Zephaniah 1:11

Wail, you who live in the market district, ¹  for all the merchants ²  will disappear ³  and those who count money ⁴  will be removed. ⁵ 

Wail, you who live in the market district; all your merchants will be wiped out, all who trade with silver will be ruined.

"Wail, O inhabitants of the Mortar, For all the people of Canaan will be silenced; All who weigh out silver will be cut off.

Wail in sorrow, all you who live in the market area, for all who buy and sell there will die.

Wail, you shopkeepers on Market Street! Moneymaking has had its day. The god Money is dead.

Because of the downfall of all the people of Canaan: all those who were weighted down with silver have been cut off.

The inhabitants of the Mortar wail, for all the traders have perished; all who weigh out silver are cut off.

Wail, you inhabitants of Maktesh! For all the merchant people are cut down; All those who handle money are cut off.

Wail, you who live in the market district, ¹  for all the merchants ²  will disappear ³  and those who count money ⁴  will be removed. ⁵ 

¹ tn Heb “in the Mortar.” The Hebrew term מַכְתֵּשׁ (makhtesh, “mortar”) is apparently here the name of a low-lying area where economic activity took place.

² tn Or perhaps “Canaanites.” Cf. BDB 489 s.v. I and II כְּנַעֲנִי. Translators have rendered the term either as “the merchant people” (KJV, NKJV), “the traders” (NRSV), “merchants” (NEB, NIV), or, alternatively, “the people of Canaan” (NASB).

³ tn Or “be destroyed.”

⁴ tn Heb “weigh out silver.”

⁵ tn Heb “be cut off.” In the Hebrew text of v. 11b the perfect verbal forms emphasize the certainty of the judgment, speaking of it as if it were already accomplished.