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Zec_9:1-8
1 The burden of the word of Jehovah upon the land of Hadrach,
And Damascus is its resting place;
For Jehovah has an eye upon man,
And upon all the tribes of Israel—
2 And Hamath also [which] borders thereon,
Tyre and Sidon, because it is very wise.
3 And Tyre built for herself a stronghold,
And heaped up silver as dust,
And gold as the mire of the streets.
4 Behold the Lord will seize her,
And smite her bulwark in the sea,
And she herself shall be consumed by fire.
5 Ashkelon sees it and is afraid,
Gaza also, and trembles exceedingly,
And Ekron, for her hope is put to shame,
And the king perishes from Gaza,
And Ashkelon shall not be inhabited.
6 And a mongrel dwells in Ashdod,
And I cut off the pride of the Philistines.
7 And I take away his blood out of his mouth
And his abominations from between his teeth;
And even he remains to our God,
And he becomes like a prince in Judah,
And Ekron like the Jebusite,
8 And I encamp for my house against an army,
Against him that goeth hither and thither,
And no oppressor shall come over them any more,
For now I see with mine eyes.
Zec_9:2. And Hamath also. Hamath, the Greek Epiphania on the Orontes, shall also be a resting-place of the burden. Nearly all expositors concur in construing the last two words as a relative clause. Hamath and Damascus are closely connected as together representing Syria. Contiguous in territory, they were alike in doom. From them the prophet turns to Phoenicia. Tyre and Sidon is=Tyre with Sidon, as the following verb in the singular shows. Tyre was a colony of Sidon, but the daughter soon outstripped the mother, and as early as Isaiah’s time the elder city was viewed as an appendage of the younger. Because it is. There is no need of giving to the conjunction, the rare and doubtful meaning, although (Calvin, Henderson, E. V.), since its normal sense suits perfectly. Tyre was very wise, as the world counts wisdom, multiplying wealth and strength, and trusting in them; but this very pride of earthly wisdom brought the divine retribution (Eze_28:2-6. Cf. 1Co_1:19; 1Co_1:27).
Zec_9:3. Describes the resources of the insular city. The stronghold doubtless refers to the immense double sea-wall which made the place apparently impregnable. For her vast accumulations of wealth, see Isaiah 23, Ezekiel 27. äøåּõ —shining, is simply a poetical name of gold.
Zec_9:4. Jehovah will seize. An earthly conqueror may perform the work, but the ultimate agency is the Lord, who beholds and controls all things. Her bulwark. It is of little consequence whether çֵéìָäּ be rendered rampart, or might, so long as in is not converted into into. The point of the clause is that the insular position, which apparently rendered the city invincible, should feel the weight of Jehovah’s hand, and prove no protection. The prodigious power and wealth of the Tyrians, and their utter overthrow, are among the most familiar of historical truths.
Zec_9:5. The prophet turns to Philistia. Ashkelon sees, etc. A vivid description of the effect of the fall of Tyre upon the cities on the coast southward (cf. Isa_23:5). Only four of the Philistine capitals are mentioned, Gath being omitted, as in Amo_1:6-8, Jer_25:20, Zep_2:4. The omission seems due to the fact that Gath, after being dismantled by Uzziah (2Ch_26:6), sank into political insignificance. “Sees” is to be supplied after Gaza, and both “sees” and “fears” after Ekron. The king, in Hebrew, lacks the article, and the sense is not simply that the reigning king perishes, but that Gaza henceforth has no king. Of course, such monarchs as it had at this time, were only vassal kings. úֵùֵׁá . Hengstenberg strenuously contends against the common passive rendering, but apparently without reason. He (with Ewald and Köhler) renders, it shall sit or remain, in opposition to passing on or passing away. But compare Isa_13:20, where the verb is used as exactly parallel with ùָׁëַï . (J. A. Alexander in loc.)
Zec_9:6. And a mongrel dwells. îַîְæִøִ . A word of uncertain origin, which occurs in only one other place in Scripture, namely, Deu_23:3, where it means bastard. The rendering in the version is from Fürst (Dictionary), who deduces the verb from an assumed root, signifying to mix the sexes. It is used in the text to denote a person of blemished birth. Ashdod should lose its native population, and have their place supplied by a mongrel brood. The pride of the Philistines, i. e., all that constitutes their pride. This clause resumes what precedes in relation to the several cities, and applies it to the nation as a whole. In the next verse a further advance is made, and the conversion of the people is set forth.
Zec_9:7. And I take … blood. The singular suffixes refer to the ideal unity in which the Philistines are conceived of as a single person. See a similar case in Zec_7:2-3. The blood mentioned is that of sacrifices, which the heathen sometimes drank, and the abominations=not idols, as if he were going to hold on to them mordicus (Hengstenberg), but idolatrous offerings. The whole clause strikingly depicts the abolition of idolatry. The rest of the verse sets forth what comes in its place. And even he, i. e., the nation of the Philistines regarded as a person. To our God=the God of Israel. They shall become his worshippers. Like a prince, a tribe prince. àַìֻּó is a denominative from àֶìֶó , and denotes the head of a thousand (cf. Mic_5:2). In the earlier books it is applied only to the tribe-princes of Edom, but is transferred by Zechariah to the tribal heads of Judah. The remnant of the Philistines is to become like a chiliarch in Judah. The statement is completed by the final clause. And Ekron. This is mentioned not in and for itself, but simply to individualize the declaration; any other city would have answered as well. Like the Jebusite, i. e., like the ancient inhabitants of Jebus, who became incorporated with the covenant people and shared all their privileges. See the case of Araunah, 2Sa_24:18.
Zec_9:8. Not only shall a judgment fall on the neighboring heathen and the remnant of them be converted, but the Lord will carefully protect his own people. And I encamp for my house. House, dat. comm., stands for people or family of God (Hos_8:1). An army is more precisely defined in the next clause as passing through and returning, i. e., marching to and fro. No oppressor, such as Egypt, Assyria, or Babylon. For now I see=am exercising my providential control. “In the estimation of men of little faith, God sees only when He is actually interfering” (Hengstenberg). But in fact He sees all the time.
“There can be no doubt that we have here as graphic an account of the expedition of Alexander the Great as is consistent with the permanent distinction between prophecy and history.” (Hengstenberg). The capture of Damascus, of Tyre, and of Gaza, are well-known historical facts; and these carry with them assurance that there was also a fulfillment of the prediction in reference to Hamath and the other cities of Philistia, of the fate of which we have no express account. This fulfillment, however, was manifestly only incipient, inasmuch as the incorporation of the Philistines with Israel did not take place until a later period. On the other hand, the attempt of the so-called later criticism to refer the passage to the conquests of Uzziah mentioned in 2Ch_26:6-7, completely fails; because Uzziah did not attack Damascus and Hamath nor Tyre, which are here mentioned, while he did subdue other neighboring heathen, Edomites, Arabians, Maonites, who are not mentioned. The rapid celerity of these conquests is most appropriate to the agency of the “he-goat” whom Daniel saw (Zec_8:5) coming from the west “on the face of the whole earth, and he touched not the ground.” All the great captains from Sesostris down yield to Alexander in the swiftness and extent of his conquests. Even Tyre, with all its immense advantages and resources, stayed his march for only what was comparatively a short period.
2. Bloodshed and carnage prepare the way for the Prince of Peace. The conquest of Alexauder had aims and results far beyond any contemplated by himself even in the most extensive of his farreaching views. He tore down that others might build up. The humiliation of the Syrian powers and provinces was preliminary to their conversion to the true faith. Their cruel and debasing worship disappeared, and the remnant became incorporated with the Christian Church. They exhibited on a small scale what the entire career of Alexander exhibited on the world’s broad stage,—a secular preparation for the new and final form of the kingdom of God on earth. Well says Wordsworth, “We speak of the connection of sacred and profane history; but what history can rightly be called profane? What history is there, rightly studied, which is not sacred? What history is there in which we may not trace the footsteps of Christ?” A heathen historian (Arrian) said that Alexander, who was like no other man, could not have been given to the world without the special design of Providence. But what to Arrian was an inference from a narrow induction is to us a broad fact stamped upon the face of the world’s history, and confirmed by the concurrent testimonies of two divine seers, Daniel and Zechariah.
Moore: Never has sin more proudly entrenched herself than in godless but magnificent Tyre. Yet all was swept like chaff before the whirlwind of the wrath of God, when the time for the fulfillment of his threatenings had come. Two hundred years passed away after these threatenings were uttered, and Tyre seemed stronger than ever; yet when the day of doom dawned, the galleys that had left her the queen of seas, when they returned found her but a bare and blackened rock, a lonely monument of the truth that our God is a consuming fire.… God will not make Himself a liar to save man in his sins.
Jay: Ekron as the Jebusite. 1. It is a great thing to be a Jebusite. 2. Jebusites may be derived from Ekronites. Hence let none despair, either for themselves or for their fellows. God is able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham.
Footnotes:
Zec_9:1.— îְðֻçָúåֹ = resting-place, permanent abode.
Zec_9:1.— òֵéï àָãָí , gen. obj., an eve upon man. So LXX. and most critics.
Zec_9:2.— Before úִâְáָì we must supply àֲùֶׁø . The latter half of Zec_9:1 is parenthetical. “Hamath also,” i. e. as well as Damascus, is a resting-place of the burden.
Zec_9:2.— ëִé takes its usual sense, because. To render although is enfeebling as well as needless.
Zec_9:3.—The paronomasia in òåֹø îָöåֹø cannot be reproduced in English.
Zec_9:4.— éåֹøùׁðּç is not will dispossess (Burg., Hend.), nor impoverish (Hitzig, Ewald), nor deliver up (Heng., Kliefoth), but seize, conquer, as in exactly similar connection, Jos_8:7; Jos_17:12 (Maurer, Kohler).
Zec_9:4.— áַéָּí . In, not into, as Henderson and Noyes render.
Zec_9:5.— äåֹáִéùׁ . Here, as elsewhere (Jer_2:26), the Hiphil takes a passive sense: the subject of the verb is not Ekron (as some editions of the E. V. punctuate the clause), but îֶáָּèָäּ .
Zec_9:6.— îַîְæֵø . Mongrel is a better, because more significant rendering than alien (Genevan, stranger), adopted by most critics, after the LXX. ἀëëïãåíÞò Dr. Van Dyck, in the Arabic Bible, gives ÒÐÜíã =bastard.
Zec_9:7.— ðùְׁàַø âַíÎäåּà . The E. V., he that remaineth, is not warranted by grammar nor by the connection.
Zec_9:7.—“prince,” literally, tribe-prince or head of a thousand, a Pentateuch word.
Zec_9:8.— îִï , lit., because of, here is= against.
Zec_9:8.— îִöָּáָä . The keri undoubtedly given the true text, îִöָּáָà , nor is there any need of adopting the vowel changes proposed by Ortenberg and Ewald.
Zec_9:8.— îֵòֹáֵø åּîùּׁá , the same phrase that occurs in Zec_8:14, where however, the connection requires a variation in the rendering.
Pressel derides this view, saying, Diese elymologischen Versucht sind in dtr That audi Bcides, gar zu scharf und gar zu zart, gat zu stark und gar zu schwach. But where all are groping in the dark, ridicule is scarcely in place.