Zephaniah: An Earth Bible Commentary

With astute attention to Zephaniahs intertextual relationships with other biblical texts, Nicholas R. Werse explores the implications of Zephaniah as a book in perpetual conversation with other biblical cosmologies and conceptions of the human place in relationship with creation. Werse guides readers to critically examine Zephaniahs ancient worldview and subsequent legacy in dialog with the worlds modern ecological crises. Werse argues that Zephaniah begins and ends with the land. It begins with the removal of all life from the land and ends with a proclamation returning the exiles to their ancestral home. Along this journey, all three chapters of Zephaniah systematically reverse language and imagery from Gen 1-11 and draw deeply from the language of earlier prophets to depict the 6th century BCE destruction of Jerusalem as nothing short of the unravelling of creation. While remaining suspicious of Zephaniahs distinctively androcentric worldview, Werse traces Zephaniahs rhetorical journey from the deconstruction of creation and the nations, to its proclamations of hope for the future.