Adam Clarke's
Bible Commentary in 8 Volumes
Volume
4
The Book of the Prophet Zephaniah
Chapter
1
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Chronological Notes relative to this Book, upon the supposition that it was written in the twelfth year of the reign of Josiah, king of Judah Year from the Creation, according to Archbishop Usher, 3374. Year of the Julian Period, 4084. Year since the Flood, 1718. Year from the vocation of Abram, 1291. Year from the foundation of Solomons temple, 382. Year since the division of Solomons monarchy into the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, 346. Year since the conquest of Coroebus at Olympia, usually called the first Olympiad, 147. Third year of the thirty-seventh Olympiad. Year from the building of Rome, according to the Varronian computation, 124. Year of the era of Nabonassar, 118. Year since the destruction of the kingdom of Israel by Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, 92. Year before the birth of Christ, 626. Year before the vulgar era of Christs nativity, 630. Cycle of the Sun, 24. Cycle of the Moon, 18. Eighteenth year of Phraortes, king of Media. This monarch is supposed by some to have been the same with the Arphaxad of the Apocrypha. Eleventh year of Philip I., king of Macedon.
Twenty-second year of Archidamus, king of Lacedaemon, of the
family
of the Proclidae.
Fifteenth year of Eurycrates II., king of Lacedaemon, of the
family of
the Eurysthenidae.
Twenty-ninth year of Cypselus, who had seized upon the
government
of Corinth.
Forty-second year of Psammitichus, king of Egypt, according to
Helvicus.
Tenth year of Kiniladachus, king of Babylon, according to the
same
chronologer. This monarch was the immediate predecessor of
Nabopolassar, the father of Nebuchadnezzar.
Second year of Sadyattes, king of Lydia.
Eleventh year of Ancus Martius, the fifth king of the Romans.
Twelfth year of Josiah, king of Judah.
Notes on Chapter 1
Verse 1. The word of the
Lord which came unto Zephaniah
Though
this prophet has given us so large a list of his ancestors, yet
little
concerning him is known, because we know nothing certain
relative to the
persons of the family whose names are here introduced. We have
one
chronological note which is of more value for the correct
understanding of
his prophecy than the other could have been, how
circumstantially soever
it had been delivered; viz., that he prophesied in the days of
Josiah, son of
Amon, king of Judah; and from the description which he gives of
the
disorders which prevailed in Judea in his time, it is evident
that he must
have prophesied before the reformation made by Josiah, which was
in the
eighteenth year of his reign. And as he predicts the destruction
of Nineveh,
chap. 2:13, which, as Calmet remarks, could not have taken place
before
the sixteenth of Josiah, allowing with Berosus twenty-one years
for the
reign of Nabopolassar over the Chaldeans; we must, therefore,
place this
prophecy about the beginning of the reign of Josiah, or from
B.C. 640 to
B.C. 609. But see the chronological notes.
Even the waters shall he infected, and the fish destroyed; the
air become
contaminated, and the fowls die.
The Chemarims The black-robed priests of different
idols. See the note
on 2 Kings 23:6. These were put down by Josiah.
That swear by the Lord, and that swear by Malcham
Associating the
name of an idol with that of the Most High. For Malcham, see on
Hosea
4:15, and Amos 5:26.
Nor inquired for him Have not desired to know his will.
The Lord hath prepared a sacrifice A slaughter of the
people.
He hath bid his guests The Babylonians, to whom he has
given a
commission to destroy you. In all festivals sacrifices, 1. The
victims were
offered to God, and their blood poured out before the altar. 2.
The people
who were invited feasted upon the sacrifice. See on Isaiah 34:6.
Strange apparel I really think this refers more to
their embracing
idolatrous customs and heathen usages, than to their changing
their dress.
They acquired new habits, as we would say; customs, that they
used as
they did their clothing-at all times, and in every thing.
The second Or second city, may here mean a part of
Jerusalem,
mentioned 2 Kings 22:14; 2 Chronicles 34:22.
Newcome translates it, the lower city, and considers it the
valley in
Jerusalem, which divided the upper from the lower city.
They that bear silver The merchants, moneychangers,
usurers, rich men.
That are settled on their lees Those who are careless,
satisfied with the
goods of this life; who trust in their riches, and are
completely irreligious;
who, while they acknowledge that there is a God, think, like the
Aristotelians, that he is so supremely happy in the
contemplation of his
own excellences, that he feels it beneath his dignity to concern
himself
with the affairs of mortals.
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