Zechariah 2:6

Ho, ho, come forth and flee The words "come forth" are not in the Hebrew, and the R.V. omits them: Ho, ho, flee. Some would supply, "hear:" "Ho, ho (hear) and flee."

the land of the north i.e. Babylonia. Comp. Jeremiah 3:12; Jeremiah 3:18; Jeremiah 23:8.

have spread you abroad Some regard this as a promise of future extension, consequent upon obedience to the call to return from Babylon. But it is rather to be understood of their past dispersion, from which the command and the providence of God are now recalling them and saying, "flee from the land of the north, and from the four winds of the heaven, for thereunto have I scattered you." So God promises by Jeremiah that they should say, "The Lord liveth, which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from allcountries whither I had driven them," Jeremiah 23:8; and again, "I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the coasts of the earth," Jeremiah 31:8.

" The north country, although its capital and centre was Babylon, was the whole Babylonian empire, called -the north" because its invasions always came upon Israel from the north. But the Book of Esther shews that sixty years after this the Jews were dispersed over the 127 provinces of the Persian empire, from India (the Punjaub) to Ethiopia (Esther 1:1; Esther 3:8; Esther 3:12-14; Esther 8:5; Esther 8:9); whether they were purposely placed by the policy of the conquerors in detached groups, as the ten tribes were in the cities of the Medes, or whether, when more trusted, they migrated of their own accord." Pusey.

the four winds comp. Matthew 24:31.