Zechariah 10

Zec 10:1-12.

PRAYER AND

PROMISE.

Call to prayer to Jehovah, as contrasted with the idol-worship which had

brought judgments on the princes and people. Blessings promised in

answer to prayer: (1) rulers of themselves; (2) conquest of their

enemies; (3) restoration and establishment of both Israel and Judah in

their own land in lasting peace and piety.

1. Ask . . . rain--on which the abundance of "corn"

promised by the Lord

(Zec 9:17)

depends. Jehovah alone can give it, and will give it on being asked

(Jer 10:13; 14:22).

rain in . . . time of . . . latter rain--that is, the latter rain in

its due time, namely, in spring, about February or March

(Job 29:23;

Joe 2:23).

The latter rain ripened the grain, as the former rain in October tended

to fructify the seed. Including all temporal blessings; these

again being types of spiritual ones. Though God has begun to bless us,

we are not to relax our prayers. The former rain of conversion may have

been given, but we must also ask for the latter rain of ripened

sanctification. Though at Pentecost there was a former rain on the

Jewish Church, a latter rain is still to be looked for, when the full

harvest of the nation's conversion shall be gathered in to God. The

spirit of prayer in the Church is an index at once of her piety, and of

the spiritual blessings she may expect from God. When the Church is

full of prayer, God pours out a full blessing.

bright clouds--rather, "lightnings," the precursors of rain

[MAURER].

showers of rain--literally, "rain of heavy rain." In

Job 37:6

the same words occur in inverted order [HENDERSON].

grass--a general term, including both corn for men and grass for cattle.

2. idols--literally, "the teraphim," the household gods, consulted in

divination (see on

Ho 3:4).

Derived by

GESENIUS

from an Arabic root, "comfort," indicating them as the givers of

comfort. Or an Ethiopian root, "relics." Herein Zechariah shows that

the Jews by their own idolatry had stayed the grace of God heretofore,

which otherwise would have given them all those blessings, temporal and

spiritual, which they are now

(Zec 10:1)

urged to "ask" for.

diviners--who gave responses to consulters of the teraphim: opposed

to Jehovah and His true prophets.

seen a lie--pretending to see what they saw not in giving responses.

comfort in vain--literally, "give vapor for comfort"; that is,

give comforting promises to consulters which are sure to come to naught

(Job 13:4; 16:2; 21:34).

therefore they went their way--that is, Israel and Judah were led away

captive.

as a flock . . . no shepherd--As sheep wander and are

a prey to every injury when without a shepherd, so the Jews had been

while they were without Jehovah, the true shepherd; for the false

prophets whom they trusted were no shepherds

(Eze 34:5).

So now they are scattered, while they know not Messiah their shepherd;

typified in the state of the disciples, when they had forsaken Jesus

and fled

(Mt 26:56;

compare

Zec 13:7).

3. against the shepherds--the civil rulers of Israel and Judah who

abetted idolatry.

punished--literally, "visited upon." The same word "visited," without

the upon, is presently after used in a good sense to heighten the

contrast.

goats--he-goats. As "shepherds" described what they ought to have

been, so "he-goats" describes what they were, the emblem of headstrong

wantonness and offensive lust

(Isa 14:9,

Margin;

Eze 34:17;

Da 8:5;

Mt 25:33).

The he-goats head the flock. They who are first in crime will be first

in punishment.

visited--in mercy

(Lu 1:68).

as his goodly horse--In

Zec 9:13

they were represented under the image of bows and arrows, here

under that of their commander-in-chief, Jehovah's battle horse

(So 1:9).

God can make His people, timid though they be as sheep, courageous as

the charger. The general rode on the most beautiful and richly

caparisoned, and had his horse tended with the greatest care. Jehovah

might cast off the Jews for their vileness, but He regards His election

or adoption of them: whence He calls them here "His flock," and

therefore saves them.

4. Out of him--Judah is to be no more subject to foreigners, but

from itself shall come its rulers.

the corner--stone, Messiah

(Isa 28:16).

"Corners" simply express governors

(1Sa 14:38,

Margin;

Isa 19:13,

Margin). The Maccabees, Judah's governors and deliverers from

Antiochus the oppressor, are primarily meant; but Messiah is the

Antitype. Messiah supports and binds together the Church, Jews and

Gentiles.

the nail--

(Jud 4:21;

Isa 22:23).

The large peg inside an Oriental tent, on which is hung most of its

valuable furniture. On Messiah hang all the glory and hope of His

people.

bow--

(Zec 9:13).

Judah shall not need foreign soldiery. Messiah shall be her battle-bow

(Ps 45:4, 5;

Re 6:2).

every oppressor--rather, in a good sense, ruler, as the kindred

Ethiopic term means. So "exactor," in

Isa 60:17,

namely, one who exacts the tribute from the nations made tributary to

Judah [LUDOVICUS DE DIEU].

5. riders on horses--namely, the enemy's horsemen. Though the Jews

were forbidden by the law to multiply horses in battle

(De 17:16),

they are made Jehovah's war horse

(Zec 10:3;

Ps 20:7),

and so tread down on foot the foe with all his cavalry

(Eze 38:4;

Da 11:40).

Cavalry was the chief strength of the Syro-Grecian army

(1 Maccabees 3:39).

6. Judah . . . Joseph--that is, the ten tribes. The distinct mention

of both Judah and Israel shows that there is yet a more complete

restoration than that from Babylon, when Judah alone and a few

Israelites from the other tribes returned. The Maccabean deliverance is

here connected with it, just as the painter groups on the same canvas

objects in the foreground and hills far distant; or as the comparatively

near planet and the remote fixed star are seen together in the same

firmament. Prophecy ever hastens to the glorious final consummation

under Messiah.

bring them again to place them--namely, securely in their own land.

The Hebrew verb is compounded of two, "I will bring again," and "I will

place them"

(Jer 32:37).

MAURER, from a different form, translates, "I will

make them to dwell."

7. like a mighty man--in the battle with the foe

(Zec 10:3, 5).

rejoice--at their victory over the foe.

children shall see it--who are not yet of age to serve. To teach

patient waiting for God's promises. If ye do not at present see the

fulfilment, your children shall, and their joy shall be complete.

rejoice in the Lord--the Giver of such a glorious victory.

8. hiss for them--Keepers of bees by a whistle call them together. So

Jehovah by the mere word of His call shall gather back to Palestine His

scattered people

(Zec 10:10;

Isa 5:26;

Eze 36:11).

The multitudes mentioned by

JOSEPHUS [Wars of the Jews, 3:2],

as peopling Galilee two hundred years after this time, were a pledge of

the future more perfect fulfilment of the prophecy.

for I have redeemed them--namely, in My covenant purpose "redeemed"

both temporally and spiritually.

as they have increased--in former times.

9. sow them among . . . people--Their dispersion was

with a special design. Like seed sown far and wide, they shall, when

quickened themselves, be the fittest instruments for quickening others

(compare

Mic 5:7).

The slight hold they have on every soil where they now live, as also

the commercial and therefore cosmopolitan character of their pursuits,

making a change of residence easy to them, fit them peculiarly for

missionary work [MOORE]. The wide dispersion of

the Jews just before Christ's coming prepared the way similarly for the

apostles' preaching in the various Jewish synagogues throughout the

world; everywhere some of the Old Testament seed previously sown was

ready to germinate when the New Testament light and heat were brought

to bear on it by Gospel preachers. Thus the way was opened for entrance

among the Gentiles. "Will sow" is the Hebrew future, said

of that which has been done, is being done, and may be done afterwards

[MAURER], (compare

Ho 2:23).

shall remember me in far countries--

(De 30:1;

2Ch 6:37).

Implying the Jews' return to a right mind in "all the nations" where

they are scattered simultaneously. Compare

Lu 15:17, 18,

with Ps 22:27,

"All the ends of the world remembering and turning unto the

Lord," preceded by the "seed of Jacob . . . Israel

. . . fearing and glorifying Him"; also

Ps 102:13-15.

live--in political and spiritual life.

10. Egypt . . . Assyria--the former the first, the latter among the

last of Israel's oppressors (or

representing the four great world kingdoms, of which it was the first):

types of the present universal dispersion, Egypt being south, Assyria

north, opposite ends of the compass.

MAURER conjectures that many

Israelites fled to "Egypt" on the invasion of Tiglath-pileser. But

Isa 11:11

and this passage rather accord with the view of the future

restoration.

Gilead . . . Lebanon--The whole of the Holy Land is described by two

of its boundaries, the eastern ("Gilead" beyond Jordan) and the northern

("Lebanon").

place shall not be found for them--that is, there shall not be room

enough for them through their numbers

(Isa 49:20; 54:3).

11. pass . . . sea with affliction--Personifying the

"sea"; He shall afflict the sea, that is, cause it to cease to be an

obstacle to Israel's return to Palestine

(Isa 11:15, 16).

Vulgate translates, "The strait of the sea." MAURER, "He shall cleave and smite." English

Version is best

(Ps 114:3).

As Jehovah smote the Red Sea to make a passage for His people

(Ex 14:16, 21),

so hereafter shall He make a way through every obstacle which opposes

Israel's restoration.

the river--the Nile

(Am 8:8; 9:5),

or the Euphrates. Thus the Red Sea and the Euphrates in the former part

of the verse answer to "Assyria" and "Egypt" in the latter.

sceptre of Egypt . . . depart--

(Eze 30:13).

12. I . . . strengthen them in . . . Lord--

(Ho 1:7).

I, the Father, will strengthen them in the name, that is, the

manifested power, of the Lord, Messiah, the Son of God.

walk . . . in his name--that is, live everywhere and continually under

His protection, and according to His will

(Ge 5:22;

Ps 20:1, 7;

Mic 4:5).