I will remove those who grieve about the appointed feasts from you. They are a burden and a reproach to you.
Parallel translations
- KJV I will gather them that are sorrowful for the solemn assembly, who are of thee, to whom the reproach of it was a burden.
- 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 thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?
- Zeph 3:20At that time will I bring you in, and at that time will I gather you; for I will give you honor and praise among all the peoples of the earth, when I restore your fortunes before your eyes, says Yahweh.
- Ezek 36:24For I will take you from among the nations, and gather you out of all the countries, and will bring you into your own land.
- Jer 23:3“I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and multiply.
- Lam 1:4The ways of Zion mourn, because no one come to the solemn assembly; all her gates are desolate, her priests sigh: her virgins are afflicted, and she herself is in bitterness.
- Lam 2:6–7He has violently taken away his tabernacle, as if it were of a garden; he has destroyed his place of assembly: Yahweh has caused solemn assembly and Sabbath to be forgotten in Zion, Has 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 uttermost parts of the earth, along with the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her who travails with child together. They will return as a great company.
- Hos 1:11The children of Judah and the children of Israel will be gathered together, and they will appoint themselves one head, and will go up from the land; for great will be the day of Jezreel.
- Ps 43:3Oh, send out your light and your truth. Let them lead me. Let them bring me to your holy hill, To your tents.
- Ps 84:1–2For the Chief Musician. On an instrument of Gath. A Psalm by the sons of Korah. How lovely are your dwellings, Yahweh of Armies!
- Ps 63:1–2A Psalm by David, when he was in the desert of Judah. God, you are my God. I will earnestly seek you. My soul thirsts for you. My flesh longs for you, in a dry and weary land, where there is no water.
- Rom 11:25–26For I don’t desire you to be ignorant, brothers, of this mystery, so that you won’t be wise in your own conceits, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in,
- Ezek 34:13I will bring them out from the peoples, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the watercourses, and in all the inhabited places of the country.
- Ps 137:3–6For there, those who led us captive asked us for songs. Those who tormented us demanded songs of joy: “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”
- Lam 1:7Jerusalem remembers in the days of her affliction and of her miseries all her pleasant things that were from the days of old: when her people fell into the hand of the adversary, and no one helped her, The adversaries saw her, they mocked at her desolations.
- Hos 9:5What will you do in the day of solemn assembly, and in the day of the feast of Yahweh?
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.