Zephaniah 2:11

Bible in Basic English (1941)

The Lord will let himself be seen by them: for he will make all the gods of the earth feeble; and men will go down before him in worship, everyone from his place, even all the sea-lands of the nations.

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

נוֹרָ֤א יְהוָה֙ עֲלֵיהֶ֔ם כִּ֣י רָזָ֔ה אֵ֖ת כָּל־אֱלֹהֵ֣י הָאָ֑רֶץ וְיִשְׁתַּֽחֲווּ־לוֹ֙ אִ֣ישׁ מִמְּקוֹמ֔וֹ כֹּ֖ל אִיֵּ֥י הַגּוֹיִֽם׃

Transliteration

nôrāʾ YHWH ʿălêhem kî rāzâ ʾēth kol-ʾĕlōhê hāʾāreṣ wəyištaḥăwû-lô ʾîš mimməqômô kōl ʾiyyê haggôyîm

Grammar Details

• *nôrāʾ*: niphal participle, masculine singular - fearful/terrible
• *ʿălêhem*: preposition + 3rd person masculine plural suffix - against them
• *kî*: conjunction - for/because/when
• *rāzâ*: qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular - he has famished/made lean
• *ʾēth*: direct object marker
• *kol-ʾĕlōhê*: construct chain: noun + masculine plural construct - all gods of
• *hāʾāreṣ*: noun, feminine singular with definite article - the earth/land
• *wəyištaḥăwû-lô*: hishtaphel imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural + preposition + 3rd person masculine singular suffix - and they will bow down to him
• *ʾîš*: noun, masculine singular - man/each one
• *mimməqômô*: preposition + noun, masculine singular with 3rd person masculine singular suffix - from his place
• *kōl*: noun, masculine singular construct - all of
• *ʾiyyê*: noun, masculine plural construct - islands/coastlands of
• *haggôyîm*: noun, masculine plural with definite article - the nations

Word Meanings

• *nôrāʾ*: fearful/terrible/awesome
• *rāzâ*: famished/made lean/brought to nothing
• *ʾĕlōhê*: gods/deities/divine beings
• *wəyištaḥăwû-lô*: they will bow down to him/they will worship him
• *ʾiyyê*: islands/coastlands/distant shores

Referenced Verses

• Ps 72:8-9 : 8 Let his kingdom be from sea to sea, from the River to the ends of the earth. 9 Let those who are against him go down before him; and let his haters be low in the dust. 10 Let the kings of Tarshish and of the islands come back with offerings; let the kings of Sheba and Seba give of their stores. 11 Yes, let all kings go down before him; let all nations be his servants.
• Gen 10:5 : 5 From these came the nations of the sea-lands, with their different families and languages.
• Deut 32:38 : 38 Who took the fat of their offerings, and the wine of their drink offering? Let them now come to your help, let them be your salvation.
• Ps 2:8-9 : 8 Make your request to me, and I will give you the nations for your heritage, and the farthest limits of the earth will be under your hand. 9 They will be ruled by you with a rod of iron; they will be broken like a potter's vessel. 10 So now be wise, you kings: take his teaching, you judges of the earth. 11 Give worship to the Lord with fear, kissing his feet and giving him honour, 12 For fear that he may be angry, causing destruction to come on you, because he is quickly moved to wrath. Happy are all those who put their faith in him.
• Ps 22:27-30 : 27 All the ends of the earth will keep it in mind and be turned to the Lord: all the families of the nations will give him worship. 28 For the kingdom is the Lord's; he is the ruler among the nations. 29 All the fat ones of the earth will give him worship; all those who go down to the dust will make themselves low before him, even he who has not enough for the life of his soul. 30 A seed will be his servant; the doings of the Lord will be made clear to the generation which comes after.
• Ps 72:17 : 17 May his name go on for ever, as long as the sun: may men be blessing themselves by him; may all nations be blessing his name.
• Ps 86:9 : 9 Let all the nations whom you have made come and give worship to you, O Lord, giving glory to your name.
• Ps 97:6-8 : 6 The heavens gave out the news of his righteousness, and all the people saw his glory. 7 Shamed be all those who give worship to images, and take pride in false gods; give him worship, all you gods. 8 Zion gave ear and was glad; and the daughters of Judah were full of joy, because of your decisions, O Lord.
• Ps 117:1-2 : 1 Let all the nations give praise to the Lord: let all the people give him praise. 2 For great is his mercy to us, and his faith is unchanging for ever. Praise be to the Lord.
• Ps 138:4 : 4 All the kings of the earth will give you praise, O Lord, when the words of your mouth come to their ears.
• Isa 2:2-4 : 2 And it will come about in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord will be placed on the top of the mountains, and be lifted up over the hills; and all nations will come to it. 3 And the peoples will say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob: and he will give us knowledge of his ways, and we will be guided by his word; for out of Zion the law will go out, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. 4 And he will be the judge between the nations, and the peoples will be ruled by his decisions: and their swords will be turned into plough-blades, and their spears into vine-knives: no longer will the nations be turning their swords against one another, and the knowledge of war will be gone for ever.
• Isa 11:9-9 : 9 There will be no cause of pain or destruction in all my holy mountain: for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the sea is covered by the waters. 10 And in that day, the eyes of the nations will be turned to the root of Jesse which will be lifted up as the flag of the peoples; and his resting-place will be glory.
• Isa 24:14-16 : 14 But those will be making sounds of joy; they will be crying loudly from the sea for the glory of the Lord. 15 Give praise to the Lord in the east, to the name of the Lord, the God of Israel, in the sea-lands. 16 From the farthest part of the earth comes the sound of songs, glory to the upright. But I said, I am wasting away, wasting away, the curse is on me! The false ones go on in their false way, yes, they go on acting falsely.
• Isa 42:4 : 4 His light will not be put out, and he will not be crushed, till he has given the knowledge of the true God to the earth, and the sea-lands will be waiting for his teaching.
• Isa 42:10 : 10 Make a new song to the Lord, and let his praise be sounded from the end of the earth; you who go down to the sea, and everything in it, the sea-lands and their people.
• Isa 49:1 : 1 Give ear, O sea-lands, to me; and take note, you peoples from far: I have been marked out by the Lord from the first; when I was still in my mother's body, he had my name in mind:
• Hos 2:17 : 17 For I will take away the names of the Baals out of her mouth, and never again will she say their names.
• Joel 2:11 : 11 And the Lord is thundering before his forces; for very great is his army; for he is strong who gives effect to his word: for the day of the Lord is great and greatly to be feared, and who has strength against it?
• Mic 4:1-3 : 1 But in the last days it will come about that the mountain of the Lord's house will be placed on the top of the mountains, and be lifted up over the hills; and peoples will be flowing to it. 2 And a number of nations will go and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will give us knowledge of his ways and we will be guided by his word: for from Zion the law will go out, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. 3 And he will be judge between great peoples, and strong nations far away will be ruled by his decisions; their swords will be hammered into plough-blades and their spears into vine-knives: nations will no longer be lifting up their swords against one another, and knowledge of war will have gone for ever.
• Zeph 1:4 : 4 And my hand will be stretched out on Judah and on all the people of Jerusalem, cutting off the name of the Baal from this place, and the name of the false priests,
• Zeph 3:9 : 9 For then I will give the people a clean language, so that they may all make prayer to the Lord and be his servants with one mind.
• Zech 2:11 : 11 Ho! Zion, go in flight from danger, you who are living with the daughter of Babylon.
• Zech 8:20 : 20 This is what the Lord of armies has said: It will again come about that when peoples and those living in great towns come,
• Zech 8:23 : 23 This is what the Lord of armies has said: In those days, ten men from all the languages of the nations will put out their hands and take a grip of the skirt of him who is a Jew, saying, We will go with you, for it has come to our ears that God is with you.
• Zech 13:2 : 2 And it will come about on that day, says the Lord of armies, that I will have the names of the images cut off out of the land, and there will be no more memory of them: and I will send all the prophets and the unclean spirit away from the land.
• Zech 14:9-9 : 9 And the Lord will be King over all the earth: in that day there will be one Lord and his name one. 10 And all the land will become like the Arabah, from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem; and she will be lifted up and be living in her place; from the doorway of Benjamin to the place of the first doorway, to the doorway of the angle, and from the tower of Hananel to the king's wine-crushing places, men will be living in her. 11 And there will be no more curse; but Jerusalem will be living without fear of danger. 12 And this will be the disease which the Lord will send on all the peoples which have been warring against Jerusalem: their flesh will be wasted away while they are on their feet, their eyes will be wasted in their heads and their tongues in their mouths. 13 And it will be on that day that a great fear will be sent among them from the Lord; and everyone will take his neighbour's hand, and every man's hand will be lifted against his neighbour's. 14 And even Judah will be fighting against Jerusalem; and the wealth of all the nations round about will be massed together, a great store of gold and silver and clothing. 15 And the horses and the transport beasts, the camels and the asses and all the beasts in those tents will be attacked by the same disease. 16 And it will come about that everyone who is still living, of all those nations who came against Jerusalem, will go up from year to year to give worship to the King, the Lord of armies, and to keep the feast of tents. 17 And it will be that if any one of all the families of the earth does not go up to Jerusalem to give worship to the King, the Lord of armies, on them there will be no rain. 18 And if the family of Egypt does not go up or come there, they will be attacked by the disease which the Lord will send on the nations: 19 This will be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all the nations who do not go up to keep the feast of tents. 20 On that day all the bells of the horses will be holy to the Lord, and the pots in the Lord's house will be like the basins before the altar. 21 And every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah will be holy to the Lord of armies: and all those who make offerings will come and take them for boiling their offerings: in that day there will be no more traders in the house of the Lord of armies.
• Mal 1:11 : 11 For, from the coming up of the sun till its going down, my name is great among the Gentiles; and in every place the smell of burning flesh is offered to my name, and a clean offering: for my name is great among the Gentiles, says the Lord of armies.
• John 4:21-23 : 21 Jesus said to her, Woman, take my word for this; the time is coming when you will not give worship to the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem. 22 You give worship, but without knowledge of what you are worshipping: we give worship to what we have knowledge of: for salvation comes from the Jews. 23 But the time is coming, and is even now here, when the true worshippers will give worship to the Father in the true way of the spirit, for these are the worshippers desired by the Father.
• 1 Tim 2:8 : 8 It is my desire, then, that in every place men may give themselves to prayer, lifting up holy hands, without wrath or argument.
• Rev 11:15 : 15 And at the sounding of the seventh angel there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ, and he will have rule for ever and ever.