The prophet moves from announcing the cosmic character of God’s imminent devastation in Zephaniah 1:2–3 to a more exact object of judgment. Zephaniah 1:4–6 highlights the nature of the Lord’s judgment in how the people of Judah have broken the terms of his covenant and are therefore objects of divine wrath. The “general accusation of wickedness (3a) becomes the precise accusation of religious error (4b–5a), disloyalty (5b), apostasy (6a), and practical atheism (6b)."1
4 “I will stretch out my hand against Judah and against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and I will cut off from this place the remnant of Baal and the name of the idolatrous priests along with the priests,