Bible Commentary

Zephaniah 3:4

Zephaniah 3:4

John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible · John Gill (1697–1771) · Public Domain

Her prophets [are] light [and treacherous persons,.... The false prophets, as the Targum and Kimchi explain it: these seem to design the lawyers spoken of in the New Testament, whose business it was to interpret the law to the people; these were "light" men, good for nothing, of no worth and value; light in knowledge, as Kimchi gives the sense of the word; men of no brains; empty headed men, that had no substantial knowledge; giddy, unstable, and inconstant, and compliant with the humours and vices of the people; men of no gravity in their countenance, speech, and conversation.

Schultens , from the use of the word in the Arabic language, renders it "proud", as these men were, proud boasters; for, though they had but a superficial knowledge of things, they boasted of much, and carried it with a haughty and insolent air to the common people: and they were "treacherous" to God, and to his truths, and to the souls of men, and took away the key of knowledge from them; and particularly were so to Christ, of whom they were the betrayers and murderers, delivering him up into the hands of the Gentiles to be scourged and crucified, Mt 20:18:her priests have polluted the sanctuary; the temple; by selling, or suffering to be sold in it, various things, whereby it became a den of thieves, which once was called a house of prayer, Mt 21:12 and also our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the sanctuary or temple was a type, by denying, blaspheming, and reproaching him, and by shedding his blood:they have done violence to the law; by not teaching it as they should; and by their false glosses, senses, and interpretations of it; and by the traditions of the elders they preferred unto it, and whereby they made it void; see Mt 5:1 and Mt 15:1.

Animadv. Philol. in Job, p.

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