1: 1 In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the LORD unto Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, the prophet, saying, The LORD hath been sore displeased with your fathers. Therefore say thou unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts: Return unto me, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will return unto you, saith the LORD of hosts. Be ye not as your fathers, unto whom the former prophets cried, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Return ye now from your evil ways, and from your evil doings: but they did not hear, nor hearken unto me, saith the LORD. Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live for ever? But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not overtake your fathers? and they turned and said, Like as the LORD of hosts thought to do unto us, according to our ways, and according to our doings, so hath he dealt with us. 1. In the eighth month. Corresponding with the latter part of October and the beginning of November. The work in the house of God had been already resumed this same year, on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month—that is, the beginning of September—in pursuance of a Divine message delivered by the prophet Haggai (Hag. 1: 14, 15). Blayney.—This message of Zechariah comes in between that prophecy of Haggai, which ends at Hag. 2: 9, and that which is contained in Hag. 2: 10-19. 4. The former prophets. Zechariah quotes the substance of passages in Hosea, Joel, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel. B. C. 4-6. Let the people consider. Did not the words which God sent by those former prophets "take hold of your fathers"? Did they slip off as things of loose grasp, and prove void of result? Did not those awful threatenings hold on, and have not you yourselves seen and felt the terrible judgments which those words portended? They themselves were forced to admit this. They returned and said—i.e., they took a new and better view of the case under the pressure of appalling facts, and then they said, All that God thought and threatened to do unto us as a nation He has done! Let their children take warning! H. C. 5. This verse and the next are closely connected. The idea is that of John 8: 52, Abraham is dead, and the prophets. The generations to whom God's warnings had been sent of old, and the bearers of those warnings, have passed away, but God's word and God's decrees stand fast for all generations; and therefore, as they overtook your fathers, so will they overtake you. The prophets of the post-captivity period took their stand upon the past history of the people, upon former miracles and upon fulfilled prophecy. They regarded these as the true foundations upon which the faith and obedience of the Jews were to be built up. B. C. ZECHARIAH'S second prophecy extends from 1: 7 to 6: 15, and is dated the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month of the second year of Darius—four months later than the prophecy of Haggai—perhaps early in February, B.C. 519, as we now date events. It is a description of eight visions, one apparently following another in a single night, followed by a message connected with the coming of certain men from Babylon (Zech. 6:9 sqq.). We naturally ask whether these men brought with them from Babylon the answer of Darius in regard to the temple (see Ezra 6), but there is no clew to the answer. In the first vision (Zech. 1:7-17) the prophet sees men on horseback—the mounted police of Jehovah's empire—who report that they have made their rounds in the earth, and found everything quiet. Their chief, to whom they make this report, is the angel of Jehovah. On hearing it (verses 12-17) he makes intercession for Jerusalem, and an encouraging message is then given the prophet. The descriptive part is in prose, while the intercession and the message to the prophet are in verse. The second vision (Zech. 1:18-21) is of four horns that have been tossing Judah, and four "working-men" who drive the horns away. The third vision (Zech. 2:1-13) is of a man measuring Jerusalem, and being informed that Jerusalem will outgrow all measurements. This information is given in poetic lines (verses 4 b, 5), and is followed by a spirited lyric on Zion's escape from the north land (verses 6-13). As I understand it, this lyric is represented as uttered by the angel of Jehovah. These first three visions concern Judah, Jerusalem, the people in general. The fourth vision concerns especially Joshua, the priestly leader of the people; and the fifth mainly concerns Zerubbabel, their civil leader. The sixth vision (Zech. 5:1-4) is that of the flying scroll, and the seventh (Zech. 5:5-11) is that of the woman in the ephah-jar. These two mainly concern the wickedness of the people by which Jehovah's mercies are hindered. The eighth vision (Zech. 6:1-8) is a vision of Jehovah's chariots, one of which is sent on a mission to the north land. W. J. B. In a dream of the night there passed before the eyes of the prophet a series of visions (1:7-6:15). These visions are obscure, and, accordingly, the prophet asks their meaning. The interpretation is given by an angel who knows the mind and will of Jehovah. In the first vision (1:7-15) the prophet sees, in a valley of myrtles, a rider upon a roan horse, accompanied by others who, having been sent forth to the four quarters of the earth, had returned with the tidings that the whole earth was at rest (with reference to Hag. 2:20). Hereupon the angel asks how long this state of things shall last, and is assured that the indifference of the heathen shall cease, and that the temple shall be built in Jerusalem. The second vision (2:1-17, A. V. 1:18-2:13) explains how the promise of the first is to be fulfilled. It symbolizes the destruction of the heathen kingdoms hitherto combined against Jerusalem, and the rapid increase of its population. The old prophets, in foretelling the happiness and glory of the times which should succeed the Captivity in Babylon, had made a great part of that happiness and glory to consist in the gathering together again of the whole dispersed nation in the land given to their fathers. This vision was designed to teach that the expectation thus raised—the return of the dispersed of Israel—should be fulfilled. The next two visions (3, 4) are occupied with the temple, and with the two principal persons on whom the hopes of the returned exiles rested. The permission granted for the rebuilding of the temple had no doubt stirred afresh the malice and the animosity of the enemies of the Jews. Joshua, the high-priest, had been singled out, it would seem, as the especial object of attack, and perhaps formal accusations had already been laid against him before the Persian court. The prophet, in vision, sees him summoned before a higher tribunal, and solemnly acquitted, despite the charges of the Satan or adversary. This is done with the forms still usual in an Eastern court, the filthy garments of the accused being exchanged for the robe of honor put on the innocent. The last vision (4) supposes that all opposition to the building of the temple shall be removed. This sees the completion of the work. The two next visions (5:1-11) signify that the land, in which the sanctuary has just been erected, shall be purged of all its pollutions. First, the curse is recorded against wickedness in the whole land (not as A. V. "earth;" 5:3). Next, the unclean thing, whether in the form of idolatry or any other abomination, shall be utterly removed. And now the night is waning fast, and the morning is about to dawn. Chariots and horses appear, issuing from between two brazen mountains, the horses like those in the first vision; and these receive their several commands and are sent forth to execute the will of Jehovah in the four quarters of the earth. Thus, then, the cycle of visions is completed. Scene after scene is unrolled till the whole glowing picture is presented to the eye. All enemies crushed; the land repeopled and Jerusalem girt as with a wall of fire; the temple rebuilt, more truly splendid than of old, because more abundantly filled with a Divine Presence; the leaders of the people assured in the most signal manner of the Divine protection; all wickedness solemnly sentenced, and the land forever purged of it—such is the magnificent panorama of hope which the prophet displays to his countrymen. A symbolical act immediately follows. Three Israelites had just returned from Babylon, bringing with them rich gifts to Jerusalem, apparently as contributions to the temple, and had been received in the house of Josiah the son of Zephaniah. Thither the prophet is commanded to go, and to employ the silver and gold of their offerings for the service of Jehovah. He is to make of them two crowns, and to place these on the head of Joshua, the high-priest—a sign that, in the Messiah who should build the temple, the kingly and priestly offices should be united. Dic. B. The first eight chapters form a collection of utterances, complete and circumscribed, directed throughout to promote the erection of the temple. The work had been paralyzed by actual difficulties, but still more by supineness of spirit and despond. What the people needed was the inspiration of a soaring faith and the heartening of buoyant hope. This is precisely the spirit that animates the addresses of Zechariah. Elmslie.—The object of Zechariah is precisely that of Haggai. It is to rouse an indolent, to encourage a desponding, and to abash a backsliding people. This he does, if not with greater energy, yet by bolder types, and through the force of broader glimpses into the future, than his coadjutor. The red horses, the four horns, the stone with seven eyes, the candlestick of gold, the olive trees, the flying roll, the ephah and the talent of lead, the four chariots from between the two mountains, the staves Beauty and Bands, the cup of trembling, the burdensome stone, and the fountain of purification, are not mere brilliant dreams, but are closely connected with the main purpose of the prophecy. Gilfillan. These visions were designed partly to animate and encourage the Jews in the work of rebuilding the temple and restoring the worship of Jehovah, partly to warn them against transgression, and especially against rebelliousness and apostasy from Him. As, however, all God's dealings toward His ancient people bear an analogy to His dealings toward His spiritual Church, and especially as in these visions there is reference more or less immediate to the Messiah, they convey instruction and counsel profitable for the people of God as such in all ages. This book of prophecy has, consequently, engaged much of the attention of students of Scripture at all times in the Christian Church. Luther says of it: "The prophet Zechariah is a paragon (Ausbund), to my thinking the most excellent. For he appeared at a time when it was supremely needful to comfort and encourage the people, and along with that to keep them for the coming reign of Christ and under training." W. L. Alexander. The chief difficulty felt by the student of these eight visions is that of clearly distinguishing and identifying the superhuman dramatis personae with whom the prophet is in ecstatic communication. They appear to be five in number—viz.: 1. The man riding upon a red horse, who stood among the myrtle trees (1:8). He is clearly identified (1:11) with the angel of the Lord. 2. The riders on the red, speckled and white horses. These are subordinate created angels, who report to the angel of the Lord. 3. The angel described by the prophet in eleven places (1:9, 13, 14, 19; 2:3; 4:1, 4, 5; 5:5, 10; 6:4) by the phrase the angel that talked with me, or, more exactly, that spake in me. So Dr. Pusey, who adds, "The very rare expression seems meant to convey the thought of an inward speaking, whereby the words should be borne directly into the soul without the intervention of the ordinary outward organs. God says to Moses (Num. 12:6-9), If there is a prophet among you, I the Lord will make Myself known unto him in a vision, I will speak (lit.) in him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so . . . in him will I speak mouth to mouth; and Habakkuk says (2:1) of the like inward teaching, I will watch to see what He will speak in me. It is the characteristic title of one attendant angel, who was God's expositor of the visions to Zechariah." Similarly Canon Drake ("Speaker's [or Bible] Commentary") says he was "the [created] angel, whose office it was to interpret to the prophet what he saw and heard." 4. In the third vision (chap. 2) the man with a measuring line in his hand, whom Dr. Pusey thinks to be "probably the angel of the Lord, of whom Ezekiel has a like vision." 5. In the same vision (2:3) another angel, who went out to meet the angel that talked with the prophet, when he (the angel) went forth. Besides these must also be observed in three places (1:13, 20; 3:1) the mention of the Lord, who is in each almost certainly identified with the angel of the Lord. Medd. 7. UPON the four and twentieth day of the eleventh month, which is the month Shebat, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the LORD unto Zechariah the son of Berechiah, 8 the son of Iddo, the prophet, saying, I saw in the night, and behold a man riding upon a red horse, and he stood among the myrtle trees that were in the bottom; and behind him there 9 were horses, red, sorrel, and white. Then said I, O my lord, what are these? And the angel 10 that talked with me said unto me, I will shew thee what these be. And the man that stood among the myrtle trees answered and said, These are they whom the LORD hath sent to walk 11 to and fro through the earth. And they answered the angel of the LORD that stood among the myrtle trees, and said, We have walked to and fro through the earth, and, behold, all the 12 earth sitteth still, and is at rest. Then the angel of the LORD answered and said, O LORD of hosts, how long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against 13 which thou hast had indignation these threescore and ten years? And the LORD answered 14 the angel that talked with me with good words, even comfortable words. So the angel that talked with me said unto me, Cry thou, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts: I am jealous 15 for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy. And I am very sore displeased with the nations that are at ease: for I was but a little displeased, and they helped forward the affliction. Therefore thus saith the LORD: I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies; my house shall be built in it, saith the LORD of hosts, and a line shall be stretched forth over Jerusalem. Cry yet again, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts: My cities through prosperity shall yet be spread abroad; and the LORD shall yet comfort Zion, and shall yet choose Jerusalem. 18, 19 And I lifted up mine eyes, and saw, and behold four horns. And I said unto the angel that talked with me, What be these? And he answered me, These are the horns which have 20, 21 scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem. And the LORD shewed me four smiths. Then said I, What come these to do? And he spake, saying, These are the horns which scattered Judah, so that no man did lift up his head: but these are come to fray them, to cast down the horns of the nations, which lifted up their horn against the land of Judah to scatter it. 7. This is the commencement of a series of eight symbolical visions, all, it would seem, presented to the mind of the prophet in one night—that of the 24th of Sebat, corresponding to March 9th or 10th. B. C. 7-17. These verses comprise one entire and distinct vision, the first in a series, and of symbolic character. The symbols represent the executive forces by which the Lord administers His providential government over the nations. The special aim here is: 1. To assure the Hebrew people that God had more judgments to send on the nations that had oppressed them. 2. That He would greatly augment the growth and prosperity of Zion. So much for the general scope of the passage. As to the particulars, let us note that this is a night vision, presented to the mind's eye of the prophet by special Divine agencies. That men riding on horses are used to represent the executive forces of God's reign over the nations is due (we may suppose) to the use of post horses as vehicles of the royal mandates, as the nerves of communication (so to speak) from the working brain on the throne to the remotest organs of His will in all His distant provinces. They seem to be thought of here rather as explorers to observe and report, than as executioners. The reader will better understand this representation if he will be at the pains to classify the personages of the scene thus: 1. The man riding upon a red horse (verse 8), who stood (on horseback) among the myrtle trees in the shaded vale, at the head of others also on horses of various colors; the same who (verse 10) explained and said, "These are they whom the Lord hath sent," etc., to whom the other horse men report (verse 11); and to whom prayer is offered as "the Lord of hosts" (verse 12); and who answers so kindly (verse 13). This can be no other than the uncreated angel—the very Son of God, so often if not always the God revealed and made manifest in all the ages before His incarnation. 2. Next are His attendants, on horses, representing angels proper; those "ministers of His who do His pleasure," and whom He continually employs in the administration of His providential government on earth. They appear (verse 8) where it must be assumed that the horses have riders upon them; also (verse 11), they report what they have seen in their mission to and fro through the earth. 3. The revealing angel, specially attendant upon the prophet as his interpreter, usually called "the angel that talked with me"—e.g., verses 9, 13, and also in verse 14, where our translators have given the same Hebrew word another rendering, "that communed with me." It is the same angel who offers the prayer (verse 12), since the answer (verse 13) is given to him. That he offers this prayer is due to his strong sympathy with the prophet, to whom he was a sort of guardian angel. This grouping of the characters of this scene will help the reader to understand its significance. The horses and their riders are seen among the myrtle trees in a shady vale—both the myrtles and the vale indicating the low and humble condition of God's people and kingdom, especially at that time, yet showing us plainly that however low and humble in human estimation, God was in the midst of them, and did not disdain to reveal precisely there His glorious Son, and under Him the angels clothed in might as the executive servants of His reign among the nations. No other speciality of meaning can be safely assigned to the color of these horses except that red commonly indicates war scenes of blood, and that the variety may suggest that God's agency embraces all varieties of manifestation—curses and blessings, war and peace. The prophet asks his attendant angel what those horses and their riders mean. He promises to show him, but the statement is given by the personage first seen and standing in the foreground of the picture—the great uncreated angel of Jehovah—"These are they whom the Lord sends to traverse the whole earth." Then they themselves come forward and make their report in the hearing of the prophet: "We have traversed the earth, and lo, all the nations are still and at rest." Even those great powers which had so cruelly oppressed the Jews were not receiving their deserved retribution. This is the main point of their report. Upon this, the revealing angel, warming in sympathy with the prophet and his people, cries, "How long, O Lord, ere Thou wilt have mercy on Jerusalem and on Judah, upon which Thou hast manifested Thine indignation now seventy years?" To this the Lord answers with words of comfort and cheer. He has purposed to scourge and soon to destroy that fierce Chaldean power, and He will surely lift up Jerusalem. Verse 15 may be paraphrased thus: "I am very sore displeased with Chaldea and Edom: I was comparatively a little displeased with My people, Judah and Jerusalem, and therefore I suffered those powers to come down on the holy city and land; but they augmented that infliction; they gave vent to their cruel and vindictive spirit, and have quite overdone the work which I commissioned them to do. For this they are to have a fearful doom." In verse 16 the Lord promises to return in mercy and to help onward the rebuilding of the city; and in verse 17, that the population should overpass the city walls and fill the adjacent country. "Will yet choose Jerusalem" means, will yet manifest His loving choice of her by appropriate mercies. H. C. 8. No symbolical meaning is attributed by the Divine interpreter either to the place where the rider and his followers appeared standing, or to the color of their horses. None, therefore, need be sought by us. In comparing Zech. 6:1-8 with Rev. 6:2-8 we may gather that in those instances difference of color in the horses implies difference of office in the riders; but here they have all one and the same duty—viz., to walk to and fro through the earth. B. C. 12. Then the angel of the Lord answered and said, O Lord of Hosts. The angel (mentioned in verse 9) makes his supplication to the superior angel (verses 8, 10), who was indeed the Logos, or Son of God, being called by the name of Jehovah here and in verses 13, 20. (Cf. chaps. 3:1, 2; 12:8, 10.) W. Lowth. 13. To this Intercessor—this horseman who watches over Israel—God answers "with good words and comfortable words." This closes the vision; and then the interpreting angel bids Zechariah report to the people the substance or significance of it, to the effect that although God had given His people into the hand of their enemies that they might be chastised, yet these enemies had gone too far, had entered into the work of correction with too evident a zest, and had overstepped their commission; and that now God would compensate to His people for their sorrows. The practical outcome or substantial meaning of this vision was this: that to every one who sees with eyes cleansed and directed aright, the angel of the Lord, or God Incarnate, appears, ready mounted, prepared to interpose in His people's behalf, and watchfully receiving the reports of His commissioners from all parts of the earth. It can readily be imagined what a difference this vision would make in the courage and hopes of the people, with what different heart and conversation they would go out to their building next morning, having been assured that the Lord thought their punishment had gone far enough, and that now He was to show His mercies to them. Dods. 18-21. In the Hebrew text 2:1-4. A vision of the four horns and of the four workmasters sent to fray or harry the enemies of Judah and Jerusalem. 18. Four horns—i.e., the heathen nations by whom the Jews had been oppressed. The word horn occurs in the same sense in Dan. 7:20. The number four intimates the fact that the enemies of the Jews were around them on all sides. B. C. 18-21. This second vision is closely connected in significance with the first, looking especially to the destruction of those heathen powers which "had scattered Judah and Jerusalem." The "horn" is a natural emblem of power. The number four does not count so many hostile nations, but rather means all, in every quarter of the earth, toward every cardinal point of the compass, who have been pushing and scattering the saints of God. The word rendered "carpenters" should be "smiths," workers in iron or other metals, and therefore armed with suitable instruments for breaking horns. The word "fray," mostly obsolete as a verb, means to frighten. The next verb, rendered "cast out," has a stronger sense—cast down to the ground, so as altogether to paralyze their power for harm. This prediction was fulfilled shortly after. Chaldea revolted against its late Medo-Persian conquerors during the reign of this same Darius. He consequently attacked and subdued them, and then greatly marred the military strength and glory of Babylon. Thenceforward Chaldea was no more felt or feared as a power among the nations. H. C. The second vision speaks for itself. When the four horns had tossed and gored Israel, four carpenters are sent to cut them down. God's zest in removing the executioners of His justice reveals His reluctance to punish. When the causes of distress have done their work, they are removed. As a matter of actual experience, men who have suffered great reverses of fortune declare that no sooner had the calamity brought them to the point of a true, hearty and permanent submission to God about it, than it was removed. There are no doubt irremovable distresses, but God can introduce into the life alleviations of distress and compensating joys. He can, at all events, enable us to see as clearly as Zechariah saw that He will not give us over to unlimited punishment, but allows present distresses only as temporary expedients which may fit us for more enduring and perfect happiness. Dods. 2:1 AND I lifted up mine eyes, and saw, and behold a man with a measuring line in his hand. Then said I, Whither goest thou? And he said unto me, To measure Jerusalem, to see what is the breadth thereof, and what is the length thereof. And, behold, the angel that talked with me went forth, and another angel went out to meet him, and said unto him, Run, speak to this young man, saying, Jerusalem shall be inhabited as villages without walls, by reason of the multitude of men and cattle therein. For I, saith the LORD, will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and I will be the glory in the midst of her. Ho, ho, flee from the land of the north, saith the LORD: for I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the heaven, saith the LORD. Ho Zion, escape, thou that dwellest with the daughter of Babylon. For thus saith the LORD of hosts: After glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye. For, behold, I will shake mine hand over them, and they shall be a spoil to those that served them: and ye shall know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me. Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion: for, lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the LORD. And many nations shall join themselves to the LORD in that day, and shall be my people: and I will dwell in the midst of thee, and thou shalt know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me unto thee. And the LORD shall inherit Judah as his portion in the holy land, and shall yet choose Jerusalem. Be silent, all flesh, before the LORD: for he is waked up out of his holy habitation. Chap. 2. This chapter contains the substance of a third vision. In conformity to what was said chap. 1:16, "a line shall be stretched forth upon Jerusalem," a man, or an angel, appears with a measuring line in his hand, going, as he says, to take the dimensions of Jerusalem, in order to its being rebuilt according to its former extent; which was afterward done by Nehemiah. This is accompanied with a message delivered to the prophet, showing the great increase of her population and wealth; her perfect security under the Divine protection; recall of her exiles from the north country, and the punishment of those that had oppressed them; the return of God's presence to dwell in her; and the conversion of many heathen nations; and, lastly, the reinstatement of Judah and Jerusalem in the full possession of all their ancient privileges. Dr. Blayney. In these visions Jehovah and the angel of the presence are used almost interchangeably, and the words spoken are attributed sometimes to one, sometimes to the other—the angel of the presence is indeed regarded as the visible manifestation of God. Farrar. The third vision of Zechariah was based on what was in his thoughts and under his eye from day to day—plans for restoring the city. He seemed to see a man proceeding to take measurements for the laying out of streets and walls. As we often get notice of city improvements by seeing surveyors with theodolite and chain at work, so this man with the measuring line explained that he was going to ascertain the size and capabilities of Jerusalem, and to see what could be made of the ruins. But as he passes on to his work the angel is told to run and stop him and prevent him from measuring the city and planning new walls and fortifications. He is assured that it was useless marking out boundaries, because the city is destined to exceed all ordinary dimensions and become so great that no walls would be capable of containing it. The great increase of population here predicted was to arise partly from the return of a large number of Jews from Babylon. Very significant are the urgent appeals that were found necessary to move them to return. "Flee from the land of the north. Deliver thyself, O Zion that dwellest with the daughter of Babylon." They had to be warned even that punishment was to fall on Babylon, and that they would share in it if they did not escape. For people are always apt to get hardened to that deserted and distant condition into which God banishes them for their sin. The want of high spiritual communings which at first a man mourned over he gradually gets used to. The gayety and dissipation which were distasteful to him he can at last scarcely abandon. The cessation from Christian work, which at first he recognized as an infliction, he becomes so used to that it frets and hardens him to resume it. Dods. 1-4. In this vision a man is seen with a measuring line, going forth to measure Jerusalem—probably its dimensions before its recent destruction—as if preparing to rebuild it on the same foundations. The angel that talked with the prophet went forth (i.e., from the prophet), and another angel came forth (it may be supposed) from the Lord, to meet him and to say to him: "Hasten to that young man who has the measuring line, and tell him there is no occasion to measure the old limits of the city; the new one shall spread out beyond her former walls, and her people shall live in the surrounding country without walls, because of the multitude of men and of cattle." The whole scene was designed to impress vividly upon the prophet and his people the great promise of God respecting the growth, prosperity and glory of the new city, and ultimately of that spiritual Zion of which this was the outward symbol. 5. The connection of thought here is admirable: Think no more of walls to be rebuilt for the new city, nor of costly outlays to beautify and adorn it; "for I, saith the Lord, will be Myself her wall," even "a wall of fire round about her;" and I will be her adornment also—even "a glory in the midst of her." This magnificent promise we cannot suppose to have been exhausted in the days of Zechariah, nor in the entire period before the incarnation of the Son of God; but pre-eminently then when He, the great incarnation of God, became manifest in human flesh in the midst of His Zion. Yet its fulfilment began in those days of Zion's reformation and rebuilding. Our Divine Lord reasserted essentially the same thing, and made it a promise of perpetual love to His Church, when He said, "Lo, I am with you alway, even to the end of the world." H. C. Those that have God for their God have Him for their glory; those that have Him in the midst of them have glory in the midst of them, and thence the Church is said to be all glorious within. And those persons and places that have God to be the glory in the midst of them have Him for a wall of fire round about them, for upon all that glory there is and shall be a defence (Isa. 4: 5). Now all this was fulfilled in part, in that Jerusalem in process of time became a very flourishing city. But it was to have its full accomplishment in the Gospel Church, which is extended far, as towns without walls, by the admission of the Gentiles not it; and which has God, the Son of God, for its prince and protector. H.—This promise will receive its utmost completion in that “New Jerusalem” (described in Rev. 21:10) where “the glory of God and the Lamb” are said to be “the light thereof” (verses 11, 23. Cf. Isa. 60:19). W. Lowth. 6. Ho, ho, come forth, and flee from the land of the north. This beautiful apostrophe is addressed to such of the Jews as continued still to dwell in Babylon and the adjacent country lying north of Jerusalem, exhorting them not only to come, but to make their escape with all possible speed from a land which God was about to make the scene of His vengeance. Dr. Blayney. 8. For thus saith the Lord of hosts—that is, the Messiah. There is no part of Holy Scripture that more fully vindicates those confessions of our faith, which call upon us to acknowledge a plurality of persons in the Godhead, than the very remarkable passage in this and the next three verses. Eveleigh. “After the glory” is an elliptical, shortened phrase, looking to verse 5, and meaning that after having become the glory of Zion by revealing Himself as her king, her refuge and protector, it followed naturally that He should be sent to scourge the nations that had spoiled Jerusalem—i.e., the Chaldeans, and perhaps the Edomites also. As to the persons “He” and “Me,” in the phrase “He hath sent Me,” etc., the language implies that the speaker who calls Himself the “Lord of Hosts” hath been sent by some one referred to as “He;” “He hath sent Me,” etc. The one thus “sent” can be no other than the leading personage in the vision (1:8-13), there seen on a red horse (verse 8); to whom the other horsemen report (verse 11); to whom the angel interpreter offers prayer (verse 12); and moreover the same personage who in 2:5 says, “I will be a glory in the midst of her”—i.e., the Son of God. The antecedent of “He” is implied in thought rather than expressed in word; yet can be no other than the infinite Father—often represented in the Scriptures as sending the Son—here on a mission of providential judgments on the guilty nations that had desolated Jerusalem. The reason assigned is beautifully significant of the tenderness of even the Father’s love toward His people. We often see manifestations of tenderness in Jesus Christ while wearing our nature in its human weaknesses; but here Jesus says of His Father: “He that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of His eye.” “Toucheth”—in the sense of doing harm. The apple is the pupil of the eye, which the Hebrews call the little man of the eye, or, as here, the little boy of the eye, both terms coming probably from the fact that, looking into the eye, you see a miniature picture of yourself. Can we realize the precious truth taught here—that God feels every injury done to His people, as we feel a wound in the apple of our eye? Then let us forever dismiss and discard the cruel assumption that the infinite God has little or no sympathy with our spiritual life, with the real welfare of His people, the interests of His truth, and the cause of human salvation! H. C. After the glory hath He sent Me unto the nations. To send a person after anything implies the requisition of his services for that particular purpose. When, therefore, God is said to have sent His angel “after the glory,” He must be understood to have charged Him with the means of bringing it about. Now the means which the Divine wisdom had devised for securing to His people “the glory” He had promised them, was by executing a severe vengeance on their oppressors, to manifest His concern for their honor and interest, and His resolution not to suffer their wrongs to pass off with impunity. In pursuance of this plan, and of the orders He had received, the angel says He was about to “shake” His hand over the Babylonians, by whom the Jews had lately been oppressed, and to deliver them over as “a spoil to their (former) servants.” And as this is given as a reason for summoning the Jews to quit that devoted country with all possible speed, that they might not be involved in the calamities which were coming upon it, so the angel subjoins that when this came to pass according to His word, it would be a convincing proof that Jehovah had sent Him. Dr. Blayney. He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of His eye. The highest expressions that language, assisted with all its helps of metaphor and resemblance, can afford, are very languid and faint in comparison of what they strain to represent when the goodness of God toward them who love Him comes to be expressed. (See Ps. 36 6; 103:11, 13.) So David strives to utter it, but with similitudes far short of the truth. If any will come near to reach it, it is that in Moses and Zechariah, where they who love God are compared to “the apple of God’s eye”—that is, to the most dear and tender part, as it were, about Him. Isaac Barrow. God has special regard for and interest in the subjects of His redeeming love. He chose them in Christ before the foundation of the world. He gave His only begotten Son to save them from eternal ruin. His Spirit and His providence have been at work these six thousand years to accomplish His purposes respecting them. They seem nearer to Him than the unfallen angels, for they have been rescued and ransomed from ruin and death at an infinite cost. He has peculiar regard for them as the fruit of the glorious redemptive scheme by which He seeks to “reconcile all things unto Himself.” They stand related to His moral dispensations, to the “everlasting kingdom” of the future state, to the exaltation and final glory of the Eternal Son of God in His work of atoning love and saving grace, as no other beings do. Is it any marvel, therefore, that he who dares to touch one of these “little ones” touches the very “apple of His eye”? It matters not how unworthy and sinful and inferior His people may be, in themselves considered, and contrasted with angels. God looks at them in the light of His own eternal and far-reaching purposes. They stand intimately related to His eternal scheme of grace. He sees in them the future heirs of His glorious kingdom, the priests and kings of the Lord Almighty. They are to be the very “crown” and glory of Christ’s own eternal reward and rejoicing. Hence their names “are graven on the palms of His hands.” No weapon forged against or raised to injure them shall prosper. All their interests are safe in His hands. The gates of hell shall not prevail against one of His chosen ones. His infinite heart of love encompasses them ever. His everlasting arms are underneath them. J. M. Sherwood. 9. For, behold, I will shake Mine hand upon them. This is the hand of Jehovah Himself, and of the Lord of Hosts Himself, which is said, in one passage of Isaiah, to be “shaken over the river” (Isa. 11 : 15); and in another, “over Egypt” (Isa. 19 : 16); and nowhere else, except in the text, is the same form of expression used in Holy Writ. Dr. Eeleigh. They shall be a spoil to their servants. As the Babylonians became to the Medes and Persians, who had been subdued, and reduced to subjection by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. Abp. Newcome. Immanuel, as the God of universal providence, sent to the nations that had wasted Zion, here declares what He will do, and calls special attention to it: “I will shake or wave My hand over them”—so much only being necessary to indicate to the executioners of His will what they were to do; and “they shall become a spoil to those who have heretofore been their servants”—i.e., the nations some time in servitude under Chaldea now rise up, overcome, and spoil her. Ye shall know by your experience of Divine blessings that My commission is truly Divine. It is remarkable that the phrase “the Lord of Hosts” is used interchangeably of the Father and the Son: of the Father here; of the Son in verse 8, and elsewhere in this and the previous chapter. No other explanation of this is needed save the fact that this name is equally applicable to either, and that the Scriptures in some cases represent the Father, and in some cases the Son, as administering the government of this world. H. C. 10-12. God’s promise to abide in Zion, and of the incoming of the Gentiles. Compare the parallel passages in Zeph. 3 : 14-20; Isa. 12 : 6; and infra 9 : 9, which, like that before us, had a first and literal fulfilment in the times following the return of the Jews from Babylon. They are all applicable in a wider and loftier sense to the dwelling of Messiah in Palestine, and to the spread of the Gospel among the heathen. B. C. 10. Closely parallel with this is Zech. 9 : 9. There—“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem; behold, thy king cometh unto thee,” etc. Here, as the reader will see, “Sing and rejoice,” for lo, I come and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the Lord—i.e., Jehovah. This close similarity strengthens the evidence that the speaker here is the promised Messiah, and that this promised coming can be exhausted in nothing less than His appearance in human flesh, and indeed in nothing less than His abiding presence (spiritually) with His people “to the end of the world.” This abiding presence, in somewhat lower forms, He manifested from the time of Zechariah onward to His incarnation. All this is indeed occasion for exultant joy. 11. Christ’s coming to dwell incarnate and subsequently by His Spirit, the Comforter, would result in the calling of the Gentiles into His Church, and ultimately in the gathering of many nations, and in their becoming joined in the relationships of love and trust to their redeeming Saviour and King. Here recurs again that expressive phrase, “Thou shalt know” (in thine own blessed experience) that I am sent of the eternal Father, that the work is not Mine alone, but His as well—evermore sustained by the common sympathy and the co-operative agency of each and of both. H. C. 11. The Lord of Hosts hath sent Me unto thee. It being here said that Jehovah, being sent by Jehovah, should come and dwell in the Church, enlarged by the accession of the Gentiles, who can that be but our Lord Christ, who dwelt among us and was by God His Father sent unto us? Isaac Barrow.—A passage which, like this, declares that “the Lord of Hosts” was sent by one who also Himself is “the Lord of Hosts,” ought not for a moment to excite astonishment in a Christian; knowing, as he must, that the second person in the Trinity, who is so often said to “have been sent by the Father,” is called in the New Testament, not only “God,” but also by a name which is allowed to be equivalent to “the Lord of Hosts”—viz., “the Almighty.” (See John 1:1; Rom. 9:5; Rev. 1:8.) Eedeigh.—Intimations of a plurality of persons in the Godhead seem to have been given to the Jews, as in other places of Scripture, so in those texts, where mention is made of God more than once in the same text and under different capacities: as “the Lord raining fire upon Sodom from the Lord” (Gen. 19:24); God anointing, and God anointed (Ps. 45:6, 7); “the Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at My right hand” (Ps. 110:1); “the Lord sending and the Lord sent,” in this passage; with sundry others of the like nature. Anon. 9-12. In closing this prophecy Zechariah encourages the people to expect that not only would Jerusalem be filled to overflowing with their kinsmen, but that God would dwell there. But the prediction runs on in language which seems too magnificent for any contemporary events: “Many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day, and shall be My people.” This is characteristic of Old Testament prophecy. It is always occasioned by some present need of the generation among whom the prophet lives, but the language employed seems larger than the occasion requires. The events among which Zechariah lived were only the prelude and preparation for the far greater events which were to signalize the Church’s maturity; and as the prophet looked forward to the triumph of his people over present misfortunes, he could not fail to catch a glimpse of the perfect triumphs which were destined to be won by the perfected Church. Under the forms and appearances present to any one generation there lay truths and principles common to all generations. The temple was the then-existing form of God’s dwelling-place, the temporary expedient for Divine manifestation; but in all generations there is a manifestation of God, though not always a stone temple. And so round the whole circle of things with which God’s people had to do. Through those things the prophets were, by God’s inspiration, enabled to see the permanent principles which operated in them, and in speaking of the visible and familiar objects they therefore often used language which was verified not in those very objects and events then present, but only in the ultimate, highest forms which those principles and ideas were to assume. The comprehensive promise which seemed to augur all good to Jerusalem in Zechariah’s time was this: “I will dwell in the midst of thee.” Beyond this, indeed, no promise can at any time go. If God dwells with us because He loves us and seeks our presence, this implies that all good will be ours. In this alone have we all that we need to balance and guide our life. To live as in a world from which God can never pass away, this is the key to happiness and energy. Dods. 13. Be silent, O all flesh. Let all men be “silent” in token of the profoundest reverence and submission (see Hab. 2:20), when God comes down from heaven (cf. Micah 1:3), or gives visible signs of His appearance to execute judgment upon His adversaries, or to show mercy upon His servants. Heaven is called “the habitation of God’s holiness” (De. 26:15; Isa. 63:15). W. Lowth. 3:1 AND he shewed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, 2 and Satan standing at his right hand to be his adversary. And the LORD said unto Satan, The LORD rebuke thee, O Satan; yea, the LORD that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is 3 not this a brand plucked out of the fire? Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, 4 and stood before the angel. And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, Take the filthy garments from off him. And unto him he said, Behold, I have 5 caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with rich apparel. And I 6 said, Let them set a fair mitre upon his head. So they set a fair mitre upon his head, and 6 clothed him with garments; and the angel of the LORD stood by. And the angel of the 7 LORD protested unto Joshua, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts: If thou wilt walk in my 7 ways, and if thou wilt keep my charge, then thou also shalt judge my house, and shalt also 8 keep my course, and I will give thee a place of access among these that stand by. Hear 9 now, O Joshua the high priest, thou and thy fellows that sit before thee; for they are men 9 which are a sign: for, behold, I will bring forth my servant the Branch. For behold, the 9 stone that I have set before Joshua; upon one stone are seven eyes; behold, I will engrave the graving thereof, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of that land in 10 one day. In that day, saith the LORD of hosts, shall ye call every man his neighbour under the vine and under the fig tree. Chap. 3. A vision concerning Joshua, the high-priest, who appears as a type of the Jewish Church, whose adversaries are typified by the accuser or Satan. The restoration of ceremonial purity is indicated, and the advent of Messiah promised. B. C.—The first six verses describe the vision. They are in prose, except that the rebuke to Satan (verse 2) is three lines of verse. Verses 7–10, the words of the angel of Jehovah, are in poetical lines; each verse has a distinct topic. W. J. B. Vision the fourth. Zechariah sees Joshua, the high-priest, standing before the angel of the Lord, as it were soliciting to be admitted to the discharge of his sacred functions, and Satan, or the adversary, standing by in the act of opposing him. The adversary receives a rebuke from Jehovah, by whose special command Joshua is stripped of his filthy garments and invested with the priestly robes of service, and a clean “mitre” or bonnet set upon his head. The angel delivers him a solemn charge. After this follows a clear and interesting prediction of the coming of the Messiah, and the establishment of His Church, of which Joshua and his companions are ordained to be signs. Pardon and peace are held forth as the blessed effects of Christ’s coming. Blayney. Here we find Joshua, the high priest, put upon trial before Jehovah, with Satan as his accuser. According to the custom of Eastern trials, he is dressed in “filthy garments,” but upon his acquittal he is clothed in a dress of honor, and a tiara, indicative of his restoration to the high-priesthood, is placed upon his head. As high-priest he is to judge the people wisely, and thereby prepare for the coming of Christ, who is called the Branch or Sprout. Moreover, to encourage him, the foundation stone of the temple is laid before him, and he is assured that the seven eyes of God, the symbol of His ever-watchful providence, shall perpetually rest upon it. R. P. S. 1. The angel of Jehovah.** A clear idea in regard to this being is necessary to the understanding of the post-exilian prophets. In Zechariah he is the same as in the earlier Old Testament books—not some angel or other, but one particular being, different from ordinary angels. One especial characteristic of him is that at one moment he is a person distinct from Jehovah, perhaps interceding with Jehovah, or sent by Jehovah, and in the next moment he speaks or acts in the character of Jehovah Himself. In this he is like “the Word,” or “the Son,” of the New Testament. It was the angel of Jehovah that appeared to Moses in the burning bush, and went before Israel in the pillar of cloud or fire, and brought them in to the promised land (Ex. 3:2; 14:19; 23:20, 23; 32:34; 33:2; Isa. 63:9). Very important, in these prophecies of Zechariah, is the implication that the angel of Jehovah was now present with the returned exiles, as he had been with their fathers. Besides the angel of Jehovah, an interpreting angel (“the angel that talked with me”) is in this prophecy distinguished from any other angels who may happen to appear in any of the visions. W. J. B. Satan. Rather, the accuser, or the adversary. Joshua is seen in vision preparing to offer an expiatory sacrifice on behalf of the people in discharge of his duty as high priest. But an adversary intervenes, who, as usual in the case of an accuser, stands at the right hand of the accused, and urges that he has incurred a ceremonial impurity which unfits him for his office of expiation. This charge is not expressly stated by the accuser, but may be inferred from the decision of the angel of Jehovah, who appears as an arbiter or judge. B. C. The Bible record certainly seems to give the idea that there are two moral forces in the universe, and that the representative of the evil side of these forces is hostile to man, and would work his ruin, if possible, while the good, as represented by God Himself, is favorable to man, and stands ready to help him in the ceaseless struggle. This idea is the important one in the thought or figure of a personal devil. A man should know that he is in as great moral peril all the time as though a personal spiritual adversary stood at his right hand, even when he is in the presence of the angel of the Lord, or of God Himself; and that therefore it is for him to resist evil suggestions and influences vigorously, and to triumph over them through faith filled battling. H. C. T.—No one who accepts the authority of our Lord can well deny the existence and activity of a malignant spirit, who would fain make the most of men's sins, and use them as a means of separating their doers from God. That is the conception here. A. M. 2. And the Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee. The Logos, or Son of God, said unto Satan, "The Lord," even God the Father, "rebuke thee," and not suffer thy mischievous imagination against Jerusalem and the temple to prosper: he, that hath chosen that place for his especial residence. This text seems parallel with Gen. 19:24, where it is said, "The Lord rained fire from the Lord out of heaven;" a text alleged by both ancient and modern writers, to prove that a distinction of persons in the blessed Trinity was a doctrine delivered, though but imperfectly, in the Old Testament. W. Lowth. Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire? Is not this small remnant returned from captivity, miraculously rescued from utter destruction, like "a brand plucked out of the fire?" And can it be thought that God will not preserve them? (Cf. Amos 4:11; Jude, verse 23.) W. Lowth. He who in verse 1 is called "the angel of the Lord," is here "the Lord," "Jehovah." So also in the phrase "The Lord rebuke thee," "Jehovah" is the word for "Lord," showing that this term is applied interchangeably to both the Father and the Son. The clause, "The Lord rebuke thee," is repeated, both for the greater emphasis, and in order to connect with it the consolatory words—He, the same that has chosen Jerusalem, rebukes thee. The term "choose" here, as in 1:17 and 2:12, implies God's special love for Jerusalem as representing His own people. "Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?" implies that after the fires of utter destruction were already kindled upon her, the Lord plucked her out and extinguished the fires. Having done so much to save her, and at such personal risk, would the Lord give her up to Satan now? H. C. 3. Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments. What is meant by the "filthy garments" is evident from what is said by the Lord in the next verse, "Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee." It is no other than the stain of moral pollution, which is in some degree found in every man, though done away by the grace of God in Christ. And it is in this respect that it is said (Isa. 64:6), "We are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags." This makes us unworthy in ourselves to appear in the presence of a God of purity, and this afforded the adversary his ground of objection against Joshua. Blayney. 3,4. The Mosaic law prescribed the priest's garments very minutely, and made great account of them as indicative of the moral purity requisite in those who came before God. Here the filthy garments represent the sins of the people, and their long and guilty wanderings from God into idolatry in past time, from which they were only now returning. He stood before the Divine angel who, in verse 4, pardons sin. This Divine personage says to his attendant angels: "Take those filthy garments away;" and to Joshua, "See, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with festive garments," such as the priests should wear on holy days. This removing of his sin is a representative thing, its import being, not that the Lord forgives his personal sin, but rather the sins of the people, and practically reinaugurates the functions of the priesthood. H. C. Of special significance is the position of Satan with respect to the covenant people. This is shown with particular clearness in Zech. 3, while it is also briefly alluded to 1 Chron. 21. The vision in Zechariah is as follows: Joshua, the high-priest, stands in unclean garments before the angel of the Lord, and Satan stands at His right hand to accuse him. The Lord repels with threats the accusations of Satan, acquits the high-priest, and commands him, as a token of his acquittal, to put on clean festal garments. The high priest is the representative of the people. He is accused before the Lord, not on account of his own sins as an individual, but in his capacity of high-priest. His priestly garments are defiled. Satan affirms that for this sinful people there is no valid mediation before God; that Israel is rejected because there is no longer an atonement for them. The Lord will, however, have pity, according to verse 2, on this brand plucked from the fire, the remnant of His people, and will not regard their sin. He therefore causes the high-priest to be clothed in clean garments, thus acknowledging the validity of the high-priestly mediation, though with an intimation (verse 8) that the perfect atonement for the people is to be effected only by the Messiah. Thus the work of Satan is to question the forgiveness, the justification of the Church, in which sense he is called (Rev. 12 : 10), "the accuser of our brethren." Hence he is here represented as the opposite of the angel of the Lord, who, according to Zech. 1 : 12 (like the high-priest on earth), stands before the Lord to intercede for the people. Oehler. 4,5. Note that Joshua's guilt as the representative of the people is not denied, but tacitly admitted and actually spoken of in verse 4. Why, then, does not the accuser have his way? For two reasons. God has chosen Jerusalem. His great purpose, the fruit of His undeserved mercy, is not to be turned aside by man's sins. The thought is the same as that of Jeremiah: "If heaven above can be measured, . . . then will I also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done" (Jer. 31 : 37). Again, the fact that Joshua was "a brand plucked from the burning"—that is, that the people whom he represented had been brought unconsumed from the furnace of captivity—is a reason with God for continuing to extend His favor, though they have sinned. God's past mercies are a motive with Him. He has, therefore He will. Creatural love is limited, and too often says, I have forgiven so often than I am wearied, and can do it no more. We often come to the end of our long-suffering a good many numbers short of the four hundred and ninety a day which Christ prescribes. But God never does. True, Joshua and his people have sinned, and that since their restoration, and Satan had a good argument in pointing to these transgressions; but God does not say, "I will put back the half burned brand in the fire again, since the evil is not burned out of it," but forgives again, because He has forgiven before. The sentence is followed by the change of the filthy garments, symbolical of sin, for the full array of the high-priest. Ministering angels are dimly seen in the background, and are summoned to unclothe and clothe Joshua, A. M. The Lord will not only help us in our battling with the Tempter, He will also forgive us for having yielded to temptations, and will cleanse us from all our sins. Instead of the rags that indicate our helpless dependence, we shall be given rich apparel, as the clothing of those who have triumphed through the aid of our Divine Friend. We need have no fear in the conflict, however severe it may be; for victory is sure, through faith in Him who is mighty to save. H. C. T. Thus those whom Christ makes spiritual priests are clothed with the spotless robe of His righteousness, and appear before God in that; and with the graces of His Spirit, which are ornaments to them. The righteousness of saints, both imputed and implanted, is the "fine linen, clean and white," of Rev. 19 : 8. H. 7. The essential meaning of the verse is clear: "If thou art both obedient and faithful, thou shalt be established in the priesthood, thy services shall be accepted before Me, and thou shalt have ministering angels to lead and aid thee in thy work." H. C.—He must walk in God's ways, he must live a good life, and be holy in all manner of conversation; he must go before the people in the paths of God's commandments, and walk circumspectly. He must also keep God's charge, must carefully do all the services of the priesthood. He must take heed to himself, and to all the flock (Acts 20 : 28). Good ministers must be good Christians; yet that is not enough, they have a trust committed to them, they are charged with it, and they must keep it with all possible care, that they may give up their account of it with joy. H. 8. The Branch.** There is no article in the Hebrew, but "Branch" is used as if it were a proper name. The reference is distinct to the promise made in Jer. 33 : 14-26 ; 23 : 5-8 ; Isa. 4 : 2, that Jehovah would raise up to David a righteous Branch, and would perpetuate forever the throne of David and the ministrations of the priests and Levites. W. J. B. The word "Branch" should not carry our thought to a branch in the sense of limb, as one among many on the same tree, but to the one shoot which springs up from the root, and which, though small at first, becomes a tree of wonderful qualities. The word seems to be chosen because it well expresses the humble origin of the Messiah and the small beginnings of His work, and also His descent from the stock of David as to His human nature. It occurs as a name for the Messiah in Isa. 4 : 2 ; Jer. 23 : 5 ; 33 : 15 ; Zech. 6 : 12. "My servant" is also a well-known designation of the Messiah, occurring Isa. 42 : 1 ; 49 : 3, 5, 6 ; 52 : 13 ; 53 : 11. The earliest Jewish expositors known to us interpret this passage of the Messiah. The Chaldean paraphrase (older than the Christian era) reads it: "Behold, I bring My servant the Messiah, who will be revealed." H. C. The same person must needs be intended here as is spoken of under the same title Jer. 23: 5; nor can terms so magnificent as those used in the latter place more especially be applicable to any one of less consequence than the great Messiah Himself, through whom alone iniquity is put away and the reign of perfect peace and righteousness is to be established. Blayney. 9. The stone.** It removes most of the obscurities with which the interpretation of this verse is loaded, if we suppose that the stone here mentioned is the same with the "stone of lead," the plummet of Zech. 4: 10—a small plummet weight, of lead or tin, with seven eyes engraved upon it. The plummet stone itself is an emblem of building, and the seven eyes engraved upon it are said in Zech. 4: 10 to be an emblem of Jehovah's omnipresent watchfulness. It is an appropriate emblem, to be handed in turn to these two chiefs of the temple builders, Joshua and Zerubbabel. In our verse the angel places the plummet weight before Joshua as an emblem, saying as he does so, "Behold the stone that I place before Joshua, upon one stone seven eyes; behold I engrave the graving of it." The meaning is: The engraving on it is My emblem, and it shall prove a true emblem of My forgiving watchfulness. W. J. B. Upon one stone shall be seven eyes. To show My watchful providence over this and all other places devoted to My service; and withal the wisdom and other graces which shall be eminent in the Messiah, the chief corner-stone of all the mystical churches of God. The eye is the emblem of Providence; the number seven denotes perfection. Dr. Stokes. "I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day." Jesus Christ has "once for all" made atonement, as the Epistle to the Hebrews so often says. The better Joshua by one offering has taken away sin. "The breadth of thy land, O Immanuel," stretched far beyond the narrow bounds which Zechariah knew for Israel's territory. It includes the whole world. As has been beautifully said, "that one day is the day of Golgotha." 10. The vision closes with a picture of the felicity of Messianic times, which recalls the description of the golden age of Solomon, when "Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and under his fig tree" (1 K. 4: 25). In like manner the nation, cleansed, restored to its priestly privilege of free access to God by the Messiah who comes with the fulness of the Spirit, shall dwell in safety, and shall be knit together by friendship, and unenyingly shall each share his good with all others, recognizing in every man a neighbor, and gladly welcoming him to partake of all the blessings which the true Solomon has brought to his house and heart. A. M. In that future day, when the Messiah shall be revealed, "the iniquity of His people be taken away in one day," and their spiritual discipline be made effective to their sanctification, there will be superabounding joy and blessedness, beautifully represented here by the common Jewish conception of reposing in peace and in love under the vine and the fig tree. The last words of the verse, "under the vine and under the fig tree," are given here as the very language of the call. Every man shall cry to his neighbor, "Ho! under the vine and under the fig tree;" come and let us have peace and rest, enjoying the gifts of our bountiful God! H. C. 4: 1 AND the angel that talked with me came again, and waked me, as a man that is 2 wakened out of his sleep. And he said unto me, What seest thou? And I said, I have seen, and behold, a candlestick all of gold, with its bowl upon the top of it, and its seven lamps 3 thereon; there are seven pipes to each of the lamps, which are upon the top thereof: and two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side 4 thereof. And I answered and spake to the angel that talked with me, saying, What are 5 these, my lord? Then the angel that talked with me answered and said unto me, Knowest 6 thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord. Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, 7 but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts. Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerub- babel thou shalt become a plain: and he shall bring forth the head stone with shoutings of 8, 9 Grace, grace, unto it. Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also finish it; and thou 10 shalt know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me unto you. For who hath despised the day of small things? for they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel, even these seven, which are the eyes of the LORD; they run to and fro through the whole 11 earth. Then answered I, and said unto him, What are these two olive trees upon the right 12 side of the candlestick and upon the left side thereof? And I answered the second time, and said unto him, What be these two olive branches, which are beside the two golden spouts, 13 that empty the golden oil out of themselves? And he answered me and said, Knowest thou 14 not what these be? And I said, No, my lord. Then said he, These are the two sons of oil, that stand by the Lord of the whole earth. Chap. 4. In this chapter the prophet is called upon to contemplate a fifth vision of the most sublime and mysterious import. He sees a candlestick of pure gold, with its seven lamps communicating by seven pipes with a bowl at the top, which serves for a reservoir, and is constantly supplied with oil from two olive trees, standing one on each side of the candlestick. Blayney.—The vision of the golden candlestick and of the two olive trees, related and explained to signify the completion of the temple by Zerubbabel, supported by the high-priest, and with the sanction and help of Jehovah. B. C.—This chapter is another complete vision, having one set of symbols, illustrating one leading truth—viz., that the only perpetual fountain of power for spiritual life and labor is in God, and reaches man through His Spirit. H. C. The chapter divides itself into four parts. The first part (verses 1–6 a) is descriptive. The second part (verses 6 b, 7) is a message stating the great truth and the comforting promise principally set forth in the vision. The third part (verses 8–10) is a second message, repeating the promise, and connecting it with the emblem of the plummet stone already introduced in the previous vision. The fourth part (verses 11–14) resumes the description, which had been left incomplete in the first part. In thus dividing the description of what the prophet saw in his vision, and inserting the prophetic message between the two parts, this account differs from those of all the other visions. In the others, the prophetic message, if there is one, follows the description. What the Prophet Saw in his Vision. In the centre was a golden lampstand, bearing a general resemblance to the one made for the tabernacle, or those made for Solomon's Temple. At the top was a "bowl," or oil reservoir. On each of the seven branches of the lampstand was a lamp, and each lamp was connected with the reservoir by seven pipes. An olive tree was standing on each side, with its branches extending over the lampstand. The proximity of the trees to the reservoir is especially noted in verse 3. So much the prophet noticed, and then asked for an explanation, and received one. The explanation given did not make him see that the two olive trees were as significant as they ought to be, and so he inquired specifically concerning them (verse 11). In the act of inquiring, apparently, his attention was directed to something that he had not noticed before; for without waiting for a reply, he asks a fresh question in regard to this new phenomenon. On each olive tree there is a remarkable formation, like an ear of grain (for that is the probable meaning of the word translated "olive branches" in verse 12), and by the side of each of these is a golden spout, and the two golden spouts are emptying out liquid gold; emptying it, apparently, into the reservoir of the lampstand. Notice the changes in verse 12 in the Revised Version. W. J. B. 2,3. In this vision the symbols and their meaning are plain. Christians are the lights of the world. Churches are candlesticks, and their members luminous bodies, candles or lamps, revealing light concerning God in this otherwise very dark world. H. C. 6, 7. The First Message. This is given in three couplets of verse, and is more graphic if presented in that form to the eye: "Not by power, and not by strength, Before Zerubbabel [thou becomest] table land. "And he shall bring out the chief stone, Here notice five things: First, this vision is especially for Zerubbabel the prince, as the previous one was especially for Joshua the high-priest. Second, the two are carefully kept together in thought; the promise of the Branch, fulfilled in Zerubbabel, being referred to in the vision concerning Joshua, and the golden candlestick, a strong priestly symbol, appearing in the vision concerning Zerubbabel. Third, the vision has reference to the temple building by Zerubbabel, and a promise is made that he shall be enabled to bring the work to completion. Fourth, it is a time of mountain-like discouragements. Fifth, the true source of encouragement is in Jehovah's Spirit and not in anything finite. The Spirit can reduce mountains to plains. This last is the principal point in the message. W. J. B. 6. This verse contains the Divine explanation of the vision by the interpreting angel, proving that its direct purpose was to encourage Zerubbabel not to trust in the arm of flesh, but in the Spirit of Jehovah as manifested in the providential ordering of the world. The golden candlestick of the vision is the restored Church, once more offering holy worship in the restored temple, and drawing its supplies of grace through the two olive branches, which represent Zerubbabel and Joshua, the temporal and spiritual rulers of the Jews. Not by might—i.e., shall the temple be finished. The omission of the verb is characteristic of Zechariah's style. (Cf. verse 7.) B. C. Not by might. The Hebrew word is one very widely used. The English word "power" is much more flexible to its various uses than is the word "might." A power may be an army, and this translation is given in the margin; but it hardly fits. The Hebrew word is often used to denote wealth, which is a notable form of power; and that meaning would here fit better. But it is better still to regard the word here as generic in its meaning, denoting every form of merely human power. And as with this word, so with the filling out of the ellipsis in the statement. We get a good sense if we fill it out specifically, making the meaning to be that the building of the temple will be accomplished by God's Spirit, and not by mere human power. But probably the true meaning is generic. Then the first of the three couplets affirms that all achievements for God are accomplished, not by human power, but by His Spirit; the second couplet implies that this is true in the case of Zerubbabel, as in other cases; and the third implies that it is true of his temple-building work. My Spirit. The doctrine of the Holy Ghost as one of the three persons of the Divine Trinity is not completely taught in the Old Testament; but parts of this doctrine are there taught with great fulness and clearness. So far as it goes, the doctrine of the Spirit in His relations to the builders of the second temple (Hag. 2:5; Zech. 4:6; 6:8; 7:12) is essentially the same with the doctrine found in the New Testament. W. J. B. These symbols, interpreted into literal lanlanguage, amount to this word which the Lord sends to Zerubbabel, then the governor of Judah, and in charge of the great work then present and pressing—the rebuilding of the temple: "Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord." The work upon which you labor seems to you very difficult—often, perhaps, too great for your resources; but know that success is not by any human power alone, but by the Spirit of God. This Spirit supplies the oil that feeds the lamps. Christian souls and religious institutions correspond to the lamps and to the machinery which supplies them; but the living fountain of oil is of the Lord alone by His Spirit. This is the precious doctrine of the New Testament as well as of the Old. Paul loved to say, man may labor, "God alone giveth the increase." (See 1 Cor. 3:5-9.) H. C. In the visions of Zech. 4 and Rev. 1 the candlestick is the symbol of a congregation enlightened by God; and when, in the vision of Zechariah, the candlestick is filled with oil without the act of man, the idea expressed is, as is said in verse 6, that all the success and all the splendor of the congregation is not effected by might or by power, but by the Spirit of God. O. Here God promises that the power of His Spirit will alone avail, and more than avail, for the preservation of His Church, although it may be destitute of other aid. Perfection is denoted by the seven lamps according to the ordinary and acknowledged use of the figure; as if God thus declared that nothing would be wanting for the full enlightenment of believers, who should seek it from its one and only source. The prophet, desiring to teach that what had been shown forth in this visible symbol would be fulfilled in the restoration of the Church, adds to the lamps seven pipes and two olive trees, from whence oil would continually flow, so that there was no fear of want or failure. Thus he signifies that God is possessed of a manifold abundance of blessings for the enrichment of the Church. Calvin. The prophet, in the fourth verse, asks for an explanation; and the first part of the text before us is that explanation. "This is the word of the Lord," says the angel unto him: "Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit." "You see," he says, "those lights. No help of man is needed to keep them burning. No one takes to them their oil, or gives them their brightness. The olive trees do all for them. As long as they stand near the lamp and drop their oil into the bowl of it, that lamp will shine on unaided. So with My Church, saith the Lord of Hosts. It needs not man's arm to save it. I may make use of man in saving it, but look there—I do not need him. My Spirit alone can accomplish all My pleasure. I can build My temple in your desolate city just as I brought your forefathers out of Egypt—by My own right hand and by My holy arm; just as I have now brought you out of Babylon—by My secret influence on the minds of men. I will build My glorious temple in My own glorious kingdom, not as you anticipate, by a visible putting forth of power and might, but by pouring secretly out on that rebellious world My grace and Spirit." C. B. Their supreme lack was want of faith in a covenant-keeping God. How old the story is, and how familiar we are with it! God exposes and rebukes their unbelief. The prophet is reminded that the sure, ever adequate, and supreme source of the Church's power is not in the human instrument but in the Holy Spirit, that Divine personal presence who works in men, overcoming in His varied way all hindrance, and so glorifying human weakness that it becomes the sublime mastery of power. The lesson for us in this instructive vision is not far to find. Might and power—the visible and the pretentious—these always have had large command in the world, and whether employed in the Church or out of it, they have always furnished the world's protest to the spiritual in men and to the supreme in God. In the beginning the more perceptible agencies, those which could furnish the largest bulk and the greatest material display, were against the coming kingdom. It was so in the time of our Lord, so at Pentecost, so in the conflict of Christianity with paganism, so in the time of the Reformation, and in a manner so marked as to make the challenge formidable; it is so now. There is no disguising it—the whole body, not excepting the ministry, has become more or less infected with the dominant material spirit of the time. There is need that the thought and faith of the Church be lifted up from the material to the supreme source of power. If our vision be clear and true, the voice we shall hear to-day demanding the promptest, devoutest attention of the Church, will be the voice of God, and the message this: "Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts." M. Rhodes. Ascribe nothing to instruments, either men or means. It is not of the will of man, nor another's will. Without the efficacious working of the Spirit, the Gospel itself is but as a dead letter; the Spirit only quickens it. An instrument cannot act without the strength of an agent to manage it; the chisel forms the stone into a statue, but according to the skill and strength of the artificer moving it. It is not the breath of a man, and a few words out of his mouth, can produce so great a work as the new creation; this might be a reason why God chose so weak an instrument as man to preach the Gospel, to evidence that the great work was not from the weakness of man, but the power of God. Charnock. Consciously, distinctly, resolutely, habitually, we need to give ourselves, our business, our interests, our families, our affections into the Spirit's hands, to lead and fashion us as He will. When we work with the current of that Divine will, all is vital, efficient, fruitful; for leaning back against the Omnipotent arm, this human frame attracts strength into all its sinews. But when we strive against that current, some secret flaw vitiates even what we call our successes; and how do we know but our proudest successes then are only failures in disguise? You have seen the rower's strength put vigorously against the tide; and, judging from his own narrow point on the water, the dash of his oars seemed to be dividing the waves, and sending him up the channel. But when the mist lifts, let him send his glance away to some stable landmark on the shore, and he finds the triumphant stream has all the time been drifting him backward and downward. So with the moral issue of our plans. By our conceited standards we seem to compass our ends; but transfer the scale of measurement to eternity, and behold! we have been losers of the soul while we gained the world, because the Spirit was not invited to befriend our toil! After the bolts are all driven and the shrouds are all set, we must still wait for the breath of heaven to fill the sail. Nothing, literally nothing, in the final reckoning, without our Lord! F. D. H. It is getting to be a great hope of our time that society is going to slide into something better, by a course of natural progress; by the advance of education, by great public reforms, by courses of self-culture and philanthropic practice. We have a kind of new Gospel that corresponds; a Gospel which preaches not so much a faith in God's salvation as a faith in human nature; an attenuated moralizing Gospel that proposes development, not regeneration; showing men how to grow better, how to cultivate their amiable instincts, how to be rational in their own light and govern themselves by their own power. Alas! that we are taken, or can be, with so great folly. How plain it is that no such gospel meets our want! What can it do for us but turn us away, more and more fatally, from that Gospel of the Son of God, which is our only hope. Man as a ruin, going after development, and progress, and philanthropy, and social culture, and, by this firefly glimmer, to make a day of glory! And this is the doctrine that proposes shortly to restore society, to settle the passion, regenerate the affection, re-glorify the thought, fill the aspiration of a desiring and disjointed world! As if any being but God had power to grapple with these human disorders; as if man, or society, erased and maddened by the demoniacal frenzy of sin, were going to rebuild the state of order, and reconstruct the shattered harmony of nature, by such kind of desultory counsel and unsteady application as it can manage to enforce in its own cause; going to do this miracle by its science, its compacts, and self-executed reforms! As soon will the desolations of Karnac gather up their fragments and reconstruct the proportions out of which they have fallen. No, it is not progress, not reforms that are wanted as any principal thing. Nothing meets our case but to come unto God and be medicated in Him; to be born of God, and so, by His regenerative power, to be set in heaven's own order. He alone can rebuild the ruin, He alone set up the glorious temple of the mind; and those Divine affinities in us that raven with immortal hunger—He alone can satisfy them in the bestowment of Himself. H. Bushnell. 7. O great mountain?** A metaphor signifying the obstacles which had delayed the rebuilding of the temple. These were now to disappear before the face of Zerubbabel, until the top-stone of the building had been brought forth with great rejoicings. (Cf. Ezra 6:15-22.) B. C. The expression is highly poetic. Reduced to a prose form, it would be: Though the difficulties in Zerubbabel's way seem insurmountable as mountains, they shall be made like a plain. If the overcoming energy were human, the case might be different; but as opposed to the infinite power of the Divine Spirit, mountains count for no more than pebbles. Headstone. The stone that for some reason is regarded as the principal stone in the completed building, very likely the topmost stone, the laying of which completes the building. In any case, the completing of the building is the thing made prominent in the couplet. Grace unto it. Words shouted in joy in celebration of the finishing of the structure; perhaps primarily a prayer for Divine favor upon it. W. J. B. Obstacles, high and strong as great mountains, may seem to block the prosecution of this work; but say in the hearing of your governor, "Who art thou, great mountain," that thou shouldst think to withstand this work of God? "Before Zerubbabel become thou a plain!"—a summons to the great mountain of difficulty and opposition to lie low before the Lord's servant, and cease to retard his efforts. The crowning top-stone would be put on with praise to Divine grace for the effective power which had carried the work through to its final consummation. H. C. Grace, grace; that is the burden of the triumphant songs which the Church sings. It may be taken: 1. As magnifying free grace, and giving to that all the glory of what is done; when the work is finished it must be thankfully acknowledged that it was not by any policy or power of our own that it was brought to perfection, but that it was grace that did it—God's good will toward us, and His good work in us and for us. Grace, grace, must be cried, not only to the head-stone, but to the foundation stone, the corner stone, and indeed to every stone in God's building; from first to last it is nothing of works, but all of grace, and all our crowns must be cast at the feet of free grace. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us. 2. As depending upon free grace, and desiring the continuance of it for what is yet to be done. Grace, grace, is the language of prayer as well as of praise; now that this building is finished, all happiness attend it! Peace be within its walls, and in order to that, grace. Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon it! What comes from the grace of God may, in faith, and upon good grounds, be committed to the grace of God, for God will not forsake the work of His own hands. H. "The sons of God," we are told, "shouted for joy" at the creation of our world. Ezra tells us that the people "shouted aloud for joy" when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord at Jerusalem. "They shall rejoice," says the prophet in this chapter, "as they see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel." The progress of the building shall give them pleasure; what then its completion? If there were songs among the angels when the Lord first entered the world in a lowly disguise to save His Church in it, how will they sing when its salvation is accomplished? If there is joy now in heaven over a sinner that repenteth, over one poor child of the dust shedding the tear of bitterness in humiliation and pollution, oh, what will be the joy in heaven over ten thousand times ten thousand sinners, raised far above all pollution and humiliation, standing before the very throne of Jehovah, with not a sin left among them all, nor a stain nor a tear? And those sinners themselves—what must they feel and what must they say? There are moments when even on earth we do not know what to feel or say. Our sense of God's mercy toward us is so great that it well-nigh overpowers us. All that comes from us is some abrupt exclamation of joy and praise, and that repeated again and again. The text says that something like this shall take place in heaven. Our songs there, it intimates, will be no cold, artificial praises. They will come gushing out from hearts that are overflowing. They will be "shoutings," shoutings of "Grace, grace." Now and then for a moment wisdom and power may be our song as they were on earth, but this will not last long; we shall feel that we owe more to grace than to anything else, and all the splendor, and happiness, and employments of heaven will not keep grace from our thoughts. It was of goodness and mercy that the Jews sang, when they shouted for joy at the foundation of their temple; it will be of the same mercy that we shall sing when we sing in heaven. C. B. 8,9. This message translates into literal language the symbols of the vision (verses 2, 3, 11-14), and the strong poetic imagery of verse 7. Through mercy and help from God, Zerubbabel shall finish the building of the temple, and the people shall know, when they experience this fulfilment, that the Lord has truly sent His prophet to them. H. C. 10. The question, who hath despised the day of small things? implies this answer: God will not despise the day of small things—viz., the still unfinished temple and feeble temporal power of the returned Jews. His providential care, typified by the seven eyes, shall overlook the work of restoration and rejoice in it. Run to and fro implies God's perfect oversight of the whole earth. His eyes are in every place, beholding the evil and the good. B. C. Here is an additional word to those who have been greatly discouraged in the rebuilding of the temple and painfully impressed by its insignificance, compared with the greatness and splendor of the former one. I translate, "For who have despised the day of small things? Let them rejoice when they see the plumb-lead in the hands of Zerubbabel: those seven —the eyes of the Lord are they, ranging through all the earth." The words "those seven" are somewhat abrupt, but manifestly refer to the passage (3:9), "Upon one stone are seven eyes;" and they are immediately explained to be the eyes of the Lord, which never fail to see any of the least possible things in all the earth. They traverse the universe, and take cognizance of everything. Let the disheartened dismiss their despondency when they see the plumb-line in the hands of Zerubbabel for laying out this temple work, and especially when they consider that the perfect eye of the All-seeing One is upon him, and that His universal, almighty agency guarantees the execution of this work. H. C. Zerubbabel does his part, does as much as man can do to forward the work, but it is with those seven, those seven eyes of the Lord, which we read of chap. 3:9. He could do nothing if the watchful, powerful, gracious providence of God did not go before him and go along with him in it. Except the Lord had built this house, Zerubbabel and the rest had labored in vain. These eyes of the Lord are they that take cognizance of all the creatures and all their actions, and inspire and direct all, according to the Divine counsels. We must not think that God is so taken up with the affairs of His Church as to neglect the world; but it is a comfort to us that the same all-wise, almighty Providence that governs the nations of the earth is in a particular manner conversant about the Church. Those seven eyes that run through the earth are all upon the stone that Zerubbabel is laying straight with his plummet, to see that it be well laid. And those that have the plummet in their hand must look up to those eyes of the Lord, must have a constant regard to Divine Providence, and act in dependence upon its guidance, in submission to its disposals. In God's work the day of small things is not to be despised. Though the instruments be weak and unlikely, God often chooses such, by them to bring about great things. As a great mountain becomes a plain before Him, when He pleases, so a little stone cut out of a mountain without hands comes to fill the earth (Dan. 2:35). Though the beginnings be small, God can make the latter end greatly to increase; a grain of mustard seed may become a great tree. Let not the dawning light be despised, for it will shine more and more to the perfect day. The day of small things is the day of precious things, and will be the day of great things. H. There are people who would do great acts; but because they wait for great opportunities life passes, and the acts of love are not done at all. Observe, the considerateness of Christ was shown in little things. And such are the parts of human life. Opportunities for doing greatly seldom occur; life is made up of infinitesimals. If you compute the sum of happiness in any given day you will find that it was composed of small attentions, kind looks, which made the heart swell, and stirred into health that sour, rancid film of misanthropy which is apt to coagulate on the stream of our inward life, as surely as we live in heart apart from our fellow-creatures. F. W. Robertson. The constant dropping of God's little goodness seems designed not so much for their own sakes, but like the constant dropping of the rain, that they may be to us a kind of heavenly fertility, soaking in at the soul's pores, and sinking down around the roots of our manly Christian purposes, nourishing those purposes, becoming absorbed into them, and so quickening them, and building them up, and pushing them on to fructification. The little tests that are given to our temper, to our faith, to our affection, to our consecration, are more efficacious than the larger and more imposing ones. They take us when we are off our guard, and so, with more accuracy than great afflictions, betray the real quality of the man. And it is exactly these petty stresses of character and the ignominious irritations—that are without power to rouse us to constrained heroism—that really we need to give most conscientious heed to and yield most punctilious respect to, for it is these exactly that can best tell us the thing about ourselves that we most need to know, and that touch us at the point of our most exceeding need. There is a great deal that renders difficult the patient continuance in doing little Christian duties and rendering inconspicuous Christian services without fits and starts and with no recess or vacation. There is nothing specially exhilarating about doing a little thing with no prospect before us but to do another little thing similar to it when that first little one is finished. We are helped always by great occasions. But along our lowly lines of continuous small doing we do not encounter many great occasions. We do not get nerved and fired; circumstances do not work in us with strong inspiring. Perhaps we are teaching a class in the Sunday-school, perhaps we are helping a poor family, perhaps we are ministering to a sick friend, perhaps we are trying to preach the Gospel of Christ over and over in a commonplace way; but in it all we only go on adding little service to little service, forgetting, or perhaps even without the power to appreciate what continuance in well-doing really means, either in its cumulative results or in the thoughts and estimate of God. C. H. P. The grand maxim of Christ's mission was that the humblest spheres give the greatest weight and dignity to principles. Rightly viewed, there are no small occasions in this world, as in our haste we too often think. Great principles, principles sacred even to God, are at stake in every moment of life. H. B. Do little things as if they were great, because of the majesty of the Lord Jesus Christ who dwells in thee; and do great things as if they were little and easy, because of His omnipotence. Pascal.—The man who does his duty acts nobly, honestly, uprightly, in a great position, has all that is best in him developed—he is ennobled. And so it is with the man who acts in the same way in a lesser position. The two men live in altogether different spheres. And yet the results, the spiritual and moral effects, are the same. Ogle. If there be one thing on earth which is truly admirable, it is to see God's wisdom blessing an inferiority of natural powers, where they have been honestly, truly and zealously cultivated. Arnold.—We cannot tell what immense issues may depend on our public and our private duties. Each of us is bound to make the small circle in which he lives better and happier; each of us is bound to see that out of that small circle the widest good may flow; each of us may have fixed to his mind the thought that out of a single household may flow influences which shall stimulate the whole commonwealth and the whole civilized world. The long life of a venerable pastor or a good layman, spent chiefly in preaching the Gospel and doing good, though it seems to be nothing at the time, yet, in the fragrance which it leaves behind, is a memory as lasting as the Pyramids. Stanley. With the exception of some few striking passages, or great and critical occasions—perhaps not more than five or six in all—your life is made up of common, and as men are wont to judge, unimportant things. But yet, at the end, you have done up an amazing work, and fixed an amazing result. You stand at the bar of God, and look back on a life made up of small things, but yet a life how momentous, for good or evil! H. Bushnell. If you will study the history of Christ's ministry from baptism to ascension, you will discover that it is mostly made up of little words, little deeds, little prayers, little sympathies, adding themselves together in unwearied succession. The Gospel is full of Divine attempts to help and heal, in body, mind and heart, individual men. The completed beauty of Christ's life is only the added beauty of little inconspicuous acts of beauty—talking with the woman at the well; going far up into the north country to talk with the Syrophenician woman; showing the young ruler the stealthy ambition laid away in his heart, that kept him out of the kingdom of heaven; shedding a tear at the grave of Lazarus; teaching a little knot of followers how to pray; preaching the Gospel one Sunday afternoon to two disciples going out to Emmaus; kindling a fire and broiling fish that His disciples might have a breakfast waiting for them when they came ashore from a night of fishing, cold, tired and discouraged. All of these things, you see, let us in so easily into the real quality and tone of God's interests, so specific, so narrowed down, so enlisted in what is small, so engrossed with what is minute. I know not how better we can do than bring to our encouragement and re-enforcement the incentives of Christ's example and words, who ever recommended to His followers to speak the little word that came next to be spoken, to render the little service that came nearest their hand, and carry the little burden that lay immediately at their feet; the alabaster cruse of ointment poured upon the Lord's head, the cup of cold water offered to the thirsty disciple, the tear shed in sympathy, the mite dropped into the treasury. Each little moment comes freighted with its little Christian obligation and little Christian opportunity. A life grandly holy is only the adding together of minutes scrupulously holy. "He that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in much;" and then when the suitable time comes, it will be said to us: "Well done, thou good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things; I will make thee ruler over many things." C. H. P. The Vision as Illustrating the Messages. The first message is introduced by the statement, "This is the word of Jehovah with regard to Zerubbabel" (verse 6). In other words, the word as given in the messages is simply a repeating of the word as seen in the objects. Zerubbabel and his fellows had a work to do for God, and they were painfully conscious of the meagreness of their resources, and the greatness of the obstacles, and their own discouraged feelings. To give them heart, the prophet is authorized to promise them, in jubilant words, that they shall be enabled to complete their enterprise—to promise this in the name of the omnipresent Jehovah, who has sent them His angel, and whose Spirit is among them. He makes the promise in such terms as to remind them that the Divine resources are measureless. How is all this illustrated in what the prophet saw? The answer seems obvious. Central in the vision is the golden lampstand, with its lamps, which may well represent the Jewish Church of the period and its sacred work. Into the reservoir is pouring a steady and sufficient stream of that which is requisite to the performance of its functions. Where does the stream come from? Not from processes of human industry, but from the "sons of oil" rooted in earth on either hand. Etymologically, it is impossible that "sons of oil" shall mean "anointed ones." The idea is rather that of sources of oil supply. All the forces that are in attendance upon the Lord of the whole earth are available for helping those whom He chooses to help. His resources are various and abundant. They exist on the left hand as well as on the right. One tree would be enough, but there are two trees. One pipe to a lamp would be sufficient, but there are seven pipes. If He chooses, He can transcend nature, and accomplish without human hands the things that He ordinarily accomplishes through men. This is centrally the symbolism of the lesson. If you have a strong grasp of this you may add details consistent with it as your judgment or your fancy may dictate. If you have not this strong grasp of the central idea, symbolical details will only confuse you. W. J. B. This, then, was the message for Zerubbabel and his people, that God would give such gifts as they needed in order that the light which He Himself had kindled should not be quenched. If the lamp was fed with oil it would burn, and there would be a temple for it to stand in. If we try to imagine the feebleness of the handful of discouraged men, and the ring of enemies round them, we may feel the sweetness of the promise which bade them not despond because they had little of what the world calls might. We all need the lesson; for the blustering world is apt to make us forget the true source of all real strength for holy service or for noble living. The world's power at its mightiest is weak, and the Church's true power, at her feeblest, is omnipotent, if only she grasps the strength which is hers, and takes the Spirit which is given. The eternal antithesis of man's weakness at his haughtiest, and God's strength even in its feeblest possessors, is taught by that lamp flaming, whatever envious hands or howling storms may seek to quench it, because fed by oil from on high. Let us keep to God's strength, and not corrupt His oil with mixtures of foul-smelling stuff of our own invention. Next, in the strength of that revelation of the source of might a defiant challenge is blown to the foe. The "great mountain" is primarily the frowning difficulties which lifted themselves against Zerubbabel's enterprise, and more widely the whole mass of worldly opposition encountered by God's servants in every age. It seems to bar all advance; but an unseen hand crushes it down, and flattens it out into a level, on which progress is easy. The Hebrew gives the suddenness and completeness of the transformation with great force; for the whole clause, "Thou shalt become a plain," is one word in the original. Such triumphant rising above difficulties is not presumption when it has been preceded by believing gaze on the source of strength. If we have taken to heart the former words of the prophet, we shall not be in danger of rash overconfidence, if we calmly front obstacles in the path of duty, assured that every mountain shall be made low. A. M. 5:1, 2 THEN again I lifted up mine eyes, and saw, and behold, a flying roll. And he said unto me, What seest thou? And I answered, I see a flying roll; the length thereof is twenty 3 cubits, and the breadth thereof ten cubits. Then said he unto me, This is the curse that goeth forth over the face of the whole land: for every one that stealeth shall be purged out on the one side according to it; and every one that sweareth shall be purged out on the other 4 side according to it. I will cause it to go forth, saith the LORD of hosts, and it shall enter into the house of the thief, and into the house of him that sweareth falsely by my name: and it shall abide in the midst of his house, and shall consume it with the timber thereof and the stones thereof. 5 Then the angel that talked with me went forth, and said unto me, Lift up now thine eyes, 6 and see what is this that goeth forth. And I said, What is it? And he said, This is the 7 ephah that goeth forth. He said moreover, This is their resemblance in all the land: (and behold, there was lifted up a talent of lead:) and this is a woman sitting in the midst of the 8 ephah. And he said, This is Wickedness; and he cast her down into the midst of the ephah: 9 and he cast the weight of lead upon the mouth thereof. Then lifted I up mine eyes, and saw, and behold, there came forth two women, and the wind was in their wings; now they had wings like the wings of a stork: and they lifted up the ephah between the earth and the 10 heaven. Then said I to the angel that talked with me, Whither do these bear the ephah? 11 And he said unto me, To build her an house in the land of Shinar: and when it is prepared, she shall be set there in her own place. Chap. 5. This chapter comprises two visions—a flying roll and a woman sitting in an ephah—both denoting the judgments of God on His chosen people, considered as having filled up the measure of their iniquities. H. C. The visions represented in this chapter are of a very different kind from the preceding ones. Hitherto all has been consoling, and meant to cheer the hearts of the Jewish people by holding forth to them prospects of approaching prosperity. But lest they should grow presumptuous and careless of their conduct, it was thought proper to warn them of the conditions on which their happiness would depend; and to let them see that however God was at present disposed to show them favor, His judgments would assuredly fall upon them with still greater weight than before, if they should again provoke Him by repeated wickedness. Accordingly in the first of these visions, which was the sixth in succession, the prophet is shown an immense roll of a book, like that which Ezekiel describes, chap. 2:9, 10, filled with curses, and in the act of flying, to denote the celerity and speed, as well as the certainty, with which the thief and false swearer, who might otherwise flatter themselves with hopes of impunity, would be visited to their utter destruction. The next vision presents the appearance of an ephah, or measure, in which sat a woman representing a nation, whose wickedness was arrived at such a height as required an immediate check. Accordingly a heavy cover is cast upon her, and she is carried into exile in a distant land, there to abide the full time allotted for her punishment. Blayney. 1,2. What it was that the prophet saw; he looked up into the air, and behold, a flying roll; a vast, large scroll of parchment which had been rolled up, and is therefore called a roll, was now unrolled and expanded; this roll was flying upon the wings of the wind, carried swiftly through the air in open view, as an eagle that shoots down upon her prey; it is a roll like Ezekiel's, that was written within and without, with lamentations, and mourning and woe (Ezek. 2: 9, 10). H. This roll is to be thought of as being the ancient form of book or volume, made of parchment or prepared skins; but immensely large, the dimensions being those of the porch in front of Solomon's Temple. (See 1 K. 6: 3.) This correspondence cannot be supposed to be accidental. Hence we must conclude it was intended to intimate that this "fiery law" and its judgments come forth from their God, who dwelt in the Temple. That it was seen "flying," showed that it hastened to its work. H. C. 3,4. How it was expounded to him. This flying roll is a curse; it contains a declaration of the righteous wrath of God against those sinners especially who by swearing affront God's majesty, or by stealing invade their neighbor's property. Let every Israelite rejoice in the blessings of his country with trembling; for if he swear, if he steal, if he live in any course of sin, he shall see them with his eyes, but shall not have the comfort of them, for against him the curse is gone forth. The curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked (Prov. 3: 33). It shall not only beset his house, or lie at the door, but it shall remain in the midst of his house, and diffuse its malignant influences to all the parts of it. It shall be his constant companion at bed and board, to make both miserable to him. Unless he repent and reform there is no way to throw it out or cut off the entail of it. Nay, it shall so remain in it as to consume it with the timber thereof, and the stones thereof. H. This further explanation shows that this flying roll symbolizes the curse of the Almighty going forth over the earth for execution upon the guilty. The roll, like Ezekiel's, was written on both sides, and it would seem that the first table of the law was written on one side—the second on the other. The case of the false swearer represents all sins against the precepts of the first table; the case of the thief, all sins against the second. According to the high behest of this law of God, now going forth to punish violations against itself, the thief is cut off according to the law written on one side; the swearer, according to the law written on the other. The Lord brings forth this flying roll, and causes it to enter the house of every sinner against the law of God. It abides there, and utterly consumes every vestige of his habitation—a terribly vivid representation of God's judgments upon all unpardoned sin! To think of the law itself as written out, and its written record then armed with power to search out every sinner, enter into his house and there consume everything—all his ill gotten wealth, the last crumb of his accumulated comforts, and finally himself—this surely must imply a ruin for the guilty from which there can be no escape, and in which there can be no alleviation. #### Seventh Vision. 5-8. A new scene opens. The first apparent object is an ephah, the largest Hebrew dry measure, corresponding to the common corn-basket of our country, containing by one computation one and one ninth bushels, and by another one and one half. This is seen "going forth," as if this also, like the flying roll, was hastening to execute its mission. We shall probably best reach the sense of this symbol if we remember that the Scripture speaks of sinners as "filling up the measure" of their iniquities (Matt. 23: 32; 1 Thess. 2: 16). Here is the largest-sized measure. A woman sits in it, who is explained to represent or symbolize "wickedness"—the sins, or, yet more precisely, the sinners of the covenant people. The female person is a common symbol in the Scriptures for a city with its masses of people—e.g., Babylon (Jer. 50; 51; Rev. 16: 19; 18: 2-11). Jerusalem (Lam. 1: 1 ff.). This woman, therefore, represents strictly the Jewish people apostate from God, having filled the measure of their iniquities, and now about to receive due retribution. She is first seen (verse 7) sitting in the midst of this large measure. Then he throws her down ("he" is God's minister of vengeance) into the midst or bottom of the vessel, and casts a weight of lead upon the mouth of the vessel, manifestly to hold her down and prevent her escape. The word rendered "talent"—i.e., of lead, means a large round lump, probably large enough for its purpose—i.e., to fill the mouth of the vessel. H. C. He sees the woman thrust down into the ephah, and a talent, or large weight of lead, cast upon the mouth of it, by which she is secured and made a close prisoner in the ephah, and utterly disabled to get out of it. This is designed to show that the wrath of God against impenitent sinners is: 1. Unavoidable, and what they cannot escape; they are bound over to it, concluded under sin, and shut up under the curse, as this woman in the ephah. 2. It is insupportable, and what they cannot bear up under. Guilt is upon the sinner as a talent of lead, to sink him to the lowest hell. When Christ said of the things of Jerusalem's peace, Now they are hid from thine eyes, that threw a talent of lead upon them. H. 9-11. Two women (are they not angelic forms?)—two, because so large a burden required one on each side—come forth, the wind in their wings to indicate the most rapid motion; and they bear the ephah containing this woman far away into the land of Shinar (Babylon), to fix for it there a permanent abode. The main question here is, whether this is retrospective, looking back to the recent captivity in Babylon; or prospective, predicting some future judgment on the covenant people. The latter view I accept: Because the other visions throughout this series are prophetic, not historic. Because the late captivity in Babylon was transient; this is at least very long. Because that always contemplated a restoration: this gives no hint of any restoration, but the contrary. Because in verse 4 the "curse that goeth forth" inflicts judgments more severe and exterminating than those in the captivity to Babylon. This vision of the ephah should correspond to that of the roll. There is no particular difficulty in applying this entire chapter to the judgments that fell on the Jewish nation for their rejection of their Messiah, according to their own imprecation—"His blood be on us and on our children!" The first instalment of this doom came from the Roman arms; the rest in the almost universal persecution, dispersion, and reproach under which they have suffered for ages. In this view of its prophetic significance, "Shinar" is used by way of historic allusion, another captivity, only more terrible and protracted. H. C. 6:1 AND again I lifted up mine eyes, and saw, and behold, there came four chariots out 2 from between two mountains; and the mountains were mountains of brass. In the first 3 chariot were red horses; and in the second chariot black horses; and in the third chariot 4 white horses; and in the fourth chariot grised bay horses. Then I answered and said unto 5 the angel that talked with me, What are these, my lord? And the angel answered and said unto me, These are the four winds of heaven, which go forth from standing before the LORD 6 of all the earth. The chariot wherein are the black horses goeth forth toward the north country; and the white went forth after them; and the grised went forth toward the south 7 country. And the bay went forth, and sought to go that they might walk to and fro through the earth: and he said, Get you hence, walk to and fro through the earth. So they 8 walked to and fro through the earth. Then cried he upon me, and spake unto me, saying, Behold, they that go toward the north country have quieted my spirit in the north country. 9, 10 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Take of them of the captivity, even of Heldai, of Tobijah, and of Jedaiah; and come thou the same day, and go into the house 11 of Josiah the son of Zephaniah, whither they are come from Babylon; yea, take of them silver and gold, and make crowns, and set them upon the head of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, 12 the high priest; and speak unto him, saying, Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, Behold, the man whose name is the Branch; and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall 13 build the temple of the LORD: even he shall build the temple of the LORD; and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne; and he shall be a priest upon his throne: 14 and the counsel of peace shall be between them both. And the crowns shall be to Helem, and to Tobijah, and to Jedaiah, and to Hen the son of Zephaniah, for a memorial in the 15 temple of the LORD. And they that are far off shall come and build in the temple of the LORD, and ye shall know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me unto you. And this shall come to pass, if ye will diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God. Chap. 6. This chapter is in two quite distinct parts; the first a vision, and the second a symbolic transaction. The vision (verses 1-8) presents four chariots, and shows their mission. The symbolic transaction (verses 9-15) is the making of crowns and setting them on the head of Joshua, the high-priest, who becomes the type of the Messiah. H. C. The main design and purport of the eighth and last vision, contained in the former part of this chapter, was to confirm the Jews in their faith and dependence upon God by showing them that, weak and defenceless as they seemed to be, they had nothing to fear from the greatest earthly powers while they remained under the Divine protection; since all those powers originally proceeded from the counsels of the Almighty, were the instruments of His providence, and could not subsist nor act but under His permission. Blayney. 1-8. As the fifth chapter predicted judgments on the covenant people for their sins, this last vision predicts corresponding judgments on the enemies of God's people. The leading objects of vision here are four chariots drawn by diverse-colored horses, red, black, white and gray. They "come forth from between two mountains of brass" to denote the amazing strength of that power of which they were the representative agents. Like the horses seen in the first vision (1:8-13), these chariots must be understood to represent, in pertinent symbols, those varied agencies of God's providential rule over nations by which He puts down one and sets up another, and in general administers the retributions of an actual government. The principal shade of difference between the horses and their riders of the first vision, and the chariots with their horses in this last, is that the horses with their riders serve rather as scouts; the chariots as executioners; the riders on horses explore the state of the nations; the chariots put in execution the mandates of Jehovah; or (nearer to the expressive language of the text) they convey the very animus of Jehovah—His spirit of indignation and retributive justice—and cause it to fall on those guilty nations. As the use of post horses in those vast Oriental kingdoms (Esth. 3:13; 8:10) suggested their use in the first vision, so here we may find a good reason for this symbolic use of the chariot in the prominent place held by chariots of war in the armies of that day. The explanation of the chariots (verse 5), "These are the four spirits or winds of the heavens," should not suggest to us the literal winds, nor any literal sense of the word spirit, but, as already hinted, those invisible agencies of the Divine hand in providence which act upon the nations of the earth, in judgments especially, but in blessings also, as the case may be, constituting the working forces of an actual administration of the government of God over nations as such in the present world. These chariots "go forth from standing before the Lord of all the earth," the usual attitude of servants awaiting their orders, and going forth, when bidden, to their execution. It will be noted that two of these chariots, that with black and that with white horses, go forth toward the north country, Babylon, where the enemies specially contemplated here were located. One chariot (verse 7) seems to have had a very general commission "to traverse the whole earth," implying that these agencies of God's reign over the nations are not restricted to any special district or to any one human kingdom, but embrace them all. In verse 8 we read, "Behold, these that go toward the north country have quieted My spirit in the north country," which translation can be understood rightly in no other sense than that of quieting the spirit of God by executing His righteous indignation and giving scope to the retributions of justice. A less ambiguous rendering would be, "have brought My anger down upon the north country." This is doubtless the sense of the passage. The judgments of God fell on Babylon for her too cruel oppression of the covenant people. Darius, heading the Persian armies, was the first executioner of this wrath; the time, not long after this prophecy was revealed. The various color of the horses may have been slightly significant, yet some interpreters incline to make too much of it. It is manifestly one of the very subordinate and less important things in the vision. Plainly the revealing angel, or it may perhaps be said, the recording mind, made little account of this feature, else we should find more accuracy in the references to the different chariots. Thus we have at first four, designated by their horses, but the last span has a twofold description; they are gray, and also active, fleet, this being the only sense of the Hebrew word rendered "bay" (verses 3, 7). When they are named again, the red-colored disappear, and the chariot commissioned to traverse the whole earth is indicated (very appropriately) as that drawn by the active, fleet span. (The span that had the wide world for their range should be pre-eminently fleet.) Thus the red are dropped from view, and what was the fourth in the first description now becomes two. The twofold description given of its horses is divided, and we have two spans and two chariots out of the one. This criticism is chiefly valuable as showing that the color of the horses and the distinction of chariots is really in the eye of the revealing Spirit a small and not important matter. The vital points are more cared for, and are put with more accuracy. Of the two mountains, the material—"brass" or copper—denotes the strength, not of any heathen nation whose power God might use by overruling it, but of God Himself, in reference specially to the deep, immovable foundations of His throne. The location should be the supposed and indeed actual dwelling-place of God—i.e., among His people, in His temple at Jerusalem. As the chariots represent His providential agencies, going forth on their mission, so their headquarters and starting point should be the place of His abode. That they come forth from between two mountains is due simply to the necessities of chariot-driving in a mountainous country. They cannot run on the tops or sides of rugged mountains, but only in the valley, which will be between two mountains. H. C. "The land of the north," to which the chariot with the black horses was seen going, is undoubtedly Babylonia. (Cf. 2:10, 11.) By this was indicated that on Babylon, the bitter and cruel enemy of Israel, heavy judgments were about to come. Following this chariot came that with white horses hastening to the same destination; to indicate the complete triumph which was to be obtained over the enemy that had ravaged the land and led captive the people of Israel. The chariot with the grisled or piebald horses was seen rushing to the land of the south—that is, toward Egypt (Dan. 2: 5 ff.), also the enemy of Israel. Inasmuch, however, as Egypt had not oppressed and injured Israel as Babylon had, only one of the judgment chariots was seen going thither. On the whole, the interpretation of Kimchi is to be preferred. By the judgments executed on the enemies and oppressors of His people satisfaction was rendered to God, His just anger was appeased, and His Spirit roused against them was quieted. The statement is in harmony with what He elsewhere says, "Ah, I will ease Me of Mine adversaries; I will avenge Me of Mine enemies" (Isa. 1:24). This vision had reference primarily to the judgments with which God would visit those nations that had oppressed and wronged Israel. But there are here involved general truths which are for all times and for all places. One thing plainly taught here is, that all agencies are under the Divine control, and operate only as God directs or permits. The forces and powers of nature, and the influences that affect the condition or determine the conduct of individuals and communities, are alike under His control. Nothing can happen except as He permits or appoints; and "if He cut off, and shut up or gather together, who can hinder Him?" (Job 11:10.) We are reminded here also of the deep interest, the quick and living interest, which God takes in His people, His care for them, and His intense displeasure with all who injure and oppress them. Babylon and Egypt stand in the prophetical Scriptures, both of the Old Testament and the New, as the types and emblems of the enemies of God's Church; and both in the Old Testament and the New, the Divine displeasure is emphatically expressed against those who are thus hostile to that cause which is dear to Him. Because of this trouble and calamity, desolation and ruin come upon peoples and upon dynasties. If the inner history of nations could be deciphered—if we could see all the minute relations of events as God sees them—we should in many cases discover that calamities which have come upon countries and kingdoms, and which the ordinary historian traces to this or that secondary cause, were in reality the outcome of Divine judgments on the oppressors or persecutors of God's people. W. L. A. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/butler/ 1: 1 In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the LORD unto Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, the prophet, saying, The LORD hath been sore displeased with your fathers. Therefore say thou unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts: Return unto me, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will return unto you, saith the LORD of hosts. Be ye not as your fathers, unto whom the former prophets cried, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Return ye now from your evil ways, and from your evil doings: but they did not hear, nor hearken unto me, saith the LORD. Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live for ever? But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not overtake your fathers? and they turned and said, Like as the LORD of hosts thought to do unto us, according to our ways, and according to our doings, so hath he dealt with us. 1. In the eighth month. Corresponding with the latter part of October and the beginning of November. The work in the house of God had been already resumed this same year, on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month—that is, the beginning of September—in pursuance of a Divine message delivered by the prophet Haggai (Hag. 1: 14, 15). Blayney.—This message of Zechariah comes in between that prophecy of Haggai, which ends at Hag. 2: 9, and that which is contained in Hag. 2: 10-19. 4. The former prophets. Zechariah quotes the substance of passages in Hosea, Joel, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel. B. C. 4-6. Let the people consider. Did not the words which God sent by those former prophets "take hold of your fathers"? Did they slip off as things of loose grasp, and prove void of result? Did not those awful threatenings hold on, and have not you yourselves seen and felt the terrible judgments which those words portended? They themselves were forced to admit this. They returned and said—i.e., they took a new and better view of the case under the pressure of appalling facts, and then they said, All that God thought and threatened to do unto us as a nation He has done! Let their children take warning! H. C. 5. This verse and the next are closely connected. The idea is that of John 8: 52, Abraham is dead, and the prophets. The generations to whom God's warnings had been sent of old, and the bearers of those warnings, have passed away, but God's word and God's decrees stand fast for all generations; and therefore, as they overtook your fathers, so will they overtake you. The prophets of the post-captivity period took their stand upon the past history of the people, upon former miracles and upon fulfilled prophecy. They regarded these as the true foundations upon which the faith and obedience of the Jews were to be built up. B. C. ZECHARIAH'S second prophecy extends from 1: 7 to 6: 15, and is dated the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month of the second year of Darius—four months later than the prophecy of Haggai—perhaps early in February, B.C. 519, as we now date events. It is a description of eight visions, one apparently following another in a single night, followed by a message connected with the coming of certain men from Babylon (Zech. 6:9 sqq.). We naturally ask whether these men brought with them from Babylon the answer of Darius in regard to the temple (see Ezra 6), but there is no clew to the answer. In the first vision (Zech. 1:7-17) the prophet sees men on horseback—the mounted police of Jehovah's empire—who report that they have made their rounds in the earth, and found everything quiet. Their chief, to whom they make this report, is the angel of Jehovah. On hearing it (verses 12-17) he makes intercession for Jerusalem, and an encouraging message is then given the prophet. The descriptive part is in prose, while the intercession and the message to the prophet are in verse. The second vision (Zech. 1:18-21) is of four horns that have been tossing Judah, and four "working-men" who drive the horns away. The third vision (Zech. 2:1-13) is of a man measuring Jerusalem, and being informed that Jerusalem will outgrow all measurements. This information is given in poetic lines (verses 4 b, 5), and is followed by a spirited lyric on Zion's escape from the north land (verses 6-13). As I understand it, this lyric is represented as uttered by the angel of Jehovah. These first three visions concern Judah, Jerusalem, the people in general. The fourth vision concerns especially Joshua, the priestly leader of the people; and the fifth mainly concerns Zerubbabel, their civil leader. The sixth vision (Zech. 5:1-4) is that of the flying scroll, and the seventh (Zech. 5:5-11) is that of the woman in the ephah-jar. These two mainly concern the wickedness of the people by which Jehovah's mercies are hindered. The eighth vision (Zech. 6:1-8) is a vision of Jehovah's chariots, one of which is sent on a mission to the north land. W. J. B. In a dream of the night there passed before the eyes of the prophet a series of visions (1:7-6:15). These visions are obscure, and, accordingly, the prophet asks their meaning. The interpretation is given by an angel who knows the mind and will of Jehovah. In the first vision (1:7-15) the prophet sees, in a valley of myrtles, a rider upon a roan horse, accompanied by others who, having been sent forth to the four quarters of the earth, had returned with the tidings that the whole earth was at rest (with reference to Hag. 2:20). Hereupon the angel asks how long this state of things shall last, and is assured that the indifference of the heathen shall cease, and that the temple shall be built in Jerusalem. The second vision (2:1-17, A. V. 1:18-2:13) explains how the promise of the first is to be fulfilled. It symbolizes the destruction of the heathen kingdoms hitherto combined against Jerusalem, and the rapid increase of its population. The old prophets, in foretelling the happiness and glory of the times which should succeed the Captivity in Babylon, had made a great part of that happiness and glory to consist in the gathering together again of the whole dispersed nation in the land given to their fathers. This vision was designed to teach that the expectation thus raised—the return of the dispersed of Israel—should be fulfilled. The next two visions (3, 4) are occupied with the temple, and with the two principal persons on whom the hopes of the returned exiles rested. The permission granted for the rebuilding of the temple had no doubt stirred afresh the malice and the animosity of the enemies of the Jews. Joshua, the high-priest, had been singled out, it would seem, as the especial object of attack, and perhaps formal accusations had already been laid against him before the Persian court. The prophet, in vision, sees him summoned before a higher tribunal, and solemnly acquitted, despite the charges of the Satan or adversary. This is done with the forms still usual in an Eastern court, the filthy garments of the accused being exchanged for the robe of honor put on the innocent. The last vision (4) supposes that all opposition to the building of the temple shall be removed. This sees the completion of the work. The two next visions (5:1-11) signify that the land, in which the sanctuary has just been erected, shall be purged of all its pollutions. First, the curse is recorded against wickedness in the whole land (not as A. V. "earth;" 5:3). Next, the unclean thing, whether in the form of idolatry or any other abomination, shall be utterly removed. And now the night is waning fast, and the morning is about to dawn. Chariots and horses appear, issuing from between two brazen mountains, the horses like those in the first vision; and these receive their several commands and are sent forth to execute the will of Jehovah in the four quarters of the earth. Thus, then, the cycle of visions is completed. Scene after scene is unrolled till the whole glowing picture is presented to the eye. All enemies crushed; the land repeopled and Jerusalem girt as with a wall of fire; the temple rebuilt, more truly splendid than of old, because more abundantly filled with a Divine Presence; the leaders of the people assured in the most signal manner of the Divine protection; all wickedness solemnly sentenced, and the land forever purged of it—such is the magnificent panorama of hope which the prophet displays to his countrymen. A symbolical act immediately follows. Three Israelites had just returned from Babylon, bringing with them rich gifts to Jerusalem, apparently as contributions to the temple, and had been received in the house of Josiah the son of Zephaniah. Thither the prophet is commanded to go, and to employ the silver and gold of their offerings for the service of Jehovah. He is to make of them two crowns, and to place these on the head of Joshua, the high-priest—a sign that, in the Messiah who should build the temple, the kingly and priestly offices should be united. Dic. B. The first eight chapters form a collection of utterances, complete and circumscribed, directed throughout to promote the erection of the temple. The work had been paralyzed by actual difficulties, but still more by supineness of spirit and despond. What the people needed was the inspiration of a soaring faith and the heartening of buoyant hope. This is precisely the spirit that animates the addresses of Zechariah. Elmslie.—The object of Zechariah is precisely that of Haggai. It is to rouse an indolent, to encourage a desponding, and to abash a backsliding people. This he does, if not with greater energy, yet by bolder types, and through the force of broader glimpses into the future, than his coadjutor. The red horses, the four horns, the stone with seven eyes, the candlestick of gold, the olive trees, the flying roll, the ephah and the talent of lead, the four chariots from between the two mountains, the staves Beauty and Bands, the cup of trembling, the burdensome stone, and the fountain of purification, are not mere brilliant dreams, but are closely connected with the main purpose of the prophecy. Gilfillan. These visions were designed partly to animate and encourage the Jews in the work of rebuilding the temple and restoring the worship of Jehovah, partly to warn them against transgression, and especially against rebelliousness and apostasy from Him. As, however, all God's dealings toward His ancient people bear an analogy to His dealings toward His spiritual Church, and especially as in these visions there is reference more or less immediate to the Messiah, they convey instruction and counsel profitable for the people of God as such in all ages. This book of prophecy has, consequently, engaged much of the attention of students of Scripture at all times in the Christian Church. Luther says of it: "The prophet Zechariah is a paragon (Ausbund), to my thinking the most excellent. For he appeared at a time when it was supremely needful to comfort and encourage the people, and along with that to keep them for the coming reign of Christ and under training." W. L. Alexander. The chief difficulty felt by the student of these eight visions is that of clearly distinguishing and identifying the superhuman dramatis personae with whom the prophet is in ecstatic communication. They appear to be five in number—viz.: 1. The man riding upon a red horse, who stood among the myrtle trees (1:8). He is clearly identified (1:11) with the angel of the Lord. 2. The riders on the red, speckled and white horses. These are subordinate created angels, who report to the angel of the Lord. 3. The angel described by the prophet in eleven places (1:9, 13, 14, 19; 2:3; 4:1, 4, 5; 5:5, 10; 6:4) by the phrase the angel that talked with me, or, more exactly, that spake in me. So Dr. Pusey, who adds, "The very rare expression seems meant to convey the thought of an inward speaking, whereby the words should be borne directly into the soul without the intervention of the ordinary outward organs. God says to Moses (Num. 12:6-9), If there is a prophet among you, I the Lord will make Myself known unto him in a vision, I will speak (lit.) in him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so . . . in him will I speak mouth to mouth; and Habakkuk says (2:1) of the like inward teaching, I will watch to see what He will speak in me. It is the characteristic title of one attendant angel, who was God's expositor of the visions to Zechariah." Similarly Canon Drake ("Speaker's [or Bible] Commentary") says he was "the [created] angel, whose office it was to interpret to the prophet what he saw and heard." 4. In the third vision (chap. 2) the man with a measuring line in his hand, whom Dr. Pusey thinks to be "probably the angel of the Lord, of whom Ezekiel has a like vision." 5. In the same vision (2:3) another angel, who went out to meet the angel that talked with the prophet, when he (the angel) went forth. Besides these must also be observed in three places (1:13, 20; 3:1) the mention of the Lord, who is in each almost certainly identified with the angel of the Lord. Medd. 7. UPON the four and twentieth day of the eleventh month, which is the month Shebat, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the LORD unto Zechariah the son of Berechiah, 8 the son of Iddo, the prophet, saying, I saw in the night, and behold a man riding upon a red horse, and he stood among the myrtle trees that were in the bottom; and behind him there 9 were horses, red, sorrel, and white. Then said I, O my lord, what are these? And the angel 10 that talked with me said unto me, I will shew thee what these be. And the man that stood among the myrtle trees answered and said, These are they whom the LORD hath sent to walk 11 to and fro through the earth. And they answered the angel of the LORD that stood among the myrtle trees, and said, We have walked to and fro through the earth, and, behold, all the 12 earth sitteth still, and is at rest. Then the angel of the LORD answered and said, O LORD of hosts, how long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against 13 which thou hast had indignation these threescore and ten years? And the LORD answered 14 the angel that talked with me with good words, even comfortable words. So the angel that talked with me said unto me, Cry thou, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts: I am jealous 15 for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy. And I am very sore displeased with the nations that are at ease: for I was but a little displeased, and they helped forward the affliction. Therefore thus saith the LORD: I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies; my house shall be built in it, saith the LORD of hosts, and a line shall be stretched forth over Jerusalem. Cry yet again, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts: My cities through prosperity shall yet be spread abroad; and the LORD shall yet comfort Zion, and shall yet choose Jerusalem. 18, 19 And I lifted up mine eyes, and saw, and behold four horns. And I said unto the angel that talked with me, What be these? And he answered me, These are the horns which have 20, 21 scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem. And the LORD shewed me four smiths. Then said I, What come these to do? And he spake, saying, These are the horns which scattered Judah, so that no man did lift up his head: but these are come to fray them, to cast down the horns of the nations, which lifted up their horn against the land of Judah to scatter it. 7. This is the commencement of a series of eight symbolical visions, all, it would seem, presented to the mind of the prophet in one night—that of the 24th of Sebat, corresponding to March 9th or 10th. B. C. 7-17. These verses comprise one entire and distinct vision, the first in a series, and of symbolic character. The symbols represent the executive forces by which the Lord administers His providential government over the nations. The special aim here is: 1. To assure the Hebrew people that God had more judgments to send on the nations that had oppressed them. 2. That He would greatly augment the growth and prosperity of Zion. So much for the general scope of the passage. As to the particulars, let us note that this is a night vision, presented to the mind's eye of the prophet by special Divine agencies. That men riding on horses are used to represent the executive forces of God's reign over the nations is due (we may suppose) to the use of post horses as vehicles of the royal mandates, as the nerves of communication (so to speak) from the working brain on the throne to the remotest organs of His will in all His distant provinces. They seem to be thought of here rather as explorers to observe and report, than as executioners. The reader will better understand this representation if he will be at the pains to classify the personages of the scene thus: 1. The man riding upon a red horse (verse 8), who stood (on horseback) among the myrtle trees in the shaded vale, at the head of others also on horses of various colors; the same who (verse 10) explained and said, "These are they whom the Lord hath sent," etc., to whom the other horse men report (verse 11); and to whom prayer is offered as "the Lord of hosts" (verse 12); and who answers so kindly (verse 13). This can be no other than the uncreated angel—the very Son of God, so often if not always the God revealed and made manifest in all the ages before His incarnation. 2. Next are His attendants, on horses, representing angels proper; those "ministers of His who do His pleasure," and whom He continually employs in the administration of His providential government on earth. They appear (verse 8) where it must be assumed that the horses have riders upon them; also (verse 11), they report what they have seen in their mission to and fro through the earth. 3. The revealing angel, specially attendant upon the prophet as his interpreter, usually called "the angel that talked with me"—e.g., verses 9, 13, and also in verse 14, where our translators have given the same Hebrew word another rendering, "that communed with me." It is the same angel who offers the prayer (verse 12), since the answer (verse 13) is given to him. That he offers this prayer is due to his strong sympathy with the prophet, to whom he was a sort of guardian angel. This grouping of the characters of this scene will help the reader to understand its significance. The horses and their riders are seen among the myrtle trees in a shady vale—both the myrtles and the vale indicating the low and humble condition of God's people and kingdom, especially at that time, yet showing us plainly that however low and humble in human estimation, God was in the midst of them, and did not disdain to reveal precisely there His glorious Son, and under Him the angels clothed in might as the executive servants of His reign among the nations. No other speciality of meaning can be safely assigned to the color of these horses except that red commonly indicates war scenes of blood, and that the variety may suggest that God's agency embraces all varieties of manifestation—curses and blessings, war and peace. The prophet asks his attendant angel what those horses and their riders mean. He promises to show him, but the statement is given by the personage first seen and standing in the foreground of the picture—the great uncreated angel of Jehovah—"These are they whom the Lord sends to traverse the whole earth." Then they themselves come forward and make their report in the hearing of the prophet: "We have traversed the earth, and lo, all the nations are still and at rest." Even those great powers which had so cruelly oppressed the Jews were not receiving their deserved retribution. This is the main point of their report. Upon this, the revealing angel, warming in sympathy with the prophet and his people, cries, "How long, O Lord, ere Thou wilt have mercy on Jerusalem and on Judah, upon which Thou hast manifested Thine indignation now seventy years?" To this the Lord answers with words of comfort and cheer. He has purposed to scourge and soon to destroy that fierce Chaldean power, and He will surely lift up Jerusalem. Verse 15 may be paraphrased thus: "I am very sore displeased with Chaldea and Edom: I was comparatively a little displeased with My people, Judah and Jerusalem, and therefore I suffered those powers to come down on the holy city and land; but they augmented that infliction; they gave vent to their cruel and vindictive spirit, and have quite overdone the work which I commissioned them to do. For this they are to have a fearful doom." In verse 16 the Lord promises to return in mercy and to help onward the rebuilding of the city; and in verse 17, that the population should overpass the city walls and fill the adjacent country. "Will yet choose Jerusalem" means, will yet manifest His loving choice of her by appropriate mercies. H. C. 8. No symbolical meaning is attributed by the Divine interpreter either to the place where the rider and his followers appeared standing, or to the color of their horses. None, therefore, need be sought by us. In comparing Zech. 6:1-8 with Rev. 6:2-8 we may gather that in those instances difference of color in the horses implies difference of office in the riders; but here they have all one and the same duty—viz., to walk to and fro through the earth. B. C. 12. Then the angel of the Lord answered and said, O Lord of Hosts. The angel (mentioned in verse 9) makes his supplication to the superior angel (verses 8, 10), who was indeed the Logos, or Son of God, being called by the name of Jehovah here and in verses 13, 20. (Cf. chaps. 3:1, 2; 12:8, 10.) W. Lowth. 13. To this Intercessor—this horseman who watches over Israel—God answers "with good words and comfortable words." This closes the vision; and then the interpreting angel bids Zechariah report to the people the substance or significance of it, to the effect that although God had given His people into the hand of their enemies that they might be chastised, yet these enemies had gone too far, had entered into the work of correction with too evident a zest, and had overstepped their commission; and that now God would compensate to His people for their sorrows. The practical outcome or substantial meaning of this vision was this: that to every one who sees with eyes cleansed and directed aright, the angel of the Lord, or God Incarnate, appears, ready mounted, prepared to interpose in His people's behalf, and watchfully receiving the reports of His commissioners from all parts of the earth. It can readily be imagined what a difference this vision would make in the courage and hopes of the people, with what different heart and conversation they would go out to their building next morning, having been assured that the Lord thought their punishment had gone far enough, and that now He was to show His mercies to them. Dods. 18-21. In the Hebrew text 2:1-4. A vision of the four horns and of the four workmasters sent to fray or harry the enemies of Judah and Jerusalem. 18. Four horns—i.e., the heathen nations by whom the Jews had been oppressed. The word horn occurs in the same sense in Dan. 7:20. The number four intimates the fact that the enemies of the Jews were around them on all sides. B. C. 18-21. This second vision is closely connected in significance with the first, looking especially to the destruction of those heathen powers which "had scattered Judah and Jerusalem." The "horn" is a natural emblem of power. The number four does not count so many hostile nations, but rather means all, in every quarter of the earth, toward every cardinal point of the compass, who have been pushing and scattering the saints of God. The word rendered "carpenters" should be "smiths," workers in iron or other metals, and therefore armed with suitable instruments for breaking horns. The word "fray," mostly obsolete as a verb, means to frighten. The next verb, rendered "cast out," has a stronger sense—cast down to the ground, so as altogether to paralyze their power for harm. This prediction was fulfilled shortly after. Chaldea revolted against its late Medo-Persian conquerors during the reign of this same Darius. He consequently attacked and subdued them, and then greatly marred the military strength and glory of Babylon. Thenceforward Chaldea was no more felt or feared as a power among the nations. H. C. The second vision speaks for itself. When the four horns had tossed and gored Israel, four carpenters are sent to cut them down. God's zest in removing the executioners of His justice reveals His reluctance to punish. When the causes of distress have done their work, they are removed. As a matter of actual experience, men who have suffered great reverses of fortune declare that no sooner had the calamity brought them to the point of a true, hearty and permanent submission to God about it, than it was removed. There are no doubt irremovable distresses, but God can introduce into the life alleviations of distress and compensating joys. He can, at all events, enable us to see as clearly as Zechariah saw that He will not give us over to unlimited punishment, but allows present distresses only as temporary expedients which may fit us for more enduring and perfect happiness. Dods. 7:1 AND it came to pass in the fourth year of king Darius, that the word of the LORD came unto Zechariah in the fourth day of the ninth month, even in Chislev. Now they of Beth-el had sent Sharezer and Regem-melech, and their men, to intreat the favour of the LORD, and to speak unto the priests of the house of the LORD of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, Should I weep in the fifth month, separating myself, as I have done these so many years? Then came the word of the LORD of hosts unto me, saying, Speak unto all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and in the seventh month, even these seventy years, did ye at all fast unto me, even to me? And when ye eat, and when ye drink, do not ye eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves? Should ye not hear the words which the LORD hath cried by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity, and the cities thereof round about her, and the South and the lowland were inhabited? 8, 9 And the word of the LORD came unto Zechariah, saying, Thus hath the LORD of hosts spoken, saying, Execute true judgement, and shew mercy and compassion every man to his brother: and oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor; and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart. But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear. Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the LORD of hosts had sent by his spirit by the hand of the former prophets: therefore came there great wrath from the LORD of hosts. And it came to pass that, as he cried, and they would not hear; so they shall cry, and I will not hear, said the LORD of hosts: but I will scatter them with a whirlwind among all the nations whom they have not known. Thus the land was desolate after them, that no man passed through nor returned: for they laid the pleasant land desolate. 8:1, 2 And the word of the LORD of hosts came to me, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts: I am jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I am jealous for her with great fury. Thus saith the LORD: I am returned unto Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and Jerusalem shall be called The city of truth; and the mountain of the LORD of hosts The holy mountain. Thus saith the LORD of hosts: There shall yet old men and old women dwell in the streets of Jerusalem, every man with his staff in his hand for very age. And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof. Thus saith the LORD of hosts: If it be marvellous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in those days, should it also be marvellous in mine eyes? saith the LORD of hosts. Thus saith the LORD of hosts: Behold, I will save my people from the east country, and from the west country: and I will bring them, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God, in truth and in righteousness. Thus saith the LORD of hosts: Let your hands be strong, ye that hear in these days these words from the mouth of the prophets, which were in the day that the foundation of the house of the LORD of hosts was laid, even the temple, that it might be built. For before those days there was no hire for man, nor any hire for beast; neither was there any peace to him that went out or 11 came in because of the adversary: for I set all men every one against his neighbour. But now I will not be unto the remnant of this people as in the former days, saith the LORD of 12 hosts. For there shall be the seed of peace; the vine shall give her fruit, and the ground shall give her increase, and the heavens shall give their dew; and I will cause the remnant 13 of this people to inherit all these things. And it shall come to pass that, as ye were a curse among the nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so will I save you, and ye shall be 14 a blessing: fear not, but let your hands be strong. For thus saith the LORD of hosts: As I thought to do evil unto you, when your fathers provoked me to wrath, saith the LORD of 15 hosts, and I repented not; so again have I thought in these days to do good unto Jerusalem 16 and to the house of Judah: fear ye not. These are the things that ye shall do; Speak ye every man the truth with his neighbour; execute the judgement of truth and peace in your 17 gates: and let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his neighbour; and love no false oath: for all these are things that I hate, saith the LORD. 18,19. And the word of the LORD of hosts came unto me, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts: The fast of the fourth month, and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth, shall be to the house of Judah joy and gladness, and cheerful feasts; there- 20 fore love truth and peace. Thus saith the LORD of hosts: It shall yet come to pass, that there 21 shall come peoples, and the inhabitants of many cities: and the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, Let us go speedily to intreat the favour of the LORD, and to seek the 22. LORD of hosts: I will go also. Yea, many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the 23. LORD of hosts in Jerusalem, and to intreat the favour of the LORD. Thus saith the LORD of hosts: In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold, out of all the languages of the nations, shall even take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you. Chaps. 7, 8. God's reply by Zechariah to the question respecting fasts. The moral law above the ceremonial. God's promises conditional on obedience to His precepts. Fasts will be changed into feasts. The coming in of the Gentiles to worship the God of the Jews. B. C. This second portion of the Book of Zechariah consists of a discourse occasioned by a question put to the priests and prophets in the temple. It was spoken two years subsequently to the previous vision, and the question which it answered was, Were they, now that they had returned to Jerusalem, to keep the solemn days of fasting and humiliation, which had been instituted during the exile at Babylon? This question he answered in the same spirit as Isaiah of old (chap. 58:3-7). They were not so to fast; for true fasting consists in doing justice and mercy; and it was because they had neglected these "weightier matters of the law" that they had been driven from their land. Let them keep justice and mercy, and then aged men and women supporting their steps with their staves shall once again dwell in their city, their streets shall be full of boys and girls at play, their temple shall be built, their land bear them bounteous crops, and they themselves, instead of being a curse, shall be a blessing to all people. If only they speak the truth, and execute judgment, and think no evil, and take no false oath, then their fasting days, "the fast of the fourth month, and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth," may all be kept as cheerful feasts. They may eat and drink, if they will; only they must love truth and peace (8:16-19). R. P. S. A considerable progress having by this time been made in the rebuilding of the temple, and affairs going on pretty smoothly, the hopes of the Jewish nation began to revive, and a deputation was sent to inquire of the priests and the prophets whether it was God's will that they should still continue to observe the fast which had been instituted on account of the city and the temple having been burned by the Chaldeans. To this the prophet is directed to reply: That this and another fast of the like kind, being of their own appointment, regarded themselves only and not God; that what he required of them was the practice of moral righteousness, like as he had enjoined it to their fathers, who, disregarding his injunctions, had brought upon themselves and upon their country all the evil which they had recently experienced. Having thus accounted for God's past severity, the prophet (chap. 8) goes on to inform them that the anger of Jehovah was now appeased, and He was again disposed to be gracious unto His people and to restore Jerusalem. He exhorts them therefore to proceed vigorously with the building of the temple, and assures them that they would from that instant experience a happy revolution in their affairs. He renews his exhortation to the practice of moral goodness, and promises them on that condition their fasts should be turned into joyful feasts; and they should be so distinguished by the Divine favor that many nations would be eager to embrace their religion and sue for their alliance. Blayney. 7:1. The fourth year of King Darius—B.C. 518. Nearly two years had elapsed since the visions vouchsafed to Zechariah had been made known for the encouragement of the people. Meanwhile the work of restoration had progressed and Jerusalem had begun to wear somewhat of her former aspect. With returning prosperity and power it was only natural that a question should arise as to the propriety of retaining those services of humiliation, which had been instituted as memorials of the destruction of the city and temple. B. C. 1-3. The date is given precisely, this being a matter of historic importance. From the arrival of the first caravan of returning Jews in the first year of Cyrus (B.C. 536) to the second year of Darius (about B.C. 520), the people had been harassed by their Samaritan enemies; the work on the temple for a time dragged heavily, and was finally quite suspended. At length, under special messages from God by Haggai and Zechariah, it was resumed in the second year of Darius. With this resumption commenced an era of great prosperity. Their foreign enemies ceased to annoy them; the smiles of God rested on all their labors. After two years of such prosperity, the question naturally arose, whether they should continue to observe certain days of fasting, as they had done then some seventy years. The most prominent of these days are specially referred to here; that in the fifth month (verse 3), and that also in the seventh month (verse 5). Chap. 8:19 refers to two others—viz., one in the fourth month and another in the tenth. The history indicates the special reason of fasting on these days. In the fifth month the temple was burned (Jer. 52:12). In the seventh, Gedaliah was slain, and the small remnant that remained with him were scattered and destroyed (Jer. 41:1 ff.). In the fourth month the city was taken (Jer. 52:6, 7). In the tenth it was invested by the armed hosts of Nebuchadnezzar (Jer. 52:4). The people in the capacity of a worshipping congregation sent this commission to their priests and prophets with this inquiry. H. C. 5,6. The sense of these two verses is much the same with that of Paul (1 Cor. 8:8)—viz., that eating or abstaining from meat is in its own nature indifferent; nor is it acceptable to God any further than it is subservient to the true ends of religion. The prophet first reproves the hypocrisy of their fasts before he gives them a direct answer to the question proposed. This he does in chap. 8:19. W. Loreth. This rebuke manifestly applied to some of those who united in this inquiry. The Lord asks, Did your fasting have any regard to Me? Did you think of your sins against Me? Did you humble yourselves before Me? So, when ye ate and when ye drank, was it not ye that ate, and ye that drank? This is the literal rendering, and implies that they thought of nothing but their own gratification, ate and drank merely to enjoy themselves, and as if there were no God to thank, no great Giver to recognize as the fountain of all blessings. H. C. To these men of Bethel, and through them to all formal worshippers God says: Why consult Me about these services? What have I to do with them? It was not Me you had in view, but yourselves, in performing them. If you like them, continue them. If they are a weariness to you, how much more to Me. So long as you merely wish to please yourselves, or to secure yourselves against some imagined danger, devise whatever services you think will best suit yourselves. When the worship of God becomes to us a mere duty the performance of which we feel incumbent upon us that we may not lose God's favor; when we enter upon it without heart, or even with some repugnance or distaste, God cannot recognize that as worship of Him, but only as the service of our own superstitious and ignorant self-seeking. We seek the company of our friends, not that we may ingratiate ourselves with them, but because we are happier there than elsewhere; such is the worship which God delights in. Dods. 8-14. A summary of the message sent by many of the prophets (verse 7) shortly before the Captivity; by Jeremiah and Zephaniah in the days of Josiah, and somewhat earlier by Hosea, Amos, Isaiah and Micah. This message refers to the ways of God toward the people, and of the people toward God in the age next preceding the time of Zechariah. That history was exceedingly full of most pertinent and valuable instruction. H. C. 9,10. This prophet here repeats the heads of the sermons which the former prophets preached to their fathers, because the very same things were required of them now. Thus does the Lord of Hosts speak to you now, and thus He did speak to your fathers, saying, Execute true judgment. The duties here required of them, which would have been the lengthening of the tranquillity of their fathers, and must be the restoring of their tranquillity, are not keeping fasts and offering sacrifices, but doing justly and loving mercy; duties which they were bound to by the light and law of nature, though there had been no prophets sent to insist upon them. H. Habitual communion with God is the root of the truest and purest compassion. It does not withdraw us from our fellow feeling with our brethren, it cultivates no isolation for undisturbed beholding of God. It at once supplies a standard by which to measure the greatness of man's godlessness, and therefore of his gloom, and a motive for laying the pain of these upon our hearts, as if they were our own. He has looked into the heavens to little purpose who has not learned how bad and how sad the world now is, and how God bends over it in pitying love. And that same fellowship which will clear our eyes and soften our hearts is also the one consolation which we have when our sense of all the ills that flesh is heir to becomes deep to near despair. When one thinks of the real facts of human life, and tries to conceive of the frightful meanness and passion and hate and wretchedness that has been howling and shrieking and gibbering and groaning through dreary millenniums, one's brain reels, and hope seems to be absurdity, and joy a sin against our fellows, as a feast would be in a house next door to where was a funeral. Ah! brethren, if it were not for the heavenward look, how could we bear the sight of earth! "We see not yet all things put under Him." No, God knows, far enough off from that. Man's folly, man's submission to the creatures he should rule, man's agonies, and man's transgression, are a grim contrast to the psalmist's vision. If we had only earth to look to, despair of the race, expressed in settled melancholy apathy, or in fierce cynicism, were the wisest attitude. But there is more within our view than earth; "we see Jesus;" we look to the heaven, and as we behold the true man, we see more than ever, indeed, how far from that pattern we all are; but we can bear the thought of what men as yet have been, when we see that perfect example of what men shall be. The root and the consolation of our sorrow for men's evils is communion with God. A. M. 11-14. These stubborn tinners hardened their hearts on purpose, lest they should hear what God said to them by the written word, by the law of Moses, and by the words of the prophets that preached to them. Therefore came great wrath from the Lord of Hosts. As they had turned a deaf ear to God's word, so God turned a deaf ear to their prayers. As He cried to them in their prosperity to leave their sins, and they would not hear, but persisted in their iniquities; so they cried to Him in the day of their trouble to remove His judgments, and He would not hear, but lengthened out their calamities. As they flew off from their duty and allegiance to God, so God dissipated them and threw them about as chaff before a whirlwind; He scattered them among all the nations whom they knew not, and whom therefore they could not expect to receive any kindness from. As they violated all the laws of their land, so God took away all the glories of it; their land was desolate after them. H. Chap. 8. As already remarked in the introduction to chap. 7, this continues and concludes the subject opened in that chapter. It gives the brighter side—the message of the Lord to the truly humbled, penitent and believing portion of the people. Hence it abounds in cheering promises. 1, 2. "Jealous for Zion." This revived jealousy for Zion implies that the Lord's love for her was enkindled afresh; His pity, too, became active; His apprehensions also for the honor of His name before the nations; and not least, His indignation toward the people that had so cruelly oppressed Zion. All these feelings conspired toward His purpose to return in mercy to Zion, as the next verse states. 3. These are the blessings. Moral purity stands specially prominent. "Jerusalem shall be called" (because she shall really be) "the city of truth," distinguished above all other cities for substantial integrity of character; and the temple mountain where the Lord dwells shall be "the holy mountain"—holy, by reason of the regeneration and sanctification of those who worship the Lord there. Such should be the results of the Lord's returning to Zion, to dwell there by His spiritual presence. These are the legitimate criteria of His real presence by His Spirit anywhere. 4,5. A beautiful scene of peace and prosperity, indicated by the groups of the aged, still living as witnesses to the long-continued exemption from desolating wars, and the yet more numerous throng of little boys and girls playing and happy in the streets. Evermore, through all the ages before Christ, such external prosperity is accounted as evidence of God's favor and approval. "Length of days is in her right hand; in her left, riches and honor." The genius of God's providential government in that age involved a high degree of present retribution. H. C. The words used are so vivid that the writer seems to become an inspired artist; with a few clear strokes and strong colors he paints a fascinating picture of that coming glory of his nation, so that we, standing here so many hundred years afterward, find it as fresh as if the artist's hand were just moved aside from the canvas. How thoroughly human the figures and impressions of that Bible picture are; and how lifelike they represent our religion to be! We may take these sentences as a graphic outline of what God would have a Christian state of society to be, not in heaven, but in this world. In the scriptural imagery, or symbolism, Jerusalem is a type of the Christian Church. Where the Gospel of Christ has done its perfect work, where Christianity has realized itself in social institutions, and has penetrated all our private and public life with its practical regulation, there the whole of our being will come under its control; all its periods, from childhood to old age, will take the stamp and bear the fruit of this holy and gracious power in the heart; every capacity in us will be invigorated to its best exercise by Christian faith; our common work—the handiwork of the husbandman and mechanic, the intellectual work of the scholar, the housework of woman, the shopwork of the trader—will be better and safer and happier work for being done in the name of Christ, for the sake of Christ, out of that living union of the heart with Him which makes Him the real life and power of all our daily service—done by a Christian will, with a Christian purpose, in a Christian spirit, with Christian hands and brain and feet. Christianity is too divine and bountiful a blessing to be so hedged in and misapprehended. It intends that every man and woman and boy and girl shall be the better for it, and every corner and instant in the character and life of each shall be the better. It comes to make better workmen as well as better believers, better men for the life that now is and for that which is to come—better citizens and neighbors, better husbands and fathers, better parents and children, better boys and girls. It would make strong men more manly, pure women more pure, light-hearted children lighter-hearted, because the love of Christ casts all fear out. The unseen city it is silently building is a city of truth, the mountain of the Lord of Hosts, the holy mountain. Old men and old women shall dwell in it, and it shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof. It comes down, to be sure, like a bride, out of heaven from God. But although it descends from above, it is human in its adaptations; it is a dwelling-place for just such people as we all are; human feet walk in it; human voices are heard along its avenues; human comfort lights its windows. The Gospel is sent into the world just as the world is. It is not some other race, but ours, in its own flesh and blood, in its habitations and occupations, that the Saviour comes to teach, to purify, to redeem, and to train up for His future service—that heavenly labor which is perfect rest. F. D. H. 6. Though it should seem marvellous and almost incredible in your eyes that I should bestow so great blessings, yet must it be marvellous in Mine? Is anything too hard for the Lord? Is any measure of blessings so great as to be marvellous in view of the great depths of Divine love? 7,8. This is a promise to save His people wherever they were, and to gather them in from their dispersions—two quarters of the heavens, the land toward the sun-rising and the land toward the sun setting being named—a part for the whole. H. C.—This denotes the general restoration of the Jewish nation from their several dispersions (cf. verses 13, 20, 23); an event foretold by most of the prophets of the Old Testament. "The west country" appears to have a particular relation to their present dispersion, great numbers of them being in these latter ages settled in the western parts of the world. W. Lowth.—At the time of the delivery of this prophecy there were very few or no Jews dispersed west of the Holy Land. Wells. 8. God would renew His covenant with them, would be faithful to them and make them so to Him. "They shall be My people, and I will be their God." That is the foundation and crown of all these promises, and is inclusive of all happiness. They shall obey God's laws, and God will secure and advance all their interests. This contract shall be made, shall be new made, in truth and in righteousness. H.—In truth and in righteousness. These words apply equally to God and His people, and imply that they shall on both sides truly and faithfully perform the conditions of the covenant once more renewed between them. Blayney. 9-17. God, by the prophet, here gives further assurances of the mercy He had in store for Judah and Jerusalem. Here is line upon line for their comfort, as before there was for their conviction. These verses contain strong encouragements, with reference to the difficulties they now labored under. H. 9. Of the prophets—i.e.,** Haggai and Zechariah. The reference is to the time when the building of the temple was being proceeded with, as related in Ezra 5: 1, 2 (where it is said that Zerubbabel and Jeshua rose up and began to build the house of God which was at Jerusalem), and not to the actual laying of the foundation of the house of the Lord in the second year of Cyrus, as related in Ezra 3: 8-13. This latter became, as Keil remarks, an eventful fact through the continuation of the building in the second year of Darius. B. C. 10. When the Lord says, "I set all men each one against his neighbor," He refers to what He let men do, in the sense of not preventing it—as a judgment on them for their sins. H. C. 11,12. What encouragement they shall now have to proceed in the good work they are about, and to hope that it shall yet be well with them: "Thus and thus you have been harassed and afflicted, but now God will change His way toward you (verse 11). Now that you return to your duty, God will comfort you according to the time that He has afflicted you; the ebbing tide shall flow again." They shall have great plenty and abundance of all good things (verse 12). The seed sown shall be prosperous, and yield a great increase; the vine shall give her fruit, which makes glad the heart, and the ground its products which strengthen the heart; they shall have all they can desire, not only for necessity, but for ornament and delight. The heavens shall give their dew, without which the earth would not yield her increase; which is a constant intimation to us of the beneficence of the God of heaven to men on earth, and of their dependence upon Him. It is said of a sweeping rain that it leaves no food (Prov. 28: 3); but here the gentle dew waters the earth that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater. And thus God will cause the remnant of this people to possess all these things. This confirms what the prophet's colleague had said a little before (Hag. 2: 16, 19), "From this day will I bless you." God's people, that serve Him faithfully, have great possessions: "All is yours, for you are Christ's." H. 12. To the life and beauty of a Judean or Egyptian landscape an abundant supply of dew was absolutely necessary; if it were withheld, beneath the fervor of a summer sun everything would wither and die. The dew in those climates falls so rapidly and abundantly that it may be collected in a shallow vessel, like water from a shower of rain; and the want of rain in the day-time is thus gently and constantly supplied by the bounty of the night; were it otherwise the most distressing droughts must be the consequence. "Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit," God says, describing the retributive consequences of the continued sins of His people. But again, when God will renew His mercy and fulfil His promises He says, "The seed shall be prosperous; the vine shall give her fruit, and the ground shall give her increase, and the heavens shall give their dew." G. B. C. 13-15. This passage relates to the captives who had been carried away upon the destruction of the Israelitish kingdom, as well as to those of the captivity of Judah in Babylon. The punishment had been inflicted at two different times; but both nations were invited to participate in the blessings of the return to Zion. B. C. 14,15. The antithesis here is this: As I thought to punish your fathers for their great provocations, and did not swerve from My thought, but carried it into execution; so have I now thought to bless Jerusalem, and I shall not fail to do it! Fear not! 16,17. The usual and always pertinent exhortations to practise righteousness and truth. The last clause of verse 16 enjoins upon them to administer law in the courts according to justice and truth. This would promote real peace and prosperity. Such decisions are decisions of peace. H. C. 16. Speak the truth.** The essence of lying consists in formal falsehood or a voluntary enunciation of what is not true. If any one, consequently, utters a falsehood, believing it to be true, he himself is not guilty of lying, though the thing itself be materially false, as he had no intention of falsehood. What is beside the intention of the speaker cannot enter into the specific difference of the act. In like manner, if a man should utter a truth believing it to be a lie, he would be chargeable with the moral guilt of falsehood, that being the purpose of his will which determines the character of his utterance, though accidentally it happens to be true. This pertains to the species of falsehood. But the purpose to mislead another by deception does not pertain to the species, but to the perfection of lying. It is falsehood having its perfect work. Thornwell. You cannot overthrow falsehood by negation, but by establishing the antagonistic truth. The refutation which is to last must be positive, not negative. It is an endless work to be uprooting weeds; plant the ground with wholesome vegetation, and then the juices which would have otherwise fed rankness will pour themselves into a more vigorous growth; the dwindled weeds will be easily raked out then. It is an endless task to be refuting error! Plant truth, and the error will pine away. F. W. R. Concealment is not always a wrong, as a lie is. One of the prime duties of man is the concealment of that which is his own, and to a knowledge of which another has no right. Toward those who have a right to know the whole truth, a man must not conceal any portion of the truth. Toward those who have no right to the whole truth, a man may properly conceal that measure of the truth which is his alone, by any proper means; but lying is never a proper means. At all times concealment without falsehood is right toward those who are not entitled to know the whole truth; but concealment may be practical falsehood toward those who have a right to know all the facts in the case. The first obligation of truth is Godward. A man ought not to lie, because a lie is a sin against God. Even apart from the question of his obligation to his fellow-man, man ought to refrain from lying, because to lie is to detach himself from God and to put himself in the devil's service. The suggestion of lying for the good of man or for the glory of God is an absurdity, inasmuch as a lie has no place or part or possibility in the plan or service of God. Hence a "system" of Christian ethics that admits that a lie may be justifiable is not a system of Christian ethics, because the one all-dividing line between truth and falsehood is ignored in it. H. C. T. There is a real though subtle distinction between concealment of truth for the purpose of deceiving, and concealment (from those only who have no right to know the facts in issue) without intention of deceiving, even though with moral certainty that some one will be self-deceived; and the solution of the ancient puzzle of casuistry lies in the detection of this fine but valid distinction. We are under obligation to God to use our wits in concealing facts of which Providence has made us stewards, from those who have no right to these facts; and so to use our wits as merely to conceal, and to conceal merely the things we are in duty bound to conceal, without any effort to deceive; and this, irrespective of any conjecture as to possible or probable self-deception on the part of the curious. The stewardship of facts is as sacred as that of wealth. We are not responsible for mistakes people stumble into through improper curiosity. We are responsible in the premises for four things and four only: (1) strict adherence to truth; (2) painstaking concealment of facts which others ought not to know; (3) use of our God-given wits ("Be ye wise as serpents") in devising means of concealment—as when Rahab hid the spies; (4) absolute elimination of intention to pervert the intelligence or warp the minds of others. Having made sure of these four things, in all cases where the inquiring party has no right to the facts, our responsibility ends. W. W. Faris. 18,19. Here we find the explicit answer to the question sent up from the people by the hand of Sherezer and Regem-melech. Those fasts shall be changed to seasons of joy and gladness, and to cheerful feasts—only the Lord still enforces that which is evermore essential to their abiding prosperity, "Love the truth and peace." H. C. 19. The fast of the fourth month was a memorial of the capture of Jerusalem in the eleventh year of Zedekiah. (See Jer. 39:2; 52:6, 7.) The fast of the tenth month was a memorial of the commencement of the blockade of Jerusalem. (See Jer. 39:1; 52:4.) B. C. Therefore love truth and peace. God values an upright conversation more than the exactest care of outward performances. (See verse 16.) These instructions prepared men's minds for receiving the Gospel, the laws of which chiefly recommend purity of heart and life. (See Jer. 31:33.) W. Lowth. A sort of spurious peacemaking consists simply in "letting things alone," "not meddling," "being sure that all will come right," "taking things easily," "minding one's own business, and letting one's neighbors mind theirs." Now this "let alone" sort of peacemaking makes—if it can be said to make anything—a very shabby sort of peace. It leaves vice unchecked, it leaves ungodliness rampant, it leaves ignorance untaught, it leaves secret grudges to fester in people's hearts: I know not whether selfishness or cowardice have the greater part in it; for selfishness and cowardice are both very largely present in it, and selfishness and cowardice are the very opposites of Christian peacemaking. And such miserable peace is no peace at all; for though it may be quiet for a time, yet there is no security whatever that it may not blaze out at any moment into the wildest excesses of strife or evil. Dale. To give no offence, and where possible take none; to stand clear of strife; to look on when hearts are torn and lives are spent in a mad contention with the laws of God; to let human nature fret itself to death, out of peace, hateful and hating, rebellious and proud: this is not to be like the Eternal Father. Had He done so of old, the Son had kept His pure and peaceful heaven; no angels had sung peace on earth at His birth; no sweet message, like an olive leaf, had grown out of His cross. Pacification at His own cost and pain is the supreme idea of our Christian God: His name is Reconciler. They who have been born of Him, and are so like Him that they can see Him, are in this world as He was in it—the world's reconcilers. Dykes. 20-22. "It shall come to pass that there shall come people and the inhabitants of many cities; and the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, Let us go speedily to pray before the Lord, and to seek the Lord of Hosts; I will go also. Yea, many people and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord and to pray before the Lord." Churches shall come to adore Him, cities to consult Him, nations to surrender to Him, all the kindreds of the earth to fall down before Him. They shall not be content to praise Him alone; they shall feel as if they wanted help—the help of the world—to raise a song adequate to His praise, and a prayer equal to the ardor of their desires. "And it shall come to pass that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before Me, saith the Lord." Then man will have found his only proper place; will have returned to the only spot in the universe which becomes him—at the feet of God. And, having found his proper place, his ultimate end, there will be rest and peace; going out of himself, and losing himself in God. Then God will have recovered His proper glory; every idol will be abolished, every rival power cast out, the eyes of all will wait upon Him, all flesh will be seen staying themselves upon Him; He will be seen by the universe as the centre of a lapsing creation, the support and stay of a sinking world. Then the design of the whole Gospel constitution will be completed, "that no flesh should glory in His presence;" everything will have redounded to the glory of His grace. And when all flesh shall thus be seen in effect, prostrate before God in prayer, what will it be but a prelude to the worship of heaven? What will remain but that the whole should be transferred to the employment of praise above! Infinite love, ascending the throne, and putting on the crown, shall sit down and enjoy an eternal Sabbath of love! While the myriads of the redeemed and glorified, casting their crowns before Him, shall ascribe their happiness to Him, and the jubilee of eternity shall begin. J. Harris. 23. Each of the ten representative men stands for one nation, since they are each of different language, and taken together represent "all languages of the nations," indicating that people of every tongue and clime shall come to Zion for the law and the light of God. Those glorious conversions of Gentile nations which are to take place far down in the ages of the Gospel dispensation, if foretold at all by Jewish prophets and for Jewish readers, must be presented in thoroughly Jewish language and in harmony with Jewish conceptions. So we ought to expect to find it throughout the Old Testament prophets; so we do find it. On this principle the "Jew" is any one with whom God is. Under the Gospel system "he is not a Jew who is one outwardly" (Rom. 2:28, 29). This passage, therefore, is a prediction that "the inhabitants of many cities," "yea, many people and strong nations," yea, nations so diverse that they speak all the languages of the earth—shall come to those who have the Gospel and beg to be led to the Lamb of God. H. C. The reply regarding fasts closes with the assurance that the fasts shall be turned into feasts, that days of uninterrupted gladness are approaching, days in which God shall so manifestly bless Israel that all nations shall observe and turn toward Jerusalem. "We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you." This is the ultimate attraction, the presence of God. This gradually approves itself as the most powerful determining influence in the life of nations and of individuals. It is this that secures the well-being and felicity here described. And the prediction that the Divine presence among the Jews would attract men to the race has been fulfilled so far as the Western world is concerned. It is as manifested in the history of the Jews and in the person of Jesus of Nazareth that God has been recognized and worshipped by Christendom. In Christ we find one who is as personal as ourselves, and as Divine as we can conceive or as our needs require. In Him we find one whom instinctively we worship; one able to respond to and satisfy our faith; the Master of nature, unappalled in presence of its most terrific moods, overcoming its most overwhelming ills; one who is transcendent also in the moral world, alone upon earth unsullied by temptation, in the world and yet neither weakened, misled, nor lowered by its tone, and stretching His hand as from a position above all possibility of failure to all who crave His help. Whatever God is, that is God as we have to do with Him, God in human nature revealing Himself personally. Dods. 9:1 THE burden of the word of the LORD upon the land of Hadrach, and Damascus shall be its resting place: for the eye of man and of all the tribes of Israel is toward the LORD: 2 and Hamath also which bordereth thereon: Tyre and Zidon, because she is very wise. 3 And Tyre did build herself a strong hold, and heaped up silver as the dust, and fine gold as 4 the mire of the streets. Behold, the Lord will dispossess her, and he will smite her power in 5 the sea; and she shall be devoured with fire. Ashkelon shall see it, and fear; Gaza also, and shall be sore pained; and Ekron, for her expectation shall be ashamed: and the king 6 shall perish from Gaza, and Ashkelon shall not be inhabited. And a bastard shall dwell in 7 Ashdod, and I will cut off the pride of the Philistines. And I will take away his blood out of his mouth, and his abominations from between his teeth; and he also shall be a remnant 8 for our God: and he shall be as a chieftain in Judah, and Ekron as a Jebusite. And I will encamp about mine house against the army, that none pass through or return: and no oppressor shall pass through them any more: for now have I seen with mine eyes. 9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy king cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, even 10 upon a colt the foal of an ass. And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow shall be cut off; and he shall speak peace unto the nations: 11 and his dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth. As for thee also, because of the blood of thy covenant I have sent forth thy prisoners out of the 12 pit wherein is no water. Turn you to the strong hold, ye prisoners of hope: even to-day 13 do I declare that I will render double unto thee. For I have bent Judah for me, I have filled the bow with Ephraim; and I will stir up thy sons, O Zion, against thy sons, O Greece, and 14 will make thee as the sword of a mighty man. And the LORD shall be seen over them, and his arrow shall go forth as the lightning: and the Lord God shall blow the trumpet, and 15 shall go with whirlwinds of the south. The LORD of hosts shall defend them; and they shall devour, and shall tread down the sling stones; and they shall drink, and make a noise as 16 through wine: and they shall be filled like bowls, like the corners of the altar. And the LORD their God shall save them in that day as the flock of his people: for they shall be as the 17 stones of a crown, lifted on high over his land. For how great is his goodness, and how great is his beauty! corn shall make the young men flourish, and new wine the maids. 10:1 Ask ye of the LORD rain in the time of the latter rain, even of the LORD that maketh 2 lightnings; and he shall give them showers of rain, to every one grass in the field. For the teraphim have spoken vanity, and the diviners have seen a lie; and they have told false dreams, they comfort in vain: therefore they go their way like sheep, they are afflicted, be- 3 cause there is no shepherd. Mine anger is kindled against the shepherds, and I will punish the he-goats: for the LORD of hosts hath visited his flock the house of Judah, and shall make 4 them as his goodly horse in the battle. From him shall come forth the corner stone, from 5 him the nail, from him the battle bow, from him every exactor together. And they shall be as mighty men, treading down their enemies in the mire of the streets in the battle; and they shall fight, because the LORD is with them: and the riders on horses shall be confounded. 6 And I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph, and I will bring them again, for I have mercy upon them; and they shall be as though I had not cast 7 them off: for I am the LORD their God, and I will hear them. And they of Ephraim shall be like a mighty man, and their heart shall rejoice as through wine: yea, their children shall 8 see it, and rejoice; their heart shall be glad in the LORD. I will hiss for them, and gather 9 them; for I have redeemed them: and they shall increase as they have increased. And I will sow them among the peoples; and they shall remember me in far countries: and they shall live with their children, and shall return. I will bring them again also out of the land of Egypt, and gather them out of Assyria; and I will bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon; and place shall not be found for them. And he shall pass through the sea of affliction, and shall smite the waves in the sea, and all the depths of the Nile shall dry up: and the pride of Assyria shall be brought down, and the sceptre of Egypt shall depart away. And I will strengthen them in the LORD; and they shall walk up and down in his name, saith the LORD. Chap. 9. The third portion of the book is of far wider significance. It begins (chap. 9) with the denunciation of God's anger upon Damascus, Tyre, Sidon and Philistia. These probably are named as representing the enemies of the theocracy, and their fall is to be followed by the restoration of the monarchy at Jerusalem. But its King is not to come in royal fashion as Jeremiah foretold, "riding in chariots and on horses, He and His servants and His people" (Jer. 22:4), but lowly, and sitting upon an ass; and He is to speak not war, but peace to the heathen, and as the King of Peace "His dominion is to reach from sea to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth." The Jews in captivity, now "prisoners of hope," are to return, and Ephraim and Judah, once again united, together are to form an empire more powerful than that of Greece; while their own land is to be so fruitful that the abundance of corn and wine shall lead to happy marriages, and fill their dwellings with young men and maids. R. P. S. This chapter begins with announcing the fate of the Syrians, Sidonians and Philistines, contrasted with the better prospects of the Jewish nation. It foretells the coming of the Messiah to Jerusalem and the peace of His kingdom. The restoration of Israel and Judah is afterward predicted, together with a series of glorious victories and great prosperity, which are set forth at large in this and the next chapter. Blayney. Verses 1-8 sketch the sweep of the conquering hosts of Alexander the Great in Western Asia, and along the eastern coast of the Mediterranean, and refer to the special protection afforded by the Lord to His people in the midst of that scene of danger; then the prophet (verses 9, 10) passes over to the greater protection and salvation wrought out by King Messiah for His people; and then (verses 10-17) on the same analogy predicts the protection of the Jews against the Greco-Syrian power in the age of the Maccabees. 1. It is remarkable that though Hadrach (Persia) is named as the first to feel the sweep of this conquering devastator, Alexander, and though precisely this is the order of the historic facts, yet the prophet passes her with only her enigmatical name. A burden of the word of the Lord is upon her land; that is all he thinks proper to say. Damascus is the place upon which this burden rests down. The predicted ruin should smite and crush her. 2. Hamath, a country lying north of Palestine, bordered on Damascus, and therefore fell within the range of this great conqueror, and came down beneath the force of his arms. So did Tyre, with Sidon, because she had taken great pride in her wisdom, and had so utterly renounced all reliance on the true God. The verb rendered "be very wise" is in the singular, and refers primarily to Tyre. The word rendered "though" should be read "because," this being its usual and best established meaning. The full thought is brought out by Ezekiel in 28:2, 3, 6, 17. 3,4. Further and special notice is taken of Tyre. After having been once fearfully desolated by Nebuchadnezzar, she had fortified herself on an island with immense strength, and, by means of her extensive commerce, had amassed great wealth. But the Lord would dispossess her of all this wealth. So the original signifies, and not merely "cast her out." He would also smite her bulwarks, built up and standing in the sea, and she should be at length devoured utterly by fire. After a siege of seven months, Alexander took the city, n.c. 332, and every feature of this prophecy was fulfilled. 5. From Phoenicia the conqueror swept on to Philistia. The prophet's course of thought is the same. The fall of Tyre sent a panic through those cities of far inferior strength. How could they stand before a power with which Tyre, in all her glory and prowess, could not cope? See the same thoughts in Isa. 23. Tyre held Alexander's army at bay seven months; the cities of Philistia scarcely retarded the conquering march of his army at all. H. C. Ashkelon shall not be inhabited. Ashkelon and the other cities of the Philistines having been subjugated by Nebuchadnezzar, as foretold by Jeremiah (chap. 47), never recovered their former independency; but, falling under the dominion of the great empires in succession, were almost continually involved in their wars, and suffered considerably, till by degrees they dwindled away, and at last sunk to nothing. Zephaniah's prophecy (chap. 2: 4-7) extends to this. 6. And a bastard shall dwell in Ashdod. The word rendered "bastard" does not here imply an illegitimate offspring, but simply one of foreign extraction. So that it is meant that the city should be peopled with strangers, not descended from its present possessors. Ashdod, or Azotus, was burned and destroyed by Jonathan, brother of Judas Maccabeus, and eight thousand of its men burned or slain (1 Mac. 10: 84, 85). These were probably what was meant by "the pride of the Philistines," the prime or excellency of the ancient inhabitants, in whose room the strangers were introduced. 7. At what time or whence the new colony was brought to dwell in Ashdod we are not informed. But some years after, in the reign of Alexander Jannæus, Azotus is enumerated by Josephus among the cities of the Phœnicians, which the Jews had been some time possessed of: and it is well known that that people exacted of all that were under their dominion a conformity, to a certain degree at least, to their religious rites and usages. This will serve to explain what is here meant by "taking his blood out of his mouth, and his abominations from between his teeth." The stranger was required to abstain from eating blood, and from such things as were held in abomination by the Jewish law. Blayney. 6,7. The pride of Philistia would be effectually humbled. And furthermore, the Lord would thoroughly cure them of their idolatry. The prophet, in representing this fact, thinks of them as eating things offered to idols, or as feasting in honor of their idols, and then the Lord plucks out the flesh from between their teeth and cleanses out the blood from their mouth. Then the remnant are converted—"shall be for our God"—are honored as a captain of a thousand in Judah; and they of Ekron shall come to be as near to God as the Jebusites—the primitive inhabitants of Jerusalem—after that city became the holy and the chosen one of God. (See Josh. 15: 63; Judges 19: 10, 11; 2 Sam. 24: 16.) This prophecy had its special fulfilment when the Gospel was preached with great success by the apostles in those cities. It has its general fulfilment under the broad doctrine that all the great revolutions which the Lord brings about by war shall culminate at last in the wider range and sweep of His converting grace. Hence so many prophecies terminate like this. (See Isa. 19: 18-25; 23: 15-18; Jer. 12: 15, 16.) 8. The fulfilment of this promise began with the nearer future, and was specially developed in the time of Alexander, when it was indeed striking and almost miraculous. If we may credit Josephus, Alexander sent to the Jews his usual demand for tribute as a token of submission, and was answered that they were in allegiance to the Persian throne. Offended by this reply, he soon after came in person; met Jaddua, the high-priest, in his robes of office, attended by other priests; was solemnly impressed by their appearance; treated them with extraordinary deference, and ever after accounted the Jews his special friends. In explanation of this extraordinary conduct, he referred to a dream in which a personage attired like this high-priest met him while yet at home, and pondering the question of invading Persia, encouraged him to go forward, assuring him of victory and success. Consequently he recognized this high-priest as the minister of the invisible gods, and all the more so when the Jews showed him the prophecies of Daniel respecting himself. Of the general fact of Alexander's special favor to the Jews, there can be no doubt. This favor fulfilled the prophecy before us (verse 8). God's hand was in the agencies that secured it. Whether those agencies are given with general accuracy by Josephus has been questioned; but for aught that appears, with more reason for affirming than for denying. In its general significance, this promise is good for the true Church of God in every age of time. 9. This striking case of protection against one of the world's greatest and most formidable conquerors—protection which specially shielded Jerusalem when all the adjacent cities and kingdoms were overrun and fearfully desolated—suggested the greater and more glorious protection achieved for the people of God through their incarnate Messiah, at once their great High Priest and their supreme King. Over this Deliverer let Zion rejoice exceedingly! This summons to exultant joy indicates that Messianic blessings are before the prophet's eye. His character as King is specially prominent here because suggested by the protection He gives His people against their enemies. Riding upon an ass. All the sons of David rode on mules—an animal of the same general character. In the transfer of the kingdom from David to Solomon, great account is made of his riding on David's mule in the royal procession on coronation day. It is therefore simply impossible that any odium could have been attached to riding on an ass at the time Zechariah wrote, or at the time when Christ fulfilled His prediction. But there is one idea which deserves a far more prominent position than it has had. The ass was not adapted to war; the horse was. For the most part the ass appears in Jewish history either used by men in peaceful life, or by women who should never be in any other. On the contrary, the horse of scripture history is a war horse, with either his dragoon or his chariot. Nor let us fail to notice in our context that while King Messiah is to ride on an ass, the Lord says: "I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem;" and He shall speak peace to the heathen." Jerusalem especially, the holy city where Jehovah dwelt, must have no horses. Their very names and their presence are too much associated with war. Zech. 12:4 shows how the horse is commonly thought of as related to the Hebrew state. In the millennial age, horses for once (for the first time?) shall be really consecrated to God (14:20), a most remarkable fact, and indicating a stupendous change! The ass then is here an emblem of peace—of peaceful pursuits, of a peaceful King, and of His peaceful reign, showing that Messiah's kingdom should not be of this world, and should not make its conquests with carnal weapons. This significant act, riding on an ass, is a symbol of Christ's peaceful reign, inaugurating Him for the sort of work which the next verse describes. H. C. It is not with the pomp of an earthly conqueror, but with lowly array and riding upon an ass, that the Messiah makes His entry into Jerusalem. His kingdom has no need of war-like weapons, which are, on the contrary, to be swept away. Beginning at Jerusalem, He founds a peaceful kingdom, which is to reach from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth. O. Over palms and rushes He makes His way to the cross, and through the cross to the throne; how is He here made manifest as the Founder of a spiritual kingdom of God! Nay, His kingdom is not of this world. Not on the proud war horse, but on the humble beast of burden the son of David treads within Jerusalem; no swords are here drawn, but palms are waved in His honor; not over corpses, but over garments lies His course; while not war cries, but loud hosannas peal. Not with force and violence comes He to reign, but through the mild power of His love; and who can doubt if He shall at the last be victor? Yea, verily, the future Conqueror of the world passes here before us in solitary unique splendor; and His entrance into Jerusalem becomes an image and prophecy of His course through the world's history. Lowly, gentle, compassionate, but victorious; just where He seems lost, so He goes forward, from age to age, from land to land, city to city; His followers poor, and low in rank: while even His foes are forced continually to cry out, "Perceive ye how ye prevail nothing? behold, the world is gone after Him" (John 12:19)! Van O. The one underlying idea of Revelation is the outlook on a universal kingdom of God. This primeval promise and principle alike forms the beginning and is the goal; it is the heading and the summary of Revelation. And it was this foundation-truth which unfolded throughout the course of Israel's development—in their history, rites and institutions, as well as in the more direct communications through the prophets. As Israel was ideally, so all nations were through their ministry to become really the possession of God: a kingdom of priests, a holy people; for all the earth, as well as Israel, was God's. And the realization of this would be the kingdom of God on earth. All the institutions of Israel were in strict accordance with this ideal destiny. Alike the laws, the worship, the institutions, and the mission of Israel were intended to express these two things: acknowledgment of God and dependence upon God. Thus viewed, the whole might be summed up in this one term, which runs through the whole Old Testament: "The servant of Jehovah." The patriarchs were the servants of the Lord; Israel was the servant of the Lord; and their threefold representative institutions expressed the same idea. The Priest was to be wholly the Servant of the Lord. Hence the smallest transgression of the ordinances of his calling involved his destruction or removal. The King was not to bear rule in the manner of heathen princes, but to be the Servant of the Lord, in strictest subordination to Jehovah. Hence Saul, despite his nobler qualities, was really the antichrist; and David, despite his grievous faults, the typical Christ of Israel's royalty, because of his constant acknowledgment of God's kinship. And the prophet was simply the servant of the Lord, telling naught but God's Word, in such strict adherence to the letter of his commission, that its slightest breach brought immediate punishment. And the Messiah, as summing up in Himself ideal Israel—its history, institutions, mission and promises—was to be the Servant of the Lord. Hence the prophecies which most clearly portray Him—those of Isaiah—might be headed by this title: The Book of the Servant of Jehovah; the idea rising, through people, prophet, king, even through a foreign instrumental doer of His behest, up to Him as the Servant of the Lord, the ideal Sufferer by and for the unrighteousness of man, the ideal Sacrifice and Priest for his sins, the ideal Teacher in his ignorance, Comforter in his sorrow, Restorer in his decay, and Dispenser of all blessing to the world at large—the Spirit-anointed One out of whose fulness all were to receive, and who would fulfil all that Israel had meant and prepared. Or, going backward, He was to be the Son of Man, the second Adam, whose victory would restore what sin had lost; the true Son of God, God manifest in the flesh. This, we believe, the Old Testament meant, and Jesus of Nazareth came to fulfil. A. Eilersheim. 10. This verse is closely connected with verse 9—a part of the same grand prophecy of the Messiah and of His reign on earth—set here in a fine antithesis with the conquering, worldwide kingdom of Alexander. The chariot and the horse must be discarded and abolished as war institutions, and therefore wholly out of place under this peaceful reign. They can bear no part in the great conquests which Zion's King is to make. He has no fighting to do with carnal weapons. On the contrary, He "speaks" peace to the nations. The Gospel of His word carries with it peace and love to men. H. C. This prophecy, together with those of Hosea 2:18; Micah 5:5, 10; Hag. 2:22, as they foretell the outward peacefulness of Christ's Church or kingdom, relate to the flourishing state of it in the latter times of the world. The words which denote the extent of that kingdom, "His dominion shall be from sea," etc., are taken from Ps. 72:8, where David describes the extent of Solomon's kingdom, from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean, and from the river Euphrates to the border of Egypt. (Cf. Ex. 23:31; 1 K. 4:21; De. 11:24.) This, as appears from several expressions in that psalm, was a figurative description of Christ's kingdom, which should be enlarged toward the four quarters of the world. W. Lowth. 11. By the blood of thy covenant I have sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit. As for thee, O Zion, whose covenant with me is made and confirmed by the precious blood of the Messiah, in that new and everlasting testament, I do herein give thee a type of thy future deliverance from all thy spiritual miseries. Bp. Hall.—Anciently in great houses, and particularly in the East, deep, dry pits, called dungeons, were appropriated for the confinement of prisoners. Into one of these Jeremiah was cast (Jer. 38:6). Blayney. 11-13. The ninth and tenth verses may be regarded as a digression from the regular course of thought, and embraced in a parenthesis. In verse 11 the prophet returns to speak of events that follow shortly after those predicted (verses 1-8). The conflict (verse 13) between the sons of Zion and the sons of Greece finds its fulfilment in the furious wars waged during twenty-four years between the Jews and the Syrian Greeks, commencing in the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes. His people are here called Greeks because his kingdom was one of the four into which the great Grecian empire of Alexander was divided, and also because their language and customs were Grecian. H. C. 12. In the ninth verse of this chapter proclamation is made that the Messiah is at hand; and the Church is called upon to go forth to meet Him with joy. "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem; behold, thy King cometh unto thee." And that the awe of His majesty might be no bar to their joy, they are told, for their encouragement, that He comes in such a form of condescension and grace as serves rather to invite than forbid their approach to Him: for "He is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of an ass." They are further assured, in the tenth verse, that as the ensigns of His royalty differ so widely from those which earthly monarchs use, so He shall govern His subjects, and subdue His enemies, not by external force, but by inward persuasion; not by "the chariot, the horse and the battle-bow," for all these shall be "cut off;" but by the preaching of the Gospel, accompanied with the powerful operation of the Spirit, which is emphatically called "speaking peace unto the heathen;" in consequence whereof, "His dominions shall extend from sea to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth." And to finish the description of this King of Zion, it is added, in the eleventh verse, that the gracious aim of His government is to set men at liberty from the vilest slavery, and to release them from the most ignominious confinement, by opening their prison doors, and "sending them forth out of the pit wherein is no water." This too He is to perform in a way peculiarly endearing: He is to purchase their freedom with the price of His own blood; which, with great propriety, is styled "the blood of the covenant," as it ratifies and confirms that covenant of grace, whereby sinners are reinstated in the favor of God, and rescued from the power of all their spiritual enemies. The like representation is given of the Messiah (Isa 42:6, 7) "I the Lord have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles; to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison-house." And the Messiah Himself is introduced (Isa. 61, at the beginning), speaking to the same purpose, saying, "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek, He hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound." In all these passages He is plainly pointed out to us in the character of a Redeemer; and, as such, He issues forth the proclamation: Turn ye to the stronghold, ye prisoners of hope; even to-day do I declare that I will render double unto thee. By the stronghold to which we are exhorted to turn, is undoubtedly meant "the blood of the covenant," spoken of in the preceding verse; or rather the new covenant itself, ratified and sealed by the blood of Christ. This indeed is a stronghold, an impregnable defence to all who flee to it for refuge: It is "an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure." Here an effectual supply is to be found for all the sinner's wants and necessities; an infinite sacrifice to expiate his guilt; all conquering grace to subdue his corruptions; unerring wisdom to guide him; irresistible power to protect him; unbounded goodness to relieve his present needs, and to crown him with glory and happiness hereafter. In short, "the whole fulness of the Godhead" is treasured up in the Mediator of this covenant; and "he is made of God," unto all who believe on Him, "wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification and redemption." R. W. 15. The reader will be careful to notice the contrast between these verses and the Messianic passage (verses 9, 10) on the point of war with deadly weapons. Under Messiah's peaceful reign there shall be no chariots or horses of war; the battle bow shall be cut off and unknown; but here, in the age before Messiah came, Judah is the Lord's bow, Ephraim his arrow; the Lord fights at their head, and they too fight with determined and almost furious bravery. Manifestly it is his purpose in this chapter to put the future kingdom of the Messiah in the strongest possible contrast with those militant features of the earlier age, and to assure us that in the good time coming men shall truly "learn war no more." The Gospel, having once developed its whole genius and power, shall prove itself thoroughly and only "peace on earth and good will to men." H. C. 16. The love He has for them and the relation wherein they stand to Him; they are the flock of His people and He is their Shepherd; they are to Him as the stones of a crown which are very precious and of great value, and which are kept under a strong guard: never was any king so pleased with the jewels of his crown as God is and will be with His people, who are near and dear unto Him and in whom He glories. They are a crown of glory and a royal diadem in His hand (Isa. 62:2, 3). And they shall be Mine, saith the Lord, in that day when I make up My jewels (Mal. 3:17). And they shall be lifted up as an ensign upon His land, as the royal standard is displayed in token of triumph and joy. God's people are His glory; so He is pleased to make them, so He is pleased to reckon them. 17. The provision He makes for them is the matter of their triumph. For how great is His goodness, and how great is His beauty! All the perfections of God's nature conspire to make Him infinitely lovely in the eyes of all that know Him. They are to Him as the stones of a crown; but what is He to them? Our business in the temple is to behold the beauty of the Lord (Ps. 27:4); and how great is that beauty! How far does it transcend all other beauties, particularly the beauty of His holiness. This may refer to the Messiah, to Zion's King that cometh. See that King in His beauty (Isa. 33:17), who is fairer than the children of men, the fairest of ten thousand, and altogether lovely. Though in the eye of the world He had no form or comeliness, in the eye of faith how great is His beauty! So they admire and give thanks for the gifts of God's favor and grace; His bounty as well as His beauty; for how great is His goodness! How rich in mercy is He! How deep, how full are its springs! How various, how plenteous, how precious are its streams! H. After so glorious a vision of mercy and glory, benefits and blessings, in the economy of man's redemption, well may the prophet cry out in a pious rapture and holy astonishment, "How great is His goodness, and how great is His beauty!" Goodness unspeakable to fallen, sinful man! Goodness conducted by almighty power, and beautified in the whole display thereof by infinite wisdom, holiness and truth! Holiness and truth with respect to His own glory! Wogan. Chap. 10. This chapter is a continuation from the close of chap. 9, and hence has for its ground idea the wars of the Maccabees against the Syrian power. Verse 1 stands immediately connected with 9 : 17, indicating the external prosperity that succeeded those wars; verse 2 falls back to note the apostasies which brought on this Syrian scourge; verse 3 the zeal and jealousy of the Lord kindled against the corrupt Jewish leaders, and the remedy for their mischiefs; in verse 4 men rise up capable of filling positions of responsible trust; in verse 5 they fight valiantly, because the Lord is with them, and confounds their foes. In verses 6-12, on the basis of this great deliverance wrought for His people, the prophet predicts that in times more remote the Lord will work similar but yet more glorious achievements for His Zion. H. C. This chapter connects itself so obviously with the preceding one, that they should properly form but a single chapter. The vision of temporal prosperity just revealed—peace and security from external oppression—suggests to the prophet's mind a warning that such blessings are God's gifts, to be sought from Him by prayer; and not to be obtained by resorting to idolatrous intercessions and to false teachers. B. C.—The same line of thought is continued, but with the warning that they are to seek their blessing from Jehovah, and not from idols or diviners. And as in old time their shepherds—i.e., their kings, had been their ruin, Jehovah will now be Himself their Shepherd, and under His rule they shall become like a glorious war horse; and out of Judah shall proceed the corner—i.e., the corner stone, upon which the whole building of the State depends, the nail or bracket which supports the most precious articles for use and adornment, the weapons of war for defence, and (not the oppressor, as the Authorized Version renders the word, but) the captain or ruler, who shall win for the Jews dominion (verse 4). In the rest of the chapter the happy effects of the union of Ephraim with Judah are described; and whereas in old time they had been scattered among the heathen in punishment, they are now to be sown among them as a blessing, and also because their own land can no longer contain their increasing numbers, though they are to recover their former boundaries, and possess Gilead and Lebanon as in David's days. R. P. S. 1. Ask ye of the Lord rain.** The promise of future plenty suggests the mention of the means by which it might then be procured—viz., supplication to Jehovah, and not to idols. Abp. Newcome.—Under the ancient dispensation the Lord gave timely rains and abundant harvests to His people when they were obedient and trustful, and sought Him in prayer. He took care to have them understand this from the outset. (See De. 11 : 13, 14.) "And it shall come to pass that if ye shall hearken diligently unto My commandments which I command you this day, to love the Lord your God, and to serve Him with all your heart, and with all your soul, that I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn and thy wine and thy oil." Hence the prophet says here, "Ask of the Lord rain," it comes for the asking, for the Lord your God hears the prayer of His obedient people. Rain "in the time of the latter rain" was especially useful to perfect the maturing crops. "So the Lord shall give," not "bright clouds," but "lightnings," always portending rain. The Hebrew words translated "showers of rain" imply abundance, "the rain of great rain." H. C. Zechariah said nearly five hundred years before Christ, "Ask ye for rain in the time of the latter rain." God had promised to give His people the early and the latter rain. But He wanted them to pray for it nevertheless. And sometimes He withheld it because they did not ask for it. And it is so in the spiritual kingdom. He waits to be gracious. He is anxious to bless and to save. He would not have His word return unto Him void, but accomplish that whereunto He has sent it. But He "will be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them." If, then, we would have showers of blessings upon our congregations, if we would see thousands converted in a day, we must hold pentecostal prayer meetings. We must ask earnestly, unitedly and perseveringly for the outpouring of the Spirit. Interior. 2. All the light that came from these gods and diviners was only darkness; their guidance only misled the people; the hopes they inspired were worse than vain; consequently the whole people were led off in a wrong and ruinous way, going en masse, as a flock of sheep follow the lead given them. They were in great affliction (the sense of the word rendered "were troubled”), because there was no competent and real shepherd. Therefore the Lord comes to the rescue. 4. When the Lord visits Judah in mercy, He gives her the very blessings she needs—good leaders in place of the bad who had been so sore a curse upon her. Hence out of Judah now come forth the “corner-stone” men, good for bearing the weightiest responsibilities: the “nail” men, to hold things in their right place, or to bear great burdens. “The battle bow” are the men skilful in the line of war, but the word rendered “oppressor” does not in this passage imply any injustice, but only an active, vigorous and capable ruler. 6. This conception carries us onward into the Messianic age, and could have its fulfilment in nothing short or less. The recall of the Ten Tribes, in any age subsequent to Zechariah, must, of necessity, be regarded as Messianic, and to be fulfilled only in the New Testament sense. With these principles of interpretation before the mind, this entire passage (verses 6–12) becomes not only clear and free from its otherwise insurmountable difficulties, but rich in Gospel significance and in the fulness of glorious promise for Zion in her latter days. 7–9. “Ephraim” contemplates in its literal sense the Ten Tribes; but in its real prophetic outlook, the ingathering of the nations to Jesus Christ in the Gospel age. A Jew in the time of Zechariah could conceive of no state of things more desirable than the reproducing of the good times of David and Solomon. Hence language and figures are drawn from that state to represent the best condition possible for God’s earthly kingdom—the sublimely glorious conquests of peace and victories of love in the latter days. In verse 8 Ephraim comes back with heart full of joy; the Lord lifts up His shrill cry for them, as the keeper of bees whistles for them, and they come to His call. They multiply as of old (Ephraim took His name from the idea of being prolific in population). In verse 9 God will scatter them abroad among the nations, and there, under the moral influence of this affliction, they shall remember the Lord their God and repent of their great sins. So the Lord said by Hosea (2:4), “I will allure her into the wilderness and speak to her heart.” H. C. I have redeemed them. In its entire scope and spirit, from Genesis to the Apocalypse, one leading fact is disclosed in this Book of God; one grand idea is affirmed, illustrated, interwoven throughout its extended warp of history, prophecy, psalm, evangel and epistle —a voluntary redemption by a Divine Redeemer, a deliverance for man, fallen and condemned, by an appointed and accomplished Deliverer. This is the single key-thought of all inspired revelation. This gives unity, order, consistency, attractiveness to the whole and to all its parts. Herein is exhibited one and the same Divine Person, the sole Representative of the Godhead in all dispensations represented as the Jehovah of the Old Testament, the Christ of the New, the one sole actor for the Godhead in all forms of Divine working, the actual Achiever of every purpose of the Godhead in creation and Providence, in all deeds of judgment and of mercy. But the leading character in which this Divine Person appears through all the revelation is as the Deliverer—the great transaction of the inspired records, to which everything beside is tributary, is the deliverance. Preeminently is this one and the same Being, the Jehovah of the Old Testament and the Christ of the New exhibited in both testaments as set apart to work deliverance for sinners, and, through preparative and final steps, as actually achieving such deliverance. And in the Apocalypse (Rev. 19:10) the sole surviving apostle, John, affirms this fact with great plainness: “The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” Uttered at the very close of the inspired canon, at the close of the mystic volume, that recites in outline the remaining events of time, it reaches forward as well as backward and covers with its meaning all history yet to be. “The spirit of prophecy”—i.e., the intent and meaning of all inspired disclosure, is to testify of, to make known Jesus, the Christ of God. B. 9. I will sow them among the peoples. Their scattering shall be like the scattering of seed in the ground, not to bury it, but to increase it, that it may bring forth much fruit. The Jews are said to be dispersed into every nation under heaven (Acts 2:5); and as it was their troubles that dispersed some of them, so perhaps others transplanted themselves into colonies, because the land of Israel was too strait for them; and many were natives of other nations, but proselyted to the Jewish religion; now these were sown among the people (Hosea 2:23). And this contributed very much to the spreading of the Gospel. The Jews that came from all parts to worship at Jerusalem fetched thence the Gospel light and fire to their own countries, as those (Acts 2), and the eunuch (Acts 8). And their own synagogues in the several cities of the Gentiles were the first receptacles of the apostles and their preaching, wherever they came. Thus when God sowed them among the people, that they might not get hurt by the Gentiles, but do good to them, He took care that they should remember him and make mention of His name in far countries; and by keeping up the knowledge of God among them as He had revealed Himself in the Old Testament, they would be the more ready to admit the knowledge of Christ as He has revealed Himself in the New Testament. H. 10. These words must be understood as historic allusion, and not as specific and literal prediction. The sense is not—I will gather My captives out of Egypt and out of Assyria, but—I will do a similar thing to the great achievement of bringing My people out of Egypt under Moses. I will redeem them from a second Egypt, and save them from a second Assyrian Sennacherib. That only Egypt and Assyria, and not Chaldea, are referred to is explained by the fact that the kingdom of the Ten Tribes had disappeared before the Chaldean came into notice; hence Ephraim never knew Chaldea as an enemy. Note also that the prophet does not say they shall return to Judah and Jerusalem; but, to show the enlargement of the Lord's kingdom, He names "Gilead," the extensive region on the east of Jordan, and "Lebanon," on the north, which lay outside the usual boundaries of the tribes of Israel; and, indeed, he says, "place large enough shall not be found for them." But this has never been fulfilled in the lineal descendants of Abraham, nor can it ever be. Their numbers, all told to-day, would not meet the demands of this prophecy, interpreted however moderately. We must, therefore, find Israel and Ephraim in that new era of Messiah's kingdom in which there is no distinction of Jew and Greek, but all are one in Christ Jesus. 11. This verse begins with a change of person from the first "I," as in verses 6-10, to the third "He." But "He" must be understood of the same Lord God. The "sea" can be no other than the Red Sea, named by way of historic allusion. The Lord passes through it at the head of His people to achieve a like deliverance to that of the exodus from Egypt. 12. Finally, they shall be made gloriously strong in the Lord, and through His strength alone. So shall they walk up and down, traverse the land at their will, or in their duty, without fear. No harm can befall them since they walk with God. Many parallel passages might be cited from Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea and Micah, serving to confirm the general interpretation here given, and to show that the prophets harmonize remarkably in these views of the general course of events in the great future of Zion; and also to show that they give the same sense to individual and special phrases. The reader will find in Isa. 11: 11-16 a passage remarkably similar to this in all important respects. It is beyond all question Messianic; so must this be also. H. C. 11: 1, 2 OPEN thy doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour thy cedars. Howl, O fir tree, for the cedar is fallen, because the goodly ones are spoiled: howl, O ye oaks of Bashan, 3 for the strong forest is come down. A voice of the howling of the shepherds! for their glory is spoiled: a voice of the roaring of young lions! for the pride of Jordan is spoiled. 4, 5 Thus said the LORD my God: Feed the flock of slaughter; whose possessors slay them, and hold themselves not guilty; and they that sell them say, Blessed be the LORD, for I am 6 rich: and their own shepherds pity them not. For I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land, saith the LORD: but, lo, I will deliver the men every one into his neighbour's hand, and into the hand of his king: and they shall smite the land, and out of their hand I 7 will not deliver them. So I fed the flock of slaughter, verily the poor of the flock. And I took unto me two staves; the one I called Beauty, and the other I called Bands; and I fed 8 the flock. And I cut off the three shepherds in one month; for my soul was weary of them, 9 and their soul also loathed me. Then said I, I will not feed you: that that dieth, let it die; and that that is to be cut off, let it be cut off; and let them which are left eat every one the 10 flesh of another. And I took my staff Beauty, and cut it asunder, that I might break my 11 covenant which I had made with all the peoples. And it was broken in that day: and thus 12 the poor of the flock that gave heed unto me knew that it was the word of the LORD. And I said unto them, If ye think good, give me my hire; and if not, forbear. So they weighed 13 for my hire thirty pieces of silver. And the LORD said unto me, Cast it unto the potter, the goodly price that I was prised at of them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast 14 them unto the potter, in the house of the LORD. Then I cut asunder mine other staff, even Bands, that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel. 15 And the LORD said unto me, Take unto thee yet again the instruments of a foolish shepherd. 16 for, lo, I will raise up a shepherd in the land, which shall not visit those that be cut off, neither shall seek those that be scattered, nor heal that that is broken; neither shall he feed that which is sound, but he shall eat the flesh of the fat, and shall tear their hoofs in 17 pieces. Woe to the worthless shepherd that leaveth the flock! The sword shall be upon his arm, and upon his right eye: his arm shall be clean dried up, and his right eye shall be utterly darkened. Chap. 11. This chapter contains a prophecy of a very different cast from the foregoing. The people would not always behave as they ought, and therefore would not always be prosperous. Before their final glorious restoration an event of a most calamitous nature was doomed to take place; the destruction of the city and temple of Jerusalem, which is plainly here foretold and ascribed to its proper cause, punishment for notorious wickedness. The flock, meaning God's people, were under the guidance of corrupt and unprincipled pastors, who sacrificed them to their lucrative and ambitious views. The prophet, by God's command, assumes for a while the direction of them, therein becoming a type of Christ, the good Shepherd; but is soon obliged to resign his charge, with mutual dissatisfaction on both sides. He receives thirty pieces of silver as the reward for his services, and casts them, by Divine direction, to the potter. After this the prophet is held forth as the type of a worthless shepherd, or a succession of evil governors, who, heedless of the flock or seeking only to oppress it, at once ruin the flock and bring destruction on themselves. Blayney. If the Book of Zechariah be divided into two portions, the first six chapters being the first division, and the remaining eight the second, then this eleventh will be a digression from the current strain of promised blessings in the second portion, very analogous to the fifth chapter in the first part. As the fifth was interposed for the purpose of moral warning to the careless, apprising them that the judgments of God awaited the guilty, so here this eleventh chapter is interposed for the same purpose. There can be no doubt that it predicts judgments on the covenant people at some period of their history then future. The manner of presenting this truth is very peculiar, essentially that of symbolic vision—a case quite unique in the respect that, in vision only, and not in actuality, and as personating, not himself, but others, the prophet is required to perform the functions of a shepherd to the Lord's people, considered as His flock. On this theory of interpreting the chapter the best modern commentators are united. Despite of the unique peculiarities of the case, it is generally agreed that the chapter predicts the overthrow of the Jewish state and the ruin of their city and temple, effected by the Romans about A.D. 70, in consequence of their national corruption and of their blind and mad rejection of their Messiah. The prophet, acting the part of a good shepherd (verses 4-14), personates the Messiah Himself. Acting the part of the foolish shepherd (verses 15-17), he personates the scribes and Pharisees of the Saviour's day. The first three verses, wrought up in high poetic imagery, predict the fall of the nation before the Roman arms; while the remaining part of the chapter gives the antecedent moral causes of that fall. Whereas those morally blinded and hardened Jews had said in the madness of their wrath against the spotless Redeemer, "His blood be on us and on our children," on them and on their children His blood did come, and their blood flowed like rivers of water! The Saviour Himself had said, "Behold your house is left unto you desolate." 1. Lebanon and her lofty cedars represent Jerusalem; her doors the gates of the city. 3. Here the figures turn from inanimate nature to animate. The ornament and glory of the shepherds are their rich pastures—now laid waste. (Cf. Jer. 25:36: "A voice of the cry of the shepherds, and an howling of the principal of the flock; for the Lord hath spoiled their pasture.") "The pride of Jordan," in which the young lion made his lair, were the dense thickets along his banks. This phrase was already in use by Jeremiah, whom Zechariah follows remarkably in his terms and phrases. (See Jer. 12:5, where the "swelling of Jordan" is the same original phrase here rendered "pride of Jordan." So also Jer. 49 : 19 ; 50 : 44, in all cases said of the thick undergrowths along the Jordan, where the lions had their homes.) The sentiment is here the same as above. All classes of people are in distress, for their choicest treasures are wasted ; what they most love and value is in ruins. A poetic imagination seizes on the ruin of individual classes, and by a few striking details gives a vivid conception of the universal desolation. 4. "The flock of the slaughter" means the flock doomed to slaughter for their sins—the Jewish people, now ripe for the fearful retributive judgments of the Almighty. 5. The persons of the drama in this verse are : 1. The flock, who are the Jews during the period A.D. 30-70, conceived of as the flock of the Lord's pastures. 2. Their buyers ("possessors") and their sellers, the Romans. 3. Their own shepherds, the priests, scribes and Pharisees, who should have taught them the knowledge of God, but who had no care or pity for their deplorable moral condition. That "they who sell them bless the Lord for their gains," corresponds to the clause, "they are not punished" ("offend not"). They think they are doing God service, and thank Him for the personal selfish good they get as if all were morally right. H. C. 6. For I will no more pity. This verse assigns the reason for calling the people "the flock of the slaughter." Nor can words more aptly describe the calamities which befell the Jews, in the war which ended in the taking of Jerusalem by the Romans ; when the people, having first by their intestine broils destroyed one another, as is set forth at large by Josephus, at length fell into the hands of him whose predecessor they had owned for their sovereign, "We have no king but Caesar" (John 19 : 15), at the same time that they disclaimed their Messiah ; and who completely desolated the land for their rebellion against Him. Blayney. 7. "So then I fed the flock doomed to slaughter because of the poor of the flock"—i.e., out of My pity for the poor ones of the flock—a pertinent and beautiful statement of the labor and love of their own Messiah, who was so often "moved with compassion when He saw the people as sheep having no shepherd." For the proud and self-righteous and for those who were rich toward this world, but not rich toward God, He manifested no specially tender pity ; but for the masses who had no shepherd, and especially for the poor, His heart was tenderly touched. In the line of pure benevolence He rose indefinitely high above all other religious teachers of every age in this : "He preached the Gospel to the poor." These "staves" were the usual well-known shepherd's crook, the only special instrument used by the shepherd ; useful to him both in the management of the flock and in repelling its enemies. They represent here those providential agencies by which the Lord aided the pastoral work of the Messiah over His people, as appears from their significant names. The one He called Grace (not so properly "Beauty"), but grace in the sense of that Divine favor which restrained hostile heathen nations from assaulting the people of the Lord while they faithfully served Him. The other, "Bands," was a crook of cords, significant of those providential agencies which held the people together in peace. With these aids He acted the part of a shepherd to the flock. 8. Here we must suppose that the prophet takes the number three from precisely those three established orders upon whom the pastoral responsibility of caring under God for the covenant people devolved—priests, prophet and civil magistrates. (See Jer. 2 : 8, 26 ; 18 : 18.) Those who represented these classes during our Lord's public ministry must be specially intended here, probably the priests ; the scribes in the place of the ancient prophets ; and the civil magistrates. The Lord Jesus rejected them from their places of trust, not instantaneously, but very summarily, as "one month" shows. It was the labor of His public life. The history of our Lord's public ministry, in its relation to the scribes, doctors of the law, and Pharisees, shows that He and they had not the least common sympathy. He loathed them, as the Hebrew word implies ; He lost all confidence in their moral integrity and even honesty ; and, on the other hand, their soul rebelled against Him because of the purity of His character and the fidelity and pungency of His rebukes of their sin. 9. The Messiah abandons the flock, the Jewish people, to the sweep of terrible judgments. "I will be your shepherd no longer." A threefold judgment shall be your extermination—pestilence ; the sword from without ; the sword from within—the two last looking toward (1) the Roman arms ; (2) those horrible conflicts of hostile parties which made the very strength of the nation its essential weakness and ruin. Let the pestilence sweep away whom it will ; let the Roman sword drink the blood of the victims so doomed by the will of the Most High ; let every man's teeth be sharpened to devour his neighbor's flesh. The reality set forth in this prophetic language was fearfully terrific. They had said, "His blood be on us and on our children!" The Lord responded, "So let it be!" Here is the prediction. History verifies it to the letter. 10. The first crook, now broken, represented the sundering of the covenant which God is supposed to have made with foreign nations (the sense of "all the people"), to restrain them from harming His chosen. This covenant lay in the Divine mind—His purpose to restrain heathen nations from making war on His people. See the same sense in Hos. 2:18: "In that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field," etc. 11. The staff once broken, the Roman arms came down upon the land. "Then the poor of the flock," Christ's disciples, having been apprised by Him (Matt. 24:15-21), knew that the hour of judgment for the land had come, and fled for safety to the mountains of Pella, on the east of Jordan. History records the remarkable fact that not one Christian Jew fell in that awful carnage. All who had faith in their Divine Lord gave heed to His warnings. The Lord by His special providence gave them ample time to make good their escape before the city was invested by the Roman legions. They fled to Pella in the mountains east of the Jordan, and were all safe. H. C. 12,13. This whole transaction, performed by Zechariah in a vision, was designed to be an exact representation of the several circumstances that attended the betraying of the Messiah by Judas; the price put upon Him by the chief priests, to whom, as the governors of the temple, the money was returned; and the use to which the money was applied. (See Matt. 27:6, 10.) The Jews themselves have expounded this prophecy of the Messiah. W. Lowth. The great Shepherd, about to close His services, proposes in the business settlement that they, the Jews, should give Him the wages due. It is not implied by the original words that He fixed the price Himself. "Give Me My price," should rather read, "Give Me My hire or reward." He manifestly left it with them to fix the price. He only said, "Give Me what wages you please, and let Me go." They weighed out thirty pieces of silver, the very price for which Judas betrayed Him, and the usual price for a slave. (See Ex. 21:32.) Maimonides, one of the most reliable ancient Jewish authors, speaks of this as the price of a slave's services, but contemptible for a free man's. The meagreness of it indicates how low they estimated His services. Precisely this is the intended showing of the transaction. "A goodly price," etc., is ironical, and shows how keenly the insult was felt. It has, moreover, a prophetic outlook toward the very deed of Judas. The Lord said, "Cast it to the potter." He did so. This, too, was one of the points of remarkable coincidence between this symbolic prophecy and one of the prominent scenes in the betrayal of his Lord by Judas. It should be noted that Matthew, having stated that Judas, filled with remorse, returned the price of blood (27:3-10), says that the chief priests "bought therewith the potter's field to bury strangers in," which thenceforth bore the name of "the field of blood," and that "then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of Him that was valued, whom they of the children of Israel did value; and gave them for the potter's field as the Lord appointed Me." These words are not found in the Book of Jeremiah, but the general sense and nearly the same words occur in this passage of Zechariah. How came it to pass that Matthew named Jeremiah instead of Zechariah? It should be considered that Zechariah's words, "the potter," etc., connect his prophecy closely with Jeremiah (chaps. 18, 19). "The potter" of Jeremiah worked down in the valley of the son of Hinnom, as the expressions "go down" and "went down" (Jer. 18:2, 3) render probable, and as the passage (19:2) proves, for here the "east gate" is (in Heb.) "the entrance to the potter's gate." There Jeremiah was to denounce upon the people most solemn threatenings from the Lord, and then break a potter's vessel before them. The place, already made abominable; the breaking of the vessel, significant of a doom for which there can be no remedy; and the fearful solemnity of the message—all conspired to make the associations connected with this potter's house specially solemn and portentous. These things need to be understood in order to get the full sense of this passage in Zechariah. It may be supposed that Matthew had before his mind the full account of Jeremiah as well as the more brief one of Zechariah, and quoting from memory, assigned to the former what is found as to its precise words most nearly in the latter. H. C. In the quotations of all kinds from the Old Testament in the New Testament we find a continual variation from the letter of the older Scriptures. To this variation three causes may have contributed: First, all the New Testa- ment writers quoted from the Septuagint; correcting it, indeed, more or less by the Hebrew, especially when it was needful for their purpose; occasionally deserting it altogether; still abiding by it to so large an extent as to show that it was the primary source whence their quotations were drawn. Secondly, the New Testament writers must have frequently quoted from memory. Thirdly, combined with this, there was an alteration of conscious or unconscious design. Sometimes the object of this was to obtain increased force (Rom. 14:11; cf. Isa. 45:23, etc.). Sometimes an Old Testament passage is abridged, and in the abridgment so adjusted, by a little alteration, as to present an aspect of completeness, and yet omit what is foreign to the immediate purpose (Acts 1:20; 1 Cor. 1:31). At other times a passage is enlarged by the incorporation of a passage from another source: thus in Luke 4:18, 19, although the contents are professedly those read by our Lord from Isa. 61, we have the words "to set at liberty them that are bruised," introduced from Isa. 58:6 (LXX.): similarly in Rom. 11:8; De. 29:4 is combined with Isa. 29:10. In some cases still greater liberty of alteration is assumed (Rom. 10:11; cf. Isa. 28:16; 49:23, etc.). In some places, again, the actual words of the original are taken up, but employed with a new meaning (Heb. 10:37; cf. Hab. 2:3). Almost more remarkable than any alteration in the quotation itself is the circumstance that in Matt. 27:9 Jeremiah should be named as the author of this prophecy really delivered by Zechariah: the reason being that the prophecy is based upon that in Jer. 18, 19, and that with- out a reference to this original source the most essential features of the fulfilment of Zechariah's prophecy would be misunderstood. Dic. B. 14. The phrase "the brotherhood between Judah and Israel" is a historic allusion to the case of the two nations after the revolt under Jeroboam. Under their mutual relations, brotherhood was peace; brotherhood broken was civil war. Hence the breaking of this second staff or crook symbolized the withdrawal of those providential agencies which had kept the people together in friendly relations with each other. Those agencies being withdrawn, intestine discoid at once broke out, hostile parties arose, and civil war became their most fearful curse. The history of the period, commencing shortly before the invasion by the Romans, and continuing till the city lay in ruins, is a mournful confirmation of this symbolic prophecy. 15-17. The object here is to show the character, life and doom of the faithless shepherd, including under this term those priests, scribes and magistrates whom the Good Shepherd cut off "in one month" (verse 8). The judgments on this worthless and wicked shepherd fall on those bodily organs most useful to the shepherd, the arm and the eye. As he would not use these in the case of the flock, the Lord withers them utterly and forever. H. C. Since, through the misapplication of his power and his understanding, signified by his "arm" and his "right eye," the flock are subjected to desolation or the sword; therefore, as of strict justice, he shall be punished with a deprivation at least of those faculties which he so fatally misused. Blayney. 12:1 THE burden of the word of the LORD concerning Israel. Thus saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him: Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of reeling unto all the peoples round about, and upon Judah also shall it be in the siege against Jerusalem. And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all the peoples; all that burden themselves with it shall be sore wounded; and all the nations of the earth shall be gathered together against it. In that day, saith the LORD, I will smite every horse with astonishment, and his rider with madness: and I will open mine eyes upon the house of Judah, and will smite every horse of the peoples with blindness. And the chieftains of Judah shall say in their heart, The inhabitants of Jerusalem are my strength in the LORD of hosts their God. In that day will I make the chieftains of Judah like a pan of fire among wood, and like a torch of fire among sheaves; and they shall devour all the peoples round about, on the right hand and on the left: and Jerusalem shall yet again dwell in 7 her own place, even in Jerusalem. The LORD also shall save the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem be not magni- 8 fied above Judah. In that day shall the LORD defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David shall be 9 as God, as the angel of the LORD before them. And it shall come to pass in that day, that I 10 will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication; and they shall look unto me whom they have pierced: and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitter- 11 ness for his firstborn. In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the 12 mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon. And the land shall mourn, every family apart; the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; the family of 13 the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Levi apart, 14 and their wives apart; the family of the Shimeites apart, and their wives apart; all the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart. 13:1 In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the in- 2 habitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness. And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD of hosts, that I will cut off the names of the idols out of the land, and they shall no more be remembered: and also I will cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to 3 pass out of the land. And it shall come to pass that, when any shall yet prophesy, then his father and his mother that begat him shall say unto him, Thou shalt not live; for thou speakest lies in the name of the LORD; and his father and his mother that begat him shall 4 thrust him through when he prophesieth. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the prophets shall be ashamed every one of his vision, when he prophesieth; neither shall they 5 wear a hairy mantle to deceive: but he shall say, I am no prophet, I am a tiller of the 6 ground; for I have been made a bondman from my youth. And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds between thine arms? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends. 7. Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the LORD of hosts: smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered; and I will turn mine 8 hand upon the little ones. And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the LORD, 9 two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein. And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God. THE closing section—12-14—is entitled “The burden of the word of Jehovah for Israel.” Is- rael here is the nation at large, not Israel as dis- tinct from Judah. The prophet beholds the near approach of troublous times, when Jerusa- lem should be hard pressed by enemies. But in that day Jehovah shall come to save them, and all the nations which gather themselves against Jerusalem shall be destroyed. At the same time the deliverance shall not be from outward enemies alone. God will pour out upon them a spirit of grace and supplications. There shall be a deep and true repentance (12: 1-13:6). Then follows a short apostrophe to the sword of the enemy to turn against the shepherds of the people; and a further an- nouncement of searching and purifying judg- ments. The prophecy closes with a grand and stirring picture (chap. 14). All nations are gath- ered together against Jerusalem; and seem already sure of their prey. Half of their cruel work has been accomplished, when Jehovah Himself appears on behalf of His people. He goes forth to war against the adversaries of His people. He establishes His kingdom over all the earth. All nations that are still left shall come up to Jerusalem, as the great centre of religious worship, and the city from that day forward shall be a holy city. Dic. B. Chap. 12. This chapter manifestly opens a new subject. The first leading inquiry should respect its general scope and spirit, and the period of time to which it relates. In chap. 11 the Jews of our Saviour’s time reject Him, their offered Messiah, and bring upon their city and nation an avalanche of ruin. Now the question may be supposed to arise, Is the king- dom of the Messiah therefore utterly broken down? To this inquiry, chaps. 12, 13 reply: By no means. The Lord has yet a “Judah,” and a "Jerusalem," and a "House of David:" He will redeem them from their external enemies (see 12:2-9); and what is yet more to the purpose, He will pour upon them a spirit of grace, supplication and penitence, which shall make them in a far higher and nobler sense His people, and shall insure their glorious prosperity as His people and kingdom. There is manifestly a close analogy between the order of subjects in the first six chapters (made up of a series of visions) on the one hand, and chaps. 7-14 (not such visions) on the other. As chaps. 1-4 promise good to Zion, so do chaps. 7-10. As chap. 5, on the other hand, predicts the sin and doom of the guilty, so does chap. 11; and then as chap. 6:1-8 returns again to God's loving care and protection of His people, and specifically as manifested against hostile nations, so does this chap. 12, and also chap. 14. As the last part of chap. 6 is eminently Messianic, predicting also the ultimate reception of the nations into His kingdom, so we find the same idea in these chaps. 12-14, and especially in chap. 14. Manifestly we are in chap. 12 borne on beyond the date of chap. 9, for there the Lord was protecting His people against Alexander and His Syrian successors; here against "all nations" (verses 2, 3, 9); and, moreover, here we have passed the crucifixion of Christ (which is essentially involved in chap. 11), for the people bewail their guilt in that act (see verse 10). The location of these events in time must therefore be onward, after the advent of Messiah. It is a question of no trifling importance whether the terms "Israel," "Judah," "Jerusalem," "the house of David," are to be taken here literally or figuratively. Is "Judah" in these chapters (12-14) the very Judah of Zechariah's time; are her people the lineal descendants of Abraham; and does the lineal Jew here, as then and there, represent and embody the earthly kingdom of God? Is Jerusalem still, as of old, her capital, and the centre and throne of Messiah's kingdom? Do the Gentile hosts besiege her literally, as the Chaldeans had done so recently when Zechariah was writing? I cannot think so, for these reasons: 1. With the events predicted (chap. 11), the literal Judah and Jerusalem ceased to be the recognized visible Church and kingdom of God on earth. It is the precise purpose of chap. 11 to affirm this fact. Consequently, ever since the apostolic age, Church history has taken on a new type. No Church historian thinks of looking for the Christian Church in the Jewish line. 2. Whatever Old Testament prophecy is clearly shown to refer to the New Testament age must, by all legitimate rules of interpretation, be construed in accordance with New Testament light, with Gospel ideas, with the new principles of Messiah's kingdom, then first fully brought out. Hence the Judah and Jerusalem of Gospel prophecy, standing as types and symbols of Messiah's kingdom, must be construed, not literally, but figuratively—just as "the temple" is no longer, as of old, the one place of God's dwelling, and of all acceptable worship, but the Christian "temple" is the living pious heart. 3. That the Jews shall return again to Judaism restored after the order of Moses; that Jerusalem shall again become the living centre of all visible worship, and of all the true religion of the world—this worship conforming itself, as of old, to the Mosaic ritual; and that, as such, Judah shall be invaded and Jerusalem besieged by all the Gentile nations of the earth, according to the literal construction of chaps. 12, 14, are not things even supposable. If the New Testament is held to be of any account, Judaism, after the order of Moses, is dead, and those ideas must hence be rejected. For, practically, that state of things must ignore all the Christianity of the Gentile world—all the actual Christianity of the whole world as it now is, and as it has been since the death of Christ. Can any sane man believe that all the Gentile Christian churches are at some future period to be annihilated; the religious world be put back to its condition and relations as in the age of Zechariah; bloody sacrifices and passovers and feasts of tabernacles be restored, and Judah and Jerusalem stand as the sole representatives of the Church of God upon the earth? Or can it be believed that all the great nations of the present or of any future age shall gather in one vast crusade against the converted Christian Jews in their own land to besiege Jerusalem, and to exterminate all true religion from the face of the earth? The literal construction of chaps. 12-14 would hold us to such results: therefore the literal construction must be promptly rejected. 4. Nor let it be thought that we do violence to the laws of language when we reject the literal and adopt the figurative sense under such circumstances as these. Let the reader ask himself, How should a Jewish prophet, writing in the midst of Judaism, with no other history of the Church before him, and no other conception of the Church in his mind but that of Judaism, with no other first readers but Jews, write of the future Church and kingdom of God in the Gospel age? Shall we demand that he write of the Christian Church and of millennial times in New Testament words and phrases, and with fully developed New Testament ideas? Let us remember that the time had not come for such ideas. Let us recall the striking fact that more than three years' personal communion with Jesus Himself, and no small amount of His personal labor, quite failed to convert His disciples from Jewish to Christian ideas; that only the shock given to the old system by His death, aided by the subsequent teaching of the Holy Ghost, availed, and then rather slowly, to effect this great change. How absurd, then, to expect that the Hebrew prophets and their first readers could readily reach those new ideas and take in the sense of Christian as contrasted with Jewish phraseology! Plainly, those Jewish prophets and their first readers must think of Christianity only as of Judaism extended and purified; must conceive of a world converted only as a world coming up to Jerusalem to worship; and must conceive of irreligion, infidelity, every form of hostility to Christ, as the gathering of nations for war against Jerusalem and Judah, to crush them from the face of the earth. Hence when we speak of Jewish costume and drapery as clothing Gospel ideas in these sublimely grand and glorious prophecies, we are not parting company with common sense. We are simply interpreting in harmony with the stern necessities of their condition. Jewish minds, with no other than Jewish training, must think so and speak so, by the inevitable laws of human thought. Consequently, it is no longer a question whether, in these remaining prophecies of Zechariah (chaps. 12-14), we are to find blessings for the Gentile world; even the extension of the Gospel to all the nations of the earth. If these prophecies relate to times subsequent to the death of Christ, they must predict the prosperity of the Christian Church, the conversion of the world to Immanuel. It might be a much more difficult question (were it needful to be settled) whether the lineal Jew is here, and if so, where and by what marks we shall identify him. If he were named here alongside of his brother Gentile, as Paul names them in Rom. 11, it would be easy to make this discrimination. But it is at least supposable that in the greater part of these three chapters there is no intention to discriminate between Jew and Gentile. If so, how can it be expected that a discreet interpreter should make any distinction? Interpreters should not be asked to make prophecy, nor to put into it what was not there before; but only to unfold the sense already there. It may be well to remember also that the change wrought in the transition from Judaism to Christianity, fitly described as a "breaking down of the middle wall of partition between us" (Eph. 2:14), aimed not to thrust the Jew out, but to let the Gentile in; to abolish henceforth all distinction as to Christian rights and privileges, and make both one henceforth in Christ Jesus. Why, then, may not Old Testament prophecy assume precisely this state of the future kingdom of the Messiah? Chap. 12 is naturally in two parts, of which the first (verses 1-9) represents Judah as invaded and Jerusalem as besieged by the combined powers of all nations; but the Lord delivers them. The second part (verses 10-14) represents the house of David and the people of Jerusalem as deeply penitent for their sins, especially the sin of crucifying their Messiah. 1. This prophecy is a "burden upon Israel" only to a limited extent, for the assault of all nations upon her and the siege of Jerusalem were transient, ending soon in complete victory on Zion's side. That help comes from the Lord alone, who is mighty to save, is indicated by the allusion to His great and glorious works of creation. H. C. Which stretcheth forth the heavens, etc. This solemn assertion of the creative power of Jehovah is an implicit claim to Divine inspiration. He who has done such wonders in creation has power to give effect to the words spoken by His prophet and messenger. (Cf. Isa. 42:5; 44:24; Jer. 10:12, 13; Amos 4:13; 9:6.) B. C. 2. All the nations are thought of as gathered against Judah and Jerusalem. In the last clause the sense is, that what the Lord had said of Jerusalem should be true of Judah also in the siege of her capital. H. C. 3. In that day. When the enemies of Judah and Jerusalem shall be brought to judgment; and their designs against the city and people of Jehovah frustrated. B. C.—Jerusalem is compared to a stone of great weight, which, being too heavy for those who attempt to lift it up or remove it, falls back upon them and crushes them to pieces. Blayney. 4. The warring enemies of God's people come on horses, this animal being associated with human pride and rebellion against God. This astonishment and madness are among the effects of the cup of intoxication given to God's enemies to drink. Note the beautiful antithesis. God smites with blindness the warring powers of His foes, but opens His own eyes wide on His people to see and provide for their wants. 5-7. Only the Lord will make Judah safe and mighty against her foreign foes, as a hearth of fire to its fuel, which itself burns not, but only facilitates the burning of the wood, or as a torch of fire to a sheaf, which consumes it with no danger to itself. So shall they devour the gathered nations who assail them. The Lord saves Judah first that He may forestall the pride of self-reliance on the strength and glory of the city. So vital to true religion is it to crucify all human glorying, to cherish the spirit of absolute dependence on the Lord alone, and to give Him forevermore all the glory as the source of all spiritual life and of all power for good to Zion. 8. The Lord defends Jerusalem, yet not without their own concurrent agency. The doctrine that God saves His people must not be abused to human inaction. He saves rather by augmenting and reanimating their strength than by superseding their agency. So here, the feeble shall be as David, who is the type of a most athletic warrior; and the men of David's cast and power shall be now as God, even as the angel of Jehovah—the uncreated one who had so often appeared in forms of majesty and power. This is a strong figure, and must represent a vast augmentation of spiritual force in the people of God. 10. These terms are strongly in contrast with those in verse 9. God will seek to pour out vengeance and ruin on those hostile nations; but grace, mercy and blessings on Jerusalem. To "pour out" is to bestow in large and abundant measure. It is the usual phrase for the effusions of the Holy Spirit, as in Joel 2:28, "I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh." In this passage, "the Spirit" is the Holy Spirit of God, and not a quality or grace in man. It is thought of, however, as producing piety and prayer in the hearts of men, and hence is called "the Spirit of grace and of supplications"—meaning that Divine Spirit, whose special work it is to beget as to one's self a tender, prayerful frame of mind, and as to others a loving compassion for the souls of men, and earnest prayer for their salvation. "Grace" in man stands for that which is specially pleasing to God, and which secures His favor. In the case of sinners, the first buddings of grace are penitence and prayer, a broken and contrite spirit, which inspires prayer both for our own pardon and for mercy on other sinners also. The close connection between the gift of this Spirit, begetting such grace and supplications, and the "looking upon Him whom they have pierced," shuts us up to this sense of the paspage—its leading thought being the conversion of sinners. To "look on Me whom they have pierced" can mean nothing else than thinking of their guilt in crucifying the Lord of glory. They now look upon the Crucified One with bitter penitence and grief for the sin of piercing His heart, and with imploring cries for pardon. Thousands have felt this bitterness of grief for their sins against the Crucified One, made doubly keen by the sense of His enduring and forgiving love, despite of guilt so black and ingratitude so vile! This mourning for sin is as when one mourns over an only son, lost in death; its bitterness is as that over a first-born. H. C. The speaker here must be the great God Himself; for He says in the beginning of the verse, "I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplications;" and who can send down this Spirit from heaven but the great King of heaven, the everlasting Jehovah? What prophet or angel would dare to say that he would send Him? But then we read here that He who thus pours forth the Spirit has been "pierced;" and this represents Him in another and lower character, as a creature, a vulnerable man. And by this seeming contradiction, the text discovers to us at once who is speaking to us. It is the Lord Jesus Christ; He who is God and man in one flesh; He who is so high that He can give the Holy Spirit to whomsoever He pleases, and who was once so low that the vilest arm on the earth might wound Him; and wounded He was. "They pierced My hands and My feet," He says. John settles this point beyond all dispute. "One of the soldiers," he says, "with a spear pierced His side;" and then he immediately tells us why he was allowed of God to do so—that this very Scripture should be fulfilled, "They shall look on Him whom they pierced." C. Bradley. I will pour the Spirit. There are, perhaps, none of us who do not know from personal experience that ever and anon there come to the soul times of visitation—hours of softened feeling and deepened thoughtfulness, when the things of time lose their hold upon us, and the eternal world rolls nearer, with all its grand realities, to the Spirit's eye. And are not these the springtides of the soul, the seasons propitious to the spiritual husbandry, every moment of which gathers round it the importance of that eternal harvest to which the rapid hours are bringing us? Are not these, in one word, the times when the spiritual gales blow freshest and fairest from the heavens, and the soul, instinct with life, feels every expanded energy yielding to the almost sensible impulses of the Spirit of Truth and Love? How precious such moments! Who that reflects on their worth would not long and pray and watch for their coming, and, while they continue, strain every energy to catch to the last breath the blessing which they bring? Caird. The prophet declares that the future restoration of the communion of the covenant people with the Lord will be effected on His part by the outpouring of the spirit of grace and supplication, and on that of the people by contrition and repentance. Thus much is clear in this much misused passage, that the piercing of one, in whose person the Lord is as it were Himself pierced, is spoken of. The pierced One must be one who may be likened to King Josiah, with whom, when he was mortally wounded in the valley of Megiddo, the last hope of the nation fell. And who else can this be than that Shepherd and fellow of Jehovah, who, according to 13:7, fell by the sword after the last effort of deliverance which God made through Him had proved vain, nay, had been shamefully requited (11:4-14). Justice was so far done to the Messianic interpretation by the older Jewish theology, that since the acknowledgment of a suffering and dying son of David could not from its standpoint be conceded, it invented for this passage a second Messiah, "the Messiah, the son of Joseph," who was to fall in the conflict with Gog and Magog. O. They shall look upon Me whom they have pierced. John plainly quotes these words (chap. 19:37) and applies them to our blessed Saviour, of whom alone they can be understood, for none could speak them but One who was both God and man. That He was God is plain from the former part of the verse, "I will pour upon the house of David . . . the spirit of grace and of supplications;" for the spirit of grace is not at the disposal of any creature, and it is only in the power of God to bestow it. That He was man appears from the following words, "Me whom they have pierced;" for if He had not been man He would not have been capable of being pierced by them. These words therefore were spoken by Christ, the only person in the world that ever was or pretended to be both God and man. Bp. Beveridge. The Jews themselves have applied this text to the Messiah. David before described His sufferings under the figure of "piercing His hands and His feet" (Ps. 22:16); and Isaiah foretold He should be "wounded for our transgressions" (chap. 53:5). W. Lowth. In these words, as applied by the apostle, reference is made by the prophetic spirit of Jesus as the Incarnate Son, very God and very man (John 19:34; Rev. 1:7). "They shall look upon Me . . . they shall mourn for Him." In Isaiah mention is made of His death, but not by whom He is slain; here it is ascribed to His own people. Andrews. Whom they have pierced. John applies this passage to the piercing of the side of our Lord upon the cross, and to the attractive power which the spectacle of Christ crucified exercises upon "all kindreds of the earth," when those who have pierced Him with their sins turn to Him in contrition and faith, and look to Him as the Israelites looked upon the brazen serpent, and were saved. B. C. The "consummation of the ages" was reached in the crucifixion of the Son of God. The sacrifice of atonement among the Jews summarized and gave efficacy to all the rest. In that great rite the high priest gathered up and carried forward through the veil, and to a result, the divers services which otherwise had been incipient and incomplete. The liturgic element in Abel's sacrifice; the covenant in Abraham's; the redemption in the Passover lamb; the propitiatory in the "sin offering" of the outer court—all blend and are crowned in the "great day" of Israel's atonement. So Christ becomes "temple," "altar," "high priest," "veil," and "offering," "all and in all." Abel, Melchizedek and Aaron—bullock, scapegoat and incense—so unlike in themselves, contribute their single elements to an accordant harmony in one cross, in which all contradictions are reconciled. J. B. T. With the Christian believer, at the feet of "Christ crucified," will the Jew yet find a place to bow, in brokenness of heart, and in humbled and lively faith, and obtain pardon, peace and salvation. His nation, with all the Gentile nations—blessed be God, whose promises fail not!—shall yet be assembled around the cross of Christ Jesus. They whose fathers said, "Away with Him! away with Him! crucify Him! crucify Him!" and imprecated His blood upon themselves and upon their children, through infinite grace shall yet behold and rejoice in His as "a name which is above every name," "Immanuel, God with us;" and in Christ Jesus, shining in glory unspeakable to their eyes, even as He who is "called Wonderful Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace." Anon. It is true of us all as sinners, we have pierced Christ; inasmuch as our sins were the cause of His death, for He was wounded for our transgressions, and they are the grief of His soul; He is broken with the defiant heart of sinners, who therefore are said to crucify Him afresh and put Him to open shame. Those that truly repent of sin look upon Christ as one whom they have pierced, who was pierced for their sins, and is pierced by them; and this engages them to look unto Him as those that are deeply concerned for Him. This is the effect of their looking to Christ, it makes them mourn. This was particularly fulfilled in those to whom Peter preached Christ crucified; when they heard it, they who had had a hand in piercing Him were pricked to the heart and cried out, "What shall we do?" It is fulfilled in all those who sorrow for sin after a godly sort: they look to Christ and mourn for Him, not so much for His sufferings as for their own sins that procured them. The genuine sorrows of a penitent soul flow from the believing sight of a pierced Saviour. Looking by faith upon the cross of Christ will set us a mourning for sin after a godly sort. H. Repentance is the recognition by the fallen self of its true self in Christ. As the touched and troubled heart listens to the story of that beauteous life; as there rises before the spirit's quickened eye the vision of a Perfect Innocence in human form, of a sublime purity with which no alloy of sternness mingles, a mental and moral elevation in which no trace of self-consciousness can be detected, a piety rapt as an angel's combined with the unassuming simplicity of a child, as we ponder the narrative of a life of holiest fellowship with God, maintained amid incessant toil and intercourse with men, a life of persistent self-sacrifice, undimmed by one thought of personal ease or one act of selfish indulgence—a life in which love, tender as a mother's, grew more fervent amid ingratitude, waxed stronger and deeper amid insults and wrongs received at the very hands of its objects; in one word, as inspiration summons up to the awakened mind the spectacle of a perfectly holy human life, the deepest instincts of our nature are stirred to discern herein its own lost ideal. Caird. If there is one prediction which might drive the expectant sinner to a pillow of thorns and a couch of agony, it is, "They shall look on Him whom they have pierced." As a God they cannot escape His searching gaze, or shake His firm justice, or overthrow His invincible power, or contradict His everlasting love. As a man, they shall see that He condemns them with all the stirrings of a brother's heart. As a Saviour, "they shall look on Him whom they have pierced," and it will be the bitterness of that wrath under which they sink, that it is the wrath of a bleeding Lamb. W. B. Homer. 11. The mourning of Hadadrimmon. Most probably the general mourning for the death of the good King Josiah, who was slain in the valley of Megiddo (2 K. 23: 29; 2 Chron. 35: 22-24). Hadadrimmon is said by Jerome to have been a place near Jezreel. The mourning for Josiah became a proverb for a public and solemn lamentation. Such a national humiliation, it is here said, shall the Jews observe for having crucified the Messiah. Blayney. 12. This is so much a personal matter, lying between each individual soul and his Saviour, that each one is drawn to weep and mourn apart and alone. Every instinct leads the mourner to seek solitude and to pour out his whole heart there under no other eye than God's. The mode of presenting this thought is by Jewish terms and historic allusions. The house of David and the house of Nathan, one of his sons, in the royal line; then the house of Levi and the house of Shimei, one of his sons, representing the priesthood; these stand for the whole people, and show that they all mourn apart, and their wives apart. The first verse of the next chapter belongs with this, showing that such penitence and prayer bring pardon full and free. Chap. 13. The first verse belongs very properly to the previous chapter, since it stands in the closest relations of thought with the penitence of the people for their sins against the Lord Jesus. The next point made is the purifying of the people from their sins, as shown by specifying two most besetting sins of the ancient Hebrews, idolatry and false prophesying, both of which are thoroughly removed from the land (verses 2-6). Then, by association of ideas, the crucified Messiah is brought to view (verse 7); finally, the ungodly portion are cut off, only one-third part remaining, but these are purified by stern discipline, and come to know Jehovah as their God (verses 8, 9). H. C. 1. It is a fountain opened; for whoever will may come and take the benefit of it; it is opened not only to the house of David, but to the inhabitants of Jerusalem; to the poor and mean as well as to the rich and great; or it is opened for all believers who as the spiritual seed of Christ are of the house of David, and as living members of the Church are inhabitants of Jerusalem. Through Christ all that believe are justified, are washed from their sins in His blood, that they may be made to our God kings and priests (Rev. 1 : 5, 6). H. This Fountain is open still. Fresh, efficacious, and free as on the day when His mighty sacrifice was offered, the merit of Immanuel still continues. I need not explain that this Fountain is not literal. It is not the water of baptism ; it is not the wine of the Lord's Supper ; it is not the literal blood of the Saviour, for neither baptismal water nor sacramental wine can wash away sin, nay, nor the actual blood of Christ, understood in a corporal or carnal sense. But the Fountain must be sought in the written Word—in the testimony which God gives concerning His Son—in such sayings as these : “The blood (i.e., the atonement) of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin.” “Come and let us reason together. God hath sent forth His Son, a propitiation for sin.” This truth concerning Jesus, published in the Bible, is the Fountain opened to the world—the man who believes that truth is the man who has his sins washed away. And what I pray you to realize and remember is, that the Divine atonement of Jesus is of exhaustless value and unfading virtue, and is this moment as dear to God as the day when it first was finished. You that have faith in the Fountain, frequent it. Beware of two errors which are very natural and very disastrous. Beware of thinking any sin too great for it ; beware of thinking any sin too small. There is not a sin so little but it may be the germ of everlasting perdition ; there is not a sin so enormous but a drop of atoning blood will dissolve it as utterly as if it were drowned in the depths of the sea. Hamilton. God does not tell us whether the fountain opened in the house of Judah, for sin and for uncleanness, sends forth its healing streams to other worlds than our own. But He tells us that the atonement itself, known, as it is, among the myriads of the celestial, forms the high song of eternity ; that the Lamb who was slain is surrounded by the acclamations of one wide and universal empire ; that the might of His wondrous achievements spreads a tide of gratulation over the multitudes who are about His throne ; and there never ceases to ascend from the worshippers of Him who washed us from our sins in His blood a voice loud as from numbers without number, sweet as from blessed voices uttering joy, when heaven rings jubilee and loud hosannas fill the eternal regions. T. Chalmers. 2. To show that the land is purified from its great sins, He makes no general statements, but simply individualizes two of the prominent and most dangerous sins of the covenant people—idolatry and false prophecy—and represents them to be effectually exterminated. “Cutting off the very names of idols, so that they should be no more remembered,” implies that idolatry is thoroughly expelled from the land. (See Hos. 2 : 17 ; 14 : 8 ; Micah 5 : 12–14.) The “prophets” named here in connection with idols before and “the unclean spirit” after must be false prophets, called prophets only because they falsely and foully assumed this name. The Lord will drive them out of the land, forcibly expel them. The reference to an “unclean spirit” recognizes Satanic agency. 5,6. He means to show that his position in life has been such as should remove all suspicion of his playing the false prophet. He has been held as a servant all his days. But there are palpable marks on his person that convict him of lying even now ; hence, one replies to him, “What mean those gashes on your hands?” He can only confess the truth : “They were inflicted by my associates according to the custom of idol worshippers, in their temples.” The word rendered “friends” means properly lovers ; but is used in the bad sense, and here of his fellow-idolaters involved like himself in this harlotry to which the word “lovers” refers. Jewish as well as profane history shows clearly that cutting the flesh was common in idol worship. (See 1 K. 18 ; Jer. 16 : 6 ; 41 : 5 ; De. 14 : 1.) The common idea of penance may be supposed to lie at the bottom of such practices ; a consciousness of guilt ; the demands of remorse ; coupled with the notion that the gods will exact some suffering for such sins, and hence each man had best inflict it upon himself rather than leave it for the gods to inflict. H. C. 7. Awake, O sword, etc. O thou, My sword of affliction, awake, arise and smite Him that is nearest and dearest unto Me ; even Him that is My coequal and coeternal Son, the image of Me, the invisible God, saith the Lord of Hosts ; smite thou this great Shepherd of My Church ; and His sheep, His disciples and followers shall be scattered, and shall both forsake Him and be severed from each other ; for even against those disciples also, as well as against their Master, will I stir up enmity and opposition in the world. Bp. Hall.—Here begins a new prophecy, importing that the Messiah, the great Shepherd, as He is described in this prophecy (chap. 11 : 4 ; Isa. 40 : 11 ; Ezek. 34 : 23), though with respect to His Divine nature He be “equal with God" the Father (Phil 2:6), yet shall be delivered up to death by God's determinate council and appointment. (See Acts 2:23; 4:28.) W. Lowth. "Awake" (as if it had been asleep, at rest), "awake against My Shepherd" (the Messiah), described here as being "the man that is My nearest friend"—for such is the sense of the word rendered "My fellow." This word occurs elsewhere only in the Pentateuch, and there in such passages as Lev. 6:2; 19:11, 15, 17; 25:15, etc., "Ye shall not lie nor deceive each man his near friend," etc. "If a man lie unto his neighbor in that which was delivered him to keep, or hath deceived his neighbor," etc. This usage shows that the word is used for the nearest human relationship, not involving consanguinity. It, therefore, well expresses the relation between the Father and the Son, when He is thought of as incarnate—in His human nature. This human nature of Jesus stood in this close relation to the Father. The bold metaphor, "Awake, O sword," etc., has its analogy in Jer. 47:6, 7: "O thou sword of the Lord, how long ere thou wilt be quiet? Put up thyself into thy scabbard; rest and be still." This sword of the Lord is the Lord's executioner. So in our passage the Lord of Hosts commands the sword to its work, remarkably recognizing the Divine agency in the death of the Lamb of God. H. C. Who is this Shepherd and Fellow of Jehovah? It might perhaps be any one who helps Him in the care of His flock. But the Lord's words applying it to Himself show that, as in earlier passages of this prophet, it has its especial fulfilment in Him. He is the rejected Shepherd, He is the Man, the Fellow of God. Andrews. "Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd." These are the words of God the Father, giving order and commission to the sword of His justice to awake against His Son, when He had voluntarily made His soul an offering for sin; for it pleased the Lord to bruise Him and put Him to grief; and He was stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted (Isa. 53:4, 10). Observe: 1. How He calls Him. As God, He is My Fellow; for He thought it no robbery to be equal with God, He and the Father are one. He was from eternity by Him, as one brought up with Him, and in the work of man's redemption He was His Elect, in whom His soul delighted and the counsel of peace was between them both. As Mediator, He is My Shepherd, that great and good Shepherd that undertook to feed the flock (chap. 11:7). He is the Shepherd that was to lay down His life for the sheep. 2. How He uses Him: Awake, O sword, against Him. If He will be a sacrifice, He must be slain, for without the shedding of blood, the life blood, there was no remission. Men thrust Him through as a foolish shepherd; God thrust Him through as the Good Shepherd (cf. verse 3), that He might purchase the flock of God with His own blood (Acts 20:28; for Messiah the Prince must be cut off, but not for Himself (Dan. 9:26). This sword must awake against Him; He having no sin of His own to answer for, the sword of justice had nothing to say to Him of itself, till by particular order from the Judge of all it was warranted to brandish itself against Him. He was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world in the decree and counsel of God; but the sword designed against Him had long slumbered, till now at length it is called upon to awake and smite Him; for God spared not His own Son. H. Let Divine and infinite justice turn itself which way it will, it finds One that can tell how to match it. For if it say, "I will require the satisfaction of man," there is a man to satisfy its cry; and if it say, "But I am an infinite God, and must and will have an infinite satisfaction," here is One also that is infinite, even "fellow" with God; fellow in His essence and being; fellow in His power and strength; fellow in His wisdom; fellow in His mercy and grace, together with the rest of the attributes of God. So that, let justice turn itself which way it will, here is a complete person and a complete satisfaction. Bungun. It was when, fresh from the celebration of the paschal feast and His own supper, He had retired with His disciples, under the shade of night, to the Mount of Olives: "Then said Jesus unto them, All ye shall be offended because of Me this night: for it is written, I will smite the Shepherd and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad" (Matt. 26:31). So it had been written in Zech. 13:7, respecting that peculiar Shepherd and His flock, who was to be Jehovah's fellow, or rather His near relation—for so the word in the original imports; and hence, when spoken of any one's relation to God, it cannot possibly denote a mere man, but can only be understood of one who, by virtue of His Divine nature, stands on a footing of essential equality with God. All other interpretations, whether by Jews or Christians, can only be regarded as shifts, devised to explain away or get rid of the plain meaning of the prophecy. And it was here more especially chosen by our Lord, as, more distinctly and emphatically perhaps than any other prediction in Old Testament Scripture, it combined with the peerless dignity of Christ's nature the fearful depth of His humiliation and suffering; and so was at once fitted to instruct and comfort the disciples in respect to the season of tribulation that was before them. P. Fairbairn. This wondrous cry was obeyed. The sword awoke against the Man, God's fellow. It was "bathed in heaven." And now no more is the cry raised, "Awake, O sword." Against the people of God it is sheathed forever. Yet shall this dread moment never be forgotten. For even as in the glad valleys of earth, when sunshine is resting on the landscape, the sound of thunder heard remote only enhances the sense of security and deepens the feeling of repose, so in the climes of heaven's day shall the memory of that hour so dark and that cry so fearful be to the souls of the ransomed a joy forever. Gilfillan. 7. And I will turn My hand upon the little ones. The same hand turned itself back to protect and bless "the poor of the flock that waited on Me," as they are described, chap. 11 : 11. A few of the Jewish people received Jesus as their Messiah, became His disciples while He lived or converts to His faith after H's death, and these became objects of His special care and love. The connection of this verse with the one immediately preceding falls under the law of association of ideas. The close analogy between the false prophet, whose hands had been gashed and pierced "in the house of his friends," and the Messiah, whose hands were pierced in a death by crucifixion among those who ought to have been His friends, suggested the latter case, and led the prophet to speak of it here. This accounts for its coming in here out of place in the sense of being both aside from the general course of thought in this chapter and out of its chronological order—His violent death having been assumed in chap. 11, and certainly thought of as already past in 12 : 10 ; 13 : 1. This renewed allusion to it is therefore due to the power of this law of suggestion. H. C. "He turns His hand upon the little ones." Nothing less than this is His own promise by the mouth of one of His servants, who paints graphically the blessings of Christ's reign. How amazing is this promise of God when we contemplate this hand in its omnipotence, and think at the same time on our own utter insiginsignificance, our deep unworthiness, our woeful weakness! Almost before we are aware how low and lost is our condition, the outstretched hand of God presents itself, at once a token and a pledge of communion, strengthening and guidance. What need we more than the clear certainty, that He thus turns His hand on us, as evidence that there dwells no longer in His mind the thought of wrath and vengeance against us? In communion with Him conscience becomes pacified; in His strength we can accomplish all things, even the most difficult; under His guidance we go trustingly forward. Van O. 8. Two parts therein shall be cut off and die. The severe judgments, foretold by our Saviour (Matt. 24), shall consume two parts in three of the nation; but a third part shall escape the general destruction and be left to be dispersed over the world to preserve a posterity to future generations. W. Lowth. 8,9. The primary sense of these verses is clear. Over all the land two parts out of three are cut off and die; the third part remaining is purified through the fires of earthly discipline. These become far more fully than before the people of the living God. H. C. 9. We have here, first, the trials, and then the triumphs, of the Christian Church, and of all the faithful members of it. I will bring that third part through the fire of affliction, and will refine and try them as silver and gold are refined and tried. This was fulfilled in the persecutions of the primitive Church, the fiery trial which tried the people of God then (1 Pet. 4 : 12). Those whom God sets apart for Himself must pass through a probation and purification in this world; they must be tried that their faith may be found to praise and honor. H. It would seem as if even Omnipotence could not sanctify a fallen and sinful spirit without the employment of sorrow. It would seem that there is in every believer a certain dross which nothing except the furnace can dissipate—on every character certain stains which nothing but the sharp solvent, the severe corrosive of affliction can expunge. But in applying these painful processes, oh, how tender and sympathetic the Saviour is! He does not break the bruised reed. He apportions the trial to the exigency: and, mindful of the hour when He drank the Father's cup and an angel from heaven strengthened Him, in handing to each disciple the cup of needful trial, His arm of omnipotent kindness encircles and supports the fatigued or fainting soul. And it is a glorious infirmity which thus brings into the spirit "the power of Christ." Hamilton. Fiery trials make the lustre of faith appear most, as gold shines brightest in the furnace; and if any dross be mixed with it, it is refined and purged from it by these trials, and so it remains by the fire purer than before. And thus the fire of suffering is the advantage of believers, both trying the excellency of faith, giving evidence of it, what if is, and also purifying it from earth and drossy mixtures and making it more excellently what it is; raising it to a higher pitch of resignedness and worth. In these fires, as faith is tried, the word on which faith relies is tried, and is found all gold, most precious. Leighton. It would seem that if there be one element of this human life more needful than another for the perfecting of a sanctifying fellowship between the Saviour and the soul, it is the element of suffering. Therefore it is the unchanging law that we "bear about with us in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus"—that we "die daily" in Him—that we are "killed all the day long." By such dying, nourishment is sent down to the very roots of life. Penitence feeds purity. The pangs exalt the joys. The dearest love tryst is often kept in a pavilion whose curtains are darkness, whose threshold is pain, whose "inhabitant" says daily, "I am sick." Many a one—blessed be His name!—in hard toil, or in sore disaster, or in constant pain, or (sadder yet) in a constant sorrow, can say, "All is good and well. I find "treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places." I am "winning Christ." This is "the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings," from which in due time fellowship in glory will arise." A. Raleigh. Slowly, and as it may seem to us quite imperceptibly, is God bringing this Divine work to completion in us. Blessed are they who shrink not from the sharper but not less needed means of its accomplishment, those trials and chastisements, those humiliations and self-denials, which are the pangs of transformation through which Christ is to be fully formed within us. "Though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day." "The more the marble wastes, the more the statue grows," wrote Michael Angelo. And impossible as it will be for nature, let it not be impossible for grace to cry daily, "Welcome cross, welcome trials, welcome all things sweet or bitter, which shall bring forth within us that perfect man, that Divine ideal, visible ever to the eye of God, and growing more and more upon our sight as we grow up into Him who is our Head." A. J. Gordon. Tribulation comes, it will be as ye choose it, either an exercise or a condemnation. Such as it shall find you to be, will it be. Tribulation is a fire: does it find thee gold? it takes away the filth; does it find thee chaff? it turns it to ashes. Wherefore art thou disturbed? Thine heart is disturbed by the pressing troubles of the world, as that ship was in which Christ was asleep. Did not thy Lord tell thee the world should fail? So when the tempest beats furiously against thine heart, beware of shipwreck, awake up in Christ. Present faith is Christ present; waking faith is Christ awake; slumbering faith is Christ asleep. Augustine. A man who once went out from the face of his Lord and wept says, "Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial." It is "fiery," there is no denying that. I know and you know how it burns, scorches, turns beauty to ashes; but the strangeness is not the strangeness of accident, or caprice, or mockery, or carelessness. It has not "happened" to you at all. Love that is infinite never mocks, never tantalizes, never forgets. Did you ever do that with your mother or your child? and your love is not infinite. "If ye then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father," yes, even when the good things come wearing the aspect and the name of losses, or bereavements, or disappointments! Providence never blunders. He who keeps the stars punctual and the wheels of the universe running in order, who without slumbering watches the sleep of all His fourteen hundred million children every night, makes no mistakes; He is never taken unawares by a disease or a cloud. The mystery is a mystery, but it has a revelation within it, and it brings heavenly gifts under its wings. F. D. H. There is a wondrous power of explanation in "afterward." This is the key which the Scriptures give us for the solution of the strange mystery of affliction. "No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness." There are many things in God's way with His people which, at the time, are dark and obscure, but which the future makes clear and plain. S. S. T. God tries, in order that we may stand, and that our feet may be strengthened by the trial. "I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her adversary, but slinks out of the race, where that immortal garland is to be run for—not without dust and heat.” A. M. No words can express how much the world owes to sorrow. Most of the epistles were written from a prison. Most of the psalms were born in a wilderness. The greatest thoughts of the greatest thinkers have all passed through fire. The greatest poets have “learned in suffering what they taught in song.” In bonds Bunyan lived the allegory that he afterward indited, and we may thank Bedford jail for the “Pilgrim’s Progress.” All the foremost worthies of our world, all the spiritual heroes of our race, have been men of sorrow and acquainted with grief. Take comfort, afflicted Christian! you have often prayed to be made of some service in the world before you die, and now the answer to that prayer has come. God tries you because in some way He is about to use you; for your history will furnish no exception to the rule that when God is about to make pre-eminent use of a man, He puts him in the fire. Charles Stanford. The greatest of the proofs of Jesus Christ are the prophecies. Even if one man had made a book of predictions of Jesus Christ, as to the time and the manner of His coming, and if Jesus Christ had come in conformity with these prophecies, this would be of an infinite weight. But there is here a great deal more. There is a succession of men who, during four thousand years, constantly and without variation, come, one after the other, predicting the same event. There is a whole people which announces Him and which subsists during four thousand years in order still to render their testimony of the assurances which they have of Him, from which they cannot be turned aside by any menaces or any persecutions which befall them. This is in a very different degree important. Pascal. The very heart and essence of the old dispensation, as its features are exhibited in the writings of historians, law-givers and prophets, was the great and unquenchable Messianic hope. In the Old Testament Christ is prefigured; in the New He is revealed. In His teaching we see in all their fulness those constant elements which all religion strives more and more clearly to express—the holiness and love of God, the dignity and brotherhood of man. And so He stands at the centre of all history as the fulfilment of all the yearnings of the past, the justification of all the hopes of the future. Apart from Him all the deepest elements of the Old Testament become unintelligible. Farrar. The Man that is My Fellow, saith the Lord of Hosts. We call Him man, and man He is in everything but sin. The nature of man He took upon Himself. True man He showed Himself to be in all that pertained to His life on earth. As man He was born; He had an infancy, a childhood, a youth, a manhood. As man He grew in stature, He increased in wisdom, He dwelt with dutiful obedience in the humble home of His parents. As man He hungered and thirsted, toiled and rested, frequented the streets of cities, and traversed the highways of Galilee and Judea. As man He lived among, conversed with men. As man He took interest in everything human—He sympathized with human joys and sorrows. As man He evinced a human character, combining, as none other ever did, all virtues, all excellences in perfect proportion and absolute completeness. Perfect Man He was, He is, He shall be evermore! So we call Him God, and God He is if we have any proof that a God exists. God He is shown to be by Heaven’s attesting voice again and again; by the radiance of its transfiguring glory; by its power evinced in the darkened sun and rending rocks; by its messenger angels, visible at His advent and His tomb; and by its intervention in bearing Him upward on the clouds when He was parted from His disciples. God He is shown to be by the harmoniously inspired assertions of prophets, psalmists and apostles; by the testimony of the Holy Ghost, uttered through these. He it was, the Lord God, who walked with Adam in the garden, that appeared to the devouter patriarchs, that spake with Abraham as a Friend, that wrestled with Jacob, that communed with Moses, that uttered the Law in audible voice from Sinai, that companied with wandering Israel in the cloudy, fiery pillar, and shone in the shechinah of the holiest, and that revealed Himself to Elijah and the prophets as the Creator of the heavens and the earth, and the Ruler of nations, and as the Lord God, merciful and gracious, who will yet by no means clear the guilty. And the God, so divinely attested, He proved Himself to be by knowledge and power, by word and deed. None of the thoughts of men but He unerringly discerned, nothing in their hearts but He fathomed to the depth. No measure of wisdom or acuteness in their reasonings but He, without previous study or thought, instantly apprehended, corrected, or overthrew. His own sublime, majestic declarations, “I am the truth, the light of the world,” were proven in the substance and the manner of His teaching. Truth never disclosed before, truth for whose disclosure the mind and heart of man had been long yearning, revelations of the heart, the purposes and doings of God, revelations of the human soul, its intrinsic grandeur and worth, its guilt, degradation, ruin, and its possible redemption from all; its immortality of anguish or blessedness, these transcendent truths, with many subordinate ones as needful, He disclosed plainly, fully in the tone of absolute authority, as one who spake from His own resources of positive knowledge. So He proved Himself God by His deeds of infinite power. The recorded assertions of His apostles—that the Word was God; that the world was made by Him; that by Him and for Him all things that are in heaven and earth, visible and invisible, were created and do subsist, were substantiated by His own acts to men, in the instantaneous restoration of sealed senses and withered members, in the healing of incurable maladies, and in raising the dead to life. His creative power was evinced in turning water into wine and in multiplying the loaves and fishes. His absolute Lordship of nature was shown by the withering of the fig tree, by walking upon the sea, and by the stilling of the tempest at His word. His Divine power was further illustrated in His victory over Satan in Himself and His disciple. And He proved Himself God in the absolution He pronounced for sins and the peace which He wrought in penitent, believing souls. Such, so many, so convincing proofs incontrovertibly established upon the highest conditions of testimony have we that Jesus Christ, the Son of Mary, is Divine. Such, so many, so conclusive that we have none equal to these to prove there is a God. Man and God He is—perfect Man and perfect God. God from eternity, the same yesterday, to-day and forever; man from the hour of His incarnation, onward, forever! So man and God, He comes to us with absolute fulness for all our wants. He stands before us in His humanity and divinity. As a man and brother, now, as when on earth, entering into our feelings, our experiences, side by side He stands, His eyes looking into ours, His heart bending in sympathy to our fears and griefs, and swelling with our hopes and joys, His voice speaking and His hand extended to us in comfort and help. And as God, a Being utterly transcending our finite conception of knowledge, purity and power; a Being of infinite holiness, of limitless might and love, whose sovereignty is universal, absolute and eternal, He encompasses our path and overarches our life, constraining us to awe and reverence, to submission and obedience, and yet to trust and love. Such a Being, so adapted to all the needs of our imperfect, finite, and yet immortal nature; such a Being, so near and yet so far above us, so like and yet unlike, whose resources immeasurably exceed all our deepest desires and loftiest aspirations, we have in the person of the God-Man, Christ Jesus. And this person, so divinely and humanly constituted, so adapted to win our trusting affection and our adoring homage, presents Himself as taking this manhood upon His divinity expressly and solely for us, for our advantage, to reveal to us by His realized ideal of a perfect manhood the beauty and the greatness of unfallen human nature. And more, far more, by His infinite sacrifice to lift from us the burden of guilt, to meet for us the claim of God's violated law, to raise us from the death of sin to the life of holiness, to restore the forfeited image of God in our souls, to reconcile us to God and bring us, self-alienated and outcast, back to the heart and home of God, to renew in us, and that forever, the life of God. B. How deeply the doctrine of the incarnation, of the Divine-human complex person Jesus Christ, is involved in the whole Christian system is evident from the fact that the denial of this doctrine leads to the denial, one after one, of all the distinguishing doctrines of the Christian faith. A system without this doctrine ceases to urge the doctrines of grace. It loses its hold on the strongest feelings of the conscience and of the heart. It refuses to grapple with the great questions of theology. It praises the moral virtues; it wonders at all zeal. It has lost the feeling of the constant presence of that Captain of our salvation who has inspired the faith, quickened the ardor, aroused the intellect, and led forth the hosts of Christendom, "Its relation to Christ," as has been well said, "is a past, a dead relation;" and so they eulogize Him as they do a hero, and venerate Him as they do a saint; but such eulogy and such veneration are faint and heartless when compared with the living energy of the faith of Paul or with the devoted love and absorbing contemplation of the beloved disciple who ever spoke and lived as in the presence of a living Lord. As a matter of fact, it is true that the greatest earnestness, the loftiest faith, the deepest religious experience, the most heavenly spirituality, the most awful sense of God's majesty, and the most affectionate reliance upon His love have been found in connection with the belief in an incarnate God. And surely if anything can arouse all our powers, awaken our intensest love, make us self-sacrificing, fill us with the holiest zeal and the purest enthusiasm, and satisfy perfectly all our wants, it is living faith in such a Lord, who is not only a Lord, but a brother also; in whom all that we can venerate as Divine and all that we can love as human are combined in perfect harmony. H. B. Smith. 14:1 BEHOLD, a day of the LORD cometh, when thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished: and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south. And ye shall flee by the valley of my mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azel: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the LORD my God shall come, and all the holy ones with thee. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be with brightness and with gloom: but it shall be one day which is known unto the LORD; not day, and not night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time there shall be light. And it shall come to pass in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the eastern sea, and half of them toward the western sea: in summer and in winter shall it be. And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall the LORD be one, and his name one. All the land shall be turned as the Arabah, from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem; and she shall be lifted up, and shall dwell in her place, from Benjamin's gate unto the place of the first gate, unto the corner gate, and from the tower of Hananel unto the king's winepresses. And men shall dwell therein, and there shall be no more curse; but Jerusalem shall dwell safely. And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the peoples that have warred against Jerusalem: their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their sockets, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth. And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour. And Judah also shall fight against Jerusalem; and the wealth of all the nations round about shall be gathered together, gold, and silver, and apparel, in great abundance. And so shall be the plague of the horse, of the mule, of the camel, and of the ass, and of all the beasts that shall be in those camps, as this plague. And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. And it shall be, that whoso of all the families of the earth goeth not up unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, upon them there shall be no rain. And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, neither shall it be upon them; there shall be the plague, wherewith the LORD will smite the nations that go not up to keep the feast of tabernacles. This shall be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all the nations that go not up to keep the feast of tabernacles. In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, HOLY UNTO THE LORD; and the pots in the LORD's house shall be like the bowls before the altar. Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holy unto the LORD of hosts: and all they that sacrifice shall come and take of them, and seethe therein: and in that day there shall be no more a Canaanite in the house of the LORD of hosts. Chap. 14. The principles of interpretation which should rule in this chapter have been fully discussed and brought out in my remarks introductory to chap. 12. The events which it portrays are all yet in the future. Consequently there is no occasion to try to locate them in history, or to define their precise historic character. Their general significance and results may be inferred with reasonable certainty. The entire costume is Jewish, as we ought to expect. Jerusalem is invested by the combined forces of all nations; the city taken and sacked; half its people go into captivity (verses 1, 2). The Lord comes forth to fight against those nations (verse 3); He stands on the Mount of Olives and cleaves it in twain for His people to pass through (verse 4); they flee, but ultimately the Lord and His holy ones appear for their salvation (verse 5); a most peculiar twilight period follows, breaking forth near evening into the effulgence of full day (verses 6, 7); living waters flow from Jerusalem perpetually (verse 8); Jehovah alone is King over all the earth (verse 9); the whole world becomes a plain, and the temple-mountain stands alone the only mountain (verse 10); the plague that comes on those who fought against Jerusalem (verse 12)—panic and mutual slaughter consume them (verse 13); Judah aids Jerusalem in this great conflict against their common foes (verse 14); God's judgments reach all the domestic animals used by their enemies, as well as their owners (verse 15); all the surviving people of the world shall go up to Jerusalem to worship (verse 16); the plague on those who will not go up (verse 17), and especially on Egypt (verses 18, 19); holiness to the Lord in all inanimate things, universal and final (verses 20, 21). H. C. The day of Jehovah comes, all nations are gathered against Jerusalem, already it is captured, and is suffering the last horrors of war, when Jehovah goes forth to battle for His people. All nature trembles as He marches along, Mount Olivet is cleft asunder, the people flee, the light of nature is shrouded, but living waters go forth from Jerusalem, and Jehovah's kingdom is established over all the earth. Henceforward Jerusalem is safely inhabited, and from year to year all nations go up thither to worship, for she is now the holy city, and upon all that she has is inscribed "Holiness unto the Lord." R. P. S. 1. "Behold," calls special attention to what follows, as of the deepest interest and greatest importance. Remarkably, the usual form, "day of the Lord," is materially changed here. It is, "a day comes for the Lord," one day pre-eminently for Him, in which He will fully vindicate His name as the God of Zion, His power as one mighty to save, and His faithfulness as one who, having long ago promised, comes forth now in the fulness of time to perform. The other form—simply day of the Lord—occurs in Joel 1:15; 2:1, 11, 31; 3:14; Amos 5:18, 20; Zeph. 1:14, and elsewhere; but this is unique and peculiar, occurring, however, substantially in Jer. 51:6: "Flee out of the midst of Babylon; be not cut off in her iniquity; for it is a time of vengeance for the Lord." Also in Isa. 2:12: "Thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee," is of course said of Jerusalem, and implies that she is in the power of her enemies. 2. This verse gives somewhat the details of the case, to show how it comes to pass that the spoil of the city is divided among its captors within her very walls. The Lord, by His providential agencies, brings all the nations up against Jerusalem to battle. In this one prominent feature, this prophecy harmonizes with Ezek. 38, 39, and with Rev. 20:8, 9. The city is taken; the horrible scenes usually consequent on such a capture ensue. Finally, half the people go into captivity; the other half remain in the city. We do not hear from these captives again. They meet the doom of the wicked, and doubtless represent the corrupt and not truly pious portion of the people. This cleansing of the nominal Church by which one half is sloughed off, taken in connection with the similar operation predicted (chap. 13:8, 9), which cut off two parts out of three, gives us a strong view of the fearful corruption of the Church, and of the amount of winnowing and separation requisite before her great victories over the wide world can be achieved. Like the host of Gideon, her host is to be reduced to the faithful few. 3. "Then shall the Lord go forth"—this Hebrew verb being the common one for "going out" to war and battle—e.g., Hab. 3:13; Isa. 26:21, which latter passage, like the one before us, assumes that the Lord has been at rest, waiting for the fit hour, and now comes forth for special displays of His power against His foes. 4. The commander of a vast army takes some elevated position which overlooks the battle-field. So Jehovah takes His stand on the Mount of Olives, which overlooked the city on the east, affording the best commanding view of the city. To give the greater vividness to the scene as a reality, it is said "His feet shall stand there." The mountain cleaves asunder in the middle, half removing northward and half southward, leaving a wide valley. There can be no doubt of a tacit historical allusion here to the very similar cleaving of the Red Sea for His people to escape from Pharaoh's pursuing host. That was done literally; this, being a historical allusion, means only that a deliverance is now effected like that, equally glorious to the power that saved His people, equally effective for their salvation. The analogy will be yet more complete if we may suppose, with Hengstenberg, that the mountain is cleft by an earthquake, which, while it opened the mountain for their easy escape, swallowed up their enemies. As the text does not affirm this, however, it must stand as mere conjecture. This earthquake alarmed the retreating host and hastened their flight—of which fear and flight the next verse speaks. 5. This earthquake in the days of Uzziah is not noticed in the historical books, but is probably alluded to by Amos (1:1). That, like this, was a time of panic and of earnest flight from the city to the mountains for safety. "Now there comes the Lord my God, and all the saints with thee." With this the scene changes; Immanuel appears in pre-eminent splendor, and all the holy in His train. The nearest parallel to this scene as respects His retinue is De. 33:2, where Moses said: "The Lord came from Sinai; He shined forth from Mount Paran, and He came with ten thousands of saints," etc. The prophet speaks of this scene as it appeared to him in prophetic vision. The scene was peculiarly and pre-eminently impressive. He had a vivid sense of Immanuel, "the captain of the Lord's host," as his own God, and the God of his own people, and therefore says, "There comes the Lord my God!" The next striking feature he puts in the form of an address to Immanuel: "All the holy ones are with thee." The great aim of this revelation is to impress the prophet, and through his words all the people of God in every age, with this great truth, that Jesus Immanuel is the Almighty Saviour of His people, and that He employs angelic spiritual beings as His agents in the ministrations of His mediatorial reign, both in the care of His people and in His judgments on the wicked. Hence these agents sometimes appear in the visions of prophecy. Isaiah "saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and above him were the seraphim." The same thing was symbolized when (2 K, 6:17) Elisha prayed in behalf of his young servant: "Lord, I pray Thee open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha." This was only bringing before the prophet's mental eye the actual verities of things—those agencies, full of power, though usually invisible to mortals, by which Jesus Christ administers the providential government of this world. H. C. 6,7. In a wide application, the words may be regarded as describing the mixed character of God's dispensations to the race. Looking at the course of His providence and grace through the long day of time, at the whole train of events which have marked man's existence on the earth, it is obvious that since holiness and sin began their strife in the primeval paradise, light and darkness, mercy and judgment, happiness and suffering, have been blended in all that God has done and man experienced. "But it shall come to pass that at evening time there shall be light." The long, long day of varied light and darkness, the long world strife of good and evil, of truth and error, of happiness and misery, shall end in unclouded brightness, in the triumph, complete and lasting, of holiness, of truth, of blessedness. For at the evening of the world the Lord shall come! "He shall be King over all the earth," there shall be "one Lord, and His name one." The isles shall receive His law, the nations shall become His inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth His possession. B. "At evening time it shall be light." The revolution of years is silently bringing nearer and nearer the evening time of the moral world. God's administration of this world's affairs is approaching a glorious completion. The mystery and darkness that now invest His throne will be dissipated, and His ways shall be justified before the assembled universe. The hands of the clock of Time are moving on, slowly and silently, toward an hour which shall be universally known and felt, soon as it is reached, as the end of Time. Oh, that last evening time of the world, what pen can adequately picture it? The cloudy day of Providence will end, and in the light of the great white throne of judgment the grandest vindication of His government will be made by Jehovah Himself! The reasons and equity of His acts will no longer appear uncertain. A thousand queries, suggested by as many strange things of our present state, will be answered. The prayer of the old reformer, that we offer, now and then, as we are brought under darkness, "more light, Lord; more light, more light!" will be granted in a manner that will awe us down into the profoundest attitude of thankfulness. Then will there be made an adjustment of contrary things Inequalities of rank and condition will be rectified. Good and evil will be forever separated. Truth and error will dissolve companionship. The right shall be established and the wrong put down. Justice will be administered by One who cannot err. Merit will be recognized and receive its due reward, and mere pretence will be put to shame. Oh, what a clearing away of mists will there be! What startling revelations will be made! And as the finale of that wonderful scene of the last judgment the voices of ten times ten thousand angels and archangels, joining with the hosts of the saved from earth, shall be heard exclaiming, "Blessing, and honor, and power, and glory be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne! Great and marvellous are Thy works, Lord God Almighty, just and true are Thy ways, Thou King of saints!" Luckenbach. In a personal application, these figurative expressions will describe the present mixed condition of the righteous. By day and night, light and darkness, are meant knowledge and ignorance, sin and holiness, prosperity and adversity, hope and fear. And when it is said that it shall be neither day nor night with the people of God, we are to understand that their condition in the world is neither perfectly good nor perfectly evil, that there is mixture and change in their portion. Out of compassion to our infirmities, the Lord diversifies our state. That we may not forget Him in the light, He sends us darkness; and then, that our feet may not stumble, that our hearts may not fall us in the darkness, He causes the light again to rise on us, and we are comforted. This procedure brings our graces into exercise; it manifests and strengthens them. Some of these are called forth by prosperity only, at least they shine then with peculiar brightness; such are moderation, deadness to the world, self-denial, humility. Others again are seen only or chiefly in the night of affliction—submission, contentment, patience, all the suffering graces of the Spirit. This diversified experience is designed also to bring the people of God to a more simple dependence on Himself. It accomplishes this end by showing them their own weakness and the Divine strength. C. B. God in the end can turn even our failures and mistakes to His glory and our own blessing; His wisdom can overrule our error, and His mercy will forgive our weakness. If, through our own fault, not His, our pastures have not been as green, our waters not as still as they might have been, yet surely as we look back and count up our past blessings, they will make our heart full and our eyes dim. Dark as the day may have been, "at eventide it shall be light." Sometimes our path in life seems like a lane full of windings, where the steep banks shut out the light and air, and all we can do is to trudge steadily on through the thick mire. But if we look high up in front of us we shall see, as Israel saw, the faint blue hills of the Land of Promise rising up against the sky. The path will come out at length in full view of the celestial city; and at last, at last we shall be at home. Bp. Thorold. Oftentimes we look with forebodings to the time of old age, forgetful that at eventide it shall be light. To many saints old age is the choicest season of their lives. A balmier air fans the mariner's cheek as he nears the shore of immortality; fewer waves ruffle his sea; quiet reigns, deep, still and solemn. From the altar of age the flashes of the fire of youth are gone, but the flame of more earnest feeling remains. The setting sun seems larger than when aloft in the sky, and a splendor of glory tinges all the clouds which surround all his going down. Pain breaks not the sweet calm of the twilight of age; for strength made perfect in weakness bears up in patience under it all. The Lord's people shall enjoy light in the hour of death. Unbelief laments, the shadows fall, the night is coming, existence is ending. Ah, no! crieth Faith; the night is far spent, the day is at hand. Light is come—the light of immortality, the light of a father's countenance. Farewell, beloved one; thou art gone; thou wavest thy hand. Ah, now it is light. The pearly gates are open; the golden streets shine in the jasper light. We cover our eyes, but thou beholdest the unseen. Thou hast light at eventide, such as we have not. Spurgeon. Into that unclouded day, into that perfect knowledge and vision of God, into that completely satisfied experience of His fellowship and joy, all our dead in Christ have entered. Their darkness is ended; their burdens laid down; their labor is terminated in rest, their trouble in peace, their sorrow in joy, their exile in home—an everlasting, blessed home with God. To that home of rest and peace and joy our exiled hearts aspire, and still we journey on. To us the way is still, as it hath been thus far, through weariness and trial. But He who led and holds us on the way bids us remember the infirmities, the burdens, the griefs which He has appointed as the means, needful, wise and kind, of attaining that blessed end. Since He appointeth our light afflictions which, in the comparison of an endless being, are but for a moment, to work out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, let us not faint or be discouraged because of them. Since these afflictions are God's instruments in our needed discipline of refinement and purification, since in our every experience of trial He is chastening us for our profit, that we may be made partakers of His holiness, be it ours to watch and labor and pray, that they bring forth in us the fruit of patience, of trust, of more perfect consecration, of more active endeavor of love to do His holy, blessed will! B. 8. Water is a natural symbol of God's spiritual blessings, especially those in which the agencies of the Holy Spirit are prominent. Indeed, water is the special symbol of this Divine Spirit, as may be seen in the explanatory clauses of Ezek. 36:25, 27; Isa. 44:3. The latter reads, "I will pour water on him that is thirsty"—shown to mean, "I will pour My Spirit upon thy seed, and My blessing upon thy offspring." Ezekiel has it, "Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean," etc., shown to mean, "I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes," etc. Moreover, the very terms which express the manner of giving the Spirit indicate this: "I will pour My Spirit upon you," etc. Strikingly parallel to this passage of Zechariah is Ezek. 47:1-12. There the water flows from under the sanctuary, here from Jerusalem; there is one widening, deepening stream, till it becomes a mighty river, and sweeping through the desert eastward, pours itself into the Dead Sea and heals its waters; here one half flows into the front sea, which is, of course, the Dead Sea, and the other half into the Mediterranean on the west. That of Ezekiel carries on its bosom health, abundance, undying verdure, and is of course to be considered perennial; this flows during the arid summer as well as the rainy winter, which amounts to saying that it flows all the year, and year after year, never failing. Now, as Palestine would be rendered almost an earthly Paradise by such living streams as Zechariah and Ezekiel have described, if they were to be miraculously created by the finger of God, and become literal verities, so we must take these figures as predictions of blessings of the richest, most abundant, and most enduring kind possible for God to bestow on human souls. That Zechariah's stream of water flows from Jerusalem and Ezekiel's "from under the sanctuary" indicate plainly that the Spirit of God will yet continue, as ever, to make the institutions of the Gospel—the service and worship of the sanctuary—the vehicles and the channels through which He will pour abroad the fulness of His blessings upon men. 9. And the Lord shall be King over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and His name one. The precious fact predicted here is that the Lord Jehovah reigns supreme over all the earth, and is recognized everywhere as the only true God. The sense is not precisely this—that now and henceforth there shall really be but one God, as if to imply that in former times there had been more true gods than one; but this—that now He is known, acknowledged, honored, obeyed, as the one only God. The very names of other gods are forgotten. No other name than His is recognized as a name for God. Now, therefore, "the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever." Now, at length, the long-offered prayer, the burden of pious hearts age after age, is fulfilled: "Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." That good promise by the mouth and pen of David (Ps. 22:27, 28) has now come to pass: "All the ends of the earth shall remember, and turn unto the Lord, all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before Thee; for the kingdom is the Lord's, and He is Governor among the nations." 10. "All the land" should read, as it clearly means, all the earth, being precisely the same words rendered "all the earth" in the previous verse: "The Lord shall be King over all the earth." "Turned" means changed, in its physical conformation, from a mountainous to a plain, level country. The sense is that all the earth shall become a plain similar to that from Geba to Rimmon. Geba was on the northern border of Judah (2 K. 23:8), and Rimmon on the southern (1 Chron. 4:32). "It shall be lifted up" means that Jerusalem shall rise in lofty, towering grandeur, the only mountain in all the world, and, of course, the chief wonder and admiration of the world, all else being a plain. It shall be crowned on its summit with the glorious temple of the living God. This carries forward the figure used (Micah 4:1; Isa. 2:2) at least one important step further. Micah and Isaiah speak of the temple-mountain as "established" (firmly set) "on the top of the mountains and exalted above the hills." Zechariah sees all other mountains and hills sinking down to a plain, and the temple-mountain, or rather Jerusalem herself as a whole, is lifted up and becomes the only mountain of the world. So magnificent, honorable, and glorious is to be the future kingdom of Messiah! 12. The prophet left the enemies of Zion at the third verse to follow the fortunes of Zion herself, and to show us, through verses 4-11, how signally the Lord appeared for her help, and how gloriously He turned her darkness into day, and then poured out for her living waters and rebuilt her capital in greater and more enduring splendor than ever. Now he returns to inform us of the doom of those old enemies who marshalled their hosts against Zion, as appears in verses 1-3. They are smitten with a living death. Their flesh, touched with some consuming leprosy, perishes while yet they stand upon their feet. Their eyes consume away in their sockets; their tongue in their mouths. The eye and the tongue are specified as being the most valued organs—those of sight and of speech; and probably, too, as having been specially used in their war upon Zion. With their tongue they had spoken proudly, blasphemously, profanely. The type of their spirit had been, "Let her be defiled; let our eye look upon Zion" (Micah 4:11). "Where is the Lord thy God? Mine eye shall behold her" (Micah 7:10). The Lord is wont to make His retributive judgments indicate the sin for which they are sent. This plague wherewith the Lord shall smite the open enemies and actual assailants of His Zion is intended to be terrible. 13. The word "tumult" rather means a panic—the blended terror and confusion which an awful sense of the fact that Almighty God is against them would naturally produce. This verse and the preceding should be located in the events of this chapter, immediately after the first three verses. We are not to suppose that this plague of verse 12, and this panic with mutual slaughter of verse 13, come in only long after the scenes of the first three verses, and after Jerusalem has become peaceful and glorious. They rather go back to give us in detail the manner in which the Lord disposed of those enemies that fought against Jerusalem, took and divided her spoil, and made captives of half her people. All suddenly the plagues of Jehovah smite them; their flesh consumes away; this awful form of death serves to panic smite their hosts, and they fall upon each other in the dread work of mutual slaughter! "So let all thine enemies perish, O Lord; but let them that love 'Thee be as the sun when he goeth forth in his might'' (Judges 5:31). 14. Judah fights in Jerusalem, not against her. The meaning is that, with a mutually good understanding, the people of the country rush to the help of the city, and fight heroically within the city for her defence. The spoil from the enemy is immense. The ultimate truth taught here is that real union shall be the strength and glory of the millennial Church. 15. The same plague that came from the Lord upon incorrigibly wicked men falls also on all their cattle, horses, mules, camels and asses. They are supposed to be polluted by the horrible corruption of their owners. Moreover, the Lord would make His judgments so terrible as to inspire awe of His majesty and justice. The cattle of a city given to idolatry were to be destroyed. So were the animals in some of those most wicked cities doomed of God to destruction. H. C. 16-21. In these words the future reception of the true religion by all nations is foretold under the symbols of the Mosaic economy, with its ritual, its yearly feasts, and its central place of worship. For this principle of interpretation we have the authority of the New Testament (Rom. 12:1; 1 Pet. 2:5). Barroves. 16. The slaughter of the wicked nations, implied in verse 3, and terribly indicated in verses 12, 13, leaves some yet living; how many relatively to the whole number, or to the number slain, we are not told. But we are told that those who remain shall be converted to God. They now come up to Jerusalem, no longer to fight against her, but to worship the living God in her temple, and to join heart and hand with the Lord's people. They are changed men—changed from sinners to saints. The Jewish idea of a convert made to the true God in distant Gentile lands must naturally imply that he will come up year by year to Jerusalem to worship God at their great festivals. This idea they could not fail to carry over to the reign of their expected Messiah. Prophecy makes Him a second David, the great successor on David's throne, to reign over all the nations from that great central metropolis of His kingdom. It remains for us to translate this Old Testament phraseology into that of the New Testament, and to modify those ideas which were the natural, not to say necessary, outgrowth of the ancient dispensation, and make them correspond to the new type of things established by our Lord and His apostles. So modified, we no longer think of converts in the ends of the earth making their annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem to keep her holy feasts and to worship Jehovah there. We understand that every living Christian heart is God's temple, and that every sincere worshipper is accepted in the New Mediator of the better covenant. Now after Zion has been redeemed from her sins, made victorious over her foes, has received all that survive of them to her bosom as friends, and they are made welcome to her munificent blessings from her King, why should they not bring up their annual offerings of thanksgiving and praise? Isaiah (66: 23) names the "new moons and the Sabbaths" as the periods at which all flesh should come up to worship before the Lord—showing, when compared with this statement by Zechariah, that a literal coming is not thought of by the Spirit of inspiration. The essential idea is expressed as well by one form of statement as by the other. This idea is, that all the people of the earth will worship the true God in the modes of His own appointment, as Christ taught the woman of Samaria (John 4: 20-24), and as the converted Jews were taught (Heb., chaps. 7-10). 17. This curse is entirely in accordance with the principles of the ancient theocracy which promised rain to the people if obedient, but threatened to withhold it if they turned aside to idols. (See De. 11: 13-17.) The ancient economy provided for retribution in the present world sufficiently full and sure to make the sense of it effective in those early ages, and to minister to an intelligent faith in God's actual government of the world. The previous verse speaks of "nations;" this, particularly, of "families," because it was by families that the Hebrew people came up to Jerusalem on their great annual festivals. 18,19. The general sense is plain—viz., that Egypt shall be no exception to the general law. If they go not up, the same plagues shall fall on them for this neglect as on other nations. The fact is, that the failure of rain around the head waters of the Nile is as fatal to Egypt as the failure of rain in other countries. Let it be noted that these threatened plagues (verses 17, 18) do not of necessity imply that any families will refuse to go up to worship the Lord of Hosts. They may only show that men are still moral agents, acted upon by fear and hope, and made responsible for their free moral acts. 20,21. That holiness to the Lord shall be not only very pure, but widely extended, is taught here by three distinct statements: 1. Things that have no special sanctity—e.g., bells on horses, shall be consecrated as altogether holy. 2. The less sacred things about the temple shall become as holy as those most sacred were wont to be—e.g., common pots for cooking food shall become no less sacred than the bowls which received the blood of animals slain in sacrifice; the latter being of old accounted most holy, the former least so. 3. The Canaanites shall be no more in the Lord's temple. Canaanite was the common Hebrew word for trafficker, merchant—a business in bad repute among the Hebrews because so much associated with fraud and deceit. (See Hos. 12: 7, 8.) There is special force in the allusion to the bells upon the horses because the Hebrew law and Hebrew sentiment had a prejudice against horses, as associated with pride and vain show; with reliance also on some other power than God, and with war. This prejudice was all the stronger because their most powerful enemies came upon them with a strong force of cavalry and chariots; while, on the other hand, their own kings were forbidden to multiply horses. (See De. 17: 16.) The pious Psalmist said, "Some trust in chariots and some in horsemen; we, in the name of the Lord our God." The pious in Hos. 14: 3 say, "We will not ride upon horses." But now, in the purity of the millennial age, even the bells, mere ornaments on the horses, shall bear the same inscription as the ancient breast-plate worn by the high priest—"Holiness to the Lord." How exceedingly expressive of the absolute and universal consecration of all things to the service and worship of the one all-glorious God! Reviewing briefly the course of thought in this entire chapter, I call renewed attention to the following points: 1. The whole chapter must be taken as figurative, and not literal. The literal sense, implying the actual cleaving of the Mount of Olives, and the escape of half the population of the city through its cleft bowels; two literal rivers flowing from Jerusalem, one east and the other west; all the mountains in the world levelled down to plains, save the one on which Jerusalem and its temple shall stand; all the nations coming up to Jerusalem yearly to the Feast of Tabernacles; Judaism with its bloody sacrifices enjoined on all the Gentile world, despite of the whole New Testament to the contrary: such things, supposed to take place literally, are simply incredible and absurd. Some of them, if they were to take place literally, would inevitably defeat their own ends. All would defeat and crush out New Testament Christianity. There can be no sufficient reasons for giving this chapter a literal construction. 2. I have studiously abstained from the attempt to determine and define the fulfilment of any minute feature in this grouping of Hebrew figures, because I have no faith in such attempts. When these things shall be fulfilled; in what precise form the wicked shall assail the Church of God; how many of them shall be cut off by the plagues of the Lord, and how many shall remain to be converted—these points, and such as these, I think it wise to make no attempt to determine. Ungodliness has its group of specific forms today; who can tell whether they will change essentially before this general onslaught upon Zion? The world has long since passed the besieging of the literal Jerusalem, as being herself the Lord's Zion; probably has passed the era of religious wars, avowedly to destroy Christianity. But stern conflicts with Satan and his human aids await the kingdom of Christ ere its great and final victory. 3. In the exposition of this chapter the first main inquiry should be, How would the Jews of Zechariah's time understand it? What would be the general impression made upon them by this grouping of Jewish images and ideas? Would not they hail this chapter as God's word of promise, that the worship of their own Jehovah would one day become universal; that their old enemies would first be greatly reduced in numbers by fearful plagues, and the remnant be converted to the living God, and that then the worship of God would become pure and substantially universal? They could make of it nothing less than this. No other language could express these points more surely or more forcibly than this. 4. Then this is the general sense of the chapter. For it was written to be read and to be understood by the Jews of his time. The writer of it was himself a Jew, writing for first readers who were Jews, and therefore he used and could use only Jewish terms and figures. The general sense of these figures we get from that ancient economy. It only remains (as already said) that we translate Jewish into Christian terms, Jewish symbols into Christian thought and meaning, and we have the truth which the Lord hath taught us with so much clearness, beauty and force in this chapter. Let the name of the Lord be praised for such and so much light upon the otherwise unknown future of His earthly Zion! We will bless His name, not only that He has formed such purposes of loving-kindness—not only that He has determined to bring all the nations of men to live joyfully beneath Messiah's sceptre, but that He has revealed to us this purpose, and delineated in such forms of beauty and joy the glorious future which awaits Messiah's kingdom among men. H. C. 20,21. It is in allusion to the golden fillet around the high-priest's mitre, inscribed on the forehead "Holiness to the Lord," that the prophet Zechariah, predicting the glory of the future Church, declares, "In that day there shall be upon the bells of the horses 'Holiness to the Lord;' yea, every pot that is in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto the Lord of Hosts," meaning that a time shall come that the consecration of all the people of God and their daily avocations shall be as complete as that of the high-priest, whose forehead wears this inscription; they shall all be priests as holy as the high-priest himself. S. R.—Holiness to the Lord had been written only upon the high-priest's forehead, but now it shall not be so appropriated. All Christians shall be living temples and spiritual priests dedicated to the honor of God, and employed in His service. Real holiness shall be more diffused than it had been, because there shall be more powerful means of sanctification, more excellent rules, more cogent arguments, and brighter patterns of holiness; and because there shall be a more plentiful effusion of the Spirit of holiness and sanctification after Christ's ascension than ever before. There shall be holiness introduced into common things; and those things shall be devoted to God that seemed very foreign. When there shall be such an abundance of real holiness, people shall not be nice and curious about ceremonial holiness; they that sacrifice shall come and take of these common vessels and seeth their sacrifices therein, making no distinction between them and the bowls before the altar. H. No scene or station of all the earth that can eye Paradise or catch the gleams of the atoning cross is truly ignoble or utterly forlorn. He who promised that, in the last days, the inscription which shone on the front of the high-priest's mitre, "Holiness unto the Lord," should be written also on the very bells of the horses, and that "every pot" in Jerusalem and its outlying streets should become holy as the consecrated furniture of His own temple and altar, can in like manner render the lowliest scenes of human art and toil and traffic the schools of truth and duty and peace, schools ministering alike to the truest happiness and to the most perfect holiness of our race. He can make each allowable task of our earthly life to become also "Holiness to the Lord;" and as the Christian's body is made a temple of the Holy Ghost, so can he render the Christian himself, in all his social relations and enterprises, "a priest and a king unto God." And the great principle of conciliation amid earth's jarring tribes and clashing interests, and of true and helpful communion among mankind, is not external, but internal, not material, but spiritual, not terrene, but celestial; and is found in the blending by this one Divine Spirit of all earth's inhabitants in a common contrition before a common redemption, tending as these inhabitants are, under a common sin and doom, to the same inevitable graves; but all of them invited, in the one name of one Christ, to aspire to the same heaven of endless and perfect blessedness. W. R. Williams. Let "Holiness to the Lord" be written upon your hearts in all that you do. Do no work which you cannot entitle God to and truly say He set you about; and do nothing in the world for any other ultimate end than to please and glorify and enjoy Him. And remember that whatever you do must be done as a means to these, and as by one that is that way going on to heaven. All your labor must be the labor of a traveller, which is all for his journey's end; and all your respect of affection to place or thing in your way must be in respect to your attainment of the end; as a traveller loveth a good way, a good horse, a good inn, a dry cloak, or good company; but nothing must be loved here as your end or home. Baxter. With great distinctness the Scriptures of truth affirm that religion demands the consecration of everything connected with our life. Rightly viewed, it sanctifies, sets apart to a holy use and end every relation, every occupation, with every necessary, natural and proper action connected with business, with friendly intercourse, with solitary or social recreation. "Not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord," is the Divine injunction for the governance of all human toil. Diligence and prayerful dependence in order to secure the prospering favor of God, and a single aim to make the prosperity He bestows tributary to His high and holy purposes, these are the principles here indicated as rightly directing and controlling the temporal pursuits of men. To the Christian, pursuing his calling upon these principles and with these ends, applying them faithfully day by day to the details of that calling, how blessed the effects upon his temporal condition, his spiritual character, his growth in grace and increase in usefulness! How would he be incited to patient persistence in labor, thus avoiding the temporal curse as well as the criminality of ignorance! How would his hardest toil be lightened by a cheerful consciousness of duty done! How would his cares, anxieties, and even reverses be relieved of their weightiest pressure, under the assured conviction that an Infinite wisdom and love were his, to which to appeal, and an Almighty arm on which to lean! How much more hopefully might he labor, and more confidently anticipate a satisfactory result! How much more just an appreciation would he attain of the true value of wealth as a means to a higher, holier end, and how much more wisely would he use that wealth! How would his accumulations, his merchandise, his flocks or herds, his lands or money, even the very implements and appliances of his toil, recall his stewardship, perpetuate and deepen his sense of obligation, and stimulate him to personal effort for perishing souls! And thus his very business or toil would become a part of his religion, an act of worship and a means of grace to help him on in the Divine life. This would identify his interests with the interests of his Master; in a word, he would be prompted to engage more and more in every good work, to give more and more of his substance to the diffusion of the Gospel, and so contribute to the efficient, rapid progress of the Redeemer's kingdom in the world. Of the life of such a Christian, one who thus consecrates his daily toil by the recognition and service of God, truthfully and beautifully it has been written, "Thus ordered, his whole life will be one prolonged act of consecration. The psalm of a grateful heart will, with unremitting flow, fill up all the interval of his visits to the closet and the sanctuary. The life of godliness will be devotional even on common days, in familiar scenes and secular employments. Its calendar will have its whole year hallowed, while it keeps still its days of special sanctity, the thrice hallowed. It will be worship at work, kneading the leaven of Christian principle into the entire mass of its personal activity and social influence." B. Zechariah's prophecies of Christ are, in some respects, the most remarkable in the Old Testament. In one of his visions the Father summons the sword to awake against the Shepherd, and against the Man that is His fellow; in another, men are looking in agony on the Lord whom they have pierced; in a third, Messiah rides as a conqueror on an ass into Jerusalem; and in a fourth, He is King of all the earth, and on the very bells of the horses there is inscribed "Holiness unto the Lord." The Divine as well as the human nature of Christ, and His office as an atoning Saviour, were thus very distinctly made known. W. G. B. 1:1 THE burden of the word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi. 2. I have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not 3 Esau Jacob's brother? saith the LORD: yet I loved Jacob; but Esau I hated, and made his 4 mountains a desolation, and gave his heritage to the jackals of the wilderness. Whereas Edom saith, We are beaten down, but we will return and build the waste places; thus saith the LORD of hosts, They shall build, but I will throw down: and men shall call them The border of wickedness, and The people against whom the LORD hath indignation for ever. 5 And your eyes shall see, and ye shall say, The LORD be magnified beyond the border of Israel. 6 A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is mine honour? and if I be a master, where is my fear? saith the LORD of hosts unto you, O 7 priests, that despise my name. And ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name? Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar. And ye say, Wherein have we polluted thee? In that ye 8 say, The table of the LORD is contemptible. And when ye offer the blind for sacrifice, it is no evil! and when ye offer the lame and sick, it is no evil! Present it now unto thy governor; 9 will he be pleased with thee? or will he accept thy person? saith the LORD of hosts. And now, I pray you, intreat the favour of God, that he may be gracious unto us: this hath been 10 by your means: will he accept any of your persons? saith the LORD of hosts. Oh that there were one among you that would shut the doors, that ye might not kindle fire on mine altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you, saith the LORD of hosts, neither will I accept an offering at 11 your hand. For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same my name is great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense is offered unto my name, and a pure 12 offering: for my name is great among the Gentiles, saith the LORD of hosts. But ye profane it, in that ye say, The table of the LORD is polluted, and the fruit thereof, even his meat, is 13 contemptible. Ye say also, Behold, what a weariness is it! and ye have snuffed at it, saith the LORD of hosts; and ye have brought that which was taken by violence, and the lame, and the sick; thus ye bring the offering: should I accept this of your hand? saith the LORD. 14 But cursed be the deceiver, which hath in his flock a male, and voweth, and sacrificeth unto the Lord a blemished thing: for I am a great king, saith the LORD of hosts, and my name is terrible among the Gentiles. THE word "Malachi" means "my messenger" or "my angel." As occurring in the title to this prophecy, it may be understood to be the name of the prophet who wrote the prophecy; or it may be a surname given him, taken from 3:1; or it may possibly be merely a designation for the book, taken from 3:1. The first view is a convenient one to take, and is at least as likely as either of the others. The book was written by a prophet of the time of the second administration of Nehemiah, a man of the same spirit with Ezra and Nehemiah. It was written either during the lifetime of Ezra or very soon after his death. W. J. B. Malachi is the last of the prophets, and is therefore called "the Seal," his book closing the Old Testament canon. Like Habakkuk, he is, in so far as his personal history is concerned, "a name, and nothing more." The Sacred Chronicles, even in the Book of Nehemiah, do not so much as mention him, although he was a zealous fellow-laborer with that patriotic governor, and greatly aided him in his endeavors to secure a willing and grateful obedience to the Divine law. In this, however, he does but share the fate of those Psalmists who, on the return from the Captivity, composed many songs for the temple service. The simple fact is that we know nothing of the personal history of Malachi, and cannot even be sure whether "Malachi" is a proper name or an appellative. The Old Testament closes, as the New Testament opens, with the words of one who is "a voice" to us rather than a man. But though we know nothing of the author, we can fix the date of this prophecy with reasonable accuracy. Indeed, it dates itself. All the notes of time it contains point steadily, and with one consent, to the second sojourn of Nehemiah in Jerusalem—i.e., about B.C. 420. It may even be said that the prophecy of Malachi, the last of the prophetic books, is simply a commentary on Nehemiah, the last of the historical books. From the whole tone of the prophecy it is obvious that the temple had been long rebuilt, its worship long restored—long enough for grave abuses to have crept in, and to have become habitual. Among these abuses were the violation of the Sabbath law, the offering of maimed and unclean sacrifices, the withholding of tithes, indifference deepening into weariness of the worship of the sanctuary, and intermarriage with heathen races on the part of the priests as well as the people. These are the sins which Malachi denounces, and these were the sins with which Nehemiah had painfully to contend. Cox. The last of the long series of Hebrew prophets, Malachi stood in the same relation to Nehemiah during the latter portion of his work of restoration and reform at Jerusalem which Haggai and Zechariah had occupied in relation to Zerubbabel. Not that his name is directly mentioned as having been associated with Nehemiah in the events recorded in the thirteenth chapter of the Book of Nehemiah; but a comparison of his denunciation of the sins of the people with the record of Nehemiah's reforms is strong evidence of the fact that they were contemporaries. The passages upon a comparison of which this conclusion is founded are: Mal. 2: 8 with Neh. 13: 15, 29; Mal. 2: 10-16 with Neh. 13: 23-27; and Mal. 3: 7-12 with Neh. 13: 10, etc. B. C. That he prophesied after the times of Haggai and Zechariah is inferred from his omitting to mention the restoration of the temple, and from no allusion being made to him by Ezra. The Captivity was already a thing of the long past, and is not referred to. The existence of the temple service is presupposed in Mal. 1: 10; 3: 1, 10. The Jewish nation had still a political chief (1: 8), distinguished by the same title as that borne by Nehemiah (Neh. 12: 26), to which Gesenius assigns a Persian origin. Hence Vitringa, Kennicott, Hales, Davidson, and most biblical critics conclude that Malachi delivered his prophecies after the second return of Nehemiah from Persia (Neh. 13: 6), and subsequently to the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes Longimanus—i.e., about B.C. 420. From the striking parallelism between the state of things indicated in Malachi's prophecies and that actually existing on Nehemiah's return from the court of Artaxerxes, it is on all accounts highly probable (so Mr. Wright) that the efforts of the secular governor were on this occasion seconded by the preaching of "Jehovah's messenger," and that Malachi occupied the same position with regard to the reformation under Nehemiah which Isaiah held in the time of Hezekiah, and Jeremiah in that of Josiah. The last chapter of canonical Jewish history is the key to the last chapter of its prophecy. Malachi (so Ayre) was commissioned to reprove both priests and people, and to invite them to "reformation by promises of blessing and warnings of awful judgment." The Book of Malachi is contained in four chapters in our version, as in the LXX., Vulgate and Peshito-Syriac. In the Hebrew the third and fourth form but one chapter. Dic. B. Subject-matter. The prophecy of Malachi forms one connected treatise, having for its main object the denunciation of practices inconsistent with the obedience and responsibilities of God's people; practices which had grown to a head during the absence of Nehemiah at the court of the Persian king. The prophet's purpose was to strengthen the hands of Nehemiah in the reforms which he was laboring to effect; yet not without reference to the person to whom all the prophets with greater or less clearness of language had borne witness, and to the time when the spiritual kingdom of the Son of David was to be established upon earth. The writer addresses himself directly to the sins which he found prevailing among the people, and shows their inconsistency with their profession of obedience to the will of God and with the formal acts of worship which were duly rendered. The gross idolatry of earlier times had disappeared; but the not less dangerous error of practices not in harmony with the professed and outward service rendered to God had sprung up. B. C. Not far from four hundred years before Christ this last in the long series of inspired prophets united his efforts with those of Nehemiah to call back the apostate people to their forsaken God, to rebuke them for their great sins, and to animate the believing portion by some very distinct and precious promises of the conversion of the Gentiles; of the coming of the glorious Lord, "the Messenger of the covenant," to His earthly temple; and also of the coming of John Baptist, here designated as "My messenger who shall prepare the way before Me," and as "Elijah the prophet." H. C. In the early part of his second administration, Nehemiah made strenuous efforts to place these matters again on a true footing, as we learn from Neh. 13. The contents of the Book of Malachi show that it was written just at this juncture and in furtherance of these efforts. It rebukes the priests (presumably including the singers, gate-keepers and other Levites), because they had not the courage and fidelity to stand by their duties even at the cost of hardships. It reminds them that such cowardice was especially reprehensible at a time when Jehovah's name was great among the nations. On the other hand, it rebukes the people for not bringing all the tithes into the storehouse, so that the support of the temple would be provided for. It rebukes Judah because, in the persons of its citizens and its priests, it had "married the daughter of a foreign god" (2:11). It emphasizes the fact that this is the second offence of the kind (2:13). And it rebukes false swearing, along with adultery and oppression (3:5). A second characteristic of the book is that, while it rebukes specific misconduct, it nevertheless gives principal attention to the bad spirit that lies back of the specific misconduct. It assumes that an evil habit of self-righteous scepticism is prevalent, and deals with this habit as well as with the wrong acts that spring from it. The habit exhibits itself in two ways. First, they answer back when Jehovah reproves them, instead of listening obediently (Mal. 1:2, 6, 7; 2:14, 17; 3:7, 8, 13). This answering back is mentioned eight times in the fifty-four verses of the book. Second, the same sceptical and self-justifying habit exhibits itself in certain sayings which Malachi quotes as current among the people: "Any one that doeth evil is good in the sight of Jehovah, and He delighteth in them" (2:17). "Where is the God of judgment?" (2:17). "It is in vain to serve God" (3:14). "What profit that we have kept His ordinances, and walked mournfully before Jehovah of hosts?" (3:14). "And now we congratulate the proud" (3:15). "[There have been such things as that] doers of wickedness have been builded up." "[Men] have tempted God and escaped" (3:15). W. J. B. Analysis of Contents. The book forms one continuous composition addressed to an age of overt, though unavowed, national discontent and disaffection. Theocratic scepticism, born of moral obtuseness, is the evil which Malachi confronts. The people look at their slow and humbling recovery, in place of the rapid and glorious progress prophecy had led them to anticipate, and they ask bitterly, "Is this God's peculiar love of His people?" The prophet's reply points them to the significant fact of Jehovah's persistent restoration of Israel to national existence, in contrast with the irretrievable downfall of their kinsmen the Edomites. That the reverses of fortunes should be Edom's destruction, but Israel's discipline, is proof that Israel possesses a unique place and destiny in the Divine purposes (1:1-5). The answer is adequate, but requires to be supplemented by an explanation of what is painful and perplexing in the present situation of tardy recovery. This is done by pointing out that the delay in fulfilling Israel's destiny is due not to Divine slackness, but to Israel's unworthiness and disloyalty to the covenant. The indictment consists of two parts, of which the first seizes and seathes with burning scorn the degradation of Divine worship, the corruptions of the priesthood and the social wrongs among the people (1:6; 2:16), while the second lays bare their roots in religious doubt of God's moral earnestness, the profitableness of His service, and His fidelity to fulfil the promises of the covenant (2:17; 4:6). The people are unwilling to admit their culpability, and it is necessary for the prophet to drive his charges home. Sons honor their fathers, servants their masters, but Israel has no reverence, not even bare respect for God. For His worship they select the sorriest beasts of their flocks and the shabbiest remnants of their possessions, such as they would never think of presenting to the civil ruler, and in this loveless insult priests and people are unblushingly combined. Better far to shut the temple and to quench the altar's fire, for already in every land a worship ascends to Jehovah pure and warm and acceptable in His sight (1:6-14). The priests, chosen by God to be the fountain of law and justice and religion, promised therefore the Divine favor and the people's honor and support, have perverted their office, corrupted justice, alienated the laity from religion and morality, and have, therefore, in just recompense forfeited their power to bless, destroyed the dignity of their high vocation, and incurred universal obloquy and contempt (2:1-9). The people, forgetful of the obligations of theocratic brotherhood, reckless of the risk to religion and the continuity of a holy seed, have intermarried for sordid advantages with heathen neighbors, and aggravated their guilt by heartlessly putting away their Jewish wives, whose tears and plaints ascending to heaven in the temple court hide from God's eyes the sacrifice offered on the altar, and call down on the transgressors His righteous vengeance to root them and their houses out of His land and people (2 : 10-16). This moral degeneracy has its root in a deep-seated religious scepticism. The delay in the accomplishment of the covenant promises, conceived selfishly and superficially as Israel's material aggrandizement, has begotten doubt of God's moral earnestness. Does God judge on earth? Is He on the side of the good and against the wicked (Ps. 73)? The prophet meets the sneering misgiving with a stern declaration of the certainty of the judgment, an explanation of its delay because of Israel's unreadiness for it, and a description of God's speedy advent, in order that He may, first of all, purge unsparingly people and priesthood, and, secondly, execute relentless judgment on all persistent wickedness (2 : 17-3 : 6). Further, the depression in the material affairs of the nation has produced scepticism as to God's care for human homage—that is, in its material form, doubt of the profitableness of God's service. The prophet protests that it is precisely this half-heartedness of worship and dishonesty in giving God His dues, that is the cause of their continued misfortunes. He challenges the people to make experiment of a contrasted course of conduct, and see what a wealth of blessing it will bring (3 : 7-12). Finally, the Divine delay to right Israel among the comity of the nations has, on the one hand, set the ungodly sneering in unbelief, and on the other moved the devout to mutual conference and sad but trustful prayer and waiting. God is not blind as His silence might seem to suggest. He marks the loyalty of these, the defiance of those. Speedily He will speak out, and in the triumph of the just and the destruction of the unjust He will make forever unmistakable the eternal distinction of goodness and of evil. In a final manifestation of Divine grace and judgment God will avenge all wrong and establish all righteousness. He will make an end of sin, and gloriously reward His own, and so completely fulfil His covenant promises. In anticipation of that day Israel's duty is a loyal return to the spirit of the ancient law and prophecy. For that end Elijah, the great prophet of fidelity and national decision, shall return. Thus prepared, Israel can face the coming judgment without fear, and welcome the consummation of the Divine covenant (3 : 13 ; 4 : 6). Elmslie. The book opens with a brief introduction or preface (chap. 1 : 1-4) the theme of which is, God's love to Israel a reason for a response of love to Him. After the introduction come the three main sections of the book : (1) On the impiety and profanity of the priests ; (2) on the heathen marriages of the priests and people ; and (3) on the day of the Lord. Section I. extends from chap. 1 : 6 to chap. 2 : 9. It is addressed to the priests, who had despised the name of Jehovah, and laid defective and polluted offerings on His altar. They are rebuked for the mercenary and perfunctory spirit of their service, and for despising the worship which they themselves had rendered despicable. They are threatened with the Divine curse and punishment if they continue in their sins, but are assured that the threatening is designed to bring them to repentance and amendment. Perhaps their severest rebuke is contained in that fine sketch of the true priest (chap. 2 : 5-7) with which this section draws to a close—one of the most admired and suggestive passages in the whole book : "My covenant of life and of peace was with him, And I gave them to him, For the fear which he shewed for Me, And the awe in which he stood of my Name. The law of truth was in his mouth, And no iniquity was found in his lips ; He walked with Me in peace and integrity, And brought back many from guilt : For the priest's lips should preserve knowledge, And men should seek the law at his mouth." Section II. extends only from verse 10 to verse 16 of chap. 2. This section is addressed to the people as well as to the priests, and reproves a sin of which both had been guilty. In defiance of the law of Moses, they had treacherously and wrongfully divorced their Hebrew wives, that they might take to themselves consorts from the idolatrous daughters of Moab and Philistia. The sighs and tears of the wronged women "cover the altar of Jehovah," so that He no longer regarded the offerings that were laid upon it. They are warned that, by these divorces and forbidden alliances, they are violating not the law of Moses alone, but the pure marriage law which God had given to man "in the beginning." Section III. extends from chap. 2 : 17 to chap. 4 : 4, and has for its main theme that "day of the Lord," that day of judgment ushering in a golden age of purity and concord, of which all the prophets had spoken. The Lord will come, though He tarry, come when they look not for