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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comJamieson Fausset Brown Commentary - Zechariah 13:7 - 13:7
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Expounded by Christ as referring to Himself (Mat 26:31, Mat 26:32). Thus it is a resumption of the prophecy of His betrayal (Zec 11:4, Zec 11:10, Zec 11:13, Zec 11:14), and the subsequent punishment of the Jews. It explains the mystery why He, who came to be a blessing, was cut off while bestowing the blessing. God regards sin in such a fearful light that He spared not His own co-equal Son in the one Godhead, when that Son bore the sinner’s guilt.
Awake - Compare a similar address to the sword of justice personified (Jer 46:6, Jer 46:7). For “smite” (imperative), Mat 26:31 has “I will smite.” The act of the sword, it is thus implied, is God’s act. So the prophecy in Isa 6:9, “Hear ye,” is imperative; the fulfillment as declared by Jesus is future (Mat 13:14), “ye shall hear.”
sword - the symbol of judicial power, the highest exercise of which is to take away the life of the condemned (Psa 17:13; Rom 13:4). Not merely a show, or expression, of justice (as Socinians think) is distinctly implied here, but an actual execution of it on Messiah the shepherd, the substitute for the sheep, by God as judge. Yet God in this shows His love as gloriously as His justice. For God calls Messiah “My shepherd,” that is, provided (Rev 13:8) for sinners by My love to them, and ever the object of My love, though judicially smitten (Isa 53:4) for their sins (Isa 42:1; Isa 59:16).
man that is my fellow - literally, “the man of my union.” The Hebrew for “man” is “a mighty man,” one peculiarly man in his noblest ideal. “My fellow,” that is, “my associate.” “My equal” ([De Wette]; a remarkable admission from a Rationalist). “My nearest kinsman” [Hengstenberg], (Joh 10:30; Joh 14:10, Joh 14:11; Phi 2:6).
sheep shall be scattered - The scattering of Christ’s disciples on His apprehension was the partial fulfillment (Mat 26:31), a pledge of the dispersion of the Jewish nation (once the Lord’s sheep, Psa 100:3) consequent on their crucifixion of Him. The Jews, though “scattered,” are still the Lord’s “sheep,” awaiting their being “gathered” by Him (Isa 40:9, Isa 40:11).
I will turn ... hand upon ... little ones - that is, I will interpose in favor of (compare the phrase in a good sense, Isa 1:25) “the little ones,” namely, the humble followers of Christ from the Jewish Church, despised by the world: “the poor of the flock” (Zec 11:7, Zec 11:11); comforted after His crucifixion at the resurrection (Joh 20:17-20); saved again by a special interposition from the destruction of Jerusalem, having retired to Pella when Cestius Gallus so unaccountably withdrew from Jerusalem. Ever since there has been a Jewish “remnant” of “the little ones ... according to the election of grace.” The hand of Jehovah was laid in wrath on the Shepherd that His hand might be turned in grace upon the little ones.