Book of Zephaniah

[2] The church father Jerome of Stridon interpreted Zephaniah's name to mean "the watchman of the Lord".

[5] While some have concluded from this that Zephaniah was dark-skinned or African,[2] Ehud Ben Zvi maintains that, based on the context, "Cushi" must be understood as a personal name rather than an indicator of nationality.

[9] Others argue that some portion of the book is postmonarchic,[10] that is, dating to later than 586 BC when the Kingdom of Judah fell in the Siege of Jerusalem.

[11] If Zephaniah was largely composed during the monarchic period, then its composition was occasioned by Judah's refusal to obey its covenant obligations toward Yahweh despite having seen northern Israel's exile a generation or two previously,[1] an exile which the Judahite literary tradition attributed to Yahweh's anger aroused by Israel's disobedience to the covenant.

[16][17][18] The day of the Lord tradition also appears in Isaiah, Ezekiel, Obadiah, Joel, and Malachi.

[40] Some fragments containing parts of the Septuagint version of this book were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, i.e., Naḥal Ḥever (1st century CE).