Zephaniah 3:17
Yahweh, your God, is among you, a mighty one who will save. He will rejoice over you with joy. He will calm you in his love. He will rejoice over you with singing.
Interpretation
The prophet calls a god rejoices that is embodied in work and rest. Zephaniah 3:17: trace "rejoice" and "over". Let god rejoices in what we refuse to say—turn hope into steady work.
Context
The setting is Zephaniah—prophetic oracle, naming god rejoices. Placed in ch. 3, the nearby lines set its tone. There’s a line into prophetic hope & judgment. The nearby sentences supply the texture.
Manuscripts & Textual Witnesses
In the Masoretic tradition the Hebrew text is preserved, standardized between the 6th–10th centuries CE. The Dead Sea Scrolls (1947-1956 discoveries) provide manuscripts 1000+ years older than medieval texts, generally confirming the Masoretic Text's reliability with only minor variations. The Septuagint (Greek translation, 3rd-2nd century BCE) offers an independent textual witness. Variations between manuscripts are typically minor: spelling differences, word order, or clarifications that do not alter the main meaning. Modern translations compare all available manuscripts to reconstruct the most probable original wording text.
Sources & witness notes
MT