Zephaniah 2.1-The Lord Commands the Jewish People to Assemble Together
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday March 29, 2016
Zephaniah: Zephaniah 2:1-The Lord Commands the Jewish People to Assemble Together
Lesson # 35
Zephaniah 2:1 Gather yourselves together, yes, gather, O nation without shame. (NASB95)
Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the prophet Zephaniah is employing the figure of asyndeton in order to express the solemn nature of the commands in Zephaniah 2:1 which are directed at the Jews living in the prophet Zephaniah’s day and those living during the seventieth week of Daniel.
This figure is designed to get these individuals to meditate upon these commands for the purpose of application which would be to repent as individuals and thus as a nation.
This verse is composed of the following: (1) second person masculine plural hiṯpôʿēl middle imperative form of the verb qāšaš (קָשַׁשׁ), “gather yourselves together” (2) conjunction w (וְ), “yes” (3) second person masculine plural qal active imperative form of the verb qāšaš (קָשַׁשׁ), “gather” (4) articular masculine singular noun gôy (גּוֹי), “O nation” (5) negative particle lōʾ (לֹא), “without” (6) masculine singular niphal passive participle form of the verb kāsap (כָּסַף), “shame.”
The verb qāšaš appears twice in Zephaniah 2:1.
The first time, it appears in the hiṯpôʿēl stem whereas it is in the qal stem the second time it occurs and in each instance the word means “to gather together, to assemble together” in the sense of causing two or more persons to come together in linear movement.
Some like Patterson argue that these two denominative verbs produce a play on ideas because they believe the idea of gathering straw is contained in this verb.
He views these verbs as producing an image of gathering straw left from the threshing sledge which would separate the grain from the chaff in the winnowing process.
So the idea is that the Jews would be divided into believers (straw) and unbelievers (chaff) when the judgment is executed against them by God.
The citizens of Judah were to gather themselves together as they would sticks or straw, implying the people are like stubble or straw and as such, they are vulnerable to the Lord’s fiery judgment that will quickly consume them.
However, it is better to interpret the imperative form of this verb qāšaš as simply expressing the idea of the Jewish people being ordered by God to assemble themselves together for the purpose of repentance since this verb does mean “to assemble together.”
So in Zephaniah 2:1, the verb qāšaš simply is expressing the idea of the Jewish people being ordered to assemble themselves for the purpose of fasting which would be an outward sign of an inward reality, namely repentance toward God.
Both these verbs are in the second masculine plural form of the verb and in each instance it is a reference to the Jews living in Zephaniah’s day in the sixth century B.C. as well as those living during the seventieth week of Daniel and is used in a distributive sense expressing the idea of no exceptions.
The hiṯpôʿēl stem is a reflexive-factitive hiṯpôʿēl meaning that the subject of the verb causes itself to enter a state indicating the Jews were to cause themselves to enter the state of being assembled together before Him for the purpose of repentance.
The qal stem of this verb is fientive expressing an action indicating that the Lord is commanding each and every one of the Jews living in the sixth century B.C. and those living during the seventieth week to assemble together before Him for the purpose of seeking His forgiveness.
So the hiṯpôʿēl form of this verb qāšaš emphasizes the importance of the Jewish people acting upon each other by causing those who need to repent to enter into the state of assembling before the Lord and emphasizes the need of the Jewish people to hold each other accountable.
So the hiṯpôʿēl stem is directed at those who are faithful.
The qal stem simply emphasizes the act of the Jewish people assembling themselves together as a corporate unit and is directed at the unfaithful.
So the idea of these two stems is that of the faithful Jews acting upon unfaithful Jews so as to cause the latter to enter into the state of being assembled with the former for the purpose of seeking the Lord’s forgiveness.
The noun gôy means “nation” since it speaks of a politically organized body of people under a single ruler or government and is used with reference to the citizens of Judah living during the seventh century B.C. in a derogatory sense since it is usually the word the Hebrews used for unregenerate pagan nations.
It is used in the same way with reference to those Jews living during the seventieth week of Daniel.
The verb kāsap does not mean “to be ashamed” but rather “to be desired” and appears in the Old Testament five times (Gen. 31:30; Ps. 17:12; 84:3; Job 14:15).
When it appears in the qal stem, this verb means “to long for, to desire” and in the niphal stem it means “to long for greatly, to desire greatly.”
Some relate this word to an Aramaic cognate meaning “to be ashamed” but elsewhere in biblical Hebrew the verb means “to desire,” or with the negative particle “undesirable.” Cf. also NEB “unruly.”
The verb kāsap is in the niphal stem and means “to be greatly desired” and its meaning is emphatically negated by the emphatic negative particle lōʾ and together they mean “totally undesirable.”
Therefore, this would indicate that the Jewish nation is a “totally undesirable nation” in the view of God.
Zephaniah 2:1 Each and every one of you cause each other to enter the state of being assembled. Yes, assemble together you totally undesirable nation. (My translation)
Through the prophet Zephaniah, the Lord solemnly issues two commands which are directed at the Jewish people living in the seventh century B.C. and those living during the seventieth week of Daniel.
That they are directed at those Jews living in the seventh century B.C. in Zephaniah’s day is indicated by several factors.
First, the proclamation to repent in Zephaniah 2:1-3 is directly tied to the proclamation of judgment in Zephaniah 1:2-18 since the Lord’s purpose for the former is to cause unrepentant sinners to repent.
Also, Zephaniah 1:4-6 and 8-13 contain a description of Jerusalem and its inhabitants which could have only been fulfilled in the prophet’s day.
That these commands are directed at those Jews living during the seventieth week is indicated by Zephaniah 1:2-3 and 18 which assert that this judgment will be universal or will engulf the entire world.
God’s judgment of the earth through the Babylonian invasions did not engulf the entire world, however, His judgments during the last three and a half years of the seventieth week will.
The Jewish people are described as a “totally undesirable nation” because God is holy and the majority of the nation are unregenerate, unrepentant sinners or apostate believers.
These unrepentant Jews were no better than unrepentant Gentile sinners!
The purpose of these commands is to prompt the Jewish people to repent as individuals and thus as a nation.
Both commands emphasize the need for the Jewish people to assemble together for the purpose of seeking forgiveness from Him.
Together they emphasize that it is imperative for the Jewish people to assembled together with each other before the Lord as a corporate unit to repent resulting in their worshipping Him.
In Zephaniah 2:2, they are told the reason why they are to do this, namely before the decree to judge them is executed by the Lord and expresses His righteous indignation towards them.
What Zephaniah is saying in Zephaniah 2:1 parallels Joel 1:14.
In the latter, the prophet Joel orders the Jewish people to consecrate a fast and proclaim an assembly of themselves and they were to gather the elders and all the people to the house of the Lord and cry out to Him in repentance.
Joel 1:14 Consecrate a fast, proclaim a solemn assembly; Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of the Lord your God, and cry out to the Lord. (NASB95)
Fasting was also a sign of repentance from national or corporate sins and was an act of seeking forgiveness from God as a nation (1 Samuel 7:6; Ezra 9:1-10:17; Nehemiah 9:1; Zechariah 8:16-19).
Daniel and Nehemiah fasted individually over their nation’s corporate sin as a demonstration of humility and repentance (Daniel 9:3-14; Nehemiah 1:4-7).