1. Zephaniah 3:18 (ESV)
  2. Exposition

What is the sense of 3:18, difficult as it is to translate the verse?

Zephaniah 3:18 (ESV)

18 I will gather those of you who mourn for the festival, so that you will no longer suffer reproach.

The Hebrew of this verse is very difficult. Literally it says, The ones grieving from an assembly I gathered from you they were, tribute upon her, a reproach. Any smooth translation of this difficult verse must be provisional at best.

The ESV translates the verse as a promise that God will gather his exiled remnant who have been unable to attend any of their religious feasts in Jerusalem (because of being under Assyrian rule), and as a result have suffered reproach. By the destruction of the holy city and the deportation of its population, they are deprived of their chief treasure in life. Access has been cut off from the proper place of worship.1 By gathering his remnant to Jerusalem, he will overcome their reproach and show that his presence among them has secured their deliverance. And his people will be able to participate in joy and thanksgiving in God’s appointed times of worship.2