The Motif of God’s Wrath in Zephaniah’s Prophecy about the Day of Yahweh

Abstract

The article constitutes an analysis of the motif of the day of Yahweh in the Book of Zephaniah. God’s anger, a crucial element of that day, may be interpreted as a metaphor for God’s mercy. The starting point for the verification of this hypothesis is the exploration of the semantic fields employed in the descriptions of the day of Yahweh in the Old Testament. Then, the historical-salvific background for the motif of God’s wrath is outlined. Situating God’s anger in the context of the covenant and Exodus helps pinpoint the function of the metaphor of anger in the message of God’s mercy.