Old Testament Characters

Zephaniah

Text:  Jehovah has concealed, or Jehovah of darkness. 

(1.) The son of Cushi, and great-grandson of Hezekiah, and the ninth 
in the order of the minor prophets. He prophesied in the days of 
Josiah, king of Judah (B.C. 641-610), and was contemporary with 
Jeremiah, with whom he had much in common. The book of his prophecies 
consists of: (a) An introduction (1:1-6), announcing the judgment of 
the world, and the judgment upon Israel, because of their 
transgressions. (b) The description of the judgment (1:7-18). (c) An 
exhortation to seek God while there is still time (2:1-3). (d) The 
announcement of judgment on the heathen (2:4-15). (e) The hopeless 
misery of Jerusalem (3:1-7). (f) The promise of salvation (3:8-20). 

(2.) The son of Maaseiah, the "second priest" in the reign of 
Zedekiah, often mentioned in Jeremiah as having been sent from the 
king to inquire (Jer. 21:1) regarding the coming woes which he had 
denounced, and to entreat the prophet's intercession that the judgment 
threatened might be averted (Jer. 29:25, 26, 29; 37:3; 52:24). He, 
along with some other captive Jews, was put to death by the king of 
Babylon "at Riblah in the land of Hamath" (2 Kings 25:21). 

(3.) A Kohathite ancestor of the prophet Samuel (1 Chr. 6:36). 

(4.) The father of Josiah, the priest who dwelt in Jerusalem when 
Darius issued the decree that the temple should be rebuilt (Zech. 
6:10).