[Alarm Call]
The great day of the LORD is near,
Near and hastening through the air.
The mighty man will cry in pain;
No practiced courage can remain.
[Litany of the Day]
A day of wrath,
A day of trouble,
A day of waste,
A day of rubble.
A day of darkness,
A day of cloud,
A day the trumpet sounds aloud.
[Chorus]
The great day is near,
Bitter in the ear.
Trumpet against the fenced-in city,
Alarm against the highest tower.
The great day is near,
No silver answers fear.
The whole land burns in jealous fire,
And pride survives no hour.
[Verse]
Distress makes men walk as the blind,
Because their sin has closed the mind.
Blood poured out like common dust,
Flesh abandoned where they trusted.
[Refrain]
Neither silver nor gold can save
When judgment opens every grave
Of hidden greed and violent gain;
The fire consumes the proud domain.
[Bridge]
A speedy riddance,
A sudden end,
Not random fury,
But justice sent.
[Final Chorus]
The great day is near,
Bitter in the ear.
Trumpet against the fenced-in city,
Alarm against the highest tower.
The great day is near,
No treasure answers fear.
The whole land burns in jealous fire,
And no proud refuge will appear.
[Final Hit]
Near.
Hastening greatly.
About the passage
Zephaniah 1: The day that searches every hiding place
The Book of Zephaniah opens by making Judah's crisis larger than Judah and then making it painfully specific. The language sweeps across creation before settling over Jerusalem, where the charge includes open idolatry, mixed worship, withdrawal from the LORD, violent gain, and the quieter conviction that God will not act at all. The day of the LORD overturns the usual hierarchy of protection. Royal children, merchants, mighty men, fortified cities, houses, vineyards, silver, and gold all remain recognizable, but none can set the terms of what is coming. Jerusalem is pictured as a city searched with candles, an image that turns complacency into something exposed rather than hidden. The chapter's pressure comes from that narrowing search: public religion, private assumptions, wealth, strength, and future plans are all brought into the same reckoning.
Study Zephaniah 1 in depth →
