A Handbook on the Book of Zephaniah
Overview
What if you were responsible for translating God's Word into a language that never had a Bible before? Can you imagine the burden you would feel to do a good job?
God takes His Word pretty seriously, and you would certainly do everything in your power to make sure that you were not putting words into God's mouth, but that you were providing a text that clearly communicated God's Word as closely to the original as possible.
This challenge to understand the heart of the original Scriptures, in order to put the original text into a new language, was the impetus for the United Bible Societies to create handbooks for Bible translators working on this very thing. The United Bible Societies' Handbook Series is a comprehensive verse-by-verse guide to understanding exactly what is being communicated by the author in the original Scriptures.
- Exegetical, historical, cultural, and linguistic information on the original text
- Verse-by-verse guides
- An essential tool for Bible translators
Top Highlights
“the expression Seek the Lord means ‘worship and obey the Lord” (Page 165)
“I will overthrow the wicked will be rendered in many languages as ‘I will cause the wicked to be completely defeated,’ or in some languages which do not favor the passive, the following is possible: ‘I will cause people to overthrow (conquer) those who do evil.’ The mention of the wicked is the central point and climax of the verse, and the last part of the verse, I will cut off mankind from the face of the earth, repeats and summarizes what was said in verse 2 and the opening part of verse 3.” (Page 147)
“The Lord is preparing to sacrifice his people and has invited enemies to plunder Judah” (Page 151)
“This verse is an introduction to a long section of direct speech from the mouth of the Lord covering verses 8–13. It sets forth the topic of the following verses, namely, the day of the Lord.” (Page 151)
“The ancient Greek translation omits these words, and many modern versions do the same, including rsv, mft, jb, neb, tev, and frcl.” (Page 149)
- Title: A Handbook on the Book of Zephaniah
- Authors: David J. Clark and Howard A. Hatton
- Series: The United Bible Societies' Handbook Series (UBSHS)
- Publisher: United Bible Societies
- Pages: 217