Zephaniah's Use of Genesis 1–11

Three different allusions to Genesis 1–11 have been noted by various scholars in the brief collection of Zephaniah. Until recently, however, little attempt had been made to interpret these allusions in light of one another or to explain how these allusions affect our understanding of the book and its origins. This essay addresses the allusions as a deliberate attempt to frame the cosmic significance of the collection of Zephaniah, which depicts the reversal of the mythopoeic elements of Genesis 1–11, so that Zephaniah's day of YHWH presents Jerusalem's destruction as the undoing of creation in Genesis 1 (Zeph 1:2–3); portrays the death of specific descendants of Noah whose birth is noted in Genesis 10 (by Zeph 2:11*-15); and anticipates the creation of a new world order that functions as the reversal of the curse of the tower of Babel in Genesis 11 (Zeph 3:8*).