page_title: Zephaniah
section_title: The prophet Zephaniah
hierarchical_section_title: Zephaniah / The prophet Zephaniah
caption_attribution_description: Prophet Zephaniah, old Russian Orthodox icon
context_page_description: Zephaniah is the name of several people in the Hebrew Bible and Jewish Tanakh; the most prominent one being the prophet who prophesied in the days of Josiah, king of Judah and is attributed a book bearing his name among the Twelve Minor Prophets. His name is commonly transliterated Sophonias in Bibles translated from the Vulgate or Septuagint. The name might mean "YHWH, phonetically, has concealed", "[he whom] YH has hidden", or "YH lies in wait".
context_section_description: The best known Biblical figure bearing the name Zephaniah is the son of Cushi, and great-great grandson of King Hezekiah, ninth in the literary order of the Twelve Minor Prophets. He prophesied in the days of Josiah, ruler of the Kingdom of Judah (640–609 BCE), but before Josiah's reform in 621 BCE, and was contemporary with Jeremiah, with whom he had much in common. The unique source containing the minimal knowledge of his personality and rhetorical and literary qualities is the short, three chapter book of the Old Testament which bears his name. The scene of his activity was the city of Jerusalem, which he seems to know well. The existence of two Zephaniahs linked to the book is considered purely hypothetical.
caption: An 18th-century Russian icon of the prophet Zephaniah in Kizhi, Karelia
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