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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Zechariah 12:8 - 12:8
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Zec 12:8. “On that day Jehovah will shelter the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that stumbleth among them will be as David on that day; and the house of David as God, as the angel of Jehovah before them. Zec 12:9. And it will come to pass on that day, I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.” In the conflict with the heathen nations, the Lord will endow the inhabitants of Jerusalem with marvellous strength with which to overcome all their foes. The population of Jerusalem is divided into two classes, the weak and the strong. The weak are designated as hannikhshâl, the stumbling one, who cannot stand firmly upon his feet (1Sa 2:4). These are to become like David, the bravest hero of Israel (cf. 1Sa 17:34., 2Sa 17:8). The strong ones, designated as the house, i.e., the household or family of David, are to be like Elohim, i.e., not angels, but God, the Deity, i.e., a superhuman being (cf. Psa 8:6), yea, like the angel of Jehovah, who goes before Israel (לִפְנֵיהֶם), or the revealer of the invisible God, who is essentially the equal of Jehovah (see at Zec 1:8). The point of comparison lies in the power and strength, not in moral resemblance to God, as Kliefoth supposes, who takes Elohim as equivalent to Jehovah, and identifies it with the angel of Jehovah, as some of the earlier commentators have done, and places the graduation of Elohim into the angel of Jehovah in the appearance of God in human form, in which case, however, לִפְנֵיהֶם has no meaning. This shows rather that the “angel of Jehovah” is simply referred to here in connection with his appearance in the history of Israel, when he went at the head of Israel and smote the Egyptians and all the enemies of Israel (Exo 23:20.; Jos 5:13.). This is evident from the antithesis in Zec 12:9. Whilst Jehovah endows the inhabitants of Jerusalem with supernatural strength, He will seek to destroy all the nations which attack Jerusalem. Biqqēsh, followed by an infinitive with Lamed, to strive after anything, as in Zec 6:7. בּוֹא עַל applied to the advance of the enemy against a city (= עָלָה עַל, Isa 7:1).