John Calvin Commentary Zephaniah 1:11

"Wail, ye inhabitants of Maktesh; for all the people of Canaan are undone; all they that were laden with silver are cut off." — Zephaniah 1:11 (ASV)

The Prophet here addresses the merchants who inhabited the middle part of the city and therefore thought themselves farther from all danger and trouble. Since they were concealed, as it were, in their hiding places, they thought that no danger was near them; and thus, security blinded them even more. After speaking of the king’s palace and of the princes and their servants, Zephaniah now turns his discourse to the merchants.

And he calls them the inhabitants of the hollow place, מכתש, mecatesh. The verb כתש, catash, means to be hollow; therefore, the Hebrews call a hollow place מכתש, mecatesh. So Solomon calls a mortar by this name because it is hollow, and we also learn from other parts of Scripture that the word sometimes means either a cavern or some low place.

But we know that merchants, for the most part, have their streets on level ground, as this is to their advantage since they have goods to carry. It may then have been that in Jerusalem there was a large company of merchants in that part of the city which was low-lying.

But those who regard it as a proper name offer no reason or probability to confirm their opinion. It is also evident from the context that merchants are addressed here, for cut off, he says, is the mercantile people. The word כנען, canon, means a merchant. Some think that the Jews are here, as often elsewhere, called Canaan because they had become degenerate and more like the Canaanites than the holy fathers from whom they descended.

But the Prophet undoubtedly speaks here of merchants, for an explanation immediately follows: all who are laden with money. And he says that merchants were laden with money because they would not transact business without making payments and counting money, and also because merchants, for the most part, engrossed a great portion of the world's wealth by their gainful arts.

We now understand then what the Prophet means. He threatens the merchants with howling—those who were concealed in their hidden places because they occupied that part of the city, as I have already said, which was below the hills. He then uses the word כנען, canon, meaning a trafficker. Finally, he speaks of their wealth, since it is probable that they became rich through frauds and most dishonest means, and shows that their money would be useless to them, for they would find no defense in it when the Lord extended His hand to punish them. It now follows—