Zephaniah 1:17

World English Bible (2000)

I will bring distress on men, that they will walk like blind men, because they have sinned against Yahweh, and their blood will be poured out like dust, and their flesh like dung.

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

וַהֲצֵרֹ֣תִי לָאָדָ֗ם וְהָֽלְכוּ֙ כַּֽעִוְרִ֔ים כִּ֥י לַֽיהוָ֖ה חָטָ֑אוּ וְשֻׁפַּ֤ךְ דָּמָם֙ כֶּֽעָפָ֔ר וּלְחֻמָ֖ם כַּגְּלָלִֽים׃

Transliteration

wahăṣērōṯî lāʾāḏām wəhāləḵû kaʿiwrîm, kî la-YHWH ḥāṭāʾû; wəšuppaḵ dāmām keʿāp̄ār ûləḥumām kaggəlālîm.

Grammar Details

• *wahăṣērōṯî*: conjunction + hiphil perfect, 1st person singular - and I will bring distress
• *lāʾāḏām*: preposition + noun, masculine singular with definite article - to mankind
• *wəhāləḵû*: conjunction + qal perfect, 3rd person plural - and they will walk
• *kaʿiwrîm*: preposition + noun, masculine plural - like blind men
• *kî*: conjunction - because
• *la-YHWH*: preposition + divine name - against YHWH
• *ḥāṭāʾû*: qal perfect, 3rd person plural - they have sinned
• *wəšuppaḵ*: conjunction + pual perfect, 3rd person masculine singular - and will be poured out
• *dāmām*: noun, masculine singular with 3rd person masculine plural suffix - their blood
• *keʿāp̄ār*: preposition + noun, masculine singular - like dust
• *ûləḥumām*: conjunction + noun, masculine singular with 3rd person masculine plural suffix - and their flesh
• *kaggəlālîm*: preposition + noun, masculine plural with definite article - like dung

Word Meanings

• *wahăṣērōṯî*: and I will bring distress/cause distress/make narrow
• *kaʿiwrîm*: like blind men/as the blind
• *ḥāṭāʾû*: they have sinned/transgressed/offended
• *wəšuppaḵ*: and will be poured out/spilled
• *keʿāp̄ār*: like dust/dirt/powder
• *ûləḥumām*: and their flesh/internal organs/body
• *kaggəlālîm*: like dung/excrement/refuse

Referenced Verses

• Ps 83:10 : 10 who perished at Endor, who became as dung for the earth.
• Isa 24:5-6 : 5 The earth also is polluted under its inhabitants, because they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, and broken the everlasting covenant. 6 Therefore the curse has devoured the earth, and those who dwell therein are found guilty. Therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left.
• Isa 29:10 : 10 For Yahweh has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes, the prophets; and he has covered your heads, the seers.
• Isa 50:1 : 1 Thus says Yahweh, "Where is the bill of your mother's divorce, with which I have put her away? or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities were you sold, and for your transgressions was your mother put away.
• Isa 59:9-9 : 9 Therefore is justice far from us, neither does righteousness overtake us: we look for light, but, behold, darkness; for brightness, but we walk in obscurity. 10 We grope for the wall like the blind; yes, we grope as those who have no eyes: we stumble at noonday as in the twilight; among those who are lusty we are as dead men.
• Isa 59:12-15 : 12 For our transgressions are multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and as for our iniquities, we know them: 13 transgressing and denying Yahweh, and turning away from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood. 14 Justice is turned away backward, and righteousness stands afar off; for truth is fallen in the street, and uprightness can't enter. 15 Yes, truth is lacking; and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. Yahweh saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice.
• Jer 2:17 : 17 "Haven't you procured this to yourself, in that you have forsaken Yahweh your God, when he led you by the way?
• Jer 2:19 : 19 "Your own wickedness shall correct you, and your backsliding shall reprove you. Know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and a bitter, that you have forsaken Yahweh your God, and that my fear is not in you," says the Lord, Yahweh of Armies.
• Jer 4:18 : 18 "Your way and your doings have brought these things to you. This is your wickedness; for it is bitter, for it reaches to your heart."
• Jer 9:21-22 : 21 For death is come up into our windows, it is entered into our palaces; to cut off the children from outside, [and] the young men from the streets. 22 Speak, Thus says Yahweh, The dead bodies of men shall fall as dung on the open field, and as the handful after the harvester; and none shall gather [them].
• Jer 10:18 : 18 For thus says Yahweh, Behold, I will sling out the inhabitants of the land at this time, and will distress them, that they may feel [it].
• Jer 15:3 : 3 I will appoint over them four kinds, says Yahweh: the sword to kill, and the dogs to tear, and the birds of the sky, and the animals of the earth, to devour and to destroy.
• Jer 16:4-6 : 4 They shall die grievous deaths: they shall not be lamented, neither shall they be buried; they shall be as dung on the surface of the ground; and they shall be consumed by the sword, and by famine; and their dead bodies shall be food for the birds of the sky, and for the animals of the earth. 5 For thus says Yahweh, Don't enter into the house of mourning, neither go to lament, neither bemoan them; for I have taken away my peace from this people, says Yahweh, even loving kindness and tender mercies. 6 Both great and small shall die in this land; they shall not be buried, neither shall men lament for them, nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them;
• Jer 18:21 : 21 Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and give them over to the power of the sword; and let their wives become childless, and widows; and let their men be slain of death, [and] their young men struck of the sword in battle.
• Lam 1:8 : 8 Jerusalem has grievously sinned; therefore she is become as an unclean thing; all who honored her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness: yes, she sighs, and turns backward.
• Lam 1:14 : 14 The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand; They are knit together, they are come up on my neck; he has made my strength to fail: The Lord has delivered me into their hands, against whom I am not able to stand.
• Lam 1:18 : 18 Yahweh is righteous; for I have rebelled against his commandment: Please hear all you peoples, and see my sorrow: My virgins and my young men are gone into captivity.
• Lam 2:21 : 21 The youth and the old man lie on the ground in the streets; My virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword: You have killed them in the day of your anger; you have slaughtered, [and] not pitied.
• Lam 4:13-15 : 13 [It is] because of the sins of her prophets, [and] the iniquities of her priests, That have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her. 14 They wander as blind men in the streets, they are polluted with blood, So that men can't touch their garments. 15 Depart! they cried to them, Unclean! depart, depart, don't touch! When they fled away and wandered, men said among the nations, They shall no more live [here].
• Lam 5:16-17 : 16 The crown is fallen from our head: Woe to us! for we have sinned. 17 For this our heart is faint; For these things our eyes are dim;
• Ezek 22:25-31 : 25 There is a conspiracy of her prophets in its midst, like a roaring lion ravening the prey: they have devoured souls; they take treasure and precious things; they have made her widows many in its midst. 26 Her priests have done violence to my law, and have profaned my holy things: they have made no distinction between the holy and the common, neither have they caused men to discern between the unclean and the clean, and have hidden their eyes from my Sabbaths, and I am profaned among them. 27 Her princes in its midst are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, [and] to destroy souls, that they may get dishonest gain. 28 Her prophets have plastered for them with whitewash, seeing false visions, and divining lies to them, saying, Thus says the Lord Yahweh, when Yahweh has not spoken. 29 The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery; yes, they have troubled the poor and needy, and have oppressed the foreigner wrongfully. 30 I sought for a man among them, who should build up the wall, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found none. 31 Therefore have I poured out my indignation on them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath: their own way have I brought on their heads, says the Lord Yahweh.
• Dan 9:5-9 : 5 we have sinned, and have dealt perversely, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even turning aside from your precepts and from your ordinances; 6 neither have we listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land. 7 Lord, righteousness belongs to you, but to us confusion of face, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, who are near, and who are far off, through all the countries where you have driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against you. 8 Lord, to us belongs confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against you. 9 To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgiveness; for we have rebelled against him; 10 neither have we obeyed the voice of Yahweh our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets. 11 Yes, all Israel have transgressed your law, turning aside, that they should not obey your voice: therefore the curse and the oath written in the law of Moses the servant of God has been poured out on us; for we have sinned against him. 12 He has confirmed his words, which he spoke against us, and against our judges who judged us, by bringing on us a great evil; for under the whole sky, such has not been done as has been done to Jerusalem. 13 As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come on us: yet have we not entreated the favor of Yahweh our God, that we should turn from our iniquities, and have discernment in your truth. 14 Therefore has Yahweh watched over the evil, and brought it on us; for Yahweh our God is righteous in all his works which he does, and we have not obeyed his voice. 15 Now, Lord our God, who has brought your people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and have gotten yourself renown, as at this day; we have sinned, we have done wickedly. 16 Lord, according to all your righteousness, let your anger and please let your wrath be turned away from your city Jerusalem, your holy mountain; because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and your people have become a reproach to all who are around us. 17 Now therefore, our God, listen to the prayer of your servant, and to his petitions, and cause your face to shine on your sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord's sake. 18 My God, turn your ear, and hear; open your eyes, and see our desolations, and the city which is called by your name: for we do not present our petitions before you for our righteousness, but for your great mercies' sake. 19 Lord, hear; Lord, forgive; Lord, listen and do; don't defer, for your own sake, my God, because your city and your people are called by your name.
• Amos 4:10 : 10 "I sent plagues among you like I did Egypt. I have slain your young men with the sword, and have carried away your horses; and I filled your nostrils with the stench of your camp, yet you haven't returned to me," says Yahweh.
• Mic 3:9-9 : 9 Please listen to this, you heads of the house of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel, who abhor justice, and pervert all equity. 10 They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity. 11 Her leaders judge for bribes, and her priests teach for a price, and her prophets of it tell fortunes for money: yet they lean on Yahweh, and say, "Isn't Yahweh in the midst of us? No disaster will come on us." 12 Therefore Zion for your sake will be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem will become heaps of rubble, and the mountain of the temple like the high places of a forest.
• Mic 7:13 : 13 Yet the land will be desolate because of those who dwell therein, for the fruit of their doings.
• Matt 15:14 : 14 Leave them alone. They are blind guides of the blind. If the blind guide the blind, both will fall into a pit."
• John 9:40-41 : 40 Those of the Pharisees who were with him heard these things, and said to him, "Are we also blind?" 41 Jesus said to them, "If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, 'We see.' Therefore your sin remains.
• Rom 11:7 : 7 What then? That which Israel seeks for, that he didn't obtain, but the chosen ones obtained it, and the rest were hardened.
• Rom 11:25 : 25 For I don't desire you to be ignorant, brothers, of this mystery, so that you won't be wise in your own conceits, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in,
• 2 Cor 4:4 : 4 in whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the Good News of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not dawn on them.
• 2 Pet 1:9 : 9 For he who lacks these things is blind, seeing only what is near, having forgotten the cleansing from his old sins.
• 1 John 2:11 : 11 But he who hates his brother is in the darkness, and walks in the darkness, and doesn't know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
• Rev 3:17 : 17 Because you say, 'I am rich, and have gotten riches, and have need of nothing;' and don't know that you are the wretched one, miserable, poor, blind, and naked;
• Deut 28:28-29 : 28 Yahweh will strike you with madness, and with blindness, and with astonishment of heart; 29 and you shall grope at noonday, as the blind gropes in darkness, and you shall not prosper in your ways: and you shall be only oppressed and robbed always, and there shall be none to save you.
• 2 Kgs 9:33-37 : 33 He said, "Throw her down!" So they threw her down; and some of her blood was sprinkled on the wall, and on the horses. Then he trampled her under foot. 34 When he was come in, he ate and drink; and he said, "See now to this cursed woman, and bury her; for she is a king's daughter." 35 They went to bury her; but they found no more of her than the skull, and the feet, and the palms of her hands. 36 Therefore they came back, and told him. He said, "This is the word of Yahweh, which he spoke by his servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, 'The dogs will eat the flesh of Jezebel on the plot of Jezreel, 37 and the body of Jezebel shall be as dung on the face of the field in the portion of Jezreel, so that they shall not say, "This is Jezebel."'"
• Ps 79:2-3 : 2 They have given the dead bodies of your servants to be food for the birds of the sky, the flesh of your saints to the animals of the earth. 3 Their blood they have shed like water around Jerusalem. There was no one to bury them.