to howl (with a wailing tone) or yell (with a boisterou… · verb, hiphil imperative, 2nd person masculine plural
inhabitants
יֹשְׁבֵ֣יyo.she.Vei
H3427
properly · verb, qal active participle, masculine plural construct
Maktesh
הַמַּכְתֵּ֑שׁha.makh.Tesh
H4389
dell · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
merchant
כְּנַ֔עַןke.Na.'an
H3667
Kenaan · proper noun, a place name
people
עַ֣ם'am
H5971
a people (as a congregated unit) · noun, common masculine singular construct
down
נִדְמָה֙nid.Mah
H1820
to be dumb or silent · verb, niphal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
bear
נְטִ֥ילֵיne.Ti.lei
H5187
laden · adjective, masculine plural construct
silver
כָֽסֶףKha.sef
H3701
silver (from its pale color) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
off
נִכְרְת֖וּnikh.re.Tu
H3772
to cut (off · verb, niphal perfect, 3rd person common plural
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
James 5:1 Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
Jeremiah 25:34 Howl, ye shepherds, and cry; and wallow yourselves in the ashes, ye principal of the flock: for the days of your slaughter and of your dispe…
Ezekiel 21:12 Cry and howl, son of man: for it shall be upon my people, it shall be upon all the princes of Israel: terrors by reason of the sword shall b…
Hosea 12:7-8 He is a merchant, the balances of deceit are in his hand: he loveth to oppress.
Nehemiah 3:31-32 After him repaired Malchiah the goldsmith’s son unto the place of the Nethinims, and of the merchants, over against the gate Miphkad, and to…
Jeremiah 4:8 For this gird you with sackcloth, lament and howl: for the fierce anger of the LORD is not turned back from us.
Hosea 9:6 For, lo, they are gone because of destruction: Egypt shall gather them up, Memphis shall bury them: the pleasant places for their silver, ne…
Joel 1:5 Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Zephaniah 1:7-13
Notice is here given to Judah and Jerusalem that God is coming forth against them, and will be with them shortly; his presence, as a just avenger, his day, the day of his judgment and his wrath, are not far off, Zep 1:7. Those that improve not the presence of God with them as a Father, but sin away that presence, may expect his presence with them as a Judge, to call them to an account for the contempt put upon his grace. The day of the Lord will come. Men have their day now, when they take a liberty to do what they please; but God's day is at hand; it is here called his sacrifice, a sacrifice of his preparing, for the punishing of presumptuous sinners is a sacrifice to the justice of God, so…
Maktesh--rather, "the mortar," a name applied to the valley of Siloam from its hollow shape [JEROME]. The valley between Zion and Mount Olivet, at the eastern extremity of Mount Moriah, where the merchants dwelt. Zac 14:21, "The Canaanite," namely, merchant [Chaldee Version]. The TyropÅ“on (that is, cheese-makers') valley below Mount Akra [ROSENMULLER]. Better Jerusalem itself, so called as lying in the midst of hills (Isa 22:1; Jer 21:13) and as doomed to be the scene of its people being destroyed as corn or drugs are pounded in a mortar (Pro 27:22) [MAURER]. Compare the similar image of a "pot" (Eze 24:3, Eze 24:6). The reason for the destruction is subjoined, namely, its merchant people's…
Maktesh - Calmet says this signifies a mortar, or a rock in form of a mortar, and was the name of a quarter of Jerusalem where they hulled rice, corn, etc., according to St. Jerome. Some think the city of Jerusalem is meant, where the inhabitants should be beat and pounded to death as grain is pounded in a mortar.
Newcome translates it, the lower city, and considers it the valley in Jerusalem, which divided the upper from the lower city.
They that bear silver - The merchants, moneychangers, usurers, rich men.
The Church Fathers
(Verse 11.) Ululate, inhabitants of the ball: all the people of Canaan are silent. LXX: Mourn, you who inhabit the broken one: for all the people of Canaan are compared. The ball which is called Machtes in Hebrew, and is reversed by Aquila, εἰς τὸν ὅλμον, must be read with a long syllable first, not a short one, so that we do not think of a sphere, but of an elongated one, so that we know it is said about the ball in which grains are pounded, a concave vessel, suitable for the use of physicians, in which ptisanae are usually prepared. Someone may say that they understand what 'pila' means, but they want to know why it is mentioned in the present context. Because once there was a description of a captured city, and it is said: 'The voice of shouting comes from the Gate of Fish, and the howl from the Second, and great destruction from the hills.' Now the same order of description is maintained, and it is said about the howling of those who live in the Valley of Siloe. And Scripture beautifully did not say those who live in the valley, those who live in the gorge, but those who live in the pila, because indeed just as grains are crushed by a beam striking from above, so an army will rush out from the Gate of Fish, and the Second Gate, and the hills against you. But the people of Canaan he called the people of Judah, according to what we read in Daniel: The seed of Canaan and not of Judah (Dan. XIII, 56); and to Jerusalem: Your father was an Amorite, and your mother a Hittite (Ezek. XVI, 3); and in another place: Canaan is in your hand, the scale of iniquity (Hosea XII, 7). And if we want to weave a moral interpretation according to both translations, those who dwell in the deepest depths of sin are rightly stirred to howling and lamentation, and those immersed in the lowest depths of their crimes say: I am stuck in the mud of the deep, and there is no substance, they say (Ps. LXVIII, 2). And it is added: you who dwell in the shattered, that is, a soul wounded by many iniquities, or the Church, which is torn by schisms and heresies, and laments over each wound and mourns the children who have been killed. But what it says: 'The whole population of Canaan has become silent, or rather their blasphemy has ceased on the day of judgment' signifies that their mouths, which they have raised up to the skies, and their tongues, which reach down to the earth, will be…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Canaanites — The descendants of Canaan, the son of Ham. Migrating from their original home, they seem to have reached the Persian Gulf, and to have there sojourned for some time. They thence “spread to the west,…
Maktesh — Mortar, a place in or near Jerusalem inhabited by silver merchants (Zeph. 1:11). It has been conjectured that it was the “Phoenician quarter” of the city, where the traders of that nation resided,…
Maktesh · A district where merchants tra — A district where merchants tra
War · 28:25-68;32:30; — 28:25-68;32:30;
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
John Gill on Zephaniah 1:11
Howl, ye inhabitants of Maktesh,.... The name of a street in Jerusalem, as Aben Ezra; perhaps it lay low in the hollow of the city, and in the form of a mortar, from whence it might have its name, as the word (q) signifies; which is used both for a hollow place and for a mortar, Judges 15:19 unless it might be so called from such persons dwelling in it, that used mortars for spice, and other things. The Targum is,
"howl, all ye that dwell in the valley of Kidron;''
and Jerom thinks the valley of Siloah is intended, which is the same; which, Adrichomius (r) says, was broad, deep, and dark, and surrounded the temple in manner of a foss, or ditch; and was disposed in the form of a mortar, cal…
Zephaniah 1:11
11. Howl, ye inhabitants of Maktesh, for all the merchant people are cut down; all they that bear silver are cut off.
11. Ululate habitatores loci concavi; quia exterminatus est populos mercatorum, excisi sunt omnes onusti pecunia.
The Prophet addresses the merchants here who inhabited the middle part of the city, and hence thought themselves farther off from all danger and trouble. As then they were concealed as it were in their hiding-places, they thought that no danger was nigh them; and thus security blinded them the more. After having spoken of the king's palace and of the princes and their servants, Zephaniah now turns his discourse to the merchants.
And he calls the…
Even the usurers will not escape the judgment. Zep 1:10. "And it will come to pass in that day, is the saying of Jehovah, voice of the cry from the fish-gate, and howling from the lower city, and great destruction from the hills. Zep 1:11. Howl, inhabitants of the mortar, for all the people of Canaan are destroyed; cut off are all that are laden with silver." In order to express the thought that the judgment will not spare any one class of the population, Zephaniah depicts the lamentation which will arise from all parts of the city. קול צעקה, voice of the cry, i.e., a loud cry of anguish will arise or resound. The fish-gate (according to Neh 3:3; Neh 12:39; cf. Ch2 33:14) was in the eastern…
The Fish Gate was in the northern section of Jerusalem (Neh 12:39).
Rashi on Zephaniah 1:11
you inhabitants of Maktesh The Kidron Valley, which is as deep as a mortar. This is according to Targum Jonathan. from the fish gate This is Acre, situated in the bosom of the sea, where many fish are caught.
from the Mishneh This is Lod, which is second to Jerusalem.
from the hills This is Sepphoris, which is situated at the tops of the mountains like a bird.
inhabitants of Maktesh This is Tiberias, which is deeper than all of [the rest of] the land of Israel.
for the entire people of Canaan is cut off Jonathan renders: For the entire nation, whose deeds resemble the deeds of the people of the land of Canaan, has been broken.
all those laden with silver Jonathan renders: All those weal…
