1. Zephaniah 2:15 (ESV)
  2. Exposition

What does “exultant” mean?

Zephaniah 2:15 (ESV)

15 This is the exultant city that lived securely, that said in her heart, “I am, and there is no one else.” What a desolation she has become, a lair for wild beasts! Everyone who passes by her hisses and shakes his fist.

The term used for exultant, when applied to the wicked (Psalm 94:3) and to Israel’s foes (2 Samuel 1:20; Isaiah 23:12; Jeremiah 50:11), depicts a kind of gloating.1