Zechariah 12

Zechariah 12:1

The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith &c.

The heavy message, which God sends to the world, in the favour and behalf of his Church: Thus saith, &c.

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.

Behold, I will make my Church to be unto all the enemies thereof, as an intoxicating cup; which they shall no sooner offer to touch, by a wilful siege or opposition, but they shall be either giddy or senseless.

Zechariah 12:3

And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.

And in that day will I make my Church as some weighty and unwieldy stone; which when the enemies thereof shall lift at and strive to raise it up, it shall fall upon them, and crush them in pieces: yea, though all the people of the earth should join their forces together to remove it, yet they should miscarry under the burden.

Zechariah 12:5

And the governors of Judah shall say in their heart, The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength in the LORD of hosts their God.

And the governors of my people shall say, in their heart, There is all sufficient strength and safeguard to me, and to all the true members of the Church of Christ, in the Lord of Hosts, our God; so as we need not fear what man can do unto us.

Zechariah 12:6

In that day will I make the governors of Judah like a hearth of fire among the wood, and like a torch of fire in a sheaf; and they shall devour all the people round about, on the right hand and on the left: and Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place, even in Jerusalem.

Yea, I will not only give a defensive power to my people, but will make them prevalent and victorious over their enemies; so as I will cause the governors of my Church to be as coals on the hearth, while their enemies are as a faggot laid thereupon; or, to be as a torch of fire in their enemies’ sheaf, which shall soon consume them to ashes; and my Church shall continue itself in despite of all opposition, and the gates of hell shall never be able to prevail against it.

Zechariah 12:7

The LORD also shall save the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem do not magnify themselves against Judah.

The Lord shall save first those that are of the villages of Judah; that is, the weakest of his people, and those of the outskirts of his Church; that the glory of the more noble and courageous champions of Christ may not magnify itself, over the feeble and obscure, but that all may ascribe their salvation to the Lord.

Zechariah 12:8

And he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the LORD before them.

He, that is weak in himself, shall be as strong as David, who overcame the bear and the lion and the Philistine, in the power of his God; and those, that are eminent in this holy profession of Christianity, shall be as the angels of God, invincible, and able to do all things, through him that strengthens them.

Zechariah 12:10

And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have

pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one that mourneth for his only son, &c. And I will pour out upon my Church, beginning at Jerusalem and Zion, a great and apparent measure of my Spirit; and, besides those common gifts, I will endue them with the sanctifying graces of my Spirit, and with the spirit of prayer and supplication: and they shall, by a lively faith, look up to me their Saviour and Redeemer, whom they have pierced upon the Cross; and they shall mourn for that violence which was offered to the Lord of Life, dying for them, even as one mourneth for his only son, &c.

Zechariah 12:11

In that day shall there be great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon.

In that day, wherein the Messiah shall suffer, there shall be great mourning, both in Jerusalem and in all the tribes of Israel: all those many disciples of Christ, whom he shall have won by his wonderful miracles and heavenly doctrine, shall mourn and lament, even like as the Jews mourned for the death of Josiah, in the valley of Megiddon.

Zechariah 12:12

And the land shall mourn, every family apart; the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; &c.

And all that believed in him, throughout all Judea and Samaria and Galilee, shall take up a solemn mourning for the death of him, from whom they expected the redemption of Israel; the family of the house of David apart, as that which shall be more nearly interested in him, by consanguinity and kindred, &c.