Zephaniah 1:11

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

for all the merchants ²  will disappear ³ 

and those who count money ⁴  will be removed. ⁵ 

Zephaniah 2:5

2:5 Those who live by the sea, the people who came from Crete, ⁶  are as good as dead. ⁷ 

The Lord has decreed your downfall, ⁸  Canaan, land of the Philistines:

“I will destroy everyone who lives there!” ⁹ 

Zephaniah 1:18

1:18 Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them

in the day of the Lord’s angry judgment.

The whole earth ¹⁰  will be consumed by his fiery wrath. ¹¹ 

Indeed, ¹²  he will bring terrifying destruction ¹³  on all who live on the earth.” ¹⁴ 

[1:11]  ¹ 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.

[1:11]  ² 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).

[1:11]  ³ tn Or “be destroyed.”

[1:11]  ⁴ tn Heb “weigh out silver.”

[1:11]  ⁵ 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.

[2:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “Kerethites,” a people settled alongside the Philistines in the coastal areas of southern Palestine (cf. 1 Sam 30:14; Ezek 25:16). They originally came from the island of Crete.

[2:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “Woe, inhabitants of the coast of the sea, nation of Kerethites.” The Hebrew term הוֹי (hoy, “ah, woe”), is used to mourn the dead and express outwardly one’s sorrow (see 1 Kgs 13:30; Jer 22:18; 34:5). By using it here the prophet mourns in advance the downfall of the Philistines, thereby emphasizing the certainty of their demise (“as good as dead”). Some argue the word does not have its earlier connotation here and is simply an attention-getting interjection, equivalent to “Hey!”

[2:5]  ⁸ tn Heb “the word of the Lord is against you.”

[2:5]  ⁹ tn Heb “I will destroy you so there is no inhabitant [remaining].”

[1:18]  ¹¹ tn Or “land” (cf. NEB). This same word also occurs at the end of the present verse.

[1:18]  ¹² tn Or “passion”; traditionally, “jealousy.”

[1:18]  ¹³ tn Or “for.”

[1:18]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “complete destruction, even terror, he will make.”

[1:18]  ¹⁵ tn It is not certain where the Lord’s words end and the prophet’s words begin. It is possible that Zephaniah begins speaking in the middle of v. 17 or at the beginning of v. 18 (note the third person pronouns referring to the Lord).