Zephaniah 1:14

The great day of the Lord [is] near, [it is] near, and hasteth greatly,.... Not the day of judgment, but the day of God's vengeance upon the Jews, which yet bore some resemblance to that day of the

The great day of the LORD is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the LORD: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly.

The great day; not the day of general judgment, but the day in which the great God will bring his great armies against Judah and Jerusalem, and do great things by those armies. Of the Lord; appointed, foretold, and now actually brought on them by the Lord. It is near; very near; it is doubled to show the nearness of it, and to assure us it is so. And hasteth greatly; your enemies’ eagerness for the prey, your sins and security, and the Lord’ s justly provoked anger, hasten this day. The voice; it is within hearing, the sound of it is in mine ears, methinks you might hear it also. The mighty man, the valiant and stout-hearted among the Jews, they who should support others, shall be really to sink themselves, and as much need a cordial themselves. Shall cry there bitterly; their courage broken, they shall cry out most vehemently, or like hopeless women.

Zephaniah 1:14 The great day of the LORD [is] near, [it is] near, and hasteth greatly, [even] the voice of the day of the LORD: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly.Ver. 14. The great day of the Lord is near, it is near] It is the "day of the Lord," that fatal day appointed by him to ruin the nation; for with him it is all one, whether it be done against a nation or against a man only, Job 34:29. Next, it is his great day; because therein the great God will set himself to do great matters: how much more at the day of judgment, called also "a great day," Revelation 6:17; Revelation 16:14. This great day is near, yea, very near, it hasteth greatly] It hath wings, and wind under those wings, as Zechariah 5:9; it will be upon men ere they are aware; neither will anything more hasten it than their security and fearlessness. Think the same of the last day, which cannot but be at hand, and then the transgressors shall be destroyed together; the end of the wicked shall be cut off, Psalms 37:38. Even the voice of the day of the Lord] Methinks I hear it. “ Fallor? an arma sonant? non fallimur, arma sonabant. Mars venit, et veniens bellica signa dedit. ” Jerome speaketh thus to himself, whether I eat, or drink, or sleep, methinks I hear that last trump sounding these words in mine ears, Surgite mortui, venite in iudicium, Arise, ye dead, and come to judgment. A very necessary meditation. The mighty man shall cry there bitterly] How much more the turba imbellis, the weak and cowardly! they shall take up a loud lamentation, and cry with the breaking of their loins.

(14-18) The judgment, in reference to its destructive character.

Verse 14. The great day of the Lord is near] It commenced with the death of the good king Josiah, who was slain by Pharaoh-necho at Megiddo, and continued to the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar.

14–18. The terrors of the Day of the Lord The day of the Lord is described as a day of battle and assault upon the fenced cities, but also as a day of darkness and supernatural terrors. In Arabic the term “day” often means “battle-day,” as the “day of Bedr,” and this may have been its original application in Hebrew; cf. Isaiah 9:4, “in the day of Midian.” The day of the Lord is the day of His self-revelation to judge evil and bring His work of redemption among men to completion. On the one side His revelation of Himself fills men with terror and anguish, on the other side it is the cause of universal gladness, for the oppressions under which the world groaned come to an end and the reign of God begins: “The Lord is King! let the earth rejoice, let the multitude of the isles be glad … for he cometh to rule the earth; he shall rule the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity” (Psalms 97:1; Psalms 98:9). Sometimes the terrors of the day of the Lord are represented as due to His manifestation of Himself and the convulsions of nature that accompany His appearing, “when he arises to shake terribly the earth” (Isaiah 2:10-22); at other times, besides the supernatural gloom and terrors that surround Him when He appears, He is represented as using some terrible distant nation as the instrument by which He executes His judgment (Isaiah 13, and the present passage). The judgment of the day of the Lord is a judgment on the known world, on Israel and the historical nations lying within its horizon, and the nation that executes the judgment is some fierce and wild people emerging from the dark places of the earth lying beyond the confines of the known world. There is thus a certain inconsistency in the representation: though the judgment be universal the nation that executes it does not come within its scope.

The great Day of the Lord is near - The prophet again expands the words of Joel, accumulating words expressive of the terrors of that Day, showing that though “the great and very terrible Day of the

The terrors of the day of Jehovah, Zephaniah 1:14-18.In Zephaniah 1:14 Zephaniah calls attention once more to the nearness of the day of Jehovah (compare Zephaniah 1:7); in the succeeding verses he