Zechariah 11

Zec 11:1-17.

DESTRUCTION OF THE

SECOND

TEMPLE AND

JEWISH

POLITY FOR THE

REJECTION OF

MESSIAH.

1. Open thy doors, O Lebanon--that is, the temple so called, as being

constructed of cedars of Lebanon, or as being lofty and conspicuous like

that mountain (compare

Eze 17:3;

Hab 2:17).

Forty years before the destruction of the temple, the tract called

"Massecheth Joma" states, its doors of their own accord opened, and

Rabbi Johanan in alarm said, I know that thy desolation is impending

according to Zechariah's prophecy. CALVIN

supposes Lebanon to refer to Judea, described by its north

boundary: "Lebanon," the route by which the Romans, according to JOSEPHUS, gradually advanced towards Jerusalem. MOORE, from HENGSTENBERG, refers the

passage to the civil war which caused the calling in of the Romans,

who, like a storm sweeping through the land from Lebanon, deprived

Judea of its independence. Thus the passage forms a fit introduction to

the prediction as to Messiah born when Judea became a Roman province.

But the weight of authority is for the former view.

2. fir tree . . . cedar--if even the cedars

(the highest in the state)

are not spared, how much less the fir trees (the lowest)!

forest of . . . vintage--As the vines are stripped of their grapes

in the vintage (compare

Joe 3:13),

so the forest of Lebanon "is come down," stripped of all its beauty.

Rather, "the fortified" or "inaccessible forest" [MAURER]; that is, Jerusalem dense with houses as a thick

forest is with trees, and "fortified" with a wall around. Compare

Mic 3:12,

where its desolate state is described as a forest.

3. shepherds--the Jewish rulers.

their glory--their wealth and magnificence; or that

of the temple, "their glory"

(Mr 13:1;

Lu 21:5).

young lions--the princes, so described on account of their cruel

rapacity.

pride of Jordan--its thickly wooded banks, the lair of "lions"

(Jer 12:5; 49:19).

Image for Judea "spoiled" of the magnificence of its rulers ("the young

lions"). The valley of the Jordan forms a deeper gash than any on the

earth. The land at Lake Merom is on a level with the Mediterranean Sea;

at the Sea of Tiberias it falls six hundred fifty feet below that

level, and to double that depression at the Dead Sea, that is, in all,

1950 feet below the Mediterranean; in twenty miles' interval there is a

fall of from three thousand to four thousand feet.

4. The prophet here proceeds to show the cause of the destruction just

foretold, namely, the rejection of Messiah.

flock of . . . slaughter--

(Ps 44:22).

God's people doomed to slaughter by the Romans. Zechariah here

represents typically Messiah, and performs in vision the actions

enjoined: hence the language is in part appropriate to him, but mainly

to the Antitype, Messiah. A million and a half perished in the Jewish

war, and one million one hundred thousand at the fall of Jerusalem.

"Feed" implies that the Jews could not plead ignorance of God's will to

execute their sin. Zechariah and the other prophets had by God's

appointment "fed" them

(Ac 20:28)

with the word of God, teaching and warning them to escape from coming

wrath by repentance: the type of Messiah, the chief Shepherd, who

receives the commission of the Father, with whom He is one

(Zec 11:4);

and Himself says

(Zec 11:7),

"I will feed the flock of slaughter." Zechariah did not live to

"feed" literally the "flock of slaughter"; Messiah alone "fed" those

who, because of their rejection of Him, were condemned to slaughter.

Jehovah-Messiah is the speaker. It is He who threatens to inflict the

punishments

(Zec 11:6, 8).

The typical breaking of the staff, performed in vision by Zechariah

(Zec 11:10),

is fulfilled in His breaking the covenant with Judah. It is He who was

sold for thirty pieces of silver

(Zec 11:12, 13).

5. possessors--The buyers

[MAURER], their Roman oppressors,

contrasted with "they that sell men." The instruments of God's righteous

judgment, and therefore "not holding themselves guilty"

(Jer 50:7).

It is meant that they might use this plea, not that they actually

used it. Judah's adversaries felt no compunction in destroying them; and

God in righteous wrath against Judah allowed it.

they that sell them--(Compare

Zec 11:12).

The rulers of Judah, who by their avaricious rapacity and selfishness

(Joh 11:48, 50)

virtually sold their country to Rome. Their covetousness brought on

Judea God's visitation by Rome. The climax of this was the sale of the

innocent Messiah for thirty pieces of silver. They thought that Jesus

was thus sold and their selfish interest secured by the delivery of Him

to the Romans for crucifixion; but it was themselves and their country

that they thus sold to the Roman possessors."

I am rich--by selling the sheep

(De 29:19;

Ho 12:8).

In short-sighted selfishness they thought they had gained their object,

covetous self-aggrandizement

(Lu 16:14),

and hypocritically "thanked" God for their wicked gain (compare

Lu 18:11).

say . . . pity--In Hebrew it is

singular: that is, each of those that sell them

saith: Not one of their own shepherds pitieth

them. An emphatical mode of expression by which each individual is

represented as doing, or not doing, the action of the verb

[HENDERSON].

HENGSTENBERG

refers the singular verbs to

JEHOVAH, the

true actor; the wicked shepherds being His unconscious instruments.

Compare

Zec 11:6,

For I will no more pity, with the Hebrew "pitieth

not" here.

6. Jehovah, in vengeance for their rejection of Messiah, gave them

over to intestine feuds and Roman rule. The Zealots and other factious

Jews expelled and slew one another by turns at the last invasion by

Rome.

his king--Vespasian or Titus: they themselves

(Joh 19:15)

had said, unconsciously realizing Zechariah's words, identifying Rome's

king with Judah's ("his") king, "We have no king but Cæsar." God

took them at their word, and gave them the Roman king, who "smote

(literally, 'dashed in pieces') their land," breaking up their polity,

when they rejected their true King who would have saved them.

7. And--rather, "Accordingly": implying the motive cause which led

Messiah to assume the office, namely, the will of the Father

(Zec 11:4, 5),

who pitied the sheep without any true shepherd.

I will feed--"I fed"

[CALVIN], which comes to the same thing, as the

past tense must in Zechariah's time have referred to the event of

Messiah's advent then future: the prophets often speaking of the future

in vision as already present. It was not My fault, Jehovah implies,

that these sheep were not fed; the fault rests solely with you, because

ye rejected the grace of God [CALVIN].

even you, O poor of the flock--rather, "in order that

(I might feed, that is, save)

the poor (humble; compare

Zec 11:11;

Zep 3:12;

Mt 5:3)

of the flock"; literally, not you, but, "therefore (I

will feed)" [MOORE]. See Margin,

"Verily the poor." It is for the sake of the believing remnant

that Messiah took charge of the flock, though He would have saved all,

if they would have come to Him. They would not come; therefore, as a

nation, they are "the flock of (that is, doomed to) slaughter."

I took . . . two staves--that is, shepherds' staves or rods

(Ps 23:4).

Symbolizing His assumption of the pastor's office.

Beauty--The Jews' peculiar excellency above other nations

(De 4:7),

God's special manifestation to them

(Ps 147:19, 20),

the glory of the temple ("the beauty of holiness,"

Ps 29:2;

compare

Ps 27:4; 90:17;

2Ch 20:21),

the "pleasantness" of their land

(Ge 49:15;

Da 8:9; 11:16),

"the glorious land."

Bands--implying the bond of "brotherhood" between Judah and Israel.

"Bands," in

Ps 119:61,

Margin, is used for confederate companies: The Easterns

in making a confederacy often tie a cord or band as a symbol of it, and

untie it when they dissolve the confederacy

[LUDOVICUS

DE

DIEU].

Messiah would have joined Judah and Israel in the bonds of a

common faith and common laws

(Zec 11:14),

but they would not; therefore in just retribution He broke "His

covenant which He had made with all the people." Alexander, Antiochus

Epiphanes, and Pompey were all kept from marring utterly the

distinctive "beauty" and "brotherhood" of Judah and Israel, which

subsisted more or less so long as the temple stood. But when Jehovah

brake the staves, not even Titus could save the temple from his own

Roman soldiery, nor was Jurian able to restore it.

8. Three shepherds . . . I cut off--literally, "to

cause to disappear," to destroy so as not to leave a vestige of them.

The three shepherds whom Messiah removes are John, Simon, and Eleazar,

three leaders of factions in the Jewish war

[DRUSIUS].

Or, as Messiah, the Antitype, was at once prophet, priest, and

king, so He by the destruction of the Jewish polity destroyed these

three orders for the unbelief of both the rulers and people

[MOORE].

If they had accepted Messiah, they would have had all three combined in

Him, and would have been themselves spiritually prophets, priests, and

kings to God. Refusing Him, they lost all three, in every sense.

one month--a brief and fixed space of time

(Ho 5:7).

Probably alluding to the last period of the siege of Jerusalem, when

all authority within the city was at an end [HENDERSON].

loathed them--literally, "was straitened" as to them; instead of being

enlarged towards them in love

(2Co 6:11, 12).

The same Hebrew as in

Nu 21:4,

Margin.

No room was left by them for the grace of God, as His favors were

rejected [CALVIN]. The mutual distaste that

existed between the holy Messiah and the guilty Jews is implied.

9. Then said I--at last when all means of saving the nation had been

used in vain

(Joh 8:24).

I will not--that is, no more feed you. The last rejection of the

Jews is foretold, of which the former under Nebuchadnezzar, similarly

described, was the type

(Jer 15:1-3; 34:17; 43:11;

Eze 6:12).

Perish those who are doomed to perish, since they reject Him who would

have saved them! Let them rush on to their own ruin, since they will

have it so.

eat . . . flesh of another--Let them madly perish by mutual discords.

JOSEPHUS attests the fulfilment of this prophecy of threefold calamity: pestilence and famine ("dieth . . . die"), war ("cut off . . . cut

off"), intestine discord ("eat . . . one . . . another").

10. covenant which I made with all the people--The covenant made

with the whole nation is to hold good no more except to the

elect remnant. This is the force of the clause, not as

MAURER,

and others translate. The covenant which I made with all the

nations (not to hurt My elect people,

Ho 2:18).

But the Hebrew is the term for the elect people

(Ammim), not that for the Gentile nations (Goiim).

The Hebrew plural expresses the great numbers of the Israelite

people formerly

(1Ki 4:20).

The article is, in the Hebrew, all the or those

peoples. His cutting asunder the staff "Beauty," implies the setting

aside of the outward symbols of the Jews distinguishing excellency

above the Gentiles (see on

Zec 11:7)

as God's own people.

11. poor . . . knew--The humble, godly remnant knew by the event the

truth of the prediction and of Messiah's mission. He had, thirty-seven

years before the fall of Jerusalem, forewarned His disciples when they

should see the city compassed with armies, to "flee unto the mountains."

Accordingly, Cestius Gallus, when advancing on Jerusalem, unaccountably

withdrew for a brief space, giving Christians the opportunity of obeying

Christ's words by fleeing to Pella.

waited upon me--looked to the hand of God in all these calamities,

not blindly shutting their eyes to the true cause of the visitation, as

most of the nation still do, instead of referring it to their own

rejection of Messiah.

Isa 30:18-21

refers similarly to the Lord's return in mercy to the remnant that

"wait for Him" and "cry" to Him

(Zep 3:12, 13).

12. I said--The prophet here represents the person of Jehovah-Messiah.

If ye think good--literally, "If it be good in your eyes." Glancing at

their self-sufficient pride in not deigning to give Him that return

which His great love in coming down to them from heaven merited, namely,

their love and obedience. "My price"; my reward for pastoral care, both

during the whole of Israel's history from the Exodus, and especially the

three and a half years of Messiah's ministry. He speaks as their

"servant," which He was to them in order to fulfil the Father's will

(Php 2:7).

if not, forbear--They withheld that which He sought as His only reward,

their love; yet He will not force them, but leave His cause with God

(Isa 49:4, 5).

Compare the type Jacob cheated of his wages by Laban, but leaving his

cause in the hands of God

(Ge 31:41, 42).

So . . . thirty pieces of silver--thirty shekels. They not only

refused Him His due, but added insult to injury by giving for Him the

price of a gored bond-servant

(Ex 21:32;

Mt 26:15).

A freeman was rated at twice that sum.

13. Cast it unto the potter--proverbial: Throw it to the temple potter,

the most suitable person to whom to cast the despicable sum, plying his

trade as he did in the polluted valley

(2Ki 23:10)

of Hinnom, because it furnished him with the most suitable clay. This

same valley, and the potter's shop, were made the scene of symbolic

actions by Jeremiah

(Jer 18:1-19:15)

when prophesying of this very period of Jewish history. Zechariah

connects his prophecy here with the older one of Jeremiah: showing the

further application of the same divine threat against his unfaithful

people in their destruction under Rome, as before in that under

Nebuchadnezzar. Hence

Mt 27:9,

in English Version, and in the oldest authorities, quotes

Zechariah's words as Jeremiah's, the latter being the original

author from whom Zechariah derived the groundwork of the prophecy.

Compare the parallel case of

Mr 1:2, 3

in the oldest manuscripts (though not in English Version),

quoting Malachi's words as those of "Isaiah," the original source of

the prophecy. Compare my

Introduction

to Zechariah. The "potter" is significant of God's absolute power over

the clay framed by His own hands

(Isa 45:9;

Jer 18:6;

Ro 9:20, 21).

in the house of the Lord--The thirty pieces are thrown down

in the temple, as the house of Jehovah, the fit place for the money

of Jehovah-Messiah being deposited, in the treasury, and the very place

accordingly where Judas "cast them down." The thirty pieces were cast

"to the potter," because it was to him they were "appointed by the Lord"

ultimately to go, as a worthless price (compare

Mt 27:6, 7, 10).

For "I took," "I threw," here Matthew has "they took,"

"they gave them"; because their (the Jews' and Judas') act was

all His "appointment" (which Matthew also expresses), and

therefore is here attributed to Him (compare

Ac 2:23; 4:28).

It is curious that some old translators translate, for "to the potter,"

"to the treasury" (so

MAURER),

agreeing with

Mt 27:6.

But English Version agrees better with Hebrew and

Mt 27:10.

14. The breaking of the bond of union between Judah and Israel's

ten tribes under Rehoboam is here the image used to represent the

fratricidal discord of factions which raged within Jerusalem on

the eve of its fall, while the Romans were thundering at its gates

without. See

JOSEPHUS [Wars of the Jews].

Also the continued severance of the tribes till their coming

reunion

(Ro 11:15).

15. yet--"take again"; as in

Zec 11:7

previously he had taken other implements.

instruments--the accoutrements, namely, the shepherd's crook and

staff, wallet, &c. Assume the character of a bad ("foolish" in Scripture

is synonymous with wicked,

Ps 14:1)

shepherd, as before thou assumedst that of a good shepherd. Since the

Jews would not have Messiah, "the Good Shepherd"

(Joh 10:11),

they were given up to Rome, heathen and papal, both alike their

persecutor, especially the latter, and shall be again to Antichrist,

the "man of sin," the instrument of judgment by Christ's permission.

Antichrist will first make a covenant with them as their ruler, but

then will break it, and they shall feel the iron yoke of his tyranny as

the false Messiah, because they rejected the light yoke of the true

Messiah

(Da 11:35-38; 12:1; 9:27;

2Th 2:3-12).

But at last he is to perish utterly

(Zec 11:17),

and the elect remnant of Judah and Israel is to be saved

gloriously.

16. in the land--Antichrist will probably he a Jew, or at least one

in Judea.

not visit . . . neither . . . seek

. . . heal . . . broken, nor feed . . .

but . . . eat . . . flesh . . .

tear--Compare similar language as to the unfaithful shepherds of

Israel in

Eze 34:2-4.

This implies, they shall be paid in kind. Such a shepherd in the worst

type shall "tear" them for a limited time.

those . . . cut off--"those perishing" [Septuagint], that is, those

sick unto death, as if already cut off.

the young--The Hebrew is always used of human youths, who are

really referred to under the image of the young of the flock. Ancient

expositors [Chaldee Version,

JEROME, &c.] translate,

"the straying," "the dispersed"; so GESENIUS.

broken--the wounded.

standeth still--with faintness lagging behind.

tear . . . claws--expressing cruel voracity; tearing

off the very hoofs (compare

Ex 10:26),

giving them excruciating pain, and disabling them from going in quest

of pasture.

17. the idol--The Hebrew expresses both vanity and an idol. Compare

Isa 14:13;

Da 11:36;

2Th 2:4;

Re 13:5, 6,

as to the idolatrous and blasphemous claims of Antichrist. The "idol

shepherd that leaveth the flock" cannot apply to Rome, but to

some ruler among the Jews themselves, at first cajoling, then "leaving"

them, nay, destroying them

(Da 9:27; 11:30-38).

God's sword shall descend on his "arm," the instrument of his tyranny

towards the sheep

(2Th 2:8);

and on his "right eye," wherewith he ought to have watched the sheep

(Joh 10:12, 13).

However, Antichrist shall destroy, rather than "leave the

flock." Perhaps, therefore, the reference is to the shepherds who

left the flock to Antichrist's rapacity, and who, in just

retribution, shall feel his "sword" on their "arm," which ought to have

protected the flock but did not, and on their "eye," which had failed

duly to watch the sheep from hurt. The blinding of "the right

eye" has attached to it the notion of ignominy

(1Sa 11:2).