Zephaniah (Heb. Cephanyah—i.e. 'whom Jehovah hides' or 'protects'), a Hebrew prophet who flourished under Josiah towards the end of the 7th century B.C. He is described in his book as a great-great-grandson of Hezekiah; probably the king of that name is intended. From his allusions to prevalent idolatry in Judah and Jerusalem it may be inferred that Zephaniah wrote previously to Josiah's great reform in 621 B.C., and that his prophetic work helped to promote that movement. His brief prophecy may be divided into three parts: i., ii. 1—iii. 7, and iii. 8—20. The first, which may be entitled the menace, is an announcement of wide-spread destruction imminent over man and beast, bird and fish, and in particular over Judah and Jerusalem, especially its corrupt court-officials, its merchants, and those who profess religious indifferentism. The 'day of Jehovah' (a day of battle, not of assize) is described in dark and gloomy colours. In the second part, or the admonition, Israel is exhorted to escape by timely repentance from the doom about to overtake the Philistines, Moab and Ammon, Ethiopia and Nineveh. Here the prophet seems to have in his mind the Scythian invasion with which Egypt was threatened in 626 B.C. The promise is contained in the third part. The faithful in Jerusalem are bidden wait patiently for the fulfilment of the divine judgments, after which all nations will serve Jehovah with one consent, and the purified remnant of Israel will rejoice in God's presence among them, and become 'a name and a praise among all the peoples of the earth.'
See commentaries by Hitzig-Steiner (1881), Ewald (trans.) and Keil (2d ed. 1888); Wellhausen's Die Kleinen Propheten (1892); and Driver's Introd. to Lit. of Old Testament (7th ed. 1897).