Zephaniah 1:11

ye inhabitants of Maktesh The term Makteshis rendered "hollow-place," Judges 15:19, and mortar, Proverbs 27:22. Some depression or valley in the city is referred to: Hitzig thinks of that between Acra and the Temple area, and others of the valley of the Tyropœon or cheese-makers, a depression, now filled up with the rubbish of many centuries, which ran from north to south, dividing the city into two parts. The probability is that the Maktesh lay in the northern part of the city. It was on this side that Jerusalem was most liable to attack, and the prophet has in view throughout an invasion by a foe from the north.

all the merchant people lit. the people of Canaan. The Canaanites or Phenicians were the chief traders in Palestine, and the name Canaan came to be used for merchant. It is scarcely actual Canaanites that are referred to here; already in Hosea 12:7 the term Canaan is applied figuratively to Ephraim, and in Ezekiel 16:29; Ezekiel 17:4, Chaldea is called the "land of Canaan," i.e. the merchant land. In Isaiah 23:8 the word Canaan seems to be used in the plur., and certainly in a figurative sense: "her (Tyre's) traffickers are the honourable of the earth." In Proverbs 31:24 the form Canaaniteis used for merchant, and so perhaps Job 41:6 (Heb. 40:30).

are cut down R.V. are undone, as Isaiah 6:5; the word is usually rendered cut off, Hosea 10:7; Hosea 10:15.

All they that bear silver Or, money. The reference is not to the trade of silversmiths, but rather to merchants in general.