10. The verse is obscure on account of the uncertain meaning of several expressions in it. Its general sense is that the heathen nations, even those most distant, shall do homage to Jehovah and present offerings to Him. Jeremiah already predicts the conversion of the nations (Jeremiah 3:17, Jeremiah 16:19).

From beyond the rivers] This meaning is possible, but the usual sense would be: beyond the rivers—in answer to the question where, not, whence (Isaiah 18:1). On Ethiopia or Cush see on ch. Zephaniah 2:12.

My suppliants] The word does not occur again in this sense, though a verb to supplicate, from which it might be derived, is not uncommon (Genesis 25:21). In the sing, the word occurs Ezekiel 8:11 in the sense of vapour or odour (R.V.) of incense, and this sense, being parallel to “mine offering,” might be adopted here.

even the daughter of my dispersed] Phrases like “daughter of Zion” (Zephaniah 3:14), of Babylon (Psalm 137:8), of Edom (Lamentations 4:21), signify the city or country named with its inhabitants. There is always in such phrases the name of a place, and this suggests that under the word “my dispersed” (pûtsai) there lurks some proper name. Ewald suggested Put, which is often named in connexion with Cush (cf. on Nahum 3:9). “The daughter of Put” would then be parallel to “beyond the rivers of Cush.” Others have assumed that somewhat after the analogy of “daughter of Zion” in the sense of Zion with those inhabiting it, “the daughter of my dispersed” might mean those composing (comprised in) my dispersed. “My dispersed” must certainly refer to Jews; the view of Hitzig that they are the same as “those that escape” of the Gentiles and carry tidings of the greatness of Jehovah to all nations (Isaiah 66:18-19), has no probability. The general meaning of the verse would be that the most distant nations would bring back God’s dispersed people the Jews as an offering to Him (Isaiah 66:20): From beyond the rivers of Cush shall they bring my suppliants, even the daughter of my dispersed as mine offering. The term “suppliants” seems unnatural in the connexion. After all, the other sense appears at least equally probable: Beyond the rivers of Cush they shall offer me incense, the daughter of [Put] shall bring me an offering, the reference being to the service of Jehovah by all the nations. Comp. Isaiah 18:7; Isaiah 45:14; Psalm 72:10.

Verse 10. - From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia (Cush); i.e. from the distant south, a type of the remotest parts of the world (Zephaniah 2:12). The rivers of Cush (Isaiah 18:1), are the Nile, the Atbara, and their affluents. My suppliants, even the daughter of my dispersed, shall bring mine offering. From the ends of the earth, the Jews who have continued faithful to Jehovah, and have not lost their nationality among the Gentiles, but have considered themselves as belonging to "the dispersion," shall be again received of the Lord, and bring their oblations unto him. This may be the sense intended: but looking to the thought in Isaiah 66:20 (where it is said that the Gentiles shall bring the Israelites out of all nations as a meat offering unto the Lord), we had better render the passage as the Revised Version margin, "They shall bring my suppliants, even the daughter of my dispersed, for an offering unto me." The remote Gentiles shall show their faith in God by aiding the Hebrews among them to turn to the Lord; this shall be their offering to the true God, whom they have learned to adore. When they themselves are converted, they shall be evangelists to the Hebrews of the Dispersion. For this work of the Gentiles in converting the Hebrews, Wordsworth compares Song of Solomon 3:4; Song of Solomon 8:8, 9; Isaiah 61:5, 6; Isaiah 65:18-21. St. Paul speaks to the same effect in Romans 6. Offering (minehah). The pure meal offering (Malachi 1:10, 11, where see notes; comp. Romans 15:16; Philippians 2:17). Dr. Briggs renders, "From beyond the rivers of Gush will be my incense (athar); the daughter of Phut will bring a minchah." This brings out the parallelism. The universal worship of Messianic times is expressed in the ceremonial terms of the old dispensation, but has a very real applicableness to the Christian religion (see note on Malachi 1:11). Zephaniah 3:10"For then will I turn to the nations a pure lip, that they may all call upon the name of Jehovah, to serve Him with one shoulder. Zephaniah 3:10. From beyond the rivers of Cush will they bring my worshippers, the daughter of my dispersed ones, as a meat-offering to me." By the explanatory kı̄ the promise is connected with the threat of judgment. The train of thought is this: the believers are to wait for the judgment, for it will bring them redemption. The first clause in Zephaniah 3:9 is explained in different ways. Many commentators understand by sâphâh bherūrâh the lip of God, which He will turn to the nations through His holy servants. According to this view, Luther has adopted the rendering: "Then will I cause the nations to be preached to otherwise, with friendly lips, that they may all call upon the name of the Lord." But this view, which has been defended by Cocceius, Mark, and Hofmann (Schriftbeweis, ii. 2, pp. 573-4), would only be admissible if bruur signified clear, evident, - a meaning which Hofmann assumes as the ground of his explanation: "A clear, easily intelligible, unmistakeable language does God turn to the nations, to call them all in the name of Jehovah, that they may serve Him as one man." But, apart from the inadmissible rendering of קרא בשׁם יי, this explanation is proved to be erroneous by the fact that bârūr does not mean clear, intelligible; that even in Job 33:3 it has not this meaning; but that it simply means pure, purified, sinless; and that sâphâh bherūrâh, the opposite of טמא שׂפתים in Isaiah 6:5, cannot be used at all of the lip or language of God, but simply of the lip of a man who is defiled by sin. Consequently הפך אל must be explained according to 1 Samuel 10:9, since the circumstance that we have הפך ל in this passage does not make any material difference in the meaning. The construction in both passages is a pregnant one. God turns to the nations a pure lip, by purifying their sinful lips, i.e., He converts them, that they may be able to call upon Him with pure lips. Lip does not stand for language, but is mentioned as the organ of speech, by which a man expresses the thoughts of his heart, so that purity of the lips involves or presupposes the purification of the heart. The lips are defiled by the names of the idols whom they have invoked (cf. Hosea 2:19; Psalm 16:4). The fruit of the purification is this, that henceforth they call upon the name of Jehovah, and serve Him. קרא בשׁם יי, when used of men, always signifies to call solemnly or heartily upon the name of Jehovah. To serve shekhem 'echâd, with one shoulder, is to serve together or with unanimity. The metaphor is taken from bearers who carry a burden with even shoulders; cf. Jeremiah 32:39.

As an example of the way in which they will serve the Lord, it is stated in Zephaniah 3:10 that they will offer the widely scattered members of the Israelitish church as a sacrifice to the Lord. Compare Isaiah 66:20, where this thought is applied to the heathen of all quarters of the globe; whereas Zephaniah, while fixing his eye upon that passage, has given it more briefly, and taken the expression "from beyond the rivers of Cush" from Isaiah 18:1, for the purpose of naming the remotest heathen nations instar omnium. The rivers of Cush are the Nile and the Astaboras, with their different tributaries. עתרי בּת פּוּצי is the accusative of the nearest object, and מנחתי that of the more remote. ‛Athâr does not mean fragrance (Ges., Ewald, Maurer), but worshipper, from ‛âthar, to pray, to entreat. The worshippers are more precisely defined by bath pūtsai, the daughter of my dispersed ones (pūts, part. pass.), i.e., the crowd or congregation consisting of the dispersed of the Lord, the members of the Israelitish congregation of God scattered about in all the world. They are presented to the Lord by the converted Gentiles as minchâh, a meat-offering, i.e., according to Isaiah 66:20, just as the children of Israel offered a meat-offering. In the symbolism of religious worship, the presentation of the meat-offering shadowed forth diligence in good works as the fruit of justification. The meaning is therefore the following: The most remote of the heathen nations will prove that they are worshippers of Jehovah, by bringing to Him the scattered members of His nation, or by converting them to the living God. We have here in Old Testament form the thought expressed by the Apostle Paul in Romans 11, namely, that the Gentiles have been made partakers of salvation, that they may incite to emulation the Israelites who have fallen away from the call of divine grace. The words of the prophet treat of the blessing which will accrue, from the entrance of the Gentiles into the kingdom of God, to the Israelites who have been rejected on account of their guilt, and refer not only to the missionary work of Christians among the Jews in the stricter sense of the term, but to everything that is done, both directly and indirectly, through the rise and spread of Christianity among the nations, for the conversion of the Jews to the Saviour whom they once despised. Their complete fulfilment, however, will only take place after the pleroma of the Gentiles has come in, when the πώρωσις, which in part has happened to Israel, shall be removed, and "all Israel" shall be saved (Romans 11:25-26). On the other hand, Mark, Hitzig, and others, have taken ‛ăthârai bath pūtsai as the subject, and understand it as referring to the heathen who have escaped the judgment by flying in all directions to their own homes, for example even to Cush, and who having become converted, offer to the Lord the gift that is His due. But, apart from the parallel passage in Isaiah 66:20, which alone is quite decisive, this view is proved to be untenable by bath pūtsai, daughter of my dispersed ones. The thought that Jehovah disperses the heathen, either at the judgment or through the judgment, is foreign to the whole of the Old Testament, as Hitzig himself appears to have felt, when he changed pūts, to disperse, into its very opposite - namely, to come home. The thought, on the other hand, that God will disperse His people Israel among all nations on account of their sins, and will hereafter gather them together again, is a truth expressed even in the song of Moses, and one which recurs in all the prophets, so that every hearer or reader of our prophet must think at once of the Israel scattered abroad in connection with the expression "my (i.e., Jehovah's) dispersed ones." The objection, that Judah is first spoken of in Zephaniah 3:11 (Hitzig), is thereby deprived of all its significance, even if this really were the case. But the objection is also incorrect, since the Judaeans have been already addressed in Zephaniah 3:8 in the expression חכּוּ לי.

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