And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord , that there shall be the noise of a cry from the fish gate, and an howling from the second, and a great crashing from the hills. Howl, ye inhabitants of Maktesh, for all the merchant people are cut down; all they that bear silver are cut off.
And it shall come to pass at that time, that I will search Jerusalem with candles, and punish the men that are settled on their lees: that say in their heart, “The Lord will not do good, neither will he do evil.”
Therefore their goods shall become a booty, and their houses a desolation: they shall also build houses, but not inhabit them ; and they shall plant vineyards, but not drink the wine thereof.

~ Zephaniah 1:10-13

To understand this passage of Scripture, it will be helpful to first define a few terms and describe a few places.

Definitions

Fish Gate: The Fish Gate, which was just northwest of the temple, in the northern wall of Jerusalem. It was the main entrance for fish mongers from the Mediterranean Sea and the Sea of Galilee. But as one of the Jerusalem’s main gates, it was likely used by others as well; especially since the merchant district, Maktesh, was located near it.

Maktesh: Maktesh is only mentioned in Zephaniah and from the text it is the name of the place where the merchants of Jerusalem lived and/or operated.

The Second (Quarter): The Second (Quarter) of Jerusalem is also known as “The College” (Hebrew: Mishneh) and is thought to have been in the northwest of Jerusalem, likely near to (and west of) the Fish Gate. The second (quarter) was where Huldah, the prophetess, lived (2 Kings 22:14, 2 Chronicles 34:22). Like Zephaniah, Huldah prophesied of God’s impending judgment on Judah.

“they that bear silver”: The phrase “they that bear (nāṭîl) silver” is best understood as “they that are laden with silver”.

“settled on their lees”: Lees are the dregs from wine production. Wine that is preserved on the lees, maintains both its strength and its color. Therefore, “wines on the lees” (Isaiah 25:6b) are the best quality, richest, wines. By extension then, one that is “settled on his lees” is living a life of wealth and ease, enjoying the best of what the world has to offer (see Jeremiah 48:11a).

The Prophecy

With those definitions in mind, the prophecy becomes a clearer. Zephaniah is declaring God’s judgment on the wealthy merchants of Judah/Jerusalem who live lavish lives of wealth and ease. Specifically, the judgment is a result of two related issues (written in reverse order for clarity):

• Their indifference to God–“The Lord will not do good, neither will he do evil.” ~ Zephaniah 1:12c
• Their exploitation of their neighbors to accumulate wealth and the lifestyle that exploitation afforded them–“…all they that bear [are laden with] silver are cut off.” ~ Zephaniah 1:11b and “…and punish the men that are settled on their lees…” ~ Zephaniah 1:12b

This raises several questions: Why pick on the merchants? Is God against the wealthy? Is God against commerce/trade/moneymaking? What’s wrong with living in comfort/ease? How were they indifferent to God?

Why is the Focus on the Merchants?

There are a number of passages in the Bible that decry merchants, for example:

He is a merchant, the balances of deceit are in his hand: he loves to oppress.” ~ Hosea 12:7

“…When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit? That we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes; yea, and sell the refuse of the wheat?” ~ Amos 8:5-6

“Are there yet the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is abominable? Shall I count them pure with the wicked balances, and with the bag of deceitful weights?” ~ Micah 6:10-11

Notice, however, that being a merchant was not the issue. The passages show that the problem was that so many merchants exploited their neighbors by overcharging, cheating with false balances, and selling low quality garbage to their them. And those merchants did so in the pursuit of amassing wealth (becoming laden with silver) at the expense of their neighbors, completely disregarding God’s instruction not to defraud, not to oppress, their brothers.

There were no consumer protection agencies in those times. There was no National Institute of Standards and Technology: there was no one to check the balances and the weights. Therefore, the customer was always at the mercy of the merchants.

The merchants could also overprice their goods if they wanted to; there were no price controls. And there were no quality controls or quality inspectors to ensure that the merchants were selling goods of acceptable quality. Therefore, refuse/chaff could be added as fillers to bags of grain and sold to unsuspecting customers. And since there was no such thing as return policies, customers were stuck with whatever junk they purchased.

In such an unregulated environment, there was a tremendous temptation for the sellers/merchants to take advantage of the buyers. And many did. Indeed, corruption was so wide-spread that God condemned and judged the whole merchant class.

Again, God’s judgment was not on commerce/trading/moneymaking. God condemned the merchants for their exploitation, their oppression, of their fellowmen, which they did so that they could get rich (become laden with silver) and live lives of ease (“settle on their lees”). And this while their brethren often struggled in poverty.

“Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbour, neither rob him…” ~ Leviticus 19:13a

“And if thou sell ought unto thy neighbour, or buy ought of thy neighbour’s hand, ye shall not oppress one another” ~ Leviticus 25:14

“Ye shall not therefore oppress one another; but thou shalt fear thy God:for I am the Lord your God.” ~ Leviticus 25:17

“For this is the will of God, even your sanctification…That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter: because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified.” ~ 1 Thessalonians 4:3a, 6

Also,

“Divers weights, and divers measures, both of them are alike abomination to the LORD.” ~ Proverbs 20:10

“Divers weights are an abomination unto the LORD; and a false balance is not good.” ~ Proverbs 20:23

Indeed, for exactly the same reasons, Jesus cleared the Temple of the money changers who were exploiting visiting Jews who had come from faraway lands to offer sacrifices at the temple. These Jews often did not have the animals required for the various sacrifices. Or the priests would declare the animal they brought unacceptable. Then the money changers exploited them by first making them change their money to temple-approved money at an exorbitant exchange rate. Then they would exploit them a second time, by selling them approved animals at extortionate prices.

Present day merchants are often driven by the same motivations, the same greed, as they try to extract as much profit as they can from their patrons. But that is normal and won’t change, it will last till the end of days, until Jesus returns (Revelation 18:1-24). The unsaved, motivated by lust instead of The Lord, will always transgress.

Rather, Zephaniah’s prophecy is a warning to Believers. Those who claim salvation in Christ can not, must not, exploit anyone for gain. Christians must be different. Rather than exploit people to become worldly wealthy, the aim of the Believer is to become spiritually wealthy by blessing people. The Believer works, trades, for heavenly currency/capital stored in heaven where “neither moth nor rust” corrupts (Matthew 6:19-20)

And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

1 Timothy 6:8-10

Accordingly, the correct question is not “What’s wrong with living comfortably?”: the correct question is “In whom am I looking for comfort?” If I find my comfort in the world, I will not find comfort in Christ (James 4:4). And if I find comfort in Christ, I will never be comfortable in the world, because it has nothing that I’m interested in (Philippians 1:21).

The merchants were focused on “living their best life” (“settling on their lees”) here and now on earth, not later in heaven. And they would accomplish that on the backs of their brethren if they needed to.

Why didn’t the merchants care?

The merchants’ exploitation of their neighbors was a result of their (shortsighted) view of God: “The Lord will not do good, neither will he do evil.” ~ Zephaniah 1:12. This outlook is corrupt in two ways. First, their attitude was (perhaps unsurprisingly) transactional, they would obey or disobey God based on God’s actions. In other words, their obedience to God was conditional. They wouldn’t obey God because He is God and obedience is the right response to Him. They would only obey God if He forced them to obey. This approach is as old as Cain’s murder of Abel (Genesis 4). God told Cain that murdering Abel was wrong, a sin (Genesis 4;6-7). But Cain murdered his brother anyway, because God didn’t stop him.

The merchants knew that exploitation was wrong, but they would only stop if God made them stop; only if God prevented them through punishment. Many of us have a similar attitude. We base our obedience to God on what He does to us, or what He does for us. We plan to do what we want to do until God intervenes.

This approach to life is not centered around God’s will, it’s centered around our will, what we want to do. God’s will is secondary to our own and we will ignore him as long as we are able.

That attitude led to the the merchants’ second problem: They thought that God didn’t care what they did; that God would neither punish nor reward them for their exploitative business practices. They confused inaction with inattention. They mistook mercy for malfunction.

“But thou, O Lord, art a God
full of compassion, and gracious,
longsuffering, and plenteous
in mercy and truth.”

Psalm 86:15

But God is both full of mercy and slow to anger. God waited over four hundred years before punishing the Amorites (i.e., the people of Canaan) for their sinfulness because “the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.” (Genesis 15:16b). Likewise, it was because of God’s mercy that the merchants of Judah had not been judged already. But their window of opportunity to repent was about to close: God’s judgment was on the way.

We should never assume that God is comfortable with our sinfulness. Just because we don’t see God moving doesn’t mean He is standing still. Contrary to what the merchants of Judah thought, God does judge sin: there are both temporal and spiritual consequences to for iniquity.

Where there is sin in our lives we must repent immediately before the sin itself does more damage to our souls and before God’s judgement is set in motion.

But, beloved, be not ignorant
of this one thing,
that one day is with the Lord
as a thousand years, and
a thousand years as one day.
The Lord is not slack
concerning his promise,
as some men count slackness;
but is longsuffering to us-ward,
not willing that any should perish,
but that all
should come to repentance.

2 Peter 3:8-9

Nevertheless, Believers, those who are in Christ, can be sure that even God’s judgments brings about a positive result in their lives as God’s children. First, Scripture tells us that the judgments we endure while on earth are chastenings of The Lord so that “…we should not be condemned with the world” (1 Corinthians 11:32). Second, we learn in His Word that God’s judgment/chastisement/chastening “…yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.” (Hebrews 12:11).

In other words, for those who are willing to repent, judgment is corrective. But for those who will not turn to God, judgment is destructive. The merchants would suffer because they had long decided that God didn’t matter. In their indifference, they had turned their backs on God because He was merciful and slow to anger. Let us not make their mistake. Let us repent, let us turn away from exploiting others for our own gain. Instead, pray The Lord help us to lift our brothers up for His own glory.