Zeph 2:3 “Seek,” he says, indicating how one should be converted and that one should take the saints as intercessors. “Seek the Lord with heart, mouth, and work.” Isaiah 55: “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near.” Matthew 6: “Ask and you shall receive; seek and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened to you.” Daniel 3: “Now we follow you with all our heart, and we fear you, and we seek your face; do not put us to shame.”
“All you meek of the earth.” Augustine says: the meek person is one who provokes injury to no one and is not provoked by another’s injury; one who in repentance resists nothing and contradicts nothing. Meekness (mansuetudo) is the same as gentleness (mititas). Thus Matthew 5: “Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the earth.” Numbers 12: “Now Moses was the meekest of all men on the face of the earth.” Matthew 11: “Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart.” James 1: “Receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.”
“You who have worked his judgment.” To meekness he joins obedience. The judgment of the Lord is that which he has judged should be done by all. Thus Psalm 118: “I have done judgment and justice; do not deliver me to my oppressors.” For the one who has worked judgment for himself has nothing to fear, and such a one can intercede for another. Thus Isaiah 26: “In the path of your judgments we have waited for you; your name and your memorial are the desire of the soul.”
He then adds two responses corresponding to the two exhortations preceding: “Seek justice,” that is, you who have worked his judgment. Jeremiah 23: “This is the name by which they shall call him: ‘The Lord our justice.’” Psalm 10: “The Lord is just and loves justice.” “Seek meekness,” for he also receives repentant sinners in meekness; of this the example is in Luke 15, in the prodigal son, whom the father received with all meekness. Thus Daniel 3: “Deal with us according to your meekness and according to the multitude of your mercies, and deliver us.”
“Perhaps you may be hidden in the day of the Lord’s wrath.” Isaiah 4: “Over all the glory there will be a protection and a tabernacle for shade by day from the heat, and for refuge and shelter from storm and rain.” Isaiah 32: “A man shall be like a hiding place from the wind and a shelter from the tempest.”
He then adds the example of those who did not repent, introducing various kinds of men under four headings, though differing among themselves: first the Philistines, then the Ammonites and Moabites (“I have heard the reproach of Moab”), third the Ethiopians (“You also, Ethiopians”), and fourth the Assyrians (“He will stretch out his hand over the north”).
Zeph 3:12m“And I will leave in your midst a poor and needy people.” Jerome glosses: formerly the poor of the land were left behind. Thus Jeremiah, last chapter. Such was the primitive Church, poor and needy. Thus 1 Corinthians 1: “Consider your calling, brethren: not many wise according to the flesh, not many powerful, not many noble.” Matthew 5: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
“And needy. He is called poor (egenus) who begs. Thus in 2 Corinthians 8: “You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that by His poverty you might become rich.” And they shall hope in His name, seeking nothing beyond God. Jeremiah 17 says: “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and the Lord shall be his confidence.” And the Psalm says: “O Lord, my hope from my youth.”
Zeph 3:13 He then adds concerning humility and purity: “The remnant of Israel shall not commit iniquity nor speak lies.” By iniquity he understands mortal sin, not venial sins, for no one is without them, as 1 John says: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” This cannot be understood of those returning from captivity, nor of the poor who remained under Gedaliah, since both groups committed various iniquities. Rather, it is to be understood of the first believers in the Church, or of those who will be converted in the final times. Isaiah 60 says: “Your people shall all be righteous; they shall inherit the land forever.” In the person of these it is said in Isaiah: “Remember, O Lord, that I have walked before you in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done what is good in your sight.”
“Nor shall they speak falsehood,” which is especially pernicious. Ephesians 4: “Putting away falsehood, speak the truth, each one with his neighbor.” Wisdom 1: “A lying mouth kills the soul.” Romans 9: “I speak the truth in Christ Jesus; I do not lie.” Therefore, they will be pure in deed and pure in speech.
And he adds: “Nor shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth,” that is, one who says one thing while intending another in the heart, or who deceives. As 1 Peter 2 says: “No deceit was found in his mouth.” Malachi 2: “The law of truth was in his mouth, and no iniquity was found on his lips; he walked with me in peace and uprightness.” And because the fruit of justice is peace, as Isaiah 32 says, he therefore adds concerning the security of peace: “For they shall feed,” that is, on the nourishment of the word, the sacraments, and even temporal provision. John 10: “He shall go in and go out and find pasture.” Ezekiel 34: “I will feed them in rich pastures, on the high mountains of Israel shall their grazing land be.”
“And they shall lie down,” each one in his dwelling, either in the Church or in a good conscience. Ezekiel 34: “I will feed my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord God.” “And none shall make them afraid,” that is, no enemy. Nahum 1: “Belial shall no longer pass through you; he is utterly cut off.” Revelation 21: “There shall be no more death, nor mourning, nor crying, nor pain.”
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