Theodoret of Cyrus

In his own words on Zephaniah

• Zephaniah 3:16-18

  I am aware that some commentators understood this [text to apply to] the return from Babylon and the renovation of Jerusalem, and I do not contradict their words: the prophecy applies also to what happened at that time. But you can find a more exact outcome after the incarnation of our Savior: then it was that he healed the oppressed in heart in the washing of regeneration, then it was that he renewed human nature, loving us so much as to give his life for us. After all, "greater love than this no one can show than for one to lay down one's life for one's friend," and again, "God so loved the world as to give his only-begotten Son so that everyone believing in him might not be lost but have eternal life."

  COMMENTARY ON ZEPHANIAH 3:16-18

• Zephaniah 3:19-20

  The salvation of human beings rests with divine lovingkindness alone: we do not earn it as the wages of righteousness; rather, it is a gift of divine goodness. Hence the Lord says, "on your behalf I shall save and welcome" and make my own what has become another's, render it conspicuous, make it more famous than all others, free it from its former shame, and from being captives and slaves I shall make them free people and my own. Now, as I have said, this he both made a gift of to those returning from Babylon at that time and also granted to all people later. We who were once in thrall to the devil but are now freed from that harsh captivity and unmindful of the error of polytheism have become God's own, being famous beyond pagans and barbarians, according to the prophecy, and we who were once far off have become near, according to the divine apostle.

  COMMENTARY ON ZEPHANIAH 3:19-20