Zephaniah

Zephaniah
    n 1: a Hebrew minor prophet of the late 7th century BC [syn:
         {Zephaniah}, {Sophonias}]
    2: an Old Testament book telling the prophecies of Zephaniah
       which are concerned mainly with the approaching judgment by
       God upon the sinners of Judah [syn: {Zephaniah}, {Sophonias},
       {Book of Zephaniah}]
    

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:

  (a) An introduction (1:1-6), announcing the judgment of the
world, and the judgment upon Israel, because of their
transgressions.

  (b) The description of the judgment (1:7-18).

  (c) An exhortation to seek God while there is still time
(2:1-3).

  (d) The announcement of judgment on the heathen (2:4-15).

  (e) The hopeless misery of Jerusalem (3:1-7).

  (f) The promise of salvation (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 (Jer. 21:1) regarding the coming woes which
he had denounced, and to entreat the prophet's intercession that
the judgment threatened might be averted (Jer. 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 Chr. 6:36).

  (4.) The father of Josiah, the priest who dwelt in Jerusalem
when Darius issued the decree that the temple should be rebuilt
(Zech. 6:10).
    

Zephaniah, the Lord is my secret