Chapter 1. The Judgment Of God Will One Day Be Visited On Creation, But At This Time On Judah and Jerusalem.
Zephaniah 1:2-3 of this chapter reveal God as Judge of all the world. It is a general picture of the far future. But in Zephaniah 1:4-6 we come closer to home, to His particular judgment on Judah and Jerusalem at this time. The prophets regularly see the far future and the near future together. To them they are in the future, and the timing is in God's hands. Every judgment He carries out is a picture and symbol of the final judgment, every ‘day of YHWH' is a picture of the final ‘Day of YHWH' (indeed might be the final day of YHWH). Thus we must not read Zephaniah 1:4 onwards as referring to the apocalyptic future. On the other hand, as a day of YHWH that occurred in history it is a pattern of that day of YHWH yet to come, as described in Zephaniah 1:1-3, which introduce it.