Zephaniah 3:1
“Woe to her that is filthy and polluted, to the oppressing city!”
King James Version (KJV)
Read this verse in context with translation switching:
Read Full Chapter →A woe is pronounced over Jerusalem, a city defiled by sin and marked by oppression.
What Does Zephaniah 3:1 Mean?
After judging the nations, the prophet returns to Jerusalem with a woe. The city is called filthy and polluted, defiled inwardly, and oppressing in how it treats the vulnerable. The order matters: corruption within produced cruelty without. Having heard the fates of the nations, God's own city must now hear its indictment.
It is a searching thing that the same standard which condemned Nineveh now examines Jerusalem. God does not exempt His people from the holiness He requires of all; if anything, He holds them closer to account because they bear His name. The pairing of filthy and oppressing shows that defilement before God and injustice toward others are bound together. The remedy is cleansing from within, the washing that only God can give, which alone can turn an oppressing city into a place of justice and peace.
In the Original Language
yonah (יוֹנָה), 'oppressing' -- a participle from the root meaning to oppress or treat with violence, describing a city that crushes the weak.