40 Fun Facts About Book of Zephaniah

Zephaniah 2:9 swears that a nation which taunted Judah will become like which city, a place of weeds and salt pits?

Sodom was the city Lot escaped, and in Genesis the two nations cursed in this oath descend from Lot's own daughters.

Zephaniah 2:13 foretells that which great city will become a desolation, as dry as a desert?

Nineveh was the largest city in the world until it was sacked in 612 BC; the book has it boasting that there was none besides it.

Zephaniah 3:17, which calls God mighty to save, pictures him rejoicing over his people with gladness and with what?

Singing closes a verse that also promises God will quiet his people with his love.

Which empire besieged and destroyed Jerusalem a few decades after Zephaniah warned the city of coming judgment?

Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar II took Jerusalem after a long siege, then razed the city and Solomon's Temple.

Zephaniah 1:1 dates the prophet's message to the reign of which reforming king of Judah, the son of Amon?

Josiah became king at age eight and later reformed Judah's worship after a book of the law was discovered in the Temple.

Which medieval Latin hymn, best known from the Requiem Mass, takes its title and opening words from Zephaniah 1:15?

Dies irae means the Day of Wrath, the Latin Bible's wording of the verse, and Mozart and Verdi both set the hymn in their Requiems.

Zephaniah 1:18 names which pair of things as powerless to deliver anyone on the day of the LORD's anger?

Silver and gold fail because the verse foresees a sudden end for all who dwell on the earth.

Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod and Ekron, all doomed in Zephaniah 2:4, were cities of which coastal people?

The Philistines held five chief cities, and the fifth, Gath, is the one this list leaves out.

Zephaniah 1:4 vows to cut off from Jerusalem every last trace of which god of rain and fertility?

Baal worship is condemned alongside people who bow to the stars and those who have turned back from following the LORD.

Which Old Testament figure, known to scholars as the weeping prophet, was a contemporary of Zephaniah?

Jeremiah had much in common with Zephaniah; the hardships described in his own book and in Lamentations earned him the nickname.

In Zephaniah 1:12, God says he will search Jerusalem with what, to punish people settled in complacency?

Lamps leave no dark corner for those who tell themselves the LORD will do nothing, either good or bad.

Which hill's name completes the title Zephaniah 3:14 gives to rejoicing Jerusalem: Daughter of what?

Zion is called to rejoice because the LORD has taken away her punishment and turned back her enemy.

Zephaniah 3:4 accuses which leaders of Jerusalem of profaning the sanctuary and doing violence to the law?

Priests are charged in the same breath as the city's prophets, who are called reckless and faithless men.

Zephaniah 3:3 likens Jerusalem's judges to which evening hunters that leave nothing for the morning?

Wolves are paired with roaring lions, the verse's image for the princes of the same city.

Hebrew fragments of Zephaniah dating from the second century BC were found among which famous collection of manuscripts?

The Dead Sea Scrolls include a Zephaniah fragment dated 150–125 BC, about a thousand years older than the oldest Hebrew codex of the book.

Zephaniah 1:13 warns the wealthy they will build houses they never live in and plant what in vain?

Vineyards are planted, but the owners never drink the wine, and their wealth is plundered.

Which word does Zephaniah 3:13 use for the humble people of Israel who will do no wrong and tell no lies?

The remnant are promised they will feed and lie down with no one to make them tremble.

Zephaniah 1:7 demands what response in the presence of the Lord GOD, because the day of the LORD is near?

Silence is the hush before a solemn rite: the verse goes on to say that God has consecrated his guests.

Which short prophetic book comes immediately before Zephaniah in both the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament?

Habakkuk and Zephaniah are both set in the later Assyrian period, and the order of these short books is roughly chronological.

Which book of prophecy, set in the Persian period, follows directly after Zephaniah in the Old Testament?

Haggai begins the last group of these short prophetic books, the three that are set in the Persian period.

Zephaniah's opening verse traces his family back four generations to a man sharing which famous king's name?

Hezekiah is the last name in the list, and the medieval commentator Ibn Ezra took him to be the king, though the verse never says so.

Zephaniah 1:5 condemns people who bow down to the host of heaven from which part of their homes?

Rooftops were where the stars were worshipped; the same verse condemns swearing by the LORD and also by Milcom, a name some Bibles give as Molech.

Zephaniah 1:7 pictures the day of the LORD as which kind of occasion, prepared by God with consecrated guests?

A sacrifice is the image, and the next verse names who is punished on that day: the princes and the king's sons.

Zephaniah 1:8 says the princes and the king's sons will be punished along with all who wear what?

Foreign clothes were a fashion of the aristocracy, and the prophet is read as urging a return to the simplicity of earlier generations.

Zephaniah 1:18 warns that the whole earth will be consumed by the fire of God's what?

Jealousy comes back in 3:8, where the line about all the earth being consumed by fire is repeated almost word for word.

Zephaniah 2:8 hears the insults of the Ammonites and the reproach of which neighbouring nation?

Moab and its neighbour had taunted God's people and threatened their borders; the oath that follows gives their land to Judah's survivors.

Zephaniah 2:13 says God will turn against which point of the compass to destroy Assyria?

North comes last: the oracle has already dealt with the seacoast, two taunting neighbours and the peoples of the upper Nile.

Zephaniah 3:16 tells Jerusalem not to fear and not to let which part of the body fall limp?

Hands are to stay strong because, the next verse says, the LORD your God is among you and mighty to save.

Zephaniah 3:19 promises that God will gather the scattered and save which other group of the afflicted?

The lame are promised fame in every land where they were once disgraced.

Zephaniah's final verse promises the gathered people fame and what else among all the peoples of the earth?

Praise ends the book on hope, and its closing promise to gather the exiles home has a place in Jewish liturgy.

Zephaniah 2:2 urges a shameful nation to gather before the decree takes effect and the day passes like what?

Chaff sets up the plea that follows: seek the LORD, seek righteousness, seek humility.

Which church father from Stridon interpreted the name Zephaniah to mean the watchman of the Lord?

Jerome is best known for translating the Bible into Latin, the version that became known as the Vulgate.

Which phrase does Zephaniah 1:2–3 repeat three times for what God will do to people, beasts and birds?

Sweep away is said three times, and the creatures are listed in the reverse of the order in which Genesis has them created.

Zephaniah 1:1 lists four generations of the prophet's ancestors, beginning with which man, his father?

Cushi can mean Cushite or Ethiopian, which led some readers to give the prophet African roots; others read it as a plain personal name.

Under which Latinized form of his name does Zephaniah appear in Bibles translated from the Vulgate?

Sophonias follows the Greek spelling of the name rather than the Hebrew, which sounds closer to Sefanya.

Zephaniah 1:10 hears a cry go up from which entrance to Jerusalem, with wailing from the Second District?

The Fish Gate cry is joined by a loud crashing from the hills, and then the city's merchants fall quiet.

Zephaniah 1:9 condemns all who leap over what, a custom 1 Samuel links to Dagon's temple?

The threshold of Dagon's temple in Ashdod was never stepped on after the fallen idol was found lying broken across it.

Zephaniah's opening threat against everything on the face of the earth echoes the wording of which Genesis story?

Noah's flood is recalled by the phrase from the face of the earth, which frames the threat and comes straight from that story.

The Hebrew name Zephaniah is usually interpreted to mean that Yahweh has done what for its bearer?

Hidden, in the sense of protected, suits a book that urges the humble to seek shelter on the day of the LORD's anger.

Zephaniah may have been born under which king of Judah, whose 55-year reign was the kingdom's longest?

Manasseh came to the throne at the age of twelve and was buried in the garden of his own house rather than among his ancestors.