“Shout for joy, O daughter… the King of Israel, the Lord is withinyou… the Lord, your God is withinyou, a mighty savior!” The reason for adducing these selections from Zephaniah 3:14-17 is to give some indication of the fruitful ambiguity of the text in Greek and Hebrew. Modern English translators make an effort to wash away ambiguities, to solve textual problems and to deliver the “right” answer.
The “right” answer is that this prophecy means that the holy people of Israel will have the Lord, God, of Israel present among them. However, one alternative interpretation is that there is a daughter will have the Lord, God of Israel, present within her. Naturally, many Christians see this as a prophecy that was fulfilled by the conception of Our Lord in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Even if the “right” interpretation of these verses is closer to the minds of the human author and his human audience, nevertheless, the ambiguity of the text is fruitful because it leaves room for later interpreters such as the student of Ignatian spirituality, to find other, hidden meanings which were not put into the text by human deliberation but by the providential hand of the true author of sacred scripture, God himself. It is this ultimate author whom we seek, whose presence among us truly makes us “shout for joy.”