Zephaniah
The prophecies of Zephaniah seem to refer to the apostacies of Manasseh's reign ( 2 Kings 21). He predicts the down fall of the Assyrian empire but, unlike Isaiah, he does not anticipate the resurgence of peace and righteousness in Jerusalem. He predicts a day of judgment that will sweep across the face of the entire earth (1:2, 14-18) like a fire-storm and purge it of evil.
Emil G. Kraeling, The Prophets, calls this prediction of destruction the climax of Zephaniah's prophecy. In his reading, Zephaniah gives little hope to his audience, for repentance does not grant reprieve: "Seek righteousness, seek humility; perhaps you may be hidden on the day of the Lord's wrath." (Zeph 2:3).
For the modern reader, Zephaniah represents the fire and brimestone preacher of the Old Testament. I tend to think of the pulpit pounding preachers of early American novels like Moby Dick orThe Scarlet Letter or the tent revival preachers, such as Billy Sunday, of the depression era. If I look at this letter through the lense of reader-response criticism or literary criticism, I find questions that may liberate Zephaniah from this designation.
Chapter three is very different from chapter one. What does this movement signify? Should we not treat the order of thought as development? Does it make sense to treat the first verses of the prophecy as the conclusion or main point?
As a literary critique, I ask the question, Who is the narrator? Who is speaking? The speaker is then the protagonist of the book. How is he characterized? Is he like other biblical characters? Does he change? Look at the verbs used by the speaker {God} to describe his own actions in chapter one, then look at those used in chapter three? What sort of conclusions can we draw about how God changes?
Chapter One
Chapter Three
While God is warrior king throughout, his actions become more paternalistic in chapter three. Jerusalem is "daughter Zion." Anger gives way to kindness. If we compare God to a parent, can we conclude that his first emotions are like the anger that a parent feels and vents in threats that he or she does not intend to carry out. "If you do not behave, I am never taking you anywhere again." "You are grounded for a year." A parent may try to change his or her child's behavior with warnings and negative consequences, but these are often ineffectual and ultimately the child does not grow up to be the sort of adult one would choose. Do we want our children to do the right thing because they fear retribution? Would we not prefer that they act out of love?
The suggestion that God changes his mind is offensive to some people's ideas of the nature of God, but this sort of assertion would be beyond the scope of a literary critical analysis. We ask only how God is characterized in Zephaniah. The answer to that question is that God is like a parent and to understand how God feels about Israel's failures or our own failures, we need only reflect upon our own frustrations as parents.