even begins his little book with a warning for the coming universal destruction: “I will sweep away everything from the face of the earth,” declares the LORD. “I will sweep away both men and animals; I will sweep away the birds of the air and the fish of the sea. The wicked will have only heaps of rubble when I cut off man from the face of the earth,” declares the LORD (Zeph. 1:2–3). Like Amos, Zephaniah views the immediate historical future against the background of the final judgment, because it
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