Zefanya 2:4-6

Judgment on Surrounding Nations

2:4 Indeed, ¹  Gaza will be deserted ² 

and Ashkelon will become a heap of ruins. ³ 

Invaders will drive away the people of Ashdod by noon, ⁴ 

and Ekron will be overthrown. 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 

2:6 The seacoast ¹⁰  will be used as pasture lands ¹¹  by the shepherds

and as pens for their flocks.

[2:4]  ¹ tn Or “for” (KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV).

[2:4]  ² tn There is a sound play here in the Hebrew text: the name Gaza (עַזָּה, ’azzah) sounds like the word translated “deserted” (עֲזוּבָה, ’azuvah).

[2:4]  ³ tn Or “a desolate place.”

[2:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “[As for] Ashdod, at noon they will drive her away.”

[2:4]  sn The reference to noon may suggest a sudden, quick defeat (see Jer 6:4; 15:8).

[2:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “uprooted.” There is a sound play here in the Hebrew text: the name “Ekron” (עֶקְרוֹן, ’eqron) sounds like the word translated “uprooted” (תֵּעָקֵר, te’aqer).

[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].”

[2:6]  ¹⁰ tn The NIV here supplies the phrase “where the Kerethites dwell” (“Kerethites” is translated in v. 5 as “the people who came from Crete”) as an interpretive gloss, but this phrase is not in the MT. The NAB likewise reads “the coastland of the Cretans,” supplying “Cretans” here.

[2:6]  ¹¹ tn The Hebrew phrase here is נְוֹת כְּרֹת (nÿvot kÿrot). The first word is probably a plural form of נָוָה (navah, “pasture”). The meaning of the second word is unclear. It may be a synonym of the preceding word (cf. NRSV “pastures, meadows for shepherds”); there is a word כַּר (kar, “pasture”) in biblical Hebrew, but elsewhere it forms its plural with a masculine ending. Some have suggested the meaning “wells” or “caves” used as shelters (cf. NEB “shepherds’ huts”); in this case, one might translate, “The seacoast will be used for pasturelands; for shepherds’ wells/caves.”