Commentary on Habakkuk Zephaniah Haggai Zechariah and Malachi John Calvin
MINOR PROPHETS
from the gate of the fishes. Why the Prophet calls it the gate of the fishes we cannot for certainty say, except that it is a probable conjecture, that either some fish-pond was near it, or that the fish-market was nigh.
As to the word {,}משנהmeshene, the majority of interpreters think that it means the place where the priests explained the law and devoted themselves to the study of it; and they adduce a passage from 2 Kings 22:14, where it seems, as there is mention made of priests, the word is taken in this sense. But as gates are spoken of here, and as the Hebrews often call whatever is second in order by this word, as the second part in buildings and also in towns and in other places, is thus called, we may take it here in this sense, that is, as meaning that gate which was next to the first in general esteem. But as the subject has little to do with the main point, I dismiss it. 83
He says in the last place, that there would be a great breach in the hills. He refers, I have no doubt, to that part of the city which was contiguous to the mountains.
However this may be, it was the Prophet's object to include here the whole city, that he might shake off from the Jews all vain confidence, and show that there would be no escape, when the Lord stretched forth his hand to punish their sins. It now follows---
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 them the inhabitants of the hollow place, {,}מכתשmecatesh. The verb {,}כתשcatash, means to be hollow; hence the Hebrews call a hollow place
So Solomon calls a mortar by this name, because it is hollow: 84
83Junius, Piscator, Newcome, and Henderson think that it means the second city, a part of Jerusalem, being so called, as they supposed, in Nehemiah 11:9: where our version is considered to be wrong, and the clause ought to be, "and Judah, the son of Jeruiah, was over the second city"—[{{}העיר{[. משנה-{}עלSo it is deemed improperly rendered ``college'' in 2 Kings 22:14 and 2 Chronicles 34:22; where it ought to be ``in the second city.'' But the passage in Nehemiah is not decisive on the subject; and our version is countenanced by the former part of the verse, where ``Joel'' is said to be the ``overseer,'' and ``Judah'' is mentioned as being next to him, the second in office: and it is so rendered in the Septuagint. As to the other text, the word is by itself as here. What Calvin, after Cyril and Theodoret, suggests, is the most probable solution. The word rendered by Calvin ``contritio---breach,'' and by Henderson, ``destruction,'' is .[{]}שברAs ``crying'' and ``howling'' are said to proceed from the other parts, so something similar must have proceeded from ``the hills.'' The word means breaking, and it is often applied to the heart---``a broken heart,'' Psalm
34:18; 51:19, etc. It seems to mean here the breaking out into weeping and wailing. The parallelism of the verse would thus be complete--- And there shall be in that day, saith Jehovah, The voice of crying from the fish-gate, And howling from the second gate, And great wailing from the hills. Wailing is the breaking out of anguish and pangs. The word is used in Ezekiel 21:6, for acute pain in the loins, and may be considered as used here metonymically.---Ed.
84This original meaning of the word is much more probable than what lexicographers generally give. The braying or pounding is evidently derived from the noun, and the noun from the form of the mortar. Most agree that the word here means the lower part of the city—the hollow, from the circumstance of being surrounded by hills. The "hills" were those on which a