Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Zephaniah 2:5

Woe unto the inhabitants of the sea coast, the nation of the Cherethites! the word of the LORD [is] against you; O Canaan, the land of the Philistines, I will even destroy thee, that there shall be no inhabitant.

5. the sea coast ] Or, the region by the sea. The reference is to the strip of territory belonging to the Philistines; Eze 25:16. The Cherethites are the Philistines, or at least those along the coast (1Sa 30:14). The word is supposed to have some relation to Crete, from which it is believed the Philistines migrated into Palestine. In Amo 9:7, Deu 2:23, Jer 47:4 the Philistines are said to have come from Caphtor, which may be Crete. In 2Sa 8:18 the Cherethites and Pelethites (Philistines?) appear as mercenaries among David’s household troops. According to Jos 13:3-4 the territory of the Philistines was reckoned to the Canaanites.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

The woe having been pronounced on the five cities apart, now falls upon the whole nation of the Cherethites or Philistines. The Cherethites are only named as equivalent to the Philistines, probably as originally a distinct immigration of the same people . The name is used by the Egyptian slave of the Amalekite 1Sa 30:14 for those whom the author of the first book of Samuel calls Philistines 1Sa 30:16. Ezekiel uses the name parallel with that of Philistines, with reference to the destruction which God would bring upon them .

The word of the Lord – Comes not to them, but upon them, overwhelming them. To them He speaketh not in good, but in evil; not in grace, but in anger; not in mercy, but in vengeance. Philistia was the first enemy of the Church. It showed its enmity to Abraham and Isaac and would fain that they should not sojourn among them Gen 21:34; Gen 26:14-15, Gen 26:28. They were the hindrance that Israel should not go straight to the promised land Exo 13:17. When Israel passed the Red Sea Exo 15:14, sorrow took hold of them. They were close to salvation in body, but far in mind. They are called Canaan, as being a chief nation of it Gen 15:21, and in that name lay the original source of their destruction. They inherited the sins of Canaan and with them his curse, preferring the restless beating of the barren, bitter sea on which they dwelt, the waves of this troublesome world, to being a part of the true Canaan. They would absorb the Church into the world, and master it, subduing it to the pagan Canaan, not subdue themselves to it, and become part of the heavenly Canaan.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 5. The sea-coasts, the nation of the Cherethites] The sea-coasts mean all the country lying on the Mediterranean coast from Egypt to Joppa and Gaza. The Cherethites – the Cretans who were probably a colony of the Phoenicians. See on 1Sa 30:14, and Am 9:7.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Woe unto the inhabitants! now all the Philistines are threatened, whereas before he named only those four cities.

Of the sea-coasts; the coasts of the great or western sea, now the Mediterranean, on which the Philistines of old did dwell.

The Cherethites, or destroyers, men that were stout, but fierce, and perhaps terrible to neighbours and foreigners that had the hard hap to be forced on their coasts by violence of sea. They were great soldiers, and lived Switzerlike, guards to David, it may be to other kings also.

The word of the Lord; his purpose, his threats too by his prophet.

Canaan; that part that the Philistines did by three keep from the Jews.

I will even destroy thee: though the Chaldeans be the men that shall destroy, yet the Lord will do it also; they his servants, he chief, in doing it.

There shall be no inhabitant; no more cities, nor citizens to dwell therein.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

5. inhabitants of the seacoastthePhilistines dwelling on the strip of seacoast southwest of Canaan.Literally, the “cord” or “line” of sea (compareJer 47:7; Eze 25:16).

the CherethitestheCretans, a name applied to the Philistines as sprung from Crete(Deu 2:23; Jer 47:4;Amo 9:7). Philistine means”an emigrant.”

Canaan . . . land of thePhilistinesThey occupied the southwest of Canaan(Jos 13:2; Jos 13:3);a name which hints that they are doomed to the same destruction asthe early occupants of the land.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Woe unto the inhabitants of the sea coasts, the nation of the Cherethites,…. Which is a name of the Philistines in general, as Kimchi and Ben Melech; or these were a particular tribe belonging to them, that inhabited the southern part of their country; see 1Sa 30:14 those on the sea coast, the coast of the Mediterranean sea, and so lay between that and Judea: out of this nation, in the times of David and Solomon, were some choice soldiers selected, called the Cherethites and Pelethites, who were their bodyguards, as Josephus a calls them; a royal band, which never departed from the king’s person; see 2Sa 15:18. The Septuagint version calls them “strangers of the Cretians”; and are thought by some to be a colony of the Cretians; a people that came originally from the island of Crete, and settled here; but, on the contrary, rather Crete was a colony of the Philistines, and had its name from them; for by the Arabians b, the country of Palestine, or the Philistines, is called Keritha; and by the Syrians Creth; and, by the Hebrews the inhabitants thereof are called Cherethites, as here, and in Eze 25:16 and so the south of the Cherethites, in 1Sa 30:14, is, in Eze 25:16, called the land of the Philistines. In all the above places, where they are spoken of as the attendants of Solomon and David, they are in the Targum called “archers”; and it is a clear case the Philistines were famous for archery, whereby they had sometimes the advantage of their enemies; see

1Sa 31:3 and bows and arrows were the arms the Cretians made use of, and were famous for, as Bochart c from various writers has shown; the use of which they learned very probably from the Philistines, from whom they sprung; though Solinus d says they were the first that used arrows; and, according to Diodorus Siculus, Saturn introduced the art of using bows and arrows into the island of Crete; though others ascribe it to Apollo e; and it is said that Hercules learnt this art from Rhadamanthus of Crete; which last instance seems to favour the notion of those, that these Cherethites were Cretians, or sprung from them; to which the Septuagint version inclines; and Calmet f is of opinion that Caphtor, from whence the Philistines are said to come, Am 9:7 and who are called the remnant of the country of Caphtor, Jer 47:4 is the island of Crete; and that the Philistines came from thence into Palestine; and that the Cherethites are the ancient Cretians; the language, manners, arms, religion and gods, of the Cretians and Philistines, being much the same; though so they might be, as being a colony of the Philistines; [See comments on Am 9:7] though a learned man 1, who gives into the opinion that these were royal guards, yet thinks they were not strangers and idolaters, but proselytes to the Jewish religion at least; and rather Israelites, choice selected men, men of strength and valour, of military courage and skill, picked out of the nation, to guard the king’s person; and who were called Cherethites and Pelethites, from the kind of shields and targets they wore, called “cetra” and “pelta”: and it is a notion several of the Jewish writers 2 have, that they were two families in Israel; but it seems plain and evident that a foreign nation is here meant, which lay on the sea coast, and belonged to the Philistines. Another learned man g thinks they are the Midianites, the same with the Cretians that Luke joins with the Arabians, Ac 2:11 as the Midianites are with the Arabians and Amalekites by Josephus h; however, a woe is denounced against them, and they are threatened with desolation. The Vulgate Latin version is, “a nation of destroyed ones”: and the Targum,

“a people who have sinned, that they might be destroyed:”

the word of the Lord is against you; inhabitants of the sea coast, the Cherethites; the word of the Lord conceived in his own mind, his purpose to destroy them, which cannot be frustrated. So the Targum,

“the decree of the word of the Lord is against you;”

and the word pronounced by his lips, the word of prophecy concerning them, by the mouth of former prophets, as Isaiah, Isa 14:29 and by the mouth of the present prophet:

O Canaan, the land of the Philistines; Palestine was a part of Canaan; the five lordships of the Philistines before mentioned belonged originally to the Canaanite, Jos 13:3 and these belonged to the land of Israel, though possessed by them, out of which now they should be turned, and the country wasted, as follows:

I will even destroy thee, that there shall be no inhabitant; so great should be the desolation; all should be removed from it, either by death or by captivity; at least there should be no settled inhabitant.

a Antiqu. l. 7. c. 5. sect. 4. and c. 11. sect. 8. Vid. Opitii Exercitat. de Crethi & Plethi. b Giggeius apud Bochart. Canaan, l. 1. c. 15. col. 422. c Ibid. col. 423. d Polyhistor. c. 16. e Diodor. Sicul. Bibliothec. l. 5. p. 334, 341. f Dictionary, in the word “Caphtor”. 1 Fortunati Scacchi Elaeochrism, Myrothec. l. 3. c. 18, 19. 2 Kimchi & Ben Gersom in 2 Sam. viii. 18. and xv. 18. g Texelii Phoenix. l. 3. c. 21. sect. 4. p. 389, 390. h Antiqu. l. 5. c. 6. sect. 1.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

(5) The Cherethites.Perhaps Cretans. See on 1Sa. 30:14; Eze. 25:16, where the same term is applied to the Philistines.

Canaan originally means low-lying ground. It here indicates the low maritime plain inhabited by the Philistines.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

Zep 2:5. The Cherethites The Cretans. They are supposed to have been a colony of the Philistines. See the note on 1Sa 30:14.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Zep 2:5 Woe unto the inhabitants of the sea coast, the nation of the Cherethites! the word of the LORD [is] against you; O Canaan, the land of the Philistines, I will even destroy thee, that there shall be no inhabitant.

Ver. 5. Woe to the inhabitants of the sea coast ] These were the Philistines; they lay between the Jews and the sea; God having so disposed of it, that his people might not have much commerce with foreign nations, nor learn their manners. Into havens and maritime towns there is usually a conflux of vices, like as there is of waters into the sea: witness Tyre and Sidon, Corinth, Carthage, Capernaum, &c. Hence that proverb, maritimi mores; naval customs, and that censure of such people, littorales duri, horridi, immanes, latrociniis dediti, omnium denique pessimi, Those that dwell by the seaside are usually ill-conditioned, ferce, cruel, thievish, and the worst of men. These Philistines were no better, and are therefore here put under a woe, and threatened with utter destruction.

The nation of the Cherethites ] i.e. Destroyer; so the Philistines had styled themselves, as glorying to have conquered and cut off many people. The old Latin translation rendereth it Gens perditorum, The nation of destroyers; so doth Aquila, Theodotion, and Symmachus. Now it comes to their turn to be destroyed, according to Isa 33:1 . That these Cherethites were a sort of Philistines, see 1Sa 30:14 ; 1Sa 30:16 Eze 25:16 That they were valiant men appears by that legion of them that guarded David, 2Sa 8:4 , and were highly esteemed by him, because they stuck to him in his affliction at Gath, and also when Absalom was up in arms, 2Sa 15:18 .

The word of the Lord is against you ] And not only against Israel. This was spoken, as for the terror of those Philistines, who thought themselves out of the reach of God’s rod, and slighted his word, so for the comfort of the people of God, who thought much that themselves should be so severely dealt with, and the uncircumcised Philistines escape scot free.

O Canaan, the land of the Philistines ] Indeed, of the Israelites, Jos 13:3 , but held by force by the Philistines, who were of the stock of the Canaanites, but not subdued; and had detained part of the land from the right owners for eight hundred years and upwards; and now they come to be reckoned with. Subito tollitur qui diu toleratur. Suddenly be destroyed who where tolerated for a long time.

I will even destroy thee, that there shall be no inhabitant ] No settled inhabitant, that shall fix there, as the word signifieth. Thus Poena venit gravior, quo mage sera venit, the longer God stays the heavier he strikes.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

sea coast: or, country by the sea.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

Cherethites: Jer 47:7, Eze 25:16, Cherethims

the word: Amo 3:1, Amo 5:1, Zec 1:6, Mar 12:12

O Canaan: Jos 13:3, Jdg 3:3

Reciprocal: Lev 23:30 – General 1Sa 30:14 – the Cherethites 2Sa 8:18 – the Cherethites 1Ki 1:38 – the Cherethites 1Ch 18:17 – Cherethites Isa 11:14 – the Philistines Isa 12:6 – great Jer 2:15 – his cities Jer 46:19 – waste

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

2:5 Woe unto the inhabitants of the sea {d} coast, the nation of the Cherethites! the word of the LORD [is] against you; O Canaan, the land of the Philistines, I will even destroy thee, that there shall be no inhabitant.

(d) That is, Galilee: by these nations he means the people that dwelt near to the Jews, and instead of friendship were their enemies: therefore he calls them Canaanites, whom the Lord appointed to be slain.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

Zephaniah announced woe on the Philistines because destruction was coming on them. They inhabited the Mediterranean seacoast, and they had come from Crete (cf. 1Sa 30:14; 2Sa 8:18; 2Sa 20:23; 1Ch 18:17; Eze 25:16). Yahweh’s powerful word was all it took to afflict them, and it would come against them. He promised to destroy them and their land, the coastal plain of Canaan, so no one would live there any longer. Pharaoh Neco II of Egypt (609-594 B.C.) initially fulfilled this prophecy (cf. Jeremiah 47).

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)