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Zechariah 12-14.
If our view of the First Burden be correct, it would seem to follow that the second begins where the first leaves off, and treats of events to follow the coming and rejection of Christ. There are indeed many particulars which suggest the struggle of the Maccabees as the subject of the former part of the twelfth chapter; but that has already been treated of in the ninth chapter with specific mention of Javan or Greece as the antagonist, and why should we have it renewed here? Why should the Prophet halt in his progress and go back over trodden ground? Moreover, the twelfth chapter expressly speaks in several places of the conflict as carried on not against one nation, but against all the peoples of the earth (see Zec_12:3). There is an aspect of universality of which no sign at all appears in the portion Zec_9:11 to Zec_10:7. It is the heathen world against the covenant people. Where now are we to look for the outward reality corresponding to this inward vision of the Prophet? Manifestly there is nothing in the history of the literal, national Israel which approaches conformity to this vivid outline. Never did they not only resist their foes, but inflict such damage upon them as could be compared to the ravages of fire among wheat sheaves. The covenant people maintained their internal constitution and religious usages until the days of Titus, but in no case did they devour all nations roundabout on the right hand and the left. It only remains then to hold that the Prophet here passes from the old to the new form of the Church, that he refers to the kingdom of God on earth after the appearance of the Messiah, and describes its trials and triumphs, its inward and outward development.
But does he refer to events yet future, or may we trace a fulfillment of his words in the past? The latter seems the more probable. As there was a chronological advance in the previous oracle, it is natural to look for one here, and to consider that the Prophet refers to different stages in the progress of the Christian Israel. In this view the struggle and victory in Zec_12:1-9 can hardly have any other reference than to the persecutions of the heathen world. Judah invaded, Jerusalem besieged by the nations, and yet the attempt at overthrow not only foiled but recoiling in the ruin of those who made it,—what else can this be than the fierce and bloody onslaught of pagan power on the infant Church? Or if Zechariah intended to set it forth, in what other way could he in his historical relations conceive the issue and its result than the way in which it is given here? Nor is it of use to object that this is spiritualizing arbitrarily. The Christian Church is the legitimate continuation of the Old Testament Israel. There is but one Israel, one people of God from the beginning to the end. According to the Apostle’s figure, old branches were broken off and new ones grafted on, but there was only the one olive tree throughout. Gentiles when they come to Christ, are incorporated into the commonwealth of Israel, so as to become fellow citizens with the saints, i. e., those who are already such (Eph_2:12-19). It is one and the same body, differing in outward and unessential characteristics, but maintaining an unbroken identity in all that belongs to substance and life.
Zec_12:1-9.
1 The burden of the word of Jehovah upon Israel,
Saith Jehovah who stretches forth the heavens,
And lays the foundation of the earth,
And forms the spirit of man within him.
2 Behold I make Jerusalem a bowl of reeling
To all the peoples round about,
And upon Judah also shall it be
In the siege against Jerusalem.
3 And it shall be in that day, I will make Jerusalem
A burdensome stone for all peoples,
All who lift it shall tear themselves;
And all nations of the earth shall gather against it.
4 In that day, saith Jehovah,
I will smite every horse with terror,
And his rider with madness,
And upon the house of Judah I will open my eyes,
And every horse of the peoples will I smite with blindness.
5 And the chiefs of Judah shall say in their heart,
The inhabitants of Jerusalem are my strength
In Jehovah of Hosts, their God.
6 In that day I will make the chiefs of Judah
As a pan of fire among sticks of wood,
And as a torch of lire in a sheaf,
And they shall devour on the right hand and on the left
All the peoples around,
And Jerusalem shall yet sit in her own place in Jerusalem.
7 And Jehovah shall save the tents of Judah first,
That the glory of the house of David,
And the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem
May not exalt itself over Judah.
8 In that day will Jehovah defend the inhabitant of Jerusalem,
And the stumbling among them in that day shall be as David, And the house of David as God,
As the angel of Jehovah before them.
9 And it shall be in that day,
I will seek to destroy all the nations
That come against Jerusalem.
Zec_12:1. Burden. See on Zec_9:1. òַì =upon or concerning, not against. The calamity involves Israel, but its full scope takes in the general body of the ungodly. Israel=the covenant nation, either in itself or as found in its true successor, the Christian Church. The Jewish interpreters, say the former, and with them many Christian critics agree (Theodoret, Calvin, a Lapide, Grotius, Vitringa, Bleek, etc.), while an equal number adopt the latter (Jerome, Cyril, Luther, Albertus Magnus, Cocceius, Marckius, Calmet, Hengstenberg). Who stretches forth the heavens, ff. For the purpose of allaying any possible doubt as to the fulfillment of the prophecy, there are added to Jehovah’s name several striking expressions of his Almighty power (cf. Isa_42:5; Amo_4:13; Psa_54:2—4). The Scriptures know nothing of the mechanical view of the universe as something from which God, after having created it, stands altogether aloof. “Every day He spreads out the heavens, every day He lays the foundation of the earth, which if it were not upheld by his power would wander from its orbit and fall into ruin” (Hengstenberg). The reference to God’s formation of the human spirit is intended to suggest that unrestrained and continuous agency by which He controls the thoughts and purposes of men, and is able therefore to accomplish his own purposes through them, or in spite of them (cf. Num_16:22; Num_27:16; Psa_33:15; Pro_21:1.
Zec_12:2. Behold, I make…round about. A lively exhibition of the failure of the nations in their attack upon Jerusalem. Zechariah employs the figure common in the older Prophets, of representing Jehovah’s wrath as a wine-cup which maddens and infatuates nations doomed to ruin. God will administer such a potion as will make them reel and fall in hopeless weakness and misery (cf. Psa_75:9, and Isa_51:17-22; Jer_25:15-17). What elsewhere is ëåֹñ = cup, here is ñַ÷ =basin or bowl, the latter being used, perhaps, because many were to drink of it at the same time. And upon Judah also…Jerusalem. What is to be “upon Judah?” And old and wide-spread opinion says that it is a forced participation in the siege of the capital (Targum, Vulgate, Grotius, Marckius, and many later critics); but this is not required by the text, nor consistent with the context, which indicates union rather than opposition between the country and the capital. Others say, the bowl of reeling (Kimchi, Hitzig, Maurer, et al, but this would require the preposition ìְ instead of . òַì Köhler proposes to supply îöåֹø as the subject, but this is forbidden by the awkward sentence it would make, and by the fact that only a city and not a land can be besieged. It is better to assume as the subject the substance of the previous clause,—what takes place at Jerusalem; and the meaning is that the country and the capital shall be involved in the same trial.
Zec_12:3. And it shall be…a burdensome stone. The prophet employs another figure borrowed, according to the young men in Palestine de scribed by Jerome as still subsisting in his day. They who, overrating their strength, try to lift a stone too heavy for them, not only fail, but suffer sprains and dislocations. Such a fate will befall the foes of Jerusalem, i. e., all peoples, all the nations of the earth, for so extensive is the combination against the holy city.
Zec_12:4. In that day…blindness. Horses and riders represent the warlike forces of the enemy. The terrifying and blinding of these makes them injurious only to themselves. Upon Judah on the contrary, which stands here for the whole nation, Jehovah says, I will open my eyes, i. e., for protection (Psa_32:8 (Heb.), 1Ki_8:29; Neh_1:6). Cowles justly calls attention to the beautiful antithesis. “God smites with blindness the warring powers of his foes, but opens his own eyes wide on his people, to see and provide for their wants.” The three plagues mentioned are precisely those with which Moses threatened rebellious Israel in Deu_28:28 : “The Lord shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart.” A fine historical illustration of the effect of sudden blindness is seen in the history of Elisha (2Ki_6:18).
Zec_12:5. And the chiefs of Judah…my strength. That the leaders find their strength in the inhabitants of Jerusalem can mean only that the holy city, made such by the election of the Most High who dwells there, insures his protection for all who seek Him in the appointed way, and that even the most dignified and powerful have no other resource. A parallel sentiment is found in Psa_87:2 : “The Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob.”
Zec_12:6. In that day…in a sheaf. In consequence of this trust in the divine election, the leaders consume their foes on every hand as a basin of fire devours faggots, or a torch bums up a ripe sheaf. The resulting preservation of the city is stated in the last clause, in which the first Jerusalem=the population personified as a woman, and the second=the material city as such. For the reverse condition, see Isa_47:1.
Zec_12:7. And Jehovah shall save…Judah. The word tents stands in contrast with fortified cities. These spread over the open country Jehovah will save first, in order that the well-defended capital may not lift itself above the defenseless land; but that both may acknowledge that “in either case the victory is the Lord’s” (Jerome).
Zec_12:8. Will Jehovah defend…angel of Jehovah. The Lord will exalt his people to a degree of strength and glory far transcending anything in their past experience. This is expressed by saying that even the stumbler, one who can scarce hold himself up, much less attack a foe, shall become a hero like David; and even David’s house shall exceed its highest fame of old, shall become like God, nay, like the angel of Jehovah, that peculiar manifestation of Deity which once marched at the head of the armies of Israel. This very striking and beautiful climax is of itself an answer to those who depreciate the literary merit of Zechariah. But the rhetorical excellence of the passage falls far below its consolatory and stimulating power as a promise. Before them (cf. Exo_32:34; Exo_33:20).
Zec_12:9. I will seek to destroy…Jerusalem. This does not mean to seek out in order to destroy, but is spoken, more humano, to express the energetic purpose of the speaker
This prophecy is supposed by Vitringa, C. B. Michaelis, Dathe, and others, to refer to the dealings of God with the national Israel in the end of the world, in the last great struggle of ungodliness. It is manifestly easier to interpret the passage in its details upon this literal view of its application And yet there is great improbability in such a view Why should the prophet, after depicting so vividly the rejection of the Good Shepherd, and the consequent overthrow of the flock, pass at once to the final scene; overlooking all the splendid triumphs of the truth during the intervening period? Would we not naturally, from the case itself and from the usage of the other prophets, expect some allusion to the great changes in the development of the kingdom of God, and to its progressive increase among the nations of the earth? Moreover, if the national Israel are hereafter to be restored to then own land and to resume the old relations of capital and country, on what ground can we look for a consentaneous attack of all nations upon this one small people and territory? Can any imagination conceive the recurrence of a general movement, like that of the Crusades, precipitating the men and means of a continent, not to say a world, upon the sacred soil of Palestine? Of course, such a thing is possible, but in view of the vast changes in the current of human thought, in the economy of states and empires, in the ways in which races and dynasties seek to increase or perpetuate their influence, and in the distribution of political and social power, it is the most unlikely of all conceivable events. Were the Jews to day in the possession of the Holy Land, and that whether converted or unconverted, what motive could there be for any existing nation or combination of nations to assail the seed of Abraham with fire and sword? If it be claimed that there will be a revival of the bloody propagandism of infidelity or atheism, as at one period of the French Revolution, why should such an outburst be directed against Jerusalem or Jewish believers rather than against the strongholds of the Gospel found among Gentile believers? Such an attack, if successful, would hardly affect more than an outpost of the Christian Church. The great body of the means and resources of evangelical Christendom would remain unimpaired. It is, therefore, more natural to consider this pericope as a general statement not only of the Christian Israel’s victory over the first ten persecutions, but of the result of all its conflicts with the world’s power as they are renewed from age to age.
Hence the perpetual recurrence in the Scriptures to this attribute of Jehovah. It is as necessary to our practice as to our theories. In all the course of the individual believer and of the Church at large, there occur seasons when there is no other support for faith and hope than the divine omnipotence. We must look up to Him who stretcheth abroad the heavens and layeth the foundation of the earth and formeth the spirit of man within him. To feel that all things material and immaterial lie at his control as clay in the hands of the potter is a buttress of the believing soul. It sustains in the darkest hours of trial; it encourages in the endeavor after the most difficult enterprises.
“It is a thought which ever makes
Life’s sweetest smiles from tears;
It is a daybreak to our hopes,
A sunset to our fears.”
2. It is said that on one occasion when at a conference of Andrew Rivet with the king of France, the latter threatened some severe measures against the cause of truth, the sturdy reformer answered, “May it please your Majesty, the Church of God is an anvil which hath broken a great many hammers.” It is even so. Zion is a burdensome stone, and always has been, to her assailants. They have harmed not her, but themselves. Pharaoh pursued the children of Israel and caught them “entangled in the land, shut in by the wilderness,” but when he sought to spring the trap, they escaped in safety, while he and his host sank like lead in the mighty waters. The, Philistines captured the Ark of the Covenant, but no defeat was ever so damaging to Dagon or his worshippers as this seeming triumph. Babylon rioted in the plunder of Jerusalem, and the impious king turned the sacred vessels of the sanctuary into the drinking cups of an idolatrous revel, but the fingers of doom wrote upon the wall a sentence which numbered and finished his days the same night. Herod sought to slay the infant Redeemer, but while the child was safe in Egypt, the cruel king perished by a painful and loathsome disease. So in the bloody persecutions which attended the introduction of Christianity, one and another took up the Church as a stone to toss hither and thither, but in vain. The stone was unharmed, but the lifters were torn and lacerated. All were made to feel what the dying Julian uttered in his despair, “O Galilean, thou hast conquered!” Here, more than anywhere else, is fulfilled the saying of the devout Psalmist, “The Lord is known by the judgment which He executeth; the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands” (Zec_9:16). Every assault upon Zion recoils upon the heads of its authors, and that not simply by virtue of “the elastic nature of right according to which every infliction calls forth a counter infliction;” but in consequence of the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God who taketh the wise in their own craftiness. Times without number has his providence justified the earnest counsel which Pilate’s wife gave to the Roman governor in the great crisis of his life, —Have thou nothing to do with that just man.
3. Yet when Zion prevails, over her foes, this result is not owing to any human or inherent strength, but to the presence and power of Jehovah. I make Jerusalem a bowl of reeling; I make her a burdensome stone; I smite every horse with blindness; I make the chiefs of Judah a pan of fire; Jehovah saves, Jehovah defends. Thus, throughout, the stress is laid upon the divine arm. This is the essential factor in the case. On human principles, or according to the ordinary operation of cause and effect, the world would prevail. Often every advantage is on its side; arms, wealth, influence, statecraft, learning, prestige, and numbers. Yet the few, the weak, the unlettered, the lowly, the things that are not, bring to nought the things that are. The reason is that the excellency of the power may be, and may be seen to be, not of man but of God. In all efforts of evangelization this truth is to be distinctly recognized and made prominent. For the Lord will not give his glory to another. The seer said to Asa (2Ch_14:8), “Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubims a huge host, with very many chariots and horsemen? yet because thou didst rely upon the Lord, He delivered them into thy hand.”
4. There is something stimulating in the rich promise of growth contained, in Jehovah’s assurance to the inhabitants of Jerusalem (Zec_12:8). The stumbler, the man who can scarce hold himself up, much less make an assault upon the foe, shall be made a mighty man of valor like David. His feebleness and incapacity shall merge into the strength and skill of a hero, for the Lord shall teach the hands to war and the fingers to fight. Nor is this the end. Even a great captain like David shall surpass himself, shall reach a superhuman courage and decision. He shall resemble the manifested Jehovah as he marched at the head of his conquering host in the days of old. In the sphere of spiritual things this illustrious promise verifies itself. The righteous shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall wax stronger and stronger. Faith gains by experience. Grace increases by exercise. The sapling which once bent with every blast and had but a precarious chance of life, ripens into a gnarled oak which spreads its branches far and wide and defies the storm. It is literally true that no degree of grace is impossible to him that believeth, for the Apostle’s declaration, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me,” did not apply only to himself. The same provisions and promises are open to all Christians. He who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, perfects his strength in human weakness, and the trembling believer, following on to know the Lord, is lifted to a pitch of devotion or endurance or activity which once seemed as far away as the fixed Stars.
Pressel: The affliction of the Church serves first for a chastisement of God’s people, but then falls back in terror and shame upon the heads of their foes.
Calvin: Though the Church may be grievously tried and exposed even to death, let us learn from this passage that they are miserable indeed who through fear or cowardice separate themselves I from her, and that they who cast on God the care of their safety, shall be made blessed, though the whole world were mad against them, though the weapons of all nations were prepared for their ruin, and horses and riders assembled to overthrow them, for the defense of God is a sufficient protection.
Footnotes:
Zec_12:1.—Who stretches, lays, forms. The substitution of the preterite for the participle by some translators not only is gratuitous and inaccurate, but hides the allusion to the creative power of God as constantly exhibited in the continued existence of his works.
Zec_12:3.— ñó . This word Hengstenberg, in the first edition of his Christology (followed by Moore), rendered thresh hold, but in the second, he returns to the old and better version cup or bowl.
Zec_12:2.— òַîִּéí . Here and in Zec_12:3-4; Zec_12:6, peoples. See on Zec_8:20.
Zec_12:2. —The rendering of the second clause in the E. V. is impossible grammatically, and is sustained by no authority that I have seen.
Zec_12:3. — åְðֶà× It is possible but not necessary to render, as E. V., “though all,” etc.
Zec_12:4. — úִîַּäåֹï Astonishment hardly expresses the force of this word, which denotes a sort of wondering consternation.
Zec_12:5. — àַìּåּó head of a family or tribe, is not well rendered as in E. V., by prince, which necessarily implies something of kingly rank or power. As a title of authority it is elsewhere in Scripture used only of the heads of the Idumean tribes (Gen_36:15; Exo_15:15; 1Ch_1:51 ff.), whence Hengstenberg deduces an ingenious argument in favor of the genuineness of the second part of Zechariah (christology, 4:67), cf. on Zec_9:7.
Zec_12:5. — àַöîָä , ἄð . ëåã = ìִé . àֹöֶí is the dative of advantage, and the singular is used collectively as in Zec_7:3.
Zec_12:6. — ëִéּåֹø usually a basin for washing (the laver of the tabernacle, Exo_30:18), here is a pot or pan for coals.
Zec_12:6. — òַöִéí is not “woods ”=forest, but sticks of wood or faggots.
Zec_12:7—The reading ëִáָøִàùֹׁðָä adopted by LXX, Vulgate, and Peshito, and found in five MSS., is manifestly due to an attempt at correction.
Zec_12:8. — éָâֶï used with another preposition in the same sense, in Zec_9:15.
Zec_12:8. — ðִëְùָׁì feeble (E. V.), is not so expressive as the literal, stumbler; cf. Ps. cv. 37, “And not a stumbler in his tribes”. (Isa_5:27.)
Zec_12:8. — àֶìäִׄéí may here be used as an abstract plural, denoting what is divine and heavenly, or in general superhuman (cf. 1Sa_28:13; Ze. Zec_8:6), —a view which seems to render more obvious the contrast between the wo latter clauses of the verse. LXX. renders “house of God,” which Luther follows, and which accounts for the Vulgate, (“et domus David quasi Dei.”