It is not immediately clear which city is being referred to. As the verse follows on from the portrayal of Nineveh’s fate, it may seem at first to continue that description. But the city is Jerusalem, indicated by the fact that this place alone fulfills the role of the unique dwelling place of God (Zephaniah 3:5). In Zephaniah 3:1, the prophet explicitly identified the city as Jerusalem.

The ambiguity of this verse is most likely because Zephaniah 3:1–7 rhetorically presents Jerusalem and its leaders as paralleling the arrogant Assyrians, such that it calls the people to adopt a fundamental attitude of humility.¹