Zephaniah 2:6

The text of Zephaniah 2:6 is probably in disorder, as the rhythmical balance of the verse is quite obscured. The Sept. also read differently, the words the sea coastbeing wanting in their text. These words should probably be omitted as a marginal explanation of it, and the verse read, and it(land of the Philistines, Zephaniah 2:5) shall be.…

dwellingsand cottages for shepherds R.V. pastures, with cottages, marg. or, caves. The word rendered "cottages" (k'rôth) is obscure. Bochart, whom Keil follows, suggested that the word was infin. of the verb "to dig," and rendered "for digging," supposing that the reference was to subterranean huts dug by the shepherds to escape the heat (hence R.V. marg., caves). The idea has no probability. The peculiar construction (which appears similar to that in Job 20:17, the floods, the brooksof honey) suggests that "dwellings" and "cottages" are mere variant expressions, having the same meaning. So Hitzig: shall be for meadows of pasturesfor shepherds. The sense of pastureis seen, Isaiah 30:23, though the plur. is masc.Psalms 65:13, while in the present passage the word is fem. It is possible, indeed, that the word is a mere transcriptional duplicate of the preceding word, as the letters forming the two words are frequently confused. The term, however, stood in the text of the Sept., who rendered it Crete, i.e. the country of the Cherethites: and Crete shall be a pasture(n'vath) of shepherds. Either the order of words was different in the text of the Sept., or they translated in entire disregard of Shemitic grammar. The verse with the necessary omissions may read:

And it shall be dwellings (or, pastures) for shepherds and folds for flocks.