Lectionary Calendar
Saturday, August 23rd, 2025
the Week of Proper 15 / Ordinary 20
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Read the Bible

Easy-to-Read Version

Zephaniah 3:6

The Lord says, "I have destroyed whole nations and their defense towers. I destroyed their streets and now no one goes there anymore. Their cities are empty—no one lives there anymore.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Afflictions and Adversities;   Nation;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Afflictions of the Wicked, the;   Towers;  

Dictionaries:

- Fausset Bible Dictionary - Zephaniah, the Book of;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Zephaniah, Book of;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Zephaniah (1);   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Corner-Stone ;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
I have cut off nations;their corner towers are destroyed.I have laid waste their streets,with no one to pass through.Their cities lie devastated,without a person, without an inhabitant.
Hebrew Names Version
I have cut off nations. Their battlements are desolate. I have made their streets waste, so that no one passes by. Their cities are destroyed, so that there is no man, so that there is no inhabitant.
King James Version (1611)
I haue cut off the nations: their towres are desolate, I made their streetes waste, that none passeth by: their cities are destroied, so that there is no man, that there is none inhabitant.
King James Version
I have cut off the nations: their towers are desolate; I made their streets waste, that none passeth by: their cities are destroyed, so that there is no man, that there is none inhabitant.
English Standard Version
"I have cut off nations; their battlements are in ruins; I have laid waste their streets so that no one walks in them; their cities have been made desolate, without a man, without an inhabitant.
New American Standard Bible
"I have eliminated nations; Their corner towers are deserted. I have laid waste their streets, With no one passing by; Their cities have been laid waste, Without a person, without an inhabitant.
New Century Version
"I have destroyed nations; their towers were ruined. I made their streets empty so no one goes there anymore. Their cities are ruined; no one lives there at all.
Amplified Bible
"I [the LORD] have cut off and destroyed nations [as a warning to Judah]; Their corner towers (battlements) are in ruins. I have made their streets desolate So that no one passes by; Their cities are destroyed So that there is no man, there is no inhabitant.
Geneva Bible (1587)
I haue cut off the nations: their towres are desolate: I haue made their streetes waste, that none shal passe by: their cities are destroyed without man and without inhabitant.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"I have cut off nations; Their corner towers are in ruins. I have made their streets desolate, With no one passing by; Their cities are laid waste, Without a man, without an inhabitant.
Legacy Standard Bible
"I have cut off nations;Their corner towers are desolate.I have made their streets a waste,With no one passing by;Their cities are laid waste,Without a man, without an inhabitant.
Berean Standard Bible
"I have cut off the nations; their corner towers are destroyed. I have made their streets deserted with no one to pass through. Their cities are laid waste, with no man, no inhabitant.
Contemporary English Version
The Lord wiped out nations and left fortresses crumbling in the dirt. Their streets and towns were reduced to ruins and emptied of people.
Complete Jewish Bible
"I have cut off nations, their battlements are ruined; I have made their streets ruins, no one walks in them. Their cities are destroyed, abandoned, unpeopled.
Darby Translation
I have cut off nations: their battlements are desolate; I made their streets waste, that none passeth by; their cities are destroyed, so that there is no man, so that there is no inhabitant.
George Lamsa Translation
I have destroyed the nations and removed the misery; I have made their streets waste, so that no one walks in them; their cities are desolate, without a man and without the inhabitants.
Good News Translation
The Lord says, "I have wiped out whole nations; I have destroyed their cities and left their walls and towers in ruins. The cities are deserted; the streets are empty—no one is left.
Lexham English Bible
"I have cut off nations; their strongholds are deserted. I have laid waste their streets, so that none pass through. Their cities have been destroyed and are without a man, without an inhabitant.
Literal Translation
I have cut off nations; their towers are ruined. I made their streets waste, so that none passes by. Their cities are laid waste, without a man, from there being not one living there.
American Standard Version
I have cut off nations; their battlements are desolate; I have made their streets waste, so that none passeth by; their cities are destroyed, so that there is no man, so that there is no inhabitant.
Bible in Basic English
I have had the nations cut off, their towers are broken down; I have made their streets a waste so that no one goes through them: destruction has overtaken their towns, so that there is no man living in them.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
I have cut off nations, their corners are desolate; I have made their streets waste, so that none passeth by; their cities are destroyed, so that there is no man, so that there is no inhabitant.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
I haue destroyed the nations, their towres are desolate, I haue made their streetes wast, that none shall passe by: their cities are destroyed, without man, and without inhabitaunt.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
I have brought down the proud with destruction; their corners are destroyed: I will make their ways completely waste, so that none shall go through: their cities are come to an end, by reason of no man living or dwelling in them.
English Revised Version
I have cut off nations, their battlements are desolate; I have made their streets waste, that none passeth by: their cities are destroyed, so that there is no man, that there is none inhabitant.
World English Bible
I have cut off nations. Their battlements are desolate. I have made their streets waste, so that no one passes by. Their cities are destroyed, so that there is no man, so that there is no inhabitant.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Y loste folkis, and the corneris of hem ben distried; Y made the weies of hem desert, while there is not that schal passe. The citees of hem ben desolat, for a man is not left, nether ony dwellere.
Update Bible Version
I have cut off nations; their battlements are desolate; I have made their streets waste, so that none passes by; their cities are destroyed, so that there is no man, so that there is no inhabitant.
Webster's Bible Translation
I have cut off the nations: their towers are desolate; I made their streets waste, that none passeth by: their cities are destroyed, so that there is no man, that there is no inhabitant.
New English Translation
"I destroyed nations; their walled cities are in ruins. I turned their streets into ruins; no one passes through them. Their cities are desolate; no one lives there.
New King James Version
"I have cut off nations, Their fortresses are devastated; I have made their streets desolate, With none passing by. Their cities are destroyed; There is no one, no inhabitant.
New Living Translation
"I have wiped out many nations, devastating their fortress walls and towers. Their streets are now deserted; their cities lie in silent ruin. There are no survivors— none at all.
New Life Bible
"I have cut off nations. Their towers are destroyed. I have laid waste their streets so that no one walks in them. Their cities are laid waste, and no one lives in them.
New Revised Standard
I have cut off nations; their battlements are in ruins; I have laid waste their streets so that no one walks in them; their cities have been made desolate, without people, without inhabitants.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
I have cut off nations, deserted are their towers, have made desolate their streets, that none passeth through; ruined are their cities, for want of men of note, from lack of any dweller!
Douay-Rheims Bible
I have destroyed the nations, and their towers are beaten down: I have made their ways desert, so that there is none that passeth by: their cities are desolate, there is not a man remaining, nor any inhabitant.
Revised Standard Version
"I have cut off nations; their battlements are in ruins; I have laid waste their streets so that none walks in them; their cities have been made desolate, without a man, without an inhabitant.
Young's Literal Translation
I have cut off nations, Desolated have been their chief ones, I have laid waste their out-places without any passing by, Destroyed have been their cities, Without man, without inhabitant.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Therfore wil I rote out this people, and destroye their towres: yee and make their stretes so voyde, that no man shall go therin. Their cities shall be broke downe, so that no body shal be left, ner dwel there eny more.
THE MESSAGE
"So I cut off the godless nations. I knocked down their defense posts, Filled her roads with rubble so no one could get through. Her cities were bombed-out ruins, unlivable and unlived in.

Contextual Overview

1 Jerusalem, your people fought against God. They hurt other people, and you have been stained with sin. 2 They didn't listen to me or accept my teachings. Jerusalem didn't trust the Lord . Jerusalem didn't go to her God. 3 Jerusalem's leaders are like roaring lions. Her judges are like hungry wolves that come in the evening to attack the sheep—and in the morning nothing is left. 4 Her prophets are always making secret plans to get more and more. Her priests have treated holy things as if they were not holy. They have done bad things to God's teachings. 5 But the Lord is still in that city, and he continues to be good. He does not do anything wrong. He continues to help his people. Morning after morning he makes good decisions for them. Not a day passes without his justice. He never gives a decision that is crooked or is something to be ashamed of. 6 The Lord says, "I have destroyed whole nations and their defense towers. I destroyed their streets and now no one goes there anymore. Their cities are empty—no one lives there anymore. 7 I tell you this so that you will learn a lesson. I want you to fear and respect me. If you do this, your home will not be destroyed, and I will not have to punish you the way I planned." But those evil people only wanted to do more of the same evil things they had already done!

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

cut: Isaiah 10:1-34, Isaiah 15:1 - Isaiah 16:14, Isaiah 19:1-25, Isaiah 37:11-13, Isaiah 37:24-26, Isaiah 37:36, Jeremiah 25:9-11, Jeremiah 25:18-26, Nahum 2:1 - Nahum 3:19, 1 Corinthians 10:6, 1 Corinthians 10:11

towers: or, corners

Reciprocal: Deuteronomy 8:19 - I testify against Psalms 76:12 - He shall Isaiah 14:26 - General Jeremiah 2:15 - his cities Jeremiah 5:17 - they shall impoverish Ezekiel 6:6 - the cities Ezekiel 30:3 - the time Ezekiel 32:32 - General Hosea 10:9 - did Nahum 2:10 - empty Zechariah 7:14 - the land

Cross-References

Genesis 3:1
The snake was the most clever of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. The snake spoke to the woman and said, "Woman, did God really tell you that you must not eat from any tree in the garden?"
Genesis 3:2
The woman answered the snake, "No, we can eat fruit from the trees in the garden.
Genesis 3:12
The man said, "The woman you put here with me gave me fruit from that tree. So I ate it."
Genesis 3:14
So the Lord God said to the snake, "You did this very bad thing, so bad things will happen to you. It will be worse for you than for any other animal. You must crawl on your belly and eat dust all the days of your life.
Genesis 3:15
I will make you and the woman enemies to each other. Your children and her children will be enemies. You will bite her child's foot, but he will crush your head."
Genesis 3:17
Then God said to the man, "I commanded you not to eat from that tree. But you listened to your wife and ate from it. So I will curse the ground because of you. You will have to work hard all your life for the food the ground produces.
Genesis 3:19
You will work hard for your food, until your face is covered with sweat. You will work hard until the day you die, and then you will become dust again. I used dust to make you, and when you die, you will become dust again."
Genesis 39:7
After some time, the wife of Joseph's master began to pay special attention to him. One day she said to him, "Sleep with me."
Joshua 7:21
In Jericho, I saw a beautiful coat from Babylonia, about 5 pounds of silver, and about a pound of gold. I wanted these things for myself, so I took them. You will find them buried in the ground under my tent. The silver is under the coat."
2 Samuel 11:2
One evening he got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of his house. From there he saw a woman bathing. She was very beautiful,

Gill's Notes on the Bible

I have cut off the nations,.... Utterly destroyed them, as the Philistines, Moabites, Ethiopians, and Assyrians, as in the preceding chapters; all which were done before the coming of Christ in the flesh; and by which instances the Jews should have took warning, lest by their sins they should provoke the Lord to destroy their nation, city, and temple:

their towers are desolate; built on their frontiers, or on the walls of their cities, to defend them; these were demolished, and laid waste, and of no use: or, "their corners" b; towers being usually built on the angles or corners of walls. Some interpret this of their princes, nobles, and great men, who were destroyed; see Zechariah 10:4:

I made their streets waste, that none passeth by; the streets of their cities, the houses being pulled down by the enemy, the rubbish of them lay in the streets, so that there was no passing for any; and indeed, the houses being demolished, the streets were no more in form:

their cities are destroyed, so that there is no man, that there is none inhabitant; the houses being burnt with fire, or pulled down, and plundered of the goods and substance in them, and the people cut off by famine, pestilence, or sword; and the rest carried captive, there was scarce a man or inhabitant left; so general was the destruction.

b פנותם "anguli earum", Pagninus, Montanus, Drusius, Cocceius, Burkius.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

I have cut off the nations - God appeals to His judgments on pagan nations, not on any particular nation, as far as we know; but to past history, whether of those, of whose destruction Israel itself had been the instrument, or others. The judgments upon the nations before them were set forth to them, when they were about to enter on their inheritance, as a warning to themselves. “Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things, for in all these have the nations defiled themselves, which I cast out before you: and the land is defiled; therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land vomiteth out her inhabitants. And ye, ye shall keep My statutes and My judgements and shall not commit any of these abominations - And the land shall not spue you out when ye defile it, as it spued out the nations which were before you” (Leviticus 18:24-26, Leviticus 18:28, add Leviticus 20:23). The very possession then of the land was a warning to them; the ruins, which crowned so many of its hilltops , were silent preachers to them; they lived among the memories of God’s visitations; if neglected, they were an earnest of future judgments on themselves.

Yet God’s judgments are not at one time only. Sennacherib appealed to their own knowledge, “Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands by destroying them utterly. Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers have destroyed?” Isaiah 37:11, Isaiah 37:13. Hezekiah owned it as a fact which he knew: “Of a truth, Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their land” Isaiah 37:18. And God owns him as His instrument: “Now I have brought it to pass, that thou shouldest be to lay waste defensed cities into ruinous heaps” Isaiah 37:26 : and, “I will send him against an ungodly nation, and against the people of My wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil and to take the prey, and to tread them down as the mire of the streets,” and says of him, “It is in his heart to destroy and to cut off nations not a few” . The king of Babylon too he describes as “the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms. that made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof” Isaiah 14:16-17. Habakkuk recently described the wide wasting by the Babylonians, and the helplessness of nations before him Habakkuk 1:14-16.

Their towers, corner towers - o, the most carefully fortified parts of their fortified cities, “are desolate; I made their streets waste.” The desolation is complete, within as well as without; ruin itself is hardly so desolate as the empty habitations and forsaken streets, once full of life, where

“The echoes and the empty tread

Would sound like voices from the dead.”



Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 6. I have cut off the nations — Syria, Israel, and those referred to, Isaiah 36:18; Isaiah 36:20. - Newcome.


 
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