Bible Strands
Zephaniah 1:10
On that day,” declares the LORD, “a cry will go up from the Fish Gate, a wail from the Second District, and a loud crashing from the hills.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The LORD declares impending judgment to Judah on a specific day of divine reckoning. This proclamation follows a warning about corrupt leaders and precedes a call to the city's merchants to wail.
The words — The Hebrew phrase בַּיּוֹם הַהּוּא (ba.yom ha.hu') translates literally to "on that day," anchoring the prophecy to a fixed moment of execution. The term צְעָקָה (tze'akah) denotes a loud cry of distress rising from the Fish Gate.
The thread — This pattern of localized cries escalating to widespread devastation appears in Amos 8:3, where temple songs turn to wailing and corpses are strewn. The Fish Gate itself is noted in 2 Chronicles 33:14 as part of Jerusalem's rebuilt outer wall.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that divine judgment operates through specific, geographically anchored events rather than abstract threats. It requires the reader to confront the reality that systemic corruption and commercial exploitation will trigger irreversible collapse.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord, that there shall be the noise of a cry from the fish gate, and an howling from the second, and a great crashing from the hills.
Cross-references
- 2 Chronicles 33:14 After this, Manasseh rebuilt the outer wall of the City of David from west of Gihon in the valley to the entrance of the Fish Gate, and he brought it around the hill of Ophel and heightened it considerably. He also stationed military commanders in all the fortified cities of Judah.
- 2 Kings 22:14 So Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam, Achbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah went and spoke to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, the keeper of the wardrobe. She lived in Jerusalem, in the Second District.
- Amos 8:3 “In that day,” declares the Lord GOD, “the songs of the temple will turn to wailing. Many will be the corpses, strewn in silence everywhere!”
- Nehemiah 3:3 The Fish Gate was rebuilt by the sons of Hassenaah. They laid its beams and installed its doors, bolts, and bars.
- Jeremiah 4:19 My anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain! Oh, the pain in my chest! My heart pounds within me; I cannot be silent. For I have heard the sound of the horn, the alarm of battle.
- 2 Samuel 5:7 Nevertheless, David captured the fortress of Zion (that is, the City of David).
- 2 Samuel 5:9 So David took up residence in the fortress and called it the City of David. He built it up all the way around, from the supporting terraces inward.
- 2 Chronicles 3:1 Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the LORD had appeared to his father David. This was the place that David had prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
- 2 Chronicles 32:22 So the LORD saved Hezekiah and the people of Jerusalem from the hands of King Sennacherib of Assyria and all others, and He gave them rest on every side.
- Isaiah 22:4 Therefore I said, “Turn away from me, let me weep bitterly! Do not try to console me over the destruction of the daughter of my people.”