Zephaniah

Meaning: Jehovah has concealed, or Jehovah of darkness

The name of four biblical men…

1. 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:

   1. An introduction (1:1-6), announcing the judgment of the world, and the judgment upon Israel, because of their transgressions.

   2. The description of the judgment (1:7-18).

   3. An exhortation to seek God while there is still time (2:1-3).

   4. The announcement of judgment on the heathen (2:4-15).

   5. The hopeless misery of Jerusalem (3:1-7).

   6. The promise of salvation (3:8-20).

2. 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).

3. A Kohathite ancestor of the prophet Samuel (1 Chronicles 6:36).

4. The father of Josiah, the priest who dwelt in Jerusalem when Darius issued the decree that the temple should be rebuilt (Zechariah 6:10).