Zephaniah 2:6

(6) Dwellings and cottages for shepherds.—Better, places for shepherds’ pastures. In c’rôth (best taken as plural of car, “a pasture”) there is a paronomasia on c’rêthîm of Zep_2:5. The term “sea coast” (literally, line of the sea) here, as in Zep_2:5, designates maritime Philistia. This tract of country is represented as ravaged and depopulated, so as to be serviceable only as a mere sheep-walk. Afterwards (Zep_2:7) the restored exiles of Judah make it their pasture-ground. That this predominance of the Jewish over the Philistine race actually took place is manifest. The allusion to the captivity of Judah and its termination is remarkable. “Who save He in whose hand are human wills could now foresee that Judah should, like the ten tribes, rebel, be carried captive, and yet, though like and worse than Israel in its sin, should, unlike Israel, be restored” (Pusey). In the opening words of Zep_2:7 there is perhaps another paronomasia, for chebel (“sea coast” in Zep_2:6), may also mean “an apportioned inheritance;” and the words here may be rendered, “and it shall be for an inheritance for the remnant of the house of Judah.”

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

6. The text of Zep_2:6 is probably in disorder, as the rhythmical balance of the verse is quite obscured. The Sept. also read differently, the words the sea coast being wanting in their text. These words should probably be omitted as a marginal explanation of it, and the verse read, and it (land of the Philistines, Zep_2:5) shall be.…

dwellings and cottages for shepherds] R.V. pastures, with cottages, marg. or, caves. The word rendered “cottages” (k’rôth) is obscure. Bochart, whom Keil follows, suggested that the word was infin. of the verb “to dig,” and rendered “for digging,” supposing that the reference was to subterranean huts dug by the shepherds to escape the heat (hence R.V. marg., caves). The idea has no probability. The peculiar construction (which appears similar to that in Job_20:17, the floods, the brooks of honey) suggests that “dwellings” and “cottages” are mere variant expressions, having the same meaning. So Hitzig: shall be for meadows of pastures for shepherds. The sense of pasture is seen, Isa_30:23, though the plur. is masc. Psa_65:13, while in the present passage the word is fem. It is possible, indeed, that the word is a mere transcriptional duplicate of the preceding word, as the letters forming the two words are frequently confused. The term, however, stood in the text of the Sept., who rendered it Crete, i.e. the country of the Cherethites: and Crete shall be a pasture (n’vath) of shepherds. Either the order of words was different in the text of the Sept., or they translated in entire disregard of Shemitic grammar. The verse with the necessary omissions may read:

And it shall be dwellings (or, pastures) for shepherds—and folds for flocks.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Zep 2:6 And the sea coast shall be dwellings [and] cottages for shepherds, and folds for flocks.

Ver. 6. And the sea coasts shall be dwellings and cottages for shepherds] It shall be waste and untilled, and therefore unfrequented by any but shepherds, who pitch their tents up and down, where they may best feed their flocks, in desert places.

And folds for flocks] God may do thus in his just judgment upon his enemies, that live in his good land, and not by his good laws; but woe be to our depopulators, that drive out men and put in cattle; that betray towns, as Rome did Carthage, with a distinction, We will save the city, but destroy the town. How dangerous it is to prove Abaddons appeareth by God’s punishing hand upon William the Conqueror’s issue in New Forest, wherein thirty-six parish churches had been demolished by him, with the removing of all the inhabitants, to make room for beasts, or dogs’ game. There his second son, Richard, was gored in hunting by a deer; Rufus, his other son, mistaken for a deer, was by chance shot through with an arrow; Henry likewise, his nephew, while he hotly pursued the chase was struck by a bough into the jaws, and, as Absalom, left hanging until he died.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The tract of land thus depopulated is to be turned into "pastures (nevōth, the construct state plural of nâveh) of the excavation of shepherds," i.e., where shepherds will make excavations or dig themselves huts under the ground as a protection from the sun. This is the simplest explanation of the variously interpreted kerōth (as an inf. of kârâh, to dig), and can be grammatically sustained. The digging of the shepherds stands for the excavations which they make. Bochart (Hieroz. i. p. 519, ed. Ros.) has already given this explanation: "Caulae s. caulis repletus erit effossionis pastorum, i.e., caulae a pastoribus effossae in cryptis subterraneis ad vitandum solis aestum." On the other hand, the derivation from the noun kērâh, in the sense of cistern, cannot be sustained; and there is no proof of it in the fact that kârâh is applied to the digging of wells. Still less is it possible to maintain the derivation from יכר (Arab. wkr), by which Ewald would support the meaning nests for kērōth, i.e., "the small houses or carts of the shepherds." And Hitzig's alteration of the text into כּרת = כּרים, pastures, so as to obtain the tautology "meadows of the pastures," is perfectly unwarranted. The word chebhel is construed in Zep 2:6 as a feminine ad sensum, with a retrospective allusion to 'erets Pelishtı̄m; whereas in Zep 2:7 it is construed, as it is everywhere else, as a masculine. Moreover, the noun chebhel, which occurs in this verse without the article, is not the subject; for, if it were, it would at least have had the article. It is rather a predicate, and the subject must be supplied from Zep 2:6 : "The Philistian tract of land by the sea will become a tract of land or possession for the remnant of the house of Judah, the portion of the people of God rescued from the judgment. Upon them, viz., these pastures, will they feed." The plural עליהם does not stand for the neuter, but is occasioned by a retrospective glance at נות רעים. The subject is, those that are left of the house of Judah. They will there feed their flocks, and lie down in the huts of Ashkelon. For the prophet adds by way of explanation, Jehovah their God will visit them. Pâqad, to visit in a good sense, i.e., to take them under His care, as is almost always the meaning when it is construed with an accusative of the person. It is only in Psa 59:6 that it is used with an acc. pers. instead of with על, in the sense of to chastise or punish. שׁוּב שׁבוּת as in Hos 6:11 and Amo 9:14. The keri שׁבית has arisen from a misinterpretation. On the fulfilment, see what follows.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

2:6 pasture . . . shepherd camps and enclosures for sheep: The destruction of cities and their return to a natural state represents a severe form of punishment from God. See also Isa 7:23-25; 13:19-21; 32:9-15; Ezek 35:9.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

dwellings and cottages for shepherds--rather, "dwellings with cisterns" (that is, water-tanks dug in the earth) for shepherds. Instead of a thick population and tillage, the region shall become a pasturage for nomad shepherds' flocks. The Hebrew for "dug cisterns," Ceroth, seems a play on sounds, alluding to their name Cherethites (Zep 2:5): Their land shall become what their national name implies, a land of cisterns. MAURER translates, "Feasts for shepherds' (flocks)," that is, one wide pasturage.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 6. And the sea-coasts shall be dwellings] Newcome considers כרת keroth as a proper name, not cottages or folds. The Septuagint have κρητη, Crete, and so has the Syriac. Abp. Secker notes, Alibi non extat כרת, et forte notat patriam των כרתים. "The word כרת is not found elsewhere, and probably it is the name of the country of the Cherethim."

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The Prophet confirms what he has before said respecting the future vengeance of God, which was now nigh at hand to the Moabites and other neighboring nations, who had been continually harassing the miserable Jews. Hence, he says, that that whole region would become the habitation of sheep. It is a well known event, that when any country is without inhabitants shepherds occupy it; for there is no sowing nor reaping there, but grass alone grows. Where, therefore, there is no cultivation, where no number of men are found, there shepherds find a place for their flocks, there they build sheep cots. It is, therefore, the same as though the Prophet had said, that the country would be desolate, as we find it expressed in the next verse.

He immediately adds, but for a different reason, that the coast of the sea would be a habitation to the house of Judah. And there is here a striking divergence from the flocks of shepherds to the tribe of Judah, which was as it were, the chosen flock of God. The Prophet then, after having said that the region would be waste and desolate, immediately adds, that it would be for the benefit of the chosen people; for the Lord would grant there to the Jews a safe and secure rest. But the Prophet confines this to the remnant; for the greater part, as we have already seen, were become so irreclaimable, that the gate of mercy was completely closed against them. The Prophet, at the same time, by mentioning a remnant, shows that there would always be some seed from which God would raise up a new Church; and he also encourages the faithful to entertain hope, so that their own small number might not terrify them; for when they considered themselves and found themselves surpassed by a vast multitude, they might have thought that they were of no account. Lest then they should be disheartened the Prophet says that this remnant would be the object of God’s care; for when he would visit the whole coast of the sea and other regions, he would provide there for the Jews a safe habitation and refuge.

That line then, he says, shall be for the residue of the house of Judah; feed shall they in Ashkelon, and there shall they lie down in the evening; that is, they shall find in their exile some resting-place; for we know that the Jews were not all removed to distant lands; and they who may have been hid in neighboring places were afterwards more easily gathered, when a liberty to return was permitted them. This is what the Prophet means now, when he says, that there would be a refuge in the night to the Jews among the Moabites and other neighboring nations.

A reason follows, which confirms what I have stated, for Jehovah their God, he says, will visit them. We hence see that the Prophet mitigates here the sorrow of exile and of that most grievous calamity which was nigh the Jews, by promising to them a new visitation of God; as though he had said, Though the Lord seems now to rage against you, and seems to forget his own covenant, yet he will again remember his mercy, when the suitable time shall come. And he adds, he will restore their captivity; and he added this, that he might show that his favor would prove victorious against all hindrances. The Jews might indeed have raised this objection, Why does not the Lord help us immediately; but he, on the contrary, allows our enemies to remove us into exile? The Prophet here calls upon them to exercise patience; and yet he promises, that after having been driven into exile, they should again return to their country; for the Lord would not suffer that exile to be perpetual. It now follows—

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

And the sea coast shall be dwellings [and] cottages for shepherds That tract of land which lay on the coast of the Mediterranean sea, inhabited by the Philistines, should now become so desolate, that instead of towns and cities full of merchants and sea faring persons, and houses full of inhabitants, and warehouses full of goods, there should now only be seen a few huts and cottages for shepherds to dwell in, to shelter them from the heat by day, and where they watched their flocks by night, and took their proper repose and rest. The last word is by some rendered "ditches" F9, which were dug by them to receive rainwater for their use: or rather may signify "cottages dug by shepherds" F11; in subterraneous places, whither they retired in the heat of the day, to shelter themselves from the scorching sun; and some of them were so large as to receive their flocks also; such was the cave of Polyphemus, as Bochart F12 observes, in which the cattle, namely, the sheep and goats, lay down and slept; and in Iceland such are used to secure them from the cold; where we are told F13 there are caverns in the mountains capable of sheltering a hundred sheep or more: and whither they very cordially retreat in bad weather. These holes are in such mountains as have formerly burned, and are of infinite service to them, both winter and summer; in the winter for shelter, and in the summer for very good pastures, which they find in plenty all around. Such sort of huts and cottages as these, in hot countries, Jerom seems to have respect unto, when, speaking of Tekoa, he says F14, there is not beyond it any little village, nor indeed any field cottages like to ovens (subterraneous ones, Calmet F15 calls them), which the Africans call "mapalia": these Sallust F16 describes as of an oblong figure, covered with tiles, and like the keels of ships, or ships turned bottom upwards; and, according to Pliny F17, they were movable, and carried from place to place in carts and waggons; and therefore cannot be such as before described; and so Dr. Shaw F18 says, the Bedouin Arabs now, as their great ancestors the Arabians, live in tents called "hhymas", from the shelter which they afford the inhabitants; and adds, they are the very same which the ancients call "mapalia": and folds for flocks; in which they put them to lie down in at evening. The phrases express the great desolation of the land; that towns should be depopulated, and the land lie untilled, and only be occupied by shepherds, and their flocks, who lead them from place to place, the most convenient for them. FOOTNOTES: F9 (twrk) "fossas", Tigurine version; "fossuris", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; so Ben Melech; but disapproved of by Gussetius. p. 402. F11 "Mansiones effossionum pastorum, Drusius; caulae effossionum pastorum", i. e. "effossae a pastoribus", Bochart. F12 Hierozoic. par. 1. l. 2. c. 45. col. 467, 468. F13 Horrebow's Natural History of Iceland, c. 29. p. 46. F14 Prooem, in Amos. F15 Dictionary, in the word "Shepherds". F16 Bell. Jugurth. p. 51. F17 Nat. Hist. l. 5. c. 3. F18 Travels, p. 220. Ed. 2.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

The seacoast shall be dwellings and cottages - o, literally, cuttings or diggings. This is the central meaning of the word; the place of the Cherethites (the cutters off) shall be “cheroth” of shepherds, places which they dug up that their flocks might be enclosed therein. The tracts once full of fighting men, the scourge of Judah, should be so desolate of its former people, as to become a sheep-walk. Men of peace should take the place of its warriors.

So the shepherds of the Gospel with their flocks have entered into possession of war-like nations, turning them to the Gospel. They are shepherds, the chief of whom is that Good Shepherd, who laid down His Life for the sheep. And these are the sheep of whom He speaks, “Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they shall hear My Voice; and there shall be one fold and One Shepherd” Joh 10:16.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Shepherds. Merchants shall come no longer, the country being subdued by Nabuchodonosor, and by the Machabees, ver. 7. --- Alexander ruined Gaza. (Curtius iv.)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

This confirms the former, tells us what shall be in those parts; instead of cities full of rich citizens, there shall be cottages for shepherds watching over their flocks.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Dwellings and cottages for shepherds; better, pastures with caves for shepherds. In the use of the word keroth, "diggings" ("cottages," Authorized Version) there is probably intended another play on the "Cherethites." Neale, "The road from Gaza to Askalon lay along the sea shore. In the winter months many parts of it are impracticable, owing to the encroachment of the sea. The surf then dashes wildly into the huge caverns worked out of the endless sand hills that line this coast. These caverns were tenanted, when we passed, by goatherds and their flocks. Thither they resort for shelter from the fierce heat of the noontide sun; and here during the night the goats are penned. There are wells and reservoirs in the vicinity which furnish water for the flocks the whole year round, and the brambles and thorn bushes that flourish near the seaside form their pasturage" ("Eight Years in Syria," 1:40, 41). Septuagint, estai Krhth nomh poimniwn , "Crete shall be a pasture of flocks."

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For shepherds - Instead of cities full of rich citizens, there shall be only cottages for shepherds.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

General Information:

In Zep 2:4-15, Yahweh announces his judgment on the nations that surround Judah.

So the seacoast will become pastures for shepherds and for sheep pens

This probably means that the Philistine cities are gone, and only open fields remain. However, the Hebrew meaning is unclear and is sometimes translated differently by modern versions.

sheep pens

A sheep pen is a small area surrounded by a fence to keep the sheep together.

Their people

"The people of Judah"

lie down

"lie down to sleep"

translationWords

shepherd

ewe

remnant

Judah

flocks

God

restore

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

breakfast nooks for shepherds a temporary dwelling where the shepherds eat bread in the morning. כְּרֹת is an expression related to (II Kings 6:23) “He prepared for them a lavish feast.”

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.