Zephaniah 1:10

1:7-13 God's day is at hand; the punishment of presumptuous sinners is a sacrifice to the justice of God. The Jewish royal family shall be reckoned with for their pride and vanity; and those that leap on the threshold, invading their neighbours' rights, and seizing their possessions. The trading people and the rich merchants are called to account. Secure and careless people are reckoned with. They are secure and easy; they say in their heart, the Lord will not do good, neither will he do evil; that is, they deny his dispensing rewards and punishments. But in the day of the Lord's judgment, it will clearly appear that those who perish, fall a sacrifice to Divine justice for breaking God's law, and because they have no interest by faith in the Redeemer's atoning sacrifice.

In the day of the Lord's sacrifice, when he shall punish the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem by the Chaldeans; which, as well as what follows, shall surely come to pass, because the Lord has said it; for not one word of his shall pass away, but all be fulfilled: that there shall be the noise of a cry from the fish gate; a gate of the city of Jerusalem so called, which suffered as the rest in the destruction of the city by the Babylonians, and, after the captivity, was rebuilt by the sons of Hassenaah, Nehemiah 3:3 according to Jerom, it was on the west side of the city, and led to Diospolis and Joppa; and was the nearest road to the Mediterranean sea, or any of the roads to Jerusalem, from whence fish were brought, and brought in by this gate; and very probably the fish market was near it, from whence it had its name; though Cocceius places it in the north corner of the east side of the city, and so was nearer Jordan, the sea of Tiberias, and the city of Tyre, from whence fish might be brought hither, and sold, Nehemiah 13:16 however, be it where it will, the enemy it seems would attack it, and enter in by it; upon which a hideous cry would be made, either by the assailants, the Chaldeans, at their attack upon it, and entrance through it; or by the inhabitants of it, or that were nearest to it, upon their approach, or both: and an howling from the second; either from the second gate; and if the fish gate is the same with the first gate, Zechariah 14:10 then this may be per

Zephaniah 1:10-11 . In that day there shall be the noise of a cry from the fish- gate — Mentioned Nehemiah 3:3 . It was opposite to Joppa, according to Jerome, and at the entering of the city from that quarter. The sundry expressions of this verse are intended to describe the cries and shrieks that should arise from all parts of the city, upon the taking of it by the Babylonians. The great crashing from the hills might be intended to signify the noise that should be heard from the palace and temple, which were situated on the mountains, Zion and Moriah. Howl, ye inhabitants of Maktesh — The inhabitants of some particular part in or near Jerusalem. The Chaldee interprets it of the inhabitants near the brook Cedron. Bishop Newcome renders the clause, Howl ye inhabitants of the lower city, understanding it of the valley in Jerusalem, which divided the upper from the lower city, “This,” says he, “is agreeable to the etymology of the word, which signifies a hollow place, a mortar.” In this sense the word is understood by Buxtorf. For all the merchant people are cut down — All they who used to traffic with you shall be destroyed. All they that bear silver are cut off — All the money-changers: the rich merchants in general, or the money-changers in particular, may be meant.

In that day: see Zephaniah 1:9 . Saith the Lord; to assure us of the certainty of the thing. The noise, Heb. the voice, of a cry , i.e. a very great outcry and lamentation, from the fish-gate, which was on the west side of Jerusalem, through which gate they brought in fish from Joppa and other sea towns on the west sea, or great sea, now the Mediterranean, at which gate the Babylonians are said first to enter into the city when they took it: thus it will be a prediction at what gate the enemy should enter. A howling, the great, horrid, and confused lamentations of desperate and undone multitudes, crying out and bitterly bemoaning themselves, from the second gate, which was in the second wall of Jerusalem, which on that side was fortified with three walls; or second part of the city, or the middle city, for it was divided into three parts. Others read second as a proper name, and make it the school, college, or university, and so render, the howling of the university, i.e. of students either slaughtered or captivated by Chaldeans. A great crashing; breaking in pieces, or the noise of what is broken into shivers; possibly the noise of doors, windows, closets, and chests broken up, or burning, in the houses of nobles, likened here to hills; or, more literally, in Gareb and Goath, on which the fleeing Jews, pursued by the Chaldees, lost what they carried with them, and their life too: so all places were full of miserable slaughter and outcries. In that day: see Zephaniah 1:9 .

Saith the Lord; to assure us of the certainty of the thing. The noise, Heb. the voice, of a cry , i.e. a very great outcry and lamentation, from the fish-gate, which was on the west side of Jerusalem, through which gate they brought in fish from Joppa and other sea towns on the west sea, or great sea, now the Mediterranean, at which gate the Babylonians are said first to enter into the city when they took it: thus it will be a prediction at what gate the enemy should enter. A howling, the great, horrid, and confused lamentations of desperate and undone multitudes, crying out and bitterly bemoaning themselves, from the second gate, which was in the second wall of Jerusalem, which on that side was fortified with three walls; or second part of the city, or the middle city, for it was divided into three parts. Others read second as a proper name, and make it the school, college, or university, and so render, the howling of the university, i.e. of students either slaughtered or captivated by Chaldeans. A great crashing; breaking in pieces, or the noise of what is broken into shivers; possibly the noise of doors, windows, closets, and chests broken up, or burning, in the houses of nobles, likened here to hills; or, more literally, in Gareb and Goath, on which the fleeing Jews, pursued by the Chaldees, lost what they carried with them, and their life too: so all places were full of miserable slaughter and outcries.

10. fish gate—(2Ch 33:14; Ne 3:3; 12:39). Situated on the east of the lower city, north of the sheep gate [Maurer]: near the stronghold of David in Milo, between Zion and the lower city, towards the west [Jerome]. This verse describes the state of the city when it was besieged by Nebuchadnezzar. It was through the fish gate that he entered the city. It received its name from the fish market which was near it. Through it passed those who used to bring fish from the lake of Tiberias and Jordan. It answers to what is now called the Damascus gate [Henderson]. the second—namely, the gate which was second in dignity [Calvin]. Or, the second or lower part of the city. Appropriately, the fish gate, or extreme end of the lower part of the city, first resounds with the cries of the citizens as the foe approaches; then, as he advances further, that part of the city itself, namely, its inner part; lastly, when the foe is actually come and has burst in, the hills, the higher ones, especially Zion and Moriah, on which the upper city and temple were founded [Maurer]. The second, or lower city, answers to Akra, north of Zion, and separated from it by the valley of Tyropœon running down to the pool of Siloam [Henderson]. The Hebrew is translated "college," 2Ki 22:14; so Vatablus would translate here. hills—not here those outside, but those within the walls: Zion, Moriah, and Ophel.

Verse 10. - The second class which shall be smitten, viz. the traders and usurers, the enemy being represented as breaking in upon the localities where these persons resided. The fish gate. This is generally supposed to have been in the north wall of the city towards its eastern extremity, and to have been so called because through it were brought the fish from the Jordan and the Sea of Galilee, and there was a fish market in its immediate neighbourhood (see Nehemiah 3:3 ; Nehemiah 12:39 ; 2 Chronicles 33:14 ). It was probably on this side that the Chaldeans entered Jerusalem, us Zedekiah seems to have escaped from the south ( Jeremiah 39:4 ). The LXX. has, ἀπὸ πύλης ἀποκεντούντων , which Jerome notes as a mistake. From the second district, the lower city upon the hill Acra, to the north of the old town, Zion. This is so called, according to one rendering, in 2 Kings 22:14 , and Nehemiah 11:9 . A great crashing. Not merely the crash of falling buildings, but the cry of men when a city is taken and the inhabitants are put to the sword. The hills on which the greater part of the city was built. Keil thinks that the hills surrounding the lower city are meant, viz. Bezetha, Gareb, etc., as the hearer of the cry is supposed to be on Zion. Zephaniah 1:10

10 . the fish gate ] The gate may have received its name from its vicinity to the fishmarket. From Nehemiah 3:1-3 it appears that the fishgate lay to the west of the tower of Hananeel; and in Nehemiah 12:39 the procession starting from the south-west of the city and going round the walls north and east passed successively the gate of Ephraim, the old gate, the fishgate, the tower of Hananeel and the tower of Meah, halting at the sheepgate, which was near the Temple. The fishgate therefore was situated in the northern wall of the city, probably not far from the N.W. angle of the walls. In the days of Nehemiah ( Nehemiah 13:16 ), and possibly in the time of Zephaniah, the fishmongers were Tyrians, and their commodity was no doubt dried fish. a howling from the second ] Better as R.V. the second quarter , i.e. of the city. The second quarter may have been so called from its having been recently added to the city. In 2 Chronicles 33:14 Manasseh is said to have built an outer wall extending as far as the fishgate. The second quarter in all likelihood lay on the north of the city; according to 2 Kings 22:14 the prophetess Huldah had her house there. great crashing from the hills ] lit. great breach . The crashing is scarcely the noise of falling buildings, the expression seems rather to be elliptical for a cry of great destruction ( Isaiah 15:5 ), parallel to “cry” and “howling” in the two previous clauses.