Core Glossary
Zephaniah — Core Glossary (Hmong Language Package)
Status: First Zephaniah-curriculum glossary layer, built on top of and never contradicting the baseline Romans Hmong Translation Memory (assets/translation_memory.json). Terms marked TM-inherited reuse the Romans TM Hmong string verbatim, per the hard rule that established renderings must be reused exactly. Terms marked NEW are proposed for this curriculum and require formal TM-revision review before becoming permanent, per the Romans package’s escalation rules (§9 of 12_ai_translation_requirements.md), which this glossary explicitly inherits.
Risk tier definitions: identical to the baseline registry (assets/bible_term_registry.json):
- Critical — doctrinally load-bearing term with a strong, specific collision with Hmong traditional religion that could invert or neutralize the doctrine if unaddressed.
- High — real potential for confusion with a specific traditional-religious concept/practice; manageable with a documented disambiguating strategy.
- Medium — partial semantic mismatch, register gap, or comprehension gap with no direct collision with a competing religious system.
- Low — already-stable, safe rendering with minimal ambiguity.
A. Terms Reused Exactly from the Romans Baseline TM (TM-inherited)
| # | English Term | Hebrew/Greek (LXX) | Hmong Rendering (verbatim from TM) | Risk | Zephaniah Chapters | Doctrine(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | God | אֱלֹהִים / θεός | Vajtswv | Low | 1, 2, 3 | All four |
| 2 | Lord (YHWH) | יְהוָה / κύριος | tus Tswv | Low | 1, 2, 3 | All four |
| 3 | Salvation / Save | יָשַׁע / σῴζω | kev cawm dim / cawm | High | 3 (esp. 3:17) | Day of the Lord; Joyful Love |
| 4 | Wrath of God | עֶבְרָה, חָרוֹן / ὀργή | kev npau taws ntawm Vajtswv | High | 1, 2, 3 | Day of the Lord: Judgment |
| 5 | Idol | פֶּסֶל / εἴδωλον | dab mlom | High | 1 | Judgment on Idolatry |
| 6 | Remnant | שְׁאֵרִית | cov seem | Low | 2, 3 | The Remnant of Israel |
| 7 | Love | אַהֲבָה / ἀγάπη | kev hlub | Low | 3 (3:17) | God’s Joyful Love |
| 8 | Hope | (conceptual — qavah/chavah) / ἐλπίς | kev cia siab | Low | 2, 3 | The Remnant; Day of the Lord |
| 9 | Boasting / Proud ones | גַּאֲוָה | kev khav theeb | Low | 3 (3:11) | Judgment on Idolatry/Complacency |
| 10 | Ashamed / Shame | בּוּשׁ / ἐπαισχύνομαι | txaj muag | Low | 3 (3:19) | Day of the Lord: Restoration |
| 11 | Righteousness of God / Righteous | צֶדֶק (character sense) / δικαιοσύνη | Vajtswv txoj kev ncaj ncees / tus ncaj ncees | Critical | 3 (3:5) | Day of the Lord: Judgment |
| 12 | Worship/Serve (cultic) | עָבַד / λατρεύω | pehawm (+ mandatory object: tus Tswv) | High | 3 (3:9) | Judgment on Idolatry; Remnant |
| 13 | Nations / Gentiles | גּוֹיִם / ἔθνη | lwm Haiv Neeg | Low | 2, 3 | The Remnant; Day of the Lord |
B. New Terms Surfaced by Zephaniah (Proposed — pending TM-revision review)
| # | English Term | Hebrew | Translit. | Hmong Rendering (proposed) | Risk | Chapters | Doctrine(s) | Grounded Risk Rationale |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 | Day of the LORD | יוֹם יְהוָה | Yom YHWH | Hnub ntawm tus Tswv | Critical | 1, 3 | Day of the Lord: Judgment AND Restoration | Must be taught as ONE unified reality with two movements (terror in ch.1, joy in ch.3); inconsistent rendering across the two movements would split the book’s central doctrine into two unrelated messages. |
| 15 | Baal (idol name) | בַּעַל | Ba’al | Npa-as (transliteration, glossed as an idol/spirit) | High | 1 | Judgment on Idolatry | Names a specific object within the already-High-risk dab mlom idol category (TM #5); must not be softened to a neutral “statue” or historical curiosity. |
| 16 | Milcom / idol-priests | מִלְכֹּם / כְּמָרִים | Milkom / kemarim | Minkoos / cov pov thawj dab | High | 1 | Judgment on Idolatry | Same idol-category collision as #15; cov pov thawj dab must never be confused with legitimate Christian ministry vocabulary (contrast with Romans TM’s muted priestly_minister term). |
| 17 | Host of heaven (star-worship) | צְבָא הַשָּׁמַיִם | tzeva ha-shamayim | cov hnub qub saum nruab ntug (raug pe hawm) | Low-Medium | 1 | Judgment on Idolatry | Comprehension gap only; no direct Hmong traditional-religion star-worship analogue to collide with. |
| 18 | Sacrifice / consecrated guests (judgment-banquet sense) | זֶבַח / הִקְדִּישׁ קְרֻאָיו | zevach / hiqdish qeru’av | kev tua khoom fij / dawb huv nws cov qhua | Critical — [TRANSLATOR REVIEW NEEDED] | 1 | Judgment on Idolatry | A third, previously unfenced sense of the fij/dawb huv domain (beyond Romans’ atonement and living-sacrifice senses); per Romans AI Requirements’ fij-disambiguation rule, this must be escalated to human theologian review before any curriculum content is published using it. |
| 19 | Complacency (“settled on the dregs”) | הַשֹּׁקְטִים עַל־שִׁמְרֵיהֶם | ha-shoqtim ‘al-shimreyhem | cov neeg uas nyob tsis quav ntsej, xav tias Vajtswv yuav tsis ua dabtsi | Critical | 1 | Judgment on Idolatry and Complacency | Direct collision risk with Hmong fatalism (hmoov, permanently forbidden in the Romans TM for describing divine action) — Zephaniah condemns human apathy toward an active God, the opposite claim to fatalistic “nothing changes outcomes”; conflating the two inverts the doctrine. |
| 20 | Fire of his jealousy/zeal | אֵשׁ קִנְאָתוֹ | esh qin’ato | Vajtswv txoj kev khib siab rau nws haiv neeg | High | 1, 3 | Judgment on Idolatry; Day of the Lord | Khib siab denotes petty human jealousy in ordinary usage; must be explicitly taught as righteous covenant-zeal, distinct both from sinful jealousy and from the general wrath term (TM #4). |
| 21 | Judgments/sentences against you | מִשְׁפָּטַיִךְ | mishpatayikh | tej kev txiav txim rau koj | Medium | 1, 3 | Day of the Lord: Judgment and Restoration | Same base phrase (kev txiav txim) describes both the coming judgment (ch.1) and its removal (3:15); direction must always be contextually unambiguous within any single lesson. |
| 22 | King of Israel, the LORD | מֶלֶךְ יִשְׂרָאֵל יְהוָה | melekh Yisra’el YHWH | Huab Tais ntawm Yixalayees, uas yog tus Tswv | Low-Medium | 3 (3:15) | Day of the Lord: Restoration | No traditional-religion collision; comprehension note only — must be clear this is God under a royal title, not a human monarch. |
| 23 | In your midst (divine indwelling presence) | בְּקִרְבֵּךְ | be-qirbekh | nyob hauv nruab nrab ntawm koj | Medium | 3 (3:15, 3:17) | Day of the Lord: Restoration; Joyful Love | Must be kept distinct from the Romans TM’s fixed NT formula nyob hauv Khetos (“in Christ”) — related theological reality (divine presence/union), different covenant-administration formula; the two must not be merged into one collocation. |
| 24 | Mighty one/warrior (of God) | גִּבּוֹר | gibbor | tus muaj zog loj | Low-Medium | 3 (3:17) | God’s Joyful Love; Day of the Lord | Deliberately NOT rendered with the Romans TM’s flagged hwjchim (reserved for dynamis/shamanic-power collision context); gibbor is a distinct Hebrew semantic field (heroic strength) and does not require that qualifier apparatus. |
| 25 | Will quiet you / will be silent (in his love) | יַחֲרִישׁ | yacharish | nws yuav ua rau koj nyob twjywm … vim nws txoj kev hlub | Low-Medium | 3 (3:17) | God’s Joyful Love | Primarily a text-critical/exegetical ambiguity (“silent” vs. interpretive “quiet”), not a traditional-religion collision; requires a translator’s footnote on the Hebrew’s difficulty. |
| 26 | God rejoicing/exulting over his people with singing | יָשִׂישׂ … יָגִיל … בְּרִנָּה | yasis…yagil…be-rinnah | nws yuav zoo siab kawg li rau koj / nws yuav hu nkauj qw zoo siab rau koj | Low-Medium | 3 (3:17) | God’s Joyful Love (doctrinal climax) | No collision, but must be explicitly taught as a deliberate contrast to Hmong ancestor/spirit relationships (which are transactional/propitiatory, never described as the spirit joyfully delighting in the worshiper) — this contrast is the doctrine’s pastoral punch-line. |
| 27 | Seek humility / humble (idiom) | עַנְוָה / עָנִי | ’anvah / ‘ani | kev txo hwjchim / cov txo hwjchim | Medium | 2 (2:3), 3 (3:12) | The Remnant of Israel | Established Hmong idiom uses hwjchim in its “personal status/authority” sense, distinct from the Romans TM’s flagged hwjchim = divine/shamanic power sense (which requires “Vajtswv hwjchim” pairing); footnote required to prevent over-application of that unrelated qualifier rule. |
| 28 | Righteousness (ethical/behavioral “seek” sense) | צֶדֶק | tzedeq | ncaj ncees (bare, no reckoning-qualifier) | Medium | 2 (2:3) | The Remnant of Israel | Must NOT receive the Romans TM’s mandatory forensic-imputation qualifier (raug suav tias ncaj ncees) — this is the OT ethical-practice sense, and importing the qualifier would wrongly blend two distinct doctrinal registers across curricula. |
| 29 | Rebellious and polluted (city) | הַמֹּרְאָה וְהַנִּגְאָלָה | ha-mor’ah ve-ha-nig’alah | lub nroog uas fav xeeb thiab qias neeg | Low-Medium | 3 (3:1) | Judgment on Idolatry and Complacency | Descriptive judgment phrase; comprehension-level only. |
| 30 | Officials as lions / judges as wolves | אֲרָיוֹת … זְאֵבֵי עֶרֶב | arayot…ze’evei erev | cov thawj coj zoo li tsov ntxhuav, cov txiav txim zoo li hma tsaus ntuj | Low | 3 (3:3) | Judgment on Idolatry and Complacency | Predator imagery transfers cleanly cross-culturally. |
| 31 | Wait for me | חַכּוּ־לִי | chakku-li | tos kuv | Low | 3 (3:8) | The Remnant of Israel; Day of the Lord | Conceptually resonant with TM-inherited kev cia siab (hope); no collision. |
| 32 | Pure lips/speech | שָׂפָה בְרוּרָה | safah verurah | lus dawb huv hauv lawv qhov ncauj | High | 3 (3:9) | The Remnant of Israel; Judgment on Idolatry | Reuses the dawb huv root flagged in the Romans TM’s sanctification entry for its folk ritual-purity collision; here applied to worship-speech, requiring the same progressive/eschatological-transformation disambiguation, not ritual cleansing. |
| 33 | Trust in the name of the LORD | חָסוּ בְּשֵׁם יְהוָה | chasu b’shem YHWH | tso siab rau tus Tswv lub npe | Low-Medium | 3 (3:12) | The Remnant of Israel | Comprehension bridge (refuge imagery); teach alongside TM-inherited kev ntseeg, always object-anchored. |
| 34 | Gather the outcasts/afflicted | אֲקַבֵּץ | aqabbetz | kuv yuav sau cov raug ntiab tawm thiab cov nyuaj siab los ua ke | Low-Medium | 3 (3:18) | Day of the Lord: Restoration; The Remnant | Strong positive resonance with Hmong refugee/diaspora dispersal-and-gathering history; no collision. |
| 35 | Bring you home / restore your fortunes | אָבִיא … אָשִׁיב | avi…ashiv | kuv yuav coj koj rov qab los tsev … kuv yuav pub koj muaj huv si dua | Low | 2 (2:7), 3 (3:20) | Day of the Lord: Restoration; The Remnant | Strong positive cultural bridge (homecoming after displacement); pastoral opportunity, not a risk. |
| 36 | Renown and praise among all peoples | שֵׁם וּתְהִלָּה | shem u-tehillah | npe thiab kev qhuas rau ntawm ib tsoom neeg hauv lub ntiajteb | Low-Medium | 3 (3:20) | Day of the Lord: Restoration | Kept distinct from TM-inherited lub yeeb koob (glory/doxa) to avoid conflating public renown with the Godward glory-concept. |
| 37 | National proper names (Philistia, Moab, Ammon, Cush, Assyria, Nineveh) | פְּלִשְׁתִּים, מוֹאָב, עַמּוֹן, כּוּשׁ, אַשּׁוּר, נִינְוֵה | (various) | Filixatee, Mau-am, Amoos, Khus, Axilias, Nineve | Low | 2 | Day of the Lord: Judgment (universal scope) | Comprehension-level transliteration only; logged for TM-revision review as new proper names, per §2.4 ad hoc naming convention. |
C. Doctrine-to-Term Cross-Reference
| Doctrine | Anchor Terms (this glossary) | Risk Ceiling |
|---|---|---|
| The Day of the Lord as Judgment and Restoration | #14 Day of the LORD; #21 judgments against you; #4 wrath of God (TM); #3 salvation/save (TM); #22 King of Israel | Critical |
| God’s Judgment on Idolatry and Complacency | #5 idol (TM); #15 Baal; #16 Milcom/idol-priests; #17 host of heaven; #18 sacrifice/consecrated guests; #19 complacency; #20 fire of jealousy | Critical |
| The Remnant of Israel | #6 remnant (TM); #27 humility; #28 righteousness (ethical sense); #31 wait for me; #33 trust in the name; #34 gather the outcasts; #35 restore fortunes | High |
| God’s Joyful Love for His People | #7 love (TM); #24 mighty one/warrior; #25 will quiet you; #26 God rejoicing/exulting over his people; #23 in your midst | Low-Medium (no direct traditional-religion collision identified, but doctrinally climactic — requires the explicit propitiation-vs-delight contrast note at #26) |
Full-book coverage confirmation: All 3 chapters of Zephaniah (53 verses) have been reviewed. Chapters 1, 2, and 3 (including both the core passage 3:14-17 and the remainder of chapter 3) each contributed new load-bearing terms; no chapter is logged as contributing zero new vocabulary, though several individual verses within each chapter (e.g., extended genealogical/geographic detail in 1:1, 2:4-6) were reviewed and found to introduce no additional doctrinally load-bearing vocabulary beyond what is already catalogued above.
Critical Risk Terms
Righteousness Of God Righteous
Approved rendering: Vajtswv txoj kev ncaj ncees / tus ncaj ncees
Transliteration: tzedeq (character sense) / dikaiosynē theou / dikaios
Doctrine: The Day of the Lord as Judgment and Restoration
Rejected alternatives: bare ‘kev ncaj ncees’ without qualifier — rejected, reads as self-achieved moralism
Inherited from Romans package. Governs Zephaniah 3:5 (‘The LORD within her is righteous’), functioning descriptively of God’s own character rather than the Romans forensic-imputation doctrine, but flagged Critical per TM convention since the underlying Hmong term (ncaj ncees) carries this risk everywhere it occurs.
Justify Reckon As Righteous
Approved rendering: ua kom ncaj ncees / raug suav tias ncaj ncees
Transliteration: dikaioō / logizomai
Doctrine: The Remnant of Israel
Rejected alternatives: ‘ua zoo’ (do good) framing — rejected, reintroduces works-righteousness
Inherited from Romans package. MANDATORY EXCEPTION for this curriculum: this qualifier phrase must NOT be attached to Zephaniah 2:3’s bare ethical ‘seek righteousness’ (see righteousness_ethical_seek_sense below) — doing so wrongly imports New Testament forensic-imputation doctrine into an Old Testament repentance exhortation. This exception is a standing, documented departure from the Romans automated qualifier-enforcement rule and must be flagged conspicuously wherever curriculum tooling built for Romans is reused on Zephaniah text.
Election Choose
Approved rendering: kev xaiv (Vajtswv xaiv raws li nws lub siab nyiam)
Transliteration: eklogē / eklegomai
Doctrine: God’s Judgment on Idolatry and Complacency
Rejected alternatives: hmoov (impersonal fate/fortune) vocabulary — PERMANENTLY FORBIDDEN, collapses personal divine choice into fatalism
Inherited from Romans package. Retained in the Zephaniah TM specifically to anchor the permanent hmoov-family prohibition invoked by complacency_dregs_idiom below: Zephaniah’s condemnation of complacent apathy toward an active God is the doctrinal opposite of hmoov-fatalism, and both this entry’s prohibition and that new entry’s prohibition must be taught as a single, consistent forbidden-vocabulary family.
Grace
Approved rendering: txiaj ntsim
Transliteration: charis
Doctrine: The Day of the Lord as Judgment and Restoration
Rejected alternatives: koob hmoov (fortune/blessing tied to fate and ritual correctness) — PERMANENTLY FORBIDDEN for this sense
Inherited from Romans package. Not independently load-bearing as a distinct lexical item in Zephaniah, but retained here because the koob hmoov-forbidden-substitution logic it anchors is the same logic underlying the Doctrine 2 (Idolatry and Complacency) and Doctrine 1 (Day of the Lord) fatalism-collision warnings throughout this curriculum; must never be blended with mercy or with restore_fortunes-type vocabulary.
Day Of The Lord
Approved rendering: Hnub ntawm tus Tswv
Transliteration: Yom YHWH
Doctrine: The Day of the Lord as Judgment and Restoration
Rejected alternatives: separate/unrelated phrases for the ch.1 terror-sense vs. the ch.3 joy-sense — rejected, would split one unified doctrinal reality into two disconnected messages
NEW fixed collocation established for this curriculum. Must be rendered identically at every occurrence across both movements (1:7,14-18 terror; 3:14-17 joy; 3:16 continuity). Highest-priority escalation item R-3 per analysis/06_linguistic_gap_analysis.md — every lesson touching either movement must include an explicit bridging sentence establishing this is the SAME Day.
Judgment Sacrifice Consecrated Guests
Approved rendering: kev tua khoom fij / dawb huv nws cov qhua
Transliteration: zevach / hiqdish qeru’av
Doctrine: God’s Judgment on Idolatry and Complacency
Rejected alternatives: silently assimilating into Romans’ atonement sense (qhov theej txhoj kev txhaum) — forbidden, silently assimilating into Romans’ living-sacrifice sense (khoom fij uas muaj txoj sia nyob) — forbidden
[TRANSLATOR REVIEW NEEDED: third distinct sense of the fij/dawb huv domain]. UNRESOLVED. This is a THIRD sense of vocabulary already fenced twice in the Romans TM (Christ’s atonement; ethical living-sacrifice) — God ‘consecrating’ hostile foreign armies as judgment-instruments. Per escalation item R-1 (analysis/06_linguistic_gap_analysis.md), this must be escalated to human theologian review before any curriculum content is published using Zephaniah 1:7-8. Do NOT resolve unilaterally in Phase 2 generation.
Complacency Dregs Idiom
Approved rendering: cov neeg uas nyob tsis quav ntsej, xav tias Vajtswv yuav tsis ua dabtsi
Transliteration: ha-shoqtim ‘al-shimreyhem
Doctrine: God’s Judgment on Idolatry and Complacency
Rejected alternatives: hmoov-family fatalism vocabulary — PERMANENTLY FORBIDDEN, would invert the doctrine’s target from human apathy toward an active God into an endorsement of impersonal, unchangeable fate
NEW term. Escalation item R-2. Zephaniah condemns human apathy toward an active, judging God — the OPPOSITE claim to fatalistic ‘nothing changes outcomes.’ MANDATORY: every occurrence must carry a structural contrast clause in the same paragraph (not merely a footnote) distinguishing this from hmoov-fatalism.
High Risk Terms
Salvation Save
Approved rendering: kev cawm dim / cawm
Transliteration: yasha’ (yoshia’) / sōtēria / sōzō
Doctrine: The Day of the Lord as Judgment and Restoration
Rejected alternatives: unanchored ‘dim’ (escape) parallel to shamanic soul-rescue (ua neeb) — rejected without explicit agent-anchoring
Inherited from Romans package. Applied to Zephaniah 3:17 (‘a mighty one who will save’), where the agent (tus Tswv/Vajtswv) is already grammatically present in the same clause, satisfying the mandatory anchoring rule. This is the OT root of the vocabulary later anchored to Yexus Khetos in Romans; teaching note should surface this continuity.
Wrath Of God
Approved rendering: kev npau taws ntawm Vajtswv
Transliteration: ‘evrah / charon / orgē theou
Doctrine: The Day of the Lord as Judgment and Restoration
Rejected alternatives: unqualified ‘npau taws’ associated only with capricious spirit/ancestor anger — rejected without explicit contrast teaching
Inherited from Romans package. Governs Zephaniah 1:15-16, 18, 2:2-3, 3:8. Retains the Romans TM’s mandatory contrast-teaching: this wrath is righteous and judicial, never the capricious, ritually-appeasable anger of ancestor/spirit belief.
Idol
Approved rendering: dab mlom
Transliteration: pesel / eidōlon
Doctrine: God’s Judgment on Idolatry and Complacency
Rejected alternatives: generic ‘statue’ softening — rejected, must not soften since Zephaniah condemns exactly this category
Inherited from Romans package. Governs Zephaniah 1:4-6’s condemnation of image-worship; must not be softened.
Worship Serve Cultic
Approved rendering: pehawm / pab teev
Transliteration: ‘avad / latreuō
Doctrine: God’s Judgment on Idolatry and Complacency
Rejected alternatives: bare, unanchored pehawm — FORBIDDEN, identical verb used for pehawm dab (ancestor/spirit veneration)
Inherited from Romans package, including the mandatory object-anchoring rule (‘pehawm tus Tswv/Vajtswv’, never bare). Governs both the idolatrous worship condemned in Zephaniah 1:4-6 and the unified true worship restored in 3:9.
Power
Approved rendering: hwjchim
Transliteration: dynamis
Doctrine: God’s Joyful Love for His People
Rejected alternatives: bare, unqualified hwjchim — FORBIDDEN, identical to a shaman’s (txiv neeb) ritual power
Inherited from Romans package; always qualified ‘Vajtswv hwjchim’ when used in this dynamis sense. Zephaniah 3:17’s ‘mighty one’ (gibbor) is DELIBERATELY NOT rendered with this term — see mighty_one_warrior_gibbor below, a distinct Hebrew semantic field. This entry is retained in the Zephaniah TM only to document why hwjchim’s dynamis-sense qualifier apparatus does not apply to gibbor, and to fence hwjchim’s unrelated ‘personal status’ sense used in seek_humility below.
In Christ Union Formula
Approved rendering: nyob hauv Khetos
Transliteration: en Christō
Doctrine: God’s Joyful Love for His People
Rejected alternatives: merging with Zephaniah’s ‘nyob hauv nruab nrab ntawm koj’ — rejected, these are grammatically and covenant-administration-distinct fixed formulas
Inherited from Romans package. Must be kept lexically distinct from the NEW Zephaniah term in_your_midst_divine_presence below. A bridging teaching sentence connecting the two (‘God who dwelt among his people now dwells within them through Christ’) is permitted; the two fixed phrases must never be interchanged or merged into one collocation.
Sanctification
Approved rendering: kev raug ua kom dawb huv
Transliteration: hagiasmos
Doctrine: God’s Judgment on Idolatry and Complacency
Rejected alternatives: treating dawb huv as a repeatable ritual-cleansing state — rejected
Inherited from Romans package. The dawb huv root it shares is now carrying a THIRD sense in this curriculum family (see pure_lips_speech below) beyond the Romans senses of moral sanctification and the permanently forbidden folk-ritual-purity reading; every occurrence of dawb huv anywhere in this curriculum must specify which sense is active in its immediate co-text.
Foreknow Predestine
Approved rendering: twb paub ua ntej lawm / twm chaw ua ntej lawm
Transliteration: proginōskō / proorizō
Doctrine: God’s Judgment on Idolatry and Complacency
Rejected alternatives: hmoov (fate) vocabulary — rejected, same collision risk as election_choose
Inherited from Romans package. Retained for the same hmoov-family fencing purpose as election_choose above; not independently load-bearing in Zephaniah but documented to prevent cross-curriculum confusion.
Baal Idol Name
Approved rendering: Npa-as
Transliteration: Ba’al
Doctrine: God’s Judgment on Idolatry and Complacency
Rejected alternatives: neutral historical-curiosity framing (‘an old statue/god’) — rejected, blunts the specific polemic against a named rival deity still-relevant category in Hmong dab-worship
NEW term. Transliteration, glossed on first use as ‘ib tug dab uas cov neeg thaum ub pe hawm’ (‘an idol/spirit ancient peoples worshiped’). Names a specific object within the already-High-risk dab mlom idol category; must not be softened.
Milcom Idol Priests
Approved rendering: Minkoos / cov pov thawj dab
Transliteration: Milkom / kemarim
Doctrine: God’s Judgment on Idolatry and Complacency
Rejected alternatives: conflating with priestly_minister (legitimate Christian ministry term) — forbidden
NEW term. Same idol-category collision as baal_idol_name. cov pov thawj dab must always keep the proper name (Minkoos) adjacent in the same clause on first mention per lesson so it is not misread as a generic idol-priest category divorced from its specific historical referent.
Fire Of Jealousy Zeal
Approved rendering: Vajtswv txoj kev khib siab rau nws haiv neeg
Transliteration: esh qin’ato
Doctrine: God’s Judgment on Idolatry and Complacency
Rejected alternatives: bare khib siab with no qualifying clause — rejected, risks God being heard as petty/insecure like human spousal or sibling jealousy
NEW term. Escalation item R-4. Must always pair with an explanatory relative clause distinguishing righteous, covenant-protecting divine zeal from sinful human possessiveness, and must be kept distinct from wrath_of_god (related but not identical Hebrew concepts, qin’ah vs. ‘evrah/charon).
Pure Lips Speech
Approved rendering: lus dawb huv hauv lawv qhov ncauj
Transliteration: safah verurah
Doctrine: The Remnant of Israel
Rejected alternatives: treating as ritual speech-cleansing — rejected
NEW term. Escalation item R-7, governs Zephaniah 3:9. Reuses the dawb huv root flagged in sanctification (inherited) for its folk ritual-purity collision, now applied to worship-speech — a THIRD sense in this curriculum’s dawb huv family. Must be taught, per the same disambiguation strategy as sanctification, as progressive/eschatological transformation of worship-language, never a ritual-cleansing formula.
Medium Risk Terms
Priestly Minister
Approved rendering: tus ua haujlwm pab Vajtswv
Transliteration: leitourgos
Doctrine: God’s Judgment on Idolatry and Complacency
Rejected alternatives: txiv neeb (shaman) vocabulary — forbidden, would conflate Christian ministry with shamanism
Inherited from Romans package. Retained here specifically as the CONTRAST term: Zephaniah’s cov pov thawj dab (idol-priests, see milcom_idol_priests below) must never be confused with this legitimate-Christian-ministry term. The two must remain lexically and conceptually separate at every occurrence.
Faith Believe
Approved rendering: kev ntseeg / ntseeg
Transliteration: pistis / pisteuō
Doctrine: The Remnant of Israel
Inherited from Romans package. Should be taught alongside the NEW Zephaniah term trust_in_the_name_of_the_lord below as a synonym-family, always object-anchored to tus Tswv/Vajtswv.
Judgments Against You
Approved rendering: tej kev txiav txim rau koj
Transliteration: mishpatayikh
Doctrine: The Day of the Lord as Judgment and Restoration
NEW term. The identical base phrase (kev txiav txim) describes judgment announced (ch.1) and judgment revoked (3:15) — opposite narrative directions. MANDATORY: every occurrence must carry an explicit verb of direction — ‘tabtom los rau’ (coming upon) for the ch.1 sense, ‘raug rho tawm lawm’ (has been removed) for the 3:15 sense. Never leave the bare noun phrase to carry the directional load alone.
On That Day
Approved rendering: nyob rau hnub ntawd
Transliteration: bayyom hahu
Doctrine: The Day of the Lord as Judgment and Restoration
NEW term. Functions only as a continuity marker pointing back to day_of_the_lord; doctrinally empty on its own. Must never be introduced without first re-establishing day_of_the_lord in the same lesson unit.
In Your Midst Divine Presence
Approved rendering: nyob hauv nruab nrab ntawm koj
Transliteration: be-qirbekh
Doctrine: God’s Joyful Love for His People
Rejected alternatives: merging with the Romans TM’s fixed NT formula nyob hauv Khetos (‘in Christ’) — rejected, related theological reality but different covenant-administration formula
NEW term. Governs Zephaniah 3:15 and 3:17. Must be kept lexically distinct from in_christ_union_formula (inherited). A bridging teaching sentence connecting the two is permitted; the fixed phrases themselves must never be interchanged.
Seek Humility
Approved rendering: kev txo hwjchim / cov txo hwjchim
Transliteration: ‘anvah / ‘anvei ha-‘aretz
Doctrine: The Remnant of Israel
NEW term. Escalation item R-6. Uses hwjchim in its personal-status/authority sense, a DIFFERENT semantic field from the Romans-flagged hwjchim = divine/shamanic power sense (power, above), which mandatorily pairs with ‘Vajtswv.’ MANDATORY disclaimer at first occurrence in any lesson: this hwjchim refers to personal social status, NOT the divine-power sense, and the ‘Vajtswv hwjchim’ qualifier rule does NOT apply here.
Righteousness Ethical Seek Sense
Approved rendering: ncaj ncees (bare, without the Romans reckoning-qualifier)
Transliteration: tzedeq
Doctrine: The Remnant of Israel
Rejected alternatives: raug suav tias ncaj ncees (Romans forensic-imputation qualifier) — MUST NOT be inserted here, would wrongly import New Testament justification doctrine into an Old Testament ethical exhortation
NEW term. Escalation item R-5, governs Zephaniah 2:3. This is the OT ethical-behavioral sense of tzedeq (practicing justice), distinct from the forensic sense in righteousness_of_god_righteous and justify_reckon_as_righteous. Document as a standing, conspicuous EXCEPTION to the Romans automated qualifier-enforcement rule; native speaker + theologian sign-off required for any lesson using this entry.
Sing Shout For Joy
Approved rendering: hu nkauj qw zoo siab / qw nrov qhia txoj kev zoo siab
Transliteration: ranni / hari’u
Doctrine: God’s Joyful Love for His People
NEW term. Governs Zephaniah 3:14. The Hebrew rua root’s dual use (war-alarm/joy-cry) risks being heard as an alarm-cry if not clearly bracketed by surrounding joy vocabulary; teaching note required to clarify this is acclamation-joy, not a warning-cry.
Low Risk Terms
God
Approved rendering: Vajtswv
Transliteration: Elohim / theos
Doctrine: General / Cross-cutting
Rejected alternatives: Ntuj (impersonal sky/heaven) — rejected, lacks personal deity sense, dab (spirit) — rejected, denotes false/lesser spirit
Inherited from Romans package. Used throughout all 3 chapters of Zephaniah for Elohim.
Lord
Approved rendering: tus Tswv
Transliteration: YHWH (rendered by title) / kyrios
Doctrine: General / Cross-cutting
Rejected alternatives: Yehauvas (NWT-style divine-name transliteration) — PERMANENTLY FORBIDDEN, severs continuity with existing Hmong Bible tradition
Inherited from Romans package. Renders the Tetragrammaton YHWH throughout Zephaniah’s 3 chapters, following the Hmong Bible tradition’s practice of a title rather than a transliterated divine name.
Remnant
Approved rendering: cov seem
Transliteration: she’erit / hypoleimma / leimma
Doctrine: The Remnant of Israel
Inherited from Romans package. Governs Zephaniah 2:7, 2:9, 3:12-13.
Love
Approved rendering: kev hlub
Transliteration: ‘ahavah / agapē
Doctrine: God’s Joyful Love for His People
Inherited from Romans package. Governs Zephaniah 3:17 (‘he will quiet you by his love’) — the stated ground of God’s rejoicing/quieting action; teach in its most intimate, covenant-marital register per analysis/04_comparative_theology.md, distinct from generic goodwill.
Hope
Approved rendering: kev cia siab
Transliteration: qavah / chakah (conceptual) / elpis
Doctrine: The Remnant of Israel
Inherited from Romans package. Conceptually links to ‘wait for me’ (3:8) and ‘trust in the name of the LORD’ (3:12) as a synonym-family.
Boasting
Approved rendering: kev khav theeb
Transliteration: ga’avah / kauchēsis
Doctrine: God’s Judgment on Idolatry and Complacency
Inherited from Romans package. Applied to persons (‘cov khav theeb’) at Zephaniah 3:11, the proud officials to be removed.
Ashamed
Approved rendering: txaj muag
Transliteration: bush / epaischynomai
Doctrine: The Day of the Lord as Judgment and Restoration
Inherited from Romans package. Governs Zephaniah 3:19’s shame-to-praise reversal.
Nations Gentiles
Approved rendering: lwm Haiv Neeg
Transliteration: goyim / ethnē
Doctrine: The Day of the Lord as Judgment and Restoration
Inherited from Romans package. Governs Zephaniah 2 (nations under judgment) and 3:9-10 (nations as future worshipers).
Glory
Approved rendering: lub yeeb koob
Transliteration: doxa
Doctrine: General / Cross-cutting
Inherited from Romans package. Kept lexically distinct from the NEW Zephaniah term renown_and_praise_among_all_peoples below (public national renown vs. Godward glory-concept).
Officials Lions Judges Wolves
Approved rendering: cov thawj coj zoo li tsov ntxhuav nrov qw, cov txiav txim zoo li hma tsaus ntuj
Transliteration: arayot … ze’evei erev
Doctrine: God’s Judgment on Idolatry and Complacency
NEW term. Governs Zephaniah 3:3. Predator imagery transfers cleanly cross-culturally.
Wait For Me
Approved rendering: tos kuv
Transliteration: chakku-li
Doctrine: The Remnant of Israel
NEW term. Governs Zephaniah 3:8. Conceptually resonant with hope (inherited); part of the seek/wait/trust faith-posture triad taught together.
Bring You Home Restore Fortunes
Approved rendering: kuv yuav coj koj rov qab los tsev … kuv yuav pub koj muaj huv si dua
Transliteration: avi etkhem … ashiv etkhem
Doctrine: The Day of the Lord as Judgment and Restoration
NEW term. Governs Zephaniah 3:20, the book’s closing promise. Strong positive cultural bridge (homecoming after displacement), similar in kind to the Romans TM’s positive-bridge notes on heir and adoption; no collision.
Restore Fortunes Ch2
Approved rendering: pub kom rov qab muaj huv si dua
Transliteration: shuv sh’vit/sh’vut
Doctrine: The Remnant of Israel
NEW term. Governs Zephaniah 2:7. Positive term culturally resonant with Hmong refugee/diaspora experience of displacement-and-return; anticipates bring_you_home_restore_fortunes in 3:20.
Turn Shame To Praise
Approved rendering: hloov lawv txoj kev txaj muag ua qhov txaus qhuas
Transliteration: mi-bushtam li-tehillah
Doctrine: The Day of the Lord as Judgment and Restoration
NEW term. Governs Zephaniah 3:19. txaj muag is TM-inherited exactly (ashamed, above).
Daughter Of Zion
Approved rendering: tus ntxhais Xi-oo
Transliteration: bat-Tziyyon
Doctrine: God’s Joyful Love for His People
Rejected alternatives: paraphrasing away the personification device (‘the people of Zion’) — rejected, flattens the affective force underlying 3:17’s parental-joy imagery
NEW term. Governs Zephaniah 3:14. Xi-oo is the established transliteration for Zion; comprehension-level note needed for the personification device.
Daughter Of Jerusalem
Approved rendering: tus ntxhais Yeluxalees
Transliteration: bat Yerushalayim
Doctrine: God’s Joyful Love for His People
NEW term. Governs Zephaniah 3:14. Yeluxalees is the established transliteration.
Rejoice Be Glad Exult
Approved rendering: zoo siab / xyiv fab kawg (koj lub siab)
Transliteration: simchi / ‘alzi
Doctrine: God’s Joyful Love for His People
NEW term. Governs Zephaniah 3:14. Ordinary, stable Hmong terms for gladness/exultation intensifier; no collision. Forms an inclusio with god_rejoicing_over_people_with_singing (3:17) — the same joy-vocabulary applied first to the people, then to God himself.
Israel Name
Approved rendering: Yixalayees
Transliteration: Yisra’el
Doctrine: The Remnant of Israel
NEW term (transliteration pattern inherited from Romans ‘cov Yixalayees’). Governs Zephaniah 2 and 3.
National Proper Names
Approved rendering: Filixatee, Mau-am, Amoos, Khus, Axilias, Nineve
Transliteration: Pelishtim, Mo’av, ‘Ammon, Kush, Ashur, Nineveh
Doctrine: The Day of the Lord as Judgment and Restoration
NEW terms. Governs Zephaniah 2. Comprehension-level transliteration only; logged for future TM-revision review as new proper names.
Seek The Lord
Approved rendering: nrhiav tus Tswv
Transliteration: baqqeshu et-YHWH
Doctrine: The Remnant of Israel
NEW term. Governs Zephaniah 2:3. Stable existing evangelistic idiom; first element of the seek/wait/trust faith-posture triad.
Low-Medium Risk Terms
Host Of Heaven Star Worship
Approved rendering: cov hnub qub saum nruab ntug (raug pe hawm)
Transliteration: tzeva ha-shamayim
Doctrine: God’s Judgment on Idolatry and Complacency
NEW term. Comprehension gap only — no direct Hmong star-worship tradition to collide with; no fixed collocation investment needed beyond the descriptive paraphrase.
King Of Israel The Lord
Approved rendering: Huab Tais ntawm Yixalayees, uas yog tus Tswv
Transliteration: melekh Yisra’el YHWH
Doctrine: The Day of the Lord as Judgment and Restoration
NEW term. tus Tswv is TM-inherited exactly. Huab Tais is the standard, non-sacral Hmong word for king/emperor; no traditional-religion collision. Comprehension note required: must be clear this is God himself under a royal title, not a human king (3:15).
Mighty One Warrior Gibbor
Approved rendering: tus muaj zog loj
Transliteration: gibbor
Doctrine: God’s Joyful Love for His People
Rejected alternatives: Vajtswv hwjchim — deliberately rejected here; gibbor is a distinct Hebrew semantic field (heroic strength/warrior-hero), not the dynamis concept the Romans hwjchim-qualifier apparatus was built to fence
NEW term. Governs Zephaniah 3:17. Confirmed successful gap-avoidance decision; flagged for translator awareness only, not a forbidden-term violation.
Will Quiet You Silent In Love
Approved rendering: nws yuav ua rau koj nyob twjywm … vim nws txoj kev hlub
Transliteration: yacharish
Doctrine: God’s Joyful Love for His People
NEW term. Governs Zephaniah 3:17. Primarily a text-critical/exegetical translation choice (‘he will be silent’ vs. interpretive ‘he will quiet/renew you’), not a traditional-religion collision; requires a translator’s footnote on the Hebrew ambiguity.
God Rejoicing Over People With Singing
Approved rendering: nws yuav zoo siab kawg li rau koj / nws yuav hu nkauj qw zoo siab rau koj
Transliteration: yasis … yagil … be-rinnah
Doctrine: God’s Joyful Love for His People
Rejected alternatives: generic ‘blessing’ language that loses the specifically joyful, singing, delighting character of the image — rejected
NEW term. Escalation item R-8, the theological climax of the core passage and the entire book (Zephaniah 3:17). No lexical gap, but a significant conceptual gap: Hmong ancestor/spirit relationships are transactional/propitiatory and never described as spontaneously delighting in a worshiper apart from ritual appeasement. MANDATORY: every lesson on 3:17 must include an explicit contrast statement that God’s joy here is not a reward for ritual correctness and is not contingent on the worshiper’s continued appeasement, but flows from kev hlub (love) already declared its cause in the same verse.
Rebellious Polluted City
Approved rendering: lub nroog uas fav xeeb thiab qias neeg
Transliteration: ha-mor’ah ve-ha-nig’alah
Doctrine: God’s Judgment on Idolatry and Complacency
NEW term. Governs Zephaniah 3:1. Descriptive judgment phrase; comprehension-level only.
Trust In The Name Of The Lord
Approved rendering: tso siab rau tus Tswv lub npe
Transliteration: chasu b’shem YHWH
Doctrine: The Remnant of Israel
NEW term. Governs Zephaniah 3:12. Comprehension bridge (refuge-imagery); teach alongside faith_believe (inherited) as a synonym-family, always object-anchored to tus Tswv/Vajtswv.
Gather The Outcasts
Approved rendering: kuv yuav sau cov raug ntiab tawm thiab cov nyuaj siab los ua ke
Transliteration: aqabbetz … nugei
Doctrine: The Day of the Lord as Judgment and Restoration
NEW term. Governs Zephaniah 3:18. Strong positive resonance with Hmong refugee/diaspora dispersal-and-gathering history; comprehension-level only, pastoral opportunity.
Renown And Praise Among All Peoples
Approved rendering: npe thiab kev qhuas rau ntawm ib tsoom neeg hauv lub ntiajteb
Transliteration: shem u-tehillah be-khol ‘ammei ha-‘aretz
Doctrine: The Day of the Lord as Judgment and Restoration
NEW term. Governs Zephaniah 3:20. Kept distinct from glory/lub yeeb koob (inherited) to avoid conflating public national renown with the Godward glory-concept.
Fear Not Hands Not Grow Weak
Approved rendering: tsis txhob ntshai / koj txhais tes tsis txhob qaug zog lawm
Transliteration: al-tir’i / al-yirpu yadayikh
Doctrine: God’s Joyful Love for His People
NEW term. Governs Zephaniah 3:16. The hands-growing-slack idiom is rendered by functional Hmong equivalent (hands losing strength); comprehension-level adaptation only. First-use gloss required noting this is an idiom for discouragement, not literal physical weakness.