Zechariah 9:8

about mine house Rather, for my house. It is a kind of dativus commodi. I will pitch my camp for (the sake of, the protection of) my house, i.e. either of the Temple, or of the people. Comp. Zechariah 3:7, note.

because of Lit. from, which may mean, so as to defend it from the army, from him that passeth by, &c. The R. V. renders, against the army, that none pass through or return.

that passeth by, and … that returneth This is referred by Pusey to "Alexander, who passed bywith his army on his way to Egypt, and returnedhaving founded Alexandria." But the use of the phrase in the more general sense of "going backward and forward," both in this Book (Zechariah 7:14, note) and in the only other places where it occurs in the O. T. (Exodus 32:27; Ezekiel 35:7), shews that the reference is more general, to the overrunning of the land by an invading army. The fact that of the four places in which alone this phrase occurs two are in this Book and one in each division of the Book, is in favour, so far as it goes, of a single authorship.

now have I seen with mine eyes God is said to "see," when He so takes notice of the actions of men as to interpose, as He here promises to do, for the deliverance of His people and the destruction of their enemies. Exodus 2:25; Exodus 3:7; Exodus 3:9. Comp. Zechariah 9:1 supra. "Nihil aliud exprimere verba possunt, quam velle Jovam in populum suum ejusque hostes jamjam intentos habere oculos, ut illum servet, hos perdat." Maurer.

The story of Alexander's visit to Jerusalem, as it is gathered from Josephus (Ant. Bk. xi. c. 8) and from the Talmud is thus related by Dean Stanley. After the conquest of Tyre and Gaza, Alexander had approached Jerusalem, when "suddenly from the city emerged a long procession, the whole population streamed out, dressed in white. The priestly tribe, in their white robes; the High Priest, apparently the chief authority in the place, in his purple and gold attire, his turban on his head, bearing the golden plate on which was inscribed the ineffable name of Jehovah … It was at the sunrise of a winter morning, long afterwards observed as a joyous festival, when they stood before the king. To the astonishment of the surrounding chiefs Alexander descended from his chariot and bowed to the earth before the Jewish leader. None ventured to ask the meaning of this seeming frenzy, save Parmenio alone. -Why should he, whom all men worship, worship the High Priest of the Jews?" -Not him," replied the king, -but the God whose High Priest he is I worship. Long ago, when at Dium in Macedonia, I saw in my dreams such an one in such an attire as this, who urged me to undertake the conquest of Persia and succeed" … Hand in hand with the High Priest, and with the priestly tribe running by his side, he entered the sacred inclosure, and offered the usual sacrifice, saw with pleasure the indication of the rise of the Grecian power in the prophetic books, granted free use of their ancestral laws, and specially of the year of jubilee inaugurated so solemnly a hundred years before under Nehemiah, promised to befriend the Jewish settlements of Babylonia and Media, and invited any who were disposed to serve in his army with the preservation of their sacred customs." Jewish Church, Vol. iii., Lect. xlvii. Without denying that the story is in a legendary dress, we may admit the "probability" of Alexander's visit to Jerusalem, and the certainty that the city was spared, and the people favoured by him, in accordance with the terms of Zechariah's prophecy.