Readers have long connected this passage with Babel because Genesis 11 describes humanity’s speech being confused and the peoples scattered. The canonical contrast is attractive, and later Jewish interpretation explicitly moved in that direction. But Zephaniah never names Babel and does not say that every nation will once again speak one human language. A responsible reading should show the possible connection while keeping the biblical claim precise: the text clearly promises purified worship and united service among the nations.

The completed canon gives this hope a further horizon without erasing Zephaniah’s own meaning. Pentecost gathers people from many nations around the mighty works of God while they still hear in their own languages. That makes Acts 2 a meaningful canonical development of Zephaniah’s united worship among the peoples—not an explicit quotation, and not proof that the prophet predicted a return to one universal human language.