SEV Biblia, Chapter 1:11
Aullad, moradores de Mactes, porque todo el pueblo mercader es destruido; talados son todos los que os traían dinero.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Zephaniah 1:11
Verse 11. Maktesh] Calmet says this signifies a mortar, or a rock in form of a mortar, and was the name of a quarter of Jerusalem where they hulled rice, corn, &c., according to St. Jerome. Some think the city of Jerusalem is meant, where the inhabitants should be beat and pounded to death as grain is pounded in a mortar. Newcome translates it, the lower city, and considers it the valley in Jerusalem, which divided the upper from the lower city.
They that bear silver] The merchants, moneychangers, usurers, rich men.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 11. Howl, ye inhabitants of Maktesh , etc.] The name of a street in Jerusalem, as Aben Ezra; perhaps it lay low in the hollow of the city, and in the form of a mortar, from whence it might have its name, as the word f16 signifies; which is used both for a hollow place and for a mortar, ( Judges 15:19 Proverbs 27:22) unless it might be so called from such persons dwelling in it, that used mortars for spice, and other things.
The Targum is, “howl, all ye that dwell in the valley of Kidron;” and Jerom thinks the valley of Siloah is intended, which is the same; which, Adrichomius says, was broad, deep, and dark, and surrounded the temple in manner of a foss, or ditch; and was disposed in the form of a mortar, called in Hebrew “machtes”; in Latin, “pila”; in which merchants and tradesmen of all kinds dwelt. It is thought by others to be the same which Josephus calls “the valley of the cheese mongers”, which lay between the two hills Zion and Acra. The reason of their howling is, for all the merchant people are cut down ; either cut to pieces by the sword of the enemy, and become silent, as the word sometimes signifies, and the Vulgate Latin version here renders it; become so by death, and laid in the silent grave, and no more concerned in merchandise; or else stripped of all their wealth and goods by the enemy, and so cut down, broke, and become bankrupt, and could trade no more. The word for merchant signifies a Canaanite; and the Targum paraphrases it thus, “for all the people are broken, whose works are like the works of the people of the land of Canaan:” all they that bear silver are cut off ; that have large quantities of it, and carry it to market to buy goods with it as merchants; these shall be cut off, and so a great loss to trade, and a cause of howling and lamentation; or such that wear it in their garments, embroidered with it; or rather in their purses, who are loaded with this thick clay, abound with it. The Targum is, “all that are rich in substance shall be destroyed.”
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 7-13 - God's day is at hand; the punishment of presumptuous sinners is 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 secur and easy; they say in their heart, the Lord will not do good, neithe will he do evil; that is, they deny his dispensing rewards an punishments. But in the day of the Lord's judgment, it will clearl 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.
Original Hebrew
הילילו 3213 ישׁבי 3427 המכתשׁ 4389 כי 3588 נדמה 1820 כל 3605 עם 5971 כנען 3667 נכרתו 3772 כל 3605 נטילי 5187 כסף׃ 3701
