Zephaniah 1:1 (ESV)
The word of the LORD that came to Zephaniah the son of Cushi, son of Gedaliah, son of Amariah, son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah.
Some books of the minor prophets gives us some indication about that prophet. But it is very unusual for a prophet to give us so much detail about his life. Zephaniah was the great-great-grandson of King Hezekiah. That would make him a prophet of royalty.
Chuck Swindoll: This all means that Zephaniah grew up under the reign of Josiah’s predecessors: Josiah’s grandfather, the evil king Manasseh, and Manasseh’s son, the young and evil Amon. As a young man, the prophet-to-be would have been surrounded by the trappings of idolatry, child sacrifice, and unjust killings—strong influences on a young mind (2 Kings 21:16; 2 Chronicles 33:1–10). But Zephaniah grew into a man of God, able to stand before the people and proclaim God’s message of judgment and hope to a people that had gone astray.
When King Josiah began his reforms, Zephaniah would have been part of that period and his prophecy may fit into what we read here:
2 Chronicles 34:33 (ESV)
And Josiah took away all the abominations from all the territory that belonged to the people of Israel and made all who were present in Israel serve the LORD their God. All his days they did not turn away from following the LORD, the God of their fathers.
Zephaniah, as a royal son, would have seen first hand not just the outcomes of the leadership, but the inner workings behind the scenes. He would know how decisions were made, not just the decisions. He knew the thinking of leadership. His prophecy is to condemn those for turning to idols. God has some prophets who see the behavior. He had this prophet see the system behind the behavior. God has people in low places and high places.
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