Zephaniah 1:10

the fish gate The gate may have received its name from its vicinity to the fishmarket. From Nehemiah 3:1-3 it appears that the fishgate lay to the west of the tower of Hananeel; and in Nehemiah 12:39 the procession starting from the south-west of the city and going round the walls north and east passed successively the gate of Ephraim, the old gate, the fishgate, the tower of Hananeel and the tower of Meah, halting at the sheepgate, which was near the Temple. The fishgate therefore was situated in the northern wall of the city, probably not far from the N.W. angle of the walls. In the days of Nehemiah (Nehemiah 13:16), and possibly in the time of Zephaniah, the fishmongers were Tyrians, and their commodity was no doubt dried fish.

a howling from the second Better as R.V. the second quarter, i.e. of the city. The second quarter may have been so called from its having been recently added to the city. In 2 Chronicles 33:14 Manasseh is said to have built an outer wall extending as far as the fishgate. The second quarter in all likelihood lay on the north of the city; according to 2 Kings 22:14 the prophetess Huldah had her house there.

great crashing from the hills lit. great breach. The crashing is scarcely the noise of falling buildings, the expression seems rather to be elliptical for a cry of great destruction(Isaiah 15:5), parallel to "cry" and "howling" in the two previous clauses. The "hills" referred to are those on which Jerusalem was built, though especially those of the northern quarter.