Zechariah 12:2

Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about,.... The Targum renders it, "a vessel full of inebriating liquor;'' which intoxicates and makes giddy, and causes to

Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem.

I will make Jerusalem; that weak, unwalled, poor, and thinly inhabited city, type of the church; and much more the church, which is antitype to Jerusalem. A cup of trembling; they shall drink their own bane whose swords be drinking the blood of the inhabitants of this Jerusalem; there is poison mixed in the cup of the wrath of God, which he will put into the hands of such wicked ones, and they must drink it off. Unto all the people round about; to the heathen round about, to all of them; all have more or less at one time or other molested Jerusalem, and God remembers it, and hath provided for them a cup of astonishment against the day in which they besiege her, thinking then to finish all their attempts against Jerusalem. When they shall be in the siege: strange siege laid against a whole country, and mighty powers will be little enough to do this, it requires a most extraordinary provision; now when all this is in readiness and no visible means of escape, then will God make them drink the wine of astonishment and cast them into a dead sleep. Against Judah; the land of Judah. Against Jerusalem; typical and mystical, the church of Christ. I will make Jerusalem; that weak, unwalled, poor, and thinly inhabited city, type of the church; and much more the church, which is antitype to Jerusalem. Against Jerusalem; typical and mystical, the church of Christ.

Zechariah 12:2 Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah [and] against Jerusalem.Ver. 2. Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling] Or, slumber, or poison. A metaphor taken from a cup of generous wine, but empoisoned; so that those that drink of it do presently tremble, grow giddy, sleepy, sick as hear can hold. Poison in wine works more furiously. Thou hast made us to drink the wine of giddiness, saith the Church, Psalms 60:3. In the hand of the Lord is a cup, and the wine is red, it is full mixed, &c. The prophet here seems to allude to Jeremiah 25:15 Isaiah 29:8 Jeremiah 51:7. Ovid saith of the river Gallus, that whoso drinketh of it runneth mad immediately. Jerome telleth of a lake, near Naples, whereinto, if a dog be thrown, he presently dieth. The like is reported, by Josephus, of the Lake Asphaltites. Jerusalem shall be a murdering morsel to those that swallow it. His meat in his bowels is turned, it is the gall of asps within him. He hath swallowed down her spoil, and he shall vomit it up again: God shall rake it out of his belly, Job 20:14-15 : he shall have as little joy of his tid bits, of his sweet draughts, as Jonathan had of his honey; whereof he had no sooner tasted but his head was forfeited. Pliny speaketh of a kind of honey that poisoneth; because it is sucked out of poisonous flowers. Our chronicler telleth us that at Alvelana, three miles from Lisbon, many of our English soldiers, under the Earl of Essex, perished by eating of honey, purposely left in the houses, and spiced with poison. The enemies of the Church make a dangerous adventure, they are even ambitious of destruction; they run to meet their bane, as did those Philistines at Mizpeh, 1 Samuel 7:7. And had they but so much wit as Pilate’ s wife, in a dream, they would take heed of having anything to do with those just men, of eating up God’ s people as they eat bread, Psalms 14:4, of boozing in the bowls of the sanctuary with Belshazzar, who fell thereupon into a trembling, so that his loins were loosed, and his knees knocked one against another, Daniel 5:6. When they shall be in the siege] And so about to do their last and worst against the Church. The people of Rome was saepe praelio victus, nunquam bello, saith Florus; they lost many battles, but were never overcome in a set war; at the last, at the long run, as they say, they crushed all their enemies; so doth the Church. See Psalms 129:1-8, throughout; and the story of the Maccabees.

(2) The first part of this verse seems to imply that all who should attack Jerusalem would do so to their injury. The second part should perhaps be translated, And also over Judah shall be (the trembling, or reeling) in the siege against Jerusalem: i.e., Judah should suffer as well as Jerusalem, though, as is promised before and after, they should both come out victorious. This rendering seems, on the whole, the best. The rendering of the E.V. cannot be supported; while that of the margin requires too much to be supplied. Some would refer back to the opening words of the chapter, and render: “and also concerning Judah (is this burden of the word of the Lord).” The explanation of Ewald, “And also upon Judah shall it be [incumbent to be occupied] in the siege against Jerusalem,” is grammatically correct, as he shows from the expression (1 Chronicles 9:33) “upon them [it was incumbent to be occupied] in the work.” And, if we could understand by it that Judah was to be co-operating with (not against) Jerusalem in the siege (see Zechariah 12:5), this translation would have much to recommend it.

Verse 2. Jerusalem a cup of trembling] The Babylonians, who captivated and ruined the Jews, shall in their turn be ruined. I incline to think that what is spoken in this chapter about the Jews and Jerusalem, belongs to the "glory of the latter times." Shall be in the siege] This may refer to some war against the Church of Christ, such as that mentioned Revelation 20:9.

2. cup of trembling] Rather, bowl of reeling. The word is used of the bowl or bason in which the blood of the Paschal lamb was caught, Exodus 12:22, of the bowls used in the Temple service, 1 Kings 7:50, and more generally, 2 Samuel 17:28. Jerusalem stands forth like some vast bowl or bason, round which all nations gather, eager to swallow down its inviting contents. But the draft proves to be far other than they anticipated, and they reel and stagger back from it, confused and discomfited. A similar figure, though of a “cup” (a different Hebrew word), occurs frequently elsewhere, e.g. Psalms 75:8; Isaiah 51:17; Isaiah 51:22; Jeremiah 51:7. people] peoples, R. V., and so in Zechariah 12:3-4; Zechariah 12:6. when they shall be in the siege, &c.] This is a clause of considerable difficulty. The rendering in the text of A. V. cannot be maintained. That in the margin is, as Pusey remarks, “too elliptical.” The same may, with him, be said of the rendering which has found supporters both in ancient and modern times, and also upon Judah shall it be (to be, or to fight) in the siege against Jerusalem; i.e. either “it shall happen to Judah” voluntarily, through civil war, or (since that idea is absolutely contradicted by the full alliance and agreement between Judah and Jerusalem described in Zechariah 12:5-6), “it shall be incumbent upon Judah,” because he shall be compelled against his will by the invading nations to join them, to take part in the siege. Pusey’s own rendering, which is that adopted in R. V., is, “And also upon Judah will it be in the siege against Jerusalem, i.e. the burden of the word of the Lord, which was upon Israel, should be upon Judah.” The objection to this is that the reference to the beginning of Zec 12:1 for a subject to the verb “it shall be” is remote and confusing. On the whole it is perhaps best to render, “And also on (or over) Judah it (i.e. the protection and deliverance implied in the first clause of the verse) shall be, in the siege,” &c. Signal as was the deliverance of Jerusalem in the time of Hezekiah, it did not extend beyond the city itself (2 Kings 18:13; Isaiah 36:1). Now the country at large should share in the deliverance of the capital.

I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling - For encouragement, He promises the victory, and at first mentions the attack incidentally.

In Zechariah 12:2, Jehovah himself is introduced as the speaker. Behold, I will — Better, Behold, I am about to; the act is imminent (G.-K., 116p).