1:10 On that day,” says the Lord,
“a loud cry will go up 1 from the Fish Gate, 2
wailing from the city’s newer district, 3
and a loud crash 4 from the hills.
1:11 Wail, you who live in the market district, 5
for all the merchants 6 will disappear 7
and those who count money 8 will be removed. 9
1 tn The words “will go up” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
2 sn The Fish Gate was located on Jerusalem’s north side (cf. 2 Chr 33:14; Neh 3:3; 12:39).
3 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”).
4 tn Heb “great breaking.”
5 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.
6 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).
7 tn Or “be destroyed.”
8 tn Heb “weigh out silver.”
9 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.