...,[135] _O people unabashed![136] before that ye become as the drifting chaff, before the anger of Jehovah come upon you,[137] before there come upon you the day of Jehovah’s wrath;[138] seek Jehovah, all ye meek of the land who do His ordinance,[139] seek righteousness, seek meekness, peradventure ye may hide yourselves in the day of Jehovah’s wrath._ FOOTNOTES: [100] Josiah, born _c._ 648, succeeded _c._ 639, was about eighteen in 630, and then appears to have begun his reforms. [101] See above, pp. 40 f., n. 85. [102] Jer. i. 5. [103] See G. B. Gray, _Hebrew Proper Names_. [104] Josiah. [105] It is not usual in the O.T. to carry a man’s genealogy beyond his grandfather, except for some special purpose, or in order to include some ancestor of note. Also the name Hezekiah is very rare apart from the king. The number of names compounded with Jah or Jehovah is another proof that the line is a royal one. The omission of the phrase _king of Judah_ after Hezekiah’s name proves nothing; it may have been of purpose because the phrase has to occur immediately again. [106] It was not till 652 that a league was made between the Palestine princes and Psamtik I. against Assyria. This certainly would have been the most natural year for a child to be named Kushi. But that would set the birth of Zephaniah as late as 632, and his prophecy towards the end of Josiah’s reign, which we have seen to be improbable on other grounds. [107] Jer. xxi. 1, xxix. 25, 29, xxxvii. 3, lii. 24 ff.; 2 Kings xxv. 18. The analogous Phœnician name צפנבעל, Saphan-ba’al = “Baal protects or hides,” is found in No. 207 of the Phœnician inscriptions in the _Corpus Inscr. Semiticarum_. [108] Chap. i. 15. With the above paragraph cf. Robertson Smith, _Encyc. Brit._, art. “Zephaniah.” [109] Chap. i. 14_b_. [110] In fact this forms one difficulty about the conclusion which we have reached as to the date. We saw that one reason against putting the Book of Zephaniah after the great Reforms of 621 was that it betrayed no sign of their effects. But it might justly be answered that, if Zephaniah prophesied before 621, his book ought to betray some sign of the approach of reform. Still the explanation given above is satisfactory. [111] Chap. i. 12. [112] So _wine upon the lees_ is a generous wine according to Isa. xxv. 6. [113] Jer. xlviii. 11.