Zephaniah 2:5

2:5 Those who live by the sea, the people who came from Crete, ¹  are as good as dead. ² 

The Lord has decreed your downfall, ³  Canaan, land of the Philistines:

“I will destroy everyone who lives there!” ⁴ 

Zephaniah 3:6

The Lord’s Judgment will Purify

3:6 “I destroyed ⁵  nations;

their walled cities ⁶  are in ruins.

I turned their streets into ruins;

no one passes through them.

Their cities are desolate; ⁷ 

no one lives there. ⁸ 

[2:5]  ¹ 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]  ² 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]  ³ tn Heb “the word of the Lord is against you.”

[2:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “I will destroy you so there is no inhabitant [remaining].”

[3:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “cut off.”

[3:6]  ⁶ tn Heb “corner towers”; NEB, NRSV “battlements.”

[3:6]  ⁷ tn This Hebrew verb (צָדָה, tsadah) occurs only here in the OT, but its meaning is established from the context and from an Aramaic cognate.

[3:6]  ⁸ tn Heb “so that there is no man, without inhabitant.”