The Prophet confirms what he has before said respecting the future vengeance of God, which was now nigh at hand to the Moabites and other neighboring nations, who had been continually harassing the miserable Jews. Hence, he says, that that whole region would become the habitation of sheep. It is a well known event, that when any country is without inhabitants shepherds occupy it; for there is no sowing nor reaping there, but grass alone grows. Where, therefore, there is no cultivation, where no number of men are found, there shepherds find a place for their flocks, there they build sheep cots. It is, therefore, the same as though the Prophet had said, that the country would be desolate, as we find it expressed in the next verse. 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.