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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Zechariah 10:1 - 10:1
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“Ask ye of Jehovah rain in the time of the latter rain; Jehovah createth lightnings, and showers of rain will He give them, to every one vegetation in the field. Zec 10:2. For the teraphim have spoken vanity, and the soothsayers have seen a lie, and speak dreams of deceit; they comfort in vain: for this they have wandered like a flock, they are oppressed because there is no shepherd.” The summons to prayer is not a mere turn of the address expressing the readiness of God to give (Hengstenberg), but is seriously meant, as the reason assigned in Zec 10:2 clearly shows. The church of the Lord is to ask of God the blessings which it needs for its prosperity, and not to put its trust in idols, as rebellious Israel has done (Hos 2:7). The prayer for rain, on which the successful cultivation of the fruits of the ground depends, simply serves to individualize the prayer for the bestowal of the blessings of God, in order to sustain both temporal and spiritual life; just as in Zec 9:17 the fruitfulness of the land and the flourishing of the nation are simply a concrete expression, for the whole complex of the salvation which the Lord will grant to His people (Kliefoth). This view, which answers to the rhetorical character of the exhortation, is very different from allegory. The time of the latter rain is mentioned, because this was indispensable to the ripening of the corn, whereas elsewhere the early and latter rain are connected together (e.g., Joe 2:23; Deu 11:13-15). The lightnings are introduced as the harbingers of rain (cf. Jer 10:13; Psa 135:7). Metar geshem, rain of the rain-pouring, i.e., copious rain (compare Job 37:6, where the words are transposed). With lâkem (to them) the address passes into the third person: to them, i.e., to every one who asks. עֵשֶׂב is not to be restricted to grass or herb as the food of cattle, as in Deu 11:15, where it is mentioned in connection with the corn and the fruits of the field; but it includes these, as in Gen 1:29 and Psa 104:14, where it is distinguished from châtsı̄r. The exhortation to pray to Jehovah for the blessing needed to ensure prosperity, is supported in Zec 10:2 by an allusion to the worthlessness of the trust in idols, and to the misery which idolatry with its consequences, viz., soothsaying and false prophecy, have brought upon the nation. The terâphı̄m were house-deities and oracular deities, which were worshipped as the givers and protectors of the blessings of earthly prosperity (see at Gen 31:19). Along with these קוֹסְמִים are mentioned, i.e., the soothsayers, who plunged the nation into misery through their vain and deceitful prophesyings. חַלֹמוֹת is not the subject of the sentence, for in that case it would have the article like הַקּוֹסְמִים; but it is the object, and הַקּוֹסְמִים is also the subject to יְדַבֵּרוּ and יְנַחֵמוּן. “Therefore,” i.e., because Israel had trusted in teraphim and soothsayers, it would have to wander into exile. נָסַע, to break up, applied to the pulling up of the pegs, to take down the tent, involves the idea of wandering, and in this connection, of wandering into exile. Hence the perfect נָֽסְעוּ, to which the imperfect יַעֲנוּ is suitably appended, because their being oppressed, i.e., the oppression which Israel suffered from the heathen, still continued. The words apply of course to all Israel (Ephraim and Judah); compare Zec 9:13 with Zec 10:4, Zec 10:6. Israel is bowed down because it has no shepherd, i.e., no king, who guards and provides for his people (cf. Num 27:17; Jer 23:4), having lost the Davidic monarchy when the kingdom was overthrown.