It is very striking that Judah and Jerusalem become objects of God’s judgments. God had said that the scepter was never to depart from Judah (Genesis 49:10), and he had sworn that he would never remove a lamp from Jerusalem (1 Kings 11:13, 1 Kings 11:36; see also 1 Kings 15:4; 2 Kings 8:19; 2 Kings 19:34; 2 Kings 20:6). The Jews thus would have thought themselves safe for ever. This is the reason why the Prophet declares that God’s judgment was impending not only over the kingdom of Judah, but also over the holy city, which thought itself exempt from all such evil, because there were the sacrifices performed, and there was the royal city, and, in short, because God had testified that his habitation was to be there for ever. Since, then, by this vain confidence the inhabitants of Jerusalem deceived themselves and others, Zephaniah specifically addresses them.
1 And he is unequivocal: Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will be decimated, even if they are the holy people of God, the race of Abraham.
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,