A revelation, Yahweh’s word concerning Israel. Yahweh, who stretches out the heavens, and lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him says: “Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of reeling to all the surrounding peoples, and it will also be on Judah in the siege against Jerusalem. It will happen in that day, that I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all the peoples. All who burden themselves with it will be severely wounded, and all the nations of the earth will be gathered together against it. In that day,” says Yahweh, “I will strike every horse with terror, and his rider with madness; and I will open my eyes on the house of Judah, and will strike every horse of the peoples with blindness. The chieftains of Judah will say in their heart, ‘The inhabitants of Jerusalem are my strength in Yahweh of Armies their God.’ In that day I will make the chieftains of Judah like a pan of fire among wood, and like a flaming torch among sheaves; and they will devour all the surrounding peoples, on the right hand and on the left; and Jerusalem will yet again dwell in their own place, even in Jerusalem. Yahweh also will save the tents of Judah first, that the glory of David’s house and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem not be magnified above Judah. In that day Yahweh will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem. He who is feeble among them at that day will be like David, and David’s house will be like God, like Yahweh’s angel before them. It will happen in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. I will pour on David’s house, and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication; and they will look to me whom they have pierced; and they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for his only son, and will grieve bitterly for him, as one grieves for his firstborn. In that day there will be a great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon. The land will mourn, every family apart; the family of David’s house apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of the Shimeites apart, and their wives apart; all the families who remain, every family apart, and their wives apart.
Parallel Translations
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A revelation, Yahweh’s word concerning Israel. Yahweh, who stretches out the heavens, and lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him says:
“Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of reeling to all the surrounding peoples, and it will also be on Judah in the siege against Jerusalem.
It will happen in that day, that I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all the peoples. All who burden themselves with it will be severely wounded, and all the nations of the earth will be gathered together against it.
In that day,” says Yahweh, “I will strike every horse with terror, and his rider with madness; and I will open my eyes on the house of Judah, and will strike every horse of the peoples with blindness.
The chieftains of Judah will say in their heart, ‘The inhabitants of Jerusalem are my strength in Yahweh of Armies their God.’
In that day I will make the chieftains of Judah like a pan of fire among wood, and like a flaming torch among sheaves; and they will devour all the surrounding peoples, on the right hand and on the left; and Jerusalem will yet again dwell in their own place, even in Jerusalem.
Yahweh also will save the tents of Judah first, that the glory of David’s house and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem not be magnified above Judah.
In that day Yahweh will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem. He who is feeble among them at that day will be like David, and David’s house will be like God, like Yahweh’s angel before them.
It will happen in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
I will pour on David’s house, and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication; and they will look to me whom they have pierced; and they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for his only son, and will grieve bitterly for him, as one grieves for his firstborn.
In that day there will be a great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon.
The land will mourn, every family apart; the family of David’s house apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart;
the family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of the Shimeites apart, and their wives apart;
all the families who remain, every family apart, and their wives apart.
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The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him.
Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem.
And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.
In that day, saith the LORD, I will smite every horse with astonishment, and his rider with madness: and I will open mine eyes upon the house of Judah, and will smite every horse of the people with blindness.
And the governors of Judah shall say in their heart, The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength in the LORD of hosts their God.
In that day will I make the governors of Judah like an hearth of fire among the wood, and like a torch of fire in a sheaf; and they shall devour all the people round about, on the right hand and on the left: and Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place, even in Jerusalem.
The LORD also shall save the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem do not magnify themselves against Judah.
In that day shall the LORD defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the LORD before them.
And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.
In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon.
And the land shall mourn, every family apart; the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart;
The family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of Shimei apart, and their wives apart;
All the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart.
Show all 3 translations
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The burden of the word of the LORD concerning Israel. The saying of the LORD, who stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundation of the earth, and formed the spirit of man within him:
Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of staggering unto all the peoples round about, and upon Judah also shall it fall to be in the siege against Jerusalem.
And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will make Jerusalem a stone of burden for all the peoples; all that burden themselves with it shall be sore wounded; and all the nations of the earth shall be gathered together against it.
In that day, saith the LORD, I will smite every horse with bewilderment, and his rider with madness; and I will open Mine eyes upon the house of Judah, and will smite every horse of the peoples with blindness.
And the chiefs of Judah shall say in their heart: 'The inhabitants of Jerusalem are my strength through the LORD of hosts their God.'
In that day will I make the chiefs of Judah like a pan of fire among the wood, and like a torch of fire among sheaves; and they shall devour all the peoples round about, on the right hand and on the left; and Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place, even in Jerusalem.
The LORD also shall save the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem be not magnified above Judah.
In that day shall the LORD defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that stumbleth among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as a godlike being, as the angel of the LORD before them.
And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication; and they shall look unto Me because they have thrust him through; and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born.
In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon.
And the land shall mourn, every family apart: the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart;
The family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of the Shimeites apart, and their wives apart;
All the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart.
Examined in Scripture Analysis
Science (1)
Historical claims about the natural world, weighed against the scientific record.
Messianic Prophecies (1)
Passages read as foretelling the Messiah, with the fulfillment reading and the counter-reading set side by side.
Cross-references (272)
- Revelation 1:7 (vv10, 12) Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, including those who pierced him. All the tribes of the earth will mourn…
- Ezekiel 39:29 (v10) I won’t hide my face from them any more; for I have poured out my Spirit on the house of Israel,’ says the Lord Yahweh.”
- Joel 2:28-29 (v10) “It will happen afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; and your sons and your daughters will prophesy. Your old men will…
- John 19:34-37 (v10) However one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out. He who has seen has testified, and his…
- Matthew 21:44 (v3) He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but on whomever it will fall, it will scatter him as dust.”
Show all 100 cross-references
- Isaiah 42:5 (v1) God Yahweh, he who created the heavens and stretched them out, he who spread out the earth and that which comes out of it, he who gives…
- Jeremiah 6:26 (v10) Daughter of my people, clothe yourself with sackcloth, and wallow in ashes! Mourn, as for an only son, most bitter lamentation, for the…
- Zechariah 14:2-4 (v3) For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city will be taken, the houses rifled, and the women ravished. Half of…
- Acts 2:33 (v10) Being therefore exalted by the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out…
- Romans 8:26 (v10) In the same way, the Spirit also helps our weaknesses, for we don’t know how to pray as we ought. But the Spirit himself makes intercession…
- Daniel 2:34-35 (vv3, 6) You saw until a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image on its feet that were of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces.…
- Jeremiah 51:15 (v1) “He has made the earth by his power. He has established the world by his wisdom. By his understanding he has stretched out the heavens.
- Matthew 24:30 (vv10, 12) and then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky. Then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man…
- Isaiah 57:16 (v1) For I will not contend forever, neither will I always be angry; for the spirit would faint before me, and the souls whom I have made.
- Amos 8:10 (v10) I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will make you wear sackcloth on all your bodies, and…
- Romans 8:15 (v10) For you didn’t receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”
- Ephesians 6:18 (v10) with all prayer and requests, praying at all times in the Spirit, and being watchful to this end in all perseverance and requests for all…
- Psalms 18:32 (v5) the God who arms me with strength, and makes my way perfect?
- Psalms 102:25-26 (v1) Of old, you laid the foundation of the earth. The heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you will endure. Yes, all of…
- Isaiah 44:24 (v1) Yahweh, your Redeemer, and he who formed you from the womb says: “I am Yahweh, who makes all things; who alone stretches out the heavens;…
- Isaiah 48:13 (v1) Yes, my hand has laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand has spread out the heavens. when I call to them, they stand up…
- Joel 3:16 (v5) Yahweh will roar from Zion, and thunder from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth will shake; but Yahweh will be a refuge to his…
- Luke 20:18 (v3) Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, but it will crush whomever it falls on to dust.”
- Hebrews 1:10-12 (v1) And, “You, Lord, in the beginning, laid the foundation of the earth. The heavens are the works of your hands. They will perish, but you…
- Hebrews 12:2 (v10) looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising its shame, and…
- Hebrews 12:9 (v1) Furthermore, we had the fathers of our flesh to chasten us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much rather be in subjection to the…
- Genesis 2:7 (v1) Yahweh God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
- Numbers 16:22 (v1) They fell on their faces, and said, “God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, shall one man sin, and will you be angry with all the…
- Deuteronomy 28:28 (v4) Yahweh will strike you with madness, with blindness, and with astonishment of heart.
- 2 Kings 23:29 (v11) In his days Pharaoh Necoh king of Egypt went up against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates; and king Josiah went against him; and…
- 2 Chronicles 35:24 (v11) So his servants took him out of the chariot, and put him in the second chariot that he had, and brought him to Jerusalem; and he died, and…
- Psalms 22:16-17 (v10) For dogs have surrounded me. A company of evildoers have enclosed me. They have pierced my hands and feet. I can count all of my bones.…
- Psalms 75:8 (v2) For in Yahweh’s hand there is a cup, full of foaming wine mixed with spices. He pours it out. Indeed the wicked of the earth drink and…
- Ecclesiastes 12:7 (v1) and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
- Isaiah 54:17 (v9) No weapon that is formed against you will prevail; and you will condemn every tongue that rises against you in judgment. This is the…
- Jeremiah 31:9 (v10) They will come with weeping. I will lead them with petitions. I will cause them to walk by rivers of waters, in a straight way in which…
- Jeremiah 50:4 (v10) “In those days, and in that time,” says Yahweh, “the children of Israel will come, they and the children of Judah together; they will go on…
- Micah 5:2-4 (v8) But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, being small among the clans of Judah, out of you one will come out to me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose…
- Zechariah 10:12 (v5) I will strengthen them in Yahweh; and they will walk up and down in his name,” says Yahweh.
- Zechariah 14:14 (v2) Judah also will fight at Jerusalem; and the wealth of all the surrounding nations will be gathered together: gold, and silver, and…
- Acts 2:17 (v10) ‘It will be in the last days, says God, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy. Your young…
- Acts 10:45 (v10) They of the circumcision who believed were amazed, as many as came with Peter, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was also poured out on…
- Acts 11:15 (v10) As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them, even as on us at the beginning.
- Titus 3:5-6 (v10) not by works of righteousness which we did ourselves, but according to his mercy, he saved us through the washing of regeneration and…
- Isaiah 51:22-23 (vv1–2) Your Lord Yahweh, your God who pleads the cause of his people, says, “Behold, I have taken out of your hand the cup of staggering, even the…
- Jeremiah 30:18 (vv6–7) Yahweh says: “Behold, I will reverse the captivity of Jacob’s tents, and have compassion on his dwelling places. The city will be built on…
- Obadiah 1:18 (vv3, 6) The house of Jacob will be a fire, the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau for stubble. They will burn among them, and devour…
- Zechariah 9:8 (vv4, 8) I will encamp around my house against the army, that no one pass through or return; and no oppressor will pass through them any more: for…
- Job 26:7 (v1) He stretches out the north over empty space, and hangs the earth on nothing.
- Psalms 18:39 (v5) For you have armed me with strength to the battle. You have subdued under me those who rose up against me.
- Psalms 136:5-6 (v1) to him who by understanding made the heavens; for his loving kindness endures forever: to him who spread out the earth above the waters;…
- Psalms 144:1 (v5) Blessed be Yahweh, my rock, who teaches my hands to war, and my fingers to battle:
- Isaiah 32:15 (v10) until the Spirit is poured on us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is considered a forest.
- Isaiah 44:3-4 (v10) For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, and streams on the dry ground. I will pour my Spirit on your descendants, and my blessing on…
- Isaiah 66:14-16 (v3) You will see it, and your heart shall rejoice, and your bones will flourish like the tender grass. Yahweh’s hand will be known among his…
- Jeremiah 30:16 (v1) Therefore all those who devour you will be devoured. All your adversaries, everyone of them, will go into captivity. Those who plunder you…
- Jeremiah 38:16 (v1) So Zedekiah the king swore secretly to Jeremiah, saying, “As Yahweh lives, who made us this soul, I will not put you to death, neither will…
- Ezekiel 18:4 (v1) Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine. The soul who sins, he shall die.
- Ezekiel 38:1-23 (v3) Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, “Son of man, set your face toward Gog, of the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal, and…
- Joel 3:10 (v8) Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears. Let the weak say, ‘I am strong.’
- Joel 3:16-17 (v8) Yahweh will roar from Zion, and thunder from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth will shake; but Yahweh will be a refuge to his…
- Micah 7:8 (v8) Don’t rejoice against me, my enemy. When I fall, I will arise. When I sit in darkness, Yahweh will be a light to me.
- Micah 7:16 (v8) The nations will see and be ashamed of all their might. They will lay their hand on their mouth. Their ears will be deaf.
- Zechariah 2:5 (v8) For I,’ says Yahweh, ‘will be to her a wall of fire around it, and I will be the glory in the middle of her.
- Zechariah 12:3 (v4) It will happen in that day, that I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all the peoples. All who burden themselves with it will be…
- Zechariah 13:1 (v3) “In that day there will be a spring opened to David’s house and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness.
- Zechariah 14:2-3 (v9) For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city will be taken, the houses rifled, and the women ravished. Half of…
- Zechariah 14:6 (v3) It will happen in that day, that there will not be light, cold, or frost.
- Acts 2:37 (v10) Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”
- Jude 1:20 (v10) But you, beloved, keep building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit.
- Zechariah 12:6 (vv3–5) In that day I will make the chieftains of Judah like a pan of fire among wood, and like a flaming torch among sheaves; and they will devour…
- Daniel 2:44-45 (vv3, 6) “In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, nor will its sovereignty be left to…
- Haggai 2:22 (vv3, 9) I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms. I will destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations. I will overthrow the chariots, and…
- Zechariah 12:11 (vv3–4) In that day there will be a great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon.
- Exodus 12:30 (v12) Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a…
- Exodus 23:20-21 (v8) “Behold, I send an angel before you, to keep you by the way, and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. Pay attention to him,…
- 2 Samuel 5:14 (v12) These are the names of those who were born to him in Jerusalem: Shammua, Shobab, Nathan, Solomon,
- Psalms 2:6-7 (v8) “Yet I have set my King on my holy hill of Zion.” I will tell of the decree: Yahweh said to me, “You are my son. Today I have become your…
- Psalms 20:6-7 (v5) Now I know that Yahweh saves his anointed. He will answer him from his holy heaven, with the saving strength of his right hand. Some trust…
- Psalms 35:26 (v7) Let them be disappointed and confounded together who rejoice at my calamity. Let them be clothed with shame and dishonor who magnify…
- Psalms 45:6-7 (v8) Your throne, God, is forever and ever. A scepter of equity is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness, and hated…
- Psalms 46:1 (v5) God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
- Psalms 55:12 (v7) For it was not an enemy who insulted me, then I could have endured it. Neither was it he who hated me who raised himself up against me,…
- Psalms 82:6 (v8) I said, “You are gods, all of you are sons of the Most High.
- Psalms 104:2 (v1) He covers himself with light as with a garment. He stretches out the heavens like a curtain.
- Psalms 110:1-2 (v8) Yahweh says to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool for your feet.” Yahweh will send out the rod of…
- Psalms 149:6-9 (v6) May the high praises of God be in their mouths, and a two-edged sword in their hand, to execute vengeance on the nations, and punishments…
- Isaiah 28:6 (v5) and a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment, and strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.
- Isaiah 40:12 (v1) Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and marked off the sky with his span, and calculated the dust of the earth in a…
- Isaiah 40:22 (v1) It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,…
- Isaiah 41:10-16 (v5) Don’t you be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you. Yes, I will…
- Isaiah 45:12 (v1) I have made the earth, and created man on it. I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens. I have commanded all their army.
- Isaiah 45:18 (v1) For Yahweh who created the heavens, the God who formed the earth and made it, who established it and didn’t create it a waste, who formed…
- Isaiah 51:13 (v1) Have you forgotten Yahweh your Maker, who stretched out the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth? Do you live in fear continually…
- Isaiah 51:17 (v2) Awake, awake! Stand up, Jerusalem, you who have drunk from Yahweh’s hand the cup of his wrath. You have drunken the bowl of the cup of…
- Isaiah 59:19-21 (v10) So they will fear Yahweh’s name from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun; for he will come as a rushing stream, which…
- Jeremiah 10:12 (v1) God has made the earth by his power. He has established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding has he stretched out the heavens.
- Jeremiah 31:18 (v12) “I have surely heard Ephraim grieving thus, ‘You have chastised me, and I was chastised, as an untrained calf. Turn me, and I will be…
- Hosea 3:5 (v8) Afterward the children of Israel shall return, and seek Yahweh their God, and David their king, and shall come with trembling to Yahweh and…
- Amos 9:11 (v7) In that day I will raise up the tent of David who is fallen, and close up its breaches, and I will raise up its ruins, and I will build it…
100 distinct cross-references across this passage (272 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv1–14 The inscription seems not to agree with what follows,…
The inscription seems not to agree with what follows, for he does not denounce any evil on the chosen people in this chapter, but, on the contrary, comforts the miserable, and promises that God would provide for the safety of his Church. Since then Zechariah speaks only of God’s favor and aid, he seems to have mentioned burden here improperly or unreasonably; for משא, mesha, we know, is rightly to be taken for a threatening prophecy. It might indeed be said, that he promises that God would so deliver his Church as to teach it at the same time that it would be subject to many evils and trials: but I rather think that the Prophet’s design was different, even to show that the Israelites, who had preferred exile to God’s favor, would be punished for their sloth and ingratitude, because it was through their own fault that they were not again united in one body, and that they did not rightly worship God in their own country. Interpreters have heedlessly passed over this, as though it had nothing to do with the subject: but except this be borne in mind, what is read in this chapter will be altogether without meaning. I therefore consider that the Prophet here reproves those Israelites who had rejected what they had long desired, when it was offered to them from above and beyond all hope: for nothing was so much wished for by them as a free return to their own country; and we also see how ardently all the Prophets had prayed for restoration. As then the Israelites, given to ease, and pleasures, and their worldly advantages, had counted as nothing the permission given them to return, that they might again be gathered under God’s protection, it was a base ingratitude. Hence the Prophet here reproves them, and shows that their success would be far otherwise than they imagined.
We must also observe, that those who were dispersed in different parts, were retained by their torpidity, because they did not think that the state of the people would continue; for they saw, as they had before found, that Judea was surrounded by inveterate enemies, and also that they would not be a people sufficiently strong to repel the assaults of those around them; for they had already been accustomed to bear all things, and though they might have had some courage, they had completely lost it, having been oppressed by so long a servitude. Since then the ten tribes entertained these ideas, they did not avail themselves of the present kindness of God. Thus it was, that they wholly alienated themselves from the Church of God, and renounced as it were of their own accord that covenant, on which was founded the hope of eternal salvation.
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What then does Zechariah teach us in this chapter? Even that God would be the guardian of Jerusalem, to defend it against all violence, and that though it might be surrounded by nations for the purpose of assailing it, he would not yet suffer it to be overcome: and we shall see that many other things are stated here; but it is enough to touch now on the main point, that God would not forsake that small company and the weak and feeble remnant; and that however inferior the Jews might be to their enemies, yet the power of God alone would be sufficient to defend and keep them.
If it be then now asked, why the Prophet calls the word he received a burden on Israel? The answer is plainly this, that the Israelites were now as it were rotting among foreign nations without any hope of deliverance, having refused to be gathered under God’s protection, though he had kindly and graciously invited them all to return. Since then God had effected nothing, by stretching forth his hands, being ready to embrace them again, this was the reason for the burden of which Zechariah speaks; for they would be touched with grief and with envy when they saw their brethren protected by God’s aid, and that they themselves were without any hope of deliverance. In short, there is an implied contrast between the ten tribes and the house of Judah; and this is evident from the context. Having now ascertained the Prophet’s design, we shall proceed to the words.
The burden, he says, of the word of Jehovah on Israel: Say does Jehovah who expanded the heavens, etc. Zechariah thus exalts God in order to confirm the authority of this prophecy; for no doubt the creation of heaven and earth and of man is here mentioned on account of what is here announced. We have elsewhere seen similar declarations; for when anything is said difficult to be believed, what is promised will have no effect on us, except the infinite power of God be brought to our minds. God then, that he may gain credit to his promises, bids us to raise up our eyes to the heavens and carefully to consider his wonderful workmanship, and also to turn our eyes down to the earth, where also his ineffable power is apparent; and, in the third place, he calls our attention to the consideration of our own nature. Since then what Zechariah says could hardly be believed, he prescribes to the Jews the best remedy — they were to raise upwards their eyes, and then to turn them to the earth. The expanse of the heavens constrains us to admire him; for however stupid we may be, we cannot look on the sun, and the moon and stars, and on the whole bright expanse above, without some and even strong emotions of fear and of reverence. Since then God exceeds all that men can comprehend in the very creation of the world, what should hinder us from believing even that which seems to us in no way probable? for it is not meet for us to measure God’s works by what we can understand, for we cannot comprehend, no, not even the hundredth part of them, however attentively we may apply all the powers of our minds.
Nor is it yet a small matter when he adds, that God had formed the spirit of man; for we know that we live; the body of itself would be without any strength or motion, were it not endued with life; and the soul which animates the body is invisible. Since then experience proves to us the power of God, which is not yet seen by our eyes, why should we not expect what he promises, though the event may appear incredible to us, and exceed all that we can comprehend. We now then understand why the Prophet declares, that God expanded thee heavens, and founded the earth, and formed the spirit of man By saying “in the midst of him”, he means, that the spirit dwells within; for the body, we allow, is as it were its tabernacle. Let us proceed -
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, 5, 7, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 That is, the ten tribes, which neglected God’s benefit…
That is, the ten tribes, which neglected God’s benefit in delivering their brethren, and had rather remain in captivity, than to return home when God called them.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14 Zec 12:1 The burden of the word of the…
Zec 12:1 The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him.
Ver. 1. The burden of the word of the Lord] That is, a declaration of his mind and counsel for Israel’s comfort and his enemies’ confusion. To the Israel of God it is onus sine onere, such a burden as the wings are to the bird, a burdenless burden. To the enemies, a burdensome stone, Zec 12:3, heavier than the sand of the sea, Job 6:3.
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For Israel] Not against Israel, though Calvin so taketh it; and by Israel understandeth the ten tribes, and those other captives that, loth to leave those houses they had built and those gardens they had planted in Babylon, Jer 29:5, neglected to return to Jerusalem for fear of the Samaritans and other ill neighbours; whose ruin is therefore here foretold by three excellent similitudes, after a stately preamble, drawn, 1. From the power of God, whereby he stretcheth forth the heavens, Job 37:18; Job 26:7, that huge expanse, as a curtain, or as a molten looking glass. 2. From the wisdom of God, in laying the foundation of the earth, and hanging it, by geometry, as we say, in the midst of heaven, like Archimedes’ pigeon, equally poised with its own weight.
“ Terra pilae similis, nullo fulcimine nixa,
Acre subiecto tam grave pendet onus. ”
(Ovid. Fast. l. 6.)
3. From the goodness of God,
who formeth the spirit of man within him] Who hath made us these souls, Isa 57:16, which he doth daily create and infuse into men’s bodies; yea, and that alone, without any help of their parents: hence he is called "the Father of spirits," Heb 12:9, and the spirit of a dying man is said to return to God that gave it, Ecc 12:7. This last text convinced Augustine (who held sometime, with Origen, that the soul as well as the body was begotten by the parents) far more than the peremptory rashness of Vincentius Victor; who censured boldly the father’s unresolvedness (when he doubted concerning the original of a rational soul), and vaunted that he would prove by demonstration that souls are created de novo, by God. Aristotle, Nature’s chief secretary, was much puzzled about this point of the soul; which, indeed, cannot fully be conceived of nor defined by man. Only this we can say, that the soul, as it comes from God, so it is like him; viz. one immaterial, immortal, understanding spirit; distinguished into three powers, which all make up one spirit.
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 vv1–14 The burden of the word of the Lord: see…
The burden of the word of the Lord: see this whole passage Zec 9:1.
For Israel; or touching, concerning, as the Gallic version; upon, against, the Hebrew bears it; and some take it in one, some in the other sense, though I think the main of the chapter persuades it is to be rendered, for, in the behalf of Israel, i.e. the church of Christ among the Jews until their rejection, and among the Gentiles ever since their vocation; both have their concern in the things here foretold.
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Saith the Lord; who giveth out promises of great things to a people in a very low state, and therefore to raise their hope tells them by his prophet what he hath done.
Which stretcheth forth the heavens, as a curtain, saith Isaiah, Isa 40:22; who did more easily spread abroad the heavens, than any creature can spread forth a curtain about your bed, or a canopy over your head; by an almighty power going along with the act of his will, saying, Let it be, all that immense body of the material, visible heavens immediately spread forth itself.
And layeth the foundation of the earth, upon his own almighty word; on that the chief corner-stones thereof do lie, Job 38:4-6; Isa 51:13.
Formeth; in admirable wisdom, and with more especial artifice, framed, so the Hebrew imports, as Isa 43:7; 46:11.
The spirit; the immortal soul, that spiritual being which animateth us. Who hath done all this he can do all that is here promised for Israel, and threatened against Israel’s enemies.
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, 9 Here is, I. The title of this charter of…
Here is, I. The title of this charter of promises made to God's Israel; it is the burden of the word of the Lord, a divine prediction; it is of weight in the delivery of it; it is to be pressed upon people, and will be very pressing in the accomplishment of it; it is a burden, a heavy burden, to all the church's enemies, like that talent of lead, Zac 5:7, Zac 5:8. But it is for Israel; it is for their comfort and benefit. As even the fiery law (Deu 33:2), so the fiery prophecies and fiery providences that come from God's right hand, come for them; the word that speaks terror to their enemies speaks peace to them, as the pillar of cloud and fire, which turned a bright side towards the Israelites, to direct and encourage them, but a black side towards the Egyptians, to terrify and dispirit them. Happy are those that have even the burdens of God's word for them, as well as the blessings of it.
II. The title of him that grants this charter, which is prefixed to it to show that he has both authority to make these promises and ability to make them good, for he is the Creator of the world and our Creator, and therefore has an incontestable irresistible dominion. 1. He stretches out the heavens; not only he did so at the first, when he said, Let there be a firmament, and he made the firmament, but he does so still; he keeps them stretched out like a curtain, keeps them from running in, and will do so till the end come, when the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll. No bounds can be set to his power who stretches out the heavens, nor can any thing be too hard for him. 2. He lays the foundation of the earth, and keeps it firm and fixed on its own basis, or rather on its own axis, though it is founded on the seas (Psa 24:1, Psa 24:2), nay, though it is hung upon nothing, Job 26:7. The founder of this earth is no doubt the ruler of it, and judges in it, and those deceive themselves who say, The Lord has forsaken the earth, for, if he had, it would have sunk, since it is he that not only did lay its foundations at first, but does still lay them, still uphold them. 3. He forms the spirit of man within him. He made us these souls, Jer 38:16. He not only breathed into the first man, but still breathes into every man the breath of life; the body is derived from the fathers of our flesh, but the soul is infused by the Father of spirits, Heb 12:9. He fashions men's hearts; they are in his hand, and he turns them as the rivers of water, and casts them into what mould he pleases, so as to serve his own purposes with them; and he can therefore save his church by inspiriting his friends and dispiriting his enemies, and will eternally save all his chosen by forming their spirits anew.
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III. The promises themselves that are here made them, by which the church shall be secured, and in which all its friends may enjoy a holy security.
1. It is promised that, whatever attacks the enemies of the church may make upon her purity or peace, they will certainly issue in their own confusion. The enemies of God and of his kingdom bear a great deal of malice and ill-will to Jerusalem, and form designs for its destruction; but it will prove, at last, that they are but preparing ruin for themselves; Jerusalem is in safety, and those are in all the danger who fight against it. This is here illustrated by three comparisons: -
(1.) Jerusalem shall be a cup of trembling to all that lay siege to it, Zac 12:2. They promise themselves that it shall be to them a cup of wine, which they shall easily and with pleasure drink off, and they thirst for its spoils, nay, they thirst for its blood, as for such a cup; but it shall prove a cup of slumber, nay, a cup of poison, to them, which, when they take it into their hands, and think it is all their own, they shall not be able to drink off: the fumes of it shall give them enough. When the kings were assembled against her, and saw how God was known in her palaces for a refuge, they trembled and hasted away; fear took hold upon them, as we find, Psa 48:3-6. Thus Alexander the Great was struck with amazement when he met Jaddus the high priest, and was deterred thereby from offering any violence to Jerusalem. When Sennacherib laid siege against Judah and Jerusalem he found them such a cup of stupifying wine as laid all his mighty men asleep, Psa 76:5, Psa 76:6. Some read it, I will make Jerusalem a post of contrition or breaking. Those that make any attempts upon Jerusalem do but run their heads against a post, which they cannot move, but are sure to hurt themselves. The blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall (Isa 25:4), broken by it, but not shaking it. God's church is a cup of consolation to all her friends (Isa 66:11), but a cup of trembling to all that would either debauch her by errors and corruptions or destroy her by wars and persecutions. See Isa 51:22, Isa 51:23.
(2.) Jerusalem shall be a burdensome stone to all that attempt to remove it or carry it away, Zac 12:3. All the people of the earth are here supposed to be gathered together against it, some one time and some another; there has been a succession of enemies, from age to age, making war upon the church. But though they were all at once in a confederacy against it, and had formed a resolution to cut off the name of Israel, that it should be no more in remembrance (Psa 83:4), they will find it a task too hard for them. Those that are for keeping up and advancing the kingdom of sin in the world look upon Jerusalem, even the church of God, as the great obstacle to their designs, and they must have it out of the way; but they will find it heavier than they think it is; so that, [1.] They cannot remove it. God will have a church in the world, in spite of them; it is built upon a rock, and is as Mount Zion, that abides for ever, Psa 125:1. This stone, cut out of the mountain without hands, will not only keep its ground, but fill the earth, Dan 2:35. Nay, [2.] It will break in pieces all that burden themselves with it, as that stone smote the image, Dan 2:45. All that think themselves a match for it shall be cut in pieces by it. Some think it is an allusion to a sport which Jerome, upon this place, says was in use among the Jews, as among us: young men tried their strength, and strove for mastery, by heaving up great stones, which, if they proved too heavy for them, fell upon them, and bruised them. Those that make a jest of religion, and banter sacred things, will find them a burdensome stone, that it is ill-jesting with edged-tools, and though they make light of it (saying, Am not I in sport?) they bring upon themselves an insupportable sinking load of guilt. Our Saviour seems to allude to these words when he speaks of himself as a burdensome stone to those that will not have him for their foundation-stone, which shall fall upon them and grind them to powder, Mat 21:44.
(3.) The governors of Judah shall be among their enemies like a hearth of fire among the wood, and a torch of fire in a sheaf, Zac 12:6. Not that their own passions shall make them incendiaries and firebrands to all about them; no; Zion's King is meek and lowly, and all subordinate governors must be like him; but God's justice will make them avengers of his cause, and theirs, upon their enemies. Those that contend with them will find it is like an opposition given by briers and thorns to a consuming fire, Isa 27:4. It will go through them, and burn them together. It is God's wrath, and not theirs, that is the fire which devours the adversaries. God's fire is said to be in Zion, and his furnace in Jerusalem. Isa 31:9. The enemies thought to be as water to this fire, to extinguish it and put it quite out; but God will make them as wood, nay, as a sheaf of corn (which is more combustible), to this fire, not only to be consumed by it, but to be made thereby to burn the more strongly. When God would make Abimelech and the men of Shechem one another's destroyers fire is said to come out from the one to devour the other, Jdg 9:20. So here, Fire shall come out from the governors of Judah to devour all the people round about, as from the mouth of God's witnesses to consume those who offer to hurt them, Rev 11:5. The persecutors of the primitive church found this fulfilled in it, witness Lactantius's history of God's judgments upon the primitive persecutors, and the confession of Julian the apostate at last. Thou hast overcome me, O thou Galilean! The church's motto may be, Nemo me impune lacesset - He that assails me does it at his peril. If you are weary of your life, persecute the Christians, was once a proverb.
2. It is promised that God will infatuate the counsels and enfeeble the courage of the church's enemies (Zac 12:4): "In that day, when the people of the earth are gathered together against Jerusalem, I will smite every horse with astonishment, and his rider with madness;" and again, "I will smite every horse of the people with blindness, so that they shall be no way serviceable to them; blinding the horses will be as bad as houghing them." The horses and their horsemen shall both forget the military exercise to which they were trained, and, instead of keeping ranks and observing the rules of their discipline, they shall both grow mad, and ruin themselves. The church's infantry shall be too hard for the enemy's cavalry; and those who were upbraided with trusting in horses shall be baffled by those who were forbidden to multiply horses.
3. It is promised that Jerusalem shall be re-peopled and replenished (Zac 12:6): Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place, even in Jerusalem. The natives of Jerusalem shall not incorporate in a colony in some other country, and build a city there, and call that Jerusalem, and see the promises fulfilled in that, as those in New England called their towns by the names of towns in Old England. No; they shall have a new Jerusalem upon the same foundation, the same spot of ground, with the old one. They had so after their return out of captivity, but this was to have its full accomplishment in the gospel-church, which is a Jerusalem inhabited in its own place; for, the gospel being to be preached to all the world, it may call every place its own.
4. It is promised that the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be enabled to defend themselves, and yet shall be taken under the divine protection, Zac 12:8. See here in what method God preserves his church, and those that are his, from the gates of hell to and through the gates of heaven. (1.) He does himself secure them: In that day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem, not only Jerusalem itself from being taken and destroyed, but every inhabitant of it from being any way damaged. God will not only be a wall of fire about the city, to fortify that, but he will encompass particular persons with his favour as with a shield, so that no dart of the besiegers shall touch them. (2.) He does it by giving them strength and courage to help themselves. What God works in his people by his grace contributes more to their preservation and defence than what he works for them by his providence. The God of Israel gives strength and power to his people, that they may do their part, and then he will not be wanting to do his. it is the glory of God to strengthen the weak, that most need his help, that see and own their need of it, and will be the most thankful for it. [1.] In that day the feeblest of the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be as David, shall be men of war, as bold and brave, as skilful and strong, as David himself, shall attempt and accomplish great things, as David did, and become as serviceable to Jerusalem in guarding it as David himself was in founding it, and as formidable as he was to the enemies of it. See what divine grace does; it makes children not only men, but champions, makes weak saints to be not only good soldiers, but great soldiers, like David. And see how God often does his own work as easily and effectually, and more to his own glory, by weak and obscure instruments than by the most illustrious. [2.] The house of David shall be as God, that is, as the angel of the Lord, before them. Zerubbabel was now the top-branch of the house of David; he shall be endued with wisdom and grace for the service to which he is called, and shall go before the people as an angel, as that angel (so some think) which went before the people of Israel through the wilderness, which was God himself, Exo 23:20. God will increase the gifts and abilities both of the people and princes, in proportion to the respective services for which they are designed. It was said of David that he was as an angel of God, to discern good and bad, Sa2 14:17. Such shall the house of David now be. The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be as strong and fit for action as nature made David, and their magistrates as wise and fit for counsel as grace made him. But this was to have its full accomplishment in Christ; now the house of David looked little and mean, and its glory was eclipsed, but in Christ the house of David shone more brightly than ever, and its countenance was as that of an angel; in him it became more blessed, and more a blessing, than ever it had been.
5. It is promised that there shall be a very good understanding between the city and the country, and that the balance shall be kept even between them; there shall be no mutual envies or jealousies between them; they shall not keep up any separate interests, but shall heartily unite in their counsels, and act in concert for the common good; and this happy agreement between the city and the country, the head and the body, is very necessary to the health, welfare, and safety of any nation. (1.) The governors of Judah, the magistrates and gentry of the country, shall think honourably of the citizens, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the merchants and tradesmen; they shall not run them down, and contrive how to keep them under, but they shall say in their hearts, not in compliment but in sincerity, The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength, the strength of my country, of my family, in the Lord of hosts their God, Zac 12:5. They will therefore, upon all occasions, pay respect and deference to Jerusalem, as the mother-city, the ruling-city, and the city that is to be first served, because they look upon it to be the bulwark of the nation and its strongest fortification in times of public danger and distress, which therefore they would all come in to the assistance of and come under the protection of, and this not so much because it was a rich city, and money is the sinews of war, nor because it was a populous city and could bring the greatest numbers into the field, nor because its inhabitants were generally the most ingenious active men, the best soldiers and the best commanders (of Zion it shall be said, This and that brave man were born there), but because it was a holy city, where God's house and household, the temple and the priests, were, where his worship was kept up and his feasts were observed, and because it should now be more than ever a praying city, for upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem God will pour a spirit of supplication (Zac 12:10); therefore the governors of Judah shall say, These are my strength; they are so upon the account of their relation to, their interest in, and their communion with, the Lord of hosts, their God. Because the Lord of hosts is in a particular manner their God (for in Salem is his tabernacle and his dwelling-place in Zion), therefore they shall be my strength. Note, It is well with a kingdom when its great men know how to value its good men, when its governors look upon religion and religious people to be their strength, and consider it their interest to support them, and learn to call godly praying people, and skilful faithful ministers, the chariots and horsemen of Israel, as Joash called Elisha, and not the troublers of the land, as Ahab called Elijah. (2.) The court and the city shall not despise, nor look with contempt upon, the inhabitants of the country; no, not the meanest of them, much less upon the governors of Judah; for God will put signal honour upon Judah, and so save them from the contempt of their brethren. As Jerusalem was dignified by special ordinances, so Judah shall be dignified with special providences. God says (Zac 12:4), I will open my eyes upon the house of Judah, upon the poor country people. Proud men scornfully overlook them, but the great God will graciously look upon them and look after them. Nay, (Zac 12:7), the Lord shall save the tents of Judah first. Those that dwell in tents lie most exposed; but God will remarkably protect and deliver them before those that dwell in Jerusalem. He will appear glorious in what he does for the inhabitants of his villages in Israel, Jdg 5:11. Thus, in the mystical body, God gives more abundant honour to that part which lacked, that there may be no schism in the body (see Co1 12:22-25), which is the reason here given why the glory of the house of David, which has great power, and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who have great wealth, and both which live in great pomp and pleasure, may not magnify themselves against Judah and the tents of Judah, the dwellers in which work hard, and fare hard, and perhaps are not so well bred. Note, Courtiers and citizens ought not to despise country people, nor look with disdain upon those whom God opens his eyes upon and who are first saved, while it is so hard for the rich and great to enter the kingdom of God. If God by his grace has magnified the dwellers in the tents of Judah, having chosen the weak and foolish things of the world and chosen to employ them, we affront him if we vilify them, or magnify ourselves against them, Jam 2:5, Jam 2:6. This promise has a further reference to the gospel-church, in which no difference shall be made between high and low, rich and poor, bond and free, circumcision and uncircumcision, but all shall be alike welcome to Christ, and partake of his benefits, Col 3:11. Jerusalem shall not then be thought, as it had been, more holy than other parts of the land of Israel.
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 vv1–14 The burden of the word of the Lord for…
The burden of the word of the Lord for Israel,.... And against their enemies; for the good of the church of God, for its joy, comfort, and salvation; or, "concerning Israel" (x); what shall befall them in the latter day, as the destruction of antichrist, prophesied of in the preceding chapter Zac 11:1; and what is hereafter said may be believed that it shall be accomplished. The Lord is described in the greatness of his power, speaking as follows:
saith the Lord, which stretcheth forth the heavens: as a curtain, Psa 104:2 the expanse or firmament of heaven, which is stretched out as a canopy over all the earth around:
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and layeth the foundation of the earth; firm and sure, though upon the seas and floods, yea, upon nothing, Psa 24:2,
and formeth the spirit of man within him; the soul of man, with all its powers and faculties, gifts and endowments; which is of his immediate creation, and which he continues daily to form, and infuse into the bodies of men, and holds in life there; hence he is called the Father of spirits, Heb 12:9.
(x) "de", Piscator, Drusius; "super Israele", Cocceius, Burkius.
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 vv1–13 The enemies of the church shall not prevail against…
The enemies of the church shall not prevail against her, ver. 1-6. God will strengthen the weakest of his people, ver. 7, 8. A spirit of prayer and repentance promised, ver. 9-14.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1–12 The first part of this chapter, with several passages…
CHAPTER XII
The first part of this chapter, with several passages in
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chap xiv., relates to an invasion that shall be made on the
inhabitants of Judea and Jerusalem in the latter ages of the
world, some time after the restoration and settlement of the
Jews in their own land. It also describes, in very magnificent
terms, the signal interposition of God in their favour. From
this the prophet proceeds in the latter part of the chapter,
10-14, to describe the spiritual mercies of God to converting
his people; and gives a very pathetic and affecting account of
the deep sorrow of that people, when brought to a sense of
their great sin in crucifying the Messiah, comparing it to the
sorrow of a parent for his first-born and only son, or to the
lamentations made for Josiah in the valley of Megiddon,
2Ch 35:24-25.
A deep, retired sorrow, which will render the mourners for a
season insensible to all the comforts and enjoyments of the
most endearing society.
NOTES ON CHAP. XII
Verse 1. The burden of the word of the Lord] This is a new prophecy. It is directed both to Israel and Judah, though Israel alone is mentioned in this verse.
Which stretcheth forth the heavens] See on Isa 42:5.
Formeth the spirit of man within him.] Then it is not the same substance with his body. It is a SPIRIT within HIM.
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, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11 Zec 12:1. The burden of the word of the…
Zec 12:1. The burden of the word of the Lord for Israel — Or, toward Israel; that is, as some interpret it, the prophecy which containeth the words of the Lord to Israel. Saith the Lord, which stretcheth forth the heavens — Who hath spread out the heavens to such a vast extent. And layeth the foundation of the earth — Hath assigned to the earth a fixed place in the creation, or regulates all its motions by fixed laws, which cannot be altered by the power of any creature. And formeth the spirit of man within him — Who gave life to the first man, and created the soul, and united it to the body. All these things are mentioned as undeniable instances of God’s almighty power, and are made use of as arguments to encourage men to rely on his word for the fulfilment of such promises as might seem to the understanding of man most unlikely to be brought to pass.
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 vv1–12 The burden of the word of the Lord for…
The burden of the word of the Lord for - Rather, “upon (see at Nah 1:1, p. 129) Israel.” If this prophecy is a continuation of the last, notwithstanding its fresh title, then “Israel” must be the Christian Church, formed of the true Israel which believed, and the Gentiles who were grafted into them. So Cyril; “Having spoken sufficiently of the Good Shepherd Christ, and of the foolish, most cruel shepherd who butchered the sheep, that is, antichrist, he seasonably makes mention of the persecutions which would from time to time arise against Israel; not the Israel according to the flesh, but the spiritual, that Jerusalem which is indeed holy, “the Church of the Living God” 1Ti 3:15. For as we say, that “he” is spiritually a Jew, who hath the “circumcision in the heart,” Rom 2:29, that through the Spirit, “and not” in the flesh “through the letter;” so also may “Israel” be conceived, not that of the blood of Israel, but rather that, which has a mind beholding God. But such are all who are called to sanctification through the faith in Christ, and who in Him and by Him, know of God the Father. For this is the one true elected way of beholding God.”
Since the Good Shepherd was rejected by all, except the “poor of the flock,” the “little flock” which believed in Him, and thereupon the “band” of “brotherhood” was dissolved between Israel and Judah, “Israel” in those times could not be Israel after the flesh, which then too was the deadly antagonist of the true israel, and thus early also chose antichrist, such as was Bar-Cochba, with whom so many hundreds of thousands perished. There was no war then against Jerusalem, since it had ceased to be (see the notes on Mic 3:12).
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But Zechariah does not say that this prophecy, to which he has annexed a separate title, follows, in time, upon the last; rather, since he has so separated it by its title, he has marked it as a distinct prophecy from the preceding. It may be, that he began again from the time of the Maccabees and took God’s deliverances of the people Israel then, as the foreground of the deliverances to the end ).
Yet in the times of Antiochus, it was one people only which was against the Jews, and Zechariah himself speaks only of the Greeks; Zec 9:13; here he repeatedly emphasizes that they were “all nations” (Zec 12:2-3, Zec 12:6, Zec 12:9). It may then rather be, that the future, the successive efforts of the world to crush the people of God, and its victory amid suffering, and its conversions of the world through the penitent looking to Jesus, are exhibited in one great perspective, according to the manner of prophecy, which mostly exhibits the prominent events, not their order or sequence. : “The penitential act of contrite sinners, especially of Jews, looking at Him “whom they pierced,” dates from the Day of Pentecost, and continues to the latter days, when it will be greatly intensified and will produce blessed results, and is here concentrated into one focus. The rising up of God’s enemies against Christ’s Church, which commenced at the same time, and has been continued in successive persecutions from Jews, Gentiles, and other unbelievers in every age, and which will reach its climax in the great antichristian outbreak of the last times, and be confounded by the Coming of Christ to judgment, is here summed up in one panoramic picture, exhibited at once to the eye.”
Which stretcheth forth the heavens - God’s creative power is an ever-present working, as our Lord says, “My Father worketh hitherto and I work” Joh 5:17. His preservation of the things which He has created is a continual re-creation. All “forces” are supported by Him, who alone hath life in Himself. He doth not the less “uphold all things by the word of His power,” because, until the successive generations, with or without their will, with or against His Will for them, shall have completed His Sovereign Will, He upholds them uniformly in being by His Unchanging Will. Man is ever forgetting this, and because, “since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as from the beginning of the creation” 2Pe 3:4, they relegate the Creator and His creating as far as they can to some time, as far back as they can imagine, enough to fill their imaginations, and forget Him who made them, in whose bands is their eternity, who will be their Judge. So the prophets remind them and us of His continual working, which people forget in the sight of His works; “Thus saith the Lord; He that createth the heavens, and stetcheth them out; He that spreadeth forth the earth and its produce, who giveth breath to the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein” Isa 42:5; and, “I am the Lord who maketh all things, who stretcheth out the heavens alone, who spreadeth abroad the earth by Myself” Isa 44:24; speaking at once of that, past in its beginning yet present to us in its continuance, but to Him ever-present present; and of things actually present to us, “that frustrateth the tokens of the liars” Isa 44:25; and of things to those of that day still future, “that confirmeth the word of His servant, and performeth the counsel of His messengers” Isa 44:26 : the beginning of which was not to be till the taking of Babylon. And the Psalmist unites past and present in one, “Donning light as a garment, stretching out the heavens as a curtain; who layeth the beams of His chambers on the waters, who maketh the clouds His chariot; who walketh on the wings of the wind; who maketh His angels spirits, His ministers a flame of fire; He founded the earth upon its base.” Psa 104:2-5. And Amos, “He that formeth the mountains and createth the winds, and declareth unto man his thoughts” (Amo 4:13, add Amo 5:8); adding whatever lieth nearest to each of us.
And formeth the spirit of man, within him - Both by the unceasing creation of souls, at every moment in some spot in our globe, or by the re-creation, for which David prays, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me” Psa 51:10. He who formed the hearts of people can overrule them as He wills. Cyril: “But the spirit of man is formed by God in him, not by being called to the beginnings of being, although it was made by Him, but, as it were, transformed from weakness to strength, from unmanliness to endurance, altogether being transelemented from things shameful to better things.”
Cyril: “It is the custom of the holy prophets, when about to declare beforehand things of no slight moment, to endeavor to show beforehand the Almightiness of God, that their word may obtain credence, though they should declare what was beyond all hope, and (to speak of our conceptions) above all reason and credibility.”
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 vv2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13 A lintel of surfeiting. That is, a door into…
A lintel of surfeiting. That is, a door into which they shall seek to enter, to glut themselves with blood: but they shall stumble, and fall like men stupified with wine. It seems to allude to the times of Antiochus, and to the victories of the Machabees. (Challoner) --- Yet it indirectly relates to the last siege of Jerusalem, and to Jesus Christ establishing his Church. Hebrew, "a cup of drowsiness," or trembling. (Calmet) --- Septuagint, "as courts (or thresholds; Greek: prothura) shaken." (Haydock) --- Jerusalem first drank the cup herself; and then under the Machabees, made others suffer. --- Juda. Never before Epiphanes had the Jews fought against their brethren. Then the apostates became most terrible, 1 Machabees i. 55., and ii. 7, 19. (Calmet) --- Thus none persecute the Catholic faith more than those who have perfidiously abandoned it. (Haydock) --- When the gospel began to be preached, the obstinate Jews opposed it, Acts iv., &c. (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 vv1, 10 Zechariah 12-14.
B. THE SECOND BURDEN
Zechariah 12-14.
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The fresh title here prefixed sufficiently indicates that a new pericope begins with Zechariah 12. Its leading themes are the victory of God’s kingdom over the heathen world (Zec_12:1-9), the repentance and conversion of the children of the kingdom (Zec_12:10; Zec_13:1), their purification from all ungodliness (Zec_13:2-6), a severe sitting of the flock consequent upon the smiting of the shepherd (Zec_13:7-9), and the final tremendous conflict of the Church and the world, ending in the assured victory of the former (Zechariah 14).
If our view of the First Burden be correct, it would seem to follow that the second begins where the first leaves off, and treats of events to follow the coming and rejection of Christ. There are indeed many particulars which suggest the struggle of the Maccabees as the subject of the former part of the twelfth chapter; but that has already been treated of in the ninth chapter with specific mention of Javan or Greece as the antagonist, and why should we have it renewed here? Why should the Prophet halt in his progress and go back over trodden ground? Moreover, the twelfth chapter expressly speaks in several places of the conflict as carried on not against one nation, but against all the peoples of the earth (see Zec_12:3). There is an aspect of universality of which no sign at all appears in the portion Zec_9:11 to Zec_10:7. It is the heathen world against the covenant people. Where now are we to look for the outward reality corresponding to this inward vision of the Prophet? Manifestly there is nothing in the history of the literal, national Israel which approaches conformity to this vivid outline. Never did they not only resist their foes, but inflict such damage upon them as could be compared to the ravages of fire among wheat sheaves. The covenant people maintained their internal constitution and religious usages until the days of Titus, but in no case did they devour all nations roundabout on the right hand and the left. It only remains then to hold that the Prophet here passes from the old to the new form of the Church, that he refers to the kingdom of God on earth after the appearance of the Messiah, and describes its trials and triumphs, its inward and outward development.
But does he refer to events yet future, or may we trace a fulfillment of his words in the past? The latter seems the more probable. As there was a chronological advance in the previous oracle, it is natural to look for one here, and to consider that the Prophet refers to different stages in the progress of the Christian Israel. In this view the struggle and victory in Zec_12:1-9 can hardly have any other reference than to the persecutions of the heathen world. Judah invaded, Jerusalem besieged by the nations, and yet the attempt at overthrow not only foiled but recoiling in the ruin of those who made it,—what else can this be than the fierce and bloody onslaught of pagan power on the infant Church? Or if Zechariah intended to set it forth, in what other way could he in his historical relations conceive the issue and its result than the way in which it is given here? Nor is it of use to object that this is spiritualizing arbitrarily. The Christian Church is the legitimate continuation of the Old Testament Israel. There is but one Israel, one people of God from the beginning to the end. According to the Apostle’s figure, old branches were broken off and new ones grafted on, but there was only the one olive tree throughout. Gentiles when they come to Christ, are incorporated into the commonwealth of Israel, so as to become fellow citizens with the saints, i. e., those who are already such (Eph_2:12-19). It is one and the same body, differing in outward and unessential characteristics, but maintaining an unbroken identity in all that belongs to substance and life.
1. ISRAEL’S CONFLICT AND VICTORY.
Zec_12:1-9.
A. Jehovah’s continuous Agency in Nature (Zec_12:1). B. Jerusalem ruinous to her Besiegers (Zec_12:2-4). C. Energy of the Chiefs of Judah (Zec_12:5-7). D. Promise of growing Strength to the Feeble (Zec_12:8). E. Final Result (Zec_12:9).
1 The burden of the word of Jehovah upon Israel,
Saith Jehovah who stretches1 forth the heavens,
And lays the foundation of the earth,
And forms the spirit of man within him.
2 Behold I make Jerusalem a bowl2 of reeling
To all the peoples3 round about,
And upon Judah also shall it be4
In the siege against Jerusalem.
3 And it shall be in that day, I will make Jerusalem
A burdensome stone for all peoples,
All who lift it shall tear themselves;
And5 all nations of the earth shall gather against it.
4 In that day, saith Jehovah,
I will smite every horse with terror,6
And his rider with madness,
And upon the house of Judah I will open my eyes,
And every horse of the peoples will I smite with blindness.
5 And the chiefs7 of Judah shall say in their heart,
The inhabitants of Jerusalem are my strength8
In Jehovah of Hosts, their God.
6 In that day I will make the chiefs of Judah
As a pan9 of fire among sticks of wood,10
And as a torch of lire in a sheaf,
And they shall devour on the right hand and on the left
All the peoples around,
And Jerusalem shall yet sit in her own place in Jerusalem.
7 And Jehovah shall save the tents of Judah first,11
That the glory of the house of David,
And the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem
May not exalt itself over Judah.
8 In that day will Jehovah defend12 the inhabitant of Jerusalem,
And the stumbling13 among them in that day shall be as David, And the house of David as God,14
As the angel of Jehovah before them.
9 And it shall be in that day,
I will seek to destroy all the nations
That come against Jerusalem.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
This chapter begins the second half of the last division of Zechariah’s prophecies. It commences with the same word as does the portion chaps, 9–11 but in a different application. Both utterances are burdens, i. e., threatening predictions. The former sets forth calamity as the portion of God’s enemies, whether within or without the ranks of his covenant people. The latter represents the same as involving temporarily and partially his own chosen followers, but in the end these attain complete deliverance.
Zec_12:1. Burden. See on Zec_9:1. עַל=upon or concerning, not against. The calamity involves Israel, but its full scope takes in the general body of the ungodly. Israel=the covenant nation, either in itself or as found in its true successor, the Christian Church. The Jewish interpreters, say the former, and with them many Christian critics agree (Theodoret, Calvin, a Lapide, Grotius, Vitringa, Bleek, etc.), while an equal number adopt the latter (Jerome, Cyril, Luther, Albertus Magnus, Cocceius, Marckius, Calmet, Hengstenberg). Who stretches forth the heavens, ff. For the purpose of allaying any possible doubt as to the fulfillment of the prophecy, there are added to Jehovah’s name several striking expressions of his Almighty power (cf. Isa_42:5; Amo_4:13; Psa_54:2—4). The Scriptures know nothing of the mechanical view of the universe as something from which God, after having created it, stands altogether aloof. “Every day He spreads out the heavens, every day He lays the foundation of the earth, which if it were not upheld by his power would wander from its orbit and fall into ruin” (Hengstenberg). The reference to God’s formation of the human spirit is intended to suggest that unrestrained and continuous agency by which He controls the thoughts and purposes of men, and is able therefore to accomplish his own purposes through them, or in spite of them (cf. Num_16:22; Num_27:16; Psa_33:15; Pro_21:1.
Zec_12:2. Behold, I make…round about. A lively exhibition of the failure of the nations in their attack upon Jerusalem. Zechariah employs the figure common in the older Prophets, of representing Jehovah’s wrath as a wine-cup which maddens and infatuates nations doomed to ruin. God will administer such a potion as will make them reel and fall in hopeless weakness and misery (cf. Psa_75:9, and Isa_51:17-22; Jer_25:15-17). What elsewhere is כוֹס= cup, here is סַק=basin or bowl, the latter being used, perhaps, because many were to drink of it at the same time. And upon Judah also…Jerusalem. What is to be “upon Judah?” And old and wide-spread opinion says that it is a forced participation in the siege of the capital (Targum, Vulgate, Grotius, Marckius, and many later critics); but this is not required by the text, nor consistent with the context, which indicates union rather than opposition between the country and the capital. Others say, the bowl of reeling (Kimchi, Hitzig, Maurer, et al, but this would require the preposition לְ instead of .עַל Köhler proposes to supply מצוֹר as the subject, but this is forbidden by the awkward sentence it would make, and by the fact that only a city and not a land can be besieged. It is better to assume as the subject the substance of the previous clause,—what takes place at Jerusalem; and the meaning is that the country and the capital shall be involved in the same trial.
Zec_12:3. And it shall be…a burdensome stone. The prophet employs another figure borrowed, according to the young men in Palestine de scribed by Jerome as still subsisting in his day. They who, overrating their strength, try to lift a stone too heavy for them, not only fail, but suffer sprains and dislocations. Such a fate will befall the foes of Jerusalem, i. e., all peoples, all the nations of the earth, for so extensive is the combination against the holy city.
Zec_12:4. In that day…blindness. Horses and riders represent the warlike forces of the enemy. The terrifying and blinding of these makes them injurious only to themselves. Upon Judah on the contrary, which stands here for the whole nation, Jehovah says, I will open my eyes, i. e., for protection (Psa_32:8 (Heb.), 1Ki_8:29; Neh_1:6). Cowles justly calls attention to the beautiful antithesis. “God smites with blindness the warring powers of his foes, but opens his own eyes wide on his people, to see and provide for their wants.” The three plagues mentioned are precisely those with which Moses threatened rebellious Israel in Deu_28:28 : “The Lord shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart.” A fine historical illustration of the effect of sudden blindness is seen in the history of Elisha (2Ki_6:18).
Zec_12:5. And the chiefs of Judah…my strength. That the leaders find their strength in the inhabitants of Jerusalem can mean only that the holy city, made such by the election of the Most High who dwells there, insures his protection for all who seek Him in the appointed way, and that even the most dignified and powerful have no other resource. A parallel sentiment is found in Psa_87:2 : “The Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob.”
Zec_12:6. In that day…in a sheaf. In consequence of this trust in the divine election, the leaders consume their foes on every hand as a basin of fire devours faggots, or a torch bums up a ripe sheaf. The resulting preservation of the city is stated in the last clause, in which the first Jerusalem=the population personified as a woman, and the second=the material city as such. For the reverse condition, see Isa_47:1.
Zec_12:7. And Jehovah shall save…Judah. The word tents stands in contrast with fortified cities. These spread over the open country Jehovah will save first, in order that the well-defended capital may not lift itself above the defenseless land; but that both may acknowledge that “in either case the victory is the Lord’s” (Jerome).
Zec_12:8. Will Jehovah defend…angel of Jehovah. The Lord will exalt his people to a degree of strength and glory far transcending anything in their past experience. This is expressed by saying that even the stumbler, one who can scarce hold himself up, much less attack a foe, shall become a hero like David; and even David’s house shall exceed its highest fame of old, shall become like God, nay, like the angel of Jehovah, that peculiar manifestation of Deity which once marched at the head of the armies of Israel. This very striking and beautiful climax is of itself an answer to those who depreciate the literary merit of Zechariah. But the rhetorical excellence of the passage falls far below its consolatory and stimulating power as a promise. Before them (cf. Exo_32:34; Exo_33:20).
Zec_12:9. I will seek to destroy…Jerusalem. This does not mean to seek out in order to destroy, but is spoken, more humano, to express the energetic purpose of the speaker
This prophecy is supposed by Vitringa, C. B. Michaelis, Dathe, and others, to refer to the dealings of God with the national Israel in the end of the world, in the last great struggle of ungodliness. It is manifestly easier to interpret the passage in its details upon this literal view of its application And yet there is great improbability in such a view Why should the prophet, after depicting so vividly the rejection of the Good Shepherd, and the consequent overthrow of the flock, pass at once to the final scene; overlooking all the splendid triumphs of the truth during the intervening period? Would we not naturally, from the case itself and from the usage of the other prophets, expect some allusion to the great changes in the development of the kingdom of God, and to its progressive increase among the nations of the earth? Moreover, if the national Israel are hereafter to be restored to then own land and to resume the old relations of capital and country, on what ground can we look for a consentaneous attack of all nations upon this one small people and territory? Can any imagination conceive the recurrence of a general movement, like that of the Crusades, precipitating the men and means of a continent, not to say a world, upon the sacred soil of Palestine? Of course, such a thing is possible, but in view of the vast changes in the current of human thought, in the economy of states and empires, in the ways in which races and dynasties seek to increase or perpetuate their influence, and in the distribution of political and social power, it is the most unlikely of all conceivable events. Were the Jews to day in the possession of the Holy Land, and that whether converted or unconverted, what motive could there be for any existing nation or combination of nations to assail the seed of Abraham with fire and sword? If it be claimed that there will be a revival of the bloody propagandism of infidelity or atheism, as at one period of the French Revolution, why should such an outburst be directed against Jerusalem or Jewish believers rather than against the strongholds of the Gospel found among Gentile believers? Such an attack, if successful, would hardly affect more than an outpost of the Christian Church. The great body of the means and resources of evangelical Christendom would remain unimpaired. It is, therefore, more natural to consider this pericope as a general statement not only of the Christian Israel’s victory over the first ten persecutions, but of the result of all its conflicts with the world’s power as they are renewed from age to age.
THEOLOGICAL AND MORAL
1. The fundamental thought in the conception of God is that of Power. Alike in the Scriptures and in human experience we begin our view of the Most High with the fact of creation. In looking at the world around us we have an intuitive and irresistible conviction that this visible effect must have had an invisible cause, a cause adequate to its production. The universality of this conviction in all ages and lands,—rendered only the more striking by the occasional exceptions which history discloses,—entitles us to rest in it with absolute certitude. But the power which created the world t must be unlimited. He who without an effort and by a simple volition called the universe into beings can do all things. To Him great and small, high and low, difficult and easy, are practically the same. All things are possible with God. But if He be infinite in this direction, He must be equally so in. all others. What is there, what can there be, to limit any other aspect of his nature? Boundless power implies necessarily boundless wisdom and boundless goodness. A truncated Deity, perfect on one side, but imperfect on others, is inconceivable by us, or if the vain attempt be made to hold such an inconsequent view, the result is either Dualism or Polytheism.
Hence the perpetual recurrence in the Scriptures to this attribute of Jehovah. It is as necessary to our practice as to our theories. In all the course of the individual believer and of the Church at large, there occur seasons when there is no other support for faith and hope than the divine omnipotence. We must look up to Him who stretcheth abroad the heavens and layeth the foundation of the earth and formeth the spirit of man within him. To feel that all things material and immaterial lie at his control as clay in the hands of the potter is a buttress of the believing soul. It sustains in the darkest hours of trial; it encourages in the endeavor after the most difficult enterprises.
“It is a thought which ever makes
Life’s sweetest smiles from tears;
It is a daybreak to our hopes,
A sunset to our fears.”
2. It is said that on one occasion when at a conference of Andrew Rivet with the king of France, the latter threatened some severe measures against the cause of truth, the sturdy reformer answered, “May it please your Majesty, the Church of God is an anvil which hath broken a great many hammers.” It is even so. Zion is a burdensome stone, and always has been, to her assailants. They have harmed not her, but themselves. Pharaoh pursued the children of Israel and caught them “entangled in the land, shut in by the wilderness,” but when he sought to spring the trap, they escaped in safety, while he and his host sank like lead in the mighty waters. The, Philistines captured the Ark of the Covenant, but no defeat was ever so damaging to Dagon or his worshippers as this seeming triumph. Babylon rioted in the plunder of Jerusalem, and the impious king turned the sacred vessels of the sanctuary into the drinking cups of an idolatrous revel, but the fingers of doom wrote upon the wall a sentence which numbered and finished his days the same night. Herod sought to slay the infant Redeemer, but while the child was safe in Egypt, the cruel king perished by a painful and loathsome disease. So in the bloody persecutions which attended the introduction of Christianity, one and another took up the Church as a stone to toss hither and thither, but in vain. The stone was unharmed, but the lifters were torn and lacerated. All were made to feel what the dying Julian uttered in his despair, “O Galilean, thou hast conquered!” Here, more than anywhere else, is fulfilled the saying of the devout Psalmist, “The Lord is known by the judgment which He executeth; the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands” (Zec_9:16). Every assault upon Zion recoils upon the heads of its authors, and that not simply by virtue of “the elastic nature of right according to which every infliction calls forth a counter infliction;” but in consequence of the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God who taketh the wise in their own craftiness. Times without number has his providence justified the earnest counsel which Pilate’s wife gave to the Roman governor in the great crisis of his life, —Have thou nothing to do with that just man.
3. Yet when Zion prevails, over her foes, this result is not owing to any human or inherent strength, but to the presence and power of Jehovah. I make Jerusalem a bowl of reeling; I make her a burdensome stone; I smite every horse with blindness; I make the chiefs of Judah a pan of fire; Jehovah saves, Jehovah defends. Thus, throughout, the stress is laid upon the divine arm. This is the essential factor in the case. On human principles, or according to the ordinary operation of cause and effect, the world would prevail. Often every advantage is on its side; arms, wealth, influence, statecraft, learning, prestige, and numbers. Yet the few, the weak, the unlettered, the lowly, the things that are not, bring to nought the things that are. The reason is that the excellency of the power may be, and may be seen to be, not of man but of God. In all efforts of evangelization this truth is to be distinctly recognized and made prominent. For the Lord will not give his glory to another. The seer said to Asa (2Ch_14:8), “Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubims a huge host, with very many chariots and horsemen? yet because thou didst rely upon the Lord, He delivered them into thy hand.”
4. There is something stimulating in the rich promise of growth contained, in Jehovah’s assurance to the inhabitants of Jerusalem (Zec_12:8). The stumbler, the man who can scarce hold himself up, much less make an assault upon the foe, shall be made a mighty man of valor like David. His feebleness and incapacity shall merge into the strength and skill of a hero, for the Lord shall teach the hands to war and the fingers to fight. Nor is this the end. Even a great captain like David shall surpass himself, shall reach a superhuman courage and decision. He shall resemble the manifested Jehovah as he marched at the head of his conquering host in the days of old. In the sphere of spiritual things this illustrious promise verifies itself. The righteous shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall wax stronger and stronger. Faith gains by experience. Grace increases by exercise. The sapling which once bent with every blast and had but a precarious chance of life, ripens into a gnarled oak which spreads its branches far and wide and defies the storm. It is literally true that no degree of grace is impossible to him that believeth, for the Apostle’s declaration, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me,” did not apply only to himself. The same provisions and promises are open to all Christians. He who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, perfects his strength in human weakness, and the trembling believer, following on to know the Lord, is lifted to a pitch of devotion or endurance or activity which once seemed as far away as the fixed Stars.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Moore: I will open mine eye, etc. The promise of God is the best protection of his Church in the time of peril. He may seem to forget his people in their trouble, but it will be only a seeming oblivion, for at the proper time He will open his eyes upon them, and show them that He slumbers not nor sleeps. That the glory…do not magnify, etc. The whole plan of God’s dealings with man is to humble that pride, the root of which is selfishness, and the fruit of which is every form of sin.
Pressel: The affliction of the Church serves first for a chastisement of God’s people, but then falls back in terror and shame upon the heads of their foes.
Calvin: Though the Church may be grievously tried and exposed even to death, let us learn from this passage that they are miserable indeed who through fear or cowardice separate themselves I from her, and that they who cast on God the care of their safety, shall be made blessed, though the whole world were mad against them, though the weapons of all nations were prepared for their ruin, and horses and riders assembled to overthrow them, for the defense of God is a sufficient protection.
Footnotes:
[1]Zec_12:1.—Who stretches, lays, forms. The substitution of the preterite for the participle by some translators not only is gratuitous and inaccurate, but hides the allusion to the creative power of God as constantly exhibited in the continued existence of his works.
[2]Zec_12:3.—סף. This word Hengstenberg, in the first edition of his Christology (followed by Moore), rendered thresh hold, but in the second, he returns to the old and better version cup or bowl.
[3]Zec_12:2.—עַמִּים. Here and in Zec_12:3-4; Zec_12:6, peoples. See on Zec_8:20.
[4]Zec_12:2. —The rendering of the second clause in the E. V. is impossible grammatically, and is sustained by no authority that I have seen.
[5]Zec_12:3. —וְנֶא׳ It is possible but not necessary to render, as E. V., “though all,” etc.
[6]Zec_12:4. —תִמַּהוֹן Astonishment hardly expresses the force of this word, which denotes a sort of wondering consternation.
[7]Zec_12:5. —אַלּוּף head of a family or tribe, is not well rendered as in E. V., by prince, which necessarily implies something of kingly rank or power. As a title of authority it is elsewhere in Scripture used only of the heads of the Idumean tribes (Gen_36:15; Exo_15:15; 1Ch_1:51 ff.), whence Hengstenberg deduces an ingenious argument in favor of the genuineness of the second part of Zechariah (christology, 4:67), cf. on Zec_9:7.
[8]Zec_12:5. —אַצמָה, ἄπ. λεγ = לִי .אֹצֶם is the dative of advantage, and the singular is used collectively as in Zec_7:3.
[9]Zec_12:6. —כִיּוֹר usually a basin for washing (the laver of the tabernacle, Exo_30:18), here is a pot or pan for coals.
[10]Zec_12:6. —עַצִים is not “woods ”=forest, but sticks of wood or faggots.
[11]Zec_12:7—The reading כִבָרִאשֹׁנָה adopted by LXX, Vulgate, and Peshito, and found in five MSS., is manifestly due to an attempt at correction.
[12]Zec_12:8. —יָגֶן used with another preposition in the same sense, in Zec_9:15.
[13]Zec_12:8. —נִכְשָׁל feeble (E. V.), is not so expressive as the literal, stumbler; cf. Ps. cv. 37, “And not a stumbler in his tribes”. (Isa_5:27.)
[14]Zec_12:8. —אֶלהִׄים may here be used as an abstract plural, denoting what is divine and heavenly, or in general superhuman (cf. 1Sa_28:13; Ze. Zec_8:6), —a view which seems to render more obvious the contrast between the wo latter clauses of the verse. LXX. renders “house of God,” which Luther follows, and which accounts for the Vulgate, (“et domus David quasi Dei.”
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 vv2–14 cup of trembling--a cup causing those who drink it…
cup of trembling--a cup causing those who drink it to reel (from a Hebrew root "to reel"). Jerusalem, who drank the "cup of trembling" herself, shall be so to her foes (Isa 51:17, Isa 51:22; Jer 13:13). CALVIN with the Septuagint translates, "threshold of destruction," on which they shall stumble and be crushed when they attempt to cross it. English Version is better.
both against Judah--The Hebrew order of words is literally, "And also against Judah shall he (the foe) be in the siege against Jerusalem"; implying virtually that Judah, as it shares the invasion along with Jerusalem, so it shall, like the metropolis, prove a cup of trembling to the invaders. MAURER with JEROME translates, "Also upon Judah shall be (the cup of trembling); that is, some Jews forced by the foe shall join in the assault on Jerusalem, and shall share the overthrow with the besiegers. But Zac 12:6-7 show that Judah escapes and proves the scourge of the foe.
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 vv1–11 Marvelous deliverance of Judah and Jerusalem, Zec_12:1-9.
Marvelous deliverance of Judah and Jerusalem, Zec_12:1-9.
The prophet beholds the nations of the earth gathered around Jerusalem to besiege it; Jehovah smites them with terror. When the chieftains of Judah, who seem to have remained inactive during the early part of the struggle, see that Jehovah fights for Jerusalem, they turn their weapons against the nations. Jehovah saves the tents of Judah first, to prevent the inhabitants of Jerusalem from magnifying themselves above Judah, but he delivers Jerusalem also from all danger.
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1. The burden of the word of Jehovah for Israel — R.V., “concerning Israel.” The heading of the entire section Zec_12:1 to Zec_14:21, prefixed probably by the collector of the Minor Prophets, who, finding the prophecies without a title, prefixed the words to indicate their general contents (see on Zec_9:1; compare Mal_1:1). The oracle itself begins with Zec_12:2. It is introduced by 1b; primarily by “Thus saith Jehovah,” to which is added a reference to the creative power of Jehovah, in order to make the utterance more impressive. No matter how wonderful the promises may seem, a God who can create the heavens and the earth will surely be able to fulfill them. The words, therefore, serve the same purpose as Amo_4:13; Amo_5:8-9; Amo_9:5-6 (see there; compare Isa_42:5).
Stretcheth forth — Compare Gen_1:6-8.
Layeth the foundation — Compare Gen_1:9-10; Psa_24:2.
Formeth the spirit — Compare Gen_2:7. Some recent commentators consider 1b a later insertion.
VARIOUS UTTERANCES CONCERNING THE FUTURE OF ISRAEL, Zec_12:1 to Zec_14:21.
The heading (Zec_12:1) names the subject of these utterances, Israel, a term used here not in a national but in a religious sense of the people of Jehovah. The prophecies center around Jerusalem and Judah, the home of the postexilic Jewish community. The section falls naturally into two parts, Zec_12:1 to Zec_13:6, and Zec_14:1-21; Zec_13:7-9, has no close connection either with Zec_13:1-6, or with chapter 14 (see on Zec_13:7-9). The first part, Zec_12:1 to Zec_13:6, consists of three divisions; the first (Zec_12:1-9) deals with some marvelous deliverance of Judah and Jerusalem, the second (Zec_12:10-14) with a prolonged penitential mourning over some great crime, the third (Zec_13:1-6) with the purification of the community and its restoration to intimate fellowship with Jehovah.
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 vv1–12 1. The burden] See ch. Zec_9:1, note.
1. The burden] See ch. Zec_9:1, note.
for Israel] Rather, concerning Israel.
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saith] Rather, the saying, oracular utterance, of Jehovah: as in Psa_110:1. The clause is in apposition with the first clause of the verse.
which stretcheth forth, &c.] In view of the wonderful and almost incredible promises that, follow, an appeal is made to the creative power of Jehovah, that so the people may not “stagger at the promise of God through unbelief,” but be “fully persuaded that what He has promised, He is able also to perform.”
Chap. Zec_12:1-9. Jehovah’s protection of His people
As in the former Burden, the first section opens with a general Title (printed as such in R. V.), very similar to that of the First Burden (Zec_9:1), and belonging like that to the whole group of prophecies which follow. The coming oracle proceeds from Jehovah, the Creator of the universe and of man; able therefore to accomplish what He predicts, Zec_12:1. All nations shall gather against Jerusalem, which shall prove to them like a cup of which they drink but to totter and fall, Zec_12:2, or a heavy stone which only wounds and crushes those who essay to lift it, Zec_12:3. Horse and rider alike in the armies that gather against her shall be panic-stricken and blinded, Zec_12:4, while the rulers of the country shall acknowledge her, thus rendered by God impregnable, as the bulwark of their land, Zec_12:5, and shall take courage to attack and consume the discomfited foe around her walls, so that she stands forth again a free and populous city, Zec_12:6. Thus the country at large shall have its share from God in the glory of the victory, and so all rivalry between it and the capital shall be excluded, Zec_12:7. The capital, however, shall under the protection of the Almighty be worthy of its position as the abode of heroes, while the royal family shall lead the nation no less worthily than the Angel of Jehovah did of old time, Zec_12:8. And all this, because God Himself will make it His aim to destroy all the enemies of His people, Zec_12:9.
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 vv1–13 (1-9) The opening of this chapter is similar to…
XII.
(1-9) The opening of this chapter is similar to that of Zechariah 9, and marks the beginning of the second half of these latter prophecies. This prophecy, as far as Zec_12:9, seems to recur to the same events as were foretold in Zechariah 9, 10 : viz., the successful contests of the Maccabean period.
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(1) Israel.—Comp. Mal_1:5, &c., and “all the tribes of Israel” (Zec_9:1). Elsewhere, in Zechariah 9-11 (except in Zec_11:14), the terms used are Ephraim (Zec_9:10; Zec_9:13; Zec_10:7) and Joseph (Zec_10:6), as well as Judah (Zec_9:8; Zec_9:13; Zec_10:3; Zec_10:6; comp. Eze_37:15-28). These and similar terms were interchangeable after the captivity, and refer, with a few exceptions, to the nation of the Jews in general. With this verse comp. Isa_42:5; Amo_4:13.
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 vv1–14 Ver. 1-ch. Zec 9. Though the literal Israel has…
Ver. 1-ch. Zec 9. Though the literal Israel has been rejected, as we saw in the last "burden," a new people of God. arises, (Hos_1:10) the Messianic theocracy, which is also called Israel, whose fortunes the prophet herein delineates, describing its probation, its contests, triumph, and development. The body is like its Head; as the good Shepherd, Christ, was persecuted and rejected, so his members, the true Israelites, suffer at the hand of the world and Satan, before they are finally glorified. Some critics suppose that "Israel" here is written by mistake for "Jerusalem," as possibly in Jer_23:6. (see note on Zec_1:19) It is best to put a full stop after "Israel," and begin a new sentence with "Thus saith the Lord," or "The saying of Jehovah." Which stretcheth forth the heavens, etc. (comp. Isa_42:5 Amo_4:13) The attributes of God. are mentioned here that all may believe that what he has promised, that he is able to perform. He is not only the Creator, but also the Pro-server of all things. (Psa_104:2-4 Heb_1:10) Formeth the spirit of man within him. God creates the souls of men, and moulds and guides them. In life and death men work out his purposes. (Num_16:22 Heb_12:9)
Vers. 1-4. A wonderful siege.
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"The burden of the word of the Lord for Israel, saith the Lord," etc. These three concluding chapters seem to refer to one principal topic ("the burden of the Lord for Israel," ver. 1) and to one principal time (see the thirteen times repeated expression, "in that day"). The general preface or introduction to the special succession of wonders which they announce to us is contained in ver. 1, setting forth, as it does, the wonder working nature of the God who foretells them, in regard
(1) to all above (the "heaven");
(2) all beneath (the "earth"); and
(3) all within (the "spirit of man").
See somewhat similar preface to a somewhat similar announcement of wonderful doings in Rev_21:5. After this introduction, in vers. 24, we have described to us, as the opening wonder of all, a certain future wonderful "siege." In which description we may notice three principal things, viz.
(1) the many enemies of the city besieged;
(2) its one Defender; and
(3) its complete defence.
I ITS MANY ENEMIES. Herein, evidently, is to be one leading peculiarity of this "siege" of Jerusalem. It is not only to be a complete investment, "all the people" being "round about" (ver. 2; see also Luk_19:43), but it is also to be an investment by an exceedingly large assemblage of "peoples... gathered together" from all parts of the world. Considering, indeed, the frequent use in these verses (some six times in all) of the expressions "all" and "every," and the apparent definiteness of comprehension of the language in the end of ver. 3, we seem justified in believing that every separate Gentile nation or people will be employed in this siege. All the rest of the world against Jerusalem. Such is what we seem to see here. Such is what we seem to see also in such passages as Eze_38:1-16 (where note special mention, as in ver. 4 here, of "horses" and "horsemen"); Joe_3:9-17 Rev_16:14, 16 20:8, 9. Whether or not we consider all these passages to refer to exactly the same times and events, at any rate they illustrate, if they do not apply to, the universal league described here.
II ITS ONE DEFENDER. With all the rest of mankind against the people of Jerusalem, there can be no man, of course, on their side. But they are not to be on that account without a defender. On the contrary, they will have the best of all, even Jehovah himself. Five times over, and in two separate ways he gives them to understand this. He declares:
1. That he will give heed to their case. "I will open mine eyes upon the house of Judah". (see Psa_33:18 Psa_34:15 Deu_11:12 1Ki_9:3 Dan_9:18; and Zec_9:8 above)
2. That he will give help in their need. He will give help by "making" Jerusalem (vers. 2, 3) that which it requires to be "made" in this time of extremity. Be will give help also by "smiting" those many enemies (ver. 4) who are leagued together for their destruction, and who, therefore, require to he "smitten" on their behalf; and what, of its kind, could be more satisfactory than this double assistance? this weakening of their enemies? this concurrent strengthening of themselves? (comp. 2Sa_3:1)
III ITS COMPLETE DEFENCE. This twofold assistance was sufficient in degree as well as satisfactory in nature. What it proposed to do, that it did. In particular, God, in this manner:
1. Bewildered the minds of all the enemies of Jerusalem. He made Jerusalem, to these enemies, such a cup of trembling and of stupor and slumber that they were not able, and did not dare, in many respects, to attack them. Completely as they seemed, by being "round about" the city, to have it in their power, they were like men appalled and stupefied, and left it alone. (comp. Gen_35:5)
2. Also, when these enemies did find themselves able to devise measures against Jerusalem, God crushed their efforts. They were as men trying their strength by endeavouring to lift a heavy stone from the ground, the only result being to crush themselves by its weight. So would Jerusalem be made to do thus to its foes to all its foes, however numerous. It would not only bruise, but destroy them, as though the sword had "cut" them "in pieces.
3. Besides which, so we may perhaps understand ver. 4, God would himself overwhelm their spirits. Having failed so fatally in their efforts, those who survived, and their agents also, in utter panic, folly, and ignorance, would be so far from being able to do further injury that they would themselves be in need of defence. So surpassingly well can that one Defender do for those that are his.
We learn something here, in conclusion:
1. As to the possibilities of the future. Who can say that such a gigantic conspiracy of evil against a literally restored and renovated Jerusalem, and such a triumphant delivery from it, may not mark the end of this age? Certainly far greater things, both in the way of manifested evil and good, than have ever been witnessed hitherto, may yet be seen on this earth.
2. As to the true character of the present. This last conflict will be but the fully developed result of a long previous conflict of a similar kind. Compare the conspiracy and deliverance in long ago days described in Ps 83. (compare also, on the one side, Act_28:22; and on the other, Mat_28:20)
HOMILIES BY W. FORSYTH Vers. 1-9. The security of Zion.
I MIGHT OF HER KING. The worlds of matter and of mind are under his control. If so, there is no such thing as chance. Then whatsoever God has promised he will certainly perform. Then to trust and to obey God must be the great end of our being. God"s friends are blessed (vers. 2, 4). His enemies, intoxicated by pride, muster for the fight. They are discomfited and driven back in headlong rout. Blindness seizes them, terror overpowers them; they perish, as at the Red Sea and in Midian"s evil day. (cf. Psa_132:18)
II ENERGY OF HER LEADERS. (Vers. 5-7) Men of faith and capacity, commanding the confidence of the people. Bound together by their common faith in God and devotion to the highest interests of humanity.
III HEROISM OF HER PEOPLE. (Vers. 8, 9) Strength, Divine in its source, various in degree, adequate for every emergency, making the weak strong, and the strong stronger. A united people, with settled government, equal laws, courageous and faithful for the right. Zion united can stand against every assault, but divided becomes the prey of her enemies. "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. F.
HOMILIES BY D. THOMAS Ver. 1. The universe.
"The burden of the word of the Lord for Israel, saith the Lord, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him." This chapter, and on to ver. 6 of the following, most expositors regard as referring to Israel"s conflict and victory, conversion and ultimate holiness. The first verse announces how the conflict against Jerusalem and Judah will result in the conquest of all enemies. The passage before us suggests a few thoughts concerning the universe.
I THAT THE UNIVERSE INCLUDES THE EXISTENCE OF MATTER AND OF MIND. The phrase "heavens" and "earth" is used here and elsewhere to represent the whole creation.
1. It includes matter. Of the essence of matter we know nothing; but by the word we mean all that comes within the cognizance of our senses, all that can be felt, heard, seen, tasted. How extensive is this material domain! Science shows that it baffles all efforts and methods of mensuration.
2. It includes mind. Indeed, mind is here specified. "And formeth the spirit of man within him." Man has a spirit. Of this he has stronger evidence than he has of the existence of matter. He is conscious of the phenomena of mind, but not conscious of the phenomena of matter. Man"s mind is only an insignificant part and a humble representative of the immeasurable universe of spirit.
II THAT THE UNIVERSE ORIGINATED WITH ONE PERSONAL BEING. "The Lord, which stretcheth forth the heavens," etc. It had an origin; it is not eternal. The idea of its eternity involves contradictions. It had an origin; its origin is not fortuitous; it is not the production of chance. The idea of its springing from chance may live in the region of speculation, but never in the realm of intelligent conviction. It had an origin; its origin is not that of a plurality of creators; it has one, and only one Lord." This is the only philosophic account of its origin, "Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of thy hands.
III THAT THIS ONE PERSONAL CREATOR HAS PURPOSES CONCERNING THE HUMAN RACE. "The burden of the word of the Lord for Israel, saith the Lord." This may mean, "the sentence of the word of the Lord concerning Israel." Now, this chapter, this book nay, a large portion of the Bible purports to be a revelation of his purpose to mankind. He has not created us without an object, nor placed us on this earth without an object; both in our creation and preservation he has a purpose. This being so:
1. No events in human history are accidental.
2. The grand purpose of our life should be the fulfilment of his will. "Not my will, but thine be done.
IV THAT HIS PURPOSE TOWARDS MANKIND HE IS FULLY ABLE TO ACCOMPLISH. His creative achievements are here mentioned as a pledge of the purposes hereafter announced. Every purpose of the Lord shall be performed. Has he purposed that all mankind shall be converted to his Son? It shall be done. "There is nothing too hard for the Lord. 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, 2, 4, 8, 9, 12 The burden of the Word of the Lord for…
Zec_12:1
The burden of the Word of the Lord for Israel
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The burden and glory of Gods Word to Israel
God presents Himself here as creating and speaking.
It is to Israel that His Word is primarily addressed, for it is Israel that recognises His Word, and by Israel His Word is carried to the world, which thus becomes also Israel. Remember the meaning of the name, and its origin. Prince of God was the name which Jacob got from that long wrestling in the dark--Israel, prince of God, because he had power with God. The name denotes the fact and the power of communion. Israel is composed of those who seek God and cling to Him, who worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.
I. The Creator of the heavens and earth and the spirit of man has an Israel. The idea of Israel is fellowship with God and power with God, gained in and by that fellowship. Is such an idea reasonable? We think it a poor conception of God which represents Him as so mighty and rich that He does not care for fellowship with souls. Do you think to convince me that God is wanting in sympathies and affections by showing that He is Almighty? The argument is all in the opposite direction. Should I have more ground to believe in His heart if He were less than all-powerful and all-wise! There is in man a longing after relation to the Infinite. All his history proves this. Something in him cries out after God, and the heavens and the earth have tended to intensify this cry. Man is haunted by a something issuing from heaven and earth that will not let him rest. It would have been sad if man had craved an infinite friend, had yearned after nearness to a perfect and eternal living One, and felt no hope, countenance, or stimulus in the world around him. But man stands in no such barren and dead world. A living world is round him, material, but full of spiritual suggestion, inviting him to seek God, and waking him up again when he grows dull and hard. Will it be said that this does not make probable the idea of an Israel--men that have power with God, it gives support to the idea of communion with God, but not to that of prayer, an asking that influences the Divine will? The answer is obvious. Communion with God, in the case of a being like man, an imperfect, sin-laden being, must take largely the form of prayer. Such a being, coming near to God, cannot but ask from Him. And this asking, so inevitable, cannot be a futile thing. If asking be a necessity with the spirit that has communion with God, there must be room and need for it on the side of God. What is true on the human side is true on the Divine side. The whole doctrine of prayer is found in the spirit of man, in the longings and necessities, and there can be nothing in real contradiction to these. They who seek God have a peculiar affinity with Him. God as a moral being has moral affinities. It is not a lowering or limiting of God to believe that He has an Israel.
II. God has a word for His Israel. Neither the heavens nor the earth nor the spirit of man take the place of a word. They are each a revelation. But they are fuller of questions than of answers. The heart of man needs a word. It is only in words that there is definiteness. One of the distinguishing peculiarities of man is that he employs words. By these he reaches the fulness of his being. He makes his thought clear to himself, and gives it an outward existence by words. He makes all shadowy and vague things firm and abiding by words. And shall not God meet him on this highest platform? A Word of God is a necessity to the human soul God has a word to Israel which makes fellowship close and confiding. The word gives man the necessary clue to the interpretation of the universe and himself. It is Gods Word to Israel as the ideal man Israel is the ideal and complete man, and it is in proportion as any man approaches the ideal that he fully comprehends and embraces the message of Gods Word to Israel.
III. Gods Word to Israel is a burden. This expression is often used by the prophets. No doubt it expresses, in the first instance, the weight of obligation and responsibility in the declaring of Gods message, but this rests on the fact that the Word of God is a weighty matter for all men.
1. Gods Word is a burden by reason of the weight of its ideas. Thoughts that may be put into words are of all degrees of weight--some light as a feather, some heavy as a world. Thoughts weigh upon the mind, even though they are felt to be precious. The ideas in Gods Word are the weightiest of all--God, soul, sin, salvation, renewal, eternity. Men are never right till they try to lift these thoughts and weigh them. They are no judges of the weight of things till they try these.
2. Gods Word is a burden of momentousness and obligation. There are many weighty thoughts that have little or no practical moment. But the thoughts in Gods Word are of pressing and supreme importance. They are light, food, shelter, life. To reject them is ruin. Everything must depend on how we stand to these words.
3. Gods Word is a burden which is easier to bear in whole than in part. The half or quarter, or some little fraction of Gods Word is worse to bear, harder and heavier than the whole. A single truth taken out of the whole may be quite oppressive and intolerable. It may crush all joy and courage out of life. The truth about sin needs the truth about grace and redemption in order to be borne. The truth about duty needs the Divine promises. Relief is to be found not by throwing off any truth, but by taking up more. The hardest truths become pleasant in proper company. Every truth has relations to all the rest, and is not properly itself without them. Let the effort be to take the whole truth, and to take it as a whole. Then it will no more oppress than the vast load of atmosphere which every man carries.
4. The Word of God is a burden which removes every other load. Thought, conviction, and feeling bring their inevitable burden. And if a man rejects burdens he is but making up a heavier burden. If a man will not have the burden of Gods Word, then the whole riddle of the universe becomes his burden. But if I take up Gods Word, and actually carry it as Gods Word, I have no further care. There is provision for driving away every fear and every care in that Word. (J. Leckie, D. D.)
Which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth--
The universe
I. That the universe includes the existence of matter and of mind. The phrase heavens and earth is used here and elsewhere to represent the whole creation.
1. It includes matter. Of the essence of matter we know nothing; but by the word we mean all that comes within the cognisance of our senses, all that can be felt, heard, seen, tasted. How extensive is this material domain!
2. It includes mind. Indeed, mind is here specified. And formeth the spirit of man within man. Man has a spirit. Of this he has stronger evidence than he has of the existence of matter. He is conscious of the phenomena of mind, but not conscious of the phenomena of matter.
II. That the universe originated with one personal being. It had an origin. It is not eternal. The idea of its eternity involves contradictions. It had an origin; its origin is not fortuitous, it is not the production of chance. Its origin is not that of a plurality of creators; it has one, and one only, the Lord.
III. This one personal Creator has purposes concerning the human race. The burden may mean the sentence of the Word of the Lord concerning Israel.
1. No events in human history are accidental.
2. The grand purpose of our life should be the fulfilment of Gods will.
IV. His purpose towards mankind He is fully able to accomplish. His creative achievements are here mentioned as a pledge of the purposes hereafter announced. Every purpose of the Lord shall be performed. Has He purposed that all mankind shall be converted to His Son? It shall be done. (Homilist.)
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 vv1, 8 A title, though probably of later date than the…
8. JUDAH VERSUS JERUSALEM
Zec_12:1-7
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A title, though probably of later date than the text, introduces with the beginning of chapter 12 an oracle plainly from circumstances different from those of the preceding chapters. The nations, not particularized as they have been, gather to the siege of Jerusalem, and, very singularly, Judah is gathered with them against her own capital. But God makes the city like one of those great boulders, deeply embedded, which husbandmen try to pull up from their fields, but it tears and wounds the hands of those who would remove it. Moreover God strikes with panic all the besiegers, save only Judah, who, her eyes being opened, perceives that God is with Jerusalem and turns to her help. Jerusalem remains in her place; but the glory of the victory is first Judahs, so that the house of David may not have too much fame nor boast over the country districts. The writer doubtless alludes to some temporary schism between the capital and country caused by the arrogance of the former. But we have no means of knowing when this took place. It must often have been imminent in the days both before and especially after the Exile, when Jerusalem had absorbed all the religious privilege and influence of the nation. The language is undoubtedly late.
The figure of Jerusalem as a boulder, deeply bedded in the soil, which tears the hands that seek to remove it, is a most true and expressive summary of the history of heathen assaults upon her. Till she herself was rent by internal dissensions, and the Romans at last succeeded in tearing her loose, she remained planted on her own site. This was very true of all the Greek period. Seleucids and Ptolemies alike wounded themselves upon her. But at what period did either of them induce Judah to take part against her? Not in the Maccabean.
Oracle of the Word of Jehovah upon Israel.
"Oracle of Jehovah, who stretched out the heavens and founded the earth, and formed the spirit of man within him: Lo, I am about to make Jerusalem a cup of reeling for all the surrounding peoples, and even Judah shall be at the siege of Jerusalem. And it shall come to pass in that day that I will make Jerusalem a stone to be lifted by all the peoples-all who lift it do indeed wound themselves-and there are gathered against it all nations of the earth. In that day-oracle of Jehovah-I will smite every horse with panic, and their riders with madness; but as for the house of Judah, I will open its eyes, though every horse of the peoples I smite with blindness. Then shall the chiefs of Judah say in their hearts the inhabitants of Jerusalem through Jehovah of Hosts their God. In that day will I make the districts of Judah like a pan of fire among timber and like a torch among sheaves, so that they devour right and left all the peoples round about, but Jerusalem shall still abide on its own site. And Jehovah shall first give victory to the tents of Judah, so that the fame of the house of David and the fame of the inhabitants of Jerusalem be not too great in contrast to Judah."
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, 5, 10 CRITICAL NOTES.] This chapter begins the first half of…
CRITICAL NOTES.] This chapter begins the first half of the second prophecy concerning Israel’s future and the nations of the world. The conflict against Jerusalem and Judah will issue in the destruction of the enemies (Zec_12:1-4). Burden] Implying distress to Israel and destruction to their foes; explained by reference to God’s creative power, which removes all doubt concerning the thing predicted.
Zec_12:2. Cup] Causing those who drink to reel; a symbol of Divine judgments, which intoxicate and cause nations to fall and perish (Isa_51:17; Jer_25:15). Against] Lit. “also with Judah it shall be thus in the siege of Jerusalem,” i.e. Judah with Jerusalem will be a cup of wrath; the country and capital will be involved in the same conflict.
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Zec_12:3. Burden.] Another figure, borrowed from the custom of young men lifting up stones to test their strength. Nations will fail and suffer. Cut] They will wound themselves by the sharp edges of the stones.
Zec_12:4. Horses] and riders represent warlike forces, confused and injuring one another; but God exercises great care over his people. Madness] (cf. Jdg_7:22; 1Sa_14:20). Open] i.e. to protect (1Ki_8:29; Neh_1:6; Psa_32:8).
HOMILETICS
THE OMNIPOTENT SUPREMACY OF GOD.—Zec_12:1
To remove doubt concerning the promises in this chapter, God prefixes his name, proves his omnipotence, and declares his supremacy over matter and mind.
I. God is supreme in the physical world. Power is displayed in its creation and constant government.
1. He formed the earth. He “layeth the foundation of the earth,” fixed it on its basis, and revolves it on its axis. He not only made, but rules and judges in it, and those mistake who say, “The Lord hath forsaken the earth.”
2. He stretched out the heavens. Like “a curtain” he can stretch them out or draw them together. God not only created at first, but continually sustains all things. But the power which created the world must be unlimited and ever present to uphold it. Without him the earth would wander from its orbit, and the universe fall into ruin. “Upholding all things by the word of his power” (Heb_1:3).
II. God is supreme in the spirit world. He “formeth the spirit of man within him.” God is the Creator and sustainer of man’s spirit. “The Father of spirits.” The human soul is the breath of the Almighty (Job_33:4); and spiritually we are of Divine parentage (Act_17:28). “Behold, all souls are mine.” He created them all, endowed them with powers and faculties necessary to constitute them subjects of moral government (cf. Hend., Eze_18:4). He controls men’s hearts and purposes “as rivers of water,” encourages his people and dispirits their enemies, and will save his chosen by quickening grace and eternal life. Thus in creation and human experience we have proofs of God’s power, refutations of doubt to perform his promise, and hope in seasons of trial and difficult enterprise. “I am the Lord that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself; … that confirmeth the word of his servant, and performeth the counsel of his messengers” (Isa_44:24; Isa_44:26).
GOD’S PEOPLE RUINOUS TO THEIR ENEMIES.—Zec_12:2-4
Here we have promise of security to the Church of God. Nations may attack Jerusalem, but will fail, whatever be their forces and fervour. Three figures are used to indicate this failure. They will be intoxicated by the “cup of trembling,” wounded by the “burdensome stone,” and consumed by the “hearth of fire” (Zec_12:6).
I. The enemies of God’s people will be rendered powerless in their efforts. They will gather together and besiege Jerusalem—thirst for spoil and blood, and be doomed to destruction. As the gods infatuated those whom they destroyed, so God will intoxicate them with the wine-cup of wrath, administer a potion to make them helpless and reel on the ground. Sennacherib’s army were stupefied and helpless in their assault. Persecutors may be excited to rage, but will be deprived of their precaution and power, made drunk in their fury, and exhausted in their efforts. “The stout-hearted (valiant) are spoiled, they have slept their sleep (of death), and none of the men of might have found their hands (were able to fight)” (Psa_76:5).
“For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast,
And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed;
And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill,
And their hearts but once heaved, and for ever were still” [Byron].
II. The enemies of God’s people will be wounded in their efforts. This stone will be burdensome to all who seek to remove or carry it away. God’s Church is founded on the rock, and persecutors dash against it in vain. It is a rock of offence by virtue of its charter and power, a stone of stumbling to many. In times of persecution kings and rulers have tried to upset or remove this stone, but it has torn, lacerated, or ground to powder those upon whom it has fallen. Israel escaped, but Pharaoh was drowned in the sea. The Philistines captured the ark, but Dagon was broken to pieces. Diocletian built a monument to commemorate the extinction of Christianity, but he perished, and it survives. In a conference with Andrew Rivet, the King of France threatened severe measures against the cause of truth, but the Reformer answered, “May it please your Majesty, the Church of God is an anvil which hath broken a great many hammers” [cf. Lange].
III. The enemies of God’s people will destroy themselves by their efforts. Zechariah revives the words concentrated by Moses to express the stupefaction at their ills which God would accumulate upon the people if they perseveringly rebelled against him. Each expresses the intensity of the visitation [cf. Pusey].
1. They are smitten with blindness. Then they rush to their own ruin (Zec_14:12-13).
2. They are smitten with terror. The horses of the enemy were unmanageable by their riders, got entangled one with another, and became injurious only to themselves.
3. They are smitten with madness. “I will smite every horse with astonishment, and his rider with madness.” The riders were deprived of self-possession and forethought. Thus all attempts will fail, and bring shame and discomfort upon those who are guilty of them. “I will sing unto the Lord; for he hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath he cast into the sea.”
HOMILETIC HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS
Zec_12:1. Learn—
1. That the promises of God often seem incredible.
2. That doubt concerning these promises will hinder our comforts.
3. That the visible effects of God’s power should remove our doubt and strengthen our hope. Nothing can fail for lack of power and love. The Church, therefore, is perfectly safe, the enemies are in great danger. Pledges of Divine faithfulness:—The power of God, by which he stretched forth the heavens. The wisdom of God, by which he founded the earth. The goodness of God, by which he formed the spirit of man [cf. Trapp].
Zec_12:2. A cup of trembling. What it is, and who brings it, and who drinks it. “The cup is all bitter and full of sorrow,” saith Augustine: “the godly do often taste the top, and feel the bitterness, but then it is suddenly snatched from them; but the ungodly shall drink the very grounds and extremest poison” [J. Adams].
Zec_12:3. A stone. It is not a rock, or anything in its own nature immovable, but a stone—a thing rolled up and down, moved, lifted, displaced, piled on others, in every way at the service and command of men, to do with it what they willed [Pusey]. But notice its tremendous weight and injurious effects when abused!
Zec_12:4. The self-destruction of the enemy, and the perfect security of the Church; or the madness of men, and the special providence of God. I will open mine eyes, in contrast to the blindness with which God smote those arrayed against them—in pity, love, and guidance, in contrast to the cruelty and self-injury of the foes [cf. Pusey]. God seems to close his eyes sometimes, and leave his people in darkness and distress. The enemy thinks that God disregards them; but eventually he will notice the trials of the Church, and splendidly interfere to destroy her foes.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 12
Zec_12:1. Heavens. Creation in all its length and breadth, in all its depth height, is the manifestation of his Spirit, and without him the world were dead and dark. The universe is to us as and burning bush which the Hebrew leader saw. God is ever present in it; for it the burns with his glory, and the ground on which we stand is always holy [Francis]. Spirit of man. The soul, immortal as its sire, shall never die [Montgomery].
Zec_12:2-4. A cup. There is no greater punishment than that of being abandoned to one’s self [Pasquier Quesnel]. Madness. There is no future pang can deal that justice on the self-condemned he deals on his own soul [Byron]. O, that way madness lies; let me shun that [Shakespeare].
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 I. The Creator of the heavens and earth and…
Zec 12:1
I. The Creator of the heavens and earth and the spirit of man has an Israel. The idea of Israel is fellowship with God, and power with God gained in and by that fellowship. Man is haunted by a something issuing from heaven and earth that will not let him rest. A living world is round him, material, but full of spiritual suggestion, inviting him to seek God, and waking him up again when he grows dull and hard. It seems a necessity to man, when beaten and pressed down by these forces, to which he yet knows himself superior, to cry for help to the Maker of all. One so deeply conscious of the need of help cannot but seek help from the God whom He has found. And this asking, so inevitable, cannot be a futile thing. If asking be a necessity with the spirit that has communion with God, there must be room and need for it on the side of God. God’s Israel consists of those who seek Him, and by seeking have power with Him.
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II. God has a word for His Israel. Neither the heavens, nor the earth, nor the spirit of a man take the place of a word. They are each a revelation. But they are fuller of questions than of answers. The heart of man needs a word. It is only in words that there is definiteness. One of the grand distinguishing peculiarities of man is that he employs words. By these he reaches the fulness of his being. He makes all shadowy and vague things firm and abiding by words. And shall not God meet him on this highest platform? A word of God is a necessity to the human soul. There cannot be an Israel without a word. God has a word to Israel which makes fellowship close and confiding. The word refreshes the weary soul. It directs and cheers. It has a human tone, while it is Divine. The word gives man the necessary clue to the interpretation of the universe and himself.
III. God’s word to Israel is a burden. (1) It is a burden by reason of the weight of its ideas. (2) It is a burden of momentousness and obligation. (3) It is a burden which is easier to bear in whole than in part. (4) It is a burden which removes every other load.
J. Leckie, Sermons Preached at Ibrox, p. 21.
Reference: Zec 12:8.—T. B. Baker, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. iii., p. 187.
Zec 12:9-14
(Zec 13:1-6)
I. Here is, first, a remarkable national repentance—remarkable on account of its supposed exciting cause. It presents, indeed, a direct inversion of the state of things generally depicted in the Old Testament Scriptures; for while, generally, we are shown a people subdued to repentance under the pressure of misery and suffering, and then raised, as the result, to heights of prosperity, our seer gives us the spectacle of a people whose repentance is produced by prosperity, who, being delivered from their straits and hardships, and brought forth into a large place, are thereby awakened to a sense of fault, and laid low in the dust of contrition. Sorrow and disaster, whether by inducing a humbler temper and self-estimate, or by giving an impression of wrath and punishment, or by desolating the external scene and driving the heart in upon itself, is often the means of rousing men to a recognition and conviction of their sins. Is it not, however, a finer thing, and the sign of a finer nature, when good fortune provokes earnest thoughts with regard to duty and our imperfect discharge of it; when, the more life smiles for us and brings up of pleasantness and beautiful possession, the more we yearn to be deserving? And such was the nobler disposition which Zechariah dreamt of being manifested in his countrymen.
II. Observe, secondly, our prophet’s vision of the results of the repentance which he pictures. He beheld it prevailing to expiate the transgressions that had been committed—prevailing to secure absolution and forgiveness. "In that day"—that day of general and profound mourning—"there shall be a fountain opened," etc. You will remember Cowper’s once oft-sung hymn, "There is a fountain filled with blood." Cowper’s hymn war professedly based upon this passage; it was from this passage that he got his idea of the guilt-cleansing fountain of Christ’s blood; yet, instead of a fountain filled with the blood of an atoning victim, what the Jewish writer had evidently in his mind was a fountain filled with the tears of the people’s genuine and deep contrition. He saw Heaven’s pardon granted at once to repentance, without need of any slaughtered victim to assist in procuring it. "The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from all sin" by quickening to repentance.
III. Our prophet beheld, further, issuing from that day of great mourning, a diffused spirit of consecration to the worship and service of Jehovah. Before that spirit idolatry quietly disappeared, like winter before the growing breath of spring, or mists before the climbing sun, with all inclination towards it, all hankering after it—the names of the idols remembered no more.
IV. The prophet seems to trace the gradually completed purification of the country to the spirit cherished and reigning in its homes. It is to the family we must always look for the saving of society; from thence comes its regeneration, or its corruption and decay.
S. A. Tipple, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxiii., p. 237.
Zec 12:10
I. In this passage Christ is not speaking of His actual crucifiers, but only of their children or descendants. But these children or descendants are described as the parties who pierced the Saviour; and not only so, but it is evident from the form of the expression that they should consider themselves as chargeable with so atrocious a crime. This personal appropriation of the guilt of crucifying Christ is required of us just as much as it will be of the reinstated Jews. It is virtually to deny that we have the same corrupt nature to take for granted that we should have shunned with abhorrence all participation in their crime. The right course is to take the guilt upon ourselves, to consider the Jews as simply our representatives, to regard the Redeemer as One whom we ourselves betrayed and crucified and pierced.
II. Notice the close connection between receiving "the spirit of grace and supplications" and the looking on Him whom we ourselves have pierced. If there were once wrought in men a hearty desire to pray, if men were but made to feel that they have alienated themselves from God by their iniquities, they would set themselves to seek forgiveness, and would be ready to close delightedly with the proffers of the Gospel, admitting the suitableness of its arrangements and admiring their graces. Moved by the spirit of supplication, they would feel that unless there be a Cross at whose feet to fall in vain will they cry, "God be merciful to me a sinner."
III. Sooner or later, we must look on Him whom we have pierced, and it is wholly dependent on our looking on Him in this our day of probation whether it shall be with terror or with joy that we look on Him in the day of retribution.
H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 1,583.
References: Zec 12:10.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. x., No. 575 vol. xxiii., No. 1362; Ibid., My Sermon Notes: Ecclesiastes to Malachi, pp. 380-2. Zec 12:12-14.—Ibid., p. 384. Zech 12—W. Lindsay Alexander Homiletic Magazine, vol. x., p. 224. Zech 12, Zech 13—Expositor, 3rd series, vol. iv., p. 335.
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 Deliverance of Jerusalem
The Deliverance of Jerusalem
Many scholars believe that in Zechariah 12-14 (omitting Zec_13:7-9) we have a third separate prophecy, the oldest in the book of Zechariah, written subsequent to the death of king Josiah, 609 b.c. (cp. the mourning in the valley of Megiddon, Zec_12:11), but prior to the fall of the kingdom of Judah, 586 b.c. For this view there are some strong arguments—(a) frequent references to the House of David (Zec_12:7-8, Zec_12:10, Zec_12:12; Zec_13:1); (b) Judah and Jerusalem represent the whole nation; (c) idolatry is rampant (Zec_13:2); (d) prophets are in evil repute (Zec_13:2-6 cp. Jer_23:9-40); (e) Jerusalem is besieged (Zec_12:2; Zec_14:2 cp. 2Ki_24:10; 2Ki_25:1).
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Others produce arguments, perhaps more conclusive, in favour of a much later date. On the applicability of the chapters to the times of the Maccabees see Intro.
1-9. The natives gather to the siege of Jerusalem, but are miraculously smitten by the Lord, who comes to her help. Judah, at first taking part with the nations, perceives that God is fighting for Jerusalem, takes the side of the latter, and shares her salvation.
10-14. A national mourning.
1. Burden] see Zec_9:1. God's omnipotence is the guarantee that this prophecy will be fulfilled.
2. Trembling] RV 'reeling.' The nations assailing Jerusalem would stagger like a drunken man. The figure is common: cp. Isa_51:17; Isa_24:20; Jer_51:7. Against Judah and against Jerusalem] This does not make sense; and most scholars, omitting two letters, render, 'Even Judah shall be at the siege of Jerusalem.' But, as no time is known when Judah was actively opposed to Jerusalem, it is simpler to read: 'And there shall be a siege against Jerusalem.'
3. Those nations that take in hand to capture and rule Jerusalem will find it difficult. Probably the idea is that of raising and carrying a boulder that is too heavy for a man's strength.
4. Every horse of the people] RV 'peoples,' i.e. nations attacking Jerusalem. The eyes of the Lord will be opened to look favourably upon His people, but their enemies will be blinded.
5, 6. The mutual reliance and helpfulness of Judah and Jerusalem. The victory is to be with Jerusalem, so that Judah may not boast over Jerusalem. The contrast between these two points to a post-exilic date, when the social and economic ideals of the city differed from those of the peasant population.
Jerusalem shall be inhabited again] 100,000 Jews were deported from Jerusalem by Ptolemy, king of Egypt, in 321 b.c.; 80,000 were either killed or carried away captive by Antiochus in 167 b.
6, 7. These vv. would refer more fittingly to the latter period, and the subsequent uprising of the Maccabees: cp. 1 Mac. On the Maccabsean revolt and the causes which led to it see Jos. 'Ant.' 15, 6, and 1 Mac. Judas Maccabæus drove the Syrians from the surrounding country of Judah before attempting to relieve Jerusalem.
8. The angel of the Lord] that led Israel in the wilderness: cp. Exo_23:20.
10. Even repentance comes of the grace of God. Upon me] better, 'unto me.' The text is obscure. Some read 'him,' when the reference would be to some unknown martyr in the cause of Jerusalem,
11. The mourning is likened to some great national lamentation. Some connect it with the worship of Adonis (Tammuz, Eze_8:14), taking Hadadrimmon as one of the titles of Adonis. Others refer it to a mourning over Ramman, the Assyrian thunder god; others ascribe the mourning to the sacrifice of children to this god; and many take it as the mourning at the death of Josiah, who was slain at Megiddo in the plain of Esdraelon. In any case, the ultimate application of the prophecy to the sufferings and death of Christ is most appropriate.
Megiddon] Elsewhere Megiddo—in central Palestine, the battlefield of Israel. Here fought Barak, Joshua, Saul, and Josiah; here the Jews believed would be the final battlefield of the nations—the Har-Magedon of Rev_16:16. Such a place where so many had been slain might well be a place of mourning.
12-14. Every family apart] indicating the deep personal significance of the mourning. Such had doubtless been the mourning for Josiah, whose death was one of the greatest calamities that could have befallen the Jewish nation. The depth and reality of the mourning is shown by the singling out of certain leading families. Nathan] a son of David and Bathsheba. Levi] a son of Jacob, and progenitor of the priestly tribe which bears his name.
Shimei] son of Gershon (Exo_6:17; Num_3:11). LXX reads, 'the family of Simeon.'
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 vv1, 8 Zechariah 12-14. from one prophecy the general theme of…
burden
Zechariah 12-14. from one prophecy the general theme of which is the return of the Lord and the establishment of the kingdom. The order is:
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(1) The siege of Jerusalem preceding the battle of Armageddon (Zec 12:1-3);
(2) the battle itself (Zec 12:4-9);
(3) the "latter rain" in the pouring out of the Spirit and the personal revelation of Christ to the family of David and the remnant in Jerusalem, not merely as the glorious Deliverer, but as the One whom Israel pierced and has long rejected (Zec 12:10);
(4) the godly sorrow which follows that revelation (Zec 12:11-14);
(5) the cleansing fountain Zec 13:1 then to be effectually "opened" to Israel.
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 II. The Second Burden of Zechariah (12-14)
II. The Second Burden of Zechariah (12-14)
CHAPTER 12
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1. Jerusalem’s conflict and victory (Zec 12:1-9)
2. The vision of the pierced One and its results (Zec 12:10-14)
Zec 12:1-9. The second burden begins with this chapter. It is wholly unfulfilled with the exception of the prophecy at the end of chapter 13 concerning the Shepherd who was smitten. The great future events recorded in these closing chapters of Zechariah are the following: The victory of Jerusalem, the overthrow of the hostile nations from the west (the nations which constitute the revived Roman Empire), the outpouring of the Spirit upon the remnant, the appearing and the vision of the Pierced One, the national repentance, the cleansing of the people, the invasion from the north, the appearing of Christ standing upon the Mount of Olives, the establishment of the kingdom and the glory of Jerusalem. Historically no such gathering of all nations against Jerusalem can be located. It is all prophetic, and so intensely interesting in the days we write, for these things are “about to come to pass.”
Behold, I make Jerusalem a cup of reeling To all the nations round about: Upon Judah also shall it be, In the siege against Jerusalem. And it shall come in that day, I make Jerusalem A burdensome stone for all the peoples; All that are burdened with it shall be wounded; All the nations of the earth shall gather against it.
This does not take place till the end of the age is reached, the end which begins after the true Church is taken to glory. Then the nations satanically blinded will form the confederacy which in prophecy is the reconstruction of the Roman Empire, seen in the second chapter of Daniel under the symbol of the two feet and ten toes, and in Dan 7:1-28 under the symbol of the ten horns with the little horn. In Rev 13:1-18 it is the beast with the ten horns. The Jews will have to return first, at least a goodly number of them, and repossess the city.
In 1899 the author wrote as follows: “An exodus of Jews will take place, the land will become theirs, and the well laid plans and schemes of the present time will be carried out. Political combinations will be their chief hopes for success.” This anticipated return is now a historic fact as one of the chief results of the great war (WWI). When finally the Jews think that they have reached the goal of their fleshly, unbelieving hopes, their greatest trouble begins. There is yet to appear the beast who makes a covenant with them. But according to Daniel’s great prophecy Dan 9:1-27 the covenant will be broken in the middle of the seventieth week. Then the beast heads the armies of the nations to come up against the land and against Jerusalem (see Rev 19:19). They will lay siege to the city, but the Lord announces that these nations shall be cut to pieces. It is the time when the stone strikes the feet of the prophetic image in the second chapter of Daniel, the great battle of Armageddon. Zec 12:4-9 describe that day. Jehovah will smite these nations and all these hostile forces will be overthrown.
Here also is given the order of how the Lord will save the remnant of His people. Those who live in tents outside the city will be saved first; Jerusalem comes next. The purpose is that the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem may not exalt themselves over the rest of Judah. The house of David in this vision is mentioned five times. We have the glory of the house of David in verse seven, the strength of David and the supremacy of it in verse eight. The spirit of grace and supplication is given to the house of David, and the family of the house of David will mourn. Jews have a tradition which states that the last descendant of the house of David died in Spain centuries ago. There are no genealogies at present to prove that the kingly house of David is extinct or not, but the prophecies like the one we have in consideration, and many others which speak of the prominence of David and the house of David in the day when Jehovah will be manifested, make it very clear that among the wandering sons of Israel there are yet lineal descendants of the house of David. If they do not know it themselves, Jehovah knows it, and they will know it through Him. The feeble ones, literally the stumblers, among His people in that day of manifestation will be like David. What a hero David was! A man of war and strength conquering always and never conquered. And now the stumbler in Israel, the weakest one, will have strength and courage like David. And David shall be as God, as the angel of Jehovah before them.
Zec 12:10-14. This is another great Messianic prophecy mentioned in the New Testament. In Joh 19:37 it is written, after the blessed side of our Lord had been pierced, “And again another Scripture saith, They shall look on Him whom they pierced.” It is significant that the Holy Spirit speaking in the preceding verse, “that the Scripture be fulfilled,” avoids this well known phrase in the verse we quoted and does not say that the looking on Him has been fulfilled. It was not then fulfilled, nor is it fulfilled during the age of Gospel preaching, but its fulfillment comes in the day which is prophetically described in the verses before us. Mat 24:30 and Rev 1:7 refer also to this portion of our chapter.
We do not follow the rationalistic reasonings of the school of criticism on this passage, nor do we mention the many question marks which these modern infidels have put over against this great prophecy. One of the mildest critics, Canon Driver, says: “The passage is, however, one of those which our ignorance of the circumstances of the time makes it impossible to interpret as a whole satisfactorily or completely. As the text stands the speaker must be, of course, Yahweh, and it is, no doubt, true that the Jews had pierced Him metaphorically by their rebellion and ingratitude throughout their history.... ‘They pierced Him literally as the crowning act of their contumacy, in the Person of His Son on the cross’ (T.T. Perowne; quoted by Driver), but these considerations do not explain the passage here.” The New Testament quotations as given above are to any believer sufficient evidence that the Lord Jesus Christ is meant, and therefore explain the passage fully.
What a day it will be when the Spirit of grace and supplication comes upon the remnant of His people, when He appears in the clouds of heaven, when they shall see Him and know Him by the pierced side. The great vision of Saul on the road to Damascus will then be repeated; the young Pharisee saw Him as one “born out of due season.” He was in his experience the earnest that the remnant of the nation to which Paul belonged would some day pass through the same experience. (See Studies in Zechariah, pp. 120-125.) A great mourning follows. It will be like the mourning in Hadad-rimmon in the valley of Megiddon 2Ch 35:22-27; 2Ch 35:1-27:2Ki 23:29. What a day of repentance it will be when this takes place.
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, 10 Jehovah’s Solicitude for Israel
Jehovah’s Solicitude for Israel
v. 1. The burden of the word of the Lord for Israel, His almighty, creative power being in evidence at this point, saith the Lord, which stretcheth forth the heavens, a favorite picture to show the unlimited power of Jehovah, Isaiah 42, 5; Isa 44:24, and layeth the foundation of the earth, which, if it were not upheld by His power, would wander from its orbit and fall into ruins, and formeth the spirit of man within him, controlling the thoughts and purposes of men so as to accomplish His own plans through them.
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v. 2. Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling, a vessel filled with the intoxicating beverage of His wrath, unto all the people round about, the neighboring nations reeling and falling in hopeless weakness and misery, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem, literally, "and also upon Judah shall it be in the siege of Jerusalem," the entire country and its capital being involved in the severe trial which would come upon its neighbors.
v. 3. And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people, for those who attempt to lift and remove it; all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, suffering sprains and dislocations, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it, all the powers of evil being united in an effort to overthrow the city of the Lord.
v. 4. In that day, saith the Lord, I will smite every horse with astonishment, so that it would shy in terror, and his rider with madness, all the warlike forces finding themselves at a loss to effect their evil purposes; and I will open Mine eyes upon the house of Judah, with His protecting care, and will smite every horse of the people with blindness, so that the hostile forces would not be able to find their way.
v. 5. And the governors of Judah shall say in their heart, in the firm conviction which upholds them, The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength, a reliable source of confidence, in the Lord of hosts, their God, because the Lord has chosen this city, His Church, and by virtue of this choice is bound to redeem His people.
v. 6. In that day will I make the governors of Judah, the leaders of the people by the Lord’s choice, like an hearth of fire among the wood, so that they would consume their enemies like a basin of fire devouring fagots, and like a torch of fire in a sheaf, burning up the dry straw; and they shall devour all the people round about, on the right hand and on the left, so that none of the adversaries can hold out against them; and Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place, even in Jerusalem, so that the renewed people could fitly become the nucleus of the New Testament Jerusalem, the Church of Christ.
v. 7. The Lord also shall save the tents of Judah first, the dwellings of the country outside of the capital with its stone palaces, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem do not magnify themselves against Judah, the house of David being the royal family as continued in the descendants of Zerubbabel. The meaning evidently is this, that Jerusalem would have no preference before the rest of the country at the approach of the enemies, but the entire covenant people would in the same degree enjoy the protection of the Lord.
v. 8. In that day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem, by a special strengthening against the foe; and he that is feeble among them, literally, "the stumbler," one who can hardly hold himself up, at that day shall be as David, to the Jew the highest type of strength and courage; and the house of David shall be as God, like a supernatural being, as the Angel of the Lord before them, like the Son of God in His Old Testament form, whose power lived in His believers.
v. 9. And it shall come to pass in that day, even while Jerusalem was exalted to a degree of strength and glory far transcending anything in its past experience, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem, this being the definite, energetic purpose of the Lord with regard to His people. It is a remarkable fact, one full of glorious comfort, that the Church of God has emerged from all its conflicts with renewed strength and power, that even in the worst persecutions, the blood of the Christians was the seed of the Church.
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, 6, 7, 10, 12 General Information:
General Information:
These verses begin a section that tells about the coming attack against Jerusalem and how God will rescue the city.
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This is a declaration of Yahweh's word concerning Israel
"This is the message that Yahweh declares concerning Israel"
who stretched out the skies
This is a metaphor that speaks of the sky as if it were like a scroll that is rolled up and needs to be stretched out. AT: "the one who created the sky" (See: Metaphor)
laid the foundation of the earth
This is a metaphor that speaks of the earth as if it were a building with a foundation. AT: "put all the earth into place" (See: Metaphor)
fashions the spirit of mankind within man
This is a metaphor that speaks of the spirit as if it were like clay that a potter shapes. AT: "creates the human spirit"
I am about to make Jerusalem into a cup ... to stagger about
Yahweh using Jerusalem to punish the surrounding peoples is spoken of as if Yahweh would make Jerusalem a cup full of an alcoholic drink that will cause the surrounding peoples to get drunk and stagger. AT: "Soon it will be like I make Jerusalem into a cup ... to stagger about" (See: Metaphor)
into a cup
Here "cup" represents the cup and the contents within the cup. AT: "into a cup full of wine" or "into a cup full of an alcoholic drink" (See: Metonymy)
surrounding her
Here "her" refers to the city of Jerusalem. It was common in Hebrew to speak of a city or country as if it were a woman. (See: Personification)
I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples
Yahweh using Jerusalem to punish the surrounding peoples is spoken of as if he would make Jerusalem a heavy stone. AT: "It will be like I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples" (See: Metaphor)
translationWords
word of God
declare
found
earth
spirit
Jerusalem
kingdom of Judah
siege
people group
nation
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, 6, 8, 10, 11, 12 12:1–14:21 The theme of Jerusalem versus the nations binds…
12:1–14:21 The theme of Jerusalem versus the nations binds the four messages of Zechariah’s second oracle together; the nations are gathered against Jerusalem at the beginning (12:1-9) and the end (14:1-15) of the oracle. Through the repetition of the phrase on that day, the oracle looks to the future day of the Lord. The picture it presents mixes judgment with blessing for Jerusalem. The oracle’s focal point is the cleansing of the people of Israel (13:1); it culminates with God’s universal Kingdom (14:16-21). These visions of the future encouraged the Judeans of Zechariah’s day to be faithful in spite of their seeming insignificance and helplessness.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.