Zechariah 9

9:1 THE burden of the word of the LORD upon the land of Hadrach, and Damascus shall be its resting place: for the eye of man and of all the tribes of Israel is toward the LORD: 2 and Hamath also which bordereth thereon: Tyre and Zidon, because she is very wise. 3 And Tyre did build herself a strong hold, and heaped up silver as the dust, and fine gold as 4 the mire of the streets. Behold, the Lord will dispossess her, and he will smite her power in 5 the sea; and she shall be devoured with fire. Ashkelon shall see it, and fear; Gaza also, and shall be sore pained; and Ekron, for her expectation shall be ashamed: and the king 6 shall perish from Gaza, and Ashkelon shall not be inhabited. And a bastard shall dwell in 7 Ashdod, and I will cut off the pride of the Philistines. And I will take away his blood out of his mouth, and his abominations from between his teeth; and he also shall be a remnant 8 for our God: and he shall be as a chieftain in Judah, and Ekron as a Jebusite. And I will encamp about mine house against the army, that none pass through or return: and no oppressor shall pass through them any more: for now have I seen with mine eyes. 9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy king cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, even 10 upon a colt the foal of an ass. And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow shall be cut off; and he shall speak peace unto the nations: 11 and his dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth. As for thee also, because of the blood of thy covenant I have sent forth thy prisoners out of the 12 pit wherein is no water. Turn you to the strong hold, ye prisoners of hope: even to-day 13 do I declare that I will render double unto thee. For I have bent Judah for me, I have filled the bow with Ephraim; and I will stir up thy sons, O Zion, against thy sons, O Greece, and 14 will make thee as the sword of a mighty man. And the LORD shall be seen over them, and his arrow shall go forth as the lightning: and the Lord God shall blow the trumpet, and 15 shall go with whirlwinds of the south. The LORD of hosts shall defend them; and they shall devour, and shall tread down the sling stones; and they shall drink, and make a noise as 16 through wine: and they shall be filled like bowls, like the corners of the altar. And the LORD their God shall save them in that day as the flock of his people: for they shall be as the 17 stones of a crown, lifted on high over his land. For how great is his goodness, and how great is his beauty! corn shall make the young men flourish, and new wine the maids.

10:1 Ask ye of the LORD rain in the time of the latter rain, even of the LORD that maketh 2 lightnings; and he shall give them showers of rain, to every one grass in the field. For the teraphim have spoken vanity, and the diviners have seen a lie; and they have told false dreams, they comfort in vain: therefore they go their way like sheep, they are afflicted, be- 3 cause there is no shepherd. Mine anger is kindled against the shepherds, and I will punish the he-goats: for the LORD of hosts hath visited his flock the house of Judah, and shall make 4 them as his goodly horse in the battle. From him shall come forth the corner stone, from 5 him the nail, from him the battle bow, from him every exactor together. And they shall be as mighty men, treading down their enemies in the mire of the streets in the battle; and they shall fight, because the LORD is with them: and the riders on horses shall be confounded. 6 And I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph, and I will bring them again, for I have mercy upon them; and they shall be as though I had not cast 7 them off: for I am the LORD their God, and I will hear them. And they of Ephraim shall be like a mighty man, and their heart shall rejoice as through wine: yea, their children shall 8 see it, and rejoice; their heart shall be glad in the LORD. I will hiss for them, and gather 9 them; for I have redeemed them: and they shall increase as they have increased. And I will sow them among the peoples; and they shall remember me in far countries: and they shall live with their children, and shall return. I will bring them again also out of the land of Egypt, and gather them out of Assyria; and I will bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon; and place shall not be found for them. And he shall pass through the sea of affliction, and shall smite the waves in the sea, and all the depths of the Nile shall dry up: and the pride of Assyria shall be brought down, and the sceptre of Egypt shall depart away. And I will strengthen them in the LORD; and they shall walk up and down in his name, saith the LORD.

Chap. 9. The third portion of the book is of far wider significance. It begins (chap. 9) with the denunciation of God’s anger upon Damascus, Tyre, Sidon and Philistia. These probably are named as representing the enemies of the theocracy, and their fall is to be followed by the restoration of the monarchy at Jerusalem. But its King is not to come in royal fashion as Jeremiah foretold, “riding in chariots and on horses, He and His servants and His people” (Jer. 22:4), but lowly, and sitting upon an ass; and He is to speak not war, but peace to the heathen, and as the King of Peace “His dominion is to reach from sea to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth.” The Jews in captivity, now “prisoners of hope,” are to return, and Ephraim and Judah, once again united, together are to form an empire more powerful than that of Greece; while their own land is to be so fruitful that the abundance of corn and wine shall lead to happy marriages, and fill their dwellings with young men and maids. R. P. S.

This chapter begins with announcing the fate of the Syrians, Sidonians and Philistines, contrasted with the better prospects of the Jewish nation. It foretells the coming of the Messiah to Jerusalem and the peace of His kingdom. The restoration of Israel and Judah is afterward predicted, together with a series of glorious victories and great prosperity, which are set forth at large in this and the next chapter. Blayney.

Verses 1-8 sketch the sweep of the conquering hosts of Alexander the Great in Western Asia, and along the eastern coast of the Mediterranean, and refer to the special protection afforded by the Lord to His people in the midst of that scene of danger; then the prophet (verses 9, 10) passes over to the greater protection and salvation wrought out by King Messiah for His people; and then (verses 10-17) on the same analogy predicts the protection of the Jews against the Greco-Syrian power in the age of the Maccabees.

1. It is remarkable that though Hadrach (Persia) is named as the first to feel the sweep of this conquering devastator, Alexander, and though precisely this is the order of the historic facts, yet the prophet passes her with only her enigmatical name. A burden of the word of the Lord is upon her land; that is all he thinks proper to say. Damascus is the place upon which this burden rests down. The predicted ruin should smite and crush her.

2. Hamath, a country lying north of Palestine, bordered on Damascus, and therefore fell within the range of this great conqueror, and came down beneath the force of his arms. So did Tyre, with Sidon, because she had taken great pride in her wisdom, and had so utterly renounced all reliance on the true God. The verb rendered “be very wise” is in the singular, and refers primarily to Tyre. The word rendered “though” should be read “because,” this being its usual and best established meaning. The full thought is brought out by Ezekiel in 28:2, 3, 6, 17.

3,4. Further and special notice is taken of Tyre. After having been once fearfully desolated by Nebuchadnezzar, she had fortified herself on an island with immense strength, and, by means of her extensive commerce, had amassed great wealth. But the Lord would dispossess her of all this wealth. So the original signifies, and not merely “cast her out.” He would also smite her bulwarks, built up and standing in the sea, and she should be at length devoured utterly by fire. After a siege of seven months, Alexander took the city, n.c. 332, and every feature of this prophecy was fulfilled.

5. From Phoenicia the conqueror swept on to Philistia. The prophet’s course of thought is the same. The fall of Tyre sent a panic through those cities of far inferior strength. How could they stand before a power with which Tyre, in all her glory and prowess, could not cope? See the same thoughts in Isa. 23. Tyre held Alexander’s army at bay seven months; the cities of Philistia scarcely retarded the conquering march of his army at all. H. C.

Ashkelon shall not be inhabited. Ashkelon and the other cities of the Philistines having been subjugated by Nebuchadnezzar, as foretold by Jeremiah (chap. 47), never recovered their former independency; but, falling under the dominion of the great empires in succession, were almost continually involved in their wars, and suffered considerably, till by degrees they dwindled away, and at last sunk to nothing. Zephaniah’s prophecy (chap. 2: 4-7) extends to this.

6. And a bastard shall dwell in Ashdod. The word rendered “bastard” does not here imply an illegitimate offspring, but simply one of foreign extraction. So that it is meant that the city should be peopled with strangers, not descended from its present possessors. Ashdod, or Azotus, was burned and destroyed by Jonathan, brother of Judas Maccabeus, and eight thousand of its men burned or slain (1 Mac. 10: 84, 85). These were probably what was meant by “the pride of the Philistines,” the prime or excellency of the ancient inhabitants, in whose room the strangers were introduced.

7. At what time or whence the new colony was brought to dwell in Ashdod we are not informed. But some years after, in the reign of Alexander Jannæus, Azotus is enumerated by Josephus among the cities of the Phœnicians, which the Jews had been some time possessed of: and it is well known that that people exacted of all that were under their dominion a conformity, to a certain degree at least, to their religious rites and usages. This will serve to explain what is here meant by “taking his blood out of his mouth, and his abominations from between his teeth.” The stranger was required to abstain from eating blood, and from such things as were held in abomination by the Jewish law. Blayney.

6,7. The pride of Philistia would be effectually humbled. And furthermore, the Lord would thoroughly cure them of their idolatry. The prophet, in representing this fact, thinks of them as eating things offered to idols, or as feasting in honor of their idols, and then the Lord plucks out the flesh from between their teeth and cleanses out the blood from their mouth. Then the remnant are converted—“shall be for our God”—are honored as a captain of a thousand in Judah; and they of Ekron shall come to be as near to God as the Jebusites—the primitive inhabitants of Jerusalem—after that city became the holy and the chosen one of God. (See Josh. 15: 63; Judges 19: 10, 11; 2 Sam. 24: 16.) This prophecy had its special fulfilment when the Gospel was preached with great success by the apostles in those cities. It has its general fulfilment under the broad doctrine that all the great revolutions which the Lord brings about by war shall culminate at last in the wider range and sweep of His converting grace. Hence so many prophecies terminate like this. (See Isa. 19: 18-25; 23: 15-18; Jer. 12: 15, 16.)

8. The fulfilment of this promise began with the nearer future, and was specially developed in the time of Alexander, when it was indeed striking and almost miraculous. If we may credit Josephus, Alexander sent to the Jews his usual demand for tribute as a token of submission, and was answered that they were in allegiance to the Persian throne. Offended by this reply, he soon after came in person; met Jaddua, the high-priest, in his robes of office, attended by other priests; was solemnly impressed by their appearance; treated them with extraordinary deference, and ever after accounted the Jews his special friends. In explanation of this extraordinary conduct, he referred to a dream in which a personage attired like this high-priest met him while yet at home, and pondering the question of invading Persia, encouraged him to go forward, assuring him of victory and success. Consequently he recognized this high-priest as the minister of the invisible gods, and all the more so when the Jews showed him the prophecies of Daniel respecting himself. Of the general fact of Alexander’s special favor to the Jews, there can be no doubt. This favor fulfilled the prophecy before us (verse 8). God’s hand was in the agencies that secured it. Whether those agencies are given with general accuracy by Josephus has been questioned; but for aught that appears, with more reason for affirming than for denying. In its general significance, this promise is good for the true Church of God in every age of time.

9. This striking case of protection against one of the world’s greatest and most formidable conquerors—protection which specially shielded Jerusalem when all the adjacent cities and kingdoms were overrun and fearfully desolated—suggested the greater and more glorious protection achieved for the people of God through their incarnate Messiah, at once their great High Priest and their supreme King. Over this Deliverer let Zion rejoice exceedingly! This summons to exultant joy indicates that Messianic blessings are before the prophet’s eye. His character as King is specially prominent here because suggested by the protection He gives His people against their enemies.

Riding upon an ass. All the sons of David rode on mules—an animal of the same general character. In the transfer of the kingdom from David to Solomon, great account is made of his riding on David’s mule in the royal procession on coronation day. It is therefore simply impossible that any odium could have been attached to riding on an ass at the time Zechariah wrote, or at the time when Christ fulfilled His prediction. But there is one idea which deserves a far more prominent position than it has had. The ass was not adapted to war; the horse was. For the most part the ass appears in Jewish history either used by men in peaceful life, or by women who should never be in any other. On the contrary, the horse of scripture history is a war horse, with either his dragoon or his chariot. Nor let us fail to notice in our context that while King Messiah is to ride on an ass, the Lord says: “I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem;” and He shall speak peace to the heathen." Jerusalem especially, the holy city where Jehovah dwelt, must have no horses. Their very names and their presence are too much associated with war. Zech. 12:4 shows how the horse is commonly thought of as related to the Hebrew state. In the millennial age, horses for once (for the first time?) shall be really consecrated to God (14:20), a most remarkable fact, and indicating a stupendous change! The ass then is here an emblem of peace—of peaceful pursuits, of a peaceful King, and of His peaceful reign, showing that Messiah’s kingdom should not be of this world, and should not make its conquests with carnal weapons. This significant act, riding on an ass, is a symbol of Christ’s peaceful reign, inaugurating Him for the sort of work which the next verse describes. H. C.

It is not with the pomp of an earthly conqueror, but with lowly array and riding upon an ass, that the Messiah makes His entry into Jerusalem. His kingdom has no need of war-like weapons, which are, on the contrary, to be swept away. Beginning at Jerusalem, He founds a peaceful kingdom, which is to reach from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth. O.

Over palms and rushes He makes His way to the cross, and through the cross to the throne; how is He here made manifest as the Founder of a spiritual kingdom of God! Nay, His kingdom is not of this world. Not on the proud war horse, but on the humble beast of burden the son of David treads within Jerusalem; no swords are here drawn, but palms are waved in His honor; not over corpses, but over garments lies His course; while not war cries, but loud hosannas peal. Not with force and violence comes He to reign, but through the mild power of His love; and who can doubt if He shall at the last be victor? Yea, verily, the future Conqueror of the world passes here before us in solitary unique splendor; and His entrance into Jerusalem becomes an image and prophecy of His course through the world’s history. Lowly, gentle, compassionate, but victorious; just where He seems lost, so He goes forward, from age to age, from land to land, city to city; His followers poor, and low in rank: while even His foes are forced continually to cry out, “Perceive ye how ye prevail nothing? behold, the world is gone after Him” (John 12:19)! Van O.

The one underlying idea of Revelation is the outlook on a universal kingdom of God. This primeval promise and principle alike forms the beginning and is the goal; it is the heading and the summary of Revelation. And it was this foundation-truth which unfolded throughout the course of Israel’s development—in their history, rites and institutions, as well as in the more direct communications through the prophets. As Israel was ideally, so all nations were through their ministry to become really the possession of God: a kingdom of priests, a holy people; for all the earth, as well as Israel, was God’s. And the realization of this would be the kingdom of God on earth.

All the institutions of Israel were in strict accordance with this ideal destiny. Alike the laws, the worship, the institutions, and the mission of Israel were intended to express these two things: acknowledgment of God and dependence upon God. Thus viewed, the whole might be summed up in this one term, which runs through the whole Old Testament: “The servant of Jehovah.” The patriarchs were the servants of the Lord; Israel was the servant of the Lord; and their threefold representative institutions expressed the same idea. The Priest was to be wholly the Servant of the Lord. Hence the smallest transgression of the ordinances of his calling involved his destruction or removal. The King was not to bear rule in the manner of heathen princes, but to be the Servant of the Lord, in strictest subordination to Jehovah. Hence Saul, despite his nobler qualities, was really the antichrist; and David, despite his grievous faults, the typical Christ of Israel’s royalty, because of his constant acknowledgment of God’s kinship. And the prophet was simply the servant of the Lord, telling naught but God’s Word, in such strict adherence to the letter of his commission, that its slightest breach brought immediate punishment. And the Messiah, as summing up in Himself ideal Israel—its history, institutions, mission and promises—was to be the Servant of the Lord. Hence the prophecies which most clearly portray Him—those of Isaiah—might be headed by this title: The Book of the Servant of Jehovah; the idea rising, through people, prophet, king, even through a foreign instrumental doer of His behest, up to Him as the Servant of the Lord, the ideal Sufferer by and for the unrighteousness of man, the ideal Sacrifice and Priest for his sins, the ideal Teacher in his ignorance, Comforter in his sorrow, Restorer in his decay, and Dispenser of all blessing to the world at large—the Spirit-anointed One out of whose fulness all were to receive, and who would fulfil all that Israel had meant and prepared. Or, going backward, He was to be the Son of Man, the second Adam, whose victory would restore what sin had lost; the true Son of God, God manifest in the flesh. This, we believe, the Old Testament meant, and Jesus of Nazareth came to fulfil. A. Eilersheim.

10. This verse is closely connected with verse 9—a part of the same grand prophecy of the Messiah and of His reign on earth—set here in a fine antithesis with the conquering, worldwide kingdom of Alexander. The chariot and the horse must be discarded and abolished as war institutions, and therefore wholly out of place under this peaceful reign. They can bear no part in the great conquests which Zion’s King is to make. He has no fighting to do with carnal weapons. On the contrary, He “speaks” peace to the nations. The Gospel of His word carries with it peace and love to men. H. C.

This prophecy, together with those of Hosea 2:18; Micah 5:5, 10; Hag. 2:22, as they foretell the outward peacefulness of Christ’s Church or kingdom, relate to the flourishing state of it in the latter times of the world. The words which denote the extent of that kingdom, “His dominion shall be from sea,” etc., are taken from Ps. 72:8, where David describes the extent of Solomon’s kingdom, from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean, and from the river Euphrates to the border of Egypt. (Cf. Ex. 23:31; 1 K. 4:21; De. 11:24.) This, as appears from several expressions in that psalm, was a figurative description of Christ’s kingdom, which should be enlarged toward the four quarters of the world. W. Lowth.

11. By the blood of thy covenant I have sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit. As for thee, O Zion, whose covenant with me is made and confirmed by the precious blood of the Messiah, in that new and everlasting testament, I do herein give thee a type of thy future deliverance from all thy spiritual miseries. Bp. Hall.—Anciently in great houses, and particularly in the East, deep, dry pits, called dungeons, were appropriated for the confinement of prisoners. Into one of these Jeremiah was cast (Jer. 38:6). Blayney.

11-13. The ninth and tenth verses may be regarded as a digression from the regular course of thought, and embraced in a parenthesis. In verse 11 the prophet returns to speak of events that follow shortly after those predicted (verses 1-8). The conflict (verse 13) between the sons of Zion and the sons of Greece finds its fulfilment in the furious wars waged during twenty-four years between the Jews and the Syrian Greeks, commencing in the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes. His people are here called Greeks because his kingdom was one of the four into which the great Grecian empire of Alexander was divided, and also because their language and customs were Grecian. H. C.

12. In the ninth verse of this chapter proclamation is made that the Messiah is at hand; and the Church is called upon to go forth to meet Him with joy. “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem; behold, thy King cometh unto thee.” And that the awe of His majesty might be no bar to their joy, they are told, for their encouragement, that He comes in such a form of condescension and grace as serves rather to invite than forbid their approach to Him: for “He is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of an ass.” They are further assured, in the tenth verse, that as the ensigns of His royalty differ so widely from those which earthly monarchs use, so He shall govern His subjects, and subdue His enemies, not by external force, but by inward persuasion; not by “the chariot, the horse and the battle-bow,” for all these shall be “cut off;” but by the preaching of the Gospel, accompanied with the powerful operation of the Spirit, which is emphatically called “speaking peace unto the heathen;” in consequence whereof, “His dominions shall extend from sea to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth.” And to finish the description of this King of Zion, it is added, in the eleventh verse, that the gracious aim of His government is to set men at liberty from the vilest slavery, and to release them from the most ignominious confinement, by opening their prison doors, and “sending them forth out of the pit wherein is no water.” This too He is to perform in a way peculiarly endearing: He is to purchase their freedom with the price of His own blood; which, with great propriety, is styled “the blood of the covenant,” as it ratifies and confirms that covenant of grace, whereby sinners are reinstated in the favor of God, and rescued from the power of all their spiritual enemies.

The like representation is given of the Messiah (Isa 42:6, 7) “I the Lord have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles; to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison-house.” And the Messiah Himself is introduced (Isa. 61, at the beginning), speaking to the same purpose, saying, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek, He hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound.” In all these passages He is plainly pointed out to us in the character of a Redeemer; and, as such, He issues forth the proclamation: Turn ye to the stronghold, ye prisoners of hope; even to-day do I declare that I will render double unto thee.

By the stronghold to which we are exhorted to turn, is undoubtedly meant “the blood of the covenant,” spoken of in the preceding verse; or rather the new covenant itself, ratified and sealed by the blood of Christ. This indeed is a stronghold, an impregnable defence to all who flee to it for refuge: It is “an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure.” Here an effectual supply is to be found for all the sinner’s wants and necessities; an infinite sacrifice to expiate his guilt; all conquering grace to subdue his corruptions; unerring wisdom to guide him; irresistible power to protect him; unbounded goodness to relieve his present needs, and to crown him with glory and happiness hereafter. In short, “the whole fulness of the Godhead” is treasured up in the Mediator of this covenant; and “he is made of God,” unto all who believe on Him, “wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification and redemption.” R. W.

15. The reader will be careful to notice the contrast between these verses and the Messianic passage (verses 9, 10) on the point of war with deadly weapons. Under Messiah’s peaceful reign there shall be no chariots or horses of war; the battle bow shall be cut off and unknown; but here, in the age before Messiah came, Judah is the Lord’s bow, Ephraim his arrow; the Lord fights at their head, and they too fight with determined and almost furious bravery. Manifestly it is his purpose in this chapter to put the future kingdom of the Messiah in the strongest possible contrast with those militant features of the earlier age, and to assure us that in the good time coming men shall truly “learn war no more.” The Gospel, having once developed its whole genius and power, shall prove itself thoroughly and only “peace on earth and good will to men.” H. C.

16. The love He has for them and the relation wherein they stand to Him; they are the flock of His people and He is their Shepherd; they are to Him as the stones of a crown which are very precious and of great value, and which are kept under a strong guard: never was any king so pleased with the jewels of his crown as God is and will be with His people, who are near and dear unto Him and in whom He glories. They are a crown of glory and a royal diadem in His hand (Isa. 62:2, 3). And they shall be Mine, saith the Lord, in that day when I make up My jewels (Mal. 3:17). And they shall be lifted up as an ensign upon His land, as the royal standard is displayed in token of triumph and joy. God’s people are His glory; so He is pleased to make them, so He is pleased to reckon them.

17. The provision He makes for them is the matter of their triumph. For how great is His goodness, and how great is His beauty! All the perfections of God’s nature conspire to make Him infinitely lovely in the eyes of all that know Him. They are to Him as the stones of a crown; but what is He to them? Our business in the temple is to behold the beauty of the Lord (Ps. 27:4); and how great is that beauty! How far does it transcend all other beauties, particularly the beauty of His holiness. This may refer to the Messiah, to Zion’s King that cometh. See that King in His beauty (Isa. 33:17), who is fairer than the children of men, the fairest of ten thousand, and altogether lovely. Though in the eye of the world He had no form or comeliness, in the eye of faith how great is His beauty! So they admire and give thanks for the gifts of God’s favor and grace; His bounty as well as His beauty; for how great is His goodness! How rich in mercy is He! How deep, how full are its springs! How various, how plenteous, how precious are its streams! H.

After so glorious a vision of mercy and glory, benefits and blessings, in the economy of man’s redemption, well may the prophet cry out in a pious rapture and holy astonishment, “How

great is His goodness, and how great is His beauty!” Goodness unspeakable to fallen, sinful man! Goodness conducted by almighty power, and beautified in the whole display thereof by infinite wisdom, holiness and truth! Holiness and truth with respect to His own glory! Wogan.