despite unto the spirit of grace," in which there is an allusion to the passage before us. The "spirit of grace" is the spirit, which produces a state of grace (compare also 2 Tim. ii. 1, “ be strong in the grace, which is in Christ Jesus;" Acts iv. 33; Rom. xii. 6). The spirit of grace, then, is the spirit, which brings grace near to the heart, and sets his seal upon it. In chap. xi. 10 the staff "loveliness" is broken, as a sign that the Jews have no longer a gracious God, on account of their contempt of the good shepherd. Here, on the other hand, grace is once more communicated by the spirit, and put within their hearts. There is something very striking in the combination of "grace" and the supplication" (Gnade and Gnadeflehen). Even in the selection of two expressions derived from the same root, the writer shows that this supplication springs from a state of grace. "For thus will the Jews be entirely cured of their notion of their own merit, and the custom of making prayers (precularum ;" Burckhardt). - with is not infrequently used, where either mental or physical perception if referred to, coupled with the idea of confidence in the object beheld; like wpe, for example, in John vi. 40. We find this in Num. xxi. 9, in connection with the brazen serpent, by looking upon which Israel was healed.' Here it is tacitly contrasted with the contempt and abhorrence, with which Israel had previously turned its eyes away from the Messiah (compare Is. lii. 14). The expression "upon me" is very remarkable. According to ver. 1 the speaker is the Lord, the Creator of heaven and the earth. But it is evident from what follows, that we are not to confine our thoughts exclusively to an invisible God, who is beyond the reach of suffering, for the same Jehovah presently represents himself as pierced by the Israelites, and afterwards lamented by them with bitter remorse. enigma is solved by the Old Testament doctrine of the angel and revealer of the Most High God, to whom the prophet attributes even the most exalted names of God, on account of his participation in the divine nature, who is described in chap. xi. as undertaking the office of shepherd over his people, and who had been recompensed by them with base ingratitude. The suffix

The

1 There is apparently an allusion to this passage here, in anticipation of John iii. 14, 15.

in is regarded by many commentators, who adhere to the Messianic interpretation, as used, not in a personal, but in a neuter sense. Thus Gousset, Schultens (animadvv. phil. in loc.), and Dathe render it," they mourn on account of it,"-namely, on account of the crime committed in piercing him. But the reasons assigned are not sufficient. They adduce first of all the change in the persons, and ". But the change from the first person to the third is of such frequent occurrence, especially in the prophets, that there is no necessity to bring forward specific examples (see Gesenius Lehrg. p. 742). There was also a peculiar inducement to make the change in the present instance, inasmuch as the previous words, "him, whom they have pierced," formed a natural transition to the third person. And this transition, again, was the more appropriate, since it was important to give some intimation of the fact, that the same Being, whom the supreme God had identified with himself on account of his unity of nature, was yet personally distinct. (Compare chap. xiii. 7, "the man, that is my fellow"). This reason for the change has latterly been adopted by E. Meier (Studien und Kritiken 42 p. 1039).-The authors mentioned inquire further, "why should the believing Jews mourn for him, the slain Messiah, when, as has been stated, they regard him with confidence and hope, as still alive? We reply: they mourn for the murdered one, not as though he were still in the power of death, but with the heartfelt consciousness that he was slain through their sins. But the proofs, which are decisive. against this rendering, are the following. When follows the verb p, though it may denote the cause generally, it is universally connected with the person for whom lamentation is made. (Compare, for example, Jer. xxxiv. 5; 2 Sam. xi. 26; and 1 Kings xiii. 30). Again, in the verses which follow, persons alone are referred to as the object of lamentation: e.g., "for the only one," "for the first-born," "for king Josiah." Lastly, vers. 12-14 evidently depict the deep sorrow of the whole nation and of every individual for one who is dead.-, lit. making bitter, points back to the preceding verb "they mourn," as the use of the Infinitive sufficiently shows. Hence we must not supply "they shall weep," as most commentators have done on

the strength of Is. xxii. 4. There is all the less reason for doing this, since the appropriateness of the allusion to 7 is confirmed

is used מרי and the Hiphil of מִסְפַר תַּמְרוּרִים .26 .by Jer. vi

exclusively in the sense of making bitter, never of grieving. Mourning for an only son is also used in other passages as a sign of the deepest sorrow; compare Amos viii. 10, "And I will make it as the mourning for an only son," and Jer. vi. 26.—Of lamentation for the first-born, the type is to be found in Egypt; see Exodus xi. 6, " And there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it, nor shall be like it any more."-The fulfilment of the prophecy in the verse before us commenced immediately after the crucifixion of Christ; see Luke xxiii. 48, " And all the people that came together to that sight, beholding the things that were done, smote their breasts." (This is the primary signification of 70, which was originally used to denote a peculiar manner of giving expression to grief; see Is. xxxii. 12, super ubera plangunt. Winer, s. v.) The crowds, who but a short time before had cried out "crucify him," now smite their breasts, overpowered by the proofs of the superhuman dignity of Jesus, and mourn for the deceased, and for their own sin. This was the commencement of a powerful movement, which brought large bodies of penitent Jews to the Christian Church. The first Christian Pentecost formed its central point. The point of Peter's address is contained in the words, "therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ;" and the result is thus described in ver. 37, "when they heard they were pricked in their heart." The theme of Peter's discourse is described as being this, "ye have killed the Prince of life" (chap. iii. 15); and the following is the result, "many of them which heard the word believed, and the number of the men was about five thousand." The extent of the movement is also apparent from chap. v. 14, " and believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women." There is the less reason to exclude these commencements of the fulfilment, since not only Luke xxiii. 48 but also Heb. x. 29 points distinctly to this passage, and pre-supposes that the promise contained in

it is already partially fulfilled. That the house of David was also affected by this movement has been convincingly proved by Schmieder from Acts i. 14, " these all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication-(the supplication here, the grace in chap. iv. 33)-with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brethren," in connection with which it is important to observe that the guilt was national, and even those who had previously believed on Jesus felt that they were involved in it. The only passage in the New Testament, in which this prophecy is actually quoted, is John xix. 37," and again another scripture saith, they shall look on him whom they pierced." On the connection between this quotation and the prophecy itself, the following remarks are needful. (1). The only point in which the citation differs from the original is in the change of the first person into the third. In Zechariah the Messiah himself is represented as speaking; in the gospel, John speaks of him. There is no ground for inferring from this, as Bleek has done, that the Apostle, who has not employed the Septuagint on this occasion, but translates direct from the Hebrew, had another reading before him, especially when we observe that Matthew does precisely the same thing in the case of Zech. xi. 13, which is quoted by him in chap. xxvii. 9. The desire to secure greater perspicuity is a sufficient explanation. If John had not read "upon me," in the gospel, he could not have been so confident that the prophecy referred to Christ, as not this passage alone, but also Rev. i. 7, evidently prove that he was. (2). Although Vitringa (obss. ii. 9, p. 172) and Michaelis have taken great trouble to maintain the opposite, it is obvious that the words are quoted by John in immediate connection with the piercing by the lance, and not with reference to the crucifixion of Christ generally. In vers. 31-33 he relates that the legs of Christ were not broken, like those of the others; and in ver. 34 mentions the piercing of his side. He then proceeds in ver. 36 to cite a passage from the Old Testament in explanation of the first fact; and in ver. 37 brings forward another in connection with the second. At the same time it by no means follows that John merely refers to the prophecy in connection with this particular circumstance, or that he regarded it as entirely restricted to this, but only that he looked upon this as actually a fulfil

ment of the prediction ;-and with perfect justice, inasmuch as the piercing with a spear, in common with the entire crucifixion, is represented in Acts ii. 23 as a work of the Jews, not indeed from a material, but from a spiritual point of view. That John is very far from restricting the prophecies to the particular circumstances, in connection with which they are quoted by him, is obvious from chap. xviii. 9. The prophecy before us would evidently lose much of its meaning and importance, if the verb 27 were to be understood as relating simply to the one fact of the piercing with a spear. It is rather to be regarded as depicting the whole of the sufferings with which the death of the Messiah was attended. That the death itself is the essential point, and not the instrument employed or the manner of the death, is evident from chap. xiii. 7, where a sword is mentioned, whereas 27 points rather to a spear. Lücke has very correctly observed," at the time when John composed his gospel, a considerable number had already been gathered out of the hostile Jewish world, of such as looked to the crucified One for their salvation. In this sense the ovra (they shall look) had been fulfilled." In addition to this distinct quotation there are two other passages, in which there is evidently an intentional allusion to the one before us. The first is Matt. xxiv. 30, " And then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory." The other is Rev. i. 7, "Behold he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him." These passages contain a kind of sacred parody of the prophecy in Zechariah. They show that side by side with the salutary contrition, the godly sorrow, of which Zechariah speaks, there is another kind,-viz., the Judas-contrition of despair; that by the side of the voluntary look, directed to the crucified One, there is another, an involuntary look, which even unbelief cannot escape. The fearful meaning involved in this allusion will be learned by every one. It shows, moreover, that the prophecy was referred to Christ, by both the Lord himself and his apostles.