Zephaniah 1:9-11

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Zephaniah 1:9 sn The point of the statement all who hop over the threshold is unclear. A ritual or superstition associated with the Philistine god Dagon may be in view (see 1 Sam 5:5).
2. Zephaniah 1:9 tn The referent of “their master” is unclear. The king or a pagan god may be in view.
3. Zephaniah 1:9 tn Heb “who fill…with violence and deceit.” The expression “violence and deceit” refers metonymically to the wealth taken by oppressive measures.
4. Zephaniah 1:10 tn The words “will go up” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
5. Zephaniah 1:10 sn The Fish Gate was located on Jerusalem’s north side (cf. 2 Chr 33:14; Neh 3:3; 12:39).
6. Zephaniah 1:10 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”).
7. Zephaniah 1:10 tn Heb “great breaking.”
8. Zephaniah 1:11 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.
9. Zephaniah 1:11 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).
10. Zephaniah 1:11 tn Or “be destroyed.”
11. Zephaniah 1:11 tn Heb “weigh out silver.”
12. Zephaniah 1:11 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.