Section III. A Word to the Faithful
Zephaniah 3:8-13
This is a call for patience until God rises up in execution of judgment upon the nations (8). It is clearly in anticipation of the promise contained in 9-13. For rise up to the prey, the Septuagint translates, “rise up for a witness.” If this is correct, it would mean as a witness against the nations. They shall be assembled for the day of indignation, a picture often repeated in the prophets (Isa. 66:16; Jer. 25:31, 33; Ezekiel 38—39; Joel 3:11-16). It is a proclamation of universal punishment.
The prophet then turns to a brighter word, and sees the conversion of the nations. This is still the day of the Lord but in its positive aspects. In its total picture the day is first one of judgment, which is then followed by blessings, specifically defined in several cases as an outpouring of the Spirit.
The divine activity in bringing this to pass is a bit obscure in the KJV but is clarified in the RSV, which says: “Yea, at that time I will change the speech of the peoples to a pure speech.” Literally, the Hebrew says “lip” (see margin). The natural meaning is caught by “speech” or language (9), since the lip is the organ of speech. Also the Hebrew is “purified” rather than pure. Once more we are reminded that the divine work is brought to pass through divine agency. God's people are to be “made pure.”
The speech is a symbol of the inner condition. Isaiah in the Temple cried, “I am a man of unclean lips” (Isa. 6:5), to which God's response was, “Thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged” (6:7). We have here a promise of a purified heart which issues in a purified language. So the day of the Lord is given its characteristic New Testament focus—the coming of the sanctifying Spirit.
B. A PURIFIED WORSHIP, 3:9b -10
The result of the purified language was a sanctified worship. They shall serve him with one consent (9)—literally, “with one shoulder.” The Septuagint renders it” under one? yoke.” This is understandable in terms of the contemporary colloquialism, “Stand shoulder to shoulder.” It is very close to the prayer of Jesus that His disciples should be one as a result of their sane-tification (John 17:21).
These purified worshippers shall come from the uttermost parts of the earth. Ethiopia (10) is variously understood, but perhaps the most correct view is to consider it as a type of distant nations, the limits of the known world to the south.
Even more uncertain is the remainder of the verse, My suppliants, even the daughter of my dispersed, shall bring mine offering. One interpretation is that the converted nations shall bring back God's dispersed people, the Jews, as an offering to Him. Thus the heathen are giving practical proof of their conversion by surrendering the Israelites whom they hold.1 This is supported by Isa. 66:20.
The safety of the remnant will be secured by the removal of the proud and haughty ones from their midst. In contrast to 5, where “the unjust knoweth no shame” (see comment there), this purified remnant will have no need of shame. Why? Because sin, the source of true shame, has been removed. The people are to be like their Lord, who does no wrong (cf. 5). Unlike the haughty (2) who did not trust in God, the humble shall trust in the name of the Lord (12). “They are set in a transfigured world which lies beyond the devastation of the old order, and they themselves are made so pure and perfect before God that without exaggeration they could be termed new creatures.”2
It has been suggested that Isa. 53:9 was in Zephaniah's mind when he describes the people as not having a deceitful tongue (13). There the Suffering Servant is described: “Neither was any deceit [guile] found in his mouth.” This passage is clearly Messianic and, like Isaiah, Zephaniah wishes to compare the people with the Messiah.