Book of Zephaniah

Book of Zephaniah, the ninth of 12 Old Testament books that bear the names of the Minor Prophets, collected in one book, The Twelve, in the Jewish canon. The book consists of a series of independent sayings, many of which are rightly attributed to Zephaniah, written probably about 640–630 bc. The actual compilation and the expansion of the sayings is the work of a later editor.

The dominant theme of the book is the “day of the Lord,” which the prophet sees approaching as a consequence of the sins of Judah. A remnant will be saved (the “humble and lowly”) through purification by judgment. It is not clear whether the day of judgment is conceived of as historical or eschatological. In any case, the conception was originally developed by Amos and Isaiah, and Zephaniah’s resumption of the theme may have influenced his younger contemporary Jeremiah. His description of the “day of the Lord,” however, has entered deeply into the popular conception of the judgment day through the great medieval hymn Dies irae (“Day of Wrath”), which apparently was inspired by the selections from Zephaniah employed in the responses of the Office of the Dead.