Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Harold R. Holmyard III" <hholmyard AT ont.com>]

Dear Robert,

You quote:

>"This is the message that the Lord gave to Zephaniah...The Lord said, "I
>am going to destroy everything on earth, all human beings and animals,
>birds, and  fish....I will destroy  all mankind, and NO SURVIVORS will
>be left. I, the Lord, have spoken.  On the day when the Lord shows His
>fury....the whole earth will be destroyed by the fire of His anger. He
>will put an end-a sudden end-to everyone who lives on earth" Zeph.
>1:1,2,18.

I do not know what translation this is, but it is possible to translate the
Hebrew in a more restrained way. Check the NIV translation, which uses
"sweep away" instead of "destroy" in verse 1. It does not use the word
"all," and the phrase "no survivors" is missing. The statements are still
fairly all inclusive in the NIV, however.

>Questions re: the Zephaniah citation above:  This seems like the
>ultimate Apocalypse. But, is it?  Did Z  get carried away with
>hyperbole? Or, did he have such a vision of the end times?  Is this a
>mundane, near-history; or an eschatological scenario? If Z  had such a
>vision, or revelation from God, shall we believe it , or rationalize it?

I believe it, but God often overlaid historical prophetic visions with
eschatological visions because He used historical events to point to
endtime events.

>Are a number of voices/traditions combined in the Book of Z? The
>absolutist, radical announcement of God's wrath eventuating in the
>total, cosmic destruction of the whole of creation is modified, even
>contradicted, throughout the Book of Z,  where, we note,  a number of
>times,  the more familiar remnant idea. Is this yet another  example
>where the author(s)/editor(s) has/have let contrasting traditions rest
>in close proximity to each other, as in other parts of the Bible?

It looks to me that the problem might be the translation used. Verse 18,
for example, speaks of an end made with all the inhabitants of the earth.
The Hebrew particle (T before "all the inhabitants of the earth" is
probably not the object marker but the preposition "with." The noun KFLFH
("end") is the object of the verb. So it is an end with the earthdwellers.
This need not require their complete destruction. A dramatic and violent
end to the age would do.

                                Yours,
                                Harold Holmyard