---
title: "Zephaniah 1 – Catholic Bible (CPDV) & Latin Vulgate · Bless"
url: https://blessbible.app/bible/zephaniah/1/
description: "For divers enormous sins, the kingdom of Juda is threatened with severe… Zephaniah 1 in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin Vulgate."
---

# Zephaniah 1

Zephaniah 1 is chapter 1 of 3 in the Book of Zephaniah. Here are all 18 verses in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin of the Clementine Vulgate beside them.

> For divers enormous sins, the kingdom of Juda is threatened with severe judgment.
>
> — Bp. Richard Challoner, chapter summary

## Zephaniah 1 (Catholic Public Domain Version)

1. The word of the Lord that came to Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah.
2. While gathering, I will gather together all things from the face of the earth, says the Lord.
3. I will gather man and cattle; I will gather the flying things of the air and the fish of the sea. And the impious will be a catastrophe. And I will disperse men before the face of the earth, says the Lord.
4. And I will extend my hand over Judah and over all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And I will disperse from this place the remnant of Baal, and the names of the administrators along with the priests,
5. and those who adore the military campaign over the ceiling of the sky, both those who adore and swear by the Lord, and those who swear by Melchom,
6. both those who turn aside from following after the Lord, and those who have not sought the Lord, nor inquired about him.
7. Be silent before the face of the Lord God. For the day of the Lord is near; for the Lord has prepared a victim, he has sanctified those he has called.
8. And this shall be: in the day of the victim of the Lord, I will visit upon the leaders, and upon the sons of the king, and upon all who have been clothed with strange garments.
9. And I will visit upon all who enter arrogantly over the threshold in that day, those who fill the house of the Lord their God with iniquity and deceit.
10. And this shall be in that day, says the Lord: the voice of an outcry from the fish gate, and a howling from the Second, and a great contrition from the hills.
11. Howl, inhabitants of the Pillar. All the people of Canaan have fallen silent. All were ruined who had been wrapped in silver.
12. And this shall be in that time: I will scrutinize Jerusalem with lamps, and I will visit upon the men who have become stuck in the dregs, who say in their hearts, “The Lord will not do good, and he will not do evil.”
13. And their strength will be in plundering, and their houses in the desert. And they will build houses and not dwell in them, and they will plant vineyards and not drink their wine.
14. The great day of the Lord is near; it is near and exceedingly swift. The voice of the day of the Lord is bitter; the strong will be tested there.
15. That day is a day of wrath, a day of tribulation and anguish, a day of calamity and misery, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and whirlwinds,
16. a day of the trumpet and the trumpet blast over fortified cities and over exalted ramparts.
17. And I will trouble men, and they will walk like the blind, because they have sinned against the Lord. And their blood will be poured out like soil, and their bodies like manure.
18. Neither their silver, nor their gold, will be able to free them in the day of the wrath of the Lord. All the land will be devoured in the fire of his zeal, for with all speed, he will bring to consummation every inhabitant of the land.

## Zephaniah 1 in Latin (Clementine Vulgate, 1592)

1. Verbum Domini quod factum est ad Sophoniam, filium Chusi, filii Godoliæ, filii Amariæ, filii Ezeciæ, in diebus Josiæ, filii Amon, regis Judæ.
2. Congregans congregabo omnia a facie terræ, dicit Dominus:
3. congregans hominem et pecus, congregans volatilia cæli et pisces maris: et ruinæ impiorum erunt, et disperdam homines a facie terræ, dicit Dominus.
4. Et extendam manum meam super Judam et super omnes habitantes Jerusalem: et disperdam de loco hoc reliquias Baal, et nomina ædituorum cum sacerdotibus;
5. et eos qui adorant super tecta militiam cæli, et adorant et jurant in Domino, et jurant in Melchom;
6. et qui avertuntur de post tergum Domini, et qui non quæsierunt Dominum, nec investigaverunt eum.
7. Silete a facie Domini Dei, quia juxta est dies Domini: quia præparavit Dominus hostiam; sanctificavit vocatos suos.
8. Et erit: in die hostiæ Domini, visitabo super principes, et super filios regis, et super omnes qui induti sunt veste peregrina;
9. et visitabo super omnem qui arroganter ingreditur super limen in die illa, qui complent domum Domini Dei sui iniquitate et dolo.
10. Et erit in die illa, dicit Dominus, vox clamoris a porta piscium, et ululatus a Secunda, et contritio magna a collibus.
11. Ululate, habitatores Pilæ: conticuit omnis populus Chanaan, disperierunt omnes involuti argento.
12. Et erit in tempore illo: scrutabor Jerusalem in lucernis, et visitabo super viros defixos in fæcibus suis, qui dicunt in cordibus suis: Non faciet bene Dominus, et non faciet male.
13. Et erit fortitudo eorum in direptionem, et domus eorum in desertum: et ædificabunt domos, et non habitabunt; et plantabunt vineas, et non bibent vinum earum.
14. Juxta est dies Domini magnus: juxta est, et velox nimis. Vox diei Domini amara: tribulabitur ibi fortis.
15. Dies iræ dies illa, dies tribulationis et angustiæ, dies calamitatis et miseriæ, dies tenebrarum et caliginis, dies nebulæ et turbinis,
16. dies tubæ et clangoris super civitates munitas, et super angulos excelsos.
17. Et tribulabo homines, et ambulabunt ut cæci, quia Domino peccaverunt; et effundetur sanguis eorum sicut humus, et corpora eorum sicut stercora.
18. Sed et argentum eorum et aurum eorum non poterit liberare eos in die iræ Domini: in igne zeli ejus devorabitur omnis terra, quia consummationem cum festinatione faciet cunctis habitantibus terram.

## Bishop Challoner's notes

Bp. Richard Challoner, notes on the Douay-Rheims (1750); they comment on its older wording.
- Verse 2: “Gathering, I will gather” … That is, I will assuredly take away, and wholly consume, either by captivity, or death, both men and beasts out of this land.
- Verse 4: Viz., of the temples of the idols. AEdituos, in Hebrew, the Chemarims, that is, such as kindle the fires, or burn incense.
- Verse 5: “Melchom” … The idol of the Ammonites.
- Verse 10: “The Second” … A part of the city so called.
- Verse 11: Maktesh. A valley in or near Jerusalem. Ibid.
- Verse 11: So he calls the Jews, from their following the wicked ways of the Chanaanites.
- Verse 12: That is, the wealthy, and such as live at their ease, resting upon their riches, like wine upon the lees.

Source: Catholic Public Domain Version (Ronald L. Conte Jr., 2009), public domain; Latin: Clementine Vulgate (1592).