Zephaniah 2:6

The seacoast ¹  will be used as pasture lands ²  by the shepherds and as pens for their flocks.

The land by the sea, where the Kerethites dwell, will be a place for shepherds and sheep pens.

So the seacoast will be pastures, With caves for shepherds and folds for flocks.

The coastal area will become a pasture, a place of shepherd camps and enclosures for sheep.

The lands of the seafarers will become pastureland, A country for shepherds and sheep.

And the land by the sea will be grass-land, with houses for keepers of sheep and walled places for flocks.

And you, O seacoast, shall be pastures, meadows for shepherds and folds for flocks.

The seacoast shall be pastures, With shelters for shepherds and folds for flocks.

The seacoast ¹  will be used as pasture lands ²  by the shepherds and as pens for their flocks.

¹ tn The NIV here supplies the phrase “where the Kerethites dwell” (“Kerethites” is translated in v. 5 as “the people who came from Crete”) as an interpretive gloss, but this phrase is not in the MT. The NAB likewise reads “the coastland of the Cretans,” supplying “Cretans” here.

² tn The Hebrew phrase here is נְוֹת כְּרֹת (nÿvot kÿrot). The first word is probably a plural form of נָוָה (navah, “pasture”). The meaning of the second word is unclear. It may be a synonym of the preceding word (cf. NRSV “pastures, meadows for shepherds”); there is a word כַּר (kar, “pasture”) in biblical Hebrew, but elsewhere it forms its plural with a masculine ending. Some have suggested the meaning “wells” or “caves” used as shelters (cf. NEB “shepherds’ huts”); in this case, one might translate, “The seacoast will be used for pasturelands; for shepherds’ wells/caves.”