This verse repeats the sense of the second half of verse 19 and expands it slightly. Although the Hebrew does not in this case begin with the word translated “Behold” in verse 19, Good News Translation again makes an emphatic separate sentence of “The time is coming!”
The two clauses I will bring you home, at the time when I gather you together are joined into one in Good News Translation as “I will bring your scattered people home.” One may also translate “I will bring home your people who are living in many lands.”
The next clause is closest in wording to verse 19, as is clear from Revised Standard Version, yea, I will make you renowned and praised among all the peoples of the earth. Good News Translation expresses this in more modern and natural language as “I will make you famous throughout the world.” Some translators may need to state the participants more explicitly and say something like “I will cause people all over the world to praise you.” The opening word yea simply adds emphasis. One can also say “I will indeed make you famous.”
The last clause of the speech by the LORD, which began in verse 18, is translated when I restore your fortunes before your eyes in Revised Standard Version. The expression restore … fortunes has already occurred in 2.7. It refers to the time of the return from exile but includes more than just the return itself (compare Job 42.10). Good News Translation expresses the wider meaning with “make you prosperous once again” (see comment on “restore their fortunes” in Zeph 2.7). Good News Translation appears to have no equivalent to Revised Standard Version before your eyes. This means that the change in the people’s fortunes was to take place within the lifetime of the generation to which the prophet was speaking (compare Jer 16.9; 51.24). Other modern versions render “before your very eyes” (New American Bible, New International Version), or in plain language “and you shall see it” (New English Bible). Presumably the omission in Good News Translation is an accident, and translators ought not to follow the example of Good News Translation at this point.
The direct speech of verses 18-20 is closed with the words says the LORD. Good News Translation makes this a separate sentence and gives it a perfect tense form more suitable to the concluding words of a book: “The LORD has spoken.” Translators should be sure that the expression they use here points backward to the words which have preceded.
Quoted with permission from Clark, David J. & Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on the Book of Zephaniah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1989. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .