Zephaniah 1:9
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
In the same day also will I punish all those that leap on the threshold, which fill their masters' houses with violence and deceit.
American King James Version (AKJV)
In the same day also will I punish all those that leap on the threshold, which fill their masters' houses with violence and deceit.
American Standard Version (ASV)
And in that day I will punish all those that leap over the threshold, that fill their master's house with violence and deceit.
Basic English Translation (BBE)
And in that day I will send punishment on all those who come jumping over the doorstep and make their master's house full of violent behaviour and deceit.
Webster's Revision
In the same day also will I punish all those that leap on the threshhold, who fill their masters' houses with violence and deceit.
World English Bible
In that day, I will punish all those who leap over the threshold, who fill their master's house with violence and deceit.
English Revised Version (ERV)
And in that day I will punish all those that leap over the threshold, which fill their master's house with violence and deceit.
Clarke's Zephaniah 1:9 Bible Commentary
That leap on the threshold - Or, that leap over the threshold. It is most probable that the Philistines are here meant. After the time that Dagon fell before the ark, and his hands were broken off on the threshold of his temple, his worshippers would no more set a foot upon the threshold, but stepped or leaped over it, when they entered into his temple. The Chaldee understands this of the Philistines, without giving this reason for it. Some understand it of haughtiness and pride: others think that leaping on the threshold refers to the customs of the Arabs, who used to ride into people's houses and take away whatever they could carry; and that this is the reason why, in several parts of the East, they have their doors made very low, to prevent those depredators from entering. In this manner, we learn the Persians have frequently oppressed the poor Armenians, going on horseback into their houses, and taking whatever they thought proper. Mr. Harmer understands it in this way.
Barnes's Zephaniah 1:9 Bible Commentary
I will punish all those that leap on the threshold - Neither language nor history nor context allow this to be understood of the idolatrous custom of Ashdod, not to tread on the threshold of the temple of Dagon. It had indeed been a strange infatuation of idolatry, that God's people should adopt an act of superstitious reverence for an idol in the very instance in which its nothingness and the power of the true God had been shown. Nothing is indeed too brutish for one who chooses an idol for the true God, preferring Satan to the good God. Yet, the superstition belonged apparently to Ashdod alone; the worship of Dagon, although another form of untrue worship, does not appear, like that of Baal, to have fascinated the Jews; nor would Zephaniah, to express a rare superstition, have chosen an idiom, which might more readily express the contrary, that they "leapt "on" the threshold," not over it.
They are also the same persons, who "leap on the threshold," and who "fill their masters' houses with violence and deceit." Yet, this relates, not to superstition, but to plunder and goods unjustly gotten. As then, before, he had declared God's judgments upon idolatry, so does he here upon sins against the second table, whether by open violence, or secret fraud, as do also Habakkuk Hab 1:2-3, and Jeremiah Jer 5:27. All, whether open or hidden from man, every wrongful dealing, (for every sin as to a neighbor's goods falls under these two, violence or fraud) shall be avenged in that day. Here again all which remains is the sin. They enriched, as they thought, their masters by art or by force; they schemed, plotted, robbed; they succeeded to their heart's wish; but, "ill-gotten, ill-spent!" They "filled their masters' houses" quite full; but wherewith? with violence and deceit, which witnessed against them, and brought down the judgments of God upon them.
Wesley's Zephaniah 1:9 Bible Commentary
1:9 In the same day - At the same time.Their masters houses - Either the oppressing kings, whose officers these were, or publick officers and judges, whose servants thus spoiled the poor.Violence - Goods taken by force, by false accusations, or by suborned evidence.