Zerubbabel

“ Unto truth belongeth the might, the dominion, the power, and the glory of all times. Blessed be the God of truth." When Zerubbabel ceased from speaking, the assembly broke out into the words: "Great is truth, it is mightier than all else!" The king was so charmed with the wisdom of Zerubbabel that he said to him: "Ask for aught thou wishest, it shall be granted thee." Zerubbabel required nothing for himself, he only sought permission of the king to restore Jerusalem, rebuild the sanctuary, and return the holy Temple vessels to the place whence they had been carried off. ”

“ Zerubbabel raised his voice and uttered sharp words. “If you had flayed my body with thorns and stung it with scorpions, you would not hurt me so much as your words have done. When all the mockers ridiculed me, my bosom was filled with anger and scorn, and I felt strong in my opposition. But when you joined the mockery and added your voice to the laughter, then I became the most unhappy, the most wretched man under heaven. You have become a stranger to me, Sheshana; with your words you have dug an abyss between us, and when Zerubbabel has lost Sheshana, he has lost his life.” ”

“ Terrified, again she shrieked, “But, Zerubbabel!” She brought her white, shuddering hands to her cheeks and her glance was that of a frightened, stupefied dove.
Zerubbabel spoke with a quivering voice: “I love you, and my love is as strong as death. At night upon my couch I will call your name and my heart will languish with yearning. I will gash my body with the nails of my fingers and my eyes will burn under hot tears. But not you can be Zerubbabel’s wife,—not you the mother of his children. You will never see me again, Sheshana!”
Sheshana’s bosom heaved convulsively ”

“ He embraced her firmly, as if to shield her so that none might take her away; his voice was hard. “I know a huge cliff, high above a deep abyss. Upon that cliff would Zerubbabel climb, and up there would he cry out his infinite grief. And the rock would crumble to dust from his cries and would disappear into the abyss with Zerubbabel.”
Now Sheshana felt a tremor in all her limbs; her countenance blanched and her lips could scarcely move. “Forgive me, dear, for having spoken thus.” And Zerubbabel clasped her to him with all the strength of his passion; his eyes burned ”

“ Your mighty arms are my armies, and I am secure beneath their protection. I desire no other kingdom, and the whole world without you would be too small and too forlorn. My beloved, my only one, my fortress and my sun, protect your Sheshana, guard well your queen!”
More tightly than ever she pressed Zerubbabel [Pg 137] to her, and his voice quivered with agitation, and yet it spoke of his great strength.
“Zerubbabel is with you, and woe unto him that dares stretch out his arm toward you, even though it be the king himself. But speak to me, Sheshana, speak to me, my glorious maiden. ”

“ Zerubbabel, however, did not stir from his place. Brimming over with scorn and bitterness he cried, “Tell him what ails me!” In a few words they repeated the tenor of Zerubbabel’s speech, saying that he summoned his people to battle and counselled them not to place their faith in Esther.
Mordecai raised his glance to Zerubbabel; both men eyed each other like two enemies measuring each other’s strength. Then Mordecai spoke, emphasising every word. “In every age there are certain persons who imagine that the easiest way to break a wall is with one’s head.” ”

“ Still more beautiful and convincing were the words of the second speaker, when his turn came to establish the truth of his saying, that the king was the mightiest on earth. Finally Zerubbabel depicted in glowing words the power of woman, who rules even over kings. "But," he continued, "truth is supreme over all; the whole earth asks for truth, the heavens sing the praises of truth, all creation quakes and trembles before truth, naught of wrong can be found in truth. ”

“ He united in himself the qualities of the prophet Jeremiah and the prince Zerubbabel, who had been in exile. Like Jeremiah he mourned over the destruction of Jerusalem, and like Zerubbabel he unrolled a new future. Both Jochanan ben Zakkai and Zerubbabel stood at the threshold of a new epoch, both laid the foundation-stone of a new edifice in Judaism, for the completion of which the subsequent generations have worked. Jochanan died on his bed in the arms of his pupils. ”

“ He will come yet upon the nation and fill them with His blessed power as He filled once their own rejected Brother Jesus, and what He was Israel will be for the nations left in the earth. Zerubbabel, who is now mentioned, was Israel’s prince at the time of Zechariah. A mountain is seen which is before him, a mighty obstacle, but it sinks and falls, becomes a plain. The Hebrew has it in the form of a command—“Be a plain!” The mountain represents a kingdom, a power, and seems to stand here for anti-Christ and His power. Zerubbabel as prince is the type of the Prince of Peace, Israel’s King. ”

“ With Zechariah's prediction that Zerubbabel should reign on the throne of Judah the descendants of the house of David suddenly and forever disappear from Old Testament history. Whether the Jews made the attempt to shake off the yoke of Persia Or whether Zerubbabel was quietly set aside cannot be determined. Contemporary history states that within at least six months after Zechariah voiced the patriotic hopes of his people the authority of Darius was fully established throughout the empire. He at once began thoroughly to organize the vast realm. ”

“ Sheshana, however, raised her head, pursing her lips with a surly grimace. “I can have neither ears for you nor a heart. For that which you desire is folly, and you are the butt of all men’s mockery. ‘Zerubbabel is a visionary,’ they say,—a dreamer. He demands the impossible and utters dangerous things. He wishes to incite the scant Jewish people against the numberless enemy, and calls that self-defence. ”

“ But from the fact that, in the genealogy of Jesus, Matt 1, not a single one of the names of descendants of Zerubbabel there enumerated coincides with the names given in our verses, we may conclude that the descendants of Shecaniah enumerated in 1Ch 3:22-24 did not descend from Zerubbabel in a direct line. Intermediate members are, it is true, often omitted in genealogical lists; but who would maintain that in Matthew seven, or, according to the other interpretation of our verse, nine, consecutive members have been at one bound overleapt? ”

“ His successors likewise in the government of Judah might take encouragement from it; though their authority was very precarious as to men, yet God would confirm it, and this would contribute to the stability of the people over whom God had set them. But this promise has special reference to Christ, who lineally descended from Zerubbabel, and is the sole builder of the gospel-temple. 1. Zerubbabel is here owned as God's servant, and it is an honourable mention that is hereby made of him, as Moses and David my servants. When God destroys his enemies he will prefer his servants. ”

“ But, as Aharbanel remarks, Zerubbabel had come long before, and was already a prince among them. Kimchi felt this difficulty, and therefore tries to twist the words to mean that his dignity should increase still more, and his greatness should grow as a branch, etc. But Abarbanel remarks again that God does not say that He will make him great, but that He will bring him; and adds, that after this prophecy Zerubbabel attained to neither royalty, dominion, or other dignity more than be already possessed " (see Abarbanel, Comment, in loc. ) . ”

“ Hag 2:21. “Speak to Zerubbabel the governor of Judah thus: I shake the heaven and the earth. Hag 2:22. And I will overthrow the throne of the kingdoms; and destroy the might of the kingdoms of the nations; and will overthrow the war-chariots, and those who ride in them: and horses and their riders shall fall, one by the sword of the other. Hag 2:23. On that day, is the saying of Jehovah of hosts, will I take thee, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, my servant, is the saying of Jehovah, and make thee as a signet-ring: for I have chosen thee, is the saying of Jehovah of hosts.” ”

“ Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, speak to him by himself. He has thoughts in his head far above those of the common people, as wise princes are wont to have, who move in a higher and larger sphere than others. The people of the land are in care about their corn-fields and vineyards; God has assured them that they shall prosper, and we hope that will make them easy ”

“ In 1 Chronicles iii. 19, the genealogy of Zerubbabel, who came back with the captives, is carried on for at least six generations. Counting thirty years for a generation, the table extends the time of the writing of this record to at least one hundred and eighty years after the return of the exiles. This occurred in 538 B.C.., and the book must therefore have been written as late as 350 B.C.., or very nearly two centuries after the earlier history was finished. ”

“ And Zerubbabel arose and himself went to the meeting-house, to summon the Jews to battle and self-defence. On the way thither he visited many houses, finding in the majority of them only women and children or aged and infirm persons who could not move their limbs. [Pg 145] For all the men, young and old, who possessed any strength in their loins, were gathered in the meeting-place. And everywhere he went he found tears and despair,—sackcloth upon their bodies and ashes upon the heads. And everywhere he went he was greeted with the same wailing, stammered question: What was Esther doing? ”

“ HAGGAI, B.C. 520-518, is thought to have been born in Babylon, and to have emigrated with Zerubbabel.
His book contains four prophetic messages. In the first the people are reproved for neglecting to build the temple, while they were adorning their own houses, and a command is given to begin the construction immediately (chapter i, 1-11) , to which command the people, led by Zerubbabel and Joshua, willingly responded (i, 12-15) . But in a month the zeal of the people seems to have cooled off and the second message is delivered, declaring that the Spirit of God was still with the people. ”

“ As it is written consecutively as one book with Ezra, many have supposed that this latter was the author: but whoever compares the style of each, in the Hebrew, will soon be convinced that this is not correct; the style is so very different, that they could not possibly be the work of the same person.
It is doubtful even whether the Nehemiah who is mentioned [7] , who came to Jerusalem with Zerubbabel, be the same with him who is the reputed author of this book. By the computation of the best chronologists, Zerubbabel came to Jerusalem in A. M. 3468 ”

“ Ben Sira indeed in his list of worthies mentions Zerubbabel, Joshua and Nehemiah; but Zerubbabel and Joshua he must have known from the books of Haggai and Zechariah, and he may well have been acquainted with that document relating to Nehemiah which the Chronicler incorporated with his book. Ben Sira’s omission of the name of Ezra rather militates against the supposition that he had the Chronicler’s book before him when he wrote. The conflict between Saduceeism and the sopherim was hardly so intense in his days as to warrant the supposition that he omitted the name of Ezra intentionally. ”

“ And as he spoke with head raised proudly erect, waving fists that had hardened to steel and iron, there arrived a messenger, bringing him report of the conversation between Mordecai and Esther and calling him to the meeting-house, where all Jews were beginning to assemble, to fast for Esther three days and three nights. Zerubbabel’s eyes lighted up with fury and he said to the messenger, “Go tell him who sent you that the fate of a people cannot depend upon a woman and the extent to which she pleases her husband. Go tell him that now is no time for fasting and weeping. ”

“ How Shelomith had gained such fame as to be received into the family register, we do not know. Those mentioned in 1Ch 3: 20 are brought together in one group by the number “five.” חסד יוּשׁב, “grace is restored,” is one name. The grandsons of Zerubbabel, Pelatiah and Jesaiah, were without doubt contemporaries of Ezra, who returned to Jerusalem from Babylon seventy-eight years after Zerubbabel.
After these grandsons of Zerubbabel, there are ranged in 1Ch 3:21, without any copula whatever, four families, the sons of Rephaiah, the sons of Arnan, etc. ”

“ The Chronicle cannot have been composed before the time of Ezra, for it closes with the intelligence that Cyrus, by an edict in the first year of his reign, allowed the Jews to return to their country (2Ch 36:22.) , and it brings down the genealogical tree of Zerubbabel to his grandchildren (1Ch 3:19-21) . ”

“ Surely we know that every man grows up to manhood, and even to old age and hoary hairs. Rashi, perceiving this objection, has interpreted this to mean that He shall be of the royal seed; but this is not correct, for the word vmnp ("from beneath Him ") teaches nothing about the royal family. . . . But, at all events, I should like to ask them, if these words be spoken of Zerubbabel, why does the prophet add that " He shall build the Temple of the Lord: even He shall build the Temple of the Lord." ”

“ And, as Zerubbabel's prudence and piety kept this from being any affront to him (as the setting up of a rival with him) , so God's providence kept the kings of Persia from taking umbrage at it, as raising a rebellion against them. In doing what we are sure is God's pleasure, as this was, we may well venture men's displeasure. 1. Here were some Jews come from Babylon that brought an offering to the house of God, some of the captivity, here named to their honour, that came from Babylon on a visit to Jerusalem. ”