“I have cut off nations.
Their battlements
Are in ruins.
I have laid waste
Their streets,
So that no one walks
In them.
Their cities have been made
Desolate,
Without people,
Without inhabitants.
I said.
‘Surely
This city
Will fear me.
She will accept correction.
She will not lose sight
Of all that I have brought
Upon her.
But they were more eager
To make all their deeds
Corrupt.’”
Yahweh, via Zephaniah, warned Jerusalem about what Yahweh had done to other countries. He had ruined their fortresses and battlement stations. He had destroyed their streets, so that people could not walk on them. He had reduced their cities to rubble, so that nobody lived there anymore. Why didn’t Jerusalem fear him? Yahweh thought that Jerusalem would take corrections, since she had seen all the things that he had done for them. However, they were more eager to continue with their corrupt activities, rather than follow Yahweh.
Eugene Finnegan Bible Project 