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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Zechariah 9:13 - 9:13
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This thought is supported in Zec 9:13. by a picture of the glory intended for Israel. Zec 9:13. “For I stretch Judah as my bow, fill it with Ephraim, and stir up thy sons, O Zion, against thy sons, O Javan, and make thee like the sword of a hero. Zec 9:14. And Jehovah will appear above them, and like the lightning will His arrow go forth; and the Lord Jehovah will blow the trumpets, and will pass along in storms of the south. Zec 9:15. Jehovah of hosts will shelter above them, and they will eat and tread down sling-stones, and will drink, make a noise, as if with wine, and become full, like the sacrificial bowls, like the corners of the altar.” The double recompense which the Lord will make to His people, will consist in the fact that He not only liberates them out of captivity and bondage, and makes them into an independent nation, but that He helps them to victory over the power of the world, so that they will tread it down, i.e., completely subdue it. The first thought is not explained more fully, because it is contained implicite in the promise of return to a strong place; the “double” only is more distinctly defined, namely, the victory over Javan. The expression, “I stretch,” etc., implies that the Lord will subdue the enemies by Judah and Ephraim, and therefore Israel will carry on this conflict in the power of its God. The figurative description is a bold one. Judah is the extended bow; Ephraim the arrow which God shoots at the foe. קֶשֶׁת is indeed separated from יְהוּדָה by the accents; but the lxx, Targ., Vulg., and others, have taken it more correctly, as in apposition to יְהוּדָה; because with the many meanings that דָּרַךְ possesses, the expression דָּרַךְ יְהוּדָה needs a more precise definition; whereas there is no difficulty in supplying in thought the noun qesheth, which has been mentioned only just before, to the verb מִלֵּאתִי (I fill). מִלֵּאתִי is to be understood as signifying the laying of the arrow upon the bow, and not to be explained from 2Ki 9:24, “to fill the hand with the bow.” A bow is filled when it is supplied with the arrow for shooting. We must bear in mind that the matter is divided rhetorically between the parallel members; and the thought is this: Judah and Ephraim are bow and arrow in the hand of Jehovah. עוֹרַרְתִּי, I stir up, not I swing thy children as a lance (Hitzig and Koehler); for if עוֹרֵר had this meaning, חֲנִית could not be omitted. The sons of Zion are Judah and Ephraim, the undivided Israel, not the Zionites living as slaves in Javan (Hitzig). The sons of Javan are the Greeks, as the world-power, the Graeco-Macedonian monarchy (cf. Dan 8:21), against which the Lord will make His people into a hero's sword. This took place in weak beginnings, even in the wars between the Maccabees and the Seleucidae, to which, according to Jerome, the Jews understood our prophecy to refer; but it must not be restricted to this, as the further description in Zec 9:14, Zec 9:15 points to the complete subjugation of the imperial power.
Jehovah appears above them, i.e., coming from heaven as a defence, to fight for them (the sons of Zion), as a mighty man of war (Psa 24:8). His arrow goes out like the lightning (כְ the so-called כ veritatis; for the fact described, compare Hab 3:11). Marching at the head of His people, He gives the signal of battle with a trumpet-blast, and attacks the enemy with terribly devastating violence. The description rests upon the poetical descriptions of the coming of the Lord to judgment, the colours of which are borrowed from the phenomena of a storm (cf. Psalm 18 and Hab 3:8.). Storms of the south are the most violent storms, as they come from the Arabian desert, which bounds Canaan on the south (Isa 21:1; cf. Hos 13:15). But Jehovah not only fights for His people; He is also a shield to them in battle, covering them against the weapons of the foe. This is affirmed in יָגֵן עֲלֵיהֶם in Zec 9:15. Hence they are able to destroy their enemies, and, like devouring lions, to eat their flesh and drink their blood. That this figure lies at the foundation of the horrible picture of וְאָֽכְלוּ, is evident from Num 23:24, which was the passage that Zechariah had in his mind: “Behold a people like the lioness; it rises up, and like the lion does it lift itself up: it lies not down till it devour the prey, and drink the blood of the slain.” Hence the object to אָֽכְלוּ is not the possessions of the heathen, but their flesh. כָּֽבְשׁוּ אַבְנֵי קֶלַע does not mean, they tread down (subdue) the enemy with sling-stones (lxx, Vulg., Grot.); for אַבְנֵי ק cannot, when considered grammatically, be taken in an instrumental sense, and is rather an accus. obj.; but they tread down sling-stones. The sling-stones might be used per synecdochen to signify darts, which the enemy hurls at them, and which they tread down as perfectly harmless (Kliefoth). But the comparison of the Israelites to the stones of a crown, in Zec 9:16, leads rather to the conclusion that the sling-stones are to be taken as a figure denoting the enemy, who are trampled under the feet like stones (Hitzig, Hengstenberg). Only we cannot speak of eating sling-stones, as Koehler would interpret the words, overlooking כָּֽבְשׁוּ, and appealing to the parallel member: they will drink, reel as if from wine, which shows, in his opinion, that it is the sling-stones that are to be eaten. But this shows, on the contrary, that just as there no mention is made of what is to be drunk, so here what is to be eaten is not stated. It is true that wine and sacrificial blood point to the blood of the enemy; but wine and blood are drinkable, whereas sling-stones are not edible. The description of the enemy as sling-stones is to be explained from the figure in 1Sa 25:29, to hurl away the soul of the enemy. They drunk (sc., the blood of the enemy) even to intoxication, making a noise, as if intoxicated with wine (כְּמוֹ יַיִן, an abbreviated comparison; cf. Ewald, §221, a, and 282, e), and even to overflowing, so that they become full, like the sacrificial bowls in which the blood of the sacrificial animals was caught, and like the corners of the altar, which were sprinkled with the sacrificial blood. זָוִיֹּת are corners, not the horns of the altar. The sacrificial blood was not sprinkled upon these; they were simply smeared with a little blood applied with the finger, in the case of the expiatory sacrifices. According to the law (Lev 1:5, Lev 1:11; Lev 3:2, etc.), the blood was to be swung against the altar. This was done, according to rabbinical tradition (Mishn. Seb. 1Sa 25:4., and Rashi on Lev 1:5), in such a manner, that with two sprinklings all the four sides of the altar were wetted, - a result which could only be ensured by swinging the bowls filled with blood, so as to strike the corners of the altar.