. This is an important example of progressive revelation in the [[Bible]], and how the concepts in the [[New Testament]] reflect and fulfill the prophecies of the Old Testament: "Surely the Lord God does nothing unless He reveals His secret counsel to His servants the prophets" ([http://www.carm.org/kjv/Amos/Amos_3.htm#7%A0 Amos 3:7]).
An otherwise obscure prophet from the distant past is thus revealed as being central to Christian understanding of the future. This is an important example of progressive revelation in the [[Bible]], and how the concepts in the [[New Testament]] reflect and fulfill the prophecies of the Old Testament: "Surely the Lord God does nothing unless He reveals His secret counsel to His servants the prophets" ([http://www.carm.org/kjv/Amos/Amos_3.htm#7%A0 Amos 3:7]).
==Language==
The book was written entirely in [[Hebrew]]. Stylistically, it has been described as "a forceful book. Its language is vigorous... and betrays an acquaintance with the Earlier Prophets."<ref>Hirsch, Emil G., Price, Ira Maurice ''Zephaniah'' (1901) The [[Jewish Encyclopedia]].</ref> Faulhaber, in ''The Catholic Encyclopedia'', observed: "it is confined to the range of thought common to all prophectic exhortations: threats of judgment, exhortation to [[penance]], promise of Messianic [[salvation]]. For this reason Sophonias might be regarded as the [archetype] of Hebrew Prophets and as the final example of the prophetic terminology. He does not seek the glory of an original writer, but borrows freely both ideas and style from the older Prophets... The language of [Zephaniah] is vigorous and earnest, as become the seriousness of the period, but is free from the gloomy elegiac tone of [[Jeremiah]]. In some passages it becomes pathetic and poetic, without however attaining the classical diction or poetical flight of a [[Nahum (Biblical book)|Nahum]] or Deutero-Isaiah. There is something solemn in the manner in which the Lord is so frequently introduced as the speaker, and the sentence of judgment falls on the silent earth. Apart from the few plays on words [he] eschews all rhetorical and poetical ornamentation of language.<ref>Faulhaber, Michael. [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14146a.htm "Sophonias (Zephaniah)"] The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 14. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. Retrieved 29 July 2008.</ref>.
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==Provenance==
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