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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Zephaniah 2:6 - 2:6
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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 כָּרֹת = כָּרִים, 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 עֲלֵיהֶם does not stand for the neuter, but is occasioned by a retrospective glance at נְוֹת רֹעִים. 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 עַל, in the sense of to chastise or punish. שׁוּב שְׁבוּת as in Hos 6:11 and Amo 9:14. The keri שְׁבִית has arisen from a misinterpretation. On the fulfilment, see what follows.