מַכְתֵּשׁ

From the study of Zephaniah 1:11

Range of meaning

From the verb kātaš, 'to pound, crush, grind' (Prov 27:22: 'though you pound a fool in a mortar with a pestle'). A maktēš is (1) a mortar, the hollowed bowl used for crushing grain or spices, and (2) by extension any bowl-shaped hollow in the land. At Lehi it names a hollow in the rock from which God made water flow (Judg 15:19).

Against the English

KJV and WEB print it as a place name, 'Maktesh', which keeps the name but hides the picture. BSB and YLT say 'the Hollow' / 'hollow place', which keeps the landscape but loses the grinding image. ESV and NASB say 'the Mortar', which keeps both. NIV and NLT turn it into 'market district', which explains what the place was but drops the image and the threat.

How it drifted

Not drift so much as loss. When translators leave a nickname untranslated, English readers stop hearing what it meant.

Used elsewhere in the period

Prov 27:22 (a mortar for pounding); Judg 15:19 (a hollow at Lehi). The Vulgate renders 'Pila' (a mortar). The Targum, an ancient Aramaic paraphrase, is usually cited as placing the district by the Kidron valley. The Septuagint (the Greek translation) has 'the one that has been cut down', which reads the word as describing the district's fate rather than naming it.