Zephaniah 3:3 Commentary and Bible Study

Judah’s leaders, both secular and spiritual, come under particular scrutiny. ‘Her princes within her are roaring lions.’ They are out to make a killing, and they see the people as their prize, to be preyed upon, and entirely at their disposal. Gone is any sense of responsibility to their citizens; everything exists only in order to be exploited by the powerful. Corruption starts at the top, but it does not stay there; by example it works its way down the whole of society. Why should the common man exercise self-restraint, when he sees that his leaders do not do so? So the princes fleece the flock of the Lord.‘Her judges are evening wolves.’ The judges were supposed to be the refuge of the poor and the oppressed. The poor should have been able to come to them with their grievances and get justice and satisfaction. The judges are supposed to be in the place of power where even the weak and the insignificant can find relief. They must have compassion in their hearts to take up the cause of the poor and needy, and they must stand up to vested interests in the land. But these judges were themselves preying on the poor. They were a parody of true judges. When the poor came for relief, they met with further exploitation, and so it was better to suffer in silence. ‘They gnaw not the bones till the morrow.’ Nearly all other versions translate it along the lines of ‘they leave not a bone till the morning.’ They eat up so hungrily that there is not even a bone left the following morning. It is an expression of their greed and their oppression of the common people.‘Her prophets are light and treacherous persons.’ The people looked to the prophets as those who possessed wisdom and who lived close to the Lord, and who could give sound teaching and counsel from the Lord, even when they were not speaking by inspiration. But what they found was further exploitation, and that in the messengers of God sent to teach truth. They could not be trusted at any level. How would anyone dare to go to a prophet like this? What disappointment he would meet with if he tried it! Where was the character which one naturally expected to find in a prophet?And the priests were the same. ‘Her priests have polluted the sanctuary, they have done violence to the law.’ The priests were the mediators between God and the people. Integrity was essential. The people must be able to approach them as the very representatives of God, to whom they can speak with perfect confidence, and from whom they receive the truth without any hint of taking advantage. But it was very different. These priests knew the law, but they did not keep it. Again, self-interest was at work. They looked for advantage in their position and they were ready to betray their high calling. The law which they were supposed to teach and embody in their own person, they did violence to. They kept the law only when it suited them, and became more and more brazen in cutting corners. They are all out for themselves; there is no integrity left in the city or its institutions, and so they are all condemned.