Don't Know Much About the Bible - Kenneth C. Davis [102]
An imminent day of judgment is predicted, and the people of Judah are urged to repent so that God’s anger may be appeased. Jerusalem is specifically condemned to destruction for refusing to mend its corrupt ways.
In the end, Zephaniah sounds a hopeful note, promising the restoration of Jerusalem. He also predicts that all the Gentile, or non-Jewish nations, will be converted, and a faithful, righteous remnant of Judah will be saved. While “Gentile” has acquired a modern sense meaning “Christian,” it traditionally had a broader sense. It comes from the Latin gens (literally, “nation”), a translation of the Hebrew goy. It referred to non-Jews or anyone outside the Jewish covenant. In many newer Bible translations, the word “Gentile” commonly used in the King James Version has been replaced by “nation” as a more accurate meaning of the original Hebrew.
Part of Zephaniah’s oracle on the terrible “day of the Lord” inspired the well-known Latin hymn Dies Irae:
The great day of the Lord is near,
near and hastening fast;
the sound of the day of the Lord
is bitter,
the warrior cries aloud there.
That day will be a day of wrath,
a day of distress and anguish,
a day of ruin and devastation,
a day of darkness and gloom,
a day of clouds and thick
darkness,
a day of trumpet blast and
battle cry
against the fortified cities
and against the lofty
battlements. (Zeph. 1:14-16)
• Habakkuk
O Lord, how long shall I cry
for help?
and you will not listen?
Or cry to you “Violence!”
and you will not save? (Hab. 1:2)
Virtually nothing is known about the prophet Habakkuk, and the dates given to him are fixed by references he made in his book to the coming of the Chaldeans (Neo-Babylonians), an event that took place around 597 BCE. Habakkuk is somewhat unusual among the prophets in that he questions God about the suffering of the righteous and the fact that the wicked go unpunished, a moral question that is further explored in the book of Job.
In his response, God assures the prophet of the coming judgment, and the Chaldeans are specifically mentioned as the nation, all-conquering and violent, that will carry out God’s plan. Habakkuk concludes his revelation by asserting that “the righteous shall live by their faith” (2:4) and with a great psalm, or hymn, extolling God’s wonders in nature.
• Jeremaih
Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?
(Jer. 13:23 KJV)
What is a jeremiad?
Born around 650 BCE, Jeremiah was the son of a powerful priest, Hilkiah, and began his prophetic career in 627 BCE. He died sometime after the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem in 586 BCE. Jeremiah is told by God not to marry or to have children because they will only end up dead. Carrying that sort of knowledge around with him couldn’t have made Jeremiah a very pleasant fellow to be with. He actually had few friends after he started to preach his prophecies of doom and gloom for Jerusalem.
Jeremiah probably took part in the reform movement of King Josiah and was protected by powerful friends at court until Josiah’s death in 609 BCE. After that, Jeremiah fell from favor among both religious and political leaders. At different times, he was placed under house arrest, denied a public forum, and thrown into a dry cistern or well that served as a dungeon. He was also widely regarded as a traitor and defeatist because he counseled against fighting the Chaldeans. After the final defeat of Jerusalem, Jeremiah was carried off to Egypt against his will and, according to legend, was eventually murdered around 587 BCE.
God called Jeremiah to preach the destruction of Israel and Judah on account of the religious and moral impurity of its people, and that is how we come by the word “jeremiad”—a sad,