I will gather them that are sorrowful for the solemn assembly, who are of thee, to whom the reproach of it was a burden.
Parallel translations
- WEB I will remove those who grieve about the appointed feasts from you. They are a burden and a reproach to you.
- BSB “I will gather those among you who grieve over the appointed feasts, so that you will no longer suffer reproach.
- NKJV “I will gather those who sorrow over the appointed assembly, Who are among you, To whom its reproach is a burden.
- NASB “I will gather those who are worried about the appointed feasts— They came from you, Zion; The disgrace of exile is a burden on them.
- NLT “I will gather you who mourn for the appointed festivals; you will be disgraced no more.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God will remove from His people the sorrow and reproach they bore over the appointed feasts. It matters because it promises the end of grief tied to disrupted worship.
Overview
The exact sense of this verse is debated and the Hebrew is difficult, but it broadly speaks of God removing a burden of grief and reproach connected to the festivals. The point is God's gracious restoration of joyful worship to a people who had known mourning. It looks toward the unhindered worship of God's redeemed people.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 16
- Ps 42:2–4My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?
- Zeph 3:20At that time will I bring you again, even in the time that I gather you: for I will make you a name and a praise among all people of the earth, when I turn back your captivity before your eyes, saith the LORD.
- Ezek 36:24For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land.
- Jer 23:3And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase.
- Lam 1:4The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts: all her gates are desolate: her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness.
- Lam 2:6–7And he hath violently taken away his tabernacle, as if it were of a garden: he hath destroyed his places of the assembly: the LORD hath caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, and hath despised in the indignation of his anger the king and the priest.
- Jer 31:8–9Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the coasts of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her that travaileth with child together: a great company shall return thither.
- Hos 1:11Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together, and appoint themselves one head, and they shall come up out of the land: for great shall be the day of Jezreel.
- Ps 43:3O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles.
- Ps 84:1–2How amiable are thy tabernacles, O LORD of hosts!
- Ps 63:1–2O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;
- Rom 11:25–26For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
- Ezek 34:13And I will bring them out from the people, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers, and in all the inhabited places of the country.
- Ps 137:3–6For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.
- Lam 1:7Jerusalem remembered in the days of her affliction and of her miseries all her pleasant things that she had in the days of old, when her people fell into the hand of the enemy, and none did help her: the adversaries saw her, and did mock at her sabbaths.
- Hos 9:5What will ye do in the solemn day, and in the day of the feast of the LORD?
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
The day of the LORD gives way to the promise that God himself will be in the midst of his people, rejoicing over them with singing — fulfilled in the saving presence of Christ.
How Zephaniah 3:18 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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