Zechariah 12
HAWEISZechariah 12:1-8
In this chapter God promises, 1. That the attempts of the church’s enemies against her shall be to their own ruin, ver. 2, 3, 4, 6. 2. That the endeavours of the church’s friends for her good shall be successful, ver. 5. 3. That God will protect and strengthen the weanest and unskilled that belong to his church, and work salvation for them, ver. 7, 8. 4. That as a preparative for all this mercy and a pledge of it, he will pour upon them a spirit of prayer and repentance, the products of which shall be universal and very particular, ver. 9—14.
- THE burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, faith the LORD, ‘which threeceth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and ‘formeth the spirit of man within him: 2. Behold, I will make ‘Jerusalem ‘a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege
both He, all: 5. W. in ver. 12. Exod. 13. Col. in. 14. Ex. 11, 17. 15, 23. Of Sember, or goihat. book against Judah and against Jerufalem. 3. ¶ And “in that day will I make Jerufalem” 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. 4. In that day, faith the
LORD, “I will finite every horse with allonishment, and his rider with madness, and I will open mine eyes upon the house of Judah, and will finite every horse of the people with blindness. 5. And the governors of Judah shall lay in their heart, “The inhabitants of Jerufalem shall
be my strength in the LORD of hosts their God. 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 flood, and they shall devour all the people round about, on the right hand and on the left: and Jerufalem shall be inhabited again in her own place, now to Jerufalem. 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 Jerufalem, “do not magnify themselves against Judah. 8. In that day I shall the LORD defend the inhabitants of Jerufalem, and he that is § feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as I God, as the angel of the LORD before them. The promises contained in this chapter refer either
to the church of God in general, or the Jewish people in particular, when in the last days God shall bring them into his fold.
The prophecy is called a burden, because it is filled with terror to Israel’s enemies; and it is preferred with an awful description of him who undertakes to accomplish his own word, He strenuous forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth; the Crazies, Governor, and Upholster of all things, who forsooth the spirit of man within him; the God of the spirits of all flesh, who hath the sovereign dominion over them, and informers them according to his own will, encouraging the hearts of his people, and injecting terrors into his enemies. God promises. 1. To make the efforts of all the enemies of his church issue in their confusion. They who perficute God’s people, and lay siege against them, shall have a cup of trembling put into their hands, v. 2. Be their foes never so many, never so mighty, Spiritual or temporal, instead of prevailing against the redeemed, they shall pull down ruin upon their own heads, as a burdensome Stone, which crushes the man who attempts to lift it up,
Zechariah 12:3
God’s eyes of love and favour are upon them, therefore their foes shall be smitten with blindness, allonishment, and madness, and baffled in all their enterprise, v. 4. Whilst the governors of the church, the ministers of Christ, by the gospelword they preach, like a devouring fire and a torch in a flood, shall bear down all before them, and none shall be able to shift the wisdom and spirit by which they speak, v. 6. They who apply this to the Jewish people, refer the prophecy either to the times of the Maccabees, or rather suppose it hath respect to their future greatness, and that when they are returned to feuds in their own land, the Mahometan powers will go up to besiege them, whose armies chiefly consist of cavalry, and shall fall on the mountains of Israel, defeated and destroyed by the Jewish forces. 2. God will establish his church, and build it up great and gracious, v. 6. defending every member thereof with his everlasting arms of love and power, v. 8. On him the governors of Judah shall place their confidence, he being the strength of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the bulwark of the country, and not any human supports, with which, as fortifications, they may be surrounded, v. 5. The means, who dwell in them, he will save; and none of the more distinguished and honourable members must arrogate to themselves any part in the salvation, and magnify themselves over their brethren, as if they owed to them their protection and support, when the whole is from God, and all alike debtors to foregoing grace, v. 7, by which the weakest believer shall be as David, able to cope with their mightiest foes; and the house of David, the spiritual defoundants of Jesus, David’s son, a royal generation, they shall be as God, strong as the arm of omnipotence; as the angel of the Lord before them, all Christ’s power being engaged for them, and they interested in it; he is their strength and their Redentor. Some understand this as literally to have its accomplishment, when Jerusalem shall be built on the very spot where it stood of old, and be again inhabited; even to Jerusalem: on which occasion the saffron antichristian powers shall assemble against it, and God will love them, both in the country and city, in those most distinguished manner; so that his arm shall be visible, and the glory ascribed to him alone. The former feuds I should prefer. 9. ¶ And it shall come to pass in that day, that “I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerufalem. 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 one whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him” as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his forth-born. 11. In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of “Hadadrimmon is “the valley of Megalidon. 12. And “the land shall mourn, “every family apart, the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart: the family of the house of “Nathan apart, and their wives apart: 13. The family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart: the family of “Shimei apart, and their wives apart: 14. All the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart.
Zechariah 12:9-14
To apply these great things to the days of the Maccabees seems to enervate the prophecy; a greater than they is surely here intended. 1. All enemies of Christ’s church and people shall be destroyed, as before was promised. 2. A spirit of grace, and supplications, and mourning shall be poured forth upon all the people of God. [1.] A spirit of grace; the Spirit of God shall be given to them, as a quickening, illuminating, converting, forefitting, comforting Spirit, the author of every divine and gracious temper in them, and witnessing to his own blessed work in the hearts of the redeemed. [2.] A spirit of supplications; for every gracious soul immediately is brought to his knees, and lives in an habitual course of waiting upon God; his soul can no more live without prayer than his body without breath: he is stirred up to the exercise of prayer, and affixed in the act by that Spirit of adoption which enables him to cry Abba, father, and helps his infirmities; and, in answer to his supplication, grace upon grace is bestowed, by which means he increaseth with the increase of God. [3.] A spirit of mourning: They shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and mourn, for Jesus like. 29. There eyes shall be directed in prayer to Christ, through whom alone the sinner hath access to God; and the view of a crucified Jesus will melt their heart and make their eyes overflow. When we consider that he was wounded for our transgressions, that our sins were the nails, the spear that pierced the body of the Saviour, this will produce that godly sorrow which worketh repentance unto salvation never to be repented of, which nothing but faith, beholding the evil of sin as placed before the cross, can ever beget in us: and this mourning will be heart-selt and bitter, like that of a parent for his forth-born son, or like the several mournings of Israel for Benjamin at the rock Rimmons, Judg. xx. 47. and for Josiah in the valley of Megalidon, where that pious king was slain, 2 Kings xxiii. 20. And this will be the case with every individual believer, with every family, with every society of real Christians; the highest in rank, and the buildall by office, v. 12, 13. Shall herein set the example, and all shall concur in lamenting their sin and wickedness, and looking to Jesus for pardon and peace. They who refer this to the people of the Jews particularly, suppose that at their conversion, which will be general and sudden, this shall be fulfilled, when, the val being taken from their hearts, they shall behold that Messiah whom they crucified, and, returning to him with weeping and supplication, shall testify their undesigned moneys and sorrow for their black deed. Perhaps also their lost genealogies may be then restored, and, literrally taken, the several families apart shall each lament over their crucized Lord.