Judgment upon all nations, especially upon Judah:1. The word of the Lord came to the prophet2. The whole world to be punished for ignoring the moral law of the universe.3. The judgement will fall especially upon Jerusalem and Judah4. The judgment is described5. The day of judgment is near and its devastation will be greatB. A plea for repentance:1. All the people of earth are to consider their ways2. Punishment on many nations, beginning with the Philistines3. Moab and Ammon also to be punished4. Jehovah will demonstrate once again his power over idols5. Ethiopians and Assyrians to be destroyed6. If God punishes heathens for their immorality, his covenant people will surely not escape7. God's righteous judgments on heathen nations should cause Judah to reconsider and repentC. Promise of future blessings for Israel and the whole world1. Israel to be restored2. Israel to be purified3. Israel to be comforted and blessed Zephaniah the prophet, the opening verse of the book Zephaniah is given a genealogy stretching back four generations. Starting with the son of Cushi. Cushi could be a personal name, but also means Ethiopian . This raises the question as to whether an editor thought that someone who may have come from foreign, perhaps immigrant stock needed a longer pedigree to justify his true Jewishness. Zephaniah is also the great-grandson of Hezekiah; giving rise to speculation as to whether this was King Hezekiah. So Zephaniah and Josiah, king of Judah could have been contemporaries. Zephaniah prophesized during the time of Josiah, sometime between 640-609 B.C.E.. Zephaniah has received minimal critical attention. Even those who write about Zephaniah have little regard for its uniqueness. Note the words of Frank Eakin, who says 'Thus we recognize that there was little that was new in the message of Zephaniah. Primarily he built upon the prophetic mentality developed before his time' . Zephaniah opens his prophecy with...
