8 "Well, if that's what you want, stick around." God's Decree. "Your day in court is coming, but remember I'll be there to bring evidence. I'll bring all the nations to the courtroom, round up all the kingdoms, And let them feel the brunt of my anger, my raging wrath. My zeal is a fire that will purge and purify the earth. God Is in Charge at the Center 9 "In the end I will turn things around for the people. I'll give them a language undistorted, unpolluted, Words to address God in worship and, united, to serve me with their shoulders to the wheel. 10 They'll come from beyond the Ethiopian rivers, they'll come praying - All my scattered, exiled people will come home with offerings for worship. 11 You'll no longer have to be ashamed of all those acts of rebellion. I'll have gotten rid of your arrogant leaders. No more pious strutting on my holy hill! 12 I'll leave a core of people among you who are poor in spirit - What's left of Israel that's really Israel. They'll make their home in God. 13 This core holy people will not do wrong. They won't lie, won't use words to flatter or seduce. Content with who they are and where they are, unanxious, they'll live at peace."
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Zephaniah 3:8-13
Commentary on Zephaniah 3:8-13
(Read Zephaniah 3:8-13)
The preaching of the gospel is predicted, when vengeance would be executed on the Jewish nation. The purifying doctrines of the gospel, or the pure language of the grace of the Lord, would teach men to use the language of humility, repentance, and faith. Purity and piety in common conversation is good. The pure and happy state of the church in the latter days seems intended. The Lord will shut out boasting, and leave men nothing to glory in, save the Lord Jesus, as made of God to them wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Humiliation for sin, and obligations to the Redeemer, will make true believers upright and sincere, whatever may be the case among mere professors.