Tzefaniah 1-3

Sefer Tzefaniah opens with a description of the complete destruction which will come to the land (1-3). Immediately after the opening pesukim there is a list of the sins of Judah (4-9) and a description of the sounds of crying and wailing which will be heard from Jerusalem (10-13). The perek ends with a description of the day of the Lord (14-18). The perek wavers between descriptions of world destruction and descriptions of the national sins and destruction.

At the beginning of perek 2, Tzefaniah calls to Judah to repent (1-3), and then he goes from nation to nation and kingdom to kingdom: he foresees the desolation of the land of the Philistines (4-7), Moab and Ammon (8-11) and the Kushites (12). The perek ends with a prophecy about the destruction of Nineveh, the capital of Assyria (13-15).

In perek 3 the prophet goes back and forth between prophecies about Israel and prophecies about the nations. At the beginning of the perek Tzefaniah details the distorted moral situation of the “dove-like city” ha’ir hayonah (1-4), which apparently alludes to Jerusalem, and its judgment (5-7). After this there is a description of the judgment of the nations and their repentance in the future (8-10), and then he returns to the repentance of Jerusalem and the remnant which will (11-13) be left in it. The perek ends with a prophecy of consolation for Jerusalem (14-20).