Bible Commentary (1871–1879 Edition)
Introduction. ZECriAFJAH. Inlrodwtwn.
et Kfldressed. 15. consider — lit., lay it to heart. Pon-
So also the vine, Ac, which heretofore have borne little ot nothing, shall be blessed with productiveness. Tlius it will be made evident that tlie blessing is due to me, not to nature. We may trust God's promise to bless us, though we see no visible sign of Us fulfllment (Habakkuk der eainestly, retracing the past upward (t. e., backward), comparing what evils heretofore befell you before ye set about this work, with the present time when you have again commenced it, and when in consequence I now engage to "bless you." Hence ye may perceive the evils of disobedience and tlie bless-
2()-23. Fourth Prophecy.- God's promise t7irovgh Zerubbabel to Israel of safety in the coming commotions. SJO. tlie month—the ninth in the second year of Darius. The same date as Prophecy III. (v. 10). 31. to Zernbbabel — Perhaps Zerubbabel had asked as to the convulsions foretold (v. 6, 7). This is the reply: The Jews had been led tc fear that these convulsions would destroy their national existence. Zerubbabel, therefore, as their civil leader and representative is addressed, not Joshua, their religious leader. Messiah is the antitypical Zerubbabel, their national Representative and King, with whom God the Father makes the covenant wlierein they, as identified with Him, are assured of safety in God's electing love (cf.
ing of obedience. 16. Since those days were—From the time that tliose days of your neglect of the temple work have been, when one came to an heap oftwenty measures—f. c, to a lieap which he had expected would be one of twenty measures, there were but ten. fifty vessels out of the press—As LXX. translate "measure," and Vulgate "a flagon," and as we should rather expect vai than press, Matjrer translates (omitting vessels, which is not in the original), "purahs," or "wine-measures." 17. Appi'opriated from Amos 4. 9, whose canonicity is thus sealed by Haggai's inspired authority; in the last clause, "turned," however, has to be supplied, its omission marking by the elliptical abruptness ("yet ye not to me !") God's displeasure. Cf. " (let him come) unto me !" Moses in excitement omitting the bracketed words (Exodus 32. 26). " Blasting " results from excessive drought; "mildew," from excessive moisture.
V. 23, " will make thee as a signet ;" " I have chosen thee "). shake . . . heavens {Note, v. 6, 7.) Violent political convulsions accompanied with physical prodigies (Matthew
24.7,29). 23. All other world-kingdoms are to be overthrown to make way for Christ's universal kingdom (Daniel 2. 44). War-chariots are to give place to His reign of peace (Micah 5. 10; Zechariah 9. 10). 23. take tliee— under my protection and to promote thee and thy people to lionour (Psalm 78. 70). a signet—(Song of Solomon 8. fi; Jeremiah 22. 24.) A ring with a seal on it; the legal representative of the owner; generally of precious stones and gold, &c., and much valued. Being worn on the finger, it was an object of constant regard. In all which points of view the theocratic people, and their representative, Zerubbabel the type, and Messiah his descendant the Antitype, are regarded by God. The safety of Israel to the end is guaranteed in Messiah, in whom God hath chosen them as His own (Isaiah 42. 1 ; 43. 10; 44. 1 ; 49. 3). So the spiritual Israel is sealed in their covenant-head by His Spirit (2 Corinthians 1.20,22; Ephesians 1.4, 13.14). All is ascribed, not to the merits of 2'erubbabel, Imt to God's gratuitous choice. Christ is the "signet" on God''? hand: always in the Father's presence, ever pleasing in his sight. The signet of an Eastern monarch was the sign of delegated authority ; so Christ (Matthew 28. IS; John 5.
18. Resumed from v. 15 after v. 10, 17, that the blessing in
V. 19 may stand in the more marked contrast with the curse in v. 16, 17. Affliction will harden the heart, if not referred to God as its author. [Moore.] even from the day that the foundation of . . . temple was laid—The first foundation beneath the earth had been long ago laid In the second year of Cyrus, 535 b. c. (Ezra 3. 10, 11); the foundation now laid was the secondary one, which, above theeartli, was laid on tlie previous work. [Tikinus.] Or, translate, "From this day on wliich the temple is being begun," viz., on the foundations long ago laid. [Grotius.] Maurer translates, " Consider . . . from the four and twentieth day . . . to (the time which has elapsed) from the da.v on whicli the foundation . . . was laid." Tho Hebrew
English Version. 19. Istheseedyet in the barn 1 —implying. It isjioi. It has been already sown tliis month, and there are no more signs of its bearing a good crop, much less of its being safely stored in the barn, than there were in the past season, when there was such a failure; yet I promise to yon from this day (emphatically marking by the repetition the connection of the blessing with tlie day of their obedience) a blessing in an abundant harvest.
ZECHARIAH.
INTRODUCTION.
The name Zechariah means one whom Jehovah remembers : a common name, four others of the name occurring In the Old Testament. Like Jeremiah and Ezekiel, he was a priest as well as a prophet, which adapts Him for the sacerdotal character of some of his prophecies (ch. 6. 13). He is called "the son of Barachiah the son of Iddo" (ch. 1. 1); but simply " the son of Iddo" (Ezra 5.1; 6.14). Probably his father died when he was young, and hence, as sometimes occurs in Jewish genealogies, he is called " the son of Iddo," his grandfather. Iddo was one of the priests who returned to Zerubbabel and Joshua from Babylon (Nehemiali 12. 4).
Zechariah entered early on his prophetic functions (ch. 2. 4); only two months later than Haggai, in the second year of Darius' reign, 520 B. c. The design of both prophets was to encourage the people and their religious and civil leaders, Joshua and Zerubbabel, In their work of rebuilding the temple, after the interruption caused by the Samaritans (see Introductioti to Haggai). Zechariah does so especially by unfolding in detail the glorious future in connectiou wlllJ the present depressed appearance of the theocracy, and its visible symbol, the temple. He must have been very young in leaving Babylonia, where he was born. The Zechariah, son of Barachiah, mentioned by our Lord (Matthew Zi. .35) as slain between the porch and the altar, must have been the one called the son of Jehoiada in 2 Chronicles 24. 21, wlio so perished : the same person often had two names ; and our Lord, in referring to the Hebrew Bible, of which 2 Chronicles U the last book, would naturally mention the last martyr in the Hebrew order of the canon, as He had Instanced Abel as the first. Owing to Matthew 27. 9 quoting Zechariah 11. 12, 13 as the words of Jeremiah, Medb donbts the authenticity of chs. 9., 10., 11., 12., 13., 14., and ascribes them to Jeremiah : he thinks that these chapters were not found till after the return from the captivity, and being approved by Zechariah, were added to his propliecies, as Agur's Proverbs were added to those of Solomon. All the oldest authorities, except two MSS. of the old Italian or Pre-vulgate version, read "Jeremiah " In Matthew 27. 9. The quotation there is not to the letter copied from Zechariah: Jeremiah 18. 1, 2; 32. 6-12, may also have been in the miud of Matthew, and perhaps la the mind of Zechariah, 718
Zecfiariah EjclLoHeth to Repentance. ZECHAKIAH I. The VLiion of the Homes.
whence the former mentions Jeremiah. Hkngstenherg similarly thinks that Matthew namos Jcronixih, rather than Zechariah,Xo turn attention to the fact tliat Zechariah's prophecj' is but a reiteration of the fearful oracle in Jeremiah 18. and 19., to be fulfilled in the destruction of the Jewish nation. Jeremiah had already, by the image of a potter's vessel, portrayed their ruin in Nebuchadnezzar's invasion ; and as Zechariah virtually repeats this threat, to be inflicted again under Messiah for the nation's rejection of Him, St. Matthew, virtually, by mentionin;; Jeremiah, implies that the " tield of blood," now bought by " the reward of iniquity " in the valley of Hinnom, was long ago a scene of prophetic doom In which awful disaster had been symbolically predicted : that the present purchase of that field with the traitor's price renewed the prophecy and revived the curse—a curse pronounced of old by .leremiah, and once fulfilled in the Babylonian siege—a curse reiterated by Zechariah, and again to be verified in llic Roman desolation. LiGHTFOOT (referring to B. Bathka and Kimchi), less probably, thinks the third division of Scripture, the prophets, began with Jeremiah, and that the whole body of prophets is thus quoted by the name ".leremiah." The mention of " Ephraim " and " Israel " in these chapters as distinct from Judah, does not prove that the prophecy was written
M'hilst the ten tribes existed as a separate kingdom. It rather implies that hereafter not only Judah, but the ten tribes also, shall be restored, the earnest of which was given in the numbers out of the ten tribes who returned with their brethren the Jews from captivity under Cyrus. There is nothing in these characters to imply that a king reigned in Judahat that time. The editor of the Hebrew canon joined these chapters to Zechariali, not to Jeremiah ; the LXX., 300 years b. c, confirm this.
The prophecy consists of four parts: (I.) Introductory, ch. 1. 1-6. (II.) Symbolical, ch. 1. 7, to the end of ch. 6., containing nine visions; all these were vouchsafed in one night, and are of a symbolical character. (III.) Didactic, ch. 7. and 8., containing an answer to a query of the Bethelites concerning a certain feast. And (IV.) Prophetic, ch. 9. to the end. These six last chapters predict Alexander's expedition along the west coast of Palestine to Egypt: God's protection of the Jews, both at that time and under the Maccabees: the advent, sufl'erings, and reign of Messiah: the destruction of Jerusalem by Rome, and dissolution of the Jews' polity : their conversion and restoration : the overthrow of the wicked confederacy which assail them in Canaan, and the Gentiles' joining in their holy woiship. [Henderson.] The difference in style between the former and the latter chapters is due to the dill'i-rence of subject; the first six chapters being of a symbolical and peculiar character, whilst the poetical style of the concluding chapters is adapted admirably to the subjects treated of. The titles (ch. 9. 1 ; 12. 1) accord with the prophetic matter which follows ; nor is it necessary for unity of authorship that the introductory formulas occurring in the first eight chapters should occur in the last six. The non-reference in the last six chapters to the completion of the temple and the Jews' restoration after the captivity is just what we should e.xpect, if, as seems likely, these chapters were written long after the completion of the temple and the restoration of the Jews' polity after the captivity, in circumstances different from those which engaged the prophet when he wrote t!ie earlier chapters.
The style varies with the subject: at one time conversational, at another poetical. His symbols are enigmatical, and are therefore accompanied with explanations. His prose is like tbat of Ezekiel, diffuse, uuifonn, and repetitious. The rhythm is somewhat unequal, and the parallelisms are not altogether symmetrical. Still, there is found often much of the elevation met with in the earlier prophets, and a general congruity between the style and the subjects. Graphic vividness is his peculiar merit. Chaldseisms occur occasionally. Another special characteristic of Zechariah is his introduction of spiritual beings into his prophetic scenes.
"Your fathers have perished, as was foretold; and their fate ought to warn you. But you may say. The prophets too are dead. I grant it, but still my words do not die: though dead, their prophetical words from me, fulfilled against your fathers, are not dead with them. Beware, then, lest ye share their fate." 0. stntiites—my determined purposes to punish for sin. which 1 commanded my sei-vant»—vi2., to announce toyour fathers, did they not take hold—t. e., overtake, as a foe overtakes one fleeing, they returned—/uj-n/ng' from tlieir former self-satisfaction, they recognized their punishment as that which God's jirophets had foretold, tlxought to do— i. e., decreed to do. Cf. with this verse Lamentations 2. 17. our ivays —evil ways (Jeremiah 4. 18; 17. 10; 2'!. 2). 7. The general plan of the nine following visions (ch. 1. 8 to end of ch. 6.) is first to present the sj'mbol, then, on a question being put, to subjoin the interpretation. Though the visions are distinct, they form one grand wliole, presented in one night to the prophet's mind, two or three months after the prophet's first commission {v. 1). Sebat — the eleventh month of the Jewish year, from the new moon in February to the new moon in Mnrch. The term is Chaldee, meaning a shoot, viz., tlie month when trees Iiogin to shoot or bud. 8. by night—the Jews begin tlieir day with sunset; therefore the night Is meant wliich preceded the twenty-fourth day of the month (v. 7). a man—Jehovah, the second person of the Trinity, manifested in man's form, an earnest of the incarnation; called the "angel of Jehovah" {v. 11, 12), "Jehovah the angel of the covenant" (Malachi 3. I; cf. Genesis 16.7 with i'. 13; 2'2. 11 with v. 12; Exodus 3. 2 with v. 4). Being at once Divine and human, He must be God and man in one person, riding—Implying swiftness in executing God's will in His providence; hastening to help His people, red horse—the colour that represents bloodshed: implying vengeance to be inflicted
CHAPTER I.
Ver. 1-17. Introductory Exhortation to Repentance. The Visions— T/ie man among the myrtles: Comforting explanation by the angel, an encouragement to the Jews to build the city and temple : The four horns and four artificers. 1. See Introduction, a. God fulfilled His threats against your fathers; beware, then, lest by disregarding His voice by me, as they did in the case of former prophets, ye sufl Ter like them. The special object Zechariiih aims at is that they should awake from their selfish negligence to obey God's command to rebuild His temple (Haggai 1. 4-8). sore displeased— i/eftrew, "displeased with a displeasure," i. e., vehemently, with no common displeasure, exhibited in the destruction of the Jews' city and in their captivity. 3. saith the Lord of hostsphrase frequent in Haggai and Zechariah, implying God's boundless resources and universal power, so as to inspn e the Jews with confidence to wofk. Turn ye unto me, . . and I wUl turn i. e., and then, as the sure consequence, "I will turn unto you" (Malachi 3. 7; James 4. 8; cf. al.so Jeremiah 3. 12 ; Ezekiel 18. 30 ; Micah 7. 19). Though God hath brought you back from captivity, yet this state will not long last unless ye are really converted. God has heavier scourges ready, and has begun to give .symptoms of displeasure [Calvin], (Haggai 1. 6). 4. Be ye not as your fathei-9—The Jews boasted of ttielv fathers ; but he shows that their fathers were refractory, and that anlieut example and long usage will not Justify disobedience (2 Chronicles 36. 15, 16). the former prophets—those who lived before the captivity. It aggravated their guilt that, not only had they the law, but had been often called to repent by God's prophets. 5. Your fathers . . . and the prophets, do they live for ever?—In contrast to "my words" (v. 6), which "endure for ever" (1 Peter 1. 25). 7]Q