Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible
Zechariah 9:11-1
This Future Deliverance and Prosperity is Promised Even to the Returning Exiles (Zechariah 9:11 to Zechariah 10:1).
This promise of hope is already available in part. The exiles can come out of their ‘prisons' because of the blood of the covenant. The promises of God at Sinai still hold for those who obey Him. And they will become effective against all men.
‘As for you also, because of the blood of your covenant, I have sent forth your prisoners out of the pit in which there is no water. Turn you to the stronghold, you prisoners of hope. Even today do I declare that I will render double to you. For I have bent Judah for me, I have filled the bow with Ephraim, and I will stir up your sons, Oh Zion, against your sons, Oh Javan, and will make you as the sword of a mighty man.'
The offer of hope is now made more personal to the present circumstances. Its basis lies in ‘the blood of the covenant'. This of course refers to the blood of the sacrificial system which was at the heart of God's covenant with His people, and had sealed the covenant in Exodus 24. Now it was available again in the new Temple. It is because He accepts their offering for sin and again acknowledges His covenant with them that He can show mercy on them. But at its heart is the blood of the new covenant which the coming king will seal in His own blood. In that is the true hope for the prisoners of hope who will be saved by ‘the blood of the covenant' (Matthew 26:28).
So God's people are depicted as having been like prisoners in a waterless pit. They were far from home, living in darkness and thirsty in soul. But He has delivered them and brought them back so that they now have hope. This is a fitting description too of salvation coming to the heart of a man.
‘Turn you to the stronghold.' The word for stronghold is a rare one, but comes from the root btsr. It would seem to mean an inaccessible and fortified place, a bastion against all enemies. Here God is depicted as their mighty stronghold to which they should turn, their deliverer and protector, the One Who has set them free from their prison. Babylon is the waterless prison. God is their stronghold. (Compare Proverbs 18:10; Psalms 18:2; Psalms 61:3; Psalms 91:2; Psalms 144:2).
‘I will render double to you.' God's mercy is such that He will give them double what they had before. When He provides He always provides munificently.
‘I have bent Judah for me, I have filled the bow with Ephraim.' Judah is like a bow bent to receive the arrow. The arrow is Ephraim (Israel) filling the bow. God will give them future victory. The triumph of His people is sure. Indeed He will make them as the sword of a champion, totally invincible. Even ‘Javan' is to experience the effects of God's intervention, as they are conquered by God's people.
But in the light of Zechariah 9:10 this is not to be seen as by war. The battle bow has been cut off. God's people have themselves become God's bow and arrow.
‘And I will stir up your sons, Oh Zion, against your sons, Oh Javan, and will make you as the sword of a mighty man.' Zion have become God's sword and they will overcome the sons off Javan, the peoples across the sea. But in the context of the passage not by warfare. Like the coming King their conquest will be in peace.
‘Oh Javan'. Javan was one of the ‘sons' of Japheth who ‘fathered' Elishah (Alasia), Tarshish (Spain?), Kittim (Cyprus) and Dodanim (Rhodes) (Genesis 10:4). It therefore refers to powers to the West across the sea. It eventually became synonymous with Grecian influence as referring to the Ionians.
In the light of what has gone before in terms of the Philistines (Zechariah 9:7) we may see this as indicating that even these peoples across the sea will be brought into subjection to YHWH. For it will be noted from Zechariah 9:10 that war bows are no more.
This mention of Javan has been seen as referring strictly to Greece and the later Grecian empire and therefore to indicate a late date for the prophecy, but this need not be so. For there were in fact large contingents of Greek mercenaries in the Persian army, and the returned exiles would have come in close contact with them. And they would have been very familiar with Greek traders. Notice with regard to this that the prophecy is not directed at Javan itself but at ‘the sons of Javan'. So Zechariah could well have foreseen these sons of Javan being brought under the influence of God's people.
As with much prophecy Zechariah spoke in terms that he knew. Indeed it should be noted that Tyre is destroyed while the Philistines are humbled and become part of the people of God. In the same way Zechariah offers nothing to the Persians. His offer it to the peoples across the sea whose soldiers are but servants of the Persians.
We may, of course see that God Himself saw the wider picture and that Israel would indeed see the rise of a Greek Empire and clash with it, but if this is latent in the prophecy, it is not patent. What is patent is the triumph of God and His people.
There were also at this time certainly spasmodic raids by the peoples of the sea against the Palestine coastline, and this may well have directly affected the returned exiles and suggested the need for a future relationship with these people. Such a recent raid may well have been known to Zechariah and it could have been the cause of his concern over Javan.
Alternatively it may be that Zechariah did not want to refer directly to the downfall of Persia, and yet, foreseeing who would be the people who would bring about that downfall, refers to them as the people of the future, indicating thereby that they will eventually have replaced the Persians.
So the reference to Javan may simply be to the only peoples that Zechariah could foresee as a threat to Persia, whom he saw as under the judgment of God. As a result they would be then represent the future ‘opposition'. Better then that they be brought into submission to YHWH.
Note on Javan.
These peoples across the sea were not a totally unknown quantity. They were well known through trading activities and stories of their prowess would no doubt have filtered through. Thus given that they were also known for frequent sporadic raids on the Palestinian coastline, and that a considerable part of the Persian army was made up of Greek mercenaries, Zechariah had good reason to see these mysterious people as possible future enemies, and, having reflected unfavourably on the part they were playing in preventing Judah's freedom, to foresee their necessary defeat by God's people before the final triumph was possible. In that case Zechariah would be justified in seeing Javan as in some way a future threat to Judah, and may well possibly have foreseen through it the necessary downfall of the Persian empire. Thus it was necessary that the sons of Zion should be sure that they would be victorious against the sons of Javan.
This is not the only mention of ‘Javan'. It is also mentioned in Isaiah 66:19 as a part of the far off peoples who would be involved in God's judgments, and in Joel 3:6 it is to ‘the Ionians' that the people of God have been sold by Tyre and Sidon, and Philistia. They are therefore certainly seen there as involved with God's people and meriting God's judgment. So it is clear that the ‘sons of Javan' were regularly seen as genuine enemies of God's people even in the time of Joel. Zechariah may well have had this in mind when he speaks of Javan.
That the name ‘Javan' became at some stage almost synonymous with the Grecian empire is demonstrated in the book of Daniel (Daniel 8:21; Daniel 10:20; Daniel 11:3), and indeed Greece would arise from among the far off nations across the sea as destroyer of the Persian Empire, although as Macedon, the kingdom of Alexander the Great, did not originally see itself as being Greek we must be careful not to be too dogmatic about restricting the use of the term. As such Javan would begin to trouble Judah and Israel.
But the important thing here is that the Jews are assured that they need not fear ‘the sons of Javan', the mysterious peoples across the sea, but would achieve great victories against them. God caters for the future as well as the present. All His enemies will fail.
The Jews did, of course, become a part of that Greek Empire, and suffered defeat at their hands. But historically they did also finally gain ‘great' victories against the Seleucid part of the Greek Empire and gain a certain amount of relative freedom including freedom of worship. And we may say that Zechariah does not actually promise more than this, and that what is at the back of it all is that Judah and Israel need not finally fear the Greeks.
It is, of course, always possible that the words were added later as an application of the promise under divine influence, but there is no evidence for this other than their existence here in this form and it is not really necessary.
We must, however, recognise that Zechariah is describing Israel's influence over Javan as over the Philistines earlier. He is not necessarily speaking of warfare.
End of Note.
‘And YHWH will be seen over them, and his arrow will go forth as the lightning, and the Lord YHWH will blow the trumpet, and will go with the whirlwinds of the South.'
‘YHWH will be seen over them.' This may refer to some manifestation of the divine presence as in the pillar of fire, but more likely it signifies that He will be over them as their protector and commander. It is as commander that He ‘will blow the trumpet' (i.e. command the trumpeter to blow it).
‘His arrow will go forth as the lightning.' In Zechariah 9:13 the arrow of God is Ephraim, in which case ‘the whirlwinds of the south' may be Judah (in Isaiah 21:1 the phrase possibly refers to a commonly known phenomenon in Judah used as a vivid picture). But as Zechariah 9:10 has demonstrated they will not be involved in warfare. The probability is that the picture has changed and that reference is being made directly to His own activity, for lightning arrows (2 Samuel 22:15; Psalms 18:14; Psalms 144:6) and strong wind (Jeremiah 4:11; Jeremiah 51:1) are regularly symbolic of God's power and deliverance. With the King present fighting is unnecessary.
‘YHWH of Hosts will defend them, and they will eat, and will tread down the sling stones, and they will drink and make a noise as through wine, and they will be filled like bowls, like the corners of the altar.'
This confirms a twofold application of Zechariah 9:14. It is YHWH Himself Who defends His people, and the result is that they go are able to feast and tread down the slingstones of their enemy in contempt.
‘Will tread down the sling stones.' In the hands of experts the sling was a deadly weapon and its stones to be feared, but God's people will tread them down with contempt for they will have been under God's protection.
‘And they will drink and make a noise as through wine.' To drink is to participate in successfully and while YHWH is triumphing they will be drinking wine and becoming merry.
‘And they will be filled like bowls, like the corners of the altar.' Reference here is to the sacrificial ritual where the bowls are filled with blood which is flung on the corners of the altar. They will similarly be satiated with wine.
The idea may be of a siege where, as in the days of Isaiah 37, YHWH disposes of the enemy and the people simply have to watch in faith the salvation of God. It is in direct contrast to Isaiah 22:13 where they ate and drank in unbelief with the result that disaster followed. But the overall thought is that none can make them afraid under any circumstances.
‘And YHWH their God will save them in that day as the flock of his people, for they will be as the stones of a crown lifted on high over his land.'
In that day their deliverance will be from YHWH. They are His sheep, His flock over whom He is shepherd. And they will share His triumph as stones in His crown as He sets it over His land.
‘Lifted on high.' Possibly ‘raised up as a banner'. The word is rare, (compare Psalms 64:4 (Psalms 64:6 in Hebrew)). But the idea is of triumphal rule under God.
‘For how great is his goodness and how great is his beauty. Corn will make the young men flourish, and new wine the maids.'
A paean of praise to the goodness and glory of God. His greatness and His splendour are revealed in the victory and prosperity of His people. Both young men and young women will have great cause for celebration. ‘Corn' parallels ‘new wine' and may therefore possibly refer to drinks made from corn. Alternately it may be saying that there will be abundance of food and drink.
So, as we have seen, the prophecy looks ahead to God's dealings with His people. To them all was seen as one, but as we look back we see different strands of promises, some dealing with the more near future, others with the more distant future. The returning exiles were facing great difficulties and needed great encouragement, and this is what God gives them. And history saw them arise from adversity and become well established in the land.
And to us these words can also be an encouragement as they stress His faithfulness to His people. But, as always, included with God's future actions on behalf of His people there is in mind His final action when He will bring His purposes to fruition through His chosen King and God will be all in all. For in the end all God's actions lead up to the final triumph. And it is at this time that His people will be triumphant.
The People Are Called On To Cry To YHWH For The Latter Rain.
‘Ask you of YHWH rain in the time of the latter rain, even of YHWH who makes lightnings, and he will give them showers of rain, to every one grass in the field.'
This promise links with the previous verses, and with those which follow. God has promised fruitfulness and blessing. Once that time has come His people can ask for rain, both spiritual and physical. The fields will blossom and so will the hearts of His people. For YHWH the Creator is over all.
‘Rain.' This looks back to Isaiah 32:15; Isaiah 44:3 where rain and the coming of the Spirit are paralleled. The blessing of God will be poured out is such a way as to provide all that is needed, to supply abundance of provision, and to fill the people with life and joy in the Spirit.
‘The time of the latter rain.' The importance of rain in Palestine cannot be exaggerated. The land depended on rain. Rain came there at a certain time of the year, and if it failed to come it was disastrous. In mid-October, although often delayed, there was the former rain as the rainy season began, and the latter rain followed at the end of the rainy season around April before the beginning of the hot summer, at which time ‘the winter is past, the rain is over and gone' (Song of Solomon 2:11). Often at the time of the latter rain there was longing for more rain as the rainfall had been insufficient and here this is used to illustrate God's provision for His people. When the rain appears to be over they can call on Him and He will provide further abundant rain. The phrase has finally in mind ‘the end times', the times of the Messiah. At the right time the rain will come unexpectedly when men are expecting the heat of summer with its accompanying barrenness. This was pictured by John the Baptiser in his baptism of repentance which depicted the falling, life-giving rain of the Spirit with its resultant harvest. The latter rains had come!
‘YHWH who makes lightnings.' Rain in Palestine is regularly accompanied by lightning. Baal, the primary Canaanite god, was seen by the Canaanites as the Lord of Storm and Lightning, and as the source in their eyes of the life-giving rain. But as Elijah had so ably demonstrated (1 Kings 18:24) it is really YHWH Who produces the lightning, and He and He alone is the controller and provider of the rains. Note the connection with Zechariah 9:14. The lightning maker Who had protected them will now make provision for them.
‘To everyone grass in the field.' Compare Amos 4:7 where the rain fell in some places and not in others. In the time of the latter rain all will benefit and be blessed. Thus the promise is of future blessing, fulfilled at least partially in the times of John the Baptiser and of Jesus Himself followed by the ministry of the Apostles.
So this whole passage from Zechariah 9:1 to Zechariah 10:1 pictures God's eschatological salvation. The proud will be brought low and He will raise up the humble and meek. And He will do it through His righteous King and through the blood of the covenant. And the result will be worldwide blessing.