[114] The text reads _the ruins_ (מַכְשֵׁלוֹת, unless we prefer with Wellhausen ‎מִכְשֹׁלים, _the stumbling-blocks_, i.e. _idols_) _with the wicked, and I will cut off man_ (LXX. _the lawless_) _from off the face of the ground._ Some think the clause partly too redundant, partly too specific, to be original. But suppose we read וְהִכְשַׁלְתִּי (cf. Mal. ii. 8, Lam. i. 14 and _passim_: this is more probable than Schwally’s כִּשַׁלְתִּי, _op. cit._, p. 169), and for אדם the reading which probably the LXX. had before them, ‎אדם רשע (Job xx. 29, xxvii. 13, Prov. xi. 7: cf. אדם בליעל Prov. vi. 12) or אדם עַוָּל (cf. iii. 5), we get the rendering adopted in the translation above. Some think the whole passage an intrusion, yet it is surely probable that the earnest moral spirit of Zephaniah would aim at the wicked from the very outset of his prophecy. [115] LXX. _names_, held by some to be the original reading (Schwally, etc.). In that case the phrase might have some allusion to the well-known promise in Deut., _the place where I shall set My name_. This is more natural than a reference to Hosea ii. 19, which is quoted by some. [116] Some Greek codd. take Baal as fem., others as plur.. [117] So LXX. [118] Heb. reads _and them who bow themselves, who swear, by Jehovah_. So LXX. B with _and_ before _who swear_. But LXX. A omits _and_. LXX. Q omits _them who bow themselves_. Wellhausen keeps the clause with the exception of _who swear_, and so reads (to the end of verse) _them who bow themselves to Jehovah and swear by Milcom_. [119] Or Molech = king. LXX. _by their king_. Other Greek versions: Moloch and Melchom. Vulg. Melchom. [120] LXX. _His._ [121] So LXX. Heb. _sons_. [122] Is this some superstitious rite of the idol-worshippers as described in the case of Dagon, 1 Sam. v. 5? Or is it a phrase for breaking into a house, and so parallel to the second clause of the verse? Most interpreters prefer the latter. The idolatrous rites have been left behind. Schwally suggests the original order may have been: _princes and sons of the king, who fill their lord’s house full of violence and deceit; and I will visit upon every one that leapeth over the threshold on that day, and upon all that wear foreign raiment_. [123] The _Second_ or New Town: cf. 2 Kings xxii. 14, 2 Chron. xxxiv. 22, which state that the prophetess Huldah lived there. Cf. Neh. iii. 9, 12, xi. 9. [124] The hollow probably between the western and eastern hills, or the upper part of the Tyropœan (Orelli). [125] Heb. _people of Canaan_. [126]‎ נטיל, found only here, from נטל, to lift up, and in Isa. xl. 15 to weigh. Still it may have a wider meaning, _all they that carry money_ (Davidson). [127] See above, p. 52.