Zep 1:14-15; and עבר here is not to pass by, but to approach, to come near, as in Nah 3:19. For the figure of the chaff, see Isa 29:5. In the second בּטרם is strengthened by לא; and חרון אף, the burning of wrath in the last clause, is explained by יום אף יי, the day of the revelation of the wrath of God.
Verse 3
But because the judgment will so speedily burst upon them, all the pious especially - ‛anvē hâ'ârets, the quiet in the land, οι πραεῖς (Amo 2:7; Isa 11:4; Psa 37:11) - are to seek the Lord. The humble (‛ănâvı̄m) are described as those who do Jehovah's right, i.e., who seek diligently to fulfil what Jehovah has prescribed in the law as right. Accordingly, seeking Jehovah is explained as seeking righteousness and humility. The thought is this: they are to strive still more zealously after Jehovah's right, viz., righteousness and humility (cf. Deu 16:20; Isa 51:1, Isa 51:7); then will they probably be hidden in the day of wrath, i.e., be pardoned and saved (cf. Amo 5:15). This admonition is now still further enforced from Zep 2:4 onwards by the announcement of the coming of judgment upon all the heathen, that the kingdom of God may attain completion.
Verses 4-5
Destruction of the Philistines. - Zep 2:4. “For Gaza will be forgotten, and Ashkelon become a desert; Ashdod, they drive it out in broad day, and Ekron will be ploughed out. Zep 2:5. Woe upon the inhabitants of the tract by the sea, the nation of the Cretans! The word of Jehovah upon you, O Canaan, land of the Philistines! I destroy thee, so that not an inhabitant remains. Zep 2:6. And the tract by the sea becomes pastures for shepherds' caves, and for folds of sheep. Zep 2:7. And a tract will be for the remnant of the house of Judah; upon them will they feed: in the houses of Ashkelon they encamp in the evening; for Jehovah their God will visit them, and turn their captivity.” The fourth verse, which is closely connected by kı̄ (for) with the exhortation to repentance, serves as an introduction to the threat of judgment commencing with hōi in Zep 2:5. As the mentioning of the names of the four Philistian capitals (see at Jos 13:3) is simply an individualizing periphrasis for the Philistian territory and people, so the land and people of Philistia are mentioned primarily for the purpose of individualizing, as being the representatives of the heathen world by which Judah was surrounded; and it is not till afterwards, in the further
