Bible Strands
Zephaniah 1:16
a day of horn blast and battle cry against the fortified cities, and against the high corner towers.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet Zephaniah delivers YHWH's declaration of imminent siege against Judah and Jerusalem. The announcement occurs at the climax of a sequence describing the "day of the LORD" as total disruption of urban and spiritual order.
The words — שׁוֹפָר (shofar) means trumpet, paired with תְּרוּעָה (teruah), meaning battle cry or alarm. These terms specify the sound of advancing armies and divine judgment striking fortified positions.
The thread — The alarm motif connects to Hosea 8:1’s ram’s horn warning for covenant violation and Isaiah 32:14’s abandoned watchtowers. It continues the "day of the LORD" sequence established in Zephaniah 1:15 and resolved in 1:17.
Why it lands — The text states that military strength and high walls cannot prevent divine intervention. It requires readers to acknowledge that rebellion against YHWH guarantees inescapable consequences.
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
A day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high towers.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 2:12 For the Day of the LORD of Hosts will come against all the proud and lofty, against all that is exalted—it will be humbled—
- Isaiah 32:14 For the palace will be forsaken, the busy city abandoned. The hill and the watchtower will become caves forever—the delight of wild donkeys and a pasture for flocks—
- Hosea 8:1 Put the ram’s horn to your lips! An eagle looms over the house of the LORD, because the people have transgressed My covenant and rebelled against My law.
- Amos 3:6 If a ram’s horn sounds in a city, do the people not tremble? If calamity comes to a city, has not the LORD caused it?
- Psalms 48:12 March around Zion, encircle her, count her towers,
- Isaiah 59:10 Like the blind, we feel our way along the wall, groping like those without eyes. We stumble at midday as in the twilight; among the vigorous we are like the dead.
- 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.
- Hosea 5:8 Blow the ram’s horn in Gibeah, the trumpet in Ramah; raise the battle cry in Beth-aven: Lead on, O Benjamin!
- Jeremiah 6:1 “Run for cover, O sons of Benjamin; flee from Jerusalem! Sound the ram’s horn in Tekoa; send up a signal over Beth-haccherem, for disaster looms from the north, even great destruction.
- Jeremiah 8:16 The snorting of enemy horses is heard from Dan. At the sound of the neighing of mighty steeds, the whole land quakes. They come to devour the land and everything in it, the city and all who dwell in it.