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The Day of the Lord Is Near

mBe silent before the Lord God!

For nthe day of the Lord is near;

othe Lord has prepared a sacrifice

and pconsecrated his guests.

And on the day of the Lord’s sacrifice—

q“I will punish the officials and the king’s sons

and rall who array themselves in foreign attire.

On that day I will punish

everyone swho leaps over the threshold,

and those who fill their master’s3 house

with violence and fraud.

10  “On that day,” declares the Lord,

“a cry will be heard from tthe Fish Gate,

ua wail from vthe Second Quarter,

a loud crash from the hills.

11  wWail, O inhabitants of the Mortar!

For all the traders4 are no more;

all who weigh out silver are cut off.

12  At that time xI will search Jerusalem with lamps,

and I will punish the men

ywho are complacent,5

zthose who say in their hearts,

‘The Lord will not do good,

nor will he do ill.’

13  Their goods shall be aplundered,

and their houses laid waste.

bThough they build houses,

they shall not inhabit them;

cthough they plant vineyards,

they shall not drink wine from them.”

m [Hab. 2:20]

n [ver. 14]; See Joel 1:15

o Isa. 34:6; Jer. 46:10; Ezek. 39:17, 19

p 1 Sam. 16:5

q 2 Kgs. 24:12, 14; 25:7

r [Matt. 22:11]

s [1 Sam. 5:5]

3 Or their Lord’s

t See 2 Chr. 33:14

u Zech. 11:3

v 2 Kgs. 22:14

w Zech. 11:2; James 5:1

4 Or all the people of Canaan

x Amos 9:3

y Jer. 48:11; [Amos 6:1]

5 Hebrew are thickening on the dregs [of their wine]

z Ps. 94:7; Ezek. 8:12; Mal. 2:17; 3:14, 15

a Isa. 42:22

b See Amos 5:11

c See Mic. 6:15

 The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), 습 1:7–13.

 

7 ◎주 여호와 앞에서 잠잠할지어다 이는 여호와의 날이 가까웠으므로 여호와께서 희생을 준비하고 그가 청할 자들을 구별하셨음이니라

8 여호와의 희생의 날에 내가 방백들과 왕자들과 이방인의 옷을 입은 자들을 벌할 것이며

9 그 날에 문턱을 뛰어넘어서 포악과 거짓을 자기 주인의 집에 채운 자들을 내가 벌하리라

10 나 여호와가 말하노라 그 날에 어문에서는 부르짖는 소리가, 제 이 구역에서는 울음 소리가, 작은 산들에서는 무너지는 소리가 일어나리라

11 막데스 주민들아 너희는 슬피 울라 1)가나안 백성이 다 패망하고 은을 거래하는 자들이 끊어졌음이라

12 그 때에 내가 예루살렘에서 찌꺼기 같이 가라앉아서 마음속에 스스로 이르기를 여호와께서는 복도 내리지 아니하시며 화도 내리지 아니하시리라 하는 자를 등불로 두루 찾아 벌하리니

13 그들의 재물이 노략되며 그들의 집이 황폐할 것이라 그들이 집을 건축하나 거기에 살지 못하며 포도원을 가꾸나 그 포도주를 마시지 못하리라

1) 장사하는

 The Holy Bible: New Korean Revised Version, electronic ed. (South Korea, n.d.), 습 1:7–13.

 

 

앞서 종교적으로 부패한 유다를 비난했다면 이제 정의와 공의가 무너진 사회를 비판하고 있다. 정부는 썩었고(8절), 지도층은 외세에 적극 호응하고 있으며(8절) 폭력과 사기가 난무하고(9절), 자신의 풍요로움에 도취한 부자들은 하나님을 두려워하지 않는다.(12-13절) 유다의 상류층을 겨냥한 비난이다. 요시야 시대에 이르기까지 유다는 70여년간 경제적 부흥을 이루었지만 사회는 도리어 착취와 타락으로 나락에 빠졌다. 

 

7절) 여호와의 날이 가까왔으므로 주 여호와 앞에서 잠잠하라. 여호와께서 희생 제물을 준비하고 그가 철할 자들을 구별하셨음이다. 

 

본문의 여호와의 날은 심판을 당하는 자에게는 재앙의 날이지만 구원을 받는 자들에게는 소망의 날이 된다. 이 날은 선택받은 선민들 뿐만 아니라 이방인들에게도 영향을 끼친다. 이 날은 신적인 전쟁과 관련이 있다. 하나님께서 오셔서 대적자들을 치심으로 승리를 선포하는 날이 될 것이다. 이 심판의 자리에서 경외와 두려움으로 잠잠할 것이다. 여호와 하나님께서 친히 그 날을 선포하시고 잠잠할 것을 명하시고 희생 제물을 준비하신다.  그리고 그가 청할 자들을 구별하시는데 이들은 일차적으로는 희생 제물을 먹도록 초청받은 이들일 것이고 이차적으로는 자신들이 죄로인해서 희생 제물이 될 자들을 의미할 수 있다. 

 

본문의 희생은 희생 제물을 의미하는 히브리어 ‘제바흐’로 ‘속죄의 행위로 짐승을 잡아 죽이는 행위’를 의미하며 화목제를 의미한다. 이는 신과 제물을 드리는 이 사이의 화목의  관계를 만들기 위해서 드리는 것이다. 이 과정에서 제물은 죽어야 하고 이 제물을 함께 나누는 과정속에서 화목과 회복, 교제가 있게 되는 것이다. 그런 의미에서 볼때 이 화목의 제사에 동참하여 이 제물을 먹는 이들과 이 과정에서 희생 제물이 되는 대상은 여호와의 날 어떤 이는 구원을, 어떤 이는 심판을 받는 것을 연상시킨다. 

2. The normal use of this term in Ugar. (cf. also Phoen., Punic, Aram., and Heb.) is the same as in the HB, where it refers to a “sacrifice of slaughtered sheep, goat or cattle to create communion between the god to whom the sacrifice is made and the partners of the sacrifice, and communion between the partners themselves” (HALOT 262b). For example, early in the Ugar. Keret Epic the god El instructed distressed Keret: “Lift up your hands (to) heaven (and) sacrifice (vb. dbḥ) to the bull El your father, make Baal to come down with your sacrifice (nom. bdbḥk), the son of Dagon with your game” (CML, 84, lines 75–79a). Both the nom. and the vb. are also well attested in all sorts of religious ritual texts and contexts at Ugarit (Tarragon, 56; cf. also Pope, Miller, etc.), and the fact that in Ugar. as well as in Heb. the vb. and nom. dbḥ, sacrifice, has as derived nom. mdbḥ(t), altar, argues for its sacral focus in both languages (Milgrom, “Profane Slaughter,” 1).

Ugar. Ugaratic

Phoen. Phoenician

HB Hebrew Bible

HALOT The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, 1994–(ET of HALAT)

Ugar. Ugaratic

CML Canaanite Myths and Legends, ed. G. R. Driver, Edinburgh, 1956; ed. J. C. L. Gibson, 19782

Ugar. Ugaratic

 Willem VanGemeren, ed., New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology & Exegesis (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1997), 1067.

 

The “day of the Lord”95 reflected popular thought that went back for centuries among the people of Israel. VanHorn concluded that the day of the Lord was a product of covenant theology.96 “The Day of the Lord is that time when for His glory and in accordance with His purposes God intervenes in human affairs in judgment against sin or for the deliverance of his own.”97 From a study of the concept of the day of the Lord, von Rad drew two conclusions: (1) that the day of the Lord embodied a pure event of war, the rising of the Lord against his enemies; and (2) that the concept is of old-Israelite origin, not from foreign sources.98

Judging by Amos’s discussions concerning the day of the Lord, the people of his day must have seen the day as one of God’s judgment against their enemies and a time of lightness and joy. Amos countered their optimism with a sober assessment of the day of the Lord. He said that it would be a day of “darkness, not light” (Amos 5:18). Amos compared the day with that of a man who fled from a lion only to run into a bear or retreated to the safety of his home only to be bitten by a snake (Amos 5:19). “Even though they expected their righteousness to be vindicated against their enemies, they were to discover that God’s righteousness entailed his move against them.”99

Isaiah understood the day of the Lord similarly as a day of God’s judgment against the proud and the haughty among the people of Jacob (Isa 2:6–22). Isaiah’s definition emphasized the central point—it is God’s day: “The Lord Almighty has a day in store …” (Isa 2:12). “The transferal of the concept from judgment prophecy to salvation prophecy and vice versa is facilitated by the essentially ambivalent nature of the day of Yahweh; it brings judgment upon the enemies of Yahweh and salvation for his people. The deciding factor depends upon the side to which Israel or the addressees belong. The concept of the day of Yahweh thus constitutes an essential point of contact between the prophetic proclamation of judgment and of salvation and demonstrates their inner unity.”100

The day is not only a future day.101 It can also refer to great events of the past. The fall of Jerusalem in 587 b.c. in fulfillment of prophecy was a “day of the Lord” (Lam 2:21). Isaiah saw the overthrow of Babylon as the day of the Lord (Isa 13:13, 19). “Neither in prospect nor in retrospect was the day of the Lord fully realized. The prophets simply had in mind that these were events of such a dire nature that they exemplified a reality that would be fully demonstrated when the day finally came. But it is this ultimate day that preoccupies Zephaniah. His thinking is insistently universal (1:17a, 18b; 2:11; 3:6, 8b, 9, 20). He seems uninterested in identifying specific historical events.… Zephaniah, whether under historical or theological prompting, has left us a tract on the day of the Lord—the climax alike of history, sin, and the purposes of God.”102

Two centuries after Amos and Isaiah, Zephaniah saw the day of the Lord as a day when God would judge his people. “Zephaniah’s own understanding of the Day of the Lord unfolds through a series of vivid images.”103 In these verses (7–13) he speaks of sacrifice, false worship, lamentation, personal search, and the looting of the wealthy. He thus gives new depth of meaning and unforgettable imagery to the depiction of God’s day of judgment.

God’s day could also be a day of salvation: return to paradise (Isa 35:1–10); new fertility (Joel 3:18); great harvest (Joel 2:24); God’s removal of the enemy (Joel 2:20); restoration of Judah’s fortunes (Zeph 2:7); the pouring of God’s Spirit on the earth (Joel 2:29); the experience of God’s loving presence (Zeph 3:17). Then all who call on the Lord’s name will experience salvation and deliverance (Joel 2:32). These will include the Gentiles (Ps 96; Zeph 2:11; 3:9–10). Even creation itself will experience renewal (Joel 2:22, 24).

The New Testament took up this language and referred to the “day of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor 1:8). His glory and salvation will be fully revealed. Pentecost was a “day of the Lord” (Acts 2:16–21; cp. Joel 2:28–32). Paul used this to refer to Christ’s return to earth (2 Thess 2:1). “Whether the day is the parousia, or the climax of history and all things as in the ‘day of God’ when the dissolution of the heavens occurs (2 Pet 3:12), the ‘day’ will be characterized by the unquestioned and unmistakable presence of Almighty God.”104

Martens neatly summarizes the meaning of the day of the Lord. It is a “day of God’s vindication” when he is victorious over evil once and for all (Isa 2:17). It is a day when the questions of theodicy will be answered. The havoc evil has caused will be undone; “ambiguities will be resolved”; “evil will be trounced and evildoers will in the end receive their due.” Finally, the prospect of the day coming “calls on believers especially to live in its light.”105

The last half of v. 7 is filled with irony. The Lord had prepared a sacrifice106 for his guests. His guests were the enemies of Israel; the sacrifice to be slaughtered was Israel itself. “To speak of the day of the Lord as a day of sacrifice (1:7–8) places it within the long biblical tradition that where there is sin there must also be death—and this because Yahweh is the Holy One.”107

Zephaniah used the normal language associated with sacrifice. The word for “sacrifice” (zebaḥ) is almost always used of a “sacrifice of slaughtered sheep, goat, or cattle to create communion between the god to whom the sacrifice is made and the partners of the sacrifice, and communion between the partners themselves.”108 Thus Zephaniah “takes the word of divine grace (the provision of a sacrifice for sin) and makes it the vehicle of the message of wrath: those who have long despised the sacrifice that God provides become the sacrifice their sin merits.”109

Thus Patterson concludes: “The metaphor of the sacrificial banquet reinforces the announcement of the Day of the Lord and provides a ray of hope in the clouds of doom. As guests called to a sacrificial feast were to come with their uncleanness removed, so the Judahites are urged to respond to the invitation of Yahweh their host. Although judgment was coming, there was still time. By acknowledging God as their master and by responding in fear to the prospect of judgment in repentance from sin and repudiation of idolatry, God’s people could join a believing remnant in coming to the feast as guests acceptable to Him. There was yet hope.… Guests who remained unrepentant, and hence unclean, would be disqualified and would, like those in Jehu’s day (2 Kgs 10:18–28), discover that they were not only invited guests but also victims.”110

95 The specific expression “the day of Yahweh” occurs sixteen times: Isa 13:6, 9; Ezek 13:5; Joel 1:15; 2:1, 11; 3:4; 3:14; Amos 5:18, 20; Obad 15; Zeph 1:7, 14; Mal 3:17, but “the day” with several different modifications also describe this day. See E. Jenni, “יוֹם yôm day,” TLOT 2:537–39, and the list of terms by Robertson, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah, 272–73.

96 W. W. VanHorn, “An Investigation of יום יהוה as It Relates to the Message of Amos” (Ph.D. diss, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, 1987), 173.

97 Patterson, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, 310.

98 G. von Rad, “The Origin of the Concept of the Day of Yahweh,” JSS 4 (1959): 97–108; for a pungent description of holy war expectation and experience, see Achtemeier, Nahum–Malachi, 66. Robertson uses the imagery of Zephaniah 1 to connect the day of the Lord to the covenants of Noah, Abraham, and Moses (NICOT, 268). This may be placing too much weight on the language of images rather than on historical and theological references in the text.

99 E. A. Martens, “Day of the Lord, God, Christ, the,” EDBT, 148.

100 Jenni, “יוֹם yôm day,” 2:539.

101 Patterson (Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, 310) prints an extensive list of passages for the day of the Lord as present (Joel 1:15), near future (Isa 2:12–22), future-eschatological (Isa 13:6, 9), and primarily eschatological (Joel 3:14–15). Achtemeier (Nahum–Malachi, 66–67) lists eleven characteristics of the day of the Lord.

102 Motyer, “Zephaniah,” 3:918.

103 House, Zephaniah, 148.

104 Martens, “Day of the Lord, God, Christ, the,” 147.

105 Ibid., 149, with reference to 2 Pet 3:11.

106 Watts (Joel, Obadiah, Jonah, Nahum Habakkuk and Zephaniah, 159) says “sacrifice” is to be interpreted as “slaughter” for a feast rather than for a ritual sacrifice. This is part of his theory that the book was read at a great festival day. Thus for him the guests are the worshipers in the temple. The “king’s sons” in v. 8 are sons of the god Melek, that is, cult officials of the god Melek. Foreign clothes are garments used in heathen worship. Stepping on the threshold becomes climbing up to the temple terrace or the holy of holies in astral worship. Roberts (Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah, 178) says placing v. 8 in the realm of pagan gods and their officials “seems farfetched and improbable.” Achtemeier (Nahum–Malachi, 67–68) says the sacrifice is not that which follows a battle but is preparation for holy war, a consecration of the soldiers prior to battle, and a prelude to the call to repent in 2:1–3. Thus Judah is not the guest to be sacrificed. The guests are the mysterious members of God’s army. Roberts (Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah, 177–78) is probably more on target when he writes: “The Judeans would not eat the sacrificial meal Yahweh was preparing, however, for the implication of Zephaniah’s words is that Judah would be the sacrifice (cf. Isa 34:6–7; Jer 46:10)! Yawheh’s guests, consecrated by him to eat the sacrifice (see 1 Sam 16:5 for this practice) would not be the Judeans, but either the foreign armies he would bring against Judah (Isa 13:3–5) or the birds and beasts of prey who would feed on the corpses of the dead (Ezek 39:17–20).”

107 Motyer, “Zephaniah,” 3:917.

108 HALOT, 262.

109 Motyer, “Zephaniah,” 3:917. The verb זבח is also used metaphysically “for slaying idolatrous priests on their own altars (1 Kgs 13:2 with 2 Kgs 23:20)” and “for slaughtering the rebellious nations in judgment as a feast for the scavenger birds (Ezek 39:17–19)” (R. E. Averbeck, “זבח,” NIDOTTE 1:1069).

110 Patterson, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, 311–12.

 Kenneth L. Barker, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, vol. 20, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1999), 425–428.

 

7-13절에서 여호와의 날은 반복되어 사용된다. 8절은 여호와의 희생의 날, 9절과 10절은 그 날, 12절은 그 때로 표현하고 있다. 

 

8-9절) 여호와의 희생의 날에 방백들과 왕자들과 이방인의 옷을 입은 자들이 벌을 받을 것이며 그 날에 문턱을 뛰어 넘는 모든 자, 자기 주인의 집을 포악과 거짓으로 채운 자들은 벌을 받을 것이다. 

본문의 방백과 왕의 아들들은 요시야 시대로 본다면 요시야의 아들들이라기 보다는, 그는 즉위할 때 나이가 어렸으므로, 암살당한 아몬의 형제들 혹은 아몬의 자녀들이라고 볼 수 있다. 또한 이방인의 옷을 입고 있는 자는 유다 사람으로 앗수르 사람의 문화와 가치관을 적극적으로 받아들인 혼합주의자를 말하는 것이다. 이방인의 옷을 입는 것 자체가 문제가 될 수 없다. 하지만 여기서 말하는 바는 이스라엘의 풍습을 버리고, 하나님을 섬긴다고 하면서 이방인의 삶의 방식을 따르고 선호했다는 것을 의미한다. 더 나아가서 이스라엘의 종교 예식 속에 이방의 풍습이 깊숙히 들어와서 오염을 시키고 있는 것이다. 

 

그 날에 문턱을 뛰어넘고 자기 주인의 집에 포악과 거짓을 채운 자들이 벌을 받을 것이다. 문지방을 건너 뛰는 자들이란 삼상 5:5에 다곤이 여호와의 법궤 앞에서 목이 부러진 다음부터 블레셋 사람들이 다곤 신전의 문지방을 밟지 않고 건너는 풍습이 생겼다는 것에 근거하여 다곤을 섬기는, 블레셋 사람의 풍습을 따르는 자들이라고 볼 수 있다. 이처럼 이방인의 옷을 입고 이방 종교의 풍습을 따르는 이들을 여호와의 날에 여호와께서 심판하신 다는 것이다. 

9절의 포악과 거짓은 ‘폭력과 속임수’를 의미하는 부사적인 어구이다. 그렇다면 이 포악과 거짓이 가득찬 주인의 집이 어디일 까? 주인을 누구로 보느냐에 따라서 다르게 해석될 수 있다. 이 주인을 하나님으로 본다면 여호와의 성전이 되고, 주인을 왕으로 본다면 왕국이 되는 것이다. 또한 주인을 이방의 신으로 본다면 이방신의 신전이 될 것이다. 하지만 8-9절의 흐름속에서 읽을 때 이는 ‘여호와의 성전’으로 보는것이 가장 타당해 보인다. 여호와의 희생의 날에 이방의 옷을 입은 자들이 ‘주인의 집, 여호와의 성전’을 포악과 거짓으로 채운 것에 대해서 하나님께서 벌하시겠다라는 것이다. 

 

- 8절)  Zephaniah used the same word for sacrifice as in the previous verse. The Lord would punish the princes and the king’s sons. They would be fit for the sacrifice which the Lord planned. God’s promise to punish literally states: “I will visit upon the princes and upon the sons of the king.” In the Old Testament the verb pāqad, “to visit,” often means to visit for good or to visit in judgment, as is the case in this instance.116

The “princes” refers to those members of the court who were the leaders of the government.117 “The king’s sons” probably did not mean literal sons but the royal family whether princes or others connected with the royal court.118

The time period for the delivery of Zephaniah’s message impacts the interpretation of the royal family. Why is the king not mentioned? Was this delivered early in Josiah’s reign when Josiah (640–609 b.c.) was only a child (cp. 2 Kgs 22:1)? If this was the case, the king may have been left out of the punishment because of his youth or because of his righteousness (2 Kgs 22:2). If Zephaniah descended from royal ancestry,119 he would have known the conduct of the court and the reasons for God’s visiting them in punishment.

Nothing particularly could be wrong with wearing the clothes of foreigners except for what that meant in Judah at the time.120 Since the time of Manasseh (687–641 b.c.), Judah suffered under the vassalage of Assyria. Judah saw Israel overcome and taken into exile in 722 b.c. Later, Judah itself felt the power of Assyria. Manasseh, whether to appease Assyria or because of his own evil, erected Assyrian monuments and altars to other gods even in the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem (2 Kgs 21:3–8). Manasseh was deliberately attempting “to turn the religion of Yahwism into another polytheism.”121 Later, when Josiah began his reforms, he began to remove Assyrian influences from the temple.

Wearing the clothes of foreigners signified the desire to be like the Assyrians and others in every way, including the worship of pagan gods.122 “The princely households [were] frivolously dazzled by supposed foreign sophistication.… The issue at stake was the distinctiveness of the people of God.”123 For this reason, God determined to visit those in judgment who clad themselves in foreign clothes.

116 V. P. Hamilton, “פָּקַד (paqad),” etc. TWOT 2:731–32.

117 Patterson (Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, 316) shows that שָׂרִים can include tribal chieftains (Num 21:18); court officials (1 Chr 22:17); district supervisors (1 Kgs 20:14–15); city officials (Judg 8:6); military leaders (1 Kgs 2:5; 2 Kgs 1:9–14); and religious leaders (Ezra 8:24).

118 See Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah, 178; Rudolph, Micha, Nahum, Habakuk, Zephanja, 267. Robertson (Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah, 275–76) contends that Zephaniah intentionally omitted reference to an obedient king Josiah and intentionally condemned his sons, three of whom would eventually be king of Judah; Patterson (Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, 317) dates the book early and refers the king’s sons to sons of Josiah’s predecessor Ammon.

119 See Introduction: “Zephaniah, the Man.”

120 Roberts (Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah, 178–79) says one could interpret “the prophet’s objection to foreign apparel as an attack on Judah’s loss of self-identity as the people of Yahweh. Defenders of traditional culture often regard the importation of foreign styles in clothing as both a sign and a cause of corruption in the society’s fundamental values.” Roberts, however, prefers the religious interpretation.

121 G. E. Wright, Biblical Archaeology, rev. ed (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1962), 175.

122 Robertson insists that foreign clothing marked priests of each group of foreign gods so that the condemnation here is still of foreign worship (Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah, 276).

123 Motyer, “Zephaniah,” 3:919, who points to Israel’s own national regulations of dress (Num 15:38; Deut 22:12) linked to religious loyalties (Num 15:39–40).

 Kenneth L. Barker, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, vol. 20, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1999), 429–430.

 

9절)  What exactly does it mean to “avoid stepping on the threshold”?124 The NIV footnote equates this practice with the worship of Dagon among the Philistines as found in 1 Sam 5:4–5.125 Many pagans believed that evil spirits resided at the threshold, waiting for someone to step on it and let them slip in.126 This interpretation relates the practice in Judah with pagan worship,127 perhaps for the same reasons as wearing foreign clothes in the preceding verse.128 “They observe the minutia of a senseless pagan law, but then run rampant over the basic ordinances of God in his own house.”129

In this regard (that is, equating stepping over the threshold with wearing foreign clothes), some biblical scholars see vv. 8 and 9 as a chiasmus, where the first part of v. 8 goes with the last part of v. 9, and the two middle sections relate to one another. This is a feature often used in Hebrew literature and an effective means of communication. If the verses form a chiasmus, then those officials of v. 8 would be the same people who filled their master’s houses with violence and deceit in v. 9.130

The second half of v. 9 speaks of those who fill (lit.) “the house of their masters” with (or by) violence and deceit. “The house of their masters” could mean the temple of a pagan god (NIV) or the house of the king, which would have been filled by killing and stealing. “Violence and deceit” is an adverbial phrase in Hebrew without a preposition. The phrase may be understood as a metonymy referring to goods obtained by “violence and deceit,” which were deposited in “the house of their masters.”131

124 Motyer determines that “הַמִּפְתָּן (the threshold) “remains imperfectly understood” (ibid.)

NIV New International Version

125 Motyer says, “Zephaniah replaces the sober ‘do not step on the threshold’ (1 Sam 5:5) with a deliberately trivializing word in order to caricature the antics introduced into the Lord’s worship” (ibid.). Roberts summarizes textual and exegetical attempts to define the term הַדּוֹלֵג, “the one who leaps” (Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah, 174–75). J. N. B. Heflin interprets the phrase in terms of the last half of the verse as referring to a call for social justice. “Henchmen” or associates of the political leaders are eager to carry out violence and deceit so they hurry over the thresholds of victims’ houses in their hurry to plunder and rob and cheat (Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, and Haggai, BSC (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1985], 134). Similarly L. Walker, “Zephaniah,” EBC 7:547.

126 See Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah, 179; Rudolph, Micha, Nahum, Habakuk, Zephanja, 268.

127 Patterson also adopts this view with some hesitation (Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, 312–13).

128 Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah, 179; Motyer, “Zephaniah,” 3:919: Just as the princes affected foreign dress, so the priests imported alien religious fetishes.

129 Robertson, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah, 278.

130 J. D. W. Watts (Joel, Obadiah, Jonah, Nahum Habakkuk and Zephaniah, 159–60) takes the passage to mean those who climb on the holy of holies, possibly a common practice in astral worship.

NIV New International Version

131 Motyer (“Zephaniah,” 3:920) sees violence here as priests violently mishandling the law, while the deceit is priests deceiving those “who trustfully come for guidance” (Mal 2:7). Roberts (Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah, 179) shows that the ambiguity of house/lords is not significant since the temple would be part of the royal complex, and the king would ultimately control temple treasures. “Violence and deceit” could refer to the religious abuses of Manasseh; then the “house” would mean “temple.”

 Kenneth L. Barker, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, vol. 20, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1999), 430–431.

 

10-11절) 그 날에 어문과 제 2구역, 작은 산들에서 울부짖는 소리와 무너지는 소리가 날 것이다. 막데스 주민들아 너희는 슬피 울라. 가나안 백성이 다 패망하고 은을 거래하던 자들이 끊어졌느니라. 

앞서 이스라엘 백성들은 여호와의 전안에 이방의 풍습을 들여왔고 포악과 거짓을 채웠을 때 여호와께서 벌을 내리셨다. 이 때에 곳곳에서 통곡의 소리가 울려퍼지게 될 것이다. 

‘어문’은 물고기 문으로 예루살렘 북쪽에 있어서 예루살렘으로 가장 쉽게 들어올 수 있는 관문이었다.(대하 33:14; 느 3:3; 12:39) 느헤미야서에 의하면 이 문은 옛 문과 양 문 사이에 있었다. 이 문이 예루살렘의 생선 시장으로 통하기에 이런 이름이 붙여졌을 것이다. 

둘째 구역은 도시의 서쪽 언덕에 위치해 성전을 내려다보고 있었고 부유한 상류층이 이곳에 살았던 것으로 알려져 있다. 특히 요시야가 제사장을 보내 하나님의 뜻을 물었던 여선지자 훌다가 이 지역에 살았다.(왕하 22:14; 대하 34:22) 

 

11절의 막데스가 무엇을 뜻하는지는 분명하지 않다. 우리말 성경은 고유명사로 지역의이름으로 나타내지만, 공동번역은 방앗간으로 번역하고 있고 탈굼은 기드론 시내라고 번역한다. 

스바냐 1:11 (NIV)

11Wail, you who live in the market district; all your merchants will be wiped out, all who trade with silver will be destroyed.

스바냐 1:11 (NKSV)

11막데스에 사는 너희는 슬피 울어라. 장사하는 백성은 다 망하고, 돈을 거래하는 자들은 끊어졌다.

하지만 NIV는 이곳을 상가 지역이라고 번역하고 있다. 어문과 둘째 구역, 언덕은 시장과 주택지구를 의미하는 곳으로 성의 곳곳에서 울음 소리가 들릴 것이라는 것이다. 따라서 막데스는 상가 지역이고, 가나안 백성이라는 의미는 페니키아 인들로 장사하는 사람들을 의미하는 표현이다. 말하자면 성의 곳곳에서 특히 장사하는 백성을 망하고 돈을 거래하는 자들이 끊어질 것이라고 말한다. 이는 경제적인 충격이 심할 것을 말하는 것이다. 

 

10절)  On the day of the Lord’s judgment the sounds of attack and the cries of the people would be heard from around the city. The “cry,” “wailing,” and “a loud crash” are parallel terms. The “cry” and the “wailing” both describe the sounds of hurting people, while the “loud crash” from the hills may describe the sound of buildings falling at the onslaught of the enemy. “The pleading and howling arising from the areas of the fish gate and the second quarter of Jerusalem give expression to the utter despair of a people who have lost all hope in life. The judgment of God has now entered their own private district of town.”132

The “Fish Gate” (Neh 3:3; 12:39) and the “New Quarter”133 are not known precisely, but most interpreters assume their location in the northern section of the city. P. J. Nel agreed with the northwest location of the gate, citing the fishing trade from the Phoenician city of Tyre. “According to Neh 3:8 and 12:39 the Fishgate is located near the ‘Old Gate’ and the ‘sheep Gate.’ The latter is located toward the North-east.”134

The geography of Jerusalem and of Palestine determined that most trouble would come from the north, the supposed area of the Fish Gate and the New Quarter. Palestine served as a land bridge with the Mediterranean Sea to the west and the desert to the east. All commerce was forced to follow the north-south trade routes in Palestine. Egypt lay to the south, and the other great powers (Assyria, Babylon, Syria, and non-Semitic peoples) had access to Palestine only from the north. Jeremiah spoke prominently of judgment that would come from the north. The “foe from the north” would bring destruction on Jerusalem (Jeremiah 4–6).135 The Fish Gate “is chosen for its suitability to picture the final onslaught.”136

“Appropriate to the secular society that Jerusalem has become, God’s destruction of his sinful people will start not at the temple but in the commercial quarter.… There in her commercial center—her ancient Wall Street—Jerusalem will experience God’s first attack.”137 The loud crash from the hills is indefinite enough to call forth several explanations. It may be the echoes of war’s devastation as the enemy ransacks the houses and business places and even the temple of Jerusalem.138 Robertson views it as breaking down of the idols in the high places around Jerusalem.139

132 Robertson Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah, 278.

133 G. A. Herion (“Second Quarter,” ABD 5:1065) says: “It has long been suspected that this new addition to Jerusalem was constructed opposite the Tyropoeon Valley on the hill W of the old city of David and SW of the Temple Mount sometime during the reign of Hezekiah.… This expansion would have been designed to handle the increasing number of Israelite and Judean refugees fleeing the devastation of the Assyrian army.” He notes of archaeological confirmation by Avigad’s excavations including a defense wall, the extension nearly quadrupling Jerusalem’s residential neighborhoods, bringing Jerusalem’s population to twenty-five thousand. Cp. the older description of J. Gray, I and II Kings, OTL, 2d ed. (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1970), 726–27, quoted by Patterson, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, 317. Heflin sees the four geographical points as representing the four quarters of the city or all of the city (Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, and Haggai, 135).

134 P. J. Nel, “Structural and Conceptual Strategy in Zephaniah, Chapter 1,” JNSL 15 (1989): 161. He concludes that the “hills” referred to the hilly area at the southern and eastern edges of the city. He also concluded that the “New Quarter” was located in the southwest. In these locations he saw the four wind directions, showing a total onslaught against Jerusalem.

135 R. A. Bowman, “The North Country,” IDB 3:560.

136 Motyer, “Zephaniah,” 3:920.

137 Achtemeier, Nahum–Malachi, 70.

138 Patterson Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, 313, referring to T. Laetsch, The Minor Prophets (St. Louis: Concordia, 1956), 361.

139 Robertson, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah, 278–79.

 Kenneth L. Barker, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, vol. 20, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1999), 432–433.

 

11절)  In ancient cities, different trades and merchants often set up shop near one another (Jer 37:21, “the street of the bakers”). The “mortar” (market district, NIV), from a word meaning “to pound,” may have referred to an area hollowed out where merchants gathered or to a vessel in which food could be pounded.142 Since the following line refers to merchants, the NIV may give the best rendering by making this a place where commerce was carried out, probably in the Tyropoeon valley.143

In a number of different passages in the Old Testament, “Canaan” (kĕnaʿan, translated “merchants” here) and “Canaanites” referred to “merchants” or “traders.”144 The people of Canaan and the Phoenicians in particular were stereotyped as a merchant people. Motyer is probably correct in seeing a double meaning here: “They were people of the Lord, but in business they had become Canaanites!”145

In order to complete their financial transaction, traders weighed out silver using a system of weights and measures. Zephaniah called on the people to wail because the merchants would be “wiped out” (or “silenced”) and the market place with its busyness from merchants trading would be “cut off” (NIV, “ruined”). “The cutting off of all the dealers in silver meant that the city as a center of culture, trade, luxury, beauty, and craftsmanship would come to an end.”146 The judgment of God against Judah would reach to all parts of society, especially to those who might be more tempted to trust in their own ability, creativity, or ingenuity. Motyer’s warning here is appropriate: “Zephaniah is not showing an animus against trade or money-making. Rather he chooses a place normally alive with the buzz of conversation and humming with activity as a foil for the silence that will follow the devastation.”147

NIV New International Version

142 From the earliest translations the term הַמַּכְתֵּשׁ has not been understood, being rendered as “pillars” (Vg), a proper noun (Syr, KJV), the Kidron River or brook (Tg), mortar (NASB, NRSV), hollow (NJB), market district (NIV, NLT, NCV), Lower Town (REB), Lower Hollow (CEV). See the discussion of Patterson, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, 317–18. G. A. Herion (“Mortar, The,” ABD 4:905) associates the time frame of the period of Josiah, its mention here with the Second Quarter, and the root meaning of “hollow,” perhaps indicating a bowl-shaped depression. From this he concludes: “It is possible that this neighborhood was part of the W annex to the city of David and only came to be regarded as a “mortar” after neighborhoods were established on the eastern slopes of the W hill. In this case the “mortar” would likely be associated with (some portion of) the Tyropoeon Valley, which lay outside the city until the eighth century b.c.” Cf. Berlin, Zephaniah, 87.

NIV New International Version

143 Patterson supports this view (Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, 318) and quotes G. A. Smith, who placed the area in the upper part of the Tyropoeon Valley, an identification supported by a number of other sources. Robertson sees this as the all-inclusive term for Jerusalem: “Encircled by higher hills, Jerusalem itself may be compared to a mortar, a pounding place. God in his judgment shall grind the whole of the city as though it were encased in a mortar” (Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah, 279).

144 BDB, 488–89. כְּנַעַן is also used with the sense “merchants” and “traders” in Prov 31:24; Isa 23:8; Ezek 16:29; 17:4; Hos 12:7 [Hb. 12:8]; Zech 14:21. See Y. Aharoni, The Land of the Bible: A Historical Geography, trans. A. F. Rainey (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1967), 61.

145 Motyer, “Zephaniah,” 3:920.

NIV New International Version

146 Robertson, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah, 279.

147 Motyer, “Zephaniah,” 3:920. He adds: “In the Bible wealth is not a vice any more than poverty is a virtue, but the Bible asks three questions concerning wealth: How was it acquired? How is it being used? What is the attitude of the possessor to the possessions?”

 Kenneth L. Barker, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, vol. 20, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1999), 433–434.

 

12-13절) 그 때에 하나님께서 등불을 들고 심판할 자들을 두루 찾아 벌을 하실 것이다. 하나님께서 찾아 벌하실 사람들은 ‘찌꺼기 같이 가라앉아서 마음속에 스스로 이르기를 여호와께서는 복도 내리지 아니하시고 화도 내리지 아니하신다’라고 말하는 이들이다. 찌꺼기 같이 가라앉은 이들이란 술을 제조하는 과정에서 남은 찌꺼기를 의미한다. 포도주를 만들때는 포도를 밟은 다음 찌꺼기가 가라앉으면 기다렸다가 찌꺼기가 가라앉고나서 따라서 술을 만들게 되는데 그런 찌거기 같은 이들이 있다는 것이다. 

12절의 찌꺼기를 히브리어로는 ‘세메르’인데 이는 포도주의 잔여물, 찌끼를 의미한다. 그러니까 하나님께서 여호와 하나님이 복도, 화도 내리지 않으시는 하나님이라고 말하는 이들, 겉으로는 신앙생활을 한다고 하지만 냉담하여 하나님을 인정하지 않는 이들을 두루 찾으신다는 것이다. 자기 부와 명예에 도취되어 하나님을 버리고 자신을 찾는 이들을 하나님께서는 등불을 들고 찾으심으로 심판하신다는 것이다. 

아이러니하게도 그들의 재물이 노략되며 그들의 집이 황폐하게 될 것이다. 그들은 집을 건축하지만 그곳에 살지 못할 것이고 포도원을 가꾸지만 그 포도주를 마시지 못하게 될 것이다. 

 

12절)  1:12 Here is the central indictment of the book.148 Zephaniah promised that the Lord would search out the “complacent,” that is, all those who are self-secure and undisturbed. The NIV uses this interpretation149 to explain the meaning of the Hebrew metaphor associated with wine making. The Hebrew reads literally, “I will visit upon the men who are thickening150 on their dregs [i.e., like wine].”

In the wine-making process, fermented wine has to be poured from one vessel to another to separate the wine from the sediment (lees or “dregs”). If the wine is allowed to settle too long, it thickens and is ruined (cp. Jer 48:11–12, where the image is used of wine that is poured off too soon).151 The metaphor in the Book of Zephaniah refers to those who have lived with uninterrupted prosperity and have become complacent. These are people who have deified themselves, thinking that their might and the power of their hands have gotten them wealth (Deut 8:10–18). “Many of Jerusalem’s citizens had remained in their apostate lifestyle so long that they had become satisfied with it and then grown indifferent to genuine piety.”152 Moses warned the people of the danger of becoming proud and forgetting the Lord who brought them out of the land of Egypt (Deut 8:14).

“General apathy about God exists in the land, which the writer conveys with sight and sound imagery.”153 God promised to make a thorough search154 of the city for those living in complacency. Invaders searched captured cities with small clay lamps, looking for any item of value. God would make the same kind of search for those who lived in practical atheism, believing that God did neither good nor evil.155 In so doing Zephaniah may appear to deny God’s basic characteristic as omniscient, all-knowing. In truth, he does just the opposite. He shows God can and will find everything about you. Nothing escapes God’s attention (cp. Ps 139:1). “No absentee God, He will send an invading force that will search out and plunder Jerusalem. The implementation of the Lord’s proclamation will come so quickly that all who have lived in pursuit of ill-gotten gain will not survive to enjoy their wealth.… In their preoccupation with self and riches they will lose them both (cf. Luke 12:16–21).”156 As Achtemeier summarizes the teaching here: “In such societies, human beings have committed the ultimate idolatry—the final sin of trying to make themselves their own gods (cf. Gen 3:5).”157

While giving acknowledgment to the existence of God, many people ignore his lordship. In the modern mind “God” is a nebulous concept, lacking the ability to effect good or evil. People who think in this way might not question the existence of God but seriously question whether or not God works.

The faithful among the people of Israel knew the work of God. He worked to bring the world into existence, and he continues to work in his world. The prophets of the Old Testament, like the Christian authors of holy Scripture, affirmed the power of God to effect change as well as the will of God to work in his world. The Lord God works in history to accomplish his sovereign purpose.

148 See Achtemeier, Nahum–Malachi, 69.

NIV New International Version

149 Motyer (“Zephaniah,” 921) notes that the NIV here follows BHS in emending הָאֲנָשִׁים, “men” to הַשַּׁאֲנַנִּים, “secure, complacent, undisturbed ones.” Motyer’s strong language may well be deserved here and in so many places where emendation is done for meter or parallelism: this “only proves that emendation can be insidious. The idea is suitable (though sufficiently present without being labored), but the change lacks manuscript evidence.”

150 קפא occurs elsewhere only in Exod 15:8 and Job 10:10. It refers to something that stiffens, thickens, or congeals (HALOT, 1117).

151 D. J. Clark and H. A. Hatton, A Handbook on the Books of Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah (New York: UBS, 1989), 156. On the use in Jer 48:11–12 cf. Berlin, Zephaniah, 88.

152 Patterson, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, 314–15. He explains that the sin is “one of indifference that goes beyond the smug self-satisfaction suggested by the word ‘complacency’ to an attitude that has hardened into deliberate disregard for the Lord and His standards” (p. 318). Roberts adds: “They had been secure so long in their wealth, despite their means of obtaining it, that they no longer took seriously any thought that Yahweh might affect the outcome of business or politics. They were self-sufficient, self-made men, and God was not a factor in their calculations (cf. Jas 4:13–17)” (Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah, 180–81). According to Berlin, “the people have become mired in their drinking and indulgent lifestyle” (Zephaniah, 87–88).

153 House, Zephaniah, 58. Patterson says: “If not in theory, at least in practice, the people of Judah behaved like full-fledged pagans” (Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, 315).

154 Motyer explains that the piel verb אֱחַפֵּשׁ here is “a true intensive,” rendering “I will busy myself searching through” (“Zephaniah,” 3:921).

155 Motyer explains that the contrast between good and evil here is a Hebraic way of expressing totality by means of contrast, the conclusion being that God does nothing at all (ibid., 3:920).

156 Patterson, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, 315.

157 Achtemeier, Nahum–Malachi, 69.

 Kenneth L. Barker, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, vol. 20, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1999), 434–436.

 

 

당시 이스라엘은 앗수르의 풍습을 따르면서 그 안에서 기득권을 누리며 살아가는 사람들이 있었다. 하나님께서는 풍요로움에 빠져서 하나님을 잊어버린 이들을 심판하실 것이다. 이 심판의 날이 임할 때 곳곳에는 울음 소리가 울려퍼질 것이다. 지금의 여의도 증권가나 강남의 테헤란로, 혹은 미국의 월스트리트에 주님께서 나타나셔서 거래하는 자들을 끊으실 때, 포도주에 취해서 스스로 만족해 있던 이들, 그래서 하나님을 찾지 않는 이들을 찾아오셔서 그들의 것을 취하심으로 심판을 내리신 다는 것이다. 

 

 

 

 

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