Zephaniah 1:3

3. Zep_1:3 particularises the “all things” of Zep_1:2, cattle and fowl and fishes of the sea, and man. Hos_4:3, “Therefore shall the land mourn, and everyone that dwelleth therein shall languish, with the beasts of the field and the fowls of heaven; yea the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away.” Similarly Eze_38:19, “Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel; so that the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the field and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, and all the men that are upon the face of the earth, shall shake at my presence”; cf. Isa_2:19-21.

the stumblingblocks … wicked] The words are rather obscure, and seem to disturb the connexion. The term rendered “stumblingblock” occurs again Isa_3:6, “let this ruin (the country in anarchy) be under thy hand,” and Hitzig would understand it here in a somewhat similar sense, the houses, &c. “destined to become heaps” (Job_15:28). The somewhat similar word usually rendered “stumblingblock” is used in the sense of idol, or any object or practice of false worship (Eze_14:3-4; Eze_14:7), and this sense is more probable here. But the clause introduces an idea not in harmony with the rest of the verse.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Zep 1:3 I will consume man and beast; I will consume the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the sea, and the stumblingblocks with the wicked; and I will cut off man from off the land, saith the LORD.

Ver. 3. I will consume man and beast] Heb. I will gather {as Zep 1:2} them, and cast them away as they do the sweepings of the house. See the word used in this sense, Psa 26:9, "Gather not my soul with sinners," &c. God gathered his people for a better purpose; both while they are alive, Psa 27:10, and when they die, Isa 57:1. The righteous is taken away (Heb. gathered) from the evil to come: as a shepherd gathereth his sheep when a storm is coming; or as a master of a family doth his jewels, when his house is on fire. But as for the wicked, they are gathered too, but it is for slaughter, as beasts in a pound, malefactors in a prison; and at the last day the tares shall be gathered and bundled up together for hell’s furnace, Mat 13:41-42.

I will consume the fowls of the heaven] Made for man’s use, to be to him for food, Gen 9:2, for health and for delight, as companions of his life; hence it is threatened as a judgment to him to lose them, Jer 4:25, and here.

And the fishes of the sea] Made likewise for man’s use to feed him, Num 11:5; Num 11:22 Luk 24:42; hence the Latin piscis of pasco, to feed, and the Hebrew Berechah for a fishpool; the word signifieth a blessing, Gen 12:2 cf. Neh 2:20. Now the Lord here threateneth destruction to beasts, birds, and fishes, not by the way of hyperbole, as the Rabbis dream; but because in common calamities, in warlike tumults, and when God will destroy a people indeed, the beasts also are killed, the fowls hunted away, the fishpools wasted, &c. Let those that will not believe this look into Illyricum, Thracia, Macedonia, Greece, and various parts of Turkey, laid utterly desolate and empty both of men and other creatures. Jerome upon this text, and likewise upon Hos 4:3, affirmeth the same of his native country, wasted so with war, ut praeter coelum et coenum, et crescentes vipres et condensa silvarum, cuncta perierint, that besides air and earth, and briers and forests, all was destroyed. And that we may not wonder at this severity of God, hear what the same Father saith elsewhere of his ungracious countrymen (Epist. ad Chremat.): In men patria deus Venter est, et in diem vivitur, et sanctior est ille qui ditior: In my country their belly is their god, their glory is in their shame, they mind earthly things: and so their end hath been destruction, and utter desolation, as Php 3:19. Gualther’s note here is very good; herein we may observe, saith he, the judgment of God and his wonderful providence; that whereas we see in populous places rivers and pools to abound with fish, woods and fields with birds and beasts, though they be continually caught and carried away; yet where there lack men to make use of them, there are few or none to be found. For as they were all made for man, so when men are consumed they also are consumed, as is here threatened. Non ita temere fieri putemus. Let us not think this to happend rashly. Let God’s hand herein be acknowledged, and his anger appeased by faith in Christ Jesus and repentance from dead works, that our land may be sowed with the seed of men and of beasts.

And the stumblingblocks of the wicked] Those Balaam’s blocks, those moments and monuments of idolatry, that so much offend God, and cause offence and ruin to those that worship them (as Eucherius interpreteth it), who are here called wicked, with an accent, and by a speciality.

And I will cut off man from off the land] Even the better sort of men too, who shall be wrapped up together with the wicked in the common calamity. The good figs as well as the bad are packed to Babylon; but with this difference that God will there set his eyes upon the good for good, Jer 24:6, as the grain is cut down as well as the weeds, but for better purpose.

Saith the Lord] Who hath spoken it twice that you may once well observe it, and lay it to heart.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Not that God was angry with these dumb creatures, but because man was so wicked for whose cause they were created, God maketh them to take part of the punishments with him.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Enumeration in detail of the "all things" (Zep 1:2; compare Jer 9:10; Hos 4:3).

the stumbling-blocks--idols which cause Judah to offend or stumble (Eze 14:3-4, Eze 14:7).

with the wicked--The idols and their worshippers shall be involved in a common destruction.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 3. I will consume man and beast] By war, and by pestilence. Even the waters shall he infected, and the fish destroyed; the air become contaminated, and the fowls die.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(3) The stumblingblocks with the wicked.—i.e., the enticements to sin together with the sinners. The word macshêlâh is used in Isa_3:6 in the sense of “a ruin.” Here, however, such a signification would not be apposite. It is exactly the πάντα τὰ σκάνδαλα of Mat_13:41, a passage wherein we may perhaps see a reminiscence of the text before us.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

I will consume man and beast Wicked men for their sins, and beasts for the sins of men; and, as a punishment for them, the creatures whom they have abused to the gratifying of their lusts: I will consume the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the sea; so that there shall be none for the use of man, which are both delicate food; the latter were not consumed at the general deluge. Kimchi thinks this is said by way of hyperbole; but it is possible for these to be consumed, as men by famine, pestilence, and captivity, and beasts by murrain; so the fowls of the air by the noisomeness of it; and the fishes of the sea, that is, such as were in the sea of Tiberias, and other lakes in Judea, by the stagnation of the waters, or by some disease sent among them; unless wicked men, comparable to them, are intended; though they are expressly mentioned, both before and after: and the stumblingblocks with the wicked: that is, idols, which are stumblingblocks to men, and cause them to offend and fall; these, together with those that made them, and the priests that sacrificed unto them, and the people that worshipped them, should be consumed from off the land: or, "the stumblingblocks of the wicked"; for (ta) is sometimes used as a sign of the genitive case, as Noldius F9 observes; and so the Vulgate Latin version and the Targum render it: and I will cut off men from off the land, saith the Lord: this is repeated for the certainty of it; or else this designs another sort of men from the former; and that, as before wicked men are designed, here such as are not perfectly wicked, as Kimchi observes; yea, the righteous should be carried captive, so that the land should be left desolate, without men, good or bad; for even good men may fall in a general calamity, and be cut off from the land, though not from the Lord. The Septuagint indeed here render it wicked men. The phrase, "saith the Lord", is twice expressed, for the certain confirmation of it; for it may be concluded it will be, since God has said it again and again that it shall be. FOOTNOTES: F9 Ebr. Concord. Part. p. 122.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

The stumbling-blocks with the wicked - Not only shall the wicked be utterly brought to an end, or, in the other meaning of the word, “gathered into bundles to be taken away,” but all causes of stumbling too; everything, through which others can fall, which will not be until the end of all things. Then, he repeats, yet more emphatically, “I will cut off the whole race of man from the face of the earth,” and then he closes the verse, like the foregoing, with the solemn words, “saith the Lord.” All this shall be fulfilled in the Day of Judgment, and all other fulfillments are earnests of the final Judgment. They are witnesses of the ever-living presence of the Judge of all, that God does take account of man’s deeds. They speak to men’s conscience, they attest the existence of a divine law, and therewith of the future complete manifestation of that law, of which they are individual sentences. Not until the prophet has brought this circle of judgments to their close, does he pass on to the particular judgments on Judah and Jerusalem.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Sea: the waters and air shall be pestilential. (Haydock) --- St. Jerome frequently observes that when a country is depopulated, as the Roman empire was in his days, the most fertile regions were soon abandoned even by beasts and birds. --- Meet. Septuagint, "be weak." Hebrew, "I will gather (Calmet; Protestants, "consume;" Haydock) scandals (or idols) with the wicked." (Symmachus)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

The former verse denounced the future desolation in general terms. This verse specifieth what desolation in particular God would bring upon the land.

I will consume man and beast; man shall be consumed for his own sin, and the beasts consumed for man’s sake; men by the pestilence and famine, the beasts by murrain, and devoured by multitudes of hungry soldiers, that shall make greater havoc than any murrain ordinarily doth.

The fowls of the heaven; either by some unknown disease among them, or else by a distaste at the stench of putrefying carcasses, they fled away, so that none, or very few, appeared, insomuch that it looked as if all were consumed.

The fishes of the sea: by sea, some understand ponds, lakes, or smaller seas, such as that of Gennesareth and Tiberias, the waters whereof might be made noisome to the fish by the streams of blood and carcasses which might possibly be east into them; or God might destroy the fishes by some consuming disease too. He hath ways to do it, who hath once said he will do it.

The stumbling-blocks; the idols.

The wicked; the idolatrous priests, and others who worshipped them.

I will cut off man, all shall disappear,

from off the land of Judah.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Man and beast, etc This is not mere hyperbole to express the utter wasting and destruction that were impending, but points to the mysterious connection between man and the lower creation, how in agreement with the primal curse even material nature suffers for man"s sin. (Gen_3:17 Rom_8:22) If we expect a new heaven and a new earth, we know that God will show his wrath against the old creation defiled with sin. (2Pe_3:10; comp. Jer_4:25 Jer_9:9, etc.; Hos_4:3) And the stumbling blocks with the wicked. Not the sinners only shall be swept away by this judgment, but also all offences, all causes of stumbling, whether idols or other incentives to departure from truth and right. Septuagint, kai asyenhsousin oi asebeiv . "and the ungodly shall be weak;" Vulgate, et ruinae impiorum erunt. These versions seem to have missed the point. I will cut off man. It is on man"s account that this judgment is sent a truth which the prophet enforces by reiteration.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

and the stumbling blocks with the wicked They are the pagan deities.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.