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. WOE UNTO THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA COAST - the Philistine dwelling on the strip of sea coast southwest of Canaan. Literally, the cord or line of sea (cf. Jeremiah 47:7; Ezekiel 25:16). THE CHERETHITES - the Cretans, a name applied to the Philistines as sprung from Crete. Elsewhere the Philistines are said to have come from Caphtor, (Deuteronomy 2:23;...

4-15 Those are really in a woful condition who have the word of the Lord against them, for no word of his shall fall to the ground. God will restore his people to their rights, though long kept from them. It has been the common lot of God's people, in all ages, to be reproached and reviled. God shall be worshipped, not only by all Israel, and the strangers who join them, but by the heathen. Remote nations must be reckoned with for the wrongs done to God's people. The sufferings of the insolent and haughty in prosperity, are unpitied and unlamented. But all the desolations of flourishing nations will make way for the overturning Satan's kingdom. Let us improve our advantages, and expect the performance of every promise, praying that our Father's name may be hallowed every where, over all the earth....

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 1 Samuel 30:14, and Amos 9:7....

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 1 Samuel 30:14 for those whom the author of the first book of Samuel calls Philistines 1 Samuel 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

EXPOSITION. VERSE 2:1-3:8 Part II. EXHORTATION TO REPENTANCE AND TO PERSEVERANCE. ZEPHANIAH 2:1 § 1. The prophet urges all to examine their ways before the day of the Lord come; and he prays the righteous to seek the Lord more earnestly, in order that they may be safe in the judgment. ZEPHANIAH 2:1 GATHER YOURSELVES TOGETHER. So the versions; and this rendering is probably correct. The prophet calls upon his nation to assemble themselves together in order to take mutual counsel or to make general confession and supplication to God. Another rendering, based on some alteration

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 1 Samuel 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 2 Samuel 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 s

CHAPTER S 2-3:8 The Call to Repentance in View of the Judgment _ 1. The call to repentance (Zephaniah 2:1) _ 2. The judgment of the Philistines (Zephaniah 2:4) 3. The judgment of Moab and Ammon (Zephaniah 2:8) 4. The judgment of the other nations (Zephaniah 2:11) 5. The woe and warning to Jerusalem and His people (Zephaniah 3:1) Zephaniah 2:1. As we found it in Joel, so it is here. In view of the co

ZEPHANIAH 2. DOOM ON PHILISTIA [MOAB AND AMMON], ETHIOPIA, AND ASSYRIA. Zephaniah 2:1. Having spent its rage on Judah, the storm of Divine judgment sweeps south by the Philistian sea-board, uprooting cities and their inhabitants, driving them off like chaff, and leaving the once fertile plain a pasturage for shepherds and folds for flocks. ZEPHANIAH 2:1. The meaning of the first words is highly uncertain. An attractive suggestion yields, Get you shame, yea, be abashed, O nation unabashed, the reference being to the Philistines, rather than Judah, as many scholars maintain. Zephaniah 2:2. The text here is both corrupt and overladen. The original should perhaps be reduced to read, Ere ye be

SEA COAST: or, country by the sea....

The judgment of the Day of the Lord upon the nations The nations on whom the impending judgment shall fall are: (1) the Philistines (Zephaniah 2:4); (2) Moab and Ammon (Zephaniah 2:8); (3) Cush or the Ethiopians (Zephaniah 2:12); and (4) Assyria (Zephaniah 2:13). In relation to Judah the four nations named lay respectively west, east, south, and north. The passage appears to be written in the rhythm of the _ḳinah_or Elegy, though in some verses the rhythm is imperfect. Comp. Ezekiel 19. _Cambridge Bible_, and more fully, Budde in the Zeitsch.