Ask of Yahweh rain in the spring time, Yahweh who makes storm clouds, and he gives rain showers to everyone for the plants in the field.
Parallel Translations
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Ask of Yahweh rain in the spring time, Yahweh who makes storm clouds, and he gives rain showers to everyone for the plants in the field.
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Ask ye of the LORD rain in the time of the latter rain; so the LORD shall make bright clouds, and give them showers of rain, to every one grass in the field.
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Ask ye of the LORD rain in the time of the latter rain, even of the LORD that maketh lightnings; and He will give them showers of rain, to every one grass in the field.
Cross-references (29)
Passages linked to Zechariah 10:1 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- James 5:16-18 Confess your offenses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The insistent prayer of a righteous person is powerfully effective. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and it didn’t rain on the earth for three years and six months. He prayed again, and the sky gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.
- Isaiah 44:3 For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, and streams on the dry ground. I will pour my Spirit on your descendants, and my blessing on your offspring:
- Matthew 7:7-8 “Ask, and it will be given you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives. He who seeks finds. To him who knocks it will be opened.
- Deuteronomy 28:23 Your sky that is over your head will be bronze, and the earth that is under you will be iron.
- Psalms 65:9 You visit the earth, and water it. You greatly enrich it. The river of God is full of water. You provide them grain, for so you have ordained it.
- John 16:23 “In that day you will ask me no questions. Most certainly I tell you, whatever you may ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.
- James 5:7 Be patient therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient over it, until it receives the early and late rain.
- Isaiah 30:23 He will give the rain for your seed, with which you will sow the ground; and bread of the increase of the ground will be rich and plentiful. In that day, your livestock will feed in large pastures.
- Ezekiel 36:37 “ ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “For this, moreover, I will be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them: I will increase them with men like a flock.
- Hosea 10:12 Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap according to kindness. Break up your fallow ground; for it is time to seek Yahweh, until he comes and rains righteousness on you.
- Amos 4:7 “I also have withheld the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest; and I caused it to rain on one city, and caused it not to rain on another city. One place was rained on, and the piece where it didn’t rain withered.
- Micah 5:7 The remnant of Jacob will be among many peoples, like dew from Yahweh, like showers on the grass, that don’t wait for man, nor wait for the sons of men.
- Deuteronomy 11:13-14 It shall happen, if you shall listen diligently to my commandments which I command you today, to love Yahweh your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, that I will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil.
- Job 37:1-6 “Yes, at this my heart trembles, and is moved out of its place. Hear, oh, hear the noise of his voice, the sound that goes out of his mouth. He sends it out under the whole sky, and his lightning to the ends of the earth. After it a voice roars. He thunders with the voice of his majesty. He doesn’t hold back anything when his voice is heard. God thunders marvelously with his voice. He does great things, which we can’t comprehend. For he says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth,’ likewise to the shower of rain, and to the showers of his mighty rain.
- Psalms 104:13 He waters the mountains from his rooms. The earth is filled with the fruit of your works.
- Proverbs 16:15 In the light of the king’s face is life. His favor is like a cloud of the spring rain.
- Isaiah 5:6 I will lay it a wasteland. It won’t be pruned or hoed, but it will grow briers and thorns. I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain on it.”
- Jeremiah 14:22 Are there any among the vanities of the nations that can cause rain? Or can the sky give showers? Aren’t you he, Yahweh our God? Therefore we will wait for you; for you have made all these things.
- 1 Kings 17:1 Elijah the Tishbite, who was one of the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As Yahweh, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.”
- Jeremiah 51:16 When he utters his voice, there is a roar of waters in the heavens, and he causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth. He makes lightning for the rain, and brings the wind out of his treasuries.
- Ezekiel 34:26 I will make them and the places around my hill a blessing. I will cause the shower to come down in its season. There will be showers of blessing.
- 1 Kings 18:41-45 Elijah said to Ahab, “Get up, eat and drink; for there is the sound of abundance of rain.” So Ahab went up to eat and to drink. Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; and he bowed himself down on the earth, and put his face between his knees. He said to his servant, “Go up now, and look toward the sea.” He went up, and looked, and said, “There is nothing.” He said, “Go again” seven times. On the seventh time, he said, “Behold, a small cloud, like a man’s hand, is rising out of the sea.” He said, “Go up, tell Ahab, ‘Get ready and go down, so that the rain doesn’t stop you.’ ” In a little while, the sky grew black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain. Ahab rode, and went to Jezreel.
- Job 29:23 They waited for me as for the rain. Their mouths drank as with the spring rain.
- Job 36:27-31 For he draws up the drops of water, which distill in rain from his vapor, which the skies pour down and which drop on man abundantly. Yes, can any understand the spreading of the clouds, and the thunderings of his pavilion? Behold, he spreads his light around him. He covers the bottom of the sea. For by these he judges the people. He gives food in abundance.
- Psalms 72:6 He will come down like rain on the mown grass, as showers that water the earth.
- Jeremiah 10:13 When he utters his voice, the waters in the heavens roar, and he causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth. He makes lightnings for the rain, and brings the wind out of his treasuries.
- Hosea 6:3 Let’s acknowledge Yahweh. Let’s press on to know Yahweh. As surely as the sun rises, Yahweh will appear. He will come to us like the rain, like the spring rain that waters the earth.”
- Joel 2:23-24 “Be glad then, you children of Zion, and rejoice in Yahweh, your God; for he gives you the early rain in just measure, and he causes the rain to come down for you, the early rain and the latter rain, as before. The threshing floors will be full of wheat, and the vats will overflow with new wine and oil.
- 1 Corinthians 3:6 I planted. Apollos watered. But God gave the increase.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain Zechariah, after having shown that God would be bountiful…
Zechariah, after having shown that God would be bountiful towards the Jews, so that nothing necessary to render life happy and blessed should be wanting, now reproves them for their unbelief, because they did not expect from the Lord what he was ready fully to bestow on them. As then it depended on them only, that they did not enjoy abundance of all blessings, he charges them with ingratitude: for though he exhorts them to prayer, there is yet an implied reproof. One by merely reading over the words may think that a new subject is here introduced, that the Jews are directed to ask of the Lord what he had previously promised them; but he who will more minutely consider the whole context, will easily find that what I have stated is true — that the Jews are here condemned, and on this account, because they closed the door against God’s favor; for they were straitened in themselves, as all the unbelieving are, who cannot embrace the promises of God; nor is it at all doubtful but that many made great complaints, when they found themselves disappointed of their wishes. They had indeed hoped for a most abundant supply of corn and wine, and had also promised to themselves all kinds of blessings, yet the Lord, as we have seen in the book of Haggai, had begun to withdraw his hand, so that they labored under want of provisions; and when mine and thirst oppressed them, they thought that they had been in a manlier deceived by God. On this ground the Prophet expostulates with them; they thrust from themselves, by their want of faith, the favor which had been prepared for them. We now then understand the Prophet’s meaning.
He bids them to ask rain of Jehovah. They ought indeed to have done this of themselves without being reminded; for though Christ has delivered to his Church a form of prayer, it ought yet to be as it were the dictate of nature to seek of God our daily bread; and it is not without reason that he claims to himself the name of a Father. The Prophet then does here reprove the Jews for their brutal stupidity — that they did not ask rain of the Lord. He adds, at the late season, that is, at spring time; for rains at two seasons were necessary for the corn, after sowing and before harvest, and whenever Scripture speaks of fruitfulness or of a large produce, it mentions rain at these two seasons. Zechariah in this place only refers to the vernal before harvest; for in that hot country the earth wanted new moisture, Ask, he says, rain at the beginning of summer.
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Jehovah, he adds, will give it; he will make clouds, or storms, or boisterous winds, as some read; but it is evident from other passages that חזיזים, chezizim, means clouds, which are as it were preparations for rain. He then says, that a shower would come with the rain; for some take גשם, gesham, for a shower, that is, heavy rain; but the Prophet introduces here the two words, as though he had said, that the rains would be continued until the ground was saturated and the dryness removed. Some translate, “the rain of a shower,” but this would be too strained. I prefer then this rendering, He will give rain, a shower, that is, abundant rain; to every one grass in the field, that is, so that there may be moisture enough for the ground. In short, he promises a plentiful irrigation, that drought might not deprive them of the hope of food and support. What I have stated will appear more clear from the following verse, for he adds —
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain The Prophet reproveth the Jews, because by their own…
The Prophet reproveth the Jews, because by their own infidelity they put back God’s graces promised, and so famine came by God’s just judgment: therefore to avoid this plague, he willeth them to turn to God, and to pray in faith to him, and so he will give them abundance.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Zec 10:1 Ask ye of the LORD rain in…
Zec 10:1 Ask ye of the LORD rain in the time of the latter rain; [so] the LORD shall make bright clouds, and give them showers of rain, to every one grass in the field.
Ver. 1. Ask you of the Lord rain] Ask it and have it; open your mouths wide, and he will fill them. "Seek ye the Lord, till he come and rain righteousness upon you," Hos 10:12. Surely as the sun draws up vapours from the earth and sea, not to retain them, but to return them; and as thin vapours come down again in thick showers of rain; so God calls for our prayers, for out profit; and does for us "exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think," Eph 3:20. Ask we must, Eze 36:37. Prayer is an indispensable duty. Our Saviour taught his disciples to pray. He himself was to ask of his Father, and then he should have the heathen for his inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession, Psa 2:8. He could have had presently twelve legions of angels to rescue him; but then he was to send to heaven for them by prayer, Mat 26:53 "I came for thy words," that is, for thy prayers’ sake, saith the angel to Daniel. As well as God loved him, he looked to hear from him, Dan 10:11-12 for he will grace his own ordinances, and make his people know both their distance and dependence.
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Rain in the time of the latter rain] Rain is the flux of a moist cloud; which, being dissolved by little and little by the heat of the sun, lets down rain by drops out of the middle region of the air. This, if it come right in due time and measure, it maketh much for the fattening of the earth, Psa 65:11, allaying the heat, nourishing the herb and tree, Isa 44:14, refreshing all creatures, grass, fruits, Lev 26:4 Jas 5:18 Isa 30:23. So, if otherwise, it proves a great punishment, Joe 1:10-11; Joe 1:17; Joe 1:19. Great expectation there was in Judaea and those Eastern parts of the former and the latter rain. That fell in the seedtime about autumn; this in the spring time, causing the grain to ear, and kernel before harvest. Both were to be sought of God alone. For are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain? or can the heaven give showers? No, no; these come by a devine decree, Job 28:26. God prepares rain, Psa 147:8, he dispenseth it in number weight, and measure, Job 28:25, not a drop falls in vain, or in a wrong place: he also withholds it when and where he thinks good, Amo 4:7. The Egyptians used, in a profane mockery, to tell other nations that if God should forget to rain they might all chance to starve for it. The rain they thought was of God, but not their river; which therefore God threateneth to dry up, Eze 29:3; Eze 29:9 Isa 19:5-6, as also he did, as both Seneca and Ovid testify, in the reign of Cleopatra. The creatures at best are but broken cisterns, Jer 2:13. Not fountains, but cisterns only; and those broken too; there is no trusting to them; they were never true to those that trusted them.
So the Lord shall make bright clouds] Nubes cursitantes, thin clouds, that fly swiftly in the air, most commonly before and after very rainy weather. R. Solomon interprets the word here used not lightnings, which yet are signs and forerunners of rain, Psa 135:7 Jer 10:13, but clouds bringing rain. Clouds are nothing else but vapours thickened in the middle region of the air, by the cold environing and driving them together; that they may be as so many heavenly bottles holding water, to be seasonably distilled. How they are upheld, and why they fall here, and now, and by drops, not by spouts (since they are vessels as thin as the liquor contained in them) we know not, and wonder.
And give them showers of rain] Heb. Rain, rain, that is, plentiful rain upon his inheritance: the clouds shall return after the rain, Ecc 12:2, and as one shower is unburdened another shall be brewed. God scorns to say to the seed of Jacob, "Seek ye me in vain," Isa 45:19, or that any of his suitors should go sad away for want of an answer. David asked him for life; and God gave him more, even length of days for ever and ever, Psa 21:4. Many came to Christ for cure of their bodies, he cured them on both sides; and was better to them than their prayers. Gehazi asked Naaman for a talent of silver. Nay, take two, said he; and he pressed it upon him. So saith God to his, Ask and spare not, that your joy may be full. Ye are not straitened in me, but ye are straitened in your own bowels. Ye have not because ye ask not; and he is worthy to want it that may have it for asking only.
To every one grass] Grass for the cattle, and corn for the food of man, as the Chaldee expounds it.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Ask: it was a time of great scarcity with…
Ask: it was a time of great scarcity with the Jews while the temple and city lay waste, and the prophets from God assure them it is for neglecting to rebuild the temple, to which work the Lord does earnestly call by Haggai and Zechariah, with promises of great blessings, which forthwith God would give to them, if they set to this work, and seek the Lord by prayer, to which duty he doth direct them in this chapter: to the building of city and temple they must add prayer, for the blessing is prepared, and shall be given when asked.
Ye Jews, returned from Babylon, settled in your city, and returned to the worship of God, and to whom many excellent promises are made; you must pray.
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Rain in the time of the latter rain; which usually came about spring to fill the eared corn, and to bring forth the grass, to make the trees and plants with their fruit to be full and large: this latter rain made plenty of all provision, and is proverbially used to signify a great blessing, Hos 6:3.
The Lord shall make; by making the vapours ascend from the earth, he will cover the heavens with clouds: see how Job, Job 38:28, doth elegantly describe this work of God. Bright clouds; clouds which bring rain, and pour it out abundantly, when they are opened with thunders and lightnings, which do as it were broach the clouds; they unstop these bottles: and they are bright clouds through the lightnings which break from them, Job 28:26; 38:25,26.
And give them, the Jews, his people, showers of rain; plentiful showers of rain, that shall fatten the earth, and make it fruitful.
To every one grass in the field; none shall miss it, nor the effect of it on corn or grass; corn for man, and grass for the beast.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain Gracious things and glorious ones, very glorious and very…
Gracious things and glorious ones, very glorious and very gracious, were promised to this poor afflicted people in the foregoing chapter; now here God intimates to them that he will for these things be enquired of by them, and that he expects they should acknowledge him in all their ways and in all his ways towards them - and not idols that were rivals with him for their respects.
I. The prophet directs them to apply to God by prayer for rain in the season thereof. He had promised, in the close of the foregoing chapter, that there should be great plenty of corn and wine, whereas for several years, by reason of unseasonable weather, there had been great scarcity of both; but the earth will not yield its fruits unless the heavens water it, and therefore they must look up to God for the dew of heaven, in order to the fatness and fruitfulness of the earth (Zac 10:1): "Ask you of the Lord rain. Do not pray to the clouds, nor to the stars, for rain, but to the Lord; for he it is that hears the heavens, when they hear the earth," Hos 2:21. Seasonable rain is a great mercy, which we must ask of God, rain in the time of the latter rain, when there is most need of it. The former rain fell at the seed-time, in autumn, the latter fell in the spring, between March and May, which brought the corn to an ear and filled it. If either of these rains failed, it was very bad with that land; for from the end of May to September they never had any rain at all. Jerome, who lived in Judea, says that he never saw any rain there in June or July. They are directed to ask for it in the time when it used to come. Note, We must, in our prayers, dutifully attend the course of Providence; we must ask for mercies in their proper time, and not expect that God should go out of his usual way and method for us. But, since sometimes God denied rain in the usual time as a token of his displeasure, they must pray for it then as a token of his favour, and they shall not pray in vain. Ask and it shall be given you. So the Lord shall make bright clouds (which, though they are without rain themselves, are yet presages of rain) - lightnings (so the margin reads it), for he maketh lightnings for the rain. He will give them showers of rain in great abundance, and so give to every one grass in the field; for God is universally good, and makes his rain to fall upon the just and the unjust.
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II. He shows them the folly of making their addresses to idols as their fathers had done (Zac 10:2): The idols have spoken vanity; the teraphim, which they courted and consulted in their distress, were so far from being able to command rain for them that they could not so much as tell them when they should have rain. They pretended to promise them rain at such a time, but it did not come. The diviners, who were the prophets of those idols, have seen a lie (their visions were all a cheat and a sham); and they have told false dreams, such as the event did not answer, which proved that they were not from God. Thus they comforted in vain those that consulted the lying oracles; all the vanities of the heathen put together could not give rain, Jer 14:22. Yet this was not the worst of it; they not only got nothing by the false gods, but they lost the favour of the true God, for therefore they went their way into captivity as a flock driven into the fold, and they were troubled with one vexation after another, as scattered sheep are, because there was no shepherd, no prince to rule them, no priest to intercede for them, none to take care of them and keep them together. Those that wandered after strange gods were made to wander, into strange nations.
III. He shows them the hand of God in all the events that concerned them, both those that made against them and those that made for them, Zac 10:3. Let them consider, 1. When every thing went cross it was God that walked contrary to them (Zac 10:3): "My anger was kindled against the shepherds that should have fed the flock, but neglected it, and starved it. I was displeased at the wicked magistrates and ministers, the idol-shepherds." The captivity in Babylon was a token of God's anger against them; in it likewise he punished the goats, those of the flock that were filthy and mischievous; they were set on the left hand, to go away into punishment. Though the body of the nation suffered in the captivity, yet it was only the goats and the shepherds that God was angry with, and that he punished; the same affliction to others came from the love of God, and was but a fatherly chastisement, which to them came from his wrath, and was a judicial punishment. 2. When things began to change for the better it was God that gave them the happy turn. "He has now visited his flock with favour, to enquire after them, and provides what he finds proper for them, and he has made them as his goodly horse in the battle, has beautified them, taken care of them, managed and made use of them, as a man does the horse he rides on, has made them valuable in themselves and formidable to those about them, as his goodly horse." It is God that makes us what we are, and it is with us as he appoints.
IV. He shows them that every creature is to them what God makes it to be (Zac 10:4): Out of him came forth the corner, out of him the nails. 1. All the power that was engaged against them was from God. Out of him came all the combined force of their enemies; every oppressor together (and the oppressors of Israel were not a few) did but what his hand and his counsel determined before to be done; nor could they have had such power against them unless it had been given them from above. 2. All the power likewise that was engaged for them was derived from him and depended on him. Out of him came forth the corner-stone of the building, the power of magistrates, which keeps the several parts of the state together. Princes are often called the corners of the people, as Sa1 14:38, marg. Out of him came forth the nail that fixed the state, the nail in the sure place (Isa 22:23), the nail in his holy place, Ezr 9:8. Out of him came forth the battle-bow, the military power, and out of him every oppressor, or exactor, that had the civil power in his hand; and therefore to God, the fountain of power, we must always have an eye, and see every man's judgment proceeding from him.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Ask ye of the Lord rain in the time…
Ask ye of the Lord rain in the time of the latter rain,.... There was the former and the latter rain, of which see Hos 6:3. The former rain was in autumn, a little before or about seed time; the latter was in the spring, and a little before harvest, which is here referred to. So Hesiod (g) calls those rains the autumnal and vernal rains; and between these two rains there was seldom any more. Jerom says (h) that he never saw in the eastern countries, especially in Judea, any rain at the end of the month of June, or in July; and now, at Aleppo, a little more northerly, for three or four months after May, they have scarce so much as any dew upon the ground, as Pemble on the place observes. So Dr. Shaw says (i), little or no rain falls in this climate (of Algiers and Tunis), during the summer season; and in most parts of the Sahara, particularly in the Jereede, they have seldom any rain at all. It was likewise the same in the holy land, Pro 26:1 where rain is accounted an unusual thing in "harvest", Sa2 21:10 where it is also mentioned, "from harvest till rain dropped on them"; i.e. their rainy season fell out, as in Barbary, in the autumnal and winter months.
"The first rains (he observes) fall here some years in September, in others a month later; after which the Arabs break up their ground, in order to sow wheat, and plant beans: this commonly falls out about the middle of October.''
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If the latter rains fall as usual in the middle of April, (in the holy land we find they were a month sooner, Joe 2:23.) the crop is reckoned secure; the harvest coming on in the latter end of May, or in the beginning of June, according to the heat and quality of the preceding seasons: wherefore, since there was so little rain fell in these countries, and particularly in Judea; if these former and latter rains failed, a scarcity followed; for, for want of the former rain, the earth was hard, and not easily ploughed up; and for want of the latter the grain withered away in the blade, and did not ear, at least did not produce ears plump and good; so that these rains were great temporal blessings, and to be asked for, as they were by the Jews, when they were wanted; and for which they appointed fasts (k), and were emblems of spiritual blessings here designed; for rain here is not to be literally understood, but mystically and spiritually; and designs either the love and favour of God, and the comfortable discoveries of it; see Pro 16:15 which may be compared to rain in its original; it is from above, from on high, it comes from heaven; it is not owing to anything in man, but to the will of God; and is distinguishing, as rain falls on one city, and not on another; in its objects, undeserving persons, as rain is sent on the just and unjust; in its manner of communication, it tarries not for the will and works of men; it comes at times in great abundance, and the discoveries of it are to be asked for; in its effects, it softens and melts the heart into evangelical repentance; it cools and extinguishes the flaming wrath of a fiery law in the conscience; it refreshes and revives the drooping spirit, and makes the barren soul fruitful: or the blessings of grace in general may be meant; these are from above, depend on the will of God; are to be sought after, and asked for; are free grace gifts; are given largely and plentifully, and make fruitful: or the coming of Christ in the flesh in particular is intended; see Hos 6:3 who came down from heaven; is a free gift of God to men, was sought after, and greatly desired, and to be desired, by the Old Testament saints, and very grateful to such when he came. This may also be applied to his spiritual coming in his power and kingdom in the latter day, which is to be earnestly wished and prayed for, Psa 72:7 or else the Gospel may be designed; see Deu 32:2 this is of God, and from above; comes and falls upon the sons of men, according to divine direction; softens hard hearts, when it becomes effectual; comforts the souls of God's people; is a blessing to be desired, and asked for; and will be enjoyed in great plenty in the latter day:
so the Lord shall make bright clouds; by which may be meant the ministers of the Gospel, who are of God's making, and not man's: these may be compared to "clouds" for their number, especially as they will be in the latter day; and for their moving to and fro, to communicate spiritual knowledge: and to "bright" ones, such as from whence lightning springs, thunderclouds, full of water; (the same word is used for lightning, Job 38:25;) because full of Gospel truths, and because of that clear light they diffuse to others:
and give them showers of rain: productive, under a divine influence, of large conversions among Jews and Gentiles:
to everyone grass in the field: on whom these showers fall with efficacy, and a divine blessing; everyone of these have a spiritual knowledge of Christ, faith in him, repentance towards God, food and fulness of it; and are filled with the fruits of righteousness, or good works, to the glory of God; see Isa 55:10. The Targum is,
"that he may give to them (the children of men) corn to eat, and grass to the beasts in the field;''
taking the words literally.
(g) Opera & Dies, l. 2. (h) Comment. in Amos iv. 7. fol. 39. F. (i) Travels, p. 136, 137. Ed. 2. (k) Misn. Taanith, c. 1. sect. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain The Jews are directed to eye God in all…
The Jews are directed to eye God in all events, ver. 1-4. To expect strength and success from him in all their struggles, ver. 5- 12.
The latter rain - This made plenty of all provision, and is proverbially used to signify a great blessing. Bright clouds - Bright through the lightnings which break from them. Them - The Jews.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain The promise of prosperity and plenty in the close…
CHAPTER X
The promise of prosperity and plenty in the close of the
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preceding chapter leads the prophet to suggest, next, the
means of obtaining them; supplication to Jehovah, and not to
idols, whose worship had already proved a fertile source of
calamities, 1-3.
The rest of the chapter (like the preceding) promises to the
Jews a restoration to their own land under rulers and
governors, victory over their enemies, and much increase and
prosperity; and this in a manner so miraculous, that it is
described, 4-12,
by allusions to the deliverance from Egypt.
NOTES ON CHAP. X
Verse 1. Ask ye of the Lord rain] Rain in the due seasons -
1. To impregnate the seed when sown; and
2. To fill the ear near the time of harvest-was so essential to the fertility of the land, and the well-being of the people, that it stands well among the chief of God's mercies and the promise of it here shows that God designs to ensure the prosperity promised, by using those means by which it was promoted.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Zec 10:1. Ask ye of the Lord rain, &c.…
Zec 10:1. Ask ye of the Lord rain, &c. — Make supplication to Jehovah, and not to idols. The promise of future plenty made in the preceding verse, with which this appears to be closely connected, suggested the mentioning the means by which it might be procured. As if he had said, The fulfilling of the promise of fruitful seasons depends on the people’s asking them of God, who will hear their petitions if offered to him with sincerity and fervour, and will give them both the former and the latter rain in its season. Of which rains see notes on Deu 11:14; Hos 6:3. So the Lord shall make bright clouds — Or lightnings, as the margin reads, and as the word is rendered Job 28:25. Great rains usually accompany thunder and lightning. And give them — Namely, the Jews; showers of rain — Or rather, abundance of rain, as the Hebrew means; to every one grass in the field — Or, to every man the herb, or fruits of the field, as the original word signifies. The sense is, that God, upon their asking it of him, would give plenty of all kinds of herbs and fruits that were useful to men, or to the animals which men make use of.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Ask ye of the Lord rain - “Ask and…
Ask ye of the Lord rain - “Ask and ye shall receive” our Lord says. Zechariah had promised in God’s name blessings temporal and spiritual: all was ready on God’s part; only, he adds, ask them of the Lord, the Unchangeable, the Self-same not of Teraphim or of diviner, as Israel had done aforetime Isa. 2:5-22; Jer 44:15-28. He had promised, “If ye shall hearken diligently unto My coramandments, to love the Lord your God, I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, and I will send grass in thy field for thy cattle” Deu 11:13-15. God bids them ask Him to fulfill His promise. The “latter rain” alone is mentioned, as completing what God had begun by the former rain, filling the ears before the harvest. Both had been used as symbols of God’s spiritual gifts, and so the words fit in with the close of the last chapter, both as to things temporal and eternal. Osorius: “He exhorts all frequently to ask for the dew of the divine grace, that what had sprung up in the heart from the seed of the word of God, might attain to full ripeness.”
The Lord maketh bright clouds - (Rather) “lightnings, into rain,” as Jeremiah says, “He causeth the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; He maketh lightnings into rain” Jer 10:13; Jer 51:16; and the Psalmist, “He maketh lightnings into rain” Psa 135:7, disappearing as it were into the rain which follows on them. “And giveth them.” While man is asking, God is answering. “Showers of rain” , “rain in torrents,” as we should say, or “in floods,” or, inverted, “floods of rain.” “To every one grass,” rather, “the green herb, in the field,” as the Psalmist says, “He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and green herb for the service of men” (Psa 104:14, see also Gen 1:30; Gen 3:18). This He did with individual care, as each had need, or as should be best for each, as contrariwise He says in Amos, “I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city; one piece was rained upon, and the piece, whereon it rained not, withered” (Amo 4:7; see note).
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The Rabbis observed these exceptions to God’s general law, whereby He “sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust” Matt. 5:49, though expressing it in their way hyperbolically; , “In the time when Israel doeth the will of God, He doeth their will; so that if one man alone, and not the others, wants rain, He will give rain to that one man; and if a man wants one herb alone in his field or garden, and not another, He will give rain to that one herb; as one of the saints used to say, This plot of ground wants rain, and that plot of ground wants not rain” (Cyril). Spiritually the rain is divine doctrine bedewing the mind and making it fruitful, as the rain doth the earth. So Moses saith, “My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distill as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb and as the showers upon the grass” Deu 32:2. Cyril: “The law of Moses and the prophets were the former rain.”
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Snows. Protestants, "Bright clouds," or "lightnings." (Haydock) --- God…
Snows. Protestants, "Bright clouds," or "lightnings." (Haydock) --- God will presently grant your requests, after the persecution of Epiphanes. (Calmet) --- The latter season is when fruit ripens, the acceptable time to sue for grace. (Worthington)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain Zechariah 10
4. FURTHER BLESSINGS OF GOD’S PEOPLE
Zechariah 10
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A. God sends Blessing, but the Idols Sorrow (Zec_10:1-2). B. Blessings upon native Rulers (Zec_10:3-5). C. Former Mercies restored to Judah and Ephraim (Zec_10:6-9). D. Messianic Mercies (Zec_10:10-12)
1 Ask of Jehovah rain in the time of the latter rain;
Jehovah creates lightnings,
And showers of rain1 will He give them,
To every one grass in the field.
2 For the teraphim2 have spoken vanity,
And the diviners have seen a lie,
And speak dreams of deceit,
They comfort in vain;
Therefore they have wandered3 like a flock,
They are oppressed4 because there is no shepherd.
3 Against the shepherds my anger is kindled,
And the he-goats will I punish;5
For Jehovah of Hosts visits his flock, the house of Judah,
And makes them like his goodly horse in war.
4 From him the corner-stone, from him the nail,
From him the war-bow, from him will every ruler6 come forth together.
5 And they shall be like heroes treading down [i.e., foes]
Into the mire of the streets in the battle;
And they fight, for Jehovah is with them,
And the riders on horses are put to shame.7
6 And I will strengthen the house of Judah,
And the house of Joseph will save,
And will make them dwell,8 because I pity them,
And they shall be as if I had not cast them off,
For I am Jehovah their God, and will hear them.
7 And Ephraim9 shall become like a hero,
And their heart shall rejoice as with wine,
And their sons shall see and rejoice,
Their heart shall exult in Jehovah.
8 I will hiss to them and gather them,
For I have redeemed them,
And they shall increase as they did increase [before]
9 And I will sow10 them among the peoples11 And in far countries they shall remember me,
And with their children they shall live and return.
10 And I will bring them back from the land of Egypt,
And from Assyria will I gather them,
And to the land of Gilead and Lebanon will I bring them,
And room shall not be found for them.12
11 And He passes through the sea, the affliction,13
And He smites the waves in the sea,
And all the depths of the Nile are put to shame;
And the pride of Assyria is brought down,
And the sceptre of Egypt shall depart.
12 And I will strengthen them in Jehovah,
And in his name shall they walk,14 saith Jehovah.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
This chapter does not commence a fresh train of thought, but is rather an expansion of the foregoing prophecy. First, there is a promise of rain and fruitful seasons (Zec_10:1); a reference to idolatry as cause of their afflictions (Zec_10:2-3 a); deliverance by God’s blessing upon native rulers (Zec_10:3 b, 4, 5); restoration of ancient mercies (Zec_10:6); special mention of Ephraim as participating in the growth and enlargement promised to the whole people (Zec_10:7-9); farther promises to the nation couched in historic allusions to their former experience, and fulfilled only in the Messiah’s kingdom (Zec_10:10-12). Some maintain that Zec_10:1 belongs to the preceding chapter, and ought not to have been separated from it (Hengstenberg), while others affirm the same of Zec_10:2 also (Hofmann, Köhler); but Zec_10:2 is plainly as closely connected with Zec_10:3 as it is with Zec_10:1. The question is of no importance to the interpretation.
Zec_10:1. Ask of Jehovah. This summons to prayer is not a mere expression of God’s readiness to give (Hengstenberg), but, both from the force of the words and the connection, is to be literally understood. Rain stands as a representative for all blessings, temporal and spiritual. In the time of the latter rain, is merely a rhetorical amplification, for it cannot be shown that the latter rain was more necessary than the early rain for maturing the harvest. Cf. Deu_11:13-15, from which the expressions here are taken. Lightnings are mentioned as precursors of rain. Cf. Jer_10:13; Psa_135:7, where, however, a different word (בְרָקִים) is used. Give them, i. e., every one who asks.
Zec_10:2. The call to prayer is sustained by a reference to the misery caused by their former dependence upon idols and soothsayers. Teraphim, a kind of household gods=Penates, who appear also to have been looked upon as oracles (Hos_3:4), in which latter light they are regarded here. The etymology of the word is still unsettled. The prevalence of impostors, of the kinds here mentioned, just before the overthrow of Judah, is abundantly established. Jer_27:9; Jer_29:8; Jer_23:9; Jer_23:14; Jer_23:32; Ezek. 21:34, Eze_22:28. Therefore, the consequence was that they were compelled to wander away, and were without a ruler, i. e., one of their own Davidic line, — a state of things still in existence when Zechariah wrote.
Zec_10:3. Against the shepherds. Israel having lost its native rulers, fell under the power of heathen governors, here styled shepherds and he-goats, (Isa_14:9, Heb.). These are to be. punished, because Jehovah regards those whom they oppress as his flock, whom He visits and protects. House of Judah is mentioned not in distinction from Ephraim (see Zec_10:6-7), but as the central point and representative of the covenant people. A striking comparison indicates that the deliverance is effected by an actual military struggle. Just as in Zec_9:13, Jehovah called Judah and Ephraim his bow and arrow, so here He calls the former his goodly-horse, such a horse as for his extraordinary qualities is chosen, and splendidly equipped as the war-horse of the general. The House of Judah, therefore will be well prepared to meet its enemies.
Zec_10:4. From him the corner-stone. מִּמֶּנּוּ refers not to Jehovah (Hitzig, Kohler, Pressel), but to Judah, as appears from the connection and from the passage in Jer. (Jer_30:21) on which this one leans. Prom themselves was to come forth every one of their rulers, which is expressed in the former part of the verse by figures, namely, the corner-stone, cf. Psa_118:22; the nail, the large ornamental pin, built into the wall of oriental houses for the purpose of suspending household utensils (Isa_22:23); the war-bow, which denotes military forces and weapons in general (Zec_9:10).
Zec_10:5. The consequence will be the annihilation of foes. And. … like heroes. Some explain the allusion as=they trample the mire of the streets, i. e, their foes considered as such (like the sling-stones in Zec_9:15); so Hengstenberg, Keil, etc. But the verb in Kal is always elsewhere transitive, and the ב ought not to be overlooked. We should render, therefore, treading down (foes) in or into the mire (Fürst, Köhler). Riders on horses. Cavalry, the arm in which Israel was always weak, is mentioned in Dan_11:40 as the principal strength of the Asiatic rulers (comp. also 1Ma_3:39, Zec_4:1). Hence the force of the promise here.
Zec_10:6. And I will strengthen, etc. Judah and Joseph comprehend the entire people as a whole. Make them dwell, i. e., securely and happily as in the olden time, which is suggested also in the next clause but one (cf. Eze_36:11). And I will hear them, is a very comprehensive promise.
Zec_10:7. And Ephraim… wine. In this verse and the following, the prophet refers particularly to Ephraim (but not to the exclusion of Judah), for the reason that heretofore the ten tribes had not participated as largely as it was intended they should, in the return from exile. They and their sons shall share in the coming conflict, and equally with Judah prove themselves to be like a hero. Their exultation in Jehovah is expressed by a comparison which is applied by the Psalmist to the Lord Himself. Psa_78:65.
Zec_10:8. I will hiss. … increase. The hissing or whistling is mentioned as a signal (cf. Isa_5:26; Isa_7:18). It alludes to the ancient method of swarming bees. This verse explains how Israel, so large a part of whom were still in exile, should take part in the victorious struggle. The Lord would bring them back. The utter downfall of the northern kingdom, so long before that of Judah, had removed nearly every political reason for maintaining the old disruption, and all the circumstances of the time inclined the various tribes to coalesce again into one people. I have redeemed, pret. proph. to express Jehovah’s unalterable purpose. The last clause, like Zec_10:6 b, refers to Eze_36:11. The extraordinary multiplication of the Jews at and after this period is one of the most familiar facts of history. See Merivale, History of the Romans, Zech 39. “Josephus informs us that two hundred years after the time here referred to, Galilee was peopled to an amazing extent, studded with cities, towns, and villages; and adds that the villages were not what are usually called by that name, but contained, some of them, fifteen thousand inhabitants.” Henderson, in loc.
Zec_10:9. And I will sow. … . return. The word זָרַע never means scatter in the sense of banishing or destroying (Fürst, Henderson, Hitzig), but always has the sense of sowing (σπερῶ, LXX.; seminabo, Vulg.), and when applied to men, denotes increase (Hos. 2:24; Jer_31:27). The passage means, then, that Israel while among the nations will repeat the experience of their ancestors in Egypt, “the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew” (Exo_1:12). They shall live, is explained in Eze_37:14. The mention of the children with them implies that the blessing would not be transient, but abiding.
Zec_10:10. And I will bring … Egypt. Some expositors suppose that by Egypt and Assyria are meant the lands so named, and vainly attempt to show that many of the ten tribes were carried or escaped to Egypt. It is far better to adopt the opinion of Gesenius, that “Egypt and Assyria are mentioned here in place of the different countries into which the Jews were scattered.” Such a typical use of names is neither unnatural nor unusual. Egypt was the first oppressor of the covenant people, and Assyria was the final instrument of overthrowing the ten tribes, and the two terms might well be combined as a general statement of the lands of the dispersion. See this combination in a similar case in Isa_27:13, and cf. Isa_10:24; Isa_11:11; Isa_11:16; Isa_19:23; Isa_52:4; Hos_11:11. Köhler’s objection that in this case Assyria must be taken in its most literal sense, is surely groundless, for the prophet could not have meant that the Ephraimites should be restored from certain regions and not from others. The general terms of the preceding verses forbid such a narrow view. Nor can Pressel claim the mention of Assyria as favoring the theory which dates the prophecy before the Captivity, because the subject of it is not Judah alone, but the whole nation, with special reference to Ephraim, and therefore Assyria was just the country which it suited the prophet to mention. The land of Gilead and Lebanon=northern Palestine on both sides of the Jordan, the former home of the ten tribes. Room… found, because of their increase. Merivale, in the place above cited, accounts for the manner in which the Jews in the centuries just before Christ, swarmed over the whole Roman world, “from the Tiber to the Euphrates, from the pines of the Caucasus to the spice groves of Arabia Felix,” by the insufficiency of their native land to support the immense population.
Zec_10:11. And he passes. The subject, of course, is Jehovah, the discourse passing from direct to indirect address, in accordance with the Hebrew usage allowing such rapid transitions. To make צרה the subject (Calvin, Cocceius, Syr.), is unnatural and frigid, besides connecting a feminine noun with a verb having a masculine suffix. This verse continues the figurative allusions of the preceding. Just as of old God gloriously vindicated his people in the passage over the Red Sea, so now He marches through the deep at the head of his chosen and smites down the roaring waves. The article in the sea points to the particular body of water through which Israel had once before been led,—the Arabian Gulf. יְאוֹר almost always=Nile. Here the term depths or floods is properly applied to its vast and regular inundations. In the last clause the characteristic feature of Assyria is well expressed by pride (Isa_10:7), and that of Egypt by the sceptre or rod of the taskmasters.
Zec_10:12. And I strengthen. The whole section is appropriately wound up with this emphatic promise. The entire strength, conduct, hope, and destiny of Israel lay in Jehovah. “The name of Jehovah is a comprehensive expression denoting his glory as manifested in history” (Hengstenberg). Trusting and serving the God thus revealed, they would find the past a pledge of the future, and see the divine perfections as gloriously illustrated in their behalf as at any former period.
This chapter, as has been said, continues and enlarges the promises of the preceding. After tracing the distresses of the people to their apostasy, it sets forth their deliverance as effected through actual conflicts, in which the might of Jehovah gives to the native leaders a force and courage which suffice to subdue foes otherwise far superior. This victory is followed by a large increase of population, not confined to Judah but also including Israel. Nor is there reason to doubt that the independence achieved by the Maccabees attracted very many of the exiles from the northern kingdom, who forgot the old causes of dissension, and united heartily in maintaining the reestablished national centre in Jerusalem. This fusion at home led to a similar fusion abroad; and wherever Jews were found who preserved their hereditary faith at all, they still remembered Jehovah as the one who had chosen Zion, and considered themselves as constituent parts of one covenant people. So far the predictions of the chapter were fulfilled historically in the period extending from the establishment of Jewish independence to the time of the advent. In the last three verses the Prophet describes a far greater because spiritual blessing in terms borrowed from the old experience of the people. The drying up of the sea, the humiliation of Assyria, the overthrow of Egypt simply set forth the removal of all possible obstacles in the way of a spiritual return to God. The Lord will reclaim and bless them by procedures as marvelous as any that ever occurred in their former history.
But before this great event takes place, before the Church of the Old Testament passes into the form and character of the Church of the New Testament, a sad and peculiar experience is to be gone through. This is set forth in the striking imagery of the next chapter.
THEOLOGICAL AND MORAL
1. In the opening verse of this chapter the Prophet comes into direct opposition many of the so-called Scientists of our day. They affirm that “without a disturbance of natural law quite as serious as the stoppage of an eclipse or the rolling the St. Lawrence up the Falls of Niagara, no act of humiliation, individual or national, could call one shower from heaven” (Tyndall). It follows, of course, that only those who believe that the miraculous is still active in nature can consistently join in prayers for fair weather and for rain. The Prophet, on the contrary, directs the people whenever the heavens withhold their moisture, to ask from the Lord what they need, and assures them that asking they shall obtain; and yet neither he nor his hearers supposed that this process involved a miracle in any proper sense of that term. It certainly implies the attainment of an end which without this means would not be accomplished. It is the combining and directing of natural forces so as to secure a certain result. This is what men are doing all the time, without dreaming that they are miracle-workers. Much more may God do it, who is not, like us, limited by second causes. In this very matter of rain, a scientific man announced some years ago at certain process by which an adequate rain-fall could at any time be secured. Whether his theory was valid or not, no one scouted it as impossible, or preposterous. Yet learned men deny to God what they allow to themselves. Creatures may compel the clouds, but the Creator may not. They may employ one and another natural law so as to achieve novel effects, but the Maker of the whole,
“Who sets the bright procession on its way,
And marshals all the order of the year,”
is shut up in the workmanship of his hands, and cannot possibly escape from the regular sequence of cause and effect. But this is simply the rejection, not merely of Christianity or of the Old Testament, but of all religion whateZech Zechariah 10 : A God who has no control over nature is to all intents and purposes no God. Sentiments of reverence, gratitude, obligation, love, and dependence toward such a Being, are impossible. The doctrine of prayer, therefore, is a vital one. There never has been, there never can be a religion without communion with the object of worship. To deny the efficacy of prayer, even in such matters as the giving or withholding of rain, is to remand the human race into a state of practical atheism.
2. The question with man never is whether he will have a religion or not, but always whether he will have that which is true, or one that is false. Not only his intuitions, his moral convictions, but his dependent condition, his exposure to change, want, sorrow, and death, all compel him to look up to some superior invisible power, something nobler and better than himself. If this craving be not met by the truth, it surely will be by falsehood. A permanent state of atheistic unbelief is impossible. Such a state has never been seen in all the world’s history. In ancient Israel there was a constant oscillation between the worship of Jehovah and the service of idols, but never the abnegation of all worship. And this is the alternative which confronts every man and every age. They may reject the true God and the revealed religion; but the inevitable result is superstition in some form, more or less refined. Just as among the Jews whenever they apostatized, “diviners” came to the front. When Saul could get no answer from the Lord, either by dreams, or by Urim, or by Prophets, he went to the Witch of Endor.
Intelligence and culture are no guard against such a result. If men will not believe the rational and true, they will believe the absurd and the false Our own land at this day furnishes conspicuous examples. Table-turnings and spirit-rappings have led captive many who turned away in scorn from the teachings of Christ and his Apostles. The voice of God, uttered with every kind and degree of evidence in his Word, has been given up for the sake of the pretended disclosures of the spirits of the dead; and the necromancy of the nineteenth century before Christ has been revived in the nineteenth century after Christ. And the results have been what was to be expected. On one hand a degree of unnatural excitement of the feelings and the imagination which terminated in an eclipse of reason, and on the other, a lowering of the tone of morals which undermined the family constitution, and swept away the surest safeguards of human society. It is as criminal and as dangerous to consult diviners now as it ever was in the days of ancient Israel. “Should not a people seek unto their God? [Should they seek] for the living to the dead? To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them” (Isa_8:19-20).
3. The prediction of the return of Ephraim in this chapter (Zec_10:6) has been sometimes cited as evidence that the ten tribes are still somewhere existing as a separate community, and as such are yet to be restored to their own land. But this is an error. The words of the Prophet were fulfilled in the period to which he refers. Many of the transplanted Ephraimites fell away from the faith and became absorbed in the heathen by whom they were surrounded, but many who remained true to Jehovah, joined their fortunes with those of their brethren of Judah. Their common calamities softened and at last obliterated the old feelings of enmity toward each other. Jerusalem became again the central point of the whole nation, and while not a few actually shared in the restoration, others who remained in exile, yet adhered to the second temple, aided it by their gifts, and often attended the yearly festivals. Hence all the latter were comprehended under the term, the Diaspora (Jam_1:1). In the New Testament there are repeated allusions to the twelve tribes, conveying the distinct impression that the inhabitants of Palestine in our Lord’s day represented both parts of the nation. There is no reason, therefore, for the pains which have been taken to discover them in some remote or obscure part of the globe. And indeed the hopeless disagreement of those who seek a historical identification of these exiles shows the vanity of the attempt. The foot of the Himalayas, the coast of Malabar, the interior of China, the Nestorians of Persia, and the Indians of North America, have all been claimed as containing the veritable descendants of the Hebrews whom Sargon carried away. This whole subject is treated with ability and learning in an article in the Princeton Review for April, 1873, by the Rev. John H. Shedd. The conclusions to which Mr. Shedd comes are thus stated: —
1. That the apostate Israelites were lost among the idolaters of the Assyrian Empire at the time of their apostasy.
2. That the true Israelites under Persian rule became identified with the captivity of Judah, and the nationality of the Ten Tribes was extinct.
3. That these Jews, embracing, since the time of Cyrus, the faithful of both Judah and Israel, greatly increased in numbers, were reinforced by emigrants from Palestine, and have sent off colonies to all the East, throughout Persia, Tartary, and Thibet; but there is no Scriptural or historical basis for the idea that the “Ten Tribes” are living as a body in some obscure region or are found in any one nation.
4. That some at least of the communities of Jews still living in the land of their original exile, are lineal descendants of the Ten Tribes; and considering the history of those Jews, their present numbers of fifty or sixty thousand souls in Persia and Assyria, and several thousand more in Babylonia, they sufficiently solve the problem.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Melvill: Ask ye rain. Men seem practically to have but little remembrance that the mainspring of all the mechanism of second causes is in the hands of an invisible Creator; that it is not from what goes on in the hidden laboratories of what they call nature that season succeeds season, and shower and sunshine alternate with so much of beautiful and beneficent order, but that the whole arrangement is momentarily dependent upon the will and energy of that supreme Being who “sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers.”
Calvin: Grass in the field. The Prophet no doubt includes here under one kind all things necessary for a happy life; for it is not the will of God to fill his faithful people in this world as though they were swine, but his design is to give them by means of earthly things, a taste of the spiritual life. I am Jehovah their God. He means by this that although he had for a time rejected the Jews, their adoption would not be void; for by calling Himself their God He reminds them of his covenant, as if He said that He had not in vain made a covenant with Abraham, and promised that his seed should be blessed. And 1 will sow them. This was an instance of the wonderful grace of God; for hence it happened that the knowledge of celestial truth shone everywhere; and at length when the Gospel was proclaimed, a freer access was had to the Gentiles, because Jews were dispersed through all lands. The first receptacles (hospitia) of the Gospel were the Synagogues. God thus scattered his seed here and there that it might in due time produce fruit beyond the expectation of all.
Pressel: Diviners have seek a lie. Unbelief has recourse to a crowd of superstitious devices, and by their folly and impotence is put to shame: Faith on the contrary turns to prayer and through it works wonders. Passes through the sea. For how many has Israel’s wonderful passage through the Red Sea been a pattern of a wonderful escape through straits and sorrows of every kind! The text is one of the oldest examples of this use of the deliverance, but new ones are constantly occurring.
Jay: I will strengthen them in the Lord. The very assurance our hearts want. Its fulfillment will keep us in our work, not cause us to cease. It will be seasonable and proportioned to our needs. “As thy days,” etc. It will come in God’s own way, that is, in the use of the means He has appointed. These we are to employ, especially when we are not in a proper or lively frame; as fire u most needful when we are cold.
Footnotes:
[1]Zec_10:1.—מְטַר־גֶשֶׁם lit rain of rain=copious rains. See Job_37:6, where the words are transposed.—The text of the E. V. gives a singularly inappropriate rendering of the previous noun חֲזִיזִים, for what consistency is there between “bright clouds” and heavy showers?
[2]Zec_10:2. —·תְרָפִים As this word denotes a peculiar species of idolatrous image, it is best to transfer it.
[3]Zec_10:2. —נסעוּ, lit, break up, as an encampment, h. to wander. They, i. e., the people.
[4]Zec_10:2. —יַעֲנוּ oppressed, sorely afflicted. The troubled of the E. V. is too feeble. The tense is future, implying that the condition still exists.
[5]Zec_10:3. —There is a play here upon the two meanings of the word פָקַד, the one to care for, the other to punish; or in general to visit, for good or for ill. Jehovah visits for evil, i. e., punishes, the goats; but visits for good, i. e., cares for, his flock. Keil, Henderson, and Cowles err in saying that the meaning to punish requires to be followed by עַל pers. See Job_31:14; Isa_26:14. Henderson (following the E. V.) makes the extraordinary mistake of rendering אֶפְקוֹד as a preterite, and claiming the vav before עַל as a vav conZech Zechariah 10 : He also renders כִי=nevertheless, a meaning which it never has.
[6]Zec_10:4.—נֹגשׂ=ruler, as in Isa_3:12; Isa_60:17. Hengstenberg insists upon the original meaning, oppressor, but thinks the harshness implied is directed against foes.
[7]Zec_10:5. —הֹבִישׁוּ. The Hiphil takes a passive sense, just as in Zec_9:5.
[8]Zec_10:6.— הוֹשְׁבוֹתִים. This anomalous form is best explained as the Hiphil of יָשַׁב for הוֹשַׁבְתִים. (Gesenius, Hengstenberg, Maurer). Ewald derives it from שׁוּב, and Kimchi explains it as a compound of both words uniting the senses of both, as in the E. V., “I will bring them again to place them.” But it is far better to interpret it like the similar form in Eze_36:11, than to adopt this Rabbinical refinement, which has no precedent elsewhere.
[9]Zec_10:7. —וְחָיוּ. As Ephraim is a collective noun, there seems to be no reason for the periphrasis of the E. V., “they of Ephraim.”
[10]Zec_10:9. —Henderson’s rendering, “Though I have scattered them,. … yet they shall,” etc., is grammatically impossible, is opposed to the true sense of זָרַע, and is not required by the context. His “distant regions” is no improvement upon the E. V.’s “far countries.”
[11]Zec_10:9. —עַמִּים. Peoples. See on Zec_8:20.
[12]Zec_10:10.—לֹא יִמָּצֵא. cf. Jos_17:16. (The necessary room) shall not be found for them.
[13]Zec_10:11.—צַרָה is best taken as in apposition to the preceding noun. To make it a verb meaning to cleave, after an Aramaic analogy (Maurer, Henderson, et al.), is far-fetched and needless. As a noun, it serves to show that the previous noun does not mean a literal sea, but affliction represented under that figure.
[14]Zec_10:12. —הִהְהַלָכוּ. The force of the Hithpael conjugation here is to express more distinctly than the Kal, the idea of continuous habitual action. For the sentiment, cf. Mic_4:5, where, however, Kal forms are used.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain Zechariah 10 is joined closely to Zec_9:17, by means…
JEHOVAH THE SOURCE OF PROSPERITY, 1, 2.
Zechariah 10 is joined closely to Zec_9:17, by means of Zec_10:1-2. Zec_9:17, contains a promise of prosperity in the future, but, while anticipating the glories of the future, the prophet is anxious to transform the present; hence he exhorts his contemporaries to turn even now to Jehovah, the giver of every good and perfect gift.
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R.V. gives a more satisfactory translation of Zec_10:1 : “Ask ye of Jehovah rain in the time of the latter rain, even of Jehovah that maketh lightnings; and he will give them showers of rain, to every one grass in the field.”
Time of the latter rain — See on Joe_2:23. These rains are specified because they are indispensable for the proper ripening of the crops.
That maketh lightnings (R.V.) — Which are the harbingers of rain. Jehovah is described as the Lord of nature, therefore appeal should be made to him.
Showers of rain — Literally, rain of heavy rain; that is, abundant rain (compare Job_37:6). As a result there will be for everyone grass — Better, in a more general sense, vegetation; the term includes all the products suitable for man’s diet (Gen_1:29). Rain is specified as a divine blessing, so as to connect the exhortation with Zec_9:17; but as there grain and wine represent prosperity in general, so here rain represents all blessings needed to bring about the prosperity.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 1. the latter rain] Would you have even now…
1. the latter rain] Would you have even now a measure at least of the promised abundance, seek it of Jehovah; look to Him for the rain that prepares (Psa_65:9-10), as well as for the crowning gift itself (Ib. Zec_10:11) of “corn” and “wine.” The latter rain fell in March or April and served to swell the grain now coming to maturity. The former rain fell in the autumn. (Deu_11:14; Joe_2:23. Comp. Jer_3:3.)
so the Lord shall make bright clouds] Rather, it is the Lord who makes lightnings (as in the margin, or, even of the Lord that maketh lightnings, R. V.), which usher in and accompany rain: therefore of Him must you ask it. Comp. “He hath made lightnings for the rain,” Psa_135:7. “For the rain; i.e. so that the rain follows the lightning; see Jer_10:13; Jer_51:16. The lightning is supposed to precede the rain. A common Arabic proverb says of a man who turns out other than was expected of him, that he lightens but does not rain.” Dean Perowne.
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grass] Rather, herb, including food for man, Gen_1:29.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (1) Bright clouds.—Better, lightnings, which precede the longed-for rain.…
(1) Bright clouds.—Better, lightnings, which precede the longed-for rain. (Comp. Jer_10:13; Psa_135:7.)
Grass. . . .—Comp. Deu_11:15.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Vers. 1, 2. A connecting link between the last…
Vers. 1, 2. A connecting link between the last section and the next. The condition for obtaining the promised blessings is that they are to be sought from the Lord, not from idols.
Ask ye of the Lord rain. The promise of abundance at the end of the last chapter suggests to the prophet to make a special application to the practice of his countrymen. They must put their trust in God alone for the supply of temporal as well as spiritual bounties. The latter rain was due at the time of the vernal equinox, and was necessary in order to swell the maturing grain. (comp. Deu_11:14) The early rain occurred at the autumnal equinox. It was considered as a special manifestation of God"s providential care that these periodical rains were received. (see Isa_30:23 Jer_5:24 Joe_2:23) So the Lord shall make bright clouds; rather, Jehovah maketh the lightnings. Thunderstorms accompany the periodical rains. Ye must ask of him, and ye shall have. Septuagint, Kuriov epoihse fantasiav ," The Lord makes flashes" (of lightning?); Vulgate, Domiaus faciet nives, where the right reading is supposed to be nubes . (comp. Psa_135:7 Job_38:25, Job_38:26) Give them showers of rain. Abundant rain, as Job_37:6. The address is now in the third person. Grass. All vegetable food for man and beast, as in Gen_1:11, 29 Psa_104:14 Amo_7:2.
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Vers. 1-5. The secret of victory.
"Ask ye of the Lord rain in the time," etc. In the last passage the Church of God (in its new Testament form, as we supposal) was presented to us under the figures of an army (ver. 13, etc.); a flock (ver. 16); and a field which the Lord had blessed (ver. 17). In the present verses we find all these figures again employed: the field (ver. 1); the flock (vers. 2, 3); the army or host (vers. 3-5). It would appear, therefore, that we have also presented to us the same topic of illustration, viz. the New Testament Church; and that, further, under the same circumstances and at the same time as before. The distinction to be noted is, that, in the present passage, we have a deeper view of the subject the secret nature of that Church being explained and enforced by describing to us
(1) a special gift;
(2) a grievous failure;
(3) a signal success.
I A SPECIAL GIFT. According to the first verse, there is something to be "asked of the Lord;" something appointed by him, having its proper "time;" something to be hoped for from him: "the Lord shall give;" something to be hoped for by all: "to every one." It is figured to us as "rain." What does it signify? In the present connection, what can it signify but the gift of God"s Spirit? (Isa 44:3Jo Isa 2:28) How specially were men taught, in New Testament times, to "ask" for this gift! (see Luk_11:9-13, where men nine times over are encouraged in praying for this very blessing; also Joh_4:10 Joh_7:37-39) How expressly, again, were those "latter" days the appointed "time" for this blessing! (Luk_24:49 Joh_16:7 Act_1:4) In what abundant "showers," once more, was it given in these primitive times, as it were, "to every one" "in the field"! (Act_2:17 Act_8:17-19 Act_11:17 Gal_3:2, Gal_3:3) These were some of the things which caused the dispensation then commenced to be called "the dispensation of the Spirit"! In short, without this holy "rain" from above, the strictly "Christian" Church could never have come into existence. Much less, of course, could it have continued alive.
II A GRIEVOUS FAILURE. The state of things in the Jewish Church at the coming of Christ seems described to us next. In one sense that Church, as a body, though free from the grosser idolatry of earlier days, was worshipping "idols" of its own. Its members trusted to merely external rites, and names, and privileges, and professions. (Rom_2:17-20 Mat_3:9 Mat_23:14, Mat_23:23, Mat_23:30, etc.) As a consequence, they never obtained, (Jer_14:2, etc.) as they never desired, the gift spoken of here. Failing of this, they failed altogether, notwithstanding all their privileges, (Rom_3:1, Rom_3:2) as a Church: This evidenced at the time as apparently here predicted beforehand in various ways. For example, by the absence among them:
1. Of solid knowledge and truth. "The diviners have seen a lie, and have told false dreams". (comp. Mat_15:14 Mat_23:16, Mat_23:19, Mat_23:24, 26 Joh_9:40, Joh_9:41)
2. Of saving knowledge and truth. "They comfort in vain". (see Mat_5:20 Rom_9:31; perhaps also Mar_10:20, 21)
3. Of proper pastoral oversight. (See end of ver. 2; and comp. Mat_9:36) Also by the presence among them:
4. Of special judgments on those who professed (Mat_23:2) to be "shepherds" (ver. 3). (See Mt 23, throughout, with its sevenfold denunciation of "woe" on the "scribes and Pharisees. Was there not "failure," indeed, when such language could be used as that found in Mat_23:33 and Mat_21:13?
III A SIGNAL SUCCESS.
1. Its nature. Being the same as that noted before on Zec_9:14, Zec_9:15, viz. success in preaching the gospel of Christ and bringing sinners beneath its power.
2. Its secret. This found in the fact that, by the coming of Christ, "the Lord of hosts" (ver. 3) had "visited" his people and "flock". (comp. Luk_1:68, Luk_1:78, 79 7:16; and note, in ver. 5, the expression, "They shall fight, because the Lord is with them
3. Its instruments. These very notable,
(1) as being men of "Judah," or Jews (as all the apostles were); men, i.e., belonging to that very Church and people which, in religious matters, as just now noted, had so egregiously failed. Possibly, also,
(2) as being, some of them, men like Saul of Tarsus, who, at first, were "oppressors" (see also Joh_1:46). And certainly,
(3) as being able to "tread down" obstacles, and "confound" opponents in a very marvellous way. (see Act_4:13 Act_5:33 Act_6:10 Act_9:22 Act_18:28; and perhaps, also, Act_26:28)
How strikingly all this teaches us the absolute need of the Spirit of God!
1. For all true religious life. It was the absence of this which made the Jewish Church the dead thing (Luk_17:37) that it was, like the old world and Sodom (Luk_17:27, Luk_17:29) when Noah and Lot had gone out of them. All their many other privileges (see Rom_2:17-20 Rom_3:1, 2 9:4, 5) were of no avail without this.
2. From all true religious work. It was the presence of this, secured by that coming and work of Christ which we have supposed to be referred to in ver. 3, (comp. Act_2:33) which encountered and overcame both the Jewish Church and the Gentile world. (see Act_1:8 Act_5:32 1Pe_1:12) How essential, indeed, was that gift, which more than supplied, in one sense, the presence of Christ himself! (Joh_16:7-10)
HOMILIES BY W. FORSYTH Vers. 1, 2. Prayer for temporal blessings.
I AGREEABLE TO OUR CIRCUMSTANCES. Dependent. In want. Instinctively turn God. We have his Word to cheer us; the record of his deeds to comfort us; the testimony of his saints to encourage us.
II CONDITIONED BY THE NECESSITY OF THINGS. There are limits. Plainly there are things which it would be reasonable, and others which it would be unreasonable and foolish, to ask. "Pray ye that your flight be not in the winter," said our Lord. The flight was a necessity, but the time and manner were within the ravage of things unsettled. This seems hinted at here by the condition, "in the time of the latter rain.
III SHOULD BE SUBORDINATED TO OUR SPIRITUAL GOOD. The soul is more than the body. It may not be necessary for us to live, but it is necessary that we should abide in the love of God and do his will. "Rain" is symbolic of spiritual blessings. Only God can give rain, and only God can give the quickening, invigorating, sanctifying influences of the Holy Spirit. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God.
IV SHOULD BE OFFERED IN HUMBLE SUBMISSION TO THE WILL OF GOD. He is infinitely wise and holy and good. Let us trust him, for he cannot will us aught but good.
V SHOULD BE ACCOMPANIED BY EARNEST USE OF ALL LAWFUL MEANS. It is an old saying that "God helps those who help themselves." Prayer without work is fanaticism and folly; but prayer and work is the highest wisdom and the surest way to success. "Wherefore criest thou unto me?" said the Lord to Moses. "Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward". F. (Exo_14:15)
Vers. 1, 2. Parable of the rain.
I MAN"S GREAT NEED. Without rain the ground is impoverished and dead. So is the soul without God. No good fruit.
II MAN"S GREAT RESOURCE. Not idols or enchantments, not human devices or philosophies, but appeal to God. He will withhold no good from them that walk uprightly.
III MAN"S GREAT CONSOLATION.
1. Sweet. (Cf. Deu_32:2)
2. Timely. God does not give in an arbitrary way, but according to his own wise and holy laws When rain is most needed, it is most appreciated. So in spiritual things. (cf. Psa_44:3)
3. Abundant. "Showers." Rains sometimes slight, partial, or temporary. Here promise of "abundance of rain", (1Ki_18:41) meeting the needs of all, reaching to the furthest limits of the parched land.
4. Invigorating and fertilizing. "To every one grass in the field." Calls for thankfulness and joy. F.
HOMILIES BY D. THOMAS Vers. 1-4. God in relation to the good and the bad.
"Ask ye of the Lord rain in the time of the latter rain; so the Lord shall make bright clouds, and give them showers of rain, to every one grass in the field," etc. This chapter is a continuation of the subject with which the former concluded; and the words lead us to observe three facts in relation to the Almighty.
I HE ATTENDS TO THE PRAYERS OF GOOD MEN. "Ask ye of the Lord rain in the time of the latter rain; so the Lord shall make bright clouds, and give them showers of rain." The abundance of corn promised in the last clause of the preceding chapter depends upon rain, and this rain God will give in answer to prayer. Observe:
1. God gives rain. A pseudo-science would ascribe "rain" and "clouds" and "showers" to what they call the laws of nature; but what these laws are, and how they operate, they cannot tell. The Bible, giving us at once an adequate and an intelligible cause, is more philosophical than any meteorological science. "He watereth the hills from his chambers: the earth is eatisfied with the fruit of thy works. He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man: that he may bring forth food out of the earth; and wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengtheneth man"s heart". (Psa 104:18-15) "Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it: thou greatly enrichest it with the river of God, which is full of water: thou preparest them corn, when thou hast so provided for it. Thou waterest the ridges thereof abundantly: thou settlest the furrows thereof: thou makest it soft with showers: thou blessest the springing thereof. Thou crownest the year with thy goodness; and thy paths drop fatness". (Psa_65:9-11)
2. The God who gives rain attends to human prayer. This is wonderful, but not absurd. Wonderful, that the God who created nature, and presides over it, should condescend to listen to the supplications of such an insignificant creature as man. But it is not absurd, because:
(1) Man is greater than material nature.
(2) Prayer is a settled law of the Divine government. To cry to the Almighty in distress is an instinct of the soul. Prayer, instead of interfering with the laws of nature, is a law of nature.
II HE ABOMINATES THE CHARACTER OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTORS. "For the idols the household gods have spoken vanity, and the diviners have seen a lie, and have told false dreams; they comfort in vain: therefore they went their way as a flock, they were troubled, because there was no shepherd. Mine anger was kindled against the shepherds, and I punished the goats." This stands in contrast with the former verse, and is a reason for the duty there enjoined. Their false prophets attaching themselves to idols and seducing the people to their worship, and those of them who, speaking in Jehovah"s name, said, "Thus saith Jehovah," when Jehovah had not spoken, putting in his lips and clothing with his authority the "lies" and "false dreams" by which they sought to entice them from him and from his ways had ever given promises and "vain comfort," all ending in bitterness and vexation of spirit. They had proved shepherds that only starved and scattered and exposed their flocks, instead of feeding and tending, gathering and protecting, them. "Thus, under such misleading guides, such selfish and unprincipled shepherds, the flock was driven about and "troubled." They had "no shepherd," no truly faithful shepherd, who took a concern in the well being of the flock" (Wardlaw). Now, against such impostors, Jehovah says, "Mine anger was kindled." "That the shepherds and the goats," says Hengstenberg, "are the heathen rulers who obtained dominion over Judah when the native government was suppressed, is evident from the contrast so emphatically pointed out in the fourth verse, where particular prominence is given to the fact that the new rulers whom God was about to appoint would be taken from the midst of the nation itself." Are there no religious impostors now, no false teachers, no blind leading the blind, no shepherds fleecing the flocks?
III HE WORKS IN ALL FOR HIS PEOPLE. "Out of him came forth the corner, out of him the nail, out of him the battle bow, out of him every oppressor together." The words teach that all their help came from him. "Out of him came forth the corner," or cornerstone, that upon which the whole building stands firmly. It means that from him comes stability. All stability in moral character, in social order, and political prosperity, is from God. "Out of him the nail." With us a nail is a small thing; but with the Orientals it is not so. It is a large peg in the inside of the room, wrought into the wall when the house was built, and on which are hung the utensils of the household. It means, therefore, support. "Out of him the battle bow." This word is used synecdochically, to represent all effective weapons of war; power to conquer comes from him. "Out of him every oppressor together," or, as Keil renders it, "from him will every ruler go forth at once." Thus God is all in all to the true. Whatever we need comes from him. "Every good and every perfect gift cometh down from the Father.
CONCLUSION. What a sublime view of the Almighty have we here! He is over all nature, yet listening to the prayers of the true; indignant with religious imposters, yet tolerating their existence and permitting their pernicious influence; sending out from himself all that true souls require to fight bravely and triumphantly the great moral battle of life. D.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain Ask ye of the Lord rain in the time…
Zec_10:1
Ask ye of the Lord rain in the time of the latter rain
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The rain
The rainfall in Palestine is normally periodical; occasional showers and even storms of rain may occur at any season, but as a rule it is at the time of the autumnal and that of the vernal equinox that the rain for the year falls.
These two periodic seasons of rain the Hebrews spoke of as the early and the latter ram; and on the occurrence of them the fruitfulness of the field and the return of the harvest depended. In other passages both the former and the latter rain are referred to as indispensable to this. At an early period God promised to Israel that He would give the rain of their land in due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that they might gather in their corn, manifestation of special regard for His people by Jehovah (comp. Hos_6:3; Joe_2:23; Isa_30:23; Jer_5:24). The latter rain only is mentioned here, probably because this was the more important for the fructification of the grain; and possibly also, because, being this, it might be regarded as including or representing temporal blessing generally. This the prophet here exhorts the people to ask of the Lord at the time of the latter rain, s.c., at the season when it was due; though God had promised it to His people, it was fitting and needful that they should pray to Him for it at the time when it was required. This direction to ask does not simply express the readiness of God to grant their request; it does this, for when God enjoins on men the asking for blessing, He implicitly engages to give the blessing asked for; but besides this, and even more than this, there is intimated here that the obtaining of promised blessing is conditioned by its being specially asked of God in the season of need. Gods promises are given not to supersede prayer, but rather to encourage and stimulate to prayer. (W. L. Alexander, D. D.)
The latter rain
The latter rain was that which fell in the spring, and which was instrumental in bringing the corn into the ear and filling it; so that if this rain failed, the husbandman would be disappointed of his harvest, notwithstanding all his previous industry, skill, and anxiety. He was indeed dependent also on the former rain, that which fell at the seeding time; but there would be a yet more bitter disappointment, for there would be the utter loss of much labour, the fruitless expenditure of much effort and hope, if the latter rain were withheld. And, consequently, there was even greater reason for his asking rain in the time of the latter rain than in that of the former. If the former rain were withheld, he might make some other use of his capital and enterprise; but if the latter, his disaster scarce admitted of repair. Take it metaphorically, and the latter rain is the grace needed for ripening the believer and fitting him for heaven. God may give the latter rain, if the husbandman, conscious of his dependence on God for the harvest, continue meekly to supplicate the necessary showers; He may withhold the rain, if the husbandman, calculating on the ordinary course of His dealings, grow remiss in petitioning, and give up his fields to the presumed certainties of the season. There is no point in the life of a Christian at which he can do without the supply of Gods grace; none at which he can expect the supply, if he be not cultivating the spirit and habit of prayer. (H. Melvill, B. D.)
Prayer and promise
We have here expressed the connection between prayer and promise on the one hand, and prayer and the processes of nature on the other. The blessing of rain, which, to an agricultural people, was inclusive of all other temporal blessings, and symbolical of all spiritual ones, was promised; but this promise was dependent on its supplication in prayer. Just so the great blessing of the descent of the Spirit on an individual or a Church, though a free gift, must be obtained by prayer. It is this fact that makes the spirit of prayer in the Church at once an index of her piety, and of the spiritual blessings she may expect from God. When the Church pours out a fulness of prayer, God will pour out a fulness of His Spirit. The inspired writers see no difficulty in the connection between prayer and the processes of nature, such as the mole-eyed philosophy of modern times discovers. The inspired writers think that the God who has created the elements may direct them according to His will. We must not suppose that because God has begun to bless us, we may relax our prayers and efforts. The former rain may be given, but we must also ask for the latter rain. We may have the former rain of conversion, but if we would have the latter rain of ripened sanctification, we must continue to ask of God. So, also, in the revival of religion. The former rain may occur, and souls be converted, but if we would have the ripening seed in active Christians, we must ask of God, and He will give growth, greenness, and maturity. (T. V. Moore, D. D.)
God in relation to the good and the bad
I. God attends to the prayers of good men. The abundance of corn promised in the last clause of the preceding chapter depends upon rain.
1. God gives rain. A pseudo-science would ascribe rain and clouds and showers to what they call the laws of nature. The Bible directly connects them with the working of God. He watereth the hills from His chambers: the earth is satisfied with the fruit of Thy works (Psa_104:13-15; Psa_65:9-11).
2. The God who gives rain attends to human prayer. But it is not absurd, because
(1) Man is greater than material nature.
(2) Prayer is a settled law of the Divine government.
To cry to the Almighty in distress is an instinct of the soul. Prayer, instead of interfering with the laws of nature, is a law of nature.
II. He abominates the character of religious impostors. For the idols [the household gods] have spoken vanity, etc. Thus, under such misleading guides, such selfish and unprincipled shepherds, the flock was driven about and troubled. They had no shepherd, no truly faithful shepherd, who took a concern in the well-being of the flock.--Wardlaw. Now, against such impostors, Jehovah says, Mine anger was kindled. That the shepherds and the goats, says Hengstenberg, are the heathen rulers who obtained dominion over Judah when the native government was suppressed, is evident from the contrast so emphatically pointed out in the fourth verse, where particular prominence is given to the fact that the new rulers whom God was about to appoint would be taken from the midst of the nation itself. Are there no religious impostors now, no false teachers, no blind leading the blind, no shepherds fleecing the flocks?
III. He works in all for His people. From Him comes stability. All stability in moral character, in social order, in political prosperity, is from God. What a sublime view of the Almighty have we here! (Homilist)
Asking of the Lord
1. Mark the importance of cultivating the spirit of dependence and prayer. We are, as creatures and as sinners, dependent for everything we need, whether for the body or the soul,--for this life or the life to come. It is fitting that we should feel this dependence, and that we should give it expression. Prayer is the expression of it; but prayer is something more. It is asking of the Lord. It is a precious privilege; it is a sacredly incumbent duty. It is one of the Divinely ordered means for obtaining any desired good. Gods Word ascribes to it an efficacy on His own counsels and doings; its being His inducement to act in one way rather than in another.
2. But we must never be satisfied with praying. We must never separate prayer from action. The two must go together. It will not do for the husbandman to be ever on his knees, pleading that his fields may be productive. All the labour and all the skill of husbandry must be put forth by him. He must work and pray: he must pray and work. It is a mockery of God if he does otherwise. To work without praying is ungodliness and presumption; to pray without working is enthusiasm and hypocrisy. And so it is in the spiritual department. It is not enough that we pray God to work in us to will and to do of His good pleasure. We have no right to expect that He will hear us, or bestow upon us any portion of His gracious influences, unless, by the diligent use of the means of spiritual improvement, we are fulfilling the injunction, Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. In vain do Christians seek the conversion of Israel, unless they are putting forth efforts for removing the veil of ignorance and prejudice by the communication of the light of instruction. And in vain do they look for the knowledge of the glory of the Lord filling the earth, if all they do is praying that it may. They must send it to earths utmost bounds. (Ralph Wardlaw, D. D.)
So the Lord shall make bright clouds--
Bright clouds
The water that a little while ago lay in yonder sluggish pool, is now raised up into the sky by the suns attraction--all its impurities left behind, and itself transformed into a cloud, which glows like emerald or sapphire in the sunlight. Can you imagine two things more utterly unlike than the stagnant pool and the radiant cloud? Yet it is precisely the same substance. It is the same water in yonder cloud, white and fleecy as an angels wing, that before made up the turbid pool. And what saith the Scripture? If the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you. This body taken, out of the stagnant pool of our fallen humanity--taken out of the corruption of death and the grave, and now filled and completely permeated by the Holy Spirit, so that it is transfigured like Christ Himself. (J. A. Gordon, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain This little piece is connected with the previous one…
4. AGAINST THE TERAPHIM AND SORCERERS
Zec_10:1-2
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This little piece is connected with the previous one only through the latters conclusion upon the fertility of the land, while this opens with rain, the requisite of fertility. It is connected with the piece that follows only by its mention of the shepherdless state of the people, the piece that follows being against the false shepherds. These connections are extremely slight. Perhaps the piece is an independent one. The subject of it gives no clue to the date. Sorcerers are condemned both by the earlier prophets, and by the later. Stade points out that this is the only passage of the Old Testament in which the Teraphim are said to speak. The language has one symptom of a late period.
After emphasizing the futility of images, enchantments, and dreams, this little oracle says, therefore the people wander like sheep: they have no shepherd. Shepherd in this connection cannot mean civil ruler, but must be religious director.
"Ask from Jehovah rain in the time of the latter rain. Jehovah is the maker of the lightning-flashes, and the winter rain He gives to them-to every man herbage in the field. But the Teraphim speak nothingness, and the sorcerers see lies, and dreams discourse vanity, and they comfort in vain. Wherefore they wander(?) like a flock of sheep, and flee about, for there is no shepherd."
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain CRITICAL NOTES.] Idol worshippers brought their judgments now; they…
CRITICAL NOTES.] Idol worshippers brought their judgments now; they must call upon Jehovah. Ask] He will give rain: i.e. all temporal and spiritual blessings. Clouds] Lightnings, precursors of rain. Showers] Lit. rain of heavy rain: i.e. plentiful (Job_37:6). Grass] for cattle, and corn for man. 2 Idols] Lit. the teraphim, household and oracular gods, thought to give prosperity (cf. Gen_31:19). Diviners] Soothsayers brought misery through vain and deceitful prophecy. Therefore] Because they trusted idols and soothsayers. They went] Lit. to break up, pull up the pegs, and take down the tent; hence wander into exile. Troubled] Oppressed, because no shepherd] no king, to defend them.
Zec_10:3. Punished] Lit. visited the goats] in evil, but his flock] for good, and made them courageous as a war-horse; a horse chosen by the commander-in-chief to ride at the head of his army.
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Zec_10:4. Out] Thrice repeated, for emphasis. Judah no more subject to foreigners; from them were to come rulers described as corner]-stones, upon which the building firmly rests (Psa_108:11). Nail] The large ornamental pin, fixed in the wall, to suspend valuable furniture (Jdg_4:21; Isa_22:23). The battle-bow] Military force, and weapons in general.
Zec_10:5.] For such heroic conflict will they be fitted by the help of Jehovah, that the enemy will be put to shame before them. The riders of the horses are mentioned for the purpose of individualizing the enemy, because the principal strength of the Asiatic rulers consisted in cavalry (cf. Dan_2:40) [Keil].
Zec_10:6. Judah] will share as well as Ephraim. Bring] and replace them happily and securely, as of old.
Zec_10:7. Ephraim] addressed in remainder of chapter, had not participated much in restoration. They, like Judah, would become heroes. Rejoice] i.e. fight like a mighty man exulting in joy (cf. Psa_78:65-66). Children] should see the joy, which would be lasting and complete.
HOMILETICS
GOD THE AUTHOR OF SPIRITUAL BLESSINGS.—Zec_10:1-2
At the close of the preceding chapter God had promised abundance of temporal and spiritual good. Here directions are given to obtain that good. Idolatry had brought judgments, but Jehovah will pour out blessings upon them.
I. All spiritual blessings come from God. Rain is the symbol of God’s spiritual gifts.
1. The idols of the heathen cannot bestow them. The gods in the temple and the deities in the house are vanity and lies.
2. The laws of nature cannot bestow them. There are “diviners” in the present day who “have told false dreams”—who have forgotten that God sits in the heavens, and rules the clouds; what he visits the earth to water and fructify it. There is neither showers nor sunshine in the natural world without him—no personal prosperity, progress, and fruit, in the Divine life without the influence of his Spirit. Nor can any portion of the soil of the world—“the desolate heritages” of heathenism, with all the tillage that missionary labour can bestow upon them, be rendered productive of the “fruits of righteousness,” except as God is pleased to shed down the same gracious influence—“pouring water on the thirsty, and floods on the dry ground” [Ward-law]. “Is there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain? Or can the heavens give showers?” “Thou visitest the earth,” &c. (Psa_65:9-11).
II. Prayer is the appointed means for securing these spiritual blessings. “Ask ye of the Lord.” Men of science exalt the laws of nature, and despise prayer. Natural philosophers may combine and direct the forces of nature, but God does not. “Without a disturbance of natural law quite as serious as the stoppage of an eclipse, or the rolling the St. Lawrence up the Falls of Niagara, no act of humiliation, individual or national, could call one shower from heaven” [Tyndall]. But the prophet directs the people to God, when the heavens withhold their dew, and assures them that if they ask they shall obtain. “The Lord shall make bright clouds,” &c.
1. Blessings in rich abundance. “And give them showers of rain.” Enough for man and beast, “to every one grass in the field”—to every one that asks will he give, “as the showers upon the grass.”
2. Blessings in due season. The early rain in spring, to water the seed sown; “the latter rain” in autumn, to ripen the corn. We must pray in due seasons, and look for spiritual prosperity with the same intense anxiety as the Jews did for rain twice a year. “I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, and I will send grass in thy field for thy cattle” (Deu_11:13-15).
3. Blessings indicated by visible signs. Rain, with its harbingers or accompaniments, will be given. “The Lord shall make bright clouds.” Clouds, as precursors of the showers, to encourage; or clouds which terrify, shall be turned into rain to bless them. “He maketh lightnings into rain” (cf. Psa_135:7; Jer_51:16). Clouds shall be filled with showers, and distilled as the dew upon the land. “As one shower is unburdened another shall be brewed” [Trapp]. Forerunners and proofs of Divine goodness shall abound on every hand. “He made a decree for the rain (regulating its time, place, and quantity), and a way (through the clouds) for the lightning of the thunder” (Job_28:26).
“Who sets the bright procession on its way,
And marshals all the order of the year” [Lange].
THE MISERY OF FORSAKING GOD AND CONSULTING FALSE ORACLES.—Zec_10:2
The Jews are here warned not to imitate the conduct of their forefathers in consulting idols, and forsaking Jehovah, who hindered Divine blessings, and brought human miseries. The warning is needed now. If man rejects the true, he will choose the false. His moral convictions, dependent condition, and exposure to danger, make him dissatisfied, and impel him to trust in superior power. Learn the folly of trusting to idols.
I. This course will disappoint. Men who renounce trust in God, and embrace false ways in hope of prosperity, will be disappointed.
1. Idols reveal nothing to be relied upon. “The idols have spoken vanity.” The idols which men consult in distress, promise what they never perform. All the vanities of the heathen put together cannot give rain (Jer_14:22).
2. Diviners lead astray. They put their own lies into their lips, and clothed them with God’s authority. They pretended to see what they saw not. “The diviners have seen a lie.” They uttered false prophecies, “told false dreams.” False in matter, because opposed to God’s word, false in event, because they were not fulfilled. “Let not your prophets and your diviners, that be in the midst of you, deceive you,” &c. (Jer_29:8-9).
II. This course will lead to bitterness of mind. “They comfort in vain.” If the voice of God, uttered with every degree of evidence and affection, be disregarded, and men have recourse to necromancy, the result will be vanity and vexation of spirit. All who, like Saul, seek an answer from diviners, will find them deceptive. “Ye are forgers of lies (stitchers up of falsehood), ye are all physicians of no value” (of nothingness, idol physicians, Zec_11:17), Job_13:4.
III. This course will expose to great danger. “They went their way.” They were not only disappointed and vexed, but they lost God’s protection, and were left a prey to every injury. As sheep without a shepherd, they were troubled, scattered, and led into captivity. They had no king to rule over them, no priest to intercede for them, and no shepherd to care for them. This is the condition of all who forsake God, and refuse the salvation and tender care of the Good Shepherd. “My flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth; and none did search or seek after them.”
DIVINE VISITATIONS.—Zec_10:3
Against the shepherds, the leaders or chiefs of the nation, God’s anger was kindled. He “punished (lit. visited) the goats,” but Judah was “his flock,” whom he visited in mercy. Hence—
I. The rulers are punished. As shepherds they should have been concerned for the flock. But they neglected, starved, and scattered the sheep. As goats they were guilty of mischief, the emblem of wantonness and offensive lust. God will ever make a distinction between the goats and the sheep, and those who are first in crime will be first in punishment.
II. The people are blessed. Judah is the flock of God, and must be tenderly watched and fed. God would employ, govern, and defend them against their enemies, as a rider doth “his goodly horse in the battle.” Learn the advantages of serving God, and the necessity of turning from idols. He will visit the ungodly in anger, but his people in love. The goats will be rejected, and the sheep saved (Mat_25:32). “I will judge between cattle and cattle, between rams and he-goats.”
HOMILETIC HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS
Zec_10:1.
1. The blessing needed. “Rain,” all natural, temporal, and spiritual influences, to ripen the fruits of the earth, advance the nation in morality, and bless the Church with fertility.
2. The way to get it. “Ask ye of the Lord rain.” Idols cannot send it, and man cannot create it Hence, it is fitting to feel dependence, and give it expression in prayer. This is good for ourselves, and the only efficient method to secure Divine operations in our favour. Elias, a notable example (Jas_5:17-18).
3. The time in which we should seek it. We should ask in seasons when it is required for the refreshment and beautifying of the earth. Prayer may be out of season as well as in season. “Ask of the Lord rain. We should ask it in a higher sense—ask the outpouring of God’s Spirit—for the revival and growth of religion and its appropriate fruits in our own souls; for its revival in our Churches, and for its progressive influence and productiveness throughout the world” [Wardlaw].
Zec_10:2. Idol confidences.
1. Vanity;
2. False;
3. Comfortless; and
4. Misleading. “Diviners have seen a lie. Unbelief has recourse to a crowd of superstitious devices, and by their folly and impotence is put to shame. Faith, on the contrary, turns to prayer, and through it works wonders” [Lange].
Zec_10:3. Against the shepherds. The sins of the civil and ecclesiastical rulers affecting the nation (cf. Pro_28:2). “Thus, saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against the shepherds: and I will require my flock at their hand, and cause them to cease from feeding the flock.” Goodly horse. Judah’s might was not in himself; but in God’s hands, he had might like, and above, the might of this world [Pusey]. This may in part be understood of the Maccabees’ victories; but principally of the Apostles, those white horses, upon which they rode through the world, conquering and to conquer (Rev_6:2) [Trapp].
HOMILETICS
THE DELIVERANCE AND ESTABLISHMENT OF GOD’S PEOPLE.—Zec_10:3-7
God confirms his mercies to Judah and Israel, enlarges the former predictions, and assures the triumph, restitution, and defence of his people.
I. God will deliver them from their enemies. Foreign or native oppressors—the sinful leaders of the flock, or the inveterate foe of the nation, would be visited with punishment. Often at the worst, things turn for the better. Whatever troubles, his people—they are his flock—will not be cast off; but delivered, “For the Lord of Hosts hath visited his flock.”
II. God will equip them for self-defence. Though exposed to danger, yet God will furnish them with everything necessary to defend themselves, and prevail over their enemies. Governors of their own shall be raised up to unite and help them. No foreign aid will be required. The corner-stone, the nail, and the battle-bow, all strength would be inherent, though given by God. “Their nobles shall be from themselves, and their governor shall go forth from the midst of them.”
III. God will give them victory over their enemies. The timid sheep became strong as the battle-horse. From a peaceful people sprung heroes, mighty men, to deliver from oppressors. The victory of the Maccabees typifies the triumph of Christ over anti-Christian powers.
1. This victory will be complete. “Their enemies” will be trampled down as mire in the streets, foul and worthless. As Jehovah’s war-horse they will overcome and confound the cavalry of the foe. “The riders on horses shall be confounded.”
2. This victory will be through Divine aid. “They shall fight because the Lord is with them.” Courage is not our own. All might comes from God, and against his power nothing can prevail. Mere human strength is perfect weakness, but God strengthens in Christ (Php_4:13). Feeble humanity rises into prowess and majesty when made mighty in all (kinds of) might (Col_1:11).
IV. God will restore them to ancient privileges. Most commentators take Zec_10:6-7 as alluding to the ten tribes. Judah and Israel are distinctly mentioned. A more complete restoration than a few from Babylon. A greater deliverance than the Maccabean is promised.
1. The tribes of Israel will be united together. The house of Joseph will share the salvation, and all Judah together will be strengthened. The children of God, scattered abroad, shall be incorporated; Jew and Gentile shall become one fold.
2. The land will be restored to them. “I will bring them again to place them.” Privileges lost through sin will be restored when God turns to his people.
3. Security will be given them. God will place them; make them dwell securely as in olden time. They shall be treated as if they had never been cast off. “I will settle you after your old estates, and will do better unto you than at your beginnings” (Eze_36:11; cf. Job_42:12).
V. God will cause others to participate in their privileges. Ephraim and their sons would not be forgotten, though hitherto not partaking largely of the blessings of restoration.
1. In the strength of conflict. “They of Ephraim shall be like a mighty man.”
2. In the joy of victory. “And their heart shall rejoice.” God’s presence will be their strength and song. From generation to generation, mercy will be enjoyed in renewed performance of the promise. “Yea, their children shall see it, and be glad.”
GOD THE AUTHOR OF POLITICAL BLESSINGS.—Zec_10:4
God is the King of kings, and Lord of lords. He only can give magistrates and legislators who are “for the punishment of evil-doers, and for the praise of them that do well.” They are not created by the institutions nor the politics of the state. “The powers that be are ordained of God.”
I. Men who are the corner-stones, the ground of support to the state. Princes are often called “the chief (corners, marg.) of the people” (1Sa_14:38 : cf. Isa_19:13; Isa_28:16).
II. Men who are the nails, the strength of the state. They unite discordant parties, as nails fasten different timbers. On them rest the responsibilities of government, and the security of the whole fabric. Rulers and officers in the Church should strengthen and hold it together. On them hang all the implements of evangelical warfare, which should be ready for use. “I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place; and he shall be for a glorious throne to his father’s house” (Isa_22:23-24).
III. Men who are the battle-bow, the defence of the state. Armour in general, for personal and national conflict—men to wield it with skill and success come from him.
IV. Men who govern, the rulers of the state. “And from him every oppressor together,” i.e. in a good sense, every ruler who exacts tribute from nations subject to Judah. Thus the state is built up and defended by God. Legislation without him is insecure. He must be trusted for every politician that founds and fastens the empire together—thanked for every ruler that crushes oppression. All valour and success, all ornaments and defence, are from him. “The Lord is Governor among the nations.”
THE RELIGION OF JOY.—Zec_10:7
Through communicated and accompanying might of Jehovah, Ephraim would be a man of valour and strength against every foe. The exulting joy with which they would be filled would impart energy of heart and hand. In proportion to the amount, the variety, and long-continuance of their outcast condition, of depression and humiliation, of scorn and reproach, of personal and social oppression; and of all, as the effect and indication of what was worse than them all—Divine desertion—the hidings of God’s countenance, his frown, his wrath—should be the joy of Jehovah’s return and blessing [Wardlaw].
I. Joyful religion in its source. Its source is secret and hidden from the world.
1. It is in God. They shall “rejoice in the Lord”—not in his gifts, health, abundance, and honour—but in God himself. In his favour and friendship, in his Word and service.
2. It springs from the heart. “Their heart shall rejoice.” Not from outward circumstances, but from pardoned sin and peace with God. This fountain of living waters is within a man. “A good man shall be satisfied from himself.”
II. Joyful religion in its degree. “Their heart shall rejoice as through wine.” Wine is called by Plato, “the mitigator of human sorrows.” The figure denotes exuberant joy, joy beyond a natural degree (cf. Psa_78:65; Psa_104:15). By a bold figure wine is said to “cheer God” himself (Jdg_9:13. Hence as cordials are seasonable in the hour of need; so joy buries sorrow, and makes us forget past evils. “Let him drink, and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more.”
III. Joyful religion in its influence. This fountain is never sealed.
1. It conduces to health. Diseases of the mind produce diseases of the body; a fretful repining spirit will waste away the vigour and beauty of the constitution. “Let thy mind’s sweetness,” says Geo. Herbert, “have its operation upon thy body, clothes, and habitation.” “A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance; but by sorrow of heart the spirit is broken.”
2. It promotes activity. Happy Christians are strong and active Christians. Ancient nations drank wine before battle. Those who drink of this joy will be heroes in life. “Neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
3. It influences others. Children see and neighbours feel it. “I am sure my father’s religion is true,” said one, “because it makes him happy.” “The beams of joy,” says Fuller, “are made better by reflection.” Yet some are strangers to this joy. Their religion is morbid and melancholy—“the religion of the sorrowful,” misrepresenting the bright religion of Jesus. Seek to rejoice in God, and to rejoice always. “Delight thyself in the Lord.”
HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES
Zec_10:5. Mighty men or warriors of the Gospel.
1. Their valour. The figure is general, indicating triumphant progress against all enemies, and thorough and shameful discomfiture. It was in looking forward to the success of his Apostles—so rapid, so signal—that our Lord said, “I beheld Satan fall, as lightning from heaven.” The comparison is simple. “As mighty men.” They shall triumph over the enemies of their cause as completely as the most victorious general over his enemies. The causes and the weapons are widely different; so is the spirit in which the war is conducted, and the results to those taken captive by the conquerors [Ward-law].
2. The source of their valour. “They shall fight because the Lord is with them.” He is the source of all success. Through him they do valiantly; for he it is that treads down their enemies. Not a victory, not a trophy, not a song, without him (Jos_23:10; Neh_4:20). If Mithridates never wanted courage nor counsel, how much more shall the Messiah and his mighty men succeed in their warfare! “The Lord God, he it is that fighteth for you.”
Zec_10:6. I have mercy upon them. Here is a double cause alleged, of these great and gracious promises; and both excluding works. First, God’s mere mercy; secondly, his election of grace; “for I am the Lord, their God. “This latter is the cause of the former; for God chose his people for love, and then loveth them for his choice. The effects of which love are here set down—
1. That he heareth their prayers, “I will hear them.”
2. That he re-accepteth and restoreth them in Christ, as if they had never offended against him. “They shall be as though I had not cast them off.” That was a cutting speech, and far worse than their captivity, when God not only threatened to cast them out of their country into a strange land, but that there, “he would show them no favour” (Jer_16:13). Here he promiseth to pity them, and then they must think deliverance was at next door [Trapp].
1. The blessings. Strength, “I will strengthen them;” salvation, “I will save;” and restoration, “I will bring them again.”
2. The cause of the blessing. God’s mercy. “I have mercy upon them.” God’s unchanging purpose; “they shall be as though I had not cast them off.”
3. The consequence of the blessings. “I will hear them.” He heard the voice of their distress, as he did in Egypt. But understand their calling upon Jehovah in a state of penitential abasement, confession, and return of heart (cf. Wardlaw). “I will hear,” is the fulfilment of a promise repeatedly made to them in former days, and an encouragement in their present dispersed state. Jehovah yet ‘waits to be gracious.’ His ear is open to their very first penitential cry; and while his ear will be open (that alone were little) his power will be ready to aid” [Wardlaw].
True conversion.
1. Men turn to God only through Divine mercy.
2. When men repent, and turn to God, they are treated as if they had not been cast off.
3. Humble penitent prayer to God is an evidence of converted men. “Prayer is to religion what thinking is to philosophy. To pray is to make religion” [Novalis].
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 10
Zec_10:1-2. Ask rain. Men seem practically to have but little remembrance that the mainspring of all mechanism of second causes is in the hands of an invisible Creator; that it is not from what goes on in the hidden laboratories of what they call nature that season succeeds season, and shower and sunshine alternate with so much of beautiful and beneficent order, but that the whole arrangement is momentarily dependent upon the will and energy of that Supreme Being who “sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers” [Melville].
Zec_10:3. Shepherds. As hired servants will tend men’s sheep no longer than it is profitable to them, so is it with promotion-seeking ministers [Cawdry].
Zec_10:4. The administration of government, like a guardianship, ought to be directed to the good of those who confer, and not of those who receive, the trust [Cicero].
Zec_10:5-6. Mighty men. Power is according to quality and not quantity. How much more are men than nations! [Emerson]. Where power is absent we may find the robe of genius, but we miss the throne [Landor].
Zec_10:7-8. “The house of Judah, and the house of Joseph,” spoken of in the first of these verses, signify respectively, the two tribes and the ten tribes—unitedly, the whole house of Israel—the posterity of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The declaration, “I will save them, and bring them again and place them,” cannot refer to the return from Babylon; seeing, in that respect, they had been already “saved,” and “brought again,” and “placed.” And the language is much too strong to have reference to any such remaining partial deliverances and returnings—additions only to that from Babylon—which might take place under the Maccabean princes, or at any period of their history between the prophet’s days and the coming of Christ. And if it refers to a period subsequent to the coming of Christ, to what else can the reference be but to their recovery from their present long-continued outcast and scattered condition? [Wardlaw].
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain Restoration of God's People
Restoration of God's People
1, 2. A warning to trust in God and not in sorcerers.
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3-7. The Lord will cast out the evil guides of the people, and under new leaders Ephraim and Judah will be victorious.
8-12. Ephraim will be gathered, but Egypt and Assyria will be humbled.
1. The connexion with Zec_9:17 is very slight, fertility demanding the necessary rain. Some believe that the passage is entirely independent. The time of the latter rain] The early rain was in October, when the ground would be broken up for sowing; the latter rain was in Feb.-March, after the crops had sprung up, and was necessary for an abundant harvest. Even in the season it is wise to ask God for rain. Bright clouds] RV 'lightnings.'
2. Idols] 'teraphim,' household images, probably in human form: cp. 1Sa_13:16. They were used for purposes of divination, and were probably connected originally with ancestor worship. They went their way] RV 'they' (i.e. the people) 'go their way,' as sheep when the pasture fails in one place go on to another.
3-12. The whole passage is difficult. A good conjecture summarises it as follows: God will visit Judah, in whom will arise brave and wise leaders. By their means the lost Ten Tribes (Joseph.. Ephraim, Zec_10:6-7), who are still in exile, will have a glorious restoration to Gilead and Lebanon.
3. Shepherds] probably religious teachers are here meant: see Intro. Punished the goats] RV 'will punish the he-goats,' i.e. the false guides of the people: cp. Jer_50:8. Hath made] RV 'shall make.' Evidently the word shepherd, closing Zec_10:2, suggests an attack on the worthless shepherds, religious teachers, perhaps, of foreign extraction or of foreign sympathies. The he-goats may be ethnarchs or civil rulers in Jerusalem.
4. Out of him] better, 'from him,' i.e. from Judah. Came] better, 'shall come.' Corner] i.e. cornerstone. Nail] rather, 'tent-peg': something that will hold firm. Oppressor] RV 'ruler,' i.e. one who keeps guard over workmen.
6. House of Joseph] i.e. Israel, as represented by Ephraim and Manasseh, the two leading tribes. Bring them again] may refer to the many Israelites in exile in Egypt (Zec_10:10) and elsewhere.
8. I will hiss for them] i.e. whistle to attract them: cp. Isa_5:26. God will bring back Israel to their own land.
9. I will sow them] As it stands this seems to contradict what follows as well as what goes before. With a slight change of Heb. it is possible to render: 'I scattered them among the nations, but in far countries they remember me. And they will bring up their children and come back.'
10. Assyria] Asshur might here be used of the Seleucid dominions in Syria and Persia; see Intro.
11. He] i.e. Israel. There will be a new exodus for God's people. Sea with affliction] better, perhaps, 'the narrow sea,' i.e. the arm of the Red Sea through which, once before, they passed. The river] i.e. Nile. Assyria and Egypt are chosen as representing the great world forces which harassed God's people.
12. Them] i.e. Israel, to whose glorious restoration the thoughts of the prophet return. Shall walk up and down in his (i.e. the Lord's) name] LXX renders, 'In His name shall they boast themselves.'
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain later rain
later rain
Cf. Hos 6:3; Joe 2:23-32; Zec 12:10. There is both a physical and spiritual meaning: Rain as of old will be restored to Palestine, but, also, there will be a mighty effusion of the Spirit upon restored Israel.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain Further Blessings of Jehovah upon His People.
Further Blessings of Jehovah upon His People.
The subject discussed in the last Chapter was so great and wonderful that the Lord has not begun to exhaust it, but takes the opportunity of giving a fuller description of its beauties.
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v. 1. Ask ye of the Lord rain in the time of the latter rain, making their appeal to Him in all confidence, as they were in need of His blessings; so the Lord shall make bright clouds, create lightnings, and give them showers of rain, in a refreshing thunder-shower, to every one grass in the field, all the crops of the field.
v. 2. For the idols, to whom the children of Israel had formerly applied for help, have spoken vanity, their household oracles not being dependable, and the diviners have seen a lie, they have announced deceitful oracles, and have told false dreams, proclaiming their own inventions as revelations from above; they comfort in vain, because their words are a hollow mockery; therefore they, the people who relied upon their words, went their way as a flock, wandering astray, they were troubled, because there was no shepherd, no reliable leader and guide.
v. 3. Mine anger was kindled against the shepherds, the rulers of Israel to whom He had entrusted the leadership, and I punished the goats, visiting them with a severe punishment; for the Lord of hosts hath visited His flock, the house of Judah, looking after them with tender care, and hath made them as His goodly horse in the battle, like the glorious charger on which the general leads his troops to battle.
v. 4. Out of Him, namely, Jehovah, came forth the corner, that is, He furnished the corner-stone on which the entire building of the new Judah rests; out of Him the nail, the pegs of the wall, from which the household utensils were suspended, types of the dependable men in a state. out of Him the battle-bow, the means for carrying on the Lord’s wars; out of Him every oppressor together, every mighty ruler whom Judah would need in its wars against the enemies.
v. 5. And they, the Lord’s people, shall be as mighty men, which tread down their enemies in the mire of the streets, Cf Zec 9:15, in the battle; and they shall fight because the Lord is with them, always in the majority because of His help, and the riders on horses shall be confounded, cavalry being mentioned as the chief part of the enemy’s army.
v. 6. And I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph, the southern and the northern kingdom together being typical of the Church of God, and I will bring them again to place them, letting them dwell in safety, for I have mercy upon them, His mercy is the one reason for His kindness toward them; and they shall be as though I had not cast them off, as in the time before the captivity; for I am the Lord, their God, and will hear them, they could be sure of His gracious attention to all their needs.
v. 7. And they of Ephraim, the true descendants of Joseph, the spiritual children of him who was given the right of the first-born in the house of Jacob, shall be like a mighty man, like a hero, and their heart shall rejoice as through wine, with a fierce exultation; yea, their children shall see it and be glad, a fact which indicates that the joy would be lasting; their heart shall rejoice in the Lord, giving all honor to Him who granted them such a glorious victory.
v. 8. I will hiss for them, as a signal for them to assemble, and gather them, for I have redeemed them, both by entering into a covenant with them and by promising them the Redeemer; and they shall increase as they have increased, that is, the growth of the people of God in the Messianic era would be like that of Israel when it first came to the Promised Land.
v. 9. And I will sow them among the people, as a token of their quick increase; and they shall remember Me in far countries, where ever the spiritual children of Israel would be found; and they shall live with their children, enjoying the blessing of the Lord in a permanent flow of mercy, and turn again, returning to the fellowship of the Lord in His Church.
v. 10. I will bring them again also out of the land of Egypt and gather them out of Assyria, the two world-powers being named as representative of the enemies of the Lord and the oppressors of His people; and I will bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon, to occupy the land on both sides of Jordan once more; and place shall not be found for them, there will not be sufficient room for them to expand, the number of the spiritual children of Israel being so great.
v. 11. And he shall pass through the sea with affliction, rather, "of distress," in allusion to the affliction felt by the children of Israel when they passed through the Red Sea, and shall smite the waves in the sea, keeping them under control by His powerful word; and all the deeps of the river shall dry up, the river Nile being referred to as the stream of the country of bondage; and the pride of Assyria shall be brought down, and the scepter of Egypt shall depart away, so that none of the former oppressors would remain.
v. 12. And I will strengthen them in the Lord, in Jehovah, the covenant God, and they shall walk up and down in His name. saith the Lord, so that they would live under His protection and in accordance with His will. The entire connection brings out the characteristics of the New Testament Church, whose members form a royal priesthood and find their delight in walking in the ways of the Lord.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 General Information:
General Information:
Zechariah continues speaking to the people of Israel.
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makes thunderstorms
"makes the clouds from which the rain falls in storms"
vegetation in the field
"causes plants to grow in the field"
household idols speak falsely
"household idols give false messages." Zechariah is not suggesting that idols actually speak. He is referring to the messages people say they hear from idols. The UDB makes this explicit.
diviners envision a lie
"diviners see false visions"
they tell deceitful dreams
It is implied that they know these dreams are false. This can be made explicit. AT: "diviners lie about their dreams in order to deceive people" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
empty comfort
This refers to words that sooth temporarily, but do not provide any longterm help.
they wander like sheep
The people who do not have true prophets who tell the truth are spoken of as sheep who do not have a shepherd to tell them where to go. AT: "the people who listen to the false prophets are like sheep who do not know which way to go" (See: Simile)
they ... suffer because there is no shepherd
The people who do not have true prophets are spoken of as sheep who suffer because they do not have a shepherd to tell them where to go. AT: "the people who listen to the false prophets ... are suffering like sheep who do not have a shepherd to guide them" (See: Simile)
translationWords
Yahweh
false god
divination
dream
comfort
ewe
suffer
shepherd
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 10:1–11:3 God will strengthen his people by his power…
10:1–11:3 God will strengthen his people by his power and restore them because of his compassion (10:6, 12). With its references to shepherds (10:2-3; 11:3), the passage prepares for the following allegory of the good and evil shepherds (11:4-17).
10:1-3 This is a rebuke of false shepherds, human leaders who do not have their people’s good at heart.
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10:1 Rain was a sign of divine blessing (see Joel 2:23)—the Lord was the source of the rain, but Israel’s leaders had led the people to trust in false gods instead.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.