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" (i), which were dug by them to receive rainwater for their use: or rather may signify "cottages dug by shepherds" (k); 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 (l) 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 (m) 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 (n), there is not beyond it any little village, nor indeed any field cottages like to ovens (subterraneous ones, Calmet (o) calls them), which the Africans call "mapalia": these Sallust (p) describes as of an oblong figure, covered with tiles, and like the keels of ships, or ships turned bottom upwards; and, according to Pliny (q), 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 (r) 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":

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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 כּרת equals כּרים, pastures, so as to obtain the tautology "meadows of the pastures," is perfectly unwarranted. The word chebhel is construed in Zephaniah 2:6 as a feminine ad sensum, with a retrospective allusion to 'erets Pelishtı̄m; whereas in Zephaniah 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 Zephaniah 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 Psalm 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 Hosea 6:11 and Amos 9:14. The keri שׁבית has arisen from a misinterpretation. On the fulfilment, see what follows.

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.

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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."

And the sea coast shall be dwellings and cottages for shepherds, and folds for flocks.

2:6 For shepherds - Instead of cities full of rich citizens, there shall be only cottages for shepherds.

6. 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.

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