"Woe to her that is filthy and polluted, to the oppressing city! (2) She obeyed not the voice; she received not correction; she trusted not in the LORD; she drew not near to her God. (3) Her princes within her are roaring lions; her judges are evening wolves; they gnaw not the bones till the morrow. (4) Her prophets are light and treacherous persons: her priests have polluted the sanctuary, they have done violence to the law. (5) The just LORD is in the midst thereof; he will not do iniquity: every morning doth he bring his judgment to light, he faileth not; but the unjust knoweth no shame."
I venture to believe, that the mind of the Prophet was led out to speak in those verses concerning Jerusalem, in the day of Christ, and the age that followed; and perhaps the Reader will not be of a different opinion, if he attends to one or two particulars here mentioned. The Prophet describes a woe to Jerusalem. And he saith, her princes, and judges, and prophets, and priests, are the cause. Now this could not be in Babylon, for Jerusalem then was trodden down of the Gentiles, and had neither temple nor priest. Besides, he adds, the just Lord is in the midst thereof. And so the Lord was at all times indeed but eminently might it be said, if we consider the time referred to, when Christ came to his own, and his own received him not. But if we suppose Zephaniah in those verses, spoke of the day in which he lived, then would it have been more of an history than a prophecy; for he ministered in the Church much about the time of Jeremiah, as hath been before observed. And the woe pronounced by the Prophet, corresponds to our Lord's own declaration concerning Jerusalem, as a city given up to destruction. Luke 13:34-35. And what an exact description in the character of her judges, priests, and prophets, to the elders and scribes in the day of our Lord? Luke 11:42-51. And above all, the high crime here mentioned proves it. She drew not near to her God. Look into the gospel, and behold the continued contempt the leading men of the nation manifested to the Lord Jesus!