Zephaniah Chapter 3 is the concluding chapter of the book. Malbim precedes his commentary on the first verse with an important introduction, which serves as the key to the entire chapter.
From the very first exile caused by Sennacherib, the prophets already began to prophesy about the redemption. Indeed, from that time onward, there was a genuine possibility that redemption could have arrived - had they been worthy. The first time Chazal speak of redemption is in the days of Hezekiah: Chazal taught that had they been worthy in Hezekiah's day, God would have gathered the dispersed of His people Israel then, for the Holy One, blessed be He, sought to make Hezekiah the Mashiach and Sennacherib Gog and Magog, but sin prevented it. Indeed, in the days of Manasseh who followed him, we see that the officers of the king of Assyria came from Babylon and imprisoned Manasseh.
Afterward, the king of Assyria came once more, as we saw in the prophecy of Nahum. And in the days of Josiah, Jeremiah thought that a window of opportunity had opened once again and that the time of redemption had arrived. Concerning Josiah, Jeremiah exclaimed, "The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of Hashem," feeling certain that "under his shadow we shall live among the nations" - yet he too was trapped by their corruption, and ultimately the redemption did not come. Jeremiah was so confident that redemption was imminent that it is related he even went to bring back the Ten Tribes.
Likewise, when Nineveh was destroyed at the beginning of Jehoiakim's reign, they no longer feared the Assyrian empire, and they thought this era was auspicious for redemption. In truth, it was an auspicious time, had they been worthy. But because they persisted in the sins of their ancestors, the opportunity was deferred, and the king of Babylon overpowered them and exiled them.
The next opportunity arose only during the Second Temple era. The Second Temple was a kind of testing period: had they all ascended during the rebuilding of the Temple, they would have merited that at the end of four hundred and twenty years the Third Temple would be built, with an extensive ingathering of all the dispersed of His people Israel, followed by universal redemption. Yet then too, they corrupted their ways through baseless hatred: rival factions fought one another - Sadducees, Boethusians, Essenes - alongside the zealots in Jerusalem who burned all the storehouses of grain, oil, and wheat, leading to the destruction of the Temple. And from then on, says Malbim, the matter remains pending until the time arrives at the End of Days.
Nevertheless, Malbim emphasizes, there is a fundamental difference between those redemptions that represented potential windows of opportunity and the future redemption. Had redemption occurred in Hezekiah's day, in Josiah's day, or during the Second Temple, it would not have been a universal redemption, but rather a redemption solely for the people of Israel. The universal redemption for which we yearn, however, will encompass the entire world: then the world will be perfected under the sovereignty of the Almighty, and all nations will acknowledge Hashem's kingship and His oneness, calling together upon the Name of Hashem as the one God. It is this theme that Zephaniah addresses here.
הוֹי מֹרְאָה וְנִגְאָלָה הָעִיר הַיּוֹנָה׃ - Woe to her that is rebellious and defiled, the oppressing city!
After the prophet announced the destruction of Nineveh and the downfall of the nations that harmed Israel, describing how the remnant of Israel would inherit the Philistines, Ammon, and Moab, he comes to explain that this was a time fit for redemption, and had they been worthy, they would have been redeemed.
"Mor'ah" - related to nora'ah, the awesome or feared city. Why feared? Because in the days of Hezekiah and Josiah, the nations feared it and saw Hashem's hand with it: 185,000 army commanders arrived and all became dead corpses. It was a city whose dread fell upon the nations. "Venig'alah" - meaning that the city had also been redeemed from the hand of the king of Assyria, and thus was fit to be redeemed with a complete redemption. "Ha'ir hayonah" - Jerusalem, which had been under the sway of Assyria and Babylon, whose emblem was a dove, and is thus designated by the name of that kingdom. Its time to be redeemed had arrived, but sin prevented it; they did not prepare themselves and were not worthy of redemption at that time.
There are several other explanations for the phrase "mor'ah venig'alah." Ibn Ezra cites the explanation of Yefet, that it means "awesome" or "dreaded" (nora'ah), consistent with Malbim's approach. Rav Yehoshua explains "mor'ah" as related to ben soreir umoreh (a stubborn and rebellious son) - meaning the rebellious city. Others say it denotes repulsion and filth, as in "and he shall remove its crop (mor'ato) with its feathers," referring to something repulsive. Similarly with "nig'alah": according to Malbim, it means that it was fit to be redeemed, whereas Ibn Ezra cites an additional explanation connecting it to "defiled bread" (lechem mego'al), meaning contaminated - a city soiled and defiled by its sins. Rabbeinu Moshe explains it as deriving from redemption, in line with Malbim's approach.
The word hayonah also lends itself to several interpretations. According to the Malbim, this was the emblem of Assyria and Babylon, which bore the shape of a dove. Ibn Ezra cites those who explain that it derives from lo toneh ("you shall not oppress" or deceive), from the root of fraud and oppression (ona'ah) - meaning the city characterized by deceit and injustice - and as we will see further on, the prophet rebukes them for the lack of justice and the falsehood prevalent in Jerusalem. Others interpret it in the sense of a "silly dove" (yonah fotah), as in "my dove, my undefiled one" (yonati tamati), a gullible dove that is easily misled, in which case it refers to the people of Israel.
לֹא שָׁמְעָה בְּקוֹל לֹא לָקְחָה מוּסָר בַּיהֹוָה לֹא בָטָחָה אֶל־אֱלֹהֶיהָ לֹא קָרֵבָה׃ - She obeyed not the voice, she received not correction; she trusted not in Hashem, she drew not near to her God.
"She obeyed not the voice" - she did not listen to the voice of the teachers and prophets who rebuked her to return to the observance of Torah and mitzvos, which is from the perspective of intellectual illumination, what is logically compelling. "She received not correction" - to return to Hashem out of fear of punishment and suffering; that is, she failed to learn from how she was chastised through hardship and persecution.
"She trusted not in Hashem" - she did not trust in Him in His capacity as the Creator of the world. The Malbim explains that the Four-Letter Name (Havayah) expresses the Holy One, blessed be He, as bringing His world into being, and through the light of intellect, logic demands serving the One Who sustains the existence of the entire universe. "She drew not near to her God" - she ought to have drawn near to Him because He is her God. As the Malbim explains in several places, the Name Havayah represents Hashem as creating and sustaining existence, whereas the Name Elokim represents divine providence (hashgachah pratit), through which the Holy One, blessed be He, watches over us and metes out reward or punishment. Therefore, she should have recognized that He is her God and that personal providence exists, fearing lest He chastise and punish her - or alternatively, in a positive sense, anticipating reward by drawing near to Him, blessed be He. Yet see: she did not draw near to her God, nor did she accept correction.
שָׂרֶיהָ בְקִרְבָּהּ אֲרָיוֹת שֹׁאֲגִים שֹׁפְטֶיהָ זְאֵבֵי עֶרֶב לֹא גָרְמוּ לַבֹּקֶר׃ - Her princes within her are roaring lions; her judges are evening wolves, they leave not a bone for the morning.
Now the prophet delineates four classes of leaders she had. The princes within her were like lions roaring for prey: just as a lion roars openly for its prey, so too they robbed and plundered in plain sight. The judges were more "modest," taking bribes only in secret; therefore they were likened to evening wolves - prowling in the evening, in secret, under cover of darkness, when no one is watching.
"They leave not a bone for the morning" - garmu derives from gerem, a bone. They did not leave the bones until morning. For if bones remain until morning, people realize that something was torn apart during the night, and the traces of the kill are exposed. But these judges, who were evening wolves, devoured everything at night and took care not to leave any bones for the morning - leaving no traces behind. Anyone who arrived in the morning saw no sign that anything had occurred, because they had consumed even the bones. The verse comes to teach you that their deeds were carried out in darkness and concealment.
נְבִיאֶיהָ פֹּחֲזִים אַנְשֵׁי בֹּגְדוֹת כֹּהֲנֶיהָ חִלְּלוּ־קֹדֶשׁ חָמְסוּ תּוֹרָה׃ - Her prophets are reckless, treacherous men; her priests have profaned what is holy, they have done violence to the Torah.
"Her prophets are reckless" - these are the false prophets, who were reckless, unstable, and empty. "Treacherous men" - they were married to women who were unfaithful to their husbands and committed adultery; they took wives who strayed from their husbands and turned instead to those false prophets.
"Her priests have defiled the sanctuary" - the kohanim, whose role is to safeguard the Temple and its holy items, themselves desecrated what is holy. Not only that, but it is written, "For the lips of a kohen should safeguard knowledge, and people seek Torah from his mouth" (Malachi 2:7), yet instead of teaching Torah, they "did violence to the Torah" - they did not issue halachic rulings to Israel. Rashi explains: they did not teach it to those who inquired of them. Thus, they robbed the people of what was rightfully theirs.
יְהֹוָה צַדִּיק בְּקִרְבָּהּ לֹא יַעֲשֶׂה עַוְלָה בַּבֹּקֶר בַּבֹּקֶר מִשְׁפָּטוֹ יִתֵּן לָאוֹר לֹא נֶעְדָּר וְלֹא־יוֹדֵעַ עַוָּל בֹּשֶׁת׃ - Hashem is righteous in her midst; He does no injustice. Morning by morning He brings His judgment to light, never failing; but the unjust person knows no shame.
The Malbim explains: everyone was wicked, sinful, and practicing injustice, and there was only one Righteous One in the city - the Holy One, Blessed be He, the Tzaddik in her midst, and He does no injustice. Even though they pervert justice, know that Hashem brings forth His judgment every morning to a light that never fails and never ceases. Hashem's judgment is consistently just; under no circumstances does Hashem ever distort justice, and His judgment is always luminous, just as we say, "bring forth our judgment to light" - to bring it forth in truth and justice, a judgment that is luminous, radiant, lucid, and clear.
It would have been fitting for them to feel ashamed before the Holy One, Blessed be He, Who dwells in her midst, for He detests injustice, yet they go and act in direct opposition to His judgment and the will of the blessed Creator. How could they do such a thing? To this the verse responds: "yet the unjust person knows no shame" - that perpetrator of injustice, termed an avval, possesses no shame whatsoever. And since he lacks shame, he commits the most severe offenses without fearing Hashem. Chazal expounded on the verse, "and so that fear of Him may remain upon your faces, so that you do not sin" (Shemot 20:17) - that this fear is shame. Since this wrongdoer knows no shame, they brazenly committed the most grave sins right before Hashem without fearing anything at all.
Radak cites another explanation in the name of his father for "Morning by morning He brings His judgment to light, never failing": from the time the Holy One, Blessed be He, created light, His faithfulness in renewing it each day endures forever. "To light, never failing" - the light itself, once created during the six days of Creation, is never withheld; rather, day after day, "they are new every morning, great is Your faithfulness" (Eichah 3:23) - Your faithfulness to shine anew every single day. Even though mankind angers Him and it would be fitting not to grant them the benefit of the sun's light, the verse states "never failing": He has neither withheld nor diminished His light simply because human beings provoke Him. In this, see the steadfast faithfulness of the Holy One, Blessed be He.
הִכְרַתִּי גוֹיִם נָשַׁמּוּ פִּנּוֹתָם הֶחֱרַבְתִּי חוּצוֹתָם מִבְּלִי עוֹבֵר נִצְדּוּ עָרֵיהֶם מִבְּלִי־אִישׁ מֵאֵין יוֹשֵׁב׃ - I have eliminated nations, their corner towers are desolate; I have laid waste their streets, with no passerby; their cities are laid waste, without a man, without an inhabitant.
The Malbim explains: once the Holy One, Blessed be He, saw that they felt no shame before His greatness dwelling in their midst, He said: I will deal with them in another manner to bring them to rectify their deeds - by eliminating nations and wreaking destruction upon the cities of the peoples. This destruction proceeded in three stages. First, "their corner towers are desolate" - the corners and outer perimeters, meaning not yet in the center of the nation and the heart of the country, but at the edges and borders. Afterward, "I have laid waste their streets" - the Malbim explains that streets (rechovot) are what lies in front of the homes, whereas the outside (chutzot) refers to what lies behind the homes, further inward; I destroyed them until no one passes through, as the enemy had already spread into the interior of the country. And the third stage: "their cities are laid waste, without a man, without an inhabitant" - from the root of ruin and devastation (tzediyah), for the cities were devastated until they were left devoid of people and without any inhabitant.
Come and see: the Holy One, Blessed be He, did all this with the purpose of bringing the Jewish people back in repentance. The Midrash provides a parable: a teacher who wishes to intimidate his students takes a rod and strikes the desk, and the loud noise startles them. The desk did nothing wrong - but if the desk is taking the blows, the students take heed and become alarmed, realizing that next time the blow may land on their own backs. So it is here: I eliminated nations and desolated their corners, and all of this was intended to awaken us.
And what is the difference between nashammu (desolated) and hechoravti (laid waste)? Destruction (churban) applies to places containing buildings, whereas desolation (shemamah) refers to the land itself - the ground lies desolate. According to the Malbim, "their corners" (pinotam) refers to the borders and remote corners of the land. Others explain that pinotam refers to their towers, the elevated places, since it was customary to construct a prominent tower at the corner of a defensive wall, which were the fortified, choice locations. In general, "corner" (pinah) denotes prominence, as in "the stone the builders rejected became the cornerstone" (Tehillim 118:22), and in the morning prayers we say "the cornerstones of the hosts who exalt the Almighty" - referring to the highest ministering angels, representing a cornerstone of distinction. However, according to the Malbim, as mentioned, the verse refers to the outer extremities of the land.
אָמַרְתִּי אַךְ־תִּירְאִי אוֹתִי תִּקְחִי מוּסָר וְלֹא־יִכָּרֵת מְעוֹנָהּ כֹּל אֲשֶׁר־פָּקַדְתִּי עָלֶיהָ אָכֵן הִשְׁכִּימוּ הִשְׁחִיתוּ כֹּל עֲלִילוֹתָם׃ - I said: "Surely you will fear Me, you will accept instruction," so that her dwelling place would not be cut off, all that I had decreed upon her; but they arose early and corrupted all their deeds.
Hashem says: As for what I did there to the nations, I thought that through this "you will fear Me" with awe of His exaltedness (yirat haromemut), by witnessing My might; or at the very least "you will accept instruction," having fear of punishment (yirat ha'onesh) - that just as it befell the nations, so it could happen to your land. Awe of Hashem's exaltedness is a high spiritual level, whereas accepting instruction stems from fear of suffering.
The Malbim explains that the two halves of the verse correspond to one another: "I said: 'Surely you will fear Me'" - and through awe of His exaltedness, "so that her dwelling place would not be cut off." And what is "her dwelling place" (me'onah)? As in the expression, "Lord, You have been our dwelling place (ma'on)." The Malbim explains that the term ma'on, when not referring to animals, carries the meaning of a holy place. That is to say: I thought you would fear Me and accept instruction from the punishments I designated for you through the prophets, or from what you saw Me bring upon the other nations, and thus the Beit HaMikdash - where the Shechinah dwells - would not be destroyed. Yet all this was to no avail. "Indeed, they arose early and corrupted all their deeds" - even before I did all this, they acted early and corrupted their deeds; there was no longer any chance they would improve their ways, as they had already become corrupt long before, and consequently the chance of their repentance was slim.
And here is the place for the famous story about the Chafetz Chaim. A Jewish man came to him from China and recounted that a dam had burst there, washing away dozens of villages and killing thousands of people. The Chafetz Chaim took great interest and began asking for details: who, what, and how many. The man was astonished and asked: Does the Rav have relatives in China? Why does the Rav want to know all these details? After all, the Chafetz Chaim was hardly known as someone who chased after breaking news.
The Chafetz Chaim said to him: Do you not understand? If a preacher were standing right now in the middle of Warsaw delivering a speech, to whom is he speaking? He replied: To the residents of the city, and since most of the city's residents are gentiles, presumably to the gentiles. The Chafetz Chaim said: But he spoke in Yiddish! He replied: If so, he certainly spoke to the Jews. The Chafetz Chaim asked him: And why? Most of the city's residents are gentiles! He replied: True, but the Jews are the only ones who understand the language, so it is to them that he is speaking.
The Chafetz Chaim said to him: Now you understand. When the Holy One, blessed be He, strikes China - what does the Chinese person understand? What does he grasp? What does he know? The Holy One, blessed be He, arranges for you to come to Radin and tell this to Yisrael Meir, so that Yisrael Meir will do teshuvah! Because we are the only ones who understand the language. And this is an explicit verse: "I have cut off nations; their towers are desolate; I have laid waste their streets" - followed immediately by: "I said: 'Surely you will fear Me, you will accept instruction, so that her dwelling place would not be cut off.'"
In other words, an earthquake in Iran, a tsunami at sea, anywhere a disaster is reported - it is not for their sake; they understand nothing. It is intended to awaken us. The purpose is for us to be stirred by what happens in the world, for the entire world was created solely for the sake of the Jewish people, and everything that unfolds in the world is for us. We are the only ones who can decipher and understand the language.
Chapter 3 opens with a rebuke to Jerusalem, which was "feared and redeemed" - a city that cast dread upon the nations and was redeemed from the hand of Assyria, and was worthy of complete redemption, but sin thwarted it. The prophet enumerates her failure in four areas: she did not obey the voice, did not accept instruction, did not trust in Hashem, and did not draw near to her God. Following this is the corruption of her leaders: princes like roaring lions in public, judges like wolves of the evening that leave no trace, reckless false prophets, and kohanim who desecrated the sanctuary and did violence to the Torah. Yet standing opposite them - "Hashem is righteous in her midst," Whose judgment always shines with justice, while only the wicked one, knowing no shame, is unabashed. Therefore, the Holy One, blessed be He, brought destruction upon the nations in three stages, not for their sake, but as a ruler tapping on the desk, so that we would fear and accept instruction, and our dwelling place would not be cut off. And from this comes the eternal lesson taught by the Chafetz Chaim: every disaster that takes place in the world is a call directed at us, for we are the only ones who understand the language.