Zephaniah 3:5
What does Zephaniah 3:5 mean?
A plain-English look at Zephaniah 3:5 in WEB alongside six other public-domain English translations, with cross-references and chapter context.
What Zephaniah 3:5 means
In sharp contrast to corrupt leaders, Jehovah remains righteous in the city’s midst. He never commits iniquity, and His justice rises like the dawn—regular, clear, and faithful. Though human courts fail, divine justice does not. Yet the unjust “know no shame”; they persist without blush or repentance. The verse teaches that God’s presence is not an endorsement of sin but a continual witness against it. His nearness should have led to reverence and reform. Instead, hardened hearts ignored daily reminders of right and wrong. The problem is not the absence of light, but the refusal to see and be changed by it.
Parallel translations
WEB
World English Bible · 2000Jehovah in the midst of her is righteous; he will not do iniquity; every morning doth he bring his justice to light, he faileth not; but the unjust knoweth no shame.
KJV
King James Version · 1611The just Lord is in the midst thereof; he will not do iniquity: every morning doth he bring his judgment to light, he faileth not; but the unjust knoweth no shame.
ASV
American Standard Version · 1901Jehovah in the midst of her is righteous; he will not do iniquity; every morning doth he bring his justice to light, he faileth not; but the unjust knoweth no shame.
BBE
Bible in Basic English · 1949The Lord in her is upright; he will not do evil; every morning he lets his righteousness be seen, he is unchanging; but the evil-doer has no sense of shame.
YLT
Young's Literal Translation · 1862Jehovah <FI>is<Fi> righteous in her midst, He doth not do perverseness, Morning by morning His judgment he giveth to the light, It hath not been lacking, And the perverse doth not know shame.
DRA
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · 1752The just Lord is in the midst thereof, he will not do iniquity: in the morning, in the morning he will bring his judgment to light, and it shall not be hid: but the wicked man hath not known shame.
DBY
Darby Bible · 1890The righteous Jehovah is in the midst of her: he doeth no wrong. Every morning doth he bring his judgment to light; it faileth not: but the unrighteous knoweth no shame.
Context
After exposing leaders’ failures, Zephaniah sets God’s character as the benchmark. Verse 5 centers the chapter: judgment flows from who God is—righteous, consistent, present. This contrast explains why Jerusalem is without excuse. The following verses (6–7) will recall God’s past judgments on other nations and His patient call to repentance, highlighting how Jerusalem squandered abundant warning and instruction. The movement is from God’s character to God’s acts in history and Jerusalem’s response.
v.4Her prophets are light and treacherous persons; her priests have profaned the sanctuary, they have done violence to the law.
v.5This passage
v.6I 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.
Cross references
Related passages from across Scripture, drawn from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.
- Jeremiah 3:3
Therefore the showers have been withholden, and there hath been no latter rain; yet thou hadst a harlot’s forehead, thou refusedst to be ashamed.
- Job 8:3
Doth God pervert justice? Or doth the Almighty pervert righteousness?
- Zephaniah 2:1
Gather yourselves together, yea, gather together, O nation that hath no shame;
- Isaiah 45:21
Declare ye, and bring it forth; yea, let them take counsel together: who hath showed this from ancient time? who hath declared it of old? have not I, Jehovah? and there is no God else besides me, a just God and a Saviour; there is none besides me.
- Psalms 145:17
Jehovah is righteous in all his ways, And gracious in all his works.
- Romans 2:5
but after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up for thyself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God;
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