1. Zephaniah 3:7 (ESV)
  2. Exposition

What should all be included within the quotation marks?

Zephaniah 3:7 (ESV)

7 I said, ‘Surely you will fear me; you will accept correction. Then your dwelling would not be cut off according to all that I have appointed against you.’ But all the more they were eager to make all their deeds corrupt.

The quotation marks in this verse are used to mark the direct discourse of the Lord. Translations such as the ESV and NRSV see this discourse as extended from “surely” to “all that I have appointed against you.” The ESV modifies the original’s third-person feminine singular pronouns in the middle part of the verse to second-person feminine singular pronouns (so, “your dwelling…against you” instead of “her dwelling…against her,” seemingly because the translation understands those lines as yet part of the Lord’s direct speech to the city, and because otherwise there is this progression in the verse from “you” to “her” to “they/their” when talking about the same subject. The NIV and NET, however, view the direct speech as limited to the first part of the verse: “Surely you will fear me; you will accept correction,” and translate the original’s third-person feminine singular pronouns in the middle part of the verse as such. This latter option seems preferable, as it accounts for the original Hebrew the closest. The progression from “you” to “her” to “they/their” may be somewhat awkward in English, it is more common in Hebrew. A proposed translation of the verse is as follows: “I said, ‘Surely you will fear me; you will accept correction’—and her dwelling would not be cut off according to all that I have appointed against her. But all the more they were eager to make all their deeds corrupt.”