SEV Biblia, Chapter 3:3
Sus príncipes en medio de ella son leones bramadores; sus jueces, lobos de tarde que no dejan hueso para la mañana;
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Zephaniah 3:3
Verse 3. Her princes-are roaring lions] Tearing all to pieces without shadow of law, except their own despotic power. Her judges are evening wolves] Being a little afraid of the lion-like princes, they practice their unjust dealings from evening to morning, and take the day to find their rest.
They gnaw not the bones till the morrow.] They devour the flesh in the night, and gnaw the bones and extract the marrow afterwards. They use all violence and predatory oppression, like wild beasts; they shun the light, and turn day into night by their revellings.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 3. Her princes within her [are] roaring lions , etc.] Or, “as roaring lions”; there being a defect of the note of similitude; which is supplied by the Targum, Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Arabic versions. This is to be understood, not of the princes of the blood; but of civil magistrates in common; the members of the grand sanhedrim; the princes of the Jewish world, that crucified the Lord of glory; and who gaped upon him with their mouths like ravening and roaring lions, as is foretold they should, ( Psalm 22:12,13) and who breathed out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of Christ; and by their menaces endeavoured to frighten and deter them from preaching in his name, and from a profession of him; (see 1 Corinthians 2:8 Acts 4:5,6,18 5:27,28): her judges [are] evening wolves ; or, like them, cruel, voracious, never satisfied; especially are very ravenous in the evening, having had no food all day; not daring to go abroad in the daytime to seek their prey; (see Jeremiah 5:6). The Septuagint and Arabic versions read “wolves of Arabia”; but wrongly; (see Gill on “ Habakkuk 1:8”) such rapacious covetous judges were there in Christ’s time; who gives us an instance in one, by which we may judge of the rest, who feared not God, nor regarded men, ( Luke 18:2) such as these were hungry and greedy after gifts and bribes to pervert judgment, and to devour the poor, the widow, and the fatherless, on whom they had no mercy: they gnaw not the bones till the morrow ; or rather, “in the morning” f101 ; that is, either they leave not the bones till the morning, as Jarchi and Kimchi interpret it; they are so hungry, that they eat up bones and all at once, and reserve nothing for the next day; which expresses both the greediness of these judges, and the total consumption of the estates of men made by them: or else the sense is, that not having gnawn any bones in the morning, or eaten anything that day, hence they are so greedy in the evening; and so this last clause gives a reason why evening wolves are so voracious; for which such cruel judges are compared to them.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 1-7 - The holy God hates sin most in those nearest to him. A sinful state is and will be, a woful state. Yet they had the tokens of God's presence and all the advantages of knowing his will, with the strongest reason to do it; still they persisted in disobedience. Alas, that men ofte are more active in doing wickedness than believers are in doing good.
Original Hebrew
שׂריה 8269 בקרבה 7130 אריות 738 שׁאגים 7580 שׁפטיה 8199 זאבי 2061 ערב 6153 לא 3808 גרמו 1633 לבקר׃ 1242
