Zephaniah 2:6 - Exposition.

Dwellings and cottages for shepherds; better, pastures with caves for shepherds. In the use of the word keroth, "diggings" ("cottages," Authorized Version) there is probably intended another play on the "Cherethites." Neale, "The road from Gaza to Askalon lay along the sea shore. In the winter months many parts of it are impracticable, owing to the encroachment of the sea. The surf then dashes wildly into the huge caverns worked out of the endless sand hills that line this coast. These caverns were tenanted, when we passed, by goatherds and their flocks. Thither they resort for shelter from the fierce heat of the noontide sun; and here during the night the goats are penned. There are wells and reservoirs in the vicinity which furnish water for the flocks the whole year round, and the brambles and thorn bushes that flourish near the seaside form their pasturage" ('Eight Years in Syria,' 1:40, 41). Septuagint, ἔσται κρήτη νομὴ ποιμνίων , "Crete shall be a pasture of flocks."