The word of the LORD which came unto Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hizkiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah.
Ver. 1. The word of the Lord which came unto Zephaniah] Which is (by interpretation) God's secretary, or, hidden one, Psalms 27:5; Psalms 83:3. Or, as Jerome and some others will have it, God's watchman, Ezekiel 33:7. A fit name for a prophet.
The son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, &c.] These were, if not prophets (as the Jewish doctors make them), yet men famous in the Church (Hebraei Prophetarum patres, quotquot nominatim recensentur, ipsos quoque prophetas fuisse dicunt); as were Alexander and Rufus, though they be but mentioned and no more, Mark 15:21 .
In the days of Josiah] Who reigned thirty-one years, but, being in his minority, began not to reform religion, much corrupted in the days of his idolatrous father, Amon, till the eighteenth year of his reign, 2 Kings 22:1; 2 Kings 23:23, whether before or after the reformation, "the word of the Lord came unto Zephaniah," interpreters agree not. Jeremiah (his contemporary) began not to prophesy till the thirteenth year of Josiah's reign, Jeremiah 1:1,2, at what time (viz. in his twelfth year) he had begun to reform with a great deal of zeal, 2 Chronicles 34:3, but also he met with a great deal of opposition from the princes and people who had been woefully hardened and abituated in their idolatry under Manasseh and Amon, and therefore with much difficulty drawn off. Zephaniah and Jeremiah were singular helps, no doubt, to that peerless king in his zealous undertakings for God. But why he should send to Huldah, the prophetess, rather than to either of them, 2 Kings 22:13, what other reason can be given but that she dwelt in the college at Jerusalem, and so was next at hand? And why he went up against Pharaoh Necho, and sent not first to any prophet to ask their advice, what can we say but this, that sometimes both grace and wit are asleep in the holiest and wariest breasts? and that the best of God's saints may be sometimes miscarried by their passion, to their cost?