God Is Satisfied with You

Chad Lee

Mar 22

4 min read

"The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing."

-Zephaniah 3:17 ESV

A few weeks ago the Puritan John Owen blew me away as he was talking about God's love which rests because he is satisfied with us. (I will give the full quote later.) He was commenting on Zephaniah 3:17, which is a powerful verse demonstrating God's joyful love for his people.

Before we get to John Owen's quote, let me take you on the journey I went on as I studied this verse. There is some confusion on the phrase: "he will quiet you by his love." The translators have expressed the phrase in various ways.

A Myriad of Translations

Most English translations are similar. If you compare them, the words translated are the same. Other times they have a slightly different wording from each other, or they use synonyms.

However, once in a while you will encounter a phrase which has led to translator disagreement. (As a Bible study side note, this is a good way to spot check and quickly identify the words in the original language that you need to focus on when studying. That is, when you see that many of the translations disagree on a word/phrase, spend your time there!)

In Hebrew the phrase in question has two words:

יַחֲרִישׁ בְּאַהֲבָתוֹ

The first word is a verb. It can be translated in many ways, but, in this case, it generally means to be silent, speechless, or deaf. However, it can also mean to make silent (which is part of what leads to the different translations).[1]

The second word is a noun. The word means "love," and it has the word "in" attached to the front of it.

Thus, we end up with something like this: He will be quiet (or make you quiet) in his love.

Let's look at how the translators render this phrase:

ESV: "he will quiet you by his love"
NASB: "He will be quiet in his love"
CSB: "He will be quiet in his love"
NIV: "in his love he will no longer rebuke you"
NET: "he renews you by his love"
NKJV: "He will quiet you with his love"
KJV: "he will rest in his love"

The NET translators explain their reasoning:

"('He remains silent in his love') does not make sense in light of the expressions of joy in the preceding and following lines. All other cases of the Hiphil of this verb mean to act silently, maintain silence, or the like . . . The LXX (the Septuagint) reads 'he will renew you with his love.'"[2]

They make an interpretative decision. They translate it this way: "he renews you by his love."

On the other hand, most translations have taken the word in its more straightforward meaning: "quiet." Among those translations, about half claim God will quiet us while the other half claim that God will be quiet. (The NIV interprets the silence as God no longer rebuking us. The KJV interprets this silence as "rest.")

Which is it?

God Is Satisfied with You

This is a complex phrase. Moreover, there is not always a one-to-one option to translate words from one language to another. But what if there is a little bit of all of this going on at the same time? Let me explain.

I was reading John Owen's almost four hundred year old book, Communion with God, and he says this:

"The love of God is a love of rest, contentment and delight. 'He will rest in his love' (Zeph. 3:17). Literally, the Hebrew is, 'He shall be silent because of his love.' To rest with contentment is expressed by being silent, that is, without grumbling and complaining. Because God's love is so full, so perfect and so absolute, it will not allow him to complain of anything in those whom he loves. So he is silent. When God is said to 'rest in his love,' it means he is satisfied with the object of his love and will not seek for a more satisfying object to love. His love will make its home in the soul on which it is fixed for ever.[3]

What a wonderful, heart-warming description!

In his love, God is satisfied with you. God is quietly resting. If you are in Christ, then he is content with you. He is not grumbling or complaining. He is not ready to be done with you and move on to someone else to love. No, he loves you. He is quietly resting in that love. And, that is a love that quiets us and renews us.

End Notes:

[1] For those who want more of the technical aspects: It is third person masculine singular ("he"). It is imperfect type which means that it is a continuous action rather than a completed action (usually translated in present or future tense).

[2] NET Bible: Full Notes Edition (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2019), 1763.

[3] John Owen, Communion with God, abridged by R. J. K. Law (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 2022), 22.