Zephaniah (Easton)

DIC dictionary-entry · status:draft · license:PD

Jehovah has concealed, or Jehovah of darkness. The son of Cushi, and great-grandson of Hezekiah, and the ninth in the order of the minor prophets. He prophesied in the days of Josiah, king of Judah (B.C. 641-610), and was contemporary with Jeremiah, with whom he had much in common. The book of his prophecies consists of: (A) An introduction (1:1-6), announcing the judgment of the world, and the judgment upon Israel, because of their transgressions. (B) The description of the judgment (1:7-18). (C) An exhortation to seek God while there is still time (2:1-3). (D) The announcement of judgment on the heathen (2:4-15). (E) The hopeless misery of Jerusalem (3:1-7). (F) The promise of salvation (3:8-20). The son of Maaseiah, the "second priest" in the reign of Zedekiah, often mentioned in Jeremiah as having been sent from the king to inquire ( Jeremiah 21:1 ) regarding the coming woes which he had denounced, and to entreat the prophet's intercession that the judgment threatened might be averted ( Jeremiah 29:25,26,29 ; 37:3 ; 52:24 ). He, along with some other captive Jews, was put to death by the king of Babylon "at Riblah in the land of Hamath" ( 2 Kings 25:21 ). A Kohathite ancestor of the prophet Samuel ( 1 Chronicles 6:36 ). The father of Josiah, the priest who dwelt in Jerusalem when Darius issued the decree that the temple should be rebuilt ( Zechariah 6:10 ).

Source

• part_of source-manifest/easton — Easton's Bible Dictionary (PD)