Open your doors, Lebanon, that the fire may devour your cedars.
Wail, cypress tree, for the cedar has fallen, because the stately ones are destroyed. Wail, you oaks of Bashan, for the strong forest has come down.
A voice of the wailing of the shepherds! For their glory is destroyed: a voice of the roaring of young lions! For the pride of the Jordan is ruined.
Yahweh my God says: “Feed the flock of slaughter. Their buyers slaughter them, and go unpunished. Those who sell them say, ‘Blessed be Yahweh, for I am rich;’ and their own shepherds don’t pity them. For I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land,” says Yahweh; “but, behold, I will deliver the men everyone into his neighbor’s hand, and into the hand of his king. They will strike the land, and out of their hand I will not deliver them.”
So I fed the flock of slaughter, especially the oppressed of the flock. I took for myself two staffs. The one I called “Favor”, and the other I called “Union”, and I fed the flock. I cut off the three shepherds in one month; for my soul was weary of them, and their soul also loathed me. Then I said, “I will not feed you. That which dies, let it die; and that which is to be cut off, let it be cut off; and let those who are left eat each other’s flesh.” I took my staff Favor, and cut it apart, that I might break my covenant that I had made with all the peoples. It was broken in that day; and thus the poor of the flock that listened to me knew that it was Yahweh’s word. I said to them, “If you think it best, give me my wages; and if not, keep them.” So they weighed for my wages thirty pieces of silver. Yahweh said to me, “Throw it to the potter, the handsome price that I was valued at by them!” I took the thirty pieces of silver, and threw them to the potter, in Yahweh’s house. Then I cut apart my other staff, even Union, that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.
Yahweh said to me, “Take for yourself yet again the equipment of a foolish shepherd. For, behold, I will raise up a shepherd in the land, who will not visit those who are cut off, neither will seek those who are scattered, nor heal that which is broken, nor feed that which is sound; but he will eat the meat of the fat sheep, and will tear their hoofs in pieces. Woe to the worthless shepherd who leaves the flock! The sword will be on his arm, and on his right eye. His arm will be completely withered, and his right eye will be totally blinded!”
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv1–17 This Chapter contains severe threatenings, by which God designed…
This Chapter contains severe threatenings, by which God designed in time to warn the Jews, that if there was any hope of repentance, they might be restored by fear to the right way, and that others, the wicked and the reprobate, might be rendered inexcusable, and also that the faithful might fortify themselves against the strong temptation to despond on seeing so dreadful a calamity awaiting that nation.
This prophecy does not indeed seem consistent with the preceding prophecies; for the Prophet has been hitherto not only encouraging the people to entertain hope, but has also declared that their condition would be so happy that nothing would be wanting to render them really blessed: but now he denounces ruin, and begins with reprobation; for he says, that God had been long the shepherd of that nation, but that now he renounced all care of them; for being wearied he would no longer bear with that perverse wickedness, which he had found in them all. These things seem to be inconsistent: but we may observe, that it was needful in the first place to set before the Jews the benefits of God, that they might with more alacrity proceed with the work of building the temple, and know that their labor would not be in vain; and now it was necessary to change the strain, lest hypocrites, vainly confiding in these promises, should become hardened, as it is commonly the case; and also, lest the faithful should not entertain due fear, and thus go heedlessly before God; for nothing is more ruinous than security, inasmuch as when a license is taken to sin, God’s judgment impends over us. We hence see how useful and reasonable was this warnings of the Prophet, as he made the Jews to understand, that God would not be propitious to his people without punishing their wickedness and obstinacy.
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In order to render his prophecy impressive, Zechariah addresses Libanon; as though he was God’s herald, he bids it to open its gates, for the whole wood was now given up to the fire. Had he spoken without a figure, his denunciation would not have had so much force: he therefore denounces near ruin on Lebanon and on other places. Almost all think that by Lebanon is to be understood the temple, because it was built with timber from that mountain; but this view seems to me frigid, though it is approved by the common consent of interpreters. For why should we think the temple to be metaphorically called Lebanon rather than Bashan? And they think so such thing of Bashan, though there is equally the same reason. I therefore regard it simply as the Mount Lebanon; and I shall merely refer to what Joseph us declares, that the temple was opened before the city was destroyed by Titus. But though that history may be true, and it seems to me probable, it does not hence follow that this prophecy was then fulfilled, according to what is said of Rabbi Jonathan, who then exclaimed, “Lo! the prophecy of Zechariah; for he foretold that the temple would be burnt, and that the gates would be previously opened.” These things seem plausible, and at the first view gain our approbation. But I think that we must understand something more solid, and less refined: for I doubt not but that the Prophet denounces complete ruin on Mount Lebanon, and on Bashan and other places.
But why does he bid Lebanon to open its gates? The reason is given, for shortly after he calls it a fortified forest, which was yet without walls and gates. Lebanon, we know, was nigh to Jerusalem, though far enough to be free from any hostile attack. As then the place was by nature sufficiently safe from being assailed, the Prophet speaks, as though Lebanon was surrounded by fortresses; for it was not exposed to the attacks of enemies. The meaning is, — that though on account of its situation the Jews thought that Lebanon was not exposed to any evils, yet the wantonness of enemies would lead them even there. We have already said why the Prophet bids Lebanon to open its gates, even because he puts on the character of a herald, who threatens and declares, that God’s extreme vengeance was already nigh at hand.
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 On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17 Because the Jews thought themselves so strong by reason…
Because the Jews thought themselves so strong by reason of this mountain, that no enemy could come to hurt them, the Prophet showeth that when God sendeth the enemies, it shall show itself ready to receive them.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–17 Zec 11:1 Open thy doors, O Lebanon, that the…
Zec 11:1 Open thy doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour thy cedars.
Ver. 1. Open thy doors, O Lebanon] This chapter is no less comminatory than the two former had been consolatory. The tartness of the threatening maketh men best taste the sweetness of the promise. Sour and sweet make the best sauce; promises and threatenings mingled serve to keep the heart in the best temper. Hypocrites catch at the promises, as children do at deserts; and stuff themselves therewith a pillow as it were, that they may sin more securely. Here therefore they are given to understand, that God will so be merciful to the penitent, as that he will by no means clear the guilty. That is the last letter in God’s name, Exo 34:7, and must never be forgotten. It is fitting that the wicked should be forewarned of their danger; and the godly forearmed. This chapter hangs over Jerusalem as that blazing star in the form of a bloody sword is said to have done for a whole year’s time, a little before that last destruction of it, that is here foretold five hundred years before it happened.
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Open thy doors, O Lebanon] i.e. Lay open thou thyself to utter ruin; for it is determined, and cannot be avoided. Lebanon was the confine of the country on that side, whereby the Romans made their first irruption, as by an inlet. Doors or gates are attributed to this forest; because against Libanus is set Antilibanus, another mountain; which is joined into it as it were with a certain wall; so that these were and are narrow passages and gates, kept sometimes by the kings of Persia by a special officer, Neh 2:8, and fortified by nature; yet not so strongly but that the Romans broke in this way, and much wasted the forest, employing the trees for the besieging of Jerusalem, as Isa 14:8. (Hence it is here called the forest of the vintage, or the defenced forest, Zec 11:2 marg.) The Chaldee paraphrast by Lebanon here understandeth the temple, which was built by the cedars of Lebanon; and Eze 17:3, Lebanon is put for Jerusalem; which also had in it that house of the forest of Lebanon built by Solomon, 1Ki 7:2, wherein he had both his throne of judgment, 1Ki 7:7, and his armoury, 1Ki 10:17. So that by Lebanon may be very well meant the whole country of Judea; but especially the city and temple, the iron gates whereof opened themselves of their own accord, that had not been open in seven years before, and could scarcely be shut by twenty men, saith Josephus (Lib. vii. de Bell. Jud. cap. 12). This happened not long before the city was taken by Titus, whereupon Rabbi Jonathan, the son of Zechariah, cried out, En vaticinium Zechariae, Behold the prophecy of Zechariah fulfilled; for he foretold this, that this temple should be burned, and that the gates thereof should first be opened.
That the fire may devour thy cedars] War is as a fire, that feedeth upon the people, Isa 9:19, or like as a hungry man snatcheth, &c., Isa 9:20, there is in war no measure or satiety of blood. The Greek word Pολεμος, for war, signifieth much blood. The Hebrew word, מלחמה devouring and eating of men, as they eat bread. The Latin Bellum, a belluis. destruction from wild beasts. It destroys the lord as well as the losel, the cedar as well as the shrub. Tamerlane’s coach horses were conquered kings. Adonibezek’s dogs, seventy kings gathering crumbs under his table. "Let fire come out of the bramble, and devour the cedars of Lebanon," Jdg 9:15, that is, let fire come out from Abimclech, and devour the men of Shechem, Jdg 9:20.
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 On vv1–17 This chapter is minatory, and foretells the ruin of…
This chapter is minatory, and foretells the ruin of Jerusalem and the temple, this second temple, by the Romans, and the captivity of the Jews under them, for their rejecting of Christ; so the times of this chapter must be laid about the death of Christ and downwards.
Open thy doors, O Lebanon; either the temple, because built with cedars of Lebanon, so the temple is called, Eze 17:3; Hab 2:17; or Jerusalem, or Judea, whose boundary northward this mountain was: if all these do not fully suit with the text and context, perhaps this added may. Lebanon, a high and great mountain, boundary between Judea and its neighbours on the north, is here spoken to open its gates, its fortifications, raised to secure the passages, which through the hollownesses of the mountain, the deep and dismal straits, lead into Judea, and would be first attempted by the enemy that first invades the northern parts of Judea. These garrisons or fortresses are foretold like to be easily taken, as if they opened of themselves, and the Romans would have easy entrance by this means into Judea.
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That the fire; either figuratively, the rage of the enemy, or the wrath of God; or literally, fire by the enemy kindled in the houses and buildings in Judea, and in Lebanon itself.
May devour thy cedars; palaces built with cedars, or else figuratively nobles, princes, and eminent men.
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 On vv1, 4, 15 In dark and figurative expressions, as is usual in…
In dark and figurative expressions, as is usual in the scripture predictions of things at a great distance, that destruction of Jerusalem and of the Jewish church and nation is here foretold which our Lord Jesus, when the time was at hand, prophesied of very plainly and expressly. We have here, 1. Preparation made for that destruction (Zac 11:1): "Open thy doors, O Lebanon! Thou wouldst not open them to let thy king in - he came to his own and his own received him not; now thou must open them to let thy ruin in. Let the gates of the forest, and all the avenues to it, be thrown open, and let the fire come in and devour its glory." Some by Lebanon here understand the temple, which was built of cedars from Lebanon, and the stones of it white as the snow of Lebanon. It was burnt with fire by the Romans, and its gates were forced open by the fury of the soldiers. To confirm this, they tell a story, that forty years before the destruction of the second temple the gates of it opened of their own accord, upon which prodigy Rabbi Johanan made this remark (as it is found in one of the Jewish authors), "Now I know," said he, "that the destruction of the temple is at hand, according to the prophecy of Zechariah, Open thy doors, O Lebanon! that the fire may devour thy cedars." Others understand it of Jerusalem, or rather of the whole land of Canaan, to which Lebanon was an inlet on the north. All shall lie open to the invader, and the cedars, the mighty and eminent men, shall be devoured, which cannot but alarm those of an inferior rank, Zac 11:2. If the cedars have fallen (if all the mighty are spoiled, and brought to ruin), let the fir-tree howl. How can the slender fir-trees stand if stately cedars fall? If cedars are devoured by fire, it is time for the fir-trees to howl; for no wood is so combustible as that of the fir. And let the oaks of Bashan, that lie exposed to every injury, howl, for the forest of the vintage (or the flourishing vineyard, that used to be guarded with a particular care) has come down, or (as some read it) when the defenced forests, such as Lebanon was, have come down. Note, The falls of the wise and good into sin, and the falls of the rich and great into trouble, are loud alarms to those that are every way their inferiors not to be secure. 2. Lamentation made for the destruction (Zac 11:3): There is a voice of howling. Those who have fallen howl for grief and shame, and those who see their own turn coming howl for fear. But the great men especially receive the alarm with the utmost confusion. Those who were roaring in the day of their revels and triumphs are howling in the day of their terrors; for now they are tormented more than others. Those great men were by office shepherds, and such should have protected God's flock committed to their charge; it is the duty both of princes and priests. But they were as young lions, that made themselves a terror to the flock with their roaring and the flock a prey to themselves with their tearing. Note, It is sad with a people when those who should be as shepherds to them are as young lions to them. But what is the issue? The shepherds howl, for their glory is spoiled. Their pastures, and the flocks which covered them, which were the glory of the swains, are laid waste. The young lions howl, for the pride of Jordan is spoiled. The pride of Jordan was the thickets on the banks, in which the lions reposed themselves; and therefore, when the river overflowed and spoiled them, the lions came up from them (as we read Jer 49:19), and they came up roaring. Note, When those who have power proudly abuse their power, and, instead of being shepherds, are as young lions, they may expect that the righteous God will humble their pride and break their power.
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 On vv1–17 Open thy doors, O Lebanon,.... By which may be…
Open thy doors, O Lebanon,.... By which may be meant, either the temple of Jerusalem, which was built of the cedars of Lebanon;
"the gates of which are said (w) to open of themselves forty years before the destruction of Jerusalem, when Jochanan ben Zaccai, who lived at the same time, rebuked them, saying, O temple, temple, wherefore dost thou frighten thyself? I know thine end is to be destroyed; for so prophesied Zechariah, the son of Iddo, concerning thee, "open thy doors, O Lebanon".''
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So Lebanon, in Zac 10:10, is interpreted of the sanctuary, both by the Targum and by Jarchi; or else it may be understood of Jerusalem, and of the whole land of Judea, because it was situated by it; it was the border of it on the north side.
That the fire may devour thy cedars; of which the temple was built, and the houses of Jerusalem, which were consumed by fire; unless the fortresses of the land are meant. So the Targum paraphrases it,
"and the fire shall consume your fortresses.''
(w) T. Bab. Yoma, fol. 39. 2.
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 On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17 A prediction of the final destruction of the Jews,…
A prediction of the final destruction of the Jews, ver. 1-6. The Messiah will rule them, ver. 7, 8. But at length, provoked by their contempt of him, give them up, ver. 9-17.
Open thy doors - That destruction of the Jewish church and nation, is here foretold in dark and figurative expressions, which our Lord, when the time was at hand, prophesied of very plainly. Lebanon - Lebanon, a great mountain boundary between Judea and its neighbours on the north, is here commanded to open its gates, its fortifications raised to secure the passages, which lead into Judea. That the fire - Fire kindled by the enemy in the houses and buildings in Judea, and in Lebanon itself. The cedars - Palaces built with cedars.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1–17 The commencement of this chapter relates to the destruction…
CHAPTER XI
The commencement of this chapter relates to the destruction of
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Jerusalem and the Jewish polity, probably by the Babylonians;
at least in the first instance, as the fourth verse speaks of
the people thus threatened as the prophet's charge, 1-6.
The prophet then gives an account of the manner in which he
discharged his office, and the little value that was put on his
labours. And this he does by symbolical actions, a common mode
of instruction with the ancient prophets, 7-14.
After the prophet, on account of the unsuccessfulness of his
labours, had broken the two crooks which were the true badges
of his pastoral office, (to denote the annulling of God's
covenant with them, and their consequent divisions and
dispersions,) he is directed to take instruments calculated to
hurt and destroy, perhaps an iron crook, scrip, and stones, to
express by these symbols the judgments which God was about to
inflict on them by wicked rulers and guides, who should first
destroy the flock, and in the end be destroyed themselves,
15-17.
Let us now view this prophecy in another light, as we are
authorized to do by Scripture, Mt 27:7.
In this view the prophet, in the person of the Messiah, sets
forth the ungrateful returns made to him by the Jews, when he
undertook the office of shepherd in guiding and governing them;
how they rejected him, and valued him and his labours at the
mean and contemptible price of thirty pieces of silver, the
paltry sum for which Judas betrayed him. Upon which he
threatens to destroy their city and temple; and to give them
up to the hands of such guides and governors as should have no
regard to their welfare.
NOTES ON CHAP. XI
Verse 1. Open thy doors, O Lebanon] I will give Mr. Joseph Mede's note upon this verse:-
"That which moveth me more than the rest, is in chap. xi., which contains a prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem, and a description of the wickedness of the inhabitants, for which God would give them to the sword, and have no more pity upon them. It is expounded of the destruction by Titus; but methinks such a prophecy was nothing seasonable for Zachary's time, (when the city yet for a great part lay in her ruins, and the temple had not yet recovered hers,) nor agreeable to the scope. Zachary's commission, who, together with his colleague Haggai, was sent to encourage the people, lately returned from captivity, to build their temple, and to instaurate their commonwealth. Was this a fit time to foretell the destruction of both, while they were yet but a-building? And by Zachary too, who was to encourage them? Would not this better befit the desolation by Nebuchadnezzar?" I really think so. See Mr. J. Mede's lxi. Epistle.
Lebanon signifies the temple, because built of materials principally brought from that place.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17 Zec 11:1. Open thy doors, O Lebanon — The…
Zec 11:1. Open thy doors, O Lebanon — The prophet, having signified in the foregoing prophecy that the Jewish nation should recover its prosperity, flourish for some time, and become considerable; and having announced to Zion the coming of Messiah her king, and congratulated her on the peaceable nature and great extent of his kingdom, with the blessed effects which his rule should produce, proceeds now to foretel the ruin which should come on the body of the Jewish nation for rejecting him, with the destruction of their temple and capital city. To this only can the first three verses of this chapter relate; for no calamities happened to that people, from the time of Zechariah till that event, of which the expressions here used can with propriety be understood. Lebanon itself cannot be here addressed, which had no doors or gates: but it is figuratively put, either for the temple, built of the cedars of Lebanon, as it is Eze 17:3; and Hab 2:17; or for the city of Jerusalem, whose lofty buildings resembled the stately ranks of trees in a forest: but the former is more probably intended. And, if the Jewish writers may be credited, such was the application made of this prophecy by the Rabbi Johanan, when the doors of the temple opened of their own accord, a little before the temple was burned, a circumstance attested by Josephus, Bell. Jud. lib. 6. cap. 5: “Then R. Johanan, a disciple of R. Hillel, directing his speech to the temple, said, ‘I know thy destruction is at hand, according to the prophecy of Zechariah:’ Open thy doors, O Lebanon, &c.” That the fire — Either, figuratively, the wrath of God and the rage of the enemy, or, literally, fire kindled by the enemy; may devour thy cedars — Thy palaces and other fabrics built with cedars.
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 On vv1–17 Open thy doors, O Lebanon - Lebanon, whose cedars…
Open thy doors, O Lebanon - Lebanon, whose cedars had stood, its glory, for centuries, yet could offer no resistance to him who felled them and were carried off to adorn the palaces of its conquerors (see above at Zep 2:14, and note 2. p. 276), was in Isaiah Isa 14:8; Isa 37:24 and Jeremiah Jer 22:6-7 the emblem of the glory of the Jewish state; and in Ezekiel, of Jerusalem, as the prophet himself explains it Eze 17:3, Eze 17:12; glorious, beauteous, inaccessible, so long as it was defended by God; a ready prey, when abandoned by Him. The center and source of her strength was the worship of God; and so Lebanon has of old been understood to be the temple, which was built with cedars of Lebanon, towering aloft upon a strong. summit; the spiritual glory and the eminence of Jerusalem, as Lebanon was of the whole country, and , “to strangers who came to it, it appeared from afar like a mountain full of snow; for, where it was not gilded, it was exceeding white, being built of marble.” But at the time of destruction it was “a den of thieves” Mat 21:13, as Lebanon, amidst its beauty, was of wild beasts.
Rup.: “I suppose Lebanon itself, that is, “the temple,” felt the command of the prophet’s words, since, as its destruction approached, its doors opened without the hand of man. Josephus relates how , “at the passover, the eastern gate of the inner temple, being of brass and very firm, and with difficulty shut at eventide by twenty men; moreover with bars strengthened with iron, and having very deep bolts, which went down into the threshold, itself of one stone, was seen at six o’clock at night to open of its own accord. The guards of the temple running told it to the officer, and he, going up, with difficulty closed it. This the uninstructed thought a very favorable sign, that God opened to them the gate of all goods. But those taught in the divine words, understood that the safety of the temple was removed of itself, and that the gate opened.”
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A saying of this sort is still exstant. : “Our fathers have handed down, forty years before the destruction of the house, the lot of the Lord did not come up on the right hand, and the tongue of splendor did not become white, nor did the light from the evening burn, and the doors of the temple opened of their own accord, until Rabbi Johanan ben Zaccai rebuked them, and said, ‘O temple, why dost thou affright thyself? I know of thee that thy end is to be destroyed, and of this Zechariah prophesied, “Open thy doors, O Lebanon, and let the fire devour thy cedars.’” The “forty years” mentioned in this tradition carry back the event exactly to the Death of Christ, the temple having been burned 73 a.d. . Josephus adds that they opened at the passover, the season of His Crucifixion. On the other hand, the shutting of the gates of the temple, when they had “seized Paul and dragged him out of the temple” Act 21:30, seems miraculous and significant, that, having thus violently refused the preaching of the Gospel, and cast Paul out, they themselves were also shut out, denoting that an entrance was afterward to be refused them.
And let afire devour thy cedars - Jerusalem, or the temple, were, after those times, burned by the Romans only. The destruction of pride, opposed to Christ, was prophesied by Isaiah in connection with His Coming Isa 10:34; Isa 11:1.
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 On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 Gates. Josephus (Jewish Wars vii. 12.) relates, that the…
Gates. Josephus (Jewish Wars vii. 12.) relates, that the heavy eastern gates flew open at midnight: and the priests officiating at Pentecost, heard a multitude crying, "Let us go hence." See Tacitus, History v. Johanan then declared, "O temple, I know thou wilt so be destroyed," as Zacharias foretold, Open, &c. (Kimchi; Lyranus; &c.) (Calmet) --- Libanus. So Jerusalem, and more particularly the temple, is called by the prophets, from its height, and from its being built of the cedars of Libanus. (Challoner) (Isaias x. 34., and Ezechiel xvii.) (St. Jerome) --- The destruction of both by Titus is predicted. (Worthington) --- Cedars. Thy princes and chief men. (Challoner) (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 On v1 Zechariah 11.
5. ISRAEL’S REJECTION OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD
Zechariah 11.
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A. Poetical Introduction (Zec_11:1-3). B. The Flock of Slaughter (Zec_11:4-6). C. The Prophet tries to be their Shepherd (Zec_11:7-8). D. He Fails (Zec_11:9-11). E. He is contemptuously Rejected (Zec_11:12-13). F. The Result (Zec_11:14). G. A worthless Shepherd takes Charge (vats, 15, 16). H. This Shepherd Punished (Zec_11:17).
1 Open, O Lebanon, thy doors,
And let fire devour thy cedars.1
2 Howl, cypress, for the cedar has fallen,
For the lofty are laid waste;
Howl, ye oaks of Bashan,
For the high2 forest has gone down.
3 A sound of the howling of the shepherds!
For their glory is laid waste;
A sound of the roaring of young lions!
For the pride of Jordan is laid waste.
4 Thus saith Jehovah, my God,
Feed3 the flock of slaughter;4
5 Whose buyers slaughter them and are not guilty,
And their sellers say, Blessed be Jehovah, for I am getting rich,5
And their own shepherds spare them not.
6 For I will no more spare the inhabitants of the land, saith Jehovah,
And behold I give up the men,
Each into the hand of his neighbor and into the hand of his king,
And they lay waste6 the land,
And I will not deliver out of their hand.
7 And I fed7 the flock of slaughter, therefore8 the most miserable sheep,9 and I took to myself two staves; the one10 I called Beauty, the other I called Bands,8 and I fed the flock. And I cut off the three11 shepherds in one month, and my9 soul became impatient with them, and their soul also abhorred me. And I said,
I will not feed you,
The dying, let it die,
And the cut off, let it be cut off,
And the remaining, let them devour each the flesh of the other.
10And I took my staff Beauty and broke it asunder in order to destroy my covenant with all peoples.12 11And it was destroyed in that day, and thus13 the wretched of the flock, who gave heed to me, knew that this was the word of Jehovah. 12And I said to them, If it seem good to yon, give me my wages;14 and if not, forbear. 13 And they weighed as my wages thirty15 pieces of silver. And Jehovah said to me, Throw it to the potter, the noble price at which I am valued by them; and I took the thirty pieces of silver, and threw it into the house of Jehovah, to the potter. 14 And I broke my second staff, Bands, to destroy the brotherhood16 between Judah and Israel.
15 And Jehovah said to me, Take again the implements17 of a foolish shepherd,
16 For, behold, I raise up a shepherd in the land,
The perishing18 he will not visit,
The straying19 will he not seek for,
And the wounded he will not heal,
The strong20 will he not feed;
But the flesh of the fat one he will eat,
And their hoofs he will break off.
Wo to the worthless21 shepherd who forsakes22 the flock!
A sword upon his arm!
And upon his right eye!
His arm shall be utterly withered,
And his right eye utterly blinded.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
This chapter, on any view of its meaning, presents a marked contrast to the tenor of chaps. 9 and 10. The latter are full of encouragement. They speak much of conflict, but uniformly represent the covenant people as victorious, and paint a bright picture of increase, prosperity, and happiness. Here, on the contrary, is a sad scene of general overthrow caused by deliberate and persistent wickedness. The explanation is well given by Calvin: “These predictions appear to contradict one another. But it was necessary that the blessings of God should first of all be announced to the Jews in order that they might engage with greater alacrity in the work of building the temple, and feel assured that they were not wasting their time. It was now desirable to address them in a different style, lest, as was too generally the case, hypocrites should be hardened by their vain confidence in these promises. It was also requisite, in order that the faithful should take alarm in time, and earnestly draw near to God; since nothing is more destructive than false security; and whenever sin is committed without restraint, the judgment of God is close at hand.” Just then, as in the former part of the book, there is interjected, in the midst of a series of encouraging symbolical visions, a pair of representations (Zechariah 6.) setting forth the certainty and severity of the punishment of wickedness, so here, after exhibiting Judæa’s protection from Alexander, and also (with a passing glance at Zion’s future king, Messiah) the triumph of the Maccabees and the recovery of former strength and influence, the Prophet passes on to lift the veil from the final outcome of Jewish obduracy, and its terrible results.
The first three verses describe the ruin of the entire land, in words arranged with great rhetorical power, full of poetic imagery and lively dramatic movement. Then the cause of this widespread desolation is set forth, not by vision as in the earlier portion, but by symbolical action or process subjectively wrought. Israel is a flock doomed to perish by the divine judgment. The Prophet personating his Lord makes an effort to avert the threatened infliction. He therefore assumes the office of shepherd, equipped with staves fitted to secure success. He seeks to rid them of false leaders, and win them to ways of truth and right. But the attempt is vain, because of their obdurate wickedness, and the issue is a mutual recoil. He loathes them; they abhor him. Accordingly he significantly breaks his staves in token that all is over. But after breaking one, and before doing the same to the other, the shepherd asks a reward for his unavailing effort. He receives one, but it is so trifling that he had better have received none. They insult him with the offer of the price of a slave (Zec_11:4-14). Then the scene changes. Instead of a wise, kind shepherd, the Prophet personates one of an opposite character. The gentle crooks, Beauty and Bands, are replaced by knives and battle-axes. The flock, so far from being fed and guided and guarded, is torn and devoured, and then at last its misguided rulers are smitten and palsied, and so the curtain falls (Zec_11:15-17).
Zec_11:1-3 are a vivid poetical apostrophe, introductory to what follows in the rest of the chapter. A fierce conflagration sweeps over the land, devouring alike mountain forests, and lowland pastures; and a cry of despair is heard from man and beast.
Zec_11:1. Open, O Lebanon, etc. Instead of simply declaring that Lebanon shall be devastated, the Prophet summons the lofty mountain to open its doors for the consuming fire.
Zec_11:2. Howl, cypress, for the cedar, etc. Continuing his apostrophe, he calls on the less important trees to bewail the fall of the stately cedars as foreshadowing their own impending doom, for if the steep inaccessible forest on the mountain side is prostrated, much more must the cypresses and oaks be consumed. But the crashing ruin extends yet further.
Zec_11:3. A sound of the howling of the shepherds! The flames spread over the low grounds and pastures of the wilderness, and the Prophet hears the outcry of the shepherds over the destruction of what is their hope and dependence. With this is mingled the roaring of young lions, driven by the fiery blast from their favorite lair, the thickets on the river banks, known as the pride of the Jordan (Jer_12:5; Jer_49:19; Jer. 1:44), so called because the luxuriant bushes and reeds inclose the stream with a garland of fresh and beautiful verdure.
To what does this vivid and startling representation refer? (1.) Avery old Jewish interpretation makes it descriptive of the overthrow of the temple, which is here called Lebanon, because so much of the wood of that goodly mountain was used in its construction. So Eusebius, Jerome, Grotius, and Henderson. But this, as Calvin says, is frigid. Indeed, it gives no explanation of Bashan, or of Zec_11:3. (2.) Others applied it to Jerusalem, which is liable to the same objection. (3.) Most of the moderns refer it to the holy land, some supposing that the cedars, cypresses, etc., denote heathen rulers who are swept away by a general judgment (Hoffman, Umbreit, Kliefoth); others holding that these terms denote the chief men of Israel (Hitzig, Maurer, Hengstenberg, Ewald). But any such close pressing of a passage like this, the most vigorous and poetical in all the book, is both needless and unwise. Standing as a prelude to the fearful doom of the flock of slaughter, it is simply a highly figurative representation of the overthrow of all that is lofty and glorious and powerful in the nation and kingdom of the Jews. The choice of the local terms used (Lebanon, Bashan, etc.) may have been suggested by Zec_10:10; but even if not so, they may very well stand for the whole kingdom. A poet is not to be bound by the rules of a historiographer. Pressel, quite consistently with his general view of the second part of Zechariah, sees in this prelude only a literal description of the march of Tiglath Pileser, when he invaded Israel in the days of Pekah (2Ki_15:29). But surely the Assyrian king did not set fire to the cedars of Lebanon or the reeds of the Jordan.
Zec_11:4-14. A justly celebrated section, of which Pressel says it “exhibits Isaiah’s power and beauty of language, as well as his fullness of Messianic thought.” By command of Jehovah the prophet assumes the office of a shepherd over his flock, and feeds it until he is compelled by its ingratitude to break his staves of office and give up the sheep to destruction.
Zec_11:4. Thus saith Jehovah. To whom does He speak? The earlier interpreters said, to the Angel of the Lord or Messiah. But this is disproved by the commission in Zec_11:15 given to the same person: Take again the implements of a foolish shepherd, seq.,—language which, as all admit, could not be addressed to the Messiah. Others say that the prophet in his individual capacity is addressed (Hitzig, Ewald, et al.), but the whole strain of the passage, the illustrative parallels in other prophets, the destroying of other shepherds (Zec_11:8), and the thirty pieces of silver, all show that Zechariah in person could not have been intended. It remains then to view him as addressed in his typical or representative capacity, not, however, as standing either for the prophetic order (Hoffman), or the mediatorial office (Köhler), for no human agency could possibly perform the works here recounted; but as personating the great Being who was predicted by Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, under the form of the Good Shepherd. Flock of slaughter. Not the whole human race (Hoffman), but, as nearby all agree, the nation of Israel. Their condition is farther described in the next verse.
Zec_11:5. Whose buyers, etc. Not “possessors,” as E. V., but “buyers,” both because this is the primary signification of the word, and because the antithesis of “sellers” in the next clause requires it. These buyers and sellers are those who do just as they please with the covenant people, consulting only their own interests. The one class slaughter them and are not guilty, i. e., do not incur blame, so far, at least, as the mere act is concerned, since they only execute what is a righteous punishment from God. This statement is just the reverse of the one in Jer_2:3, “Israel is holy to Jehovah … all who devour him become guilty, evil will come upon them,” where it appears that while Israel was holy, none could injure him without incurring guilt. Now, however, the case is different. Cf. Jer_51:6 (in Hebrew), where the same word, אָשַׁם, is used. The other class say, Blessed be Jehovah, etc., i. e., they make merchandise of the people, and yet consider the gains thus made perfectly honest, such as they can properly thank God for bestowing. These buyers and sellers are heathen rulers and oppressors. The last clause completes the picture by setting forth their own shepherds, i. e., their domestic rulers, civil and ecclesiastical, as those who do not spare them,—a pregnant negative.
Zec_11:6. For I will no more … saith Jehovah. This verse assigns the reason for the direction given in Zec_11:4. Jehovah, being about to visit upon his people the just desert of their sins, will yet make one more effort to save them. If this fails, they will be given up to the worst evils, namely, inward discord and subjugation to a stranger. Thus apprehended, the land is the land of Israel, and its inhabitants=the flock of slaughter (Calvin, Hengstenberg). Others (Keil, Köhler) take the phrase as=the nations of the world, and suppose the sense to be that Jehovah will no longer suffer them to oppress his people with impunity. This is grammatically possible, but needlessly diverts the current of thought in the passage, which is the sins and sufferings of the chosen people. His king, i. e., foreign oppressor. Cf. Hos_11:5. The last clause fitly completes the sad picture.
Zec_11:7. And I fed, etc. The prophet assumes the duty enjoined upon him. He undertakes to discharge the functions of a shepherd to a flock which is in a very sad condition,—so much so as to be already devoted to destruction. That is, dropping the figure, he proposes to guide and feed and defend a people so wicked and hardened that they are on the point of. being given over to the just retribution of their sinful ways. He begins by assuming the implements of office. I took … two staves, such as shepherds use. One of these he named נֹעַם which most expositors (Ewald, Umbreit, Keil, Henderson) render, Grace or Favor, but it is better to adhere to the primary: signification of the word, Beauty or Loveliness. (Hitzig, Hengstenberg, Maurer, Köhler), as in Psa_27:4; Psa_90:17, beauty of Jehovah=all that makes Him an object of affection or desire. Of course, the staff denotes the loveliness, not of the people (Bleek), but of God. The other staff he named תֹוֵלִם. This word the LXX. (σχοίνι̇σμα) and the Vulgate (funiculi) seem to have read as if pointed, תֲבָלִים for which there is no authority. As it stands, the word is masc. plural of Kal participle. Luther, and many others after him, render “destroyers,” but the verb never has this meaning in the Kal. Another class render it “the bound” or “the allied” (Hitzig, Hengstenberg, Maurer, Kliefoth), but this would require a passive participle. It only remains to adopt the legitimate, natural sense—“binders, or binding ones” (Marckius, Gesenius, Fürst, Keil). The plural may be explained as a plural of excellence, and the general sense is well enough expressed by the E. V., bands. (Gesenius says, Constringens poetice pro fune). And I fed the flock, i. e., with these two staves, one indicating God’s favor and protection from outward foes; the other, an internal union and fellowship. The next verse shows what he did in the discharge of this office.
Zec_11:8. And I cut off. … one day. Who are the three shepherds? Forty different answers have been given, which may thus be classified: (1.) Those who referred them to individuals, from Jerome’s Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, to Calmet’s Roman emperors, Galba, Otho, and Vitellius. The impossibility of any agreement upon the point shows that three distinct persons cannot be intended. (2.) The “later criticism” maintains that the three shepherds are the three kings of Israel, Zechariah, Shallum, and Menahem; but these were not cut off in one month, and even if that designation of time were referred (as it cannot be) to the duration of their reigns, it would apply only to one of them, Shallum; 2Ki_15:10-13. Nor was their cutting off an act of mercy even to Israel, which the cutting off in the text is evidently meant to be. (3.) Others suppose that the phrase points to the three imperial rulers who became liege-lords of the covenant nation, i. e., the Babylonian, Medo-Persian, and Macedonian dynasties (Ebrard, Kliefoth, Köhler, Keil). But it is not consistent with usage to call these shepherds; in no conceivable sense were they cut off in one month; when cut off they were succeeded by another, a fourth, quite as much an oppressor of God’s people as they were; and besides, Babylon was already destroyed at the time Zechariah wrote. (4.) It is better to fall back on the old opinion (Theodoret, Cyril), that the three shepherds are the three orders by which Israel was ruled,—the civil authorities, the priests, and the prophets. These three classes are mentioned together in Jer_2:8; Jer_2:18 as perverters of the nation and causers, of its destruction. And although in the future to which the passage refers, there were no longer prophets, yet there was a class, the Scribes or teachers of the law, who stood in the same relation to the people, and partly, at least, discharged the same functions. See the three classes mentioned by our Lord in Mat_16:21. In one month=in a period which is long when compared with one day, but brief as contrasted with other periods of time. “It shows that the extermination of the three shepherds is not to be regarded as a single act like the expiation (Zec_3:9), but as a continuous act which occupies some time” (Hengstenberg). The plural suffix, בָהֶם in the next clause, My soul became impatient … abhorred me, by the earlier interpreters and by Hengstenberg, Kliefoth, et al., is referred to the shepherds, but it is certainly more natural to refer it to “the flock” in Zec_11:7, and consider the clause as furnishing the reason of the rejection stated in the next verse, which is evidently aimed at the Jewish nation as a whole. The Good Shepherd lost patience with their perverse impenitence, and they, on the other hand, loathed him for his spirituality and holiness.
Zec_11:9. And I said. … flesh of the other. The shepherd renounces his flock. I will not feed you, i. e., I will no longer be your shepherd. The futures in the second half of the verse are by some taken strictly as predictions, but it is more vivid and more natural, like the older versions, to render them optatively in the sense of surrender. All kindly control is withdrawn, and the flock is left to receive the appropriate consequences of its fatal rejection of the means of deliverance. The three forms of calamity mentioned are death by natural causes, plague or famine; violence, at the hand of foreign foe; and intestine discord. On the last clause, compare Isa_9:20-21. The fulfillment of these words in the history of Jerusalem is well known.
Zec_11:10. And I took my staff. … nations. What is predicted in the foregoing verse is here exhibited in a symbolical action—the breaking of the staff, Beauty,—the explanation of which is immediately added. The Lord will remove the restraint which He had hitherto laid upon the enmity of foreign nations. See this restraint from violence expressed in the form of a covenant in Job_5:23; Hos_2:18; Eze_34:25. עַמִּים has here its usual sense of peoples or nations, and not that of the tribes of Israel, as Calvin and some of the moderns affirm (cf. Zec_12:6; Mic_4:5).
Zec_11:11. And it was destroyed … word of Jehovah. The covenant was annulled, just as the staff had been broken; the thing signified answered to the sign. This was not observed by the flock at large, but the wretched portion of it, the small company who gave heed to the Lord (cf. Joh_10:4-5; Joh_10:14-15), recognized the fulfillment of a divine word (cf. Jer_32:8). “In that day,” i. e., that in which the staff was broken.
Zec_11:12. And I said to them … pieces of silver. To them would at first sight refer to the wretched among the sheep just mentioned, but the connection, and the form of the inquiry, which aims simply to ascertain whether they are willing to acknowledge and appreciate his pastoral care, show that it must be addressed to the whole flock. His leaving the matter to their pleasure—“if it seem good,”—indicates that he served them not for wages, but in obedience to the Divine will (Köhler). The wages, however, were due. They are usually explained to mean repentance and faith or heartfelt piety. What they offered was thirty pieces of silver, the compensation for a slave who had been killed (Exo_21:32), the price for which a female slave could be purchased (Hos_3:2). Such an offer was “more offensive than a direct refusal” (Hengstenberg). Accordingly it was contemptuously rejected, as the next verse shows.
Zec_11:13. And Jehovah said … to the potter. As the prophet acted in the name of the Lord, the Lord regards the wages of the shepherd as offered to Himself, and therefore tells his representative what to do with the miserable sum. “The noble price at which I am valued” is, of course, an ironical expression,—one of the few instances in Scripture in which that form of speech occurs, This renders it exceedingly improbable that the Lord would direct such a sum to be put into the I treasury, as many interpret his words, “Throw to the potter,” to mean, either taking יוֹצֵר to be a copyist’s error for אוֹצָר=treasury or treasurer (Syr., Kimchi, et al.); or altering the last vowel: of the former, and making it synonymous with the latter (Jahn, Hitzig); or deriving the word from the intransitive יצר to be narrow, and rendering it “cleft in the treasure chest,” which Pressel claims as a well-grounded and simple explanation! There is no authority for altering the text, and יוֹצֵר always means an image-maker or potter. It seems clear that the phrase is a sort of proverb, and is used contemptuously, like our common saying, Throw it to the dogs. So much is evident, even if we reject the account which Hengstenberg gives of its origin. He argues from Jer_18:2; Jer_19:2, that there was a potter employed about the Temple, that his workshop was in the Valley of Hinnom, which from the time of Josiah had been fearfully polluted in every possible way, and that hence his pottery became an unclean spot. He insists that our passage contains an allusion to the act of Jeremiah (Zech 19) when, with several of the elders and priests he went to the Valley of Hinnom, and there broke a potter’s earthen vessel, and said, “Even so will I do unto this place, saith the Lord, as one breaketh a potter’s vessel that cannot be made whole again, and they shall bury them in Tophet because there is no more room … and I will make this city like Tophet.” Hengstenberg claims that the casting of the thirty pieces to the potter was simply a renewal of the old symbol and a fresh pledge of God’s purpose to punish. It is objected to this view with much force that the potter did not certainly dwell in Hinnom, and that if he did, this fact would not make him personally unclean. Köhler explains the phrase as meaning, “The sum is just large enough to pay a potter for the pitchers and pots which he furnishes, and which are thought of so little value that men are easily comforted for the breaking of any by the thought that others can readily be obtained in their stead.” This, however, does not account for the word “Throw,” which is emphatic. It is best to rest in the general conception of a contemptuous rejection of the offered wages. In the execution of the command the prophet threw the money in the house of Jehovah, which Hengstenberg explains as meaning that it was to be carried thence to the potter, in reply to which it is justly said that if that were the prophet’s meaning, he expresses himself very obscurely. The circumstance is, no doubt, significant, and may express either that the rejection of the wages was done in Jehovah’s name and by his authority, or that being done in the sanctuary where the people assembled for worship, it indicated that they would be held accountable for their course. This shameful payment by the people leads to another token of Jehovah’s displeasure.
Zec_11:14. And I broke … and Israel. The evil threatened here is worse than the former. It is the loss of all fraternal unity, represented under the figure of the old disruption of the nation in the time of Jeroboam. This verse is a sad difficulty in the way of those who refer the composition of the Second Part of Zechariah to a period prior to the Captivity, for to account for this verse they must put the period back to the days of Solomon, which is quite inconceivable. The breaking up of the nation into parties bitterly hostile to each other, was one of the most marked peculiarities of the later Jewish history, and greatly accelerated the ruin of the popular cause in the Roman war.
Zec_11:15-17. Since Israel rejected the good shepherd, they should be tended by shepherds of a very different class. This truth is represented by fresh symbolical action.
Zec_11:15. And Jehovah said … shepherd. Again points back to Zec_11:7, and shows that the present action is of the same symbolic character as the one there recorded. A crook, a bag, a pipe, a knife, etc., were the articles usually carried by shepherds. The nature of these other implements is not specified, but they were doubtless of a character fitted rather to injure than to benefit the flock. Foolish, with the usual Scriptural implication of wickedness. “The term directs attention to the fact that the rulers of the nation are so blinded by the judicial punishment inflicted by God, as to be unable to see that whilst their fury is directed against the nation they are undermining their own welfare” (Hengstenberg). Who is meant by this evil shepherd? The “later critics” say, Pekah, or Hosea, or Menahem. Others say, Herod (Henderson), the Romans (Hoffman, Köhler, Keil), or the whole body of native rulers (Hengstenberg). I prefer to combine the last two and understand the shepherd to represent the ruling power in whomsoever vested. The point of the prediction is that just they who ought to protect and aid the people would oppress and destroy them. They are presented in the form of an ideal unity in order to complete the antithesis to the one good shepherd. The next verse describes the conduct of this evil ruler.
Zec_11:16. For behold I raise … break off. He does the very opposite of what Christ is represented as doing in Isa_42:3. He not merely neglects, but destroys (cf Eze_34:3-4). The perishing. The present rendering in the text is equally grammatical with the past adopted in E. V., and more consistent with the verb visit. The whole verse is striking in its complete enumeration of particulars, showing how far this evil ruler falls short of what is involved in the oriental conception of a shepherd. The history of Israel after the flesh furnishes for centuries one continuous commentary upon the fidelity of this delineation. The breaking off of hoofs expresses the ferocious greed of the shepherds who will rend even these extremities rather than lose a shred of the flesh. This is better than the view (Ewald, Hitzig) which makes it refer to injuries caused by driving the flock over rough and stony roads. But these merciless masters are to meet due retribution.
Zec_11:17. Woe to the worthless … blinded. The arm is the organ of strength, the right eye of vigilance. As these are the members which instead of guarding the flock as they should have done, shamefully abused it, they are specified as the objects of punishment. The apparent jumble of metaphorical expressions in threatening a sword upon the arm and the eye, and then declaring that the former shall be withered and the other blinded, has led some (Jahn, Bunsen, Pressel) to give to חֶרֶב the pointing חֹרֶב=dryness (as Vulgate. Arab, and Sam. have done in Deu_28:22). But it is better to allow that the Prophet connects several punishments together in order to render prominent the greatness of the retribution. The sacred writers are not concerned about the requirements of an artificial rhetoric where the sense is abundantly plain (cf. Isa_62:5). A similar reason may have led Rosenmüller to follow the Chaldee in changing the verse from the liveliest poetry into the jejunest prose by rendering, “Woe to the shepherd who is like a butcher, whose knife is in his hand and whose eye is upon the sheep to slay them.”
THEOLOGICAL AND MORAL
1. The rejection of Israel after the flesh is the one sad subject of this chapter. The picture is wholly dark, unrelieved by a single ray of light. The impression made by the opening verses, the vivid startling prelude, is deepened all the way through to the end. A whirlwind of flame sweeps through the entire land, laying waste mountain and plain, forests and meadows, and drying up even streams and rivers. Men and beasts are overtaken together, and their cries of terror and despair indicate the completeness of the fiery ruin. It seems as if the Prophet, rising with the awful grandeur of his theme, had condensed into a few poetic lines the substance of the long chapters in which Moses of old had predicted the divine judgment upon an unfaithful people. The national Israel had enjoyed peculiar privileges, but such privileges always draw with them increased responsibility. As Jehovah said by the mouth of Amos (Zec_3:2), “You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore will I punish you for all your iniquities.” Repeatedly in the course of their previous history had God visited them with his rod, but there had always been a recovery. War, pestilence, or famine had executed his wrath; or they were sold into the hand of their enemies for a longer or shorter period; and once they had actually been transplanted into a foreign land where they remained for more than two generations. But in the end the rod was lifted off, and they resumed their former condition. Now, however, there was to be a final act of judgment, one summing up in itself all that had gone before, and expressing once for all the wrath of God upon obdurate impenitence. The unfaithful trustees should be dispossessed of their trust, their precious inheritance given to others, and themselves cast out to become a hissing and a by word. Foreign foes and civil discords would concur to work their destruction, and they who should be their protectors would become their oppressors. So without friends or helpers in heaven or on earth, they would pass away as an organized nation, and live only to perpetuate the memory of their past history, and teach more vividly its great lessons of sin and retribution.
2. But prior to the consummation of this great act of judgment, before the fire was yet kindled, the Lord determined to make one last effort to save the wretched people. This is set forth in the striking symbolism of the chapter, by a shepherd who offers to take charge of the flock notwithstanding its miserable condition. Instead of bearing a single crook, he is furnished with two staves. These have names, expressing in one case the divine favor which wards off all external foes; in the other, union or concord, which when it exists excludes the evils sure to be engendered by mutual distrust and alienation. But the diligence and affection of the shepherd produced no effect. The fore-doomed flock turned away from him with loathing. The kindly effort miserably failed. The passage bears a striking analogy to the parable of the wicked husbandmen (Mat_21:33-34; Mar_12:1-12). The lord of the vineyard had repeatedly sent messengers to receive of its fruits, but these were abused and injured as often as they were sent. “At last he sent his Son, saying, They will reverence my Son.” But even this means failed. The Son was no more regarded than the servants had been. On the contrary, he was cast out of the vineyard and slain. The contemporary Jews, when asked by our Lord what would be the fate of these wicked husbandmen, answered promptly that they would be miserably destroyed, and the vineyard let out to others who would render the fruits in their season. They thus pronounced their own sentence. For the Saviour, after reminding them of the stone which the builders rejected and which yet became the head of the corner, declared with great solemnity, “Therefore say I unto you, the kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.” Nothing more was to be done. The last and crowning manifestation of the divine mercy had been made, and yet, so far from awakening and reclaiming the infatuated people, it only incensed them, and brought wrath and ill-doing upon the bearer of the message. Just so with the flock Zechariah describes. They had the services of Him who justly calls himself the Good Shepherd, under whom all may find protection and repose, green pastures, and running streams. But they would none of Him. He came unto his own, and his own received Him not. There was a deliberate and peremptory rejection of God’s unspeakable gift. When the furious crowd, gathered before the tribunal of Pilate, rent the air with shouts, “Away with Him, crucify Him,” the Roman governor asked in wonder, Shall I crucify your king f Instantly came the startling answer from the heads of the nation, “We have no king but Cassar” (Joh_19:15). These decisive words terminated the case. Pilate ceased to remonstrate, and gave sentence that it should be as they required. Then was filled the measure of Israel’s iniquity. “If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin; but now have they no cloke for their sin. … If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin; but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father” (Joh_15:22-24). Israel rejected the good shepherd, and was itself in turn rejected. The two staves were broken, and he who held them relinquished his office. Neither Beauty nor Bands any longer performed their grateful function. To break a shepherd’s crook is a very simple act, but as performed by one who represented the Good Shepherd, it expressed a most fearful truth—the final abandonment of the flock by the only being who could feed, guide, or defend it. Ever since, the miserable sheep have experienced the weight of Jehovah’s words: Woe unto them when I depart from them!
3. The consideration of the interesting critical and exegetical questions suggested by the quotation of Zec_11:12-13, in Mat_27:9-10, properly belongs to the interpretation of that Gospel. See Lange in loc. Although the Evangelist attributes the language he cites to Jeremiah, there can scarcely be a doubt that he does in fact quote from Zechariah. The case then is one which illustrates very well the principle upon which such applications of the Old Testament are made. The substance of the thought contained in Zec_11:12-13, is that the services of the good shepherd were contemptuously undervalued and rejected by the flock, and that this scornful rejection was indignantly rebuked by the Lord. Now this would have been fulfilled even had there been no sale by Judas for a precise sum of money, and no application of that money to a specific purpose. Just as in the corresponding case in Zec_9:9-10, the prediction respecting our Lord’s lowly and peaceful position and character would have been accomplished, had He not made his formal entry into Jerusalem riding upon an ass. But it pleased the Lord in that case and in this, not only to fulfill the general purport of the prediction, but even to bring about an exact correspondence in minor and unessential details. Thus in the prophecy, Israel depreciates the worth of the shepherd’s services, estimating them at thirty pieces of silver; in the narrative of the gospels it appears that this is the precise sum for which the Saviour was betrayed. In the prophecy, the sum paid for the possession of the shepherd was indignantly cast away by him; in the history it was so ordered by the Lord that the priests and elders did not dare to put in the treasury the price, of the Saviour’s blood, for they said, “it is not lawful.” In the prophecy the thirty pieces of silver are thrown to the potter, i. e., contemptuously spurned, yet this is done in the temple; in the history the money which the wretched traitor had received was brought back by him to those who had given it, and when they declined to take it, “he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple;” but the ecclesiastical authorities, unwilling to apply the coin to any sacred use, devoted it to the purchase of ground to be used as a burying place for strangers, and the land which they purchased was “the potter’s field,” a field which doubtless was selected because it was so broken and marred as to be unfit for agricultural purposes, but which yet in its very name contained a peculiar suggestiveness. Thus did divine providence bring about a striking correspondence between the symbolical treatment and action of the prophet and the actual course of events in the betrayal and rejection of our Saviour.
4. The choice of men never lies between a good shepherd and none at all, but between a good shepherd and a bad one. Israel of old rejected the gracious provision offered by the Lord Jesus, and the alternative was ruin. The language of the prophet is vigorous and incisive. He describes a shepherd who not only fails in every duty of his office, but does the exact opposite, wounding where he should heal, and devouring whom he should feed, until the flock is miserably destroyed. But even more forcible are the words of the Saviour (Luk_19:41), when he wept over Jerusalem, saying, “If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong to thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave one stone upon another, because thou knowest not the time of thy visitation.” The fulfillment of these fearful words is well known. The ruin of the place and people was overwhelming. Scarce any siege in the history of the world was attended with such cruelties and horrors as preceded and followed the fall of Jerusalem. There was a deliberate and energetic effort to exterminate the race. The whole power of the Roman Empire was brought to bear upon this one province, as Merivale says, “with a barbarity of which no other example occurs in the records of civilization.” And the subsequent history of the Jews for many centuries illustrated in the same manner the symbol of Zechariah. Their rulers were evil shepherds, mock shepherds. Giving nothing, they exacted everything. They taxed, they pillaged, they oppressed, they insulted, habitually and on principle. The Jew was an outcast without any rights, and when tolerated it was only as a sponge to be squeezed when it was full. The furious crowd in the judgment hall of Pilate said, “His blood be on us and on our children.” They were taken at their word, and the self-imposed malediction followed them from age to age and from country to country, and does not seem even yet to have been exhausted.
5. God often uses instruments which He afterwards destroys, scourging with a rod and then breaking the rod and casting it into the fire. The worthless shepherds who battened like vultures on the wretched flock of Judæa, the haughty Romans who inflicted the divine judgments upon the apostate and incorrigible nation, were themselves in turn exposed to a righteous retribution. The time came when there was a sword upon their arms and their eyes. She who had spoiled so many lands and peoples was herself spoiled, and the city which had gathered into her walls the precious things of all the earth became the prey of the barbarian. Her former inhabitants have disappeared from the face of the earth, and new races occupy their seats, while the Jew still lives, the lineal and indubitable descendant of the men among whom our Lord was born and by whom He was rejected. The arch of Titus commemorates in pictured stone the overthrow of Judæa and the plunder of its sacred vessels, but it likewise commemorates the overthrow of the conqueror and the utter ruin of that vast empire which survives only in these mute relies of its ancient grandeur.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Moore: Zec_11:6. Wicked rulers are a curse of God on a wicked nation. Now as religion tends to prevent such rulers, or at least prevent their choice, there is an obvious connection between politics and religion. Church and State may and ought to be separated; politics and religion ought not, for thus the State becomes exposed to the curse of God, and political evil follows in the train of moral evil.
Zec_11:7. Bands. Union of feeling in a people is a mark of the favor of God, and disunion a token of his wrath, and usually the beginning of a downfall.
Zec_11:8. Christ cannot be rejected with impunity. Even the Jews who “did it ignorantly in unbelief,” paid a terrible penalty for their crime; how much more terrible will be the punishment of those who have all their unbelief without any of their ignorance.
Zec_11:12. Men now sometimes reject Christ for a far less reward than thirty pieces of silver, and of course with far more guilt than Judas.
Wordsworth: Zec_11:10. Break my covenant with all peoples. “When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, He set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel, for the Lord’s portion is his people, Jacob is the lot of his inheritance” (Deu_32:8-9). This was God’s compact with all nations and with Israel. He assigned a special inheritance to Judah; and no people could deprive them of it as long as they were true to Him. But now that they have rejected Christ, He has broken that compact; Jerusalem is trodden down by the Gentiles, and the Jews are wanderers and outcasts in all lands.
Zec_11:15. A foolish Shepherd. Good shepherds, says Cyril, have a light pastoral staff by which they guide the sheep; but the evil shepherd maltreats and belabors the sheep with rude handling. So in spiritual things, the good Christian pastor deals gently, tenderly, and lovingly with his flock; but the bad pastor is impatient and rules them with roughness and violence; and does not bring back the sheep when astray, nor guard them against the wolf and the robber, nor heal those which are sick; and does not feed them with the wholesome food of sound doctrine, but with poisonous heresies.
Zec_11:17. The Idol Shepherd. It would not be easy to point out any other shepherd who makes himself to be an idol, except the Bishop of Rome. That he does make himself into an idol is certain. The first act that he performs after his election is to go into the Church of St. Peter, and there taking his seat upon the high altar to claim and receive adoration from the cardinals who kiss his feet. Among the medals struck in the Roman mint is one representing the cardinals kneeling before the Pope, with this inscription, Quem creant, adorant. Count Montalembert, in a letter written from his death-bed, February 28, 1870, protested against those votaries of the papacy who, as he says, “trample under foot all our liberties and principles, in order to immolate justice and truth, reason and history, as a sacrifice to the idol which they have set up for themselves in the Vatican.”
Calvin. A Prayer: Grant, Almighty God, that since thou hast hitherto so patiently endured, not only our sloth and folly but also our ingratitude and pcrverseness,—O grant, that we may hereafter render ourselves submissive and obedient to Thee; and as thou hast been pleased to set over us the best of Shepherds, even thine only begotten Son, cause us willingly to attend to. Him, and to suffer ourselves to be gently ruled by Him; and though thou mayest find in us what may justly provoke thy wrath, yet restrain extreme severity, and so correct what is sinful in us, as to continue our Shepherd until we shall at length under thy guidance reach thy heavenly kingdom; and thus keep us in thy fold and under thy pastoral staff, that at last, being separated from the goats, we may enjoy that blessed inheritance which has been ordained for us by the blood of thy beloved Son.—Amen.
Footnotes:
[1]Zec_11:1.—Perhaps it would be more exact to render, “devour among thy cedars.” Of. 2Sa_18:8 for the use of אֽכל with the preposition בְ.
[2]Zec_11:2.—For בָצוֹר many MSS. and two early editions read בָצִיר which is also found in the Keri; but it is generally considered to be a needless attempt at correction. The Kethib is lit., cut off, h. inaccessible, which Dr. Riggs gives in his emendations.
[3]Zec_11:4.—.רְעֵה Feed is a miserably inadequate version of this word It means to perform the whole work of a shepherd, of which feeding is but one part. Guiding, defending, and ruling are also included. The same is true of the Greek equivalent ποιμαινῶ but not of the Latin pasco.
[4]Zec_11:4.—“Flock of Slaughter” Keil renders of strangling, and says that the cognate verb “does not mean to slay but to strangle” If it has this meaning in the cognate Arabic form, which I doubt, it is certainly lost in the Hebrew. See any of the Lexicons or Concordances, צאׄן הַהֲרֵגָה=צאׄן טִבְחָה (Psa_44:23). The flock destined or accustomed to be slaughtered.
[5]Zec_11:5.—וַאעְשׁר is merely a syncopated form of ואַעְשיר The vav expresses consequence, and is translated accordingly. The tenses are futures expressing continued action. The plural verbs are employed in a distributive sense; they, i. e., each of them, will say, etc.
[6]Zec_11:6. —כִתּהוּ lit-, smite in pieces=lay waste.
[7]Zec_11:7.—The E. V. “and I will feed,” although it follows the LXX. and Vulgate, is opposed alike to grammar and to sense. The full force of the vav conv. is, “And so I fed.” Exactly the same form is found in the last clause of the verse.
[8]Zec_11:7.—לָכֵן has been very variously rendered. The LXX. read it and the following word, as one, and so made Canaanite of it, which Blayney adopts. The Vulgate, propter hoc=therefore, is the usual sense of the word but confessedly hard here. Some (Kimchi, Ewald, Henderson) make it a noun with a preposition=in respect to truth, i. e., truly, but there is no other instance of the kind. Others (Hitzig) render on account of you, which also lacks authority, In this conflict of opinion, it is better to adhere to usage and render therefore; but then this cannot give the reason for the Shepherd’s assumption of his office as Hengstenberg claims, for it is too far from the verb; but must assign the consequence of the flock’s description, thus, And so I fed the flock of slaughter, therefore (i. e., because so named), a most miserable flock.
[9]Zec_11:7.—עֲניֵי דַצאׄן is an emphatic positive=superlative, the most miserable sheep.
[10]Zec_11:7.—אחד. Köhler insists that this must be regarded as a true construct, depending upon מהם understood, but it is better to take it as construct used for the absolute, as elsewhere (Green, H. G., § 223 a.).
[11]Zec_11:8.—“The three shepherds.” Pressel shows that Köhler has quite failed to overthrow Hitzig’s assertion, that את־שְׁלשֶׁת הָרֹעִים must be thus translated (cf. Zec_11:12-13; Gen_40:10; Gen_40:12; Gen_40:18).
[12]Zec_11:10.—עַמִּים. Peoples. Cf. Text, and Gram, on Zec_8:20.
[13]Zec_11:11.—כן. Not truly, nor therefore, but thus.
[14]Ver 12.—שׂכָרִי Not price (E. V.), but reward or wages. The word in the next verse, similarly but correctly rendered price in the E. V., is a totally different one, הַיְקָר.
[15]Zec_11:12.—שֶׁקֶל as usual is omitted before רֶסֶף.
[16]Zec_11:14.—אַחִַוָה—ἅπ. λεγ. Found in cognate languages and the Mishna. A token of post-exile composition.
[17]Zec_11:15.—כְּלִי is a collective singular.
[18]Zec_11:16.—הנִּכְ׳. The connection requires us to render the participle in the present, instead of the past, as E. V. “cut off.”
[19]Ver 16.—נַעַר is with LXX., Vulg., and Syr. to be taken as formed from נער to shake, Piel, to disperser Arab ***=in fugam vertere (Gesenius, Fürst, et al.). Hengstenberg makes it the ordinary Hebrew word of the same radicals, but this is never applied to animals, and if it were, could not have the meaning which he claims, namely, tender.
[20]Zec_11:16.—נִאָבָה. what stands upon its feet. i. e., is strong and healthy. Henderson derives it from an Arabic root =to be wearied, feeble, which he thinks required by the connection. But the picture is the more vivid when it shows all classes and conditions of the flock to be equally neglected. Dr. Riggs renders “the well (or sound).”
[21]Zec_11:17.—אֱלִיל, not idol’s but worthless, or, as Köhler says, mock-shepherd. Dr. Riggs gives “Shepherd of vanity,” which itself needs interpretation.
[22]Zec_11:17—רֹעִי ,עֹזְבִי paragogic vowel (Green, H. G., § 61, 6 a.), found chiefly in poetical passages.
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.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2–17 fir tree . . . cedar--if even the cedars…
fir tree . . . cedar--if even the cedars (the highest in the state) are not spared, how much less the fir trees (the lowest)!
forest of . . . vintage--As the vines are stripped of their grapes in the vintage (compare Joe 3:13), so the forest of Lebanon "is come down," stripped of all its beauty. Rather, "the fortified" or "inaccessible forest" [MAURER]; that is, Jerusalem dense with houses as a thick forest is with trees, and "fortified" with a wall around. Compare Mic 3:12, where its desolate state is described as a forest.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1, 4, 7, 8, 9, 15, 17 LAMENTATION OF THE HUMILIATED ENEMIES, Zec_11:1-3.
LAMENTATION OF THE HUMILIATED ENEMIES, Zec_11:1-3.
These verses do not form an independent piece, nor are they to be connected with Zec_11:4 ff., for the opening words of Zec_11:4 show that there a new prophecy begins. They are rather the conclusion to the promise in chapter 10, that the exiles will be re-established in their own land (Zec_10:10), for they state what will become of the present occupants of the land: they will be completely annihilated. What has been said indicates that the judgment announced in these verses is not, as is commonly assumed, a judgment upon Israel, but upon the foreigners who now occupy their territory. The language used is highly poetic (compare Isa_2:12 ff.).
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1. The enemies are pictured as magnificent forests (Isa_10:33-34), in danger of being devoured by fire. The prophet calls upon Lebanon to open its doors so that the fire may come in.
Lebanon — See on Zec_10:10, and reference there.
Cedars — These were the glory of Lebanon. At one time they were very abundant. Solomon used them in the temple (1Ki_5:6), and several of the Assyrian kings claim to have cut them and carried them to Assyria (compare Hab_2:17; see Hastings’s Dictionary of the Bible, article “Cedar”).
2. Howl, fir tree — Or, cypress. Next to the cedar the choicest tree of Lebanon (Isa_14:8; Isa_37:24); it also was used in the construction of the temple (1 Kings 5:22, 24).
For the cedar is fallen — Not so much out of sympathy as because a similar fate is awaiting the cypress.
The mighty are spoiled — R.V., “the goodly ones.” Expresses the same thought as the preceding. The mighty ones are the noble trees of Lebanon.
Oaks of Bashan — See on Amo_4:1. Bashan was at one time exceedingly rich in oak forests; even now fine specimens of oak trees may be seen east of the Jordan, but not in as great numbers as formerly (compare Tristram, Natural History, p. 369).
Forest of the vintage — Better, R.V., “strong forest”; or, better, with margin, “fortified” — inaccessible. Both Bashan and Lebanon must fall before the anger of Jehovah. The two forests with their majestic trees represent the heathen power that is now occupying the former territory of Israel west and east of the Jordan (see on Zec_10:10). To make room for the exiles about to return it must be driven out. To simplify the Hebrew text, which is somewhat awkward, Marti proposes to omit Zec_11:2 a; he reads Zec_11:1-2, “Open, O Lebanon, thy doors, that the fire may devour thy cedars; howl, ye oaks of Bashan, for the strong forest is come down.”
3. The prophet already hears the lament of those who have been robbed of their power and glory.
A voice of the howling — Equivalent to loud howling. A more forceful rendering would be, “Hark! howling!” (Compare G.-K., 146b; Zep_1:14.)
Shepherds — As in Zec_10:3, the foreign rulers. The presence of extensive herds in Bashan may have suggested the use of the term.
Their glory — The rich pasture of the shepherds; in the figure, the majesty and splendor of the rulers.
Young lions — At one time lions seem to have been abundant in Palestine (see on Hos_5:14); here they represent the rulers and nobles.
The pride of Jordan — “The thickets and reeds which grew so luxuriantly on the banks of the Jordan, and afforded so safe and convenient a lair for the lions” (Jer_49:19). In the figure, identical in meaning with glory, the wealth and splendor of the rulers.
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 On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 1. Open thy doors, O Lebanon] The passage is…
1. Open thy doors, O Lebanon] The passage is highly poetical and dramatic, but in its first reference literal and physical. In the path of the invading army stands Lebanon, at once the pride and bulwark of the land. As the priestly herald of the approaching host (quasi esset Dei fetialis, Calv.), the prophet summons it to open wide an access, and to surrender to the reckless torch of the fierce foe its goodly pines and noble cedars. Comp. 2Ki_19:23; Isa_37:24; Isa_14:8.
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 On vv1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 (1-3) Here, as in Zec_9:1-8, we have intimation of…
XI.
(1-3) Here, as in Zec_9:1-8, we have intimation of an invasion of the land of Israel from the north, only, whereas in the former case Philistia, as well as Syria and Phœnicia, was to be the sufferer, here it is “the pride of Jordan that is to be spoiled.” Some have considered the first three verses of this chapter to be a distinct prophecy by themselves. To this supposition no valid objection can be made. But the terms of the prophecy are so vague that it is impossible to decide with any degree of satisfaction to what particular invasion it refers. It might be descriptive of any invasion which took place from the north, whether Assyrian, Babylonian, Greek, or Roman. Others take these verses as introductory to the prophecy that follows, and consider them to be descriptive either of a storm breaking over the country (comp. Psalms 29 and, with some, Isa_2:10-22) from the north, or else of some terrible visitation which would come upon the land, similar to the invasions which had taken place in the days of old. In any case, these verses have so little necessary connection with what follows, that it will make little difference to our interpretation of the remainder of the chapter which of the above theories we adopt. (Compare for similar expressions, Isa_37:24; Isa_14:8; Jer_25:34-36.)
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 On vv1–17 . Restoration to their own land and material prosperity…
. Restoration to their own land and material prosperity do not free the Israelites from probation or trouble. The prophet, therefore, darkens his late picture with some gloomy shadows. The Holy Land is threatened with judgment (vers. 1-3).
Open thy doors, O Lebanon. The prophet graphically portrays the punishment that is to fall upon the people. The sin that occasions this chastisement, viz. the rejection of their Shepherd and King, is denounced later ( Lebanon stood in the path of an invader from the north, whence most hostile armies entered Palestine. The "doors" of Lebanon are the mountain passes which gave access to the country. Some commentators, following an old Jewish interpretation, take Lebanon to mean the temple or Jerusalem; but we are constrained to adhere primarily to the literal signification by the difficulty of carrying on the metaphorical allusions in the following clauses. That the fire may devour thy cedars. That the invader may wantonly destroy thy trees which are thy glory and thy boast.
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Vers. 1-6. A final warning.
"Open thy doors, O Lebanon," etc. The prophet, after having foretold (Zec_10:6-12) the great future and final glory of the literal Israel, seems here, as it were, to "hark back" to a previous and very different scene, viz. as most commentators, both Jewish and Christian, believe to that which should happen in those evil days when Jerusalem should be destroyed. We noted a very similar transition at the beginning of Zec 9. (comp. also Luk_17:24, 25 19:11, etc.; 2Th_2:3) In the present case the destruction predicted seems to be of a threefold description. It was to be a destruction of the nation by being a destruction
(1) of their palaces;
(2) of their princes; and
(3) of the people at large.
I OF THESE PALACES OR CONSPICUOUS PUBLIC BUILDINGS, in which they came afterwards to glory so much. (Mat_24:1 Mar_13:1 Luk_21:5) To this interpretation of vers. 1, 2 we seem pointed by the peculiar word "doors;" as also by the fact that the "doors" of the Jewish temple, and almost all its inner linings as well, are said to have been made of cypress ("fir") and cedar; (see 1Ki_5:8, 1Ki_5:10) and, if so, we may notice:
1. How thorough is the nature of the coming destruction. What the "fire" can "devour" will be utterly destroyed in that way. What the fire cannot devour will "come down," or be levelled. Even if the stones remain, that is, the buildings will perish. (see Mat_24:2, end) Also:
2. How wide its extent. All the buildings they gloried in would thus perish. They would perish thus,
a. however costly, even though almost built, as it were, of the precious cedar; (Jer_22:13, Jer_22:14) and
b. however varied, whether comparable to "cedar," or "oak," or cypress; and finally
c. however strong, or "mighty," even if comparable (see margin) to a "defeated forest." Nothing would save the whole collection of buildings from being utterly "spoiled" and destroyed. Well might those buildings be called upon, in the bold language of prophecy, to "howl" at such an outlook! And abundantly was all this fulfilled when the Roman ploughshares ploughed the ground on which the temple and fortress of Jerusalem had previously stood.
II OF THE PRIESTS. These are compared, in ver. 3, to "shepherds" and "young lions," as showing, perhaps, on the one hand, what they ought to be to the commonalty of Israel, and, on the other band, what they ought to be to its foes. (see Psa_78:70-72 Gen_49:9, Gen_49:10) We see:
1. How complete their destruction. This evidenced
(1) by their "howl" of despair. With the destruction of Jerusalem came that of the whole Jewish polity and liturgical service; and with that also forever departed all the glory of the then ruling classes of Jewry. How great the emphasis, in this connection, of Mat_23:38! Also
(2) by their "roar" of fury like that of young lions, the "pride," or terror, of the whole valley of Jordan, who"s driven therefrom by its "swelling". (Jer_49:19) What is there that so excites the deepest anger as the utter humiliation of pride? (comp. Joh_11:48 Joh_12:10, 11 Mat_27:18)
2. How just their destruction, and that also in two separate ways, Namely,
(1) by their neglect of others. Though they belonged to the flock, as being its "own" shepherds, appointed to tend and care for it, they "pitied" it "not". (contrast Mat_9:36) Though the flock belonged to them, as being, in a sense, its "possessors," instead of preserving the flock they "sell" and "slay" it (see Matthew 23, almost passim). Also
(2) by their satisfaction with themselves. They see no sin in their conduct; "they hold themselves not guilty." They even see cause for thankfulness to God in its results: "Blessed be the Lord; for I am rich". (comp. Luk_12:1 Luk_16:14) Can any men more deserve to suffer than those who "glory" thus "in their shame"? (Php_3:19)
III OF THE PEOPLE AT LARGE OF THE "FLOCK." Of this destruction, note:
1. How solemnly it was predetermined. The very appellation here given, viz. the "flock of slaughter," signifies as much. Almost all, also, that is said respecting the flock will no more pity;" "I will deliver" to evil; "I will not deliver" therefrom implies as much.
2. How terribly it was accomplished. Whether
(1) as to extent the very land itself, as well as its inhabitants, being smitten for their sakes; or
(2) as to the agency used, the destruction in question being effected partly by their mutual jealousies and internecine contentions as "neighbours," and partly by their common madness in preferring "Caesar" to "Christ" as their "king." See the well known account of Josephus, in which the final overthrow of Jerusalem and the Jews is traced almost equally to the unwilling action of Titus without, and the furious folly of the factions within. Under both aspects it was a marvellous case of political self-destruction, as described in this passage.
In conclusion, there are just two other points to observe and admire, viz.:
1. How inexhaustible is Gods mercy! In this awful scene of destruction, with all its aggravated guilt, shameless hypocrisy, and suicidal infatuation, the light of that mercy is yet not wholly extinguished. There are some in this "flock of slaughter" who are to be "fed" (ver. 4). So, in the case of the Noachian Deluge, and in that of the destruction of Sodom, there were some to be saved. So it is said, also, that in the fearful, final destruction of Jerusalem and the fact may possibly be referred to in the words now before us the Christians were saved by their flight to Pella.
2. How discriminating are Gods Judgments! The people were guilty here as well as their leaders. (Jer_5:30, Jer_5:31) Therefore the people are visited with anger as well as their leaders. (see Isa_24:2 Hos_4:9) The people, however, being less privileged and instructed, are also, in some measure, less guilty. (see Jer_5:4, Jer_5:5) The people, therefore, though punished as well, are not punished as much (see above, about some of these being "fed;" also below, in ver. 7, about the "poor of the flock;" compare such passages as Mat_11:20-24 Luk_11:29-32). The acknowledgment of David in Psa_51:4, end, will be the acknowledgment of all "in that day.
HOMILIES BY D. THOMAS Vers. 1, 2. The cedars, fir trees, and oaks of society.
"Open thy doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour thy cedars. Howl, fir tree; for the cedar is fallen; because the mighty are spoiled: howl, O ye oaks of Bashan; for the forest of the vintage is come down." This chapter, it has been said, divides itself into three sections.
1. The threat of judgment (vers. 1-3).
2. The description of the good Shepherd (vers. 4-14).
3. The sketch of the foolish shepherd (vers. 15-17).
The expression, "Open thy doors gates, O Lebanon," is, of course, quite dramatic in style. "The prophet, instead of announcing to Lebanon its future destruction, commands it as the servant of God to open its gates; the meaning therefore is, "Thou Lebanon wilt be stormed and devastated by the foe (Hengstenberg). Lebanon, here, may be regarded as a symbol of the kingdom of Judah, its cedars as denoting the chief men of the kingdom. We shall take the words to illustrate three subjects in relation to mankind a variety of distinction, a common calamity, and a natural alarm.
I A VARIETY OF DISTINCTION. The "cedar" here, the "fir tree," or cypress, and the "oaks," are employed to set forth some of the distinctions that prevailed amongst the Hebrew people. How, whilst all men have a common origin, a common nature, and common moral obligations and responsibilities, yet in every generation there prevails a large variety of striking distinctions. There are not only the cedars and fir trees, but even briars and thistles. There is almost as great a distinction between the highest type of man and the lowest as there is between the lowest and the highest type of brute. In the great forest of every generation there are a few tall cedars and oaks rising in majesty above all the other trees, down to mere brushwood and even fungi. There are intellectual giants and intellectual dwarfs, moral monarchs and spiritual serfs. This variety of distinction in the human family serves at least two important purposes.
1. To check pride in the highest and despondency in the lowest. The cedar has no cause for boasting over the fir tree or over the humblest plant: it owes its existence to the same God, and is sustained by the same common elements. And what have the greatest men the Shakespeares, the Schillers, the Miltons, the Goethes to be proud of? What have they that they have not received? And why should the weakest man despond? He is what God made him, and his responsibilities are limited by his capacities.
2. To strengthen the ties of human brotherhood. Were all men of equal capacity, it is manifest that there would be no scope for that mutual ministry of interdependence which tends to unite society together. There are the givers and the receivers; the delight of the former is in his gifts, the hope of the latter is in the helps he receives. The strong rejoices in bearing the infirmities of the weak, and the weak rejoices in gratitude and hope on account of the succour received. Between the least and the greatest, therefore, in human society there is ample scope afforded for the fall play of the faculties, the sympathies, and the services of all.
II A COMMON CALAMITY. "Howl, fir tree; for the cedar is fallen," An expression which implies that the same fate awaits the fir tree. There is one event that awaits men of every type and class and grade, the tallest cedar and the most stunted shrub, and that is, death. "All flesh is grass;" "Wine men die, likewise the fool and the brutish person perish, and leave their wealth to others.
1. This common calamity levels all distinctions. The cedar and the fir tree if not cut down by the woodman, scathed by the lightning, or uprooted by the tempest must sooner or later rot, and their dust mingle with the earth; so with men of all distinctions, the prince and the pauper, the cedar and the bramble in the human forest, must bow to the stroke. "Though his excellency mount up to the heavens, and his head reach unto the clouds, yet he shall perish forever.
2. This common calamity should dematerialize all souls. Since we are only here on this earth for a few short years at most, why should we live to the flesh, and thus materialize our souls? Here we are only pilgrims, and we should be in quest of "the city that hath foundations, Whose Builder and Maker is God." To see the pinions of the noble eagle, made to pierce the clouds and bask high up in sunlight, buried in a foul pool of mud, is a lamentable sight; but ten thousand times more terrible is the sight of a human soul immersed in matter.
III A NATURAL ALARM. "Howl, fir tree." It is the howl, not of rage, not el sympathy, but of alarm. The principle of alarm here implied is that when the higher falls the lower may well take the alarm. If the cedar gives way, let the cypress look out. This principle may apply to:
1. Communities. Amongst the kingdoms of the earth there are the "cedar" and the "fir tree." Egypt, Persia, Greece, Rome, these were cedars; they have "fallen." Let the smaller ones take the alarm. England is a "cedar," but it must fall; it has, I fear, even now the marks of decay on it; its multiplying branches of ambition are exhausting its roots. Its tall, when it comes, will be a just warning to all the smaller states of the world. The same may be said of markets. There are the "cedars" in the commercial world, great houses regulating almost the merchandise of the world. Some have recently fallen, others are falling: let the "fir trees" take the alarm and be cautious.
2. Individuals. When men who are physical "cedars," strong and stalwart, whose build is almost like the gnarled oak, fall, let weaker men take the alarm. When men who are moral "cedars," majestic in character and mighty in beneficent influences great preachers, authors, philanthropists fall, let the less useful take the alarm, still more the useless. "Howl, fir tree, for the cedar is fallen." This was the text of the funeral sermon which the famous Mr. Jay, of Bath, preached on the equally famous Rowland Hill; and commenting on it he spoke eloquently concerning the impressions made by the death of a man of mark. 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 On vv1, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 15 That the fire may devour thy cedars, etc.
Zec_11:1-2
That the fire may devour thy cedars, etc.
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The fallen cedar
In this chapter there is an announcement of the judgment that was to come on the Jewish State and nation because of their ungodliness, and especially their contemptuous rejection of Him whom God sent to be their shepherd. The prophecy here is not in any way connected with that in the preceding chapters, except as it may be regarded as continuing the account of Gods dealings with Israel, and their behaviour towards Him consequent on the events predicted in these chapters. Hitherto the prophet has been a bearer of good tidings to Zion, tidings of deliverance from oppressors, and restoration to former privilege and felicity. But there was a dark side to the picture as well as a bright one. All trouble and conflict had not ceased with their restoration to their own land: nor was their tendency to rebellion and apostasy from Jehovah, their Shepherd and King, finally subdued. Treating Him with contempt, His favour should be withdrawn from them, and the bonds that united them should be broken. The iron hand of foreign oppression should again be laid heavily upon them, and the ruin of their State and desolation of their land should mark the greatness of their sin by the severity of the penalty it had entailed. The prophecy begins with a picture of ruin and desolation overspreading the land, and then the process is detailed by which this was brought about and the cause of it indicated. The description of the judgment commences dramatically. Lebanon is summoned to open her doors, that the fire may enter to consume her cedars; the cypress is admonished to howl or wail because the cedar is fallen, because the noble and glorious trees are destroyed; the oaks of Bashan are called upon to join in the wail, for the inaccessible forest is laid low. The cypress is here called to lament for the fall of the cedar of Lebanon, the glory of the forest, not as deploring that calamity so much as anticipating for itself a like fate. That this description is to be taken literally cannot be supposed; the language is too forcible, and the picture too vivid to be understood merely of the destruction by fire of a few trees, even though these were the finest of their kind. On the other hand, there seems no sufficient reason for regarding this description as symbolical and wholly figurative. The more simple and tenable view is that which Calvin suggested, namely, that by the places here mentioned is intended the whole land of Judea, the desolation of which is predicted by the prophet. The catastrophe thus depicted was brought about by the misconduct of the people, and especially their shepherds and rulers, towards the Great Shepherd of Israel, whom God sent forth to feed and tend the flock. This is described in what follows, where the prophet is represented as acting as the representative of another, and as such is addressed. It cannot be supposed that the person addressed is the Angel of Jehovah, or the Messiah, for the person addressed in Zec_11:4 is evidently the same as the person addressed in Zec_11:15, and what is there said does not in any way apply to the Angel of Jehovah, or the Messiah. Nor can it be supposed that the prophet is here addressed in his own person, for as it was no part of the prophetic office to act as a shepherd of Israel, it could not be to the prophet as such that the command here given was addressed. The only supposition that can tenably be made is that what is here narrated passed as a vision before the inner sense of the prophet, in which he saw himself as the representative of another, first of the good shepherd who is sent to feed the flock, and then of the evil shepherd by whom the flock was neglected, and who should be destroyed for his iniquity. (W. L. Alexander, D. D.)
The cedars, fir trees, and oaks of society
This chapter, it has been said, divides itself into three sections.
1. The threat of judgment (Zec_11:1-3).
2. The description of the Good Shepherd (verse. 4-14).
3. The sketch of the foolish shepherd (Zec_11:15-17).
Lebanon, here, may be regarded as a symbol of the kingdom of Judah, its cedars as denoting the chief men of the kingdom.
I. A variety of distinction. The cedar here, the fir tree, or cypress, and the oaks, are employed to set forth some of the distinctions that prevailed amongst the Hebrew people. Now, whilst all men have a common origin, a common nature, and common moral obligations and responsibilities, yet in every generation there prevails a large variety of striking distinctions. There are not only the cedars and fir trees, but even briars and thistles. There is almost as great a distinction between the highest type of man and the lowest, as there is between the lowest and the highest type of brute. There are intellectual giants and intellectual dwarfs, moral monarchs and spiritual serfs. This variety of distinction in the human family serves at least two important purposes.
1. To check pride in the highest and despondency in the lowest. The cedar has no cause for boasting over the fir tree, or over the humblest plant it owes its existence to the same God, and is sustained by the same common elements. And what have the greatest men--the Shakespeares, the Schillers, the Miltons, the Goethes--to be proud of? What have they that they have not received? And why should the weakest man despond? He is what God made him, and his responsibilities are limited by his capacities. This variety serves--
2. To strengthen the ties of human brotherhood. Were all men of equal capacity, it is manifest that there would be no scope for that mutual ministry of interdependence which tends to unite society together. The strong rejoices in bearing the infirmities of the weak, and the weak rejoices in gratitude and hope on account of the succour received.
II. A common calamity. Howl, fir tree; for the cedar is fallen. An expression which implies that the same fate awaits the fir tree. There is one event that awaits men of every type and class and grade, the tallest cedar and the most stunted shrub, that is death.
1. This common calamity levels all distinctions. Though his excellency mount up to the heavens, and his head reach unto the clouds, yet he shall perish forever.
2. This common calamity should dematerialise all souls. Since we are only here on this earth for a few short years at most, why should we live to the flesh, and thus materialise our souls?
III. A natural alarm. Howl, fir tree. The howl, not of rage, not of sympathy, but of alarm. When the higher falls, the lower may well take the alarm. If the cedar gives way, let the cypress look out. This principle may apply to--
1. Communities. Amongst the kingdoms of the earth there are the cedar and the fir tree. The same may be said of markets. There are the cedars of the commercial world; great houses regulating almost the merchandise of the world.
2. Individuals. When men who are physically strong fall, let weaker men beware. When men who are moral cedars--majestic in character, and mighty in beneficent influences--fall, let the less useful take the alarm, and still more the useless. (Homilist.)
Howl, fir tree; for the cedar is fallen--
The cedar and the fir
The prophecy, of which these words are a part, had its fulfilment in the destruction of Jerusalem, and the dispersion of the Jews by the Romans. The text would become applicable at a time of great national calamity. By the cedar tree the chief men of a country are represented, those who occupy the more prominent positions, and are, conspicuous by station and influence. When the cedar tree falls, when the princes of a land are brought down by disaster and death, men of inferior rank who, in comparison with these princes, are but as the fir tree compared with the cedar, may well tremble and fear, as knowing that their own day of trial must be rapidly approaching. These words, then, are universally applicable whenever calamity falls on those better or more exalted than ourselves, and such calamity may serve as a warning, teaching us to expect our own share of trouble. Howl, fir tree--tremble, and be afraid, ye sinful and careless ones, who, though planted in the garden of the Lord, bring not forth the fruits of righteousness. The cedar is fallen,--shall, then, the fir tree escape? If judgment first begin at the house of God, what shall the end be of them that obey not the Gospel of Christ? Take the text as setting forth the sufferings of the righteous as an evidence or token of the far greater which, in due time, must be the portion of the wicked. If the wicked were to ponder Gods dealings with the righteous, if the fir tree would observe what was done to the cedar, it could hardly be that future and everlasting punishment would be denied by any, or by any be practically disregarded. Let our blessed Saviour Himself be the first cedar tree on which we gaze. Smitten of God and afflicted. A Man of Sorrows, and acquainted with grief. His sufferings only then assume their most striking character when they are seen as demonstrations of the evil of sin. The atonement alone shows me what sin is in Gods sight. The Captain of our salvation was made perfect through sufferings, but the same discipline has been employed, from the first, in regard of all those whom God has conducted to glory. Under all dispensations affliction is an instrument of purification. The nearer we approach the times of the Gospel, the intenser becomes the discipline of suffering; as though God has designed to prepare men for an increase in tribulation, with an increase of privilege. The fact is undisputed, that, through much tribulation, men enter the kingdom of heaven. No fact should be more startling to those who are living without God, and perhaps secretly hoping for impunity at the last. They cannot deny that the cedar has been bent and blighted by the hurricane, whilst, comparatively, sunshine and calm have been around the fir. And from this they are bound to conclude the great fact of a judgment to come. Suppose it to be for purposes of discipline that God employs suffering--what does this prove but that human nature is thoroughly corrupt, requiring to be purged so as by fire, ere it can be fitted for happiness? And if there must be this fiery purification, what is the inference which ungodly men should draw, if not that they will be given up hereafter to the unquenchable flame, given up to it when that flame can neither annihilate their being, nor eradicate their corruption? It is probable enough that the wicked may be disposed to congratulate themselves on their superior prosperity, and to look with pity, if not with contempt, on the righteous, as the God whom they serve seems to reward them with nothing but trouble. But this can only be through want of consideration. It may certainly be inferred from these words, when applied in the modes indicated, that the present afflictions of the righteous shall be vastly exceeded by the future of the wicked. The cedar is fallen, and the fir tree is called upon to howl, as though it were about to be rent and shivered, as by the tempest and the thunder. The sufferings of the righteous might save the wicked from future torments, and that which prepares a good man for heaven might snatch a bad one from hell. (H. Melvill, B. D.)
Fallen greatness
This word cedar applies to Jerusalem, to the temple, to Lebanon. It is a general and symbolic term. It applies to all great characters, to all noble institutions, all sublime purposes. There was an abundance of cedar wood in the temple, so the temple was often called The Cedar, and what the temple was Jerusalem was. One element sometimes gives its character to everything into which it enters. The eternal doctrine of the text is that when the strong go down the weak should lay that significant circumstance to heart. How can the fir tree stand when the cedar is blown down? How can the weak defend the city when the mighty men have failed? What can the poor do after the kings of wealth? And if God can smite the mighty, can He not overwhelm the weak and the little? if He can rend the stars, and hurl the constellations out of their places, what about our clay walls and huts of dust?--surely He could sweep them away as with the tempestuous wind. And yet the weak have a place of their own. Trees have been blown down whilst daisies have been left undisturbed. There is a strength of littleness, there is a majesty of weakness, there is a charter of immunity granted to things that are very frail. The whirlwind does not destroy the flower that bends before its fury, but it often destroys the mighty tree that dares it to wrestle. How much we depend upon the cedar in all life, in all society, in all institutions! What is done by one man may be comparatively insignificant and may never be heard of, and that self-same thing done by another quality of man fills the world with amazement. How is that? Simply because of the quality. There are people who burrow in the earth, and what they do no man cares for, no man inquires; there are persons who have lived themselves down to the vanishing point of influence, that it is of no consequence whatsoever what they think or do. Other men can hardly breathe without the fact being noted and commented upon; the pulse cannot be unsteady without the whole journalism of the empire being filled with the tidings. The difference is the difference between the cedar and the fir tree. What is impossible in nature is possible in humanity: the fir tree can become the cedar, and the cedar can become the fir tree, and these continual changes constitute the very tragedy of human experience. Let it be known that some person has committed a theft in the city, and the theft will be reported in very small type, it is really of no consequence to cruel society what that person has done; but let a man of another sort do that very self-same thing, and there is no type large enough in which to announce the fact. It is not always so with the good deeds--the good is oft interred with mens bones. There is no printer that cares to report charity, nobleness, meekness, forgiveness, great exercises of patience and forbearance. The printer was not made to intermeddle with that sacred fame. Such reputation is registered in heaven, is watched and guarded by the angels, and carries with itself its own guarantee of immortality. Yet this doctrine might easily be abused. A man might be fool enough to say that it is of no consequence what he does. But it is in reality of consequence, according to the circle within which he moves. Every man can make his home unhappy, every man can lay a burden upon the back of his child which the child is unable to sustain. That is the consummation of cruelty. If the man could but put a dagger into himself, and cause his own life continual agony, he might be doing an act of justice, he might be trying to compensate for the wrongs he has done to others: but when it is felt that everything that man does tells upon the child to the third and fourth generation, so that the child cannot get rid of the blood which the great-grandfather shed, then every man becomes of importance in his own sphere and in relation to the line of life which he touches. We apply this text personally and nationally, founding upon it our lamentations over fallen greatness. The great statesman dies, and the Church at once becomes filled with the eloquence of this text--Howl, fir tree; for the cedar is fallen,--the lesson being, that the great man has gone, the great strength has vanished, and now weakness is exposed to a thousand attacks; weakness feels its defencelessness. Nor ought such eulogy be limited. Sentiment has to play a very serious part and a very useful part in the education of life. When men cease to revere greatness they cease to cultivate it. There is a philistinism that is near akin to impiety and profanity. All men are not alike, all men are not of one value; some men have the genius of insight and foresight, and some have it not; and when men who can see the coming time, and interpret the time that now is into its largest significances, are taken away from us, then those of us who occupy positions of commonplace may well feel that some tremendous bankruptcy has supervened in history, and the world is made poor forever. Yet this is not the spirit of the Gospel, which is always a spirit of good cheer and stimulus and hopefulness. We are not dependent now upon men, except in a secondary sense; we are dependent upon God alone:--The battle is not yours, but Gods; they that be for us are more than all that can be against us; our cedar is the Cross, and the Cross has never failed. Rome boasted that it had obliterated the Christian name but Rome boasted too soon. Ten persecutions followed one another in rapid and devastating succession; yet there were Christians still praying in secret, temples unknown and unnamed were frequented by ardent and passionate worshippers. (Joseph Parker, D. D.)
The death of great men
Mr. Jay was generally chaste and dignified in his composition, but occasionally used a quaintness of expression which in our day would be called sensational. The selection of his texts was sometimes ingenious--e.g., on two occasions, after the death of Robert Hall and Rowland Hill, his text was, Howl, fir tree, for the cedar is fallen. He always took advantage of public events, and thus brought nature and providence to his aid in instructing the people.
The cedar useful after it is fallen
The cedar is the most useful when dead. It is the most productive when its place knows it no more. There is no timber like it. Firm in grain, and capable of the finest polish, the tooth of no insect will touch it, and time himself can hardly destroy it. Diffusing a perpetual fragrance through the chamber which it ceils, the worm will not corrode the book which it protects, nor the moth corrupt the garment which it guards--all but immortal itself, it transfuses its amaranthine qualities into the objects around it. Every Christian is useful in his fife, but the goodly cedars are the most useful afterwards. Luther is dead, but the Reformation fives.
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 On v4 Zec_11:4-17; Zec_13:7-9
7. THE REJECTION AND MURDER OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD
Zec_11:4-17; Zec_13:7-9
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There follows now, in the rest of chapter 11, a longer oracle, to which Ewald and most critics after him have suitably attached Zec_13:7-9. This passage appears to rise from circumstances similar to those of the preceding and from the same circle of ideas. Jehovahs people are His flock and have suffered. Their rulers are their shepherds; and the rulers of other peoples are their shepherds. A true shepherd is sought for Israel in place of the evil ones which have distressed them. The language shows traces of a late date. No historical allusion is obvious in the passage. The "buyers" and "sellers" of Gods sheep might reflect the Seleucids and Ptolemies between whom Israel were exchanged for many years, but probably mean their native leaders The "three shepherds cut off in a month" were interpreted by the supporters of the pre-exilic date of the chapters as Zechariah and Shallum, {2Ki_15:8-13} and another whom these critics assume to have followed them to death, but of him the history has no trace. The supporters of a Maccabean date for the prophecy recall the quick succession of high priests before the Maccabean rising. The "one month" probably means nothing more than a very short time.
The allegory which our passage unfolds is given, like so many more in Hebrew prophecy, to the prophet himself to enact. It recalls the pictures in Jeremiah and Ezekiel of the overthrow of the false shepherds of Israel, and the appointment of a true shepherd. Jehovah commissions the prophet to become shepherd to His sheep that have been so cruelly abused by their guides and rulers. Like the shepherds of Palestine, the prophet took two staves to herd his flock He called one "Grace," the other "Union." In a month he cut off three shepherds-both "month" and "three" are probably formal terms. But he did not get on well with his charge They were willful and quarrelsome. So he broke his staff Grace, in token that his engagement was dissolved. The dealers of the sheep saw that he acted for God. He asked for his wage, if they cared to give it. They gave him thirty pieces of silver, the price of an injured slave, {Exo_21:32} which by Gods command he cast into the treasury of the Temple, as if in token that it was God Himself whom they paid with so wretched a sum. And then, he broke his other staff, to signify that the brotherhood between Judah and Israel was broken. Then, to show the people that by their rejection of the good shepherd they must fall a prey to an evil one, the prophet assumed the character of the latter. But another judgment follows. In Zec_13:7-9 the good shepherd is smitten and the flock dispersed.
The spiritual principles which underlie this allegory are obvious. Gods own sheep, persecuted and helpless though they be, are yet obstinate, and their obstinacy not only renders Gods good will to them futile, but causes the death of the one man who could have done them good. The guilty sacrifice the innocent, but in this execute their own doom. That is a summary of the history of Israel. But had the writer of this allegory any special part of that history in view? Who were the "dealers of the flock?"
"Thus saith Jehovah my God: Shepherd the flock of slaughter, whose purchasers slaughter them impenitently, and whose sellers Say, Blessed be Jehovah, for I am rich!-and their shepherds do not spare them. [For I will no more spare the inhabitants of the land-oracle of Jehovah; but lo! I am about to give mankind over, each into the hand of his shepherd, and into the hand of his king; and they shall destroy the land, and I will not secure it from their hands.] And I shepherded the flock of slaughter for the sheep merchants, and I took to me two staves-the one I called Grace, and the other I called Union-and so I shepherded the sheep. And I destroyed the three shepherds in one month. Then was my soul vexed with them, and they on their part were displeased with me. And I said: I will not shepherd you: what is dead, let it die; and what is destroyed, let it be destroyed; and those that survive, let them devour one anothers flesh! And I took my staff Grace, and I brake it so as to annul my covenant which I made with all the peoples. And in that day it was annulled, and the dealers of the sheep, who watched me, knew that it was Jehovahs word. And I said to them, If it be good in your sight, give me my wage, and if it be not good, let it go! And they weighed out my wage, thirty pieces of silver. Then said Jehovah to me, Throw it into the treasury (the precious wage at which I had been valued of them). So I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the House of Jehovah, to the treasury. And I brake my second staff, Union, so as to dissolve the brotherhood between Judah and Israel. And Jehovah said to me: Take again to thee the implements of a worthless shepherd: for lo! I am about to appoint a shepherd over the land; the destroyed he will not visit, the he will not seek out, the wounded he will not heal, he will not cherish, but he will devour the flesh of the fat."
"Woe to My worthless shepherd, that deserts the flock! The sword be upon his arm and his right eye! May his arm wither, and his right eye be blinded."
Upon this follows the section Zec_13:7-9, which develops the tragedy of the nation to its climax in the murder of the good shepherd.
"Up, Sword, against My shepherd and the man My compatriot-oracle of Jehovah of Hosts. Smite the shepherd, that the sheep may be scattered; and I will turn My hand against the little ones. And it shall come to pass in all the land-oracle of Jehovah-that two-thirds shall be cut off in it, and perish, but a third shall be left in it. And I shall bring the third into the fire, and smelt it as men smelt silver and try it as men try gold. It shall call upon My Name, and I will answer it. And I will say, It is My people, and it will say, Jehovah my God!"
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 On vv1, 4, 7, 9, 12, 15 CRITICAL NOTES.] In this chapter we have a contrast…
CRITICAL NOTES.] In this chapter we have a contrast to the former. It was necessary to promise blessings, to encourage, and to warn, lest many should presume by vain confidence in the promises. We have the destruction of the second temple and of the Jewish polity for the rejection of Christ. Lebanon] i.e. the temple, lofty and magnificent as the mountain. “The picture is a dramatic one. Instead of the devastation of Lebanon being announced, it is summoned to open its gates that the fire may be able to enter in and devour its cedars. The cypresses, which hold the second place among the celebrated woods of Lebanon, are then called upon to howl over the fall of the cedars, not so much from sympathy as because the same fate awaits them” [Keil].
Zec_11:2. Forest] Lit. the fortified or inaccessible forest, Jerusalem, with houses numerous, and built close together, and round which was a wall (cf. Mic_3:12).
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Zec_11:3. Shepherds] In reference to office, and young lions] in disposition. Jordan] with its thickets and decorated banks, which furnished lairs for lions. Jewish leaders are represented as despairing at the destruction of their polity.
HOMILETICS
NATIONAL FUEL FOR DIVINE FIRE.—Zec_11:1-3
Applied to the temple, the city, or the people, these words indicate the destruction of everything great in the Jewish nation. Formerly they had been visited and recovered; now there is a final judgment. All is ripe for destruction. God’s anger is kindled; the conflagration sweeps through the land, devours mountain, forests, and lowland pastures, and creates lamentation in man and beast.
I. The nation’s glory is spoiled. “Their glory is spoiled.” The temple and the city, the boast and excellency of the nation, were besieged and sacked. Their honour and power were brought low; the wealth and luxury acquired by the abuse of power became a prey to the enemy. God can take away the results of our labour, and the monuments of our skill. We may think our resources to be secure, and our fortifications impregnable, but the doors will open to the Divinely-appointed agency.
II. The nation’s nobility are out down. “The mighty are spoiled.” The leaders of the people—men of superior and inferior ranks—are taken away. “The cedars,” the pre-eminent in rank and office; the fir-trees, rulers of lower grade; the “oaks of Bashan,” men of strength and sturdy power—the highest and the lowest are involved in fearful destruction, and howl in agony together. Whatever be the estimation in which nobility are held, Divine wrath may consume them like fire. “Worship your heroes from afar; contact withers them” [Madame Necker].
III. The nation is filled with despair. “Howl, fir-tree.” If doors open of their own accord, what use are defences? If the highest fall, what can the lowest do? When chief men, in civil or religious position, are fallen from their station, horror and anguish may well fill the community.
1. Despair most sad. “Howl.” The cedar, the fir-tree, the oak, alike suffer, “for the forest of vintage is come down.”
2. Despair universal. All have cause for alarm and lamentation. The fire sweeps through Lebanon and Bashan, the entire land is seized, mountain and plain, forests and fields, are laid waste; men and beasts cry out in terror, and universal despair indicates the awful ruin. If God’s favoured nation were thus punished, let the wicked beware and the godly be warned. “Behold, the righteous shall be recompensed (rewarded or chastened) in the earth: much more the wicked and the sinner (shall not go unpunished)” (Pro_11:31).
CHRISTIAN SORROW FOR FALLEN GREATNESS.—Zec_11:2
The Bible abounds with comparison, is an ancient book, and in proportion as you go back in history, you will find the language poetic. The warm imagination of the Easterns never suffered them to speak without figures. Men are called trees. Three things in the text—
I. The differences there are among men. Where are sameness and equality to be found? God is always producing variety. All flesh is not the same flesh (1Co_15:39). What wonder, then, that differences should exist among men? Some are superior to others in family, rank, and station; in corporeal qualities, in stature, in beauty, in strength, gracefulness, and speed; in mental qualities, in acquired knowledge, in usefulness. Think of the Luthers, the Whitfields, and the Hills. Some cedars and others fir-trees.
II. Their fall, however, distinguished.
1. There is a moral fall to which we are exposed while in flesh and blood; indeed a man is never secure as long as he is in the world.
2. There is a mortal fall by death, accident, disease, infirmity, or age. Great men die often—not always—before others. Here the cedar falls, while the fir-tree survives.
III. The sorrow caused by their removal.
1. Sympathetic sorrow. Sympathy, a word the more we consider the less we can explain. We only know the fact that God has put something within us which reciprocates the feeling which we find in another. A mother hears her child cry, and darts to its relief. You see a man drowning in water; you sink as he sinks, rise as he rises, and are equally glad when he comes to shore.
2. Rational sorrow. All men die. Princes and soldiers that defend us, merchants that supply us, and husbandmen that till our ground and fill our barns. Can we see the nation stript of these, like a tree dropping its leaves in autumn, and not feel? Can we see the country robbed of its members, its ornaments, and not sorrow?
3. Pious sorrow. We are told of St. Ambrose that when he heard of the death of a minister of Christ he burst into tears. (a) The death of a good man is a public loss. We lose their examples, which are important and beneficial. (b) As benefactors, they are the salt of the earth, the light of the world. (c) As intercessors, they pray for others as well as themselves. (d) As the defence of the earth, they are better than navies and armies. Ten righteous men would have saved Sodom.
4. Unlawful sorrow. We sorrow, not as those without hope. (a) Your mourning would not be proper if accompanied with murmuring; (b) if ungrateful; (c) if it called you away from present things. Every day has its duties [The Preacher’s Treasury].
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 11
Zec_11:1-3. Open. Josephus relates, that “at the passover, the eastern gate of the inner temple, being of brass, and very firm, and with difficulty shut at eventide by twenty men; moreover with bars strengthened with iron, and having very deep bolts, which went down into the threshold, itself of one stone; was seen at six o’clock at night to open of its own accord. The guards of the temple running told it to the officer, and he going up with difficulty closed it. This the uninstructed thought a very favourable sign, that God opened to them the gate of all goods. But those taught in the Divine words, understood that the safety of the temple was removed of itself, and that the gate opened.”
Zec_11:2. Fir-tree. The world cannot do without great men, but great men are very troublesome to the world [Goethe]. The highest and most lofty trees have the most reason to dread the thunder [Rollin].
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.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 Such words are universally applicable whenever calamity falls on…
Zec 11:2
Such words are universally applicable whenever calamity falls on those better or more exalted than ourselves; and such calamity may serve as a warning, teaching us to expect our own share of trouble.
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I. If our blessed Saviour Himself be the first cedar tree on which we gaze, the cedar tree "smitten of God and afflicted," we may set in contrast the holiness and the suffering of the Mediator—the holiness such that "He did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth;" the suffering such that "His visage was so marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men." What must sin be, what its hatefulness in God’s sight, if it were punished thus fearfully in the Person of Christ? Can you think that God will deal lightly with you, though He dealt thus sternly with His well-beloved Son, and that justice will not be rigid in exacting penalties from you, when it would not relax one tittle of its demands, though its Victim were the spotless, yea, even the Divine?
II. Not only was the Captain of our salvation made perfect through suffering, but the same discipline has been employed from the first in regard of all those whom God has conducted to glory. There has been no more observable feature of the Divine dealings, whether under the patriarchal, legal, or Christian dispensation, than this of the employment of afflictions as an instrument of purification. It has not been found that any amount of piety has secured its possessor against troubles; on the contrary, the evidence has seemed the other way—piety has appeared to expose men to additional and severe trials. The fact is indisputable, that through much tribulation we must enter the kingdom of heaven. And we do not see that any fact should be more startling to those who are living without God, and perhaps secretly hoping for immunity at the last. If they survey the dealings of their Maker with this earth, they cannot deny that the cedar has been bent and blighted by the hurricane, while comparatively a scene of calm has been around the fir; and from this they are bound to conclude the great fact of a judgment to come. Surely the blows which descend on the righteous should make the wicked start! As the cedar bends and shakes, the fir tree should tremble. If anything can fill the impenitent with fear it should be the observing how God deals with His own faithful servants. It is probable enough that the wicked may be disposed to congratulate themselves on their superior prosperity—to look with pity, if not with contempt, on the righteous, as "the God whom they serve seems to reward them with nothing but trouble." That can only be through want of consideration. Let the wicked but ponder the facts of the case, and there is nothing which should so excite their dread of the future as the present misery which falls to the lot of the good.
H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 1,688.
References: Zec 11:2.—J. Hiles Hitchens, Christian World Pulpit, vol. v., p. 136; Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 272. Zech 11—Expositor, 3rd series, vol. iv., p. 306.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 The Parable of the Shepherds
The Parable of the Shepherds
The perplexing nature of the prophecies in this chapter renders exposition difficult, especially as we cannot be sure of the circumstances. Apparently, however, the passage deals with misrule in Jerusalem, either of worthless high priests, or of cruel foreign rulers, or of both, who are spoken of as shepherds: see Intro.
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1-3. Another storm of war bursts apparently over northern Israel.
4-14. The people reject their good ruler, and the prophet acts the part of a good shepherd tending the flock and defending it, but is held in contempt by the people.
15-17. The prophet at God's command assumes the garb and insignia of a worthless shepherd, to signify that God will give them into the hand of a cruel and careless ruler. To this most scholars add, as a continuation, Zec_13:7-9. The bad ruler will speedily perish. Twothirds of the people will die, but a remnant will be saved.
1. Open thy doors, O Lebanon] Make way for the invaders.
2. Forest of the vintage] better, 'the impenetrable forest.' Mighty] RV 'goodly ones,' i.e. nobles; but the phrase is doubtful and spoils the whole thought of the passage. Some omit it.
3. The pride of Jordan] the rank undergrowth where lions had their home: cp. Jer_49:19, where 'swelling' is really 'thickets.'
4. Flock of the slaughter] RV 'flock of slaughter.' i.e. destined or reared for slaughter. This might point to the cruel oppressions and martyrdoms in the times of the Maccabees.
5, 6. According to some views the possessors (RM 'buyers') are those ethnarchs and high priests in Jerusalem who were merely puppets of the Seleucid sovereigns. The latter farmed out the high offices to the highest bidder, who in turn oppressed the people by fraud and extortion.
7. The prophet takes up the office of shepherd (cp. Jer_25:1; Ezekiel 3, 4), but finds his task too difficult. He pities the poor oppressed people, but feels, at the same time, that they are so ignorant of their own good as to be unable to appreciate a beneficent ruler. But see 12:21. Beauty] better, 'Favour,' a symbol of God's protecting care. Bands] i.e. 'unity,' a symbol of His desire to make peace among the people. 8. This is an allusion to some event of the time, of which nothing is now known.
9. The good shepherd leaves the flock. According to a recent view the good shepherd, who in despair abandoned the flock, was Hyrcanus, the son of Joseph (see Jos. 'Ant.'
12. 4), who may have been paid to leave Jerusalem (Zec_11:12-13), but at a price so small that he threw it into the treasury in disgust.
10. The prophet declares that God has broken His covenant of mercy with Israel.
People] better, 'nation,' i.e. Israel regarded as tribes.
11. The poor of the flock] those wretched ones whom the prophet had been trying specially to instruct and help. But perhaps we should read, 'the dealers in the sheep.'
12. The prophet, personating a hired shepherd, asks for his wages, in order to see what value they put upon his services. His hearers insult him by offering him the price of a slave (Exo_21:32).
13. Unto the potter] better, 'into the treasury' (see RM), by the change of one letter in the Heb. A goodly price that I was prised at of them] a sarcastic parenthesis. St. Matthew applies the incident to the case of Judas Iscariot (see Mat_27:9), but refers it to Jeremiah.
14. The last hope of uniting broken and distracted Israel vanishes. The prophet abandons his task in despair.
15. Instead he will personate a worthless ruler who will tear and destroy the sheep. According to some this worthless shepherd was Menelaus, a high priest whose rivalry with Jason, also a claimant for the priesthood, brought about the great oppression of the Jews by Antiochus Epiphanes, 171 b.c. In that case the good shepherd in Zec_13:7-9 may refer in the first instance to Jason, who represented the patriotic, as Menelaus represented the foreign, party. Jason, however, was in sympathy with foreign fashions, and he ultimately died in exile. On the other hand, Hyrcanus may be intended.
16. Claws] RV 'hoofs.' The idea is the cracking of the hoofs of the sheep by being overdriven.
17. Idol] RV 'worthless.' The word is used of idols, because of their worthlessness: cp. Joh_10:12, Joh_10:13.
Zec_13:7-9. My fellow] one who has the same interests. Smite the shepherd] cp. 1Ki_22:17, and the most fitting application of the words to our Lord (Mat_26:31). The whole section (Zechariah 11, Zec_13:7-9) would most fittingly apply to the year 171 b.c., when Menelaus, with the aid of Antiochus Epiphanes, king of Syria, usurped the high priesthood in Jerusalem and Jason was expelled. Feuds and bloodshed followed, culminating in a terrible massacre, and the deportation of thousands of Jews by Antiochus. The third] i.e. a remnant.
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 On vv7, 11, 15 two staves
two staves
The scene belongs to the first advent. Beauty and Bands--literally "graciousness and union"; the first signifying God’s attitude toward His people Israel, in sending His Son Mat 21:37 the second, His purpose to reunite Judah and Ephraim Eze 37:15-22. Christ, at His first advent, came with grace Joh 1:17 to offer union Mat 4:17 and was sold for thirty pieces of silver Zec 11:12; Zec 11:13. "Beauty" (i.e. graciousness) was "cut in sunder" (Zec 8:10; Zec 8:11), signifying that Judah was abandoned to the destruction foretold in Zec 11:1-6 and fulfilled A.D. 70. After the betrayal of the Lord for thirty pieces of silver (Zec 11:12; Zec 11:13) "Bands" (i.e. union) was broken (Zec 11:14), signifying the abandonment, for the time, of the purpose to reunite Judah and Israel. The order of Zechariah 11. is,
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(1) the wrath against the land (Zec 11:1-6), fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem after the rejection of Christ Luk 19:41-44.
(2) the cause of that wrath in the sale and rejection of Christ vs. (Zec 11:7-14);
(3) the rise of the "idol shepherd," the Beast Dan 7:8; Rev 19:20 and his destruction (Zec 11:15-17).
the one
The O.T. Parables: Summary. A parable is a similitude used to teach or enforce a truth. The O.T. parables fall into three classes:
(1) The story-parable, of which Jdg 9:7-15 is an instance;
(2) parabolic discourses; e.g. Isa 5:1-7
(3) parabolic actions; e.g. Eze 37:16-22
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 1. The judgment of the land, the temple and…
CHAPTER 11
1. The judgment of the land, the temple and the slaughter of the flock (Zec 11:1-6)
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2. The true shepherd set aside and rejected (Zec 11:7-14)
3. The foolish shepherd (Zec 11:15-17)
Zec 11:1-6. This chapter presents a dark prophetic picture. We have seen in the preceding chapters the blessings and mercies in store for the Israel of the future. The visions and prophecies have revealed their national and spiritual restoration, the overthrow of their enemies, the destruction of the world-powers, the establishment of the theocracy and the blessings of the kingdom. What precedes this coming glory is now more fully unfolded, and the rejection of the Shepherd of Israel is predicted. The first six verses concern the judgment as the result of that rejection. For a complete exposition see our “Studies in Zechariah,” where we also give the interesting Jewish comments on this passage. They apply it mostly to the destruction of the temple.
The correct interpretation is that it includes all the devastation of the land, the burning of the temple, the slaughter of the flock, the spoiling of the shepherds, the Jewish leaders and the complete overthrow of the land and of the people. How awful the fulfillment of the prophecy has been! The Lord’s voice, full of tears cried, long after Zechariah’s mournful vision, “If thou hadst known, at least in this thy day, the things which belong to thy peace, but now they are hid from thine eyes! For the days shall come upon thee that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side. And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee, and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another.” The measure was full. After terrible wars amongst themselves, the fire advanced in the direction of Lebanon, in the form of the Roman army full of vengeance, spreading ruin and misery wherever they went, till after a long and dreadful siege Jerusalem fell, the temple was burnt, and over a million human beings were slain. Not one stone was left upon another. Up to now this judgment has been the most appalling, the tribulation then the greatest; but there is another tribulation coming of which the former destruction of Jerusalem is but a faint type, and that tribulation which is even now so close at hand will find a climax in the day of wrath, the day of vengeance of our God. The next Zec 11:1-17:(4-6) speak of the flock of slaughter and the last attempt divine love made to save the doomed nation.
Zec 11:7-14. The prophet acts again symbolically in taking two staves, one called Beauty, the other Bands. Much has been written on this interesting but difficult passage. The first sentence speaks of divine love. The true Shepherd came, the Messiah, and He fed the flock of slaughter, the poor of the flock. He looked on the multitudes and was moved with compassion, for they were scattered, like sheep without a shepherd. The prophet as representing the true Shepherd has two staves. The one is named Beauty; or, as we read in the margin, graciousness. The second one is named Bands. The Shepherd carries a staff to protect and to guide His flock. God’s mercy and favor are clearly indicated in these two staves. The first one, Beauty, which is cut asunder first, and that before the wages of the Shepherd, the thirty pieces of silver, are given, stands no doubt for the gracious offer with which the King, preaching the kingdom, came among His people, to His own. He proclaimed that which prophets had spoken before, God’s mercy and love, long promised, now to be carried out. He Himself had come to redeem His people and deliver them from their mighty enemies as well as from the false leaders. But the offer, the kingdom preaching, is rejected, the staff, Beauty, is cut asunder, the covenant with the peoples (Amim in Hebrew), His own, is now broken. The kingdom is to be taken away and given to another nation. After the breaking of the staff, Beauty, there comes the giving of the wages, the thirty pieces of silver. The Shepherd who broke the staff is treated like a slave.
The second staff in His hands, Bands, speaks of union, binding together, bringing into fellowship. It typifies the priestly side of the good Shepherd who died for the flock. This staff is broken after the thirty pieces of silver were given for Him, and cast into the temple. They cried, Away with Him! we have no King save Caesar! Crucify Him! His blood be upon us and upon our children! The cross bears the superscription, This is Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews, and from the lips of the rejected King and Shepherd there came the prayer for His people, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. The doom came not at once upon the nation. Once more the love of the Shepherd is preached to the miserable sheep, and the remission of sins offered in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, but it ends in rejection too; no bringing together into One followed. The foolish shepherd appears next, and after him the good Shepherd will appear again with His two staves, Beauty and Bands, kingdom and mercy, bringing and binding together. He will then be a Priest upon His throne. This interpretation is the most satisfactory one, and in harmony with the entire scope of Zechariah’s visions and prophecies.
Who are the three shepherds to be cut off in one month by the Shepherd? The three shepherds are not persons, but they stand for the three classes of rulers which governed Israel, and were in that sense shepherds. We read of these shepherds inJeremiah 2:88, priests, rulers and prophets. The Lord likewise mentions them in Mat 16:21, elders, chief priests and scribes. When He came He was indeed weary with them, and denounced their hypocrisies and wickedness. They in turn hated and abhorred Him, and conspired to put Him to death. The Lord Himself cut them off. He pronounced His woes and judgments upon them, but the judgment was not at once carried out. When Jerusalem was taken, their rule came to an end and they were cut off.
But there are mentioned the wretched of the flock that gave heed unto the Shepherd, and they knew that it was the word of Jehovah. These wretched ones are the faithful ones who followed the Shepherd, the small remnant (compare with Zec 13:7). The others who rejected the King and the Shepherd were indeed not fed, but were dying and cut off.
The wages of the good Shepherd, thirty pieces of silver, and these thrown into the house of Jehovah to the potter is to be considered next. Thirty pieces of silver was the price of a slave who had been killed. If the ox gore a manservant or a maidservant, the owner shall give unto their master thirty shekels of silver Exo 21:32. Oh, what unfathomable love! The Lord from heaven became like a slave. The love He looked for He found not. It was refused to Him, and instead He was insulted, mocked, and treated like a miserable slave. There was one of the twelve who was called Judas Iscariot. He went to the chief priests and said, What are you willing to give me, and I will deliver Him unto you? And they weighed unto him thirty pieces of silver Mat 26:15. The money at the command of Jehovah is thrown away by the prophet with indignation into the house of Jehovah, to the potter. Perhaps the prophet never knew the real significance of his act, but we know it from the New Testament. “Then Judas which betrayed Him, when he saw that He was condemned, repented himself and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, I have sinned in that I betrayed innocent blood. But they said, What is this to us? See thou to it. And he cast down the pieces of silver into the sanctuary, and departed and hanged himself. And the chief priests took the pieces of silver and said, it is not lawful to put them into the treasury since it is the price of blood. And they took counsel and bought with them the potters’ field to bury strangers in. Wherefore that field was called the field of blood unto this day. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremiah, the prophet, saying, And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of Him that was priced, whom certain of the children of Israel did price, and they gave them for the potters’ field, as the Lord appointed me” Mat 27:3-66. How striking the fulfillment. However, here is a difficulty. In Matthew it is stated that Jeremiah spoke the prophecy, and Zechariah’s name is not mentioned at all. How can this be explained?
The prophecy certainly as it was fulfilled was not given by Jeremiah at all, but through Zechariah. There can be no doubt that his name should appear here instead of Jeremiah, but that Jeremiah’s name is quoted must have a meaning. Let us notice that it does not say in Mat 27:1-66 that it was written by Jeremiah, but it is stated that it was spoken by Jeremiah. Is there anything in Jeremiah which can be linked with this prophecy? We have indeed in Jeremiah a similar action of the prophet, corresponding to Zec 11:13, and which is seen fulfilled in the gospel. Read Jer 18:1-23; Jer 19:1-15. The word “Tophet” used there means an unclean place, a burial ground. Jeremiah’s name appears in Matthew’s Gospel, to call attention to the fact that Jeremiah also spoke of the same event, the rejection of the true Shepherd.
Zec 11:15-17. The foolish shepherd is the false Messiah, the man of sin, the son of perdition. The prophet impersonates him likewise. He no longer holds the staves of Beauty and Bands, but has the instrument of the foolish shepherd to wound and to hurt. This false Christ is the opposite from the true Christ. The true Shepherd came to seek, to save, to feed, to heal, and to gather; the false shepherd does the opposite.
The True One rejected, the nation becomes the prey of the foolish shepherds. Poor, blinded Israel! How many wicked shepherds they have had, and how often the prey of wicked leaders. False Messiahs appeared among them again and again to find strong and numerous following. Still the foolish shepherd, the last one, the very embodiment of Satan himself, the accuser, has not yet come. Forerunners there have been many. Herod was one of them, but not that man of sin, the son of perdition who will appear and be worshipped as a God, right before the King of Kings and the true Shepherd of His flock appears to slay that wicked one with the breath of His mouth and the brightness of His coming 2Th 2:1-17. The Lord said, I am come in My Father’s name, and ye receive Me not; if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive Joh 5:43. That one who comes in his own name has not yet come, and when at last he is here, it will be for Israel the time of greatest trouble and tribulation for all them that inhabit the earth. During the war interpretation of prophecy went to seed with some who saw in the deluded German Kaiser a fulfillment of this passage, because he had a withered arm. Such foolish inventions are deplorable, for they bring the study of prophecy into disrepute. The third section of our chapter finds its complete fulfillment in the Antichrist, the false Messiah, the beast, the little horn, the leader of the enemy, the false prince of Israel; thus the foolish shepherd is called throughout the prophetic word. The dreadful punishment will be executed upon the foolish shepherd in the day of the Lord’s coming with His saints for the salvation of his people Israel.
The eleventh chapter in Zechariah is the darkest in Israel’s history. The night began with their apostasy and rejection of the Lord of Glory, their own brother, their loving Shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ. It ends in darkness greater still under the regime of the foolish shepherd. But the morning cometh after that dark night, and Israel’s sun will never set again.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv1, 4, 15 The Desolation of the Holy Land
The Desolation of the Holy Land
v. 1. Open thy doors, O Lebanon, the district on the northernmost border of the Holy Land, that the fire may devour thy cedars. Instead of describing the destruction of the land outright, the prophet calls upon its border to open its doors for the consuming fire.
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v. 2. Howl, fir-tree, the cypresses which occupied second place among the trees of the Lebanon forests, for the cedar is fallen, because the mighty are spoiled. Howl, O ye oaks of Bashan, the northernmost district of the Holy Land east of Jordan, for the forest of the vintage is come down, the high, the inaccessible forest is laid low.
v. 3. There is a voice of the howling of the shepherds, those occupying the rich meadow-lands of Bashan, for their glory, the fine pasture on which they depended, is spoiled; a voice of the roaring of young lions, for the pride of Jordan, the thickets along the river, which offered excellent opportunities for dens, is spoiled. The description is short and bold, but comprehensive enough to indicate that the Lord is speaking of another desolation of the Holy Land, by which everything that was great and mighty in the country would be overthrown and the Holy Land once more become a wilderness. It is an evident reference to the conquest of Palestine by the Romans.
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 On vv1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 15, 17 Open your doors, Lebanon, that fire may devour
Open your doors, Lebanon, that fire may devour
Not resisting what is about to happen is spoken of as if Lebanon were opening its doors. Here "Lebanon" is a metonym that represents the people of Lebanon. AT: "People of Lebanon, get ready, because fire will devour" or "People of Lebanon, do not try to stop the fire that will devour" (See: Metaphor and Metonymy)
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fire may devour your cedars
Fire completely burning up the cedars is spoken of as if the fire would devour the cedars. AT: "fire may completely destroy your cedars" or "fire may completely burn up your cedars" (See: Metaphor)
Lament, cypress trees, for the cedar trees have fallen
Cypress trees are spoken of as if they could grieve like a human. AT: "If the trees were people, they would cry out in sorrow. The cypress trees stand alone because the cedars have burned and fallen" (See: Personification)
What was majestic has been devastated
This can be stated in active form. AT: "The majestic cedar trees are no more" or "The cedar trees were once majestic, but now they are ruined" (See: Active or Passive)
Lament, you oaks of Bashan, for the strong forest has gone down.
The oaks of Bash are spoken of as if they could grieve like a human. AT: "If the oak trees in Bashan were people, they would wail, for their thick forests are gone" (See: Personification)
The shepherds howl
"The shepherds cry out loudly"
for their glory has been destroyed
Here "their glory" probably represents the rich pastures that the shepherds led their sheep to. AT: "for their rich pastures are ruined" (See: Metonymy)
for the pride of the Jordan River has been devastated
Here "the pride" probably represents the forests that grew near the Jordan River. AT: "because the trees and shrubbery where they lived by the Jordan River are ruined" (See: Metonymy)
translationWords
Lebanon
fire
devour
cypress
cedar
majesty
lament
oak
Bashan
shepherd
glory
lions
Jordan River
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 On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17 11:1-3 This taunt song against Lebanon and Bashan concludes…
11:1-3 This taunt song against Lebanon and Bashan concludes the preceding message of deliverance and restoration for Israel (10:1-12); it could also introduce the following message about good and evil shepherds (11:4-17).
11:1 Lebanon, boasting snow-covered mountains and fruitful valleys, was a symbol of strength and fertility.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.