Zephaniah 1:11
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
Howl, you inhabitants of Maktesh, for all the merchant people are cut down; all they that bear silver are cut off.
American King James Version (AKJV)
Howl, you inhabitants of Maktesh, for all the merchant people are cut down; all they that bear silver are cut off.
American Standard Version (ASV)
Wail, ye inhabitants of Maktesh; for all the people of Canaan are undone; all they that were laden with silver are cut off.
Basic English Translation (BBE)
Because of the downfall of all the people of Canaan: all those who were weighted down with silver have been cut off.
Webster's Revision
Howl, ye inhabitants of Maktesh, for all the merchant people are cut down; all they that bear silver are cut off.
World English Bible
Wail, you inhabitants of Maktesh, for all the people of Canaan are undone! All those who were loaded with silver are cut off.
English Revised Version (ERV)
Howl, ye inhabitants of Maktesh, for all the people of Canaan are undone: all they that were laden with sliver are cut off.
Clarke's Zephaniah 1:11 Bible Commentary
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.
Barnes's Zephaniah 1:11 Bible Commentary
Howl, ye inhabitants of Maktesh - Literally, "Mortar" , "in which," Jerome says, "corn is pounded; a hollow vessel, and fit for the use of medical men, in which properly ptisans are wont to be beaten (or made). Striking is it, that Scripture saith not, 'who dwell in the valley or in the alley,' but who "dwell in the mortar," because as corn, when the pestle striketh, is bruised, so the army of the enemy shall rush down upon you" (Jerome). The place intended is probably so much of the valley of the Tyropoeon, which intersected Jerusalem from north to south, as was enclosed by the second wall, on the north, and the first wall on the south. The valley "extended as far as the fountain of Siloam," and united with the valley of Jehoshaphat a little below Ophel. It was "full of houses," and, from its name as well as from its situation, it was probably the scene of petty merchandise, where the occasions in which men could and did break the law and offend God, were the more continual, because they entered into their daily life, and were a part of it. The sound of the pestle was continually heard there; another sound should thereafter be heard, when they should not bruise, but be themselves bruised. The name "Maktesh" was probably chosen to express how their false hopes, grounded on the presence of God's temple among them while by their sins they profaned it, should be turned into true fears. They had been and thought themselves "Mikdash," "a holy place,. sanctuary;" they should be Maktesh , wherein all should be utterly bruised in pieces.
Jerome: "Whoso considereth the calamities of that siege, and how the city was pressed and hemmed in, will feel how aptly he calls them "the inhabitants of a mortar;" for, as grains of corn are brought together into a mortar, to the end that, when the pestle descendeth, being unable to fly off, they may be bruised, so the people flowing together, out of all the countries of Judaea, was narrowed in by a sudden siege, and through the savage cruelty of the above leaders of the sedition, was unutterably tortured from within, more than by the enemy without."
For all the merchant people are cut down - (Literally, "the people of Canaan") that is Ch.: "they who in deeds are like the people of Canaan," according to that , "Thou art of Canaan and not of Judah," and, "Thy father is an Amorite and thy mother a Hittite" . So our Lord says to the reprobate Jews, "Ye are of your father the devil" John 8:44.
All they that bear silver are cut off - (Literally, "all laden with"). The silver, wherewith they lade themselves, being gotten amiss, is a load upon them, weighing them down until they are destroyed.
Wesley's Zephaniah 1:11 Bible Commentary
1:11 Howl - Cry aloud, and bitterly. Maktesh - The lower town.Merchant people - Who were wont to lodge in this place.That bear silver - That brought it with them to pay for what they bought.