Zephaniah 2:6
So the seacoast will become a land of pastures, with wells for shepherds and folds for sheep.
BSB
ASV
And the sea-coast shall be pastures, with cottages for shepherds and folds for flocks.
KJV
And the sea coast shall be dwellings and cottages for shepherds, and folds for flocks.
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.”
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.
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread: the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.
The walk8
Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.
Through
Ezekiel 25:5I will make Rabbah a pasture for camels, and Ammon a resting place for sheep. Then you will know that I am the LORD.’
leads to
The cities of Aroer are forsaken; they will be left to the flocks, which will lie down with no one to fear.
Reached by 2 independent paths from here.
Mark out one road for the sword to come against Rabbah of the Ammonites, and another against Judah into fortified Jerusalem.
Meanwhile, Joab fought against Rabbah of the Ammonites and captured the royal fortress.
Through
Isaiah 17:2The cities of Aroer are forsaken; they will be left to the flocks, which will lie down with no one to fear.
leads to
I will make Rabbah a pasture for camels, and Ammon a resting place for sheep. Then you will know that I am the LORD.’
From Aroer on the rim of the Arnon Valley, along with the city in the valley, even as far as Gilead, not one city had walls too high for us. The LORD our God…
The corpses of this people will become food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and there will be no one to scare them away.
And the Gadites built up Dibon, Ataroth, Aroer,
Through
Isaiah 5:17Lambs will graze as in their own pastures, and strangers will feed in the ruins of the wealthy.
leads to
Herds will lie down in her midst, creatures of every kind. Both the desert owl and screech owl will roost atop her pillars. Their calls will sound from the window, but desolation will lie…
