Zechariah 12

Zec 12:1-14.

JERUSALEM THE

INSTRUMENT OF

JUDGMENT ON

HER

FOES

HEREAFTER;

HER

REPENTANCE AND

RESTORATION.

1. burden--"weighty prophecy"; fraught with destruction to Israel's

foes; the expression may also refer to the distresses of Israel

implied as about to precede the deliverance.

for Israel--concerning Israel [MAURER].

stretcheth forth--present; now, not merely "hath stretched

forth," as if God only created and then left the universe to itself

(Joh 5:17).

To remove all doubts of unbelief as to the possibility of Israel's

deliverance, God prefaces the prediction by reminding us of His

creative and sustaining power. Compare a similar preface in

Isa 42:5; 43:1; 65:17, 18.

formeth . . . spirit of man--

(Nu 16:22;

Heb 12:9).

2. cup of trembling--a cup causing those who drink it to reel (from

a Hebrew root "to reel"). Jerusalem, who drank the "cup of trembling"

herself, shall be so to her foes

(Isa 51:17, 22;

Jer 13:13).

CALVIN with the Septuagint translates,

"threshold of destruction," on which they shall stumble and be

crushed when they attempt to cross it. English Version is

better.

both against Judah--The Hebrew order of words is literally, "And

also against Judah shall he (the foe) be in the siege against

Jerusalem"; implying virtually that Judah, as it shares the invasion

along with Jerusalem, so it shall, like the metropolis, prove a cup of

trembling to the invaders. MAURER with

JEROME translates, "Also upon

Judah shall be (the cup of trembling); that is, some Jews forced by the

foe shall join in the assault on Jerusalem, and shall share the

overthrow with the besiegers. But

Zec 12:6, 7

show that Judah escapes and proves the scourge of the foe.

3.

(Zec 14:4, 6-9, 13).

JEROME

states it was a custom in Palestine to test the strength of youths by

their lifting up a massive stone; the phrase, "burden themselves with

it," refers to this custom. Compare

Mt 21:44:

The Jews "fell" on the rock of offense, Messiah, and were "broken"; but

the rock shall fall on Antichrist, who "burdens himself with it" by his

assault on the restored Jews, and "grind him to powder."

all . . . people of . . . earth--The Antichristian confederacy against

the Jews shall be almost universal.

4. I will smite . . . horse--The arm of attack especially formidable

to Judah, who was unprovided with cavalry. So in the overthrow of

Pharaoh

(Ex 15:19, 21).

open mine eyes upon . . . Judah--to watch over Judah's safety.

Heretofore Jehovah seemed to have shut His eyes, as having no regard for

her.

blindness--so as to rush headlong on to their own ruin (compare

Zec 14:12, 13).

5. shall say--when they see the foe divinely smitten with "madness."

Judah . . . Jerusalem--here distinguished as the country and the

metropolis. Judah recognizes her "strength" to be "Jerusalem and its

inhabitants" as the instrument, and "Jehovah of hosts their God"

(dwelling especially there) as the author of all power

(Joe 3:16).

My strength is the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who have the Lord their God

as their help. The repulse of the foe by the metropolis shall assure the

Jews of the country that the same divine aid shall save them.

6. On "governors of Judah,"

see on

Zec 9:7.

hearth--or pan.

torch . . . in a sheaf--Though small, it shall consume the many foes

around. One prophet supplements the other. Thus

Isa 29:1-24;

Joe 3:1-21;

Zec 12:1-14:21,

describe more Antichrist's army than himself. Daniel represents

him as a horn growing out of the fourth beast or fourth kingdom; St.

John, as a separate beast having an individual existence. Daniel dwells

on his worldly conquests as a king; St. John, more on his spiritual

tyranny, whence he adds a second beast, the false prophet coming in a

semblance of spirituality. What is briefly described by one is more

fully prophesied by the other [ROOS].

7. Judah is to be "first saved," because of her meek acknowledgment

of dependence on Jerusalem, subordinate to Jehovah's aid.

tents--shifting and insecure, as contrasted with the solid

fortifications of Judah. But God chooses the weak to confound the

mighty, that all human glorying may be set aside.

8. Jerusalem, however, also shall be specially strengthened against

the foe.

feeble . . . shall be as David--to the Jew, the highest type of

strength and glory on earth

(2Sa 17:8; 18:3;

Joe 3:10).

angel of the Lord before them--the divine angel that went "before them"

through the desert, the highest type of strength and glory in heaven

(Ex 23:20; 32:34).

"The house of David" is the "prince," and his family sprung from David

(Eze 45:7, 9).

David's house was then in a comparatively weak state.

9. I will seek to destroy--I will set Myself with determined

earnestness to destroy, etc.

(Hag 2:22).

10. Future conversion of the Jews is to flow from an extraordinary

outpouring of the Holy Spirit

(Jer 31:9, 31-34;

Eze 39:29).

spirit of grace . . . supplications--"spirit" is here not the spirit

produced, but

THE

HOLY

SPIRIT

producing a "gracious" disposition,

and inclination for "supplications."

CALVIN explains "spirit of

grace" as the grace of God itself (whereby He "pours" out His bowels

of mercy), "conjoined with the sense of it in man's heart." The "spirit

of supplications" is the mercury whose rise or fall is an unerring test

of the state of the Church [MOORE]. In Hebrew, "grace" and

"supplications" are kindred terms; translate, therefore, "gracious supplications." The plural implies suppliant prayers "without

ceasing." Herein not merely external help against the foe, as before,

but internal grace is promised subsequently.

look upon me--with profoundly earnest regard, as the Messiah whom

they so long denied.

pierced--implying Messiah's humanity: as "I will pour . . . spirit"

implies His divinity.

look . . . mourn--True repentance arises from the sight by faith of

the crucified Saviour. It is the tear that drops from the eye of faith

looking on Him. Terror only produces remorse. The true penitent weeps

over his sins in love to Him who in love has suffered for them.

me . . . him--The change of person is due to

Jehovah-Messiah speaking in His own person first, then the

prophet speaking of Him. The Jews, to avoid the conclusion that

He whom they have "pierced" is Jehovah-Messiah, who says, "I will pour

out . . . spirit," altered "me" into "him," and represent the

"pierced" one to be Messiah Ben (son of) Joseph, who was to suffer in

the battle with Cog, before Messiah Ben David should come to reign. But

Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic oppose this; and the

ancient Jews interpreted it of Messiah.

Ps 22:16

also refers to His being "pierced." So

Joh 19:37;

Re 1:7.

The actual piercing of His side was the culminating point of all their

insulting treatment of Him. The act of the Roman soldier who pierced

Him was their act

(Mt 27:25),

and is so accounted here in Zechariah. The Hebrew word is always

used of a literal piercing (so

Zec 13:3);

not of a metaphorical piercing, "insulted," as

MAURER and

other Rationalists (from the Septuagint) represent.

as one mourneth for . . . son--

(Jer 6:26;

Am 8:10).

A proverbial phrase peculiarly forcible among the Jews, who felt

childlessness as a curse and dishonor. Applied with peculiar propriety

to mourning for Messiah, "the first-born among many brethren"

(Ro 8:29).

11. As in

Zec 12:10

the bitterness of their mourning is illustrated by a private case of

mourning, so in this verse by a public one, the greatest recorded in

Jewish history, that for the violent death in battle with Pharaoh-necho

of the good King Josiah, whose reign had been the only gleam of

brightness for the period from Hezekiah to the downfall of the state;

lamentations were written by Jeremiah for the occasion

(2Ki 23:29, 30;

2Ch 35:22-27).

Hadad-rimmon--a place or city in the great plain of Esdraelon,

the battlefield of many a conflict, near Megiddo; called so from the

Syrian idol Rimmon. Hadad also was the name of the sun, a chief god of

the Syrians [MACROBIUS, Saturnalia, 1.23].

12-14. A universal and an individual mourning at once.

David . . . Nathan--representing the highest and

lowest of the royal order. Nathan, not the prophet, but a younger son

of David

(2Sa 5:14;

Lu 3:31).

apart--Retirement and seclusion are needful for deep personal religion.

wives apart--Jewish females worship separately from the males

(Ex 15:1, 20).

13. Levi . . . Shimei--the highest and lowest of the

priestly order

(Nu 3:18, 21).

Their example and that of the royal order would of course influence the

rest.

14. All . . . that remain--after the fiery ordeal, in

which two-thirds fall

(Zec 13:8, 9).