Verse Lens · Context pointer
Zephaniah 2:4 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 4. 4For Gaza shall be forsaken, and Ashkelon a desolation: they shall drive out Ashdod at the noon day, and Ekron shall be rooted up.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Role in This Section
This verse begins the westward oracle with four Philistine cities and sound plays that announce abandonment, expulsion, and uprooting.
Read It With
- Zephaniah 2:4-7
Read Zephaniah 2:4 with 2:4-7. This verse begins the westward oracle with four Philistine cities and sound plays that announce abandonment, expulsion, and uprooting. The complete unit establishes this movement: The westward oracle moves from Philistine urban loss to quiet pasture and provision for Judah's remnant, joining judgment with a restoration promise that remains ancient and bounded.
Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Zephaniah 2:4-7 — Philistia's Coast Becomes Rest for Judah's RemnantSources used for this context pointer
How certain is this explanation? strong
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
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 2:4-7, 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, 2:4-7
Open source ↗