From the beginning of verse 6 through to the end of verse 13, the speaker is the LORD. In the Hebrew the direct speech begins with no introduction, but Good News Translation avoids this abruptness by naming the speaker in the opening words, “The LORD says” (compare Bible en français courant, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch).

Verse 5 stated how the people of Jerusalem had failed to learn from the LORD’s faithfulness to them. Verses 6 and 7 develop this idea from a different point of view and state that they also failed to learn from the example of how the LORD punished other nations. Compare Amos 4.4-12.

I have cut off nations: for the use of cut off in Hebrew, see comments on 1.3. Revised Standard Version and New International Version give a literal translation, but New American Bible gives the meaning in plain language with “destroyed.” Jerusalem Bible, New English Bible and Good News Translation replace the Hebrew figure with an equivalent figure which is natural in English, and say “I have wiped out.” Translators who cannot use the Hebrew figure in their own language may do well to follow this example and look for an equivalent figure in their own language. In certain languages translators may express this phrase as “I have killed all the people of the nations” or “I have caused all the people of the nations to be killed.”

Nations refers to gentile peoples. New English Bible here follows the Septuagint in reading “the proud,” but there is no need to do this.

In the rest of the verse, the LORD’s words deal with two results of his action, the destruction of towns and the departure of their inhabitants. For the first result, Revised Standard Version gives as usual a literal translation: their battlements are in ruins; I have laid waste their streets. This puts specific statements about their battlements and their streets before the more general statement their cities have been made desolate. Good News Translation reorders the components of meaning to give the more general statement “I have destroyed their cities” before the more specific one “and left their walls and towers in ruins.” The words “walls and towers” explain in simple language the meaning of the more difficult term battlements. See comments on “lofty battlements” under 1.16.

Good News Translation adopts the same procedure in handling the second topic also, and thus puts the general statement “The cities are deserted” before the more detailed ones “the streets are empty—no one is left.” The last clause “no one is left” translates the two Hebrew phrases rendered in Revised Standard Version as without a man, without an inhabitant and avoids the repetition which is not natural in English. But in some languages repetition is unavoidable. “The cities are deserted” will be translated in these languages as “The cities are without people” or “There are no people living in the cities.” An alternative translation model for the latter part of the verse is “There are no people in the cities. No one walks in the streets. Everyone is gone.”

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 .