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lem, and gives them the grace of repentance; so that they repent, with bitter sorrow, of the sins which they have committed against Him (vers. 10-14). In Him they now find forgiveness for their sins (chap. xiii. 1), and this is followed by an earnest effort to attain to sanctification, and to remove everything of a wicked and ungodly nature in their life and conduct (vers. 2-6). The prophecy is divisible, therefore, into two parts, the victory of the people of God over the hostile heathen world (chap. xii. 1—9), and the conversion of the children of the kingdom.

Commentators are divided in opinion as to the period of fulfilment, and also as to the subject of chap. xii. 1–9. With regard to the former, not to mention those who agree with Ewald in referring the prophecy to the Chaldean invasion, which took place before the time of the prophet,-there are many, with Grotius at their head, who imagine that the period of the Maccabees is here referred to. But the relation in which the present chapter stands to the preceding one, is a sufficient proof that this cannot be the case. The restoration of the people of God, depicted here, is evidently contrasted with their rejection mentioned in the previous chapter; and if the rejection took place after the coming of Christ, the restoration cannot belong to an earlier period. This is also confirmed by chap. xii. 10. The penitential and believing look, which is there described as being turned to the murdered Messiah, belongs to a later period than the Maccabean era, and points at once to the Messianic age, of which alone the forgiveness of sins and universal desire for holiness, referred to in chap. xiii., can possibly be signs, whether we regard them by themselves, or in connection with the parallel passages. Lastly, in the earlier prophecy relating to the Maccabean era, only one nation is mentioned as hostile to the covenant nation (chap. ix. 13), namely the Greeks; but here, on the other hand, all the nations of the earth are represented as its foes.

The second difference relates to the subject of the prophecy in chap. xii. 1-9. The opinion is a very old one, that the Christian Church is referred to. Jerome speaks of it as relating to the Christian Church in general and particular, in contradis tinction to the Jewish. "Some of the Jews," he says, "imagine that this prophecy was partly fulfilled in the period extending from Zerubbabel to Cneius Pompeius, who took Judæa and the

temple, of which occurrence an account has been written by Josephus. Others, again, suppose that it will be fulfilled, when Jerusalem has been restored at the end of the world, an event which the miserable race of the Jews anticipates along with its neμμéve, the foolish shepherd of whom we have read above.Lastly, there are others, ourselves for example, who are called by the name of Christ, who regard it as being fulfilled every day in the Christian Church, and as destined to continue to be so to the end of the world." Cyril, Marck, and many others adopt the same opinion. That this explanation, in the form in which it is generally given, is inadmissible, cannot for a moment be doubted. The expounders of the prophets alone, not the prophets themselves, know anything of a spiritual, as distinguished from the outward Israel. It can only be adopted in a modified form, viz., when the covenant-nation is understood as meaning that portion of Israel, which welcomed and believed on the Messiah when he came, and which received the heathen nations into its bosom, instead of merely uniting with them as an independent body and on an equal footing, so as to form together one church. There would still be one view which might be adduced in opposition to this, namely, that the subject of the prophecy is not the Church of the New Testament generally, of which the first-fruits of Israel formed the kernel and stem, but the Church of the last days, when the whole of the people of the ancient covenant will have been delivered by the mercy of God from the sentence of hardness passed upon them, and will again be received into the kingdom of God, of which they are to form the centre. At first sight there is something very plausible in this view, which is supported by Vitringa (observv. s. 1. ii. c. 9, p. 172), C. B. Michaelis, Dathe, and others. The principal argument in its favour is founded upon chap. xii. 10 sqq. "According to this passage, those who now receive the powerful assistance of the Lord, are those who formerly put him to death. With the national guilt, which is depicted in chap. xi. in connection with the punishment that follows, there is here contrasted national lamentation on account of it, and such strong expressions are employed to indicate its universality, that it cannot possibly relate to the few Israelites who turned to the Lord immediately after the crucifixion." But it is erroneously assumed

here, that the persons represented in chap. xii. 1-9 as receiving the powerful help of the Lord, are the same as those who are described in chap. xii. 10 sqq. as mourning in bitterness. A proof to the contrary, however, may be found in the circumstance, that the conversion is preceded by the victorious conflict with the heathen world. Again the people, as we see them at the end of chap. xi., cannot possibly be those referred to in chap. xii. 1-9. The former can only be the objects of punitive justice, not of saving grace. The conclusion to which we are brought, therefore, is rather that the persons referred to in chap. xii. 1—9 are the poor sheep, who are represented in chap. xi. as giving heed to the good shepherd, along with such believing Gentiles as had been received as part of Israel. But it is unnatural to suppose, that Zechariah passes all at once from the death of Christ to the final history of the kingdom of God, that he makes no allusion to the glorious events which lie between, to the splendid triumphs over the heathen world which have already taken place, and that he says nothing further about the intimation given in chap. ix. 10, "he speaks peace to the heathen, and his dominion is from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth." It cannot be said that the fact may be explained from the peculiar interest taken in the history of Israel. The Christian Church is from its very commencement the legitimate continuation of Israel, the wicked having been rooted out from the nation, and those who were Gentiles by birth having been incorporated into Israel on the ground of their faith. The Saviour himself clearly indicated this at the very outset, by calling his Church "Israel" (Matt. xix. 28); and it was from this point of view alone, that the number of apostles appointed for the whole Church (Matt. xxviii. 19), corresponded to that of the tribes of Israel. According to Paul there is but one olive tree, one people of God, one Israel from the beginning to the end. In Rom. xi. 18, Israel is represented as the root of the Christian Church. In Rom. xi. 7,-" the election hath obtained it, the rest are hardened,"―the emphasis must not be laid upon the latter in a one-sided manner. According to Eph. ii. 12 and 19, when the Gentiles come to Christ, they are incorporated into the "commonwealth of Israel," as "fellow-citizens with the saints" ("Israelis;" Bengel). That Israel is the root of the

Christian Church is also apparent from the intercessory prayer of Christ (John xvii. 6-8), where he refers to the Church on earth as founded already, before a single Gentile had been admitted into it.'-There is just as little ground for restricting the second part of the prophecy to the final history of the Church, as for limiting the first in this way.

The first day of Pentecost, which is evidently included in chap. xii. 10, enters a decided protest against such a limitation. In both parts there are combined into one picture both that which is gradually realized in history, and that which takes place in a series of distinct events.—We have a repetition of the first part in the prophecy of the fall of Rome, as the heathen mistress of the world, in Rev. xvii., and in the announcement of the victory of Christ over the ten kings, the instruments employed in inflicting his judgments upon Rome, in Rev. xix. 11-21, where the means employed by Christ are hunger, pestilence, and especially murderous discord. Even chap. xvii. 14 of the Book of Revelation, where the victory obtained by Christ over the heathen through the power of the word is thus described, "these shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them : for he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful," is to be regarded as included in this prophecy. Our remarks on Ps. xcvii. are also applicable here," the coming of Christ partook of the character of a judgment even with regard to those of the heathen, who submitted to the gospel: the worthlessness of their whole existence was thus brought to light, and deep shame took the place of pride and haughty contempt of Zion."

We must call attention here to the strict agreement between the first and second portions of Zechariah, to which we have already alluded. Chap. ix. and x. correspond exactly to chaps. i-iv. In both we have a description of the blessings to be bestowed upon the covenant-nation previous to the coming of Christ, but still more especially of those to be enjoyed in consequence of his coming. Chap. xi. answers to chap. v. In both we find an account of the divine judgments, which would be inflicted upon the unbelieving and ungodly portion of the covenant

1 See the remarks on Hosea ii. 1 (vol. i. p. 209 sqq.), or Rev. vii. 4 and xi.

nation, after its ungodliness had been most openly displayed in the rejection of the Messiah. Chap. vi. 1-8 contains a brief notice of the events which are more fully described in the prophecy before us and in chap. xiv.

Ver. 1. "The burden of the word of the Lord upon Israel: Thus saith the Lord, which stretcheth forth the heaven and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him."

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We have already seen (chap. ix. 1), that never means utterance, but always burden, and that it only occurs in the superscription of prophecies containing threatenings of evil. In such cases the proper name, which follows it in the construct state, or is connected with it by or by, indicates the object of ? the threats contained in the prophecy, or of the coming judgments. It is without ground, therefore, that some propose to render prophecy in this one passage, and to give to y the meaning of The double in ver. 2, which points to the pressing calamity, and also they in ver. 3, correspond to No, in the sense of burden. An exceptional rendering of the word here is all the more inadmissible, when we compare the perfectly analogous superscription in chap. ix. 1, and that in Mal. iii. 1, which is almost word for word the same. It is also equally indisputable, that Israel can only refer to the covenant nation. This was its highest and holiest name, which could not be transferred to any other. How then are we to explain the fact, that the announcement which follows holds up before the people of the covenant the prospect of salvation? We reply, that severe calamities, to be endured by the people of God, form the starting point of the section (chaps. xii.—xiv.), to the whole of which in a certain sense the heading "burden over Israel" belongs, in contradistinction to the burden of Hadrach in chap. ix. 1. In the words of Christ in Matt. xxiv. 9, "ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake," we have the New Testament version of this prophecy. There is a mitigation of the announcement, however, in the name "Israel." The word of the Lord cannot press as a burden upon Israel, in the same sense as upon Hadrach. The words of the Psalms are applicable here: "Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of them all." In Psalms lxxiii. 1,

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