Zephaniah 1:10-12

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Zephaniah 1:10 tn The words “will go up” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
2. Zephaniah 1:10 sn The Fish Gate was located on Jerusalem’s north side (cf. 2 Chr 33:14; Neh 3:3; 12:39).
3. 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”).
4. Zephaniah 1:10 tn Heb “great breaking.”
5. 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.
6. 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).
7. Zephaniah 1:11 tn Or “be destroyed.”
8. Zephaniah 1:11 tn Heb “weigh out silver.”
9. 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.
10. Zephaniah 1:12 tn Heb “who thicken on their sediment.” The imagery comes from wine making, where the wine, if allowed to remain on the sediment too long, will thicken into syrup. The image suggests that the people described here were complacent in their sinful behavior and interpreted the delay in judgment as divine apathy.
11. Zephaniah 1:12 tn Heb “who say in their hearts.”
12. Zephaniah 1:12 tn Heb “The Lord does not do good nor does he do evil.”