Zephaniah 1:1, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
Zephaniah 1:1
A Prophetic Word Placed in Josiah's Reign
A prophetic word arrives with a name, a lineage, and a reign
The book opens as the word of the LORD that came to Zephaniah, son of Cushi, son of Gedaliah, son of Amariah, son of Hizkiah, in the days of Josiah son of Amon, king of Judah. The heading does two things at once: it claims divine speech, and it plants that speech in Judah under a known king. Later oracles about land, nations, and remnant still belong to this horizon.
Four ancestors identify the messenger. None of them is given a royal title. Josiah's reign is named; a year is not. The verse is an orientation, not a biography.
What the heading leaves open must stay open
Hizkiah may be King Hezekiah; the heading never says so. Cushi is a personal name here; it is not a racial dossier. Whether Zephaniah spoke before Josiah's reform, during it, or in a book later shaped around that reign is a reconstruction built from chapter 1's worship charges, not a fact this verse states.
Readers who need a prince, an ethnicity, or a reform-phase timestamp are asking the superscription to do work it refuses.
How this should shape us
Name Josiah's Judah when you teach the book, and keep royal ancestry, ethnicity, and exact chronology in the possible column. Do not let a later story about the prophet replace what the first verse actually says.
Teach it back
Explain Zephaniah 1:1 in your own words. Include its place in Zephaniah's movement from judgment to remnant and song, one material uncertainty, and one use the context rules out.
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Go deeper
The explanation above is meant to stand on its own. Open these notes only if you want language, history, disagreements, or source locations.
Where careful interpreters disagreeThe strongest options and their difficulties
Where do careful interpreters disagree?
Best judgment: Interpreters differ over whether Hizkiah is King Hezekiah, whether the long genealogy signals royal status, whether the core preaching predates Josiah's reform, and how much later shaping belongs to the final book. Confidence is very strong only in the explicit claims of prophetic word, genealogy, and Josianic setting.
How certain? probableResearch trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact reader-facing Scripture wording, paragraph markers, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage.
Zephaniah 1:1, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew words, morphology, clause relationships, repeated roots, wordplays, names, and the base wording behind translation discussion.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Zeph.xml, 1:1
Supports: Verse-level translation, syntax, text-critical, poetic, historical, and uncertainty notes.
NET Bible Zephaniah PDF, printed pp. 1777, translation and notes on 1:1
Supports: Josianic orientation and dating alternatives, whole-book movement, creation reversal, Day of the LORD, nation oracles, Jerusalem's woe, nations and remnant, restoration, and compositional questions.
Mason, 'Zephaniah,' Oxford Bible Commentary, printed pp. 604-606
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact reader-facing Scripture wording, paragraph markers, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage.
Exact location: Zephaniah 1:1, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Zephaniah
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew words, morphology, clause relationships, repeated roots, wordplays, names, and the base wording behind translation discussion.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Zeph.xml, 1:1
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: Zephaniah with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: Verse-level translation, syntax, text-critical, poetic, historical, and uncertainty notes.
Exact location: NET Bible Zephaniah PDF, printed pp. 1777, translation and notes on 1:1
Open source ↗modern critical commentary
Zephaniah
Rex Mason
Oxford University Press, in The Oxford Bible Commentary, edited by John Barton and John Muddiman, 2001
Supports: Josianic orientation and dating alternatives, whole-book movement, creation reversal, Day of the LORD, nation oracles, Jerusalem's woe, nations and remnant, restoration, and compositional questions.
Exact location: Mason, 'Zephaniah,' Oxford Bible Commentary, printed pp. 604-606
Open source ↗