What Does Zephaniah 3:13 Mean?
The remnant of Israel shall do no crookedness and speak no lies; no deceitful tongue shall be found in their mouth. For they shall graze and lie down, and none shall make them tremble.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity, nor speak lies; neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth: for they shall feed and lie down, and none shall make them afraid.THE KEY
The remnant’s wholeness becomes visible in a mouth free of deceit and a body free to feed and lie down without fear.
THE MEANING
This verse names a people whose actions carry no injustice and whose mouths carry no lie or deceit. You feed and lie down without anyone making you afraid; safety reaches the body in its everyday needs.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A safe life must stay braced and alert. Here, security is visible in the ability to lie down without someone provoking fear.
THE ROOT
תַּרְמִית
tarmit
GROWS FROM
רמה
ramah
To deceive or act treacherously.
“deceitful” in this verse is tarmit. The verse already names lies as speech, then says that no tongue of deception is found in their mouths. The root links the missing utterance to the act of deceiving: the change reaches what the mouth no longer carries.
ALSO GROWS
ramah: To deceive or deal treacherously.
רָמָה
This verb shows the active practice behind the tongue of deception named in the verse.
mirmah: Deceit or guile.
מִרְמָה
This related noun names deception as a quality that can take hold in speech.
וְרָבְצוּ
veravtsu
GROWS FROM
רבץ
rabats
To crouch, settle, or lie down.
“lie down” in this verse is veravtsu. The verb describes settling into rest after feeding. Together, grazing and lying down make safety visible as ordinary life the body can inhabit.
ALSO GROWS
ravats: To crouch, settle, or lie down.
רָבַץ
This is the root verb behind the remnant’s settled rest.
mirbats: A lair, den, or resting place.
מִרְבָּץ
The related noun extends the root’s image of rest into a place where a creature can settle.
מַחֲרִיד
maḥarid
GROWS FROM
חרד
charad
To tremble, quake, or be startled; in the causative form, to make someone tremble.
The Hebrew uses a causative form: no one is there making them tremble. The safety described is more than a lack of worry; it is freedom from someone provoking alarm.
ALSO GROWS
charad: To tremble or be alarmed.
חָרַד
The root gives the phrase its bodily sense of being startled or shaken.
charadah: Fear, trembling, or terror.
חֲרָדָה
This related noun makes clear what no one is left to cause.
THE PATTERN
A life free of deceit is recognizable by nourishment, settled rest, and freedom from fear.
The lip of truth stands firm for the ages, but a lying tongue lasts only for a blink.In wholeness, together, I lie down and sleep. For you, LORD, alone, make me settle where I can lean.For the one who wills to love life and see good days, let him stop his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking bait.THE THREAD
He lays me down in green pastures; he leads me beside resting waters.Psalm 23 uses the same Hebrew root for “lie down” as Zephaniah 3:13. Its shepherd sets the speaker into green pasture and beside still waters, making Zephaniah’s feeding and rest feel like the same sustained care.
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