David Baron

“ Peace on earth and goodwill toward men," will yet be realised, and Christ will not only be owned by His own people as " the King of the Jews," but His rule will extend " from sea to sea, and from the river even unto the ends of the earth." ”

“ And eventually, at the word of God, Israel, like Joseph, shall be freed from the pit and lifted from the position of humiliation and suffering to become a nation of princes on the earth.
And Israel s deliverance from national bondage will synchronise, and be, so to say, the outward sign of their still greater spiritual deliverance, for the words " prisoners " (asirim, literally, " bound ones ") and " pit " (bor) are used in other scriptures to describe the condition of men, who are not only in outward bodily captivity, but who are in the bondage of sin and captives to Satan. ”

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that which was used by Balaam ages before : " Behold the people (Israel) shall rise up as a great lion, and lift up himself as a young lion. He shall not lie down till he eat the prey and drink the blood of the slain " (Num. xxiii. 24) . It is also found in Mic. v. 8 : "And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the nations, in the midst of many people as a lion among the beasts of the forest, as a young lion among the flocks of sheep : who, if he go through, treadeth down and teareth in pieces, and there is none to deliver." ”

“ And there is a certain analogy in this respect between Israel and the Church, or rather between Israel in their present condition as " prisoners of hope," and those who, in and through Christ, have already set their hope upon God. We are not in outward or bodily dispersion and banish ment, as Israel is ; nor, praise be to God, are we in bondage to sin or Satan. In Christ we have even now " redemption by His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace " ”

“ But though Israel proved themselves unfaithful, and this particular covenant itself was " broken," 3 " the blood of the covenant" on which emphasis is laid in this prophecy, was a sign and pledge of the faithfulness of God (though all men prove liars) , and typically set forth the provision which God has made by which eventually His disobedient and rebellious people would be brought back within the sphere of blessing. ”

“ The question is discussed by commentators whether the riding upon an ass is to be regarded as an emblem of Messiah s " lowliness," in keeping with the description of Him as " ani" " poor," " afflicted," or as an outward sign of the peacefulness of His mission. But it seems to me that both ideas are merged in the prophecy of this symbolic action. It is true that in the East the ass is generally of a nobler breed, and is not so despised as in the West, and in the earliest times of Jewish history we read of judges and rulers riding on asses ”

“ When we brush aside all the trafficking and bargain ing over words that constitutes so much of modern criticism, which in its care over the letter so often loses the spirit, there can, at least, be no question that this prophecy was intended to introduce, in contrast to earthly warfare and kingly triumph, another Kingdom, of which the just King would be the Prince of Peace, who was meek and lowly in His Advent, who would speak peace to the heathen, and whose sway would yet extend to earth s utmost bounds. ”

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Though no special mention is made of Ashkelon, Ekron, or Ashdod in the histories of Alexander s march, they were no doubt occupied by the Macedonian troops. The fate of Gaza, however, at that time is fully recorded. " Strongly fortified, and occupying an important position, its very name, the strong, testified to its natural strength. Despite, therefore, of the terror caused by the overthrow of Tyre, Gaza ventured to resist Alexander, and was not reduced to submission for five months. ”

“ But I agree with the view of Vitringa, Hengstenberg, and Koehler, that though this scripture then received a literal accomplishment, " that triumphal procession was not, in the main, the fact which the prophecy was designed to depict. The prophecy would have been as truly and really fulfilled if the triumphal procession had never taken place. That single incident in the life of our Lord is not the point which the prophet had in view. It was rather the whole of the Saviour s life, the entire series of events connected with Christ s first advent, which was presented in one striking picture. ”

“ From Him all things sweet derive their sweetness, all things fair their beauty, all things bright their splendour, all things that live their life, all things sentient their sense, all that move their vigour, all intelligences their knowledge, all things perfect their perfection, all things in any wise good their goodness. ”

“ He does not say " a King," but " thy King ; thine own, the long-promised, the long-expected ; He who, when they had kings of their own given them by God, had been promised as the King ; l the Righteous Ruler among men, of the seed of David ; He who, above all other kings, was their King and Saviour, whose Kingdom was to absorb in itself all kingdoms of the earth, the King of kings and Lord of lords." 2
"Cometh unto thee" that is, to Zion, or Israel. ”

“ If, contrary to God s original appointment, any man of Israel had two wives, " the one beloved and the other hated, and they had borne him children, both the beloved and the hated, and if the first-born son be hers that was hated, then it shall be in the day that he causeth his sons to inherit that which he hath, that he may not make the son of the beloved the first-born before the son of the hated, . ”

“ It primarily describes the consternation into which men would be thrown at the approach of the conqueror, who would be the executor of God s judgment, or, as another has expressed it, when the fulfilment of this prophecy takes place " upon Hadrach and Damascus, and the wrath of God descends upon those cities and districts, the eyes of the nations, as well as those of the people of Israel, will look toward Jehovah, and marvel at the wonders of judgment which will then be performed in their sight, in accordance with the solemn warnings of the prophet." ”

“ To that covenant Israel proved itself unfaithful ; and as they still persist as a nation in taking their place before God on the ground of a broken law, and strive, though vainly, to establish a righteousness of their own, they have been permitted to have a long and bitter taste of the curses which the law proclaims against disobedience to its pre cepts. ”

“ The blood (or, literally, " bloods," for the word is in the plural) which God will " take," or " cause to pass away " from his mouth, is the blood of his idolatrous sacrifices, which in the next sentence are called shiqqutsim " abomina tions " and thus deprived of, or delivered from, their polluting idolatry, the remnant that remains shall belong to " our God " the living God of Israel who stands out so glorious in His holiness when contrasted with the " abomina tions " of the heathen, " and He shall be as a chieftain in Judah." ”

“ Immanuets Land" 3 because the theocratic King-Messiah is the true heir to it, not only by reason of His being the true Son of Abraham, and Son of David, to whom the land was promised, but because He is the Son of God, to Whom it, in a special sense, belongs.
For a long time Israel has been banished from their possession on account of sin, and Jerusalem and Palestine are being trodden down of the Gentiles ; but the counsel of Jehovah, both as regards the land and the people, standeth for ever, the gifts and the calling of God are without repentance ”

“ Before finally taking leave of the loth verse, we must note once more that, in keeping with the special style and characteristic of our prophet (which we had occasion to observe again and again in our study of the first half of the book) , Zechariah not only bases his prophecy of Messiah s Person and Mission on the utterances about Israel s coming Redeemer of the " former prophets," but gives, so to say, a terse summary of God s previous revela tions on this great theme. This indeed is one reason why this short prophetic book of only fourteen chapters is so marvellously rich in its contents ”

“ Behold," though Tyre is so wise, so doubly strong, so rich yea, even though her strength were a hundred times as great, and she enclosed herself in a hundred strong walls of one hundred and fifty feet high, " the Lord will dispossess her " ; for cities or peoples cannot barricade themselves against God, and " it is altogether useless to build strongholds to keep Him out." It was the Lord who did it through Alexander, whom He used as His scourge against Phoenicia and the Persian power at that time. ”

“ But while Israel s enemies in the north and south have occasion to tremble at the approach of the hostile army, God Himself would be the shield and protector of His people and His special dwelling-place in their midst. ”

“ The eye of all the tribes of Israel is particularly speci fied as directed then toward Jehovah, probably because the Jews had special reason to fear the wrath of Alexander, their high priest having from a sense of loyalty to the Persians refused at first to pay tribute or allegiance to the Macedonian conqueror. ”

“ Then, as has already been stated, when God s judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world shall learn righteousness, and after Israel as a nation is converted, all the tribes and families of the earth shall be blessed with and through them. ”

“ Great in counsel and mighty in work, for Thine eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of men, to give every one according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings But the rendering given in the Authorised Version is doubtless the true one. ”

“ Jewish nation may for its sins be sent into captivity as " prisoners " ; Jacob may be " given over for a spoil, and Israel to the robbers," " but there is hope (tiqvaJt) for thy latter end, saith Jehovah," 1 or, to quote from an earlier chapter of the same prophet : " For I know the thoughts that I think towards you, saith Jehovah, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you nipfN n^nx (acharith vethiqvah) " literally, " a latter end and hope " 2 that is, a " latter end " according to the hope based on God s own promise. ”

“ But this is sure and certain, that however long the pause may last, God never loses the thread of the purpose which He has formed for this earth ; and as surely as the prophecies of the sufferings of Christ have been literally fulfilled, so surely will those also be which relate to His glory and reign ”

“ Wright suggests, by the English rendering, " Tyre built herself a tower" though the Hebrew word " matsor " has a much wider significance than the English "tower." "Tyre" (Tsor) was perhaps, in the first instance, so called because of her natural strength, or strong fortifications, the word suggesting a rocky stronghold. But she was not satisfied with that she built herself in addition a matsor a strong rocky fortress. This refers, no doubt, to the new Tyre, which was on an island thirty stadia (about seven hundred paces) from the mainland. This new Tyre is called in Isa. xxiii. ”

“ The case was very different when Alexander the Great, having completely shattered the might of Persia in the de cisive battle of Issus, marched with his victorious army into Syria. Alexander directed the main division of his army against Phoenicia, while he dispatched Parmenio with a strong detachment to operate against Damascus. Damascus, where Darius had deposited his riches, opened its gates to that general, who overran all the land of Hadrach, and must also necessarily have occupied Hamath, which probably submitted without a struggle. ”

“ But, as Keil observes, " we must
tribe or "clan" injudah. Calvin, however, gives quite a different interpretation to this somewhat difficult passage. He paraphrases the 7th verse thus : "I will rescue the Jew from the teeth of the Philistine" (the figure, according to him, being taken from wild beasts rending their prey with the teeth) , "who would have devoured him as he would devour blood or flesh of his abominable sacrifices to idols ; and even /te, the seemingly ignoble remnant of the Jews, shall be sacred to our God ”

“ The idea of actually drinking blood was repugnant to the Jewish religion, and condemned in both the Law and the Prophets ; but when nations are compared to wild animals, language must be used characteristic of the habits and usages of such animals. ”

“ In Isa. xvii. we have a somewhat parallel prediction of men s eyes, and specially of the eyes of Israel, being turned to God as the result of judgment, and there also it is primarily coupled with the burden, or oracle, against Damascus : " In that day" we read, " shall a man look unto his Maker, and his eyes shall have respect to the Holy One of Israel ”

“ He therefore ordained that the people should make supplications, and should join with him in making sacri fices to God, whom he besought to protect that nation, and to deliver them from the perils that were coming upon them ”

“ The most despised of the enslaved became the most trusted of the trusted. They became a large portion of the second and third then known cities in the world they became Alex andrians, Antiochenes, Ephesians, without ceasing to be Jews. ”

“ When Israel has trodden down his foes, he no longer needs deliverance." The mean ing is rather that God will in that day endow them with salvation, not only in the negative sense of deliverance, but in the positive sense ”

“ She hath received of the Lord s hand double " (kiphlayim " twofold ") " for all her sins " ; x or, " I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double " (mishneh " a repeti tion " ; once and again) " because they have defiled My land . . . and have filled Mine inheritance with their abominations." 2 This is the key and explanation of the woeful history of the Jewish people during the centuries of their banishment and dispersion. ”

“ And this interpretation of Rabbi Benaiah is echoed also by other Jewish expositors. The explanations given by most Christian commentators have been quite as fanciful. Thus Hengstenberg (who devotes eight learned pages to it in his Christology) , Kliefoth, Keil, and others explain Hadrach to be " a symbolic epithet, descriptive of the Medo-Persian Empire, which is called sharp-soft, or strong-weak, on account of its inwardly divided character." *
Gesenius, Bleek, and others have taken Hadrach as the name of some Syrian king who is supposed to have reigned in Damascus between Benhahad in. ”