one
shoulder._ Ver. 10. _From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia shall they
bring my suppliants, the daughter of my dispersed for a meat-offering
to me._ Ver. 11. _In that day shall thou not be ashamed for all thy
doings wherein thou hast transgressed against me; for then will I take
away out of the midst of thee them that proudly rejoice in thee, and
thou shall no more be haughty on mine holy mountain._ Ver. 12. _And I
leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people, and they trust
in the name of the Lord._ Ver. 13. _The remnant of Israel shall not do
iniquity nor speak lies; neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in
their mouth; for they shall feed and lie down, and none shall make them
afraid._"

[Pg 358]

Zephaniah, who opens the series of the prophets who are preeminently
dependent upon other prophets, just as Habakkuk closes the series of
those pre-eminently independent, leans, in this section, chiefly upon
Isaiah; and it is from this circumstance that it appears, that the
person of the Messiah, although not appearing here, stands in the
background and forms the invisible centre.

"_Therefore_" ver. 8: Since the salvation cannot proceed from the midst
of the people, inasmuch as, in the way of their works, they receive
nothing but destructive punishment. On the words: "Wait ye upon me,"
compare Hab. ii. 3. "The day that the Lord rises up to the prey" is the
time when He will begin His great triumphal march against the Gentile
world. With the words: "For my right," &c., a new argument for the call
"Wait ye upon me," commences. But this does not by any means close with
the 8th verse, but goes on to the end of ver. 10. First: Wait, for I
will judge the nations. It is not without meaning that, as regards your
hope, I refer you to the judgment upon the Gentiles; for, in
consequence of this judgment, their conversion will take place, and a
consequence of their conversion is, that they bring back to Zion her
scattered members. In the thought, that the judgments upon the Gentile
world will break their hardness of heart, and prepare them for their
conversion, Zephaniah follows Isaiah, who, _e.g._ in chap. xix.,
exemplifies it in the case of Egypt, and in chap. xxiii. in that of
Tyre. The bruised reed and the faintly burning wick is not merely a
designation of the single individuals who have been endowed with the
right disposition for the kingdom of God, but of whole nations. "The
clean lip" in ver. 9 forms the con