Zechariah 9:7

his blood out of his mouth, &c. Lit., bloods, i.e. blood as shed (comp. Genesis 4:10). According to Calvin the Philistine, the nation personified, is here compared to a wild beast from whose jaws the prey which he is devouring is torn. "Abominationes enim intelligit quicquid injusta violentia ad se traxerant. Et comparat eos feris bestiis, quæ non modum carnem devorant, sed etiam hauriunt sanguinem ipsum, et lacerant crudas carnes." The objection to this interpretation is that the word rendered "abominations" can hardly refer to the victims or the spoils of the cruelty or rapacity of the Philistine. It is a word of frequent occurrence in the O. T. and is used almost always (Nahum 3:6, "abominable filth," is an exception) of "idols in that they were abominations." (Comp. 1 Kings 11:5; 1 Kings 11:7; 2 Kings 23:13; and Daniel 11:31 with Matthew 24:15, τὸ βδέλυγμα τῆς ἐρημώσεως). It is probably best therefore, with the majority of modern commentators, to understand the reference to be to idolatrous sacrifices eaten by the worshippers with the blood. From these pollutions the survivors of the Philistines should be cleansed and so prepared for that incorporation into the commonwealth of Israel, which the remainder of the verse predicts.

but he that remaineth Rather, and he too shall remain (or, be a remnant, R. V.) for our God. "Of the Philistines too, as of Israel" (but may it not be, as of the other nations mentioned in these verses?), "a remnant shall be saved. After this visitation their idolatry should cease; God speaks of the Philistine nation as one man; He would wring his idol-sacrifices and idol-enjoyments from him; he should exist as a nation, but as God's." Pusey.

as a governor Lit., the head over a thousand, a chiliarch. A chieftain, R. V. The tribes of Israel both during the Exodus (Numbers 1:16; Numbers 10:4), and after their settlement in Canaan (Joshua 22:21; Jos 22:30; 1 Samuel 10:19; Micah 5:1) were divided into thousands. The word here used for the chief of such a division is used again for a Jewish chief in this Book (Zechariah 12:5-6). Elsewhere it is commonly used of the chiefs of Edom (Genesis 36:15 seq.; 1 Chronicles 1:51-54). The meaning is that the Philistine, the nation personified as before, shall take his place, ruler and people, as one of the divisions of the Jewish nation.

Ekron as a Jebusite The Jebusites had held their own in the midst of the chosen people, possessors of the stronghold of Sion up to the time of David (Joshua 15:63); but at last had been merged and lost in Israel. So should it be with the Philistines, who are here intended by Ekron. They too shall be absorbed into the Jewish church and nation, when the ultimate goal of the prophecy is reached.