Zephaniah 3.17b-The Lord Will Rejoice Over the Remnant of Israel Because He Will Regenerate Them Because of His Love
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday September 15, 2016
Zephaniah: Zephaniah 3:17b-The Lord Will Rejoice Over the Remnant of Israel Because He Will Regenerate Them Because of His Love
Lesson # 90
Zephaniah 3:17 “The LORD your God is in your midst, a victorious warrior. He will exult over you with joy, He will be quiet in His love, He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy.” (NASB95)
“He will exult over you with joy” is composed of the following: (1) third person masculine singular qal active imperfect form of the verb śûś (שׂוּשׂ), “He will exult” (2) preposition ʿal (עַל), “over” (3) second person feminine singular personal pronoun ʾat (אַתְּ), “you” (4) preposition b (בְּ), “with” (5) feminine singular noun śimḥâ (שִׂמְחָה), “joy.”
The verb śûś (soose) is in the qal stem and means “to be pleased with someone, to be delighted with someone” since it pertains to having a feeling or attitude of fondness and enjoyment toward someone implying a love or relationship to the person one is delighted with.
Therefore, this verb expresses the idea that the Lord Jesus Christ during His millennial reign will express great joy and be very delighted or pleased with this future remnant of Israel.
The second person feminine singular personal pronoun ʾat means “you” referring to the city of Jerusalem and in particular it is referring to the remnant of Israel which will reside in this city in the future.
This word is the object of the preposition ʿal, which means “because of” since the word is functioning as a marker of cause meaning it is marking this personal pronoun as the reason why the Lord Jesus Christ will express great joy.
He will do so “because of” this future remnant who will trust in Him as Savior.
The noun śimḥâ (seem-ha) means “joy” since the word pertains to a feeling or attitude of joyful happiness and cheerfulness.
However, it would appear that this word is used here in Zephaniah 3:17 of a “joyful celebration” which is how the word is often used in the Old Testament.
The noun śimḥâ is the object of the preposition b, which means “with” since the word is functioning as a marker of means.
Therefore, this prepositional phrase is expressing the means by which the Lord Jesus Christ will express great joy because of this future remnant of Israel which will trust in Him as Savior and worship Him as their God.
He will do so “with a joyful celebration.”
“He will be quiet in His love” is composed of the following: (1) third person masculine singular hiphil active imperfect form of the verb ḥārēš (חָרֵשׁ), “He will be quiet” (2) preposition b (בְּ), “in” (3) feminine singular construct form of the noun ʾahăbâ (אַהֲבָה), “love” (4) third person masculine singular pronominal suffix hûʾ (הוּא), “His.”
At this point in the verse we have a textual problem in that some MSS and even the MT have the verb ḥārēš (חָרֵשׁ) (ha-rash) whereas the LXX and BHS contend that the original is the verb ḥādaš (חָדַשׁ) (ha-dash).
I am adopting the view of BHS, LXX, Patterson and the Net Bible that the original text contains the verb ḥādaš (חָדַשׁ) rather than the verb ḥārēš (חָרֵשׁ) for the reasons presented by Patterson and the Net Bible, namely, the latter makes no sense in light of the immediate preceding and following lines.
The immediate preceding line predicts the Lord will express great joy with a joyful celebration because of this remnant which will worship Him.
The latter asserts that He will rejoice over this remnant with shouts of joy.
It makes no sense that between these two lines that the Lord would be silent over this remnant.
Lastly, it is easy to see how the reading ḥārēš (חָרֵשׁ) found its way into some copies of the Old Testament since the difference between the two words is a simple consonantal change of ר to ד.
Therefore, verb ḥādaš means “to become new” since the basic idea of the word is that of restoring something to its former condition as opposed to making it for the first time.
Here in Zephaniah 3:17, this verb means “to renew” in the sense of revitalizing a seemingly dead object.
Therefore, this word speaks of regeneration since it is expressing the idea that the Lord Jesus Christ will “renew” these spiritually dead Jews in the sense that He will regenerate them through the Spirit when they trust in Him at His Second Advent to deliver them from Satan, Antichrist, the false prophet and the tribulational armies.
The noun ʾahăbâ (ah-ha-vah) means “love” since the word pertains to the state or condition of strong affection for another based on relationship.
This word is thus speaking of Jesus Christ’s divine-love expressing itself in strong affection for this future remnant of Israel who will worship Him during His millennial reign.
This love is based upon the relationship they possess with Him through regeneration which is the direct result of their exercising faith in Him at His Second Advent.
He has strong affection for this remnant because they now through faith in Him possess His righteousness and His eternal life.
The noun ʾahăbâ is the object preposition b, which means “because of” since the word is functioning as a marker of cause expressing the idea that the Lord will cause this future remnant of Israel which will worship Him during His millennial reign to be renewed “because of” His love.
“He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy” is composed of the following: (1) third person masculine singular qal active imperfect form of the verb gîl (גִּיל), “He will rejoice” (2) preposition ʿal (עַל), “over” (3) second person feminine singular pronominal suffix ʾat (אַתְּ), “you” (4) preposition b (בְּ), “with” (5) feminine singular noun rinnâ (רִנָּה), “shouts of joy.”
The verb gîl (geel) means “to rejoice” since the word pertains to joy expressed in song and here it speaks of the joy the Lord Jesus Christ will express with songs because of this future remnant of Israel which will worship Him during His millennial reign.
Once again, we have the second person feminine singular personal pronoun ʾat which means “you” referring to the city of Jerusalem and in particular it is referring to the remnant of Israel which will reside in this city in the future.
This word is the object of the preposition ʿal, which means “because of” since the word is functioning as a marker of cause meaning it is marking this personal pronoun as the reason why the Lord Jesus Christ will express great joy in song.
He will do so “because of” this future remnant who will trust in Him as Savior.
In this verse, the noun rinnâ (ree-nah) can mean either “shouts of joy” or “joyful singing.”
Here the latter would appear to be in view since Zephaniah 3:18 makes reference to the seven great feasts of Israel and singing at the feasts was involved when worshipping the Lord.
This noun is the object of the preposition b, which means “with, by means of, by” since the word is functioning as a marker of means indicating that joyful singing will be the means by which the Lord Jesus Christ will express great joy because of this future remnant who will worship Him during His millennial reign.
Zephaniah 3:17 The Lord, the God ruling over and in a relationship with you is in your midst, a mighty warrior characterized as being able to deliver. With a joyful celebration, He will express great joy because of you. He will cause you to be renewed because of His love. He will rejoice because of you by means of joyful singing. (My translation)
Zephaniah 3:17 contains four prophetic declarations and in each statement, Zephaniah employs the figure of asyndeton.
The purpose of this figure is not only to emphasize with the reader these prophecies but also to cause the reader to make a personal application which is repentance.
The second prophetic declaration in Zephaniah 3:17 asserts that the Lord will express great joy because of this future remnant who will trust in Him at His Second Advent to deliver them from their enemies and He will do so with a joyful celebration.
This joy over this remnant is also prophesied about in Isaiah 62:5.
The third prophetic declaration presents the implicit reason for the Lord expressing great joy with a joyful celebration, namely this remnant will have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit through faith in Him at His Second Advent.
It is expressing the idea that the Lord Jesus Christ will renew these spiritually dead Jews in the sense that He will regenerate them through the Spirit when they trust in Him at His Second Advent to deliver them from Satan, Antichrist, the false prophet and the tribulational armies.
On the Day of Atonement, at the Second Advent of Christ, Israel will as a nation trust in Jesus Christ as Savior and thus be regenerated by the Spirit (Ezekiel 36:22-31; 37; Zechariah 12:10; 14:9-21).
Zephaniah then informs the reader that the reason why the Lord will regenerate this remnant through faith in Him is that He loves them or in other words, the Lord will cause this remnant to be regenerated because He loves them.
Jesus Christ’s divine-love will express itself in strong affection for this future remnant of Israel who will worship Him during His millennial reign.
This love is based upon the relationship they possess with Him through regeneration which is the direct result of their exercising faith in Him at His Second Advent.
He has strong affection for this remnant because they now through faith in Him possess His righteousness and His eternal life.
The fourth and final prophetic declaration predicts that the Lord Jesus Christ will rejoice because of this remnant and will do so by means of joyful singing.
It speaks of the joy the Lord Jesus Christ will express with songs because of this future remnant of Israel which will worship Him during His millennial reign.