Zechariah 9:14

Verse Zechariah 9:14. The Lord shall be seen over them] Shadowing and refreshing them, as the cloud did the camp in the wilderness.

His arrow shall go forth as the lightning] They shall be conquered in a way that will show that God fights for his followers.

The description here is very sublime; we have a good imitation of it in Nonnus: -

Και τοτε γαιαν ἁπασαν επεκλυσεν ὑετιος Ζευς,

Πυκνωσας νεφεεσσιν ὁλον πολον· ουρανιη γαρ

Βρονταιοις παταγοισι Διος μυκησατο σαλπιγξ.

NONN. DIONYS., lib. 6. ver. 229.

"When heaven's dread trumpet, sounding from on high,

Breaks forth in thunders through the darken'd sky;

The pregnant clouds to floods of rain give birth.

And stormy Jove o'erwhelms the solid earth."

J. B. B. C.

In these two verses there is a fine image, and an allusion to a particular fact, which have escaped the notice of every commentator. I must repeat the verses:

Zechariah 9:13: When I have bent Judah for me, filled the bow with Ephraim, and raised up thy sons, O Zion, against thy sons, O Greece, and made thee as the sword of a mighty man.

Zechariah 9:14: And the LORD shall be seen over them, and his arrows shall go forth like lightning.

The reader will consult what is said on Hosea 7:16, relative to the oriental bow, which resembles a [figure "C"] in its quiescent state, and must be recurved in order to be strung. Here, Judah is represented as the recurved bow; Ephraim, as an arrow placed on the string, and then discharged against the Javanites or Greeks with the momentum of lightning; the arrow kindling in its course through the air, and thus becoming the bolt of death to them against whom it was directed.

Volat illud, et incandescit eundo,

Et quos non habuit, sub nubibus invenit ignes.

"It flies apace; and, heating, mounts on high,

Glows in its course, and burns along the sky."