Zechariah 2

— After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations &c.] To send a person after any thing implies the requisition of his services for that particular purpose. When therefore God is said to have sent his Angel “after the glory,” He must be understood to have charged Him with the means of bringing it about. Now the mean which the Divine wisdom had devised for securing to his people “the glory” He had promised them, was by executing a severe vengeance on their oppressors, to manifest his concern for their honour and interest, and his resolution not to suffer their wrongs to pass off with impunity. In pursuance of this plan, and of the orders he had received, the Angel says, he was about to “shake” his hand over the Babylonians, by whom the Jews had lately been oppressed, and to deliver them over as “a spoil to their (former) servants.” And as this is given as a reason for summoning the Jews to quit that devoted country with all possible speed, that they might not be involved in the calamities which were coming upon it; so the Angel subjoins, that when this came to pass according to his word, it would be a convincing proof that Jehovah had sent Him. Dr. Blayney.

— he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye.] The highest expressions that language, assisted with all its helps of metaphor and resemblance, can afford, are very languid and faint, in comparison of what they strain to represent, when the goodness of God toward them, who love Him, comes to be expressed. See Ps. xxxvi. 6; xiii. 11. 13. No David strives to utter it, but with similitudes far short of the truth. If any will come near to reach it, it is that in Moses and Zechariah, where they who love God are compared to “the apple of God’s eye;” that is, to the most dear and tender part, as it were, about Him. Dr. Isaac Barrow.

— they shall be a spoil to their servants:] As the Babylonians became to the Medes and Persians, who had been subdued, and reduced to subjection, by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. Abp. Newcome, Dr. Blayney.

Zechariah 2:3

3. Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments.] As the rags of his captivity. Bp. Hall. What is meant by the “filthy garments” is evident from what is said by the Lord in the next verse, “Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee.” It is no other than the stain of moral pollution, which is in some degree found in every man, though done away by the grace of God in Christ. And it is in this respect that it is said, Isa. lxiv. 6, “we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.” This makes us unworthy in ourselves to appear in the presence of a God of purity, and this afforded the adversary his ground of objection against Joshua. Dr. Blayney. 4. And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him.] That is, to the angels that attended on Him, Jehovah, ready to execute his commands. Dr. Blayney. — And unto him he said.] That is, unto Joshua, “Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee,” &c.; in token of my pardoning the publick and national sins of the Jews, and that I will restore them to a more prosperous condition, I have commanded the angels, my attendants, to clothe thee with new and clean raiment, an emblem of purity, Rev. xix. 8, as well as of joyfulness and prosperity. See Eccles. ix. 8; Isa. lxi. 10. W. Lowth. The holy garments of service are here meant, with which the priests were to be clothed, when they came into the inner court of the temple to minister before God; and these they were directed to put off, when they went into the outer court, and conversed in common with the people. Dr. Blayney.

Zechariah 2:5

5. And I said, Let them set &c.] “I said,” that is, I, the LORD, further said and commanded, As the new garments put upon Joshua were such as belonged to the high priest, and were contrived for “glory and beauty,” Exod. xxviii. 2; so the mitre was the proper ornament for his head. Chap. xxix. 6. W. Lowth. The vision imports, that the priestly office was to be resumed, and exercised with decency and splendour. Abp. Newcome.

Zechariah 2:7

7. — then thou shalt also judge my house, &c.] Then shalt thou, and thy sons after thee, rule over my house as chief priest, and have the prime oversight and command of my courts; and at last I will give thee a place

Zechariah 2:9

9. For, behold, I will shake mine hand upon them, &c.] This is the hand of Jehovah Himself, and of the Lord

will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the LORD.

Zechariah 2:11

11. [And many nations shall be joined to the Lord &c.] Without excluding an allusion in these words to the coming in of the Gentiles to the Christian Church, the spiritual Zion; this prediction would be verified in earlier times, not only by the conversion of the Edomites in the time of John Hyrcanus, but by many other proselytes to Judaism from the heathen nations. Such were the religious proselytes spoken of, as no inconsiderable number, in the Acts of the Apostles, chap. ii. 10; xiii. 43: Nicolas of Antioch, the deacon, chap. vi. 5; the treasurer of Candace, queen of Ethiopia, chap. viii. 27; Cornelius the centurion, chap. x. 1; and such also perhaps were those Greeks mentioned John xii. 20. Dr. Blayney.

— [the Lord of hosts hath sent me unto thee.] It being here said, that Jehovah, being sent by Jehovah, should come and dwell in the Church, enlarged by the accession of the Gentiles, who can that be but one Lord Christ, who dwelt among us, and was by God his Father sent unto us? Dr. Isaac Barrow. A passage, which like this declares, that “the Lord of hosts” was sent by One who also Himself is “the Lord of hosts,” ought not for a moment to excite astonishment in a Christian: knowing, as he must, that the second Person in the Trinity, who is so often said to “have been sent by the Father,” is called in the New Testament, not only “God,” but also by a name which is allowed to be equivalent to “the Lord of hosts;” namely, “the Almighty.” See John i. 1; Rom. ix. 5; Rev. i. 8. Dr. Eveleigh.

Intimations of a plurality of Persons in the Godhead seem to have been given to the Jews, as in other places of Scripture, so in those texts, where mention is made of God more than once in the same text and under different capacities: as “the Lord raining fire upon Sodom from the Lord,” Gen. xix. 24; God anointing, and God anointed. Ps. xlv. 6, 7; “The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand,” Ps. cx. 1; “the Lord sending and the Lord sent,” in this passage; with sundry others of the like nature. Those of the last form are the more considerable, because the learned Jews have acknowledged, that though the other names of God may be and are sometimes allowed to creatures, because derived from his works, or such excellencies as are communicable, yet the name of “Jehovah” or “the Lord” is peculiar to God alone, because this denotes his eternal and necessary existence. Dean Stanhope.

Under the type of Joshua, Christ the Branch Before CHRIST 519. habitation of his holiness.

Zechariah 2:13

13. Be silent, O all flesh, &c.] Let all men be “silent” in token of the profoundest reverence and submission, (see Hab. ii. 20,) when God comes down from heaven, (compare Mic. i. 3,) or gives visible signs of his appearance to execute judgment upon his adversaries, or to shew mercy upon his servants. Heaven is called “the habitation of God’s holiness,” Deut. xxvi. 15; Isa. lviii. 15. W. Lowth. Chap. III. Vision the fourth. Zechariah sees Joshua the high priest standing before the Angel of the Lord, as it were soliciting to be admitted to the discharge of his sacred functions, and Satan, or the adversary, standing by in the act of opposing him. The adversary receives a rebuke from Jehovah, by whose special command Joshua is stripped of his filthy garments, and invested with the priestly robes of service, and a clean “mitre” or bonnet set upon his head. The Angel delivers him a solemn charge. After this follows a clear and interesting prediction of the coming of the Messiah, and the establishment of his Church, of which Joshua and his companions are ordained to be signs. Pardon and peace are held forth as the blessed effects of Christ’s coming. Dr. Blayney. Ver. 1. And he shewed me &c.] “The angel that talked with me,” chap. ii. 3, represented to me a new vision; namely, that of “Joshua the high priest standing before the Angel of the Lord,” or the Logos, mentioned chap. i. 11. He is called “the Lord” in the following verse. W. Lowth. 2. And the Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, &c.] The Logos, or Son of God, said unto Satan, “The Lord,” even God the Father, “rebuke thee,” and not suffer thy mischievous imagination against Jerusalem and the temple to prosper: He that hath chosen that place for his especial residence. This text seems parallel with Gen. xix. 24, where it is said, “the Lord rained fire from the Lord out of heaven:” a text alleged by both ancient and modern writers, to prove that a distinction of Persons in the blessed Trinity was a doctrine delivered, though but imperfectly, in the Old Testament. W. Lowth. — is not this a brand plucked out of the fire? Out of the furnace of Babylon. Bp. Hall. Is not this small remnant returned from captivity, miraculously rescued from utter destruction, like “a brand plucked out of the fire?” And can it be thought that God will not filthy garments, and stood before the angel.