1. Zephaniah 1:10 (ESV)
  2. Exposition

What is this wailing?

Zephaniah 1:10 (ESV)

10 “On that day,” declares the LORD, “a cry will be heard from the Fish Gate, a wail from the Second Quarter, a loud crash from the hills.

The term is in parallel with “cry” (see commentary in that note). The wailing in view was more often a mourning over the dead. Here, however, it appears to denote more particularly the grief of a community experiencing an extraordinary catastrophe (see further Isaiah 14:31; Jeremiah 25:34).