Zephaniah: Jehovah has concealed, or Jehovah of darkness.

1. The son of Cushi, and great-grandson of Hezekiah, and the ninth in the order of the minor prophets. He prophesied in the days of Josiah, king of Judah (B.C. 641-610), and was contemporary with Jeremiah, with whom he had much in common. The book of his prophecies consists of:
   1. An introduction (Zephaniah 1:1-6), announcing the judgment of the world, and the judgment upon Israel, because of their transgressions.
   2. The description of the judgment (Zephaniah 1:7-18).
   3. An exhortation to seek God while there is still time (Zephaniah 2:1-3).
   4. The announcement of judgment on the heathen (Zephaniah 2:4-15).
   5. The hopeless misery of Jerusalem (Zephaniah 3:1-7).
   6. The promise of salvation (Zephaniah 3:8-20).
2. The son of Maaseiah, the "second priest" in the reign of Zedekiah, often mentioned in Jeremiah as having been sent from the king to inquire (Jeremiah 21:1) regarding the coming woes which he had denounced, and to entreat the prophet's intercession that the judgment threatened might be averted (Jeremiah 29:25,26,29; 37:3; 52:24). He, along with some other captive Jews, was put to death by the king of Babylon "at Riblah in the land of Hamath" (2 Kings 25:21).
3. A Kohathite ancestor of the prophet Samuel (1 Chronicles 6:36).
4. The father of Josiah, the priest who dwelt in Jerusalem when Darius issued the decree that the temple should be rebuilt (Zechariah 6:10).