Zephaniah.

Zephaniah. By Marvin Sweeney (Fortress, $47). In this important contribution to the Hermeneia commentary series, S. dates most of the book to the lifetime of the prophet in the late seventh century B.C.E., during the reign of Josiah. The book presents a prophetic discourse that calls on its audience to turn to Yahweh before the threatened purge of apostasy that will take place on the Day of Yahweh. S. notes that the Septuagint version of the book also calls on the audience to change but presupposes that it is unwilling to do so. The lengthy introduction analyzes the structure, settings, and rhetorical strategies of each of the versions of Zephaniah--MT, LXX, Dead Sea Scrolls, Targum, Peshitta, etc.--in order to assess their unique interpretive perspectives. RWK