Zephaniah 1:10 - Exposition.

The second class which shall be smitten, viz. the traders and usurers, the enemy being represented as breaking in upon the localities where these persons resided. The fish gate. This is generally supposed to have been in the north wall of the city towards its eastern extremity, and to have been so called because through it were brought the fish from the Jordan and the Sea of Galilee, and there was a fish market in its immediate neighbourhood (see Nehemiah 3:3 ; Nehemiah 12:39 ; 2 Chronicles 33:14 ). It was probably on this side that the Chaldeans entered Jerusalem, us Zedekiah seems to have escaped from the south ( Jeremiah 39:4 ). The LXX . has, ἀπὸ πύλης ἀποκεντούντων , which Jerome notes as a mistake. From the second district, the lower city upon the hill Acra, to the north of the old town, Zion. This is so called, according to one rendering, in 2 Kings 22:14 , and Nehemiah 11:9 . A great crashing. Not merely the crash of falling buildings, but the cry of men when a city is taken and the inhabitants are put to the sword. The hills on which the greater part of the city was built. Keil thinks that the hills surrounding the lower city are meant, viz. Bezetha, Gareb, etc; as the hearer of the cry is supposed to be on Zion.