'Jehovah has hidden / treasured' (Tsephanyah, from tsaphan, to hide away, store up, protect) — the ninth of the Twelve, and a prophet of ROYAL blood. ⚠ His heading gives the longest genealogy of any prophet, four generations back to HEZEKIAH (1:1), almost certainly King Hezekiah — so Zephaniah is a member of the house of David and a distant cousin of Josiah, in whose reign he preached (c. 630 BC, probably before the great reform of 622). He knows Jerusalem's districts and officials from the inside. ⚠ His name is the book's hope in one word: three chapters of the darkest 'day of Jehovah' wrath in the Twelve turn, at 2:3, on 'seek Jehovah… PERHAPS YOU WILL BE HIDDEN on the day of his anger,' and end (3:14-20) with Jehovah 'in your midst… exulting over you with singing.' His father's name Cushi ('the Cushite') has prompted a minority reading of African descent, but the royal pedigree argues the opposite. The Vulgate and Douay call him Sophonias.