Zechariah 10

Chap. X. Ver. 1—12. Israel repreved for seeking to idols and false prophets, and directed to look to the true God only.—The promise of prosperity and plenty in the close of the preceding chapter, leads the Prophet to suggest the means of obtaining them; supplication to Jehovah, and not to idols, whose worship had already proved a fertile source of calamities. The rest of the chapter (like the preceding one) promises (at different times) much increase and prosperity; and this in a manner so extraordinary, that it is described by allusions to the deliverance from Egypt. This may, however, as is generally thought, have a farther reference to their still future return from their dispersion, and final restoration.

In the promise of returning prosperity to the nation, it is particularly predicted, that they should have no need to recur to foreign aid: but, under the divine providence, should be able to furnish from themselves every kind of ruler, from the corner stone and the nail, (the chief magistrates) on whom the weight of government rests, (and which terms are applied to the Messiah himself, Ps. exviii. 22; (Isaiah 22:23).) to the military commander, (the battle-bow,) and even the exactor, or tax-gatherer, here called the oppressor—a word of extensive import, including those whose office was least respected or beloved—but speaking of whom it is promised to Jerusalem, “I will make thine officers peace, and thine exactors (the word here used) righteousness.”

((Isaiah 60:17).) Chapr. XI. Ver. 1—17. Farther prophecies with respect to Judea and Jerusalem.—The three first verses of this chapter have been thought to refer to the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, either by Nebuchadnezzar, or by the Romans; but we confess we are not certain that it refers to either; it may predict the destruction of the forest itself, of whose mighty cedars scarcely any now remain. Or if it refers to Judea, in being blended with the destruction of the woods that grew on the banks of Jordan, it may metaphorically apply to laying waste the country at a future period, as we have seen it found since fulfilled. In the 14th verse, the disappointed Prophet, discouraged by the ill success of his labours,

breaks the staves, or crooks, which must be considered as the badges of his pastoral office, to signify his resignation of it, and the disannulling of God’s covenant with the nation; and he is ordered to take in their stead “the instruments of a foolish shepherd;” that is, weapons of violence and destruction; implying, that those who refused to submit to the divine government, should be subjugated to governments of a much severer character. It is obvious, that the latter chapters of this book are highly symbolical. The Prophet himself appears as a type of the good Shepherd, the Messiah, and in the ungrateful treatment which himself received, strongly prefigures the treatment of his divine Master.

On resigning his prophetic office, he appeals to them for wages, as the means of ascertaining the estimation in which his services had been held; they then insult him by offering the price of a slave, and which he resents by casting it to the potter, as intimating that it was the price only of the lowest of labourers; those that tread the clay, or the mortar, (Nahum iii. 14.) In this, however, he is chiefly to be considered as a type, the Evangelist Matthew comparing this with the far more criminal conduct of the Jews in the rejection of our Saviour. (See (Matthew 27:9-10).)

Notes on the verses

Chap. X. Ver. 1. Bright clouds.—See margin; which generally accompanied these heavy rains. Ver. 2. For the idols.—See margin; oracles.—False dreams.—Heb. “Dreams of falsehood.”——Went their way as a flock—That is, followed one another in the same track.—They were troubled.—See margin. Perhaps the sense is, that they followed one another, under the excuse that there was no oracle at Jerusalem. Ver. 3. Punished the goats.—“Visited (judgments) upon the he-goats;” i.e. arbitrary and wicked rulers.—As his goodly horse.—Literally, ‘His horse of glory,’ or gorgeous horse, richly caparisoned, as the horse of a commander-in-chief in the day of battle. Ver. 4. Out of him (Judah) came forth the corner.—Newcome, “From him (shall be) the corner-stone.”

See exposition. Ver. 8. I will hiss for them.—Compare (Isaiah 5:26). Ver. 9. I will sow them—So that they shall greatly increase, as in the verse their children.” Compare “Shall live with their children.”—Newcome, ‘Shall preserve