_The burden_ See ch. Zechariah 9:1, note. _for Israel_ Rather, CONCERNING ISRAEL. _saith_ Rather, THE SAYING, ORACULAR UTTERANCE, OF JEHOVAH: as in Psalms 110:1. The clause is in apposition with the first clause of the verse. _which stretcheth forth_, &c. In view of the wonderful and almost incre... [ Continue Reading ]
Zechariah 12:1-9. Jehovah's protection of His people As in the former Burden, the first section opens with a general Title (printed as such in R. V.), very similar to that of the First Burden (Zechariah 9:1), and belonging like that to the whole group of prophecies which follow. The coming oracle p... [ Continue Reading ]
_cup of trembling_ Rather, BOWL OF REELING. The word is used of the bowl or bason in which the blood of the Paschal lamb was caught, Exodus 12:22, of the bowls used in the Temple service, 1 Kings 7:50, and more generally, 2 Samuel 17:28. Jerusalem stands forth like some vast bowl or bason, round whi... [ Continue Reading ]
_a burdensome stone_ because, as it immediately follows, it proves too heavy for every one who attempts to lift it, and slipping from his grasp wounds and lacerates him. There may possibly be a reference to the custom, if indeed it existed so early as the time of Zechariah, which Jerome describes as... [ Continue Reading ]
_astonishment_ This and the two following words, _madness, blindness_, occur together also in Deuteronomy 28:28, in a description of God's judgments upon Israel, as here upon the armies that gather against Jerusalem. _I will open mine eyes upon_ i.e. will regard with favour. Comp. Psalms 32:8.... [ Continue Reading ]
_the governors chieftains_, R. V., and so in Zechariah 12:6. _shall be_ Rather, ARE. When they see the rout and discomfiture of her enemies around the walls of Jerusalem (Zechariah 12:2-4), the rulers of the land, speaking as the mouthpiece of the people at large, shall joyfully acknowledge her to... [ Continue Reading ]
_a hearth_ Rather, PAN. The word is used in 1 Samuel 2:14 of a "pan," or cooking vessel. Elsewhere it is a bason or laver, Exodus 30:18; Exodus 30:28; 1 Kings 7:38; and once a pulpit or platform, 2 Chronicles 6:13. Here the figure would seem to be of a chafing-pan full of fire set among wood or fagg... [ Continue Reading ]
_the tents of Judah first_ The meaning seems to be that when the besiegers shall reel back like drunken men from the walls of Jerusalem (Zechariah 12:2), smitten with panic by God (Zechariah 12:4), the first to fall upon them and put them to the sword shall be, not the inhabitants of the besieged ci... [ Continue Reading ]
_he that is feeble … as David_ But this foremost action on the part of Judah shall not argue any pusillanimity on the part of the inhabitants of Jerusalem. To them too shall the protection of Jehovah extend. Even the weak among them (comp. 1 Samuel 2:4, where the word here rendered "feeble" is put i... [ Continue Reading ]
_I will seek_ i.e. _I will make it my aim_, upon which I am intent, and which I will carry out. It is true, as Mr Wright points out, that in the only other passage in which this phrase is used of Almighty God, the intention, though "manifested clearly and distinctly," was abandoned (Exodus 4:24). Bu... [ Continue Reading ]
_I will pour_ The word denotes the abundance of the effusion. Comp. Joel 2:28 [Heb., 3:1]. "Quod verbum doni largitatem et copiam indicat." Rosenm. _the house of David_, &c. Because they, restored to their proper place and dignity (Zechariah 12:8), are as it were the head of the nation. But from th... [ Continue Reading ]
The penitent Sorrow of the People for Sin The conversion (Zechariah 12:10-14) and moral reformation (Zechariah 13:1-6) of the people shall accompany their deliverance from their enemies (Zechariah 12:1-9). On the royal house and the royal city first God will pour out His Spirit, and as the conseque... [ Continue Reading ]
_Hadadrimmon_ This is generally supposed, on the authority of Jerome, to have been a city near Jezreel, called in his day Maximinianopolis, in the valley of Megiddo, and the place where Josiah was fatally wounded by Pharaoh-Necho, king of Egypt. Both accounts of Josiah's death state that it was "at,... [ Continue Reading ]
_David … Nathan … Levi … Shimei_ Two families are singled out, the kingly and the priestly, as examples of the rest. And in each case, to shew the pervading character of the grief, the family or tribe is first described by its general and inclusive name, and then one branch of it is mentioned, to in... [ Continue Reading ]