Zephaniah 1:10-11

1:10 On that day,” says the Lord,

“a loud cry will go up from the Fish Gate,

wailing from the city’s newer district,

and a loud crash from the hills.

1:11 Wail, you who live in the market district,

for all the merchants will disappear

and those who count money will be removed.


tn The words “will go up” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

sn The Fish Gate was located on Jerusalem’s north side (cf. 2 Chr 33:14; Neh 3:3; 12:39).

tn Heb “from the second area.” This may refer to an area northwest of the temple where the rich lived (see Adele Berlin, Zephaniah [AB 25A], 86; cf. NASB, NRSV “the Second Quarter”; NIV “the New Quarter”).

tn Heb “great breaking.”

tn Heb “in the Mortar.” The Hebrew term מַכְתֵּשׁ (makhtesh, “mortar”) is apparently here the name of a low-lying area where economic activity took place.

tn Or perhaps “Canaanites.” Cf. BDB 489 s.v. I and II כְּנַעֲנִי. Translators have rendered the term either as “the merchant people” (KJV, NKJV), “the traders” (NRSV), “merchants” (NEB, NIV), or, alternatively, “the people of Canaan” (NASB).

tn Or “be destroyed.”

tn Heb “weigh out silver.”

tn Heb “be cut off.” In the Hebrew text of v. 11b the perfect verbal forms emphasize the certainty of the judgment, speaking of it as if it were already accomplished.