The words, [נות כרת רעים], are rendered by Calvin, “habitaculum caulis pastorum—an habitation (or a dwelling) for the sheepcots of shepherds.” The Targum takes the two first words in the singular number; the second is evidently so, and the first may be so also: and [כרת] certainly does not mean sheepcots, but digging, from [כרה], to dig. The reference is either to the pits dug for watering the flock, as Piscator thinks, or to the subterraneous huts, or caves, dug for the purpose of shelter, as Drusius and Bochart suppose. Junius and Tremelius render the words, “sheepcots, the delvings of shepherds;” and Drusius, “dwellings of the digging out of shepherds,” i.e., dwellings dug out by shepherds. The most literal and the easiest construction is, “dwellings, the digging of shepherds.” Then the verse might be thus rendered,— And the line of the sea shall be dwellings, Dug out by shepherds, and folds for sheep. Parkhurst quotes Harmer, who says, “the Eastern shepherds make use of caves very frequently, sleeping in them and driving their flocks into them at night. The mountains bordering on the Syrian coast are remarkable for the number of caves, and are found particularly in the neighborhood of Ashkelon.” How fully then was this prophecy fulfilled.—Ed.