SOFONIA (Hebr. Şēphanjāh “Jahweh protects”). — One of the “minor prophets,” ninth in the series, who carried out his activity in the time of Iosia (ca. 638–609 B.C.), probably even before the reform (622), since he laments the existence of idolatrous practices (Soph. 1:4–6, 12). He was therefore a contemporary of Geremia (“called” to the prophetic vocation in the 13th year of Iosia, ca. 627–26), and with him inaugurated the new life of prophecy, which for half a century, from the time of Manasse, had been lacking.
The memory of the kings Manasse (ca. 689–641), Assurbanipal of Assyria (ca. 669–626), Amon, father of Iosia (641–639), and of the events mentioned there, of the vocation of Geremia, of the reform of Iosia, to which one may add the end of Assyria (612–609), is sufficient to characterize the historical background. It was an age of great political and spiritual renewal; Assyrian hegemony, including cultural hegemony, prevailed (astral cults of Mesopotamian origin were widespread, Soph. 1:3–5; foreign fashions, ibid. 1:8; impiety, ibid. 3:3–4). The forces of Jahwistic nationalism devoted themselves to the salutary work of reform, with the unanimous, though unfortunately ephemeral, agreement of the government, the priesthood, and the prophetic movement.
The arrangement of the book of S. is that common to most prophetic writings. First come the negative aspects, then the positive ones; that is, it follows a literary scheme. One cannot therefore infer that the activity of the prophet S. ceased while the promising beginning of the Josian reform gave reason for hope; moreover, the writings that have come down to us do not require that they be distributed over a long period of time. The final optimistic vision is the corrective to the sad depiction of reality, dictated by hope in God and connected with the messianic sense.
In the first part, which occupies almost the entire book (Soph. 1:2–3:8), one senses the realistic touch and encounters a soul endowed to the highest degree with a “prophetic” spirit. The book begins by announcing a “judgment upon Judah” (ibid. 1:2–2:3) as a “day of Jahweh,” one of the darkest among those announced by the prophets of every age (“a day of wrath and anguish, of tumult and uproar”; ibid. 1:15; the beginning of the Dies irae is inspired by it); the motif emerges of an enemy invasion, in which the constant fear of the Assyrian colossus is perhaps portrayed. Then the “judgment upon the nations” is briefly described (ibid. 2:4–15), involving both near and distant peoples: Philistines, Canaanites, Moabites, Ammonites, and the Assyrians themselves; finally, there is a particular judgment upon Jerusalem (ibid. 3:1–8), whose corruption is emphasized. The messianic conclusion (ibid. 3:9–20) joyfully announces the purification and universalization of religion and moral conduct (ibid. 3:9–13), and the salvation of Sion (ibid. 3:14–20).
Three other figures of the Old Testament bear the name S.: a Levite, ancestor of the musician Hemath (I Par. 6:21 [Vulg. 36]); a high priest, before whom Geremia was denounced as a false prophet (Jer. 21:1; 29:25, 29; 37:3), who was subsequently deported and killed after the capture of Jerusalem (ibid. 52:24 ff.; II Reg. 25:18 ff.); and a citizen of Jerusalem (Zach. 6:10, 14).