Exegesis and Exposition of zephaniah 3: 17-18
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| Zephaniah 3:17 “The Lord your God is in your midst, a victorious warrior. He will exult over you with joy, He will be quiet in His love, He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy.” (NASB95)
“He will be quiet in His love” is composed of the following: (1) third person masculine singular hiphil active imperfect form of the verb ḥārēš (חָרֵשׁ), “He will be quiet” (2) preposition b (בְּ), “in” (3) feminine singular construct form of the noun ʾahăbâ (אַהֲבָה), “love” (4) third person masculine singular pronominal suffix hûʾ (הוּא), “His.” At this point in the verse we have a textual problem in that some MSS and even the MT have the verb ḥārēš (חָרֵשׁ) whereas the LXX and BHS contend that the original is the verb ḥādaš (חָדַשׁ). The MT reads, “he is silent in his love,” but this makes no sense in light of the immediately preceding and following lines. Some take the Hiphil verb form as causative (see Job 11:3) rather than intransitive and translate, “he causes [you] to be silent by his love,” that is, “he soothes [you] by his love.” The present translation follows the LXX and assumes an original reading יְחַדֵּשׁ (yékhaddesh, “he renews”) with ellipsis of the object (“you”).2 Patterson writes “The MT יַהֲרִישׁ (“he will quiet [you]”) has been explained variously as (1) keeping silent about or covering up people’s sins (Henderson, Maurer, Rashi), (2) God’s silence due to the overwhelming depths of His love (A. B. Davidson, Fausset, Feinberg, Keil, von Orelli), (3) God’s preoccupation with planning Israel’s good (Graetz, Nowack), (4) God’s resting in His love (Laetsch, R. Smith), (5) a means for the believer to cultivate in his heart peace and silence (Luther, L. Walker), and (6) God’s singing out of the joy of His loving concern (O’Connor). In addition, a relation to the Akkadian ere„sŒu (“to desire/crave”) might be suggested.3 Though one is always hesitant to abandon the MT reading,4 the incompatibility of the thought of the clause thus formed by יַתֲרִישׁ with the two parallel clauses that surround it makes attractive the search for alternative possibilities. Among the many proposed alternative readings,5 perhaps the best is that of BHS to read יְתַדֵּשׁ (“he will renew [you]”). This involves a simple consonantal change of ר to ד. In accepting a change from r to d it would also be possible to redivide the words in the clause to read: אַהֲבָתוֹ ישֵׁב יִתַד (“let the one who inhabits his love rejoice,” i.e., “let him whom God loves rejoice”).6 The verb חָדָה (“rejoice”) would then be parallel to the other clauses of the verse. Moreover, Zephaniah has employed the participial form of יָשַׁב in a similar genitive relationship previously (2:15).7 So construed the phrase would constitute Zephaniah’s parenthetical remark, a prophetic technique attested elsewhere (e.g., Joel 3:11 [HB 4:11]).8 Final certainty is wanting here. I have followed the lead of several ancient (LXX, Pesh.) and modern (NJB, RSV) versions and many scholars (e.g., Buhl, S. R. Driver, Duhm, Hitzig, G. A. Smith) in reading יְחַדֵּשׁ J. M. P. Smith, who also adopts this reading, observes that there are many different interpretations of what this means, such as he will do new things (cf. Is. 4319) the like of which have not heretofore been known; or, he renews his love; or, he renews himself in his love; or, ... through the manifestations of favour inspired by his love for thee, he will restore thee to pristine vigour and glory, giving thee newness of life.9 Although the renewing of God’s love toward His people appears to be more harmonious with the ideas of God’s delighting in and rejoicing over Israel, found in the parallel lines of v. 17, it must be admitted that the MT reading is not altogether inappropriate, the thought of quieting being perhaps related to Israel’s fear in v. 16.”10 K. L. Barker writes “The difficulty of the phrase has led to several suggestions concerning alternate readings. BHS suggests יְחַדֵּשׁ “he will renew,” which requires only minor adjustments to the Hb. Patterson, while hesitant to abandon the MT, accepts this reading (Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, 383–384). T. H. Gaster rejected this reading as spoiling the point of the contrast between keeping silent and bursting into song and suggests following the MT, rendering: “Though now He be keeping silent about His love, He will then joy over thee in a burst of song” (“Two Textual Emendations,” ExpTim 78 [1966–67]: 267).11 This author is adopting the view of BHS, LXX, Patterson and the Net Bible that the original text contains the verb ḥādaš (חָדַשׁ) rather than the verb ḥārēš (חָרֵשׁ) for the reasons presented by Patterson and the Net Bible. Namely, the latter makes no sense in light of the immediate preceding and following lines. The immediate preceding line predicts the Lord will express great joy with a joyful celebration because of this remnant which will worship Him. The latter asserts that He will rejoice over this remnant with shouts of joy. It makes no sense that between these two lines that the Lord would be silent over this remnant. Lastly, it is easy to see how the reading ḥārēš (חָרֵשׁ) found its way into some copies of the Old Testament since the difference between the two words is a simple consonantal change of ר to ד. Therefore, verb ḥādaš means “to become new” since the basic idea of the word is that of restoring something to its former condition as opposed to making it for the first time. Here in Zephaniah 3:17, this verb means “to renew” in the sense of revitalizing a seemingly dead object. Therefore, this word speaks of regeneration since it is expressing the idea that the Lord Jesus Christ will “renew” these spiritually dead Jews in the sense that He will regenerate them through the Spirit when they trust in Him at His Second Advent to deliver them from Satan, Antichrist, the false prophet and the tribulational armies. The writer is employing the figure of ellipsis meaning that though it is omitted, the second person feminine singular personal pronoun ʾat (אַתְּ), “you” implied which refers to this future remnant of Israel living during the millennial reign of Jesus Christ. It is functioning as the direct object of this verb ḥādaš. The piel stem of this verb ḥādaš is a factitive piel meaning that the subject of the verb in the piel causes its direct object to enter a state that can be described by the same verb in the qal. The subject is the Lord Jesus Christ and the direct object is this future remnant of Israel worshipping the Lord during His millennial reign. Thus, this stem denotes that the Lord Jesus Christ will cause this future remnant of Israel to enter a state of being renew or regenerated through the Spirit as a result of exercising faith in Him at His Second Advent. The imperfect conjugation of this verb refers to a completed action as part of a temporal sequence. It is expressing this action of Jesus Christ renewing this future remnant of Israel as taking place in the future from the perspective of Zephaniah in the seventh century B.C. The noun ʾahăbâ means “love” since the word pertains to the state or condition of strong affection for another based on relationship. This word is thus speaking of Jesus Christ’s divine-love expressing itself in strong affection for this future remnant of Israel who will worship Him during His millennial reign. This love is based upon the relationship they possess with Him through regeneration which is the direct result of their exercising faith in Him at His Second Advent. He has strong affection for this remnant because they now through faith in Him possess His righteousness and His eternal life. The construct state of this noun means that it is governing the word which follows it and is expressing a genitive relation with this word which is the third person masculine singular pronominal suffix hûʾ, which means “His” referring to the Lord Jesus Christ. The genitive relation is possession expressing the idea that this love is Jesus Christ’s inherently since it helps to form His character and nature or divine essence. The noun ʾahăbâ is the object preposition b, which means “because of” since the word is functioning as a marker of cause expressing the idea that the Lord will cause this future remnant of Israel which will worship Him during His millennial reign to be renewed “because of” His love. This would thus indicate that the Lord will cause this remnant to be regenerated because He loves them. The Lord Will Rejoice Over Jerusalem Download 360 Kb. Share with your friends:
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