› Amos 4.

9.

15 And now, I pray you, consider from this day and upward, from before a stone was laid upon a stone in the temple of the LORD:

16 Since those days were, when one came to an heap of twenty measures, there were but ten: when one came to the pressfat for to draw out fifty vessels out of the press, there were but twenty.

17 I smote you with blasting and with mildew and with hail in all the labours of your hands; yet ye turned not to me, saith the LORD.

skirt which touched the flesh became holy, but not so things touched by the skirt.

13. shall it be unclean?] Comp. Num. xix. 13, 14, 22.

14. The Jews are spoken of not only as this people, but also as this nation, which is the rendering of a Heb. word usually applied to foreign nations; and may therefore be regarded as a term of reproach.

there] denotes the altar at Jerusalem built in the second year of Cyrus, immediately after the return from Babylon (Ezra iii. 3). The scope of the questions propounded and of the answers given in vv. 12, 13 is that no ceremonial obedience would be acceptable to God, so long as His will respecting the temple was being set at nought; and that disobedience on this one point was a contamination for which no ceremonial observances could atone (James ii. 10). Comp. also note on Isai. i. 13.

15. and upward] Rather, and backwards, i.e. from an earlier date than now, even from the time of your arrival here 18 years since, before one stone was laid upon another in the temple of the Lord (infr. v. 18, where the LXX. have καὶ ἐπέκεινα, but here καὶ Vreрávw, the Heb, phrase being the same in

18 Consider now from this day and upward, from the four and twentieth day of the ninth month, even from the day that the foundation of the LORD's temple was laid, consider it.

19 Is the seed yet in the barn? yea, as yet the vine, and the fig tree, and the pomegranate, and the olive tree, hath not brought forth: from this day will I bless you.

20 And again the word of the LORD came unto Haggai in the four and twentieth day of the month, saying,

21 Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, I will shake the heavens and the earth;

22 And I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms, and I will destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the heathen; and I will overthrow the chariots, and those that ride in them; and the horses and their riders shall come down, every one by the sword of his brother.

23 In that day, saith the LORD of hosts, will I take thee, O Zerub

either verse. The Vulgate has et supra here, there in futurum). Comp. Ezra iii. 10.

16. fifty vessels out of the press] Rather, fifty bath. The Heb. Purah is not the press, but a measure for liquids, about 81 gallons in capacity and equal to a bath.

17. The former portion of this verse is, word for word, like Amos iv. 9.

19. Is the seed yet in the barn?] Seed= what the sowing yields, the crop of corn, Lev, xxvii. 30; Isai. xxiii. 3; Job xxxix. 12.

20. unto] Not by, as in i. 1, 3, ii. 1, 10; babel as an individual. because the message is addressed to Zerub

22. throne of kingdoms] i.e. the power of the heathen kingdoms; compare 2 S. vii. 13.

shall come down] i.e. shall be brought down and laid low; compare Ezek. xxx. 6; Isai. xxxiv. 7. The latter part of the verse is probably taken from Micah v. 10.

23. will I take thee] Not implying into my favour and protection, as Michaelis and Rosenmüller assert. It is merely introductory to the action following; comp. 2 K. xiv. 21, xxiii. 30.

babel, my servant, the son of Shealtiel, saith the LORD, and will make

will make thee as a signet] i.e. precious and honourable in my sight; comp. Jer. xxii. 24; Song of Sol. viii. 6, and specially Ecclus. xlix. 11, How shall we magnify Zorobabel? even he was as a signet on the right hand: so

thee as a signet: for I have chosen thee, saith the LORD of hosts.

was Jesus the son of Josedec; who in their time builded the house, and set up an holy temple to the Lord, which was prepared for everlasting glory.

In the Hebrew the verb shall come is in the plural, and pп (LXX. tà ÉKλEKTά: De Wette, die Kostbarkeiten; Ewald, die hohen Schätze), in the singular, signifies the desirable things, the costly things (comp. Dan. xi. 8, for the use of the word in connection with vessels of silver and of gold; and Dan xi. 43, where D is rendered the precious things of Egypt, also in connection with treasures of gold and of silver), i.e. the wealth and spoil of all nations shall come, either as voluntary offerings or as the spoil of successful warfare (comp. Isai. Ix. 5, lxi. 6). This view is confirmed by v. 8, which otherwise has no apparent connection with the two verses between which it stands. Hitzig (followed by Fürst, P. 456 a) takes on as the equivalent of , as it is used in Exod. xv. 4; Isai. xxii. 7, xxxvii. 24; Jer. xxii. 7. The rendering, the noblest of all peoples, gets rid of the objection to the use of 1 in respect of inanimate things in the sense of shall be brought; but this objection falls to the ground in view of Josh. vi. 19; Isai. lx. 13, compared with Mark iv. 21, μητὶ ὁ λυχνὸς ἔρχεται. Ι ΠΩΠ signified a person, the verb must have been in the singular. Bp Wordsworth holds that the plur. verb is due to the fact that П referring to Messiah involves the idea of his two

fold nature, human and Divine, or of his triple offices as Prophet, Priest, and King, but this view is not sustained by the very passages which he quotes from Gen. xlix, 10 and Mal. iii. 1, where the titles of Messiah, Shiloh and Messenger of the Covenant, both take a singular, not a plural verb. After having defended the ordinary interpretation as against Michaelis, Dathe finally (in his 3rd edit.) renders the passage, "Et deinde afferentur res gentium pretiosissimæ, nam splendore hanc ædem replebo."

This view of the Hebrew text does not exclude the application of Haggai's words to Messianic times by way of illustration. It does not deny that the prophecy then received a higher and more spiritual fulfilment. It does exclude the intrusion of this sense into the Sacred Text, as has been done by Jerome in the Vulgate rendering veniet desideratus omnibus gentibus. Our exegesis confines itself to ascertaining what sense Haggai and his cotemporaries attributed to his words; not what application of them is permissible to the season of our Lord's first Advent, nor what further fulfilment may be yet in store for them, in the doáλeuros Baσiλeía which is to survive the μετάθεσις τῶν σαλευομένων and the end of this present world: see Heb. xii. 26, 27.

PAGE

702

1. Person and date of the Prophet § 2. Subject-matter of the Book of Zechariah 702

§ I. Person and date of the Prophet. ZECHARIAH calls himself the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo (i. 1, 7), whereas Ezra speaks of him as Zechariah the son of Iddo (Ezra v. 1, vi. 14). The discrepancy is explained by assuming that Berechiah died before Iddo, and that Zechariah succeeded his grandfather Iddo in the headship of the Davidic priestly course, which the latter held in the time of Zerubbabel and Jeshua the high priest (Neh. xii. 4). See note on Ezra v. 1.

Zechariah is mentioned as one of the priests, the chief of the fathers, in the days of Joiakim, the successor and son of Jeshua (Neh. xii. 16). These facts do not necessarily imply that he was a very young man when his prophetic ministry commenced, in the second year of Darius. His grandfather Iddo may well have been one of the original exiles; and though Zechariah was probably younger than Haggai, he had reached, when he came back to Jerusalem, a period of life at which the associations of residence in Chaldæa had been powerful to influence the current of his thoughts and to give a colour to the imagery in which his prophecies are clothed. His first prophetic utterance is dated only two months after that of Haggai, with whom he seems to have associated himself in the prosecution of a common purpose, viz. the encouragement of his fellow-countrymen in the work of rebuilding the temple, and re-establishing

i. 1-16 is introductory, comprising a brief but earnest appeal to his countrymen to turn from their evil ways-an appeal founded upon the experience of their forefathers in regard to the judgments as well as the mercies of Jehovah.

i. 7-vi. 8 contains a series of eight prophetic visions presented to the mind of the prophet in one night, viz. the 24th day of the 11th month, in the second year of Darius. As might have been inferred, this identity of time carries with it an identity of purpose, which runs through the whole series, viz. the encouragement of the Jews under their present hindrances and trials by the promise of the destruction of the heathen powers around them, and of the restoration of the theocracy under its civil and ecclesiastical leaders. In dealing with this theme, Zechariah, after the example of the older prophets, and guided by the inspiration of Jehovah, unfolds as in a type the spiritual victories and the spiritual establishment of the kingdom of Messiah.

vi. 9-15 is a symbolical transaction of precisely similar import to the preceding visions. It prefigures the union of the regal and the priestly offices in the Person of Christ, His work as the builder up of His Church, and the gathering in of the Gentiles. Zechariah himself and those among whom he prophesied may or may not have been conscious of this scope of his words; but the event constitutes our title to apply them in this sense, and to regard them as a proof of the assertion that to Him give all the prophets witness.

vii.-viii. Quitting both vision and symbol, we have in these chapters an example of the practical functions of the prophetic office in solving questions of duty. Were the fasts which had been enjoined as commemorative of those national judgments which had marked God's displeasure with His people, to be continued now that their sins had been repented of and forsaken, and they were entering upon a new career of national obedience and prosperity? Jehovah's answer propounds two general principles of universal application. First, that the moral law is above the ceremonial: and secondly, that His promises are conditional on obedience to His precepts. These truths being admitted and acted upon, fasts are to be changed into feasts, and the Gentiles are to be brought in to worship the God of the Jews.

ix. xiv. The analysis of these chapters necessarily varies with the date and the authorship assigned to them; but we may say of them generally that they agree with the preceding prophecies of Zechariah in indicating the overthrow of the heathen powers of the earth, and in foreshadowing the coming of Messiah, and the establishment of His kingdom. In this respect, however, they only share a character which is common to many of the earlier prophetic writings; and so far furnish no conclusive argument in favour of the common authorship of the two portions of the book.

§3. Integrity of the book.

Whether Zechariah the son of Berechiah the son of Iddo was the writer of those last six chapters which are assigned to him in all the copies of the Hebrew

Bible upon which our present text is founded, and in all the ancient Versions, is a question not readily admitting a definite reply, in view of the conflicting weight of authority arranged on either side of it.

The arguments against the integrity of the book have been briefly summarized as follows:

(1) The difference in point of style between the earlier and later portions of the prophecy-a difference admitted by all critics.

(2) The absence from the later chapters (1) of modes of expression constantly occurring in the earlier part, and (2) of the accurate determination of the date of each several prophecy.

(3) The different historical stand-point which the writer of the later chapters occupies from that of Zechariah, especially in relation to the temple and its ordinances.

(4) The occurrence of allusions, which cannot be accommodated to any but a date anterior to the exile at Babylon.

To these arguments it has been objected:

(1) That the difference in style between the two divisions of the prophecy is not greater than might reasonably be expected from the change in subjectnot greater than is found to exist in different portions of other prophetic writers, as, for instance, in Hosea and Ezekiel.

(2) That the same peculiar forms of expression occur in the two divisions of the prophecy, as, for instance, in vii. 14 compared with ix. 8, and in iii. 4 compared with xiii. 2.

(3) (a) That in the earlier portion the prophet's attention is fixed upon the events of his own time, and the great national work that he was sent to forward; and hence the frequent reference to the temple at Jerusalem, and the particularity with which the date of his utterances and visions is fixed: whereas in the later part he is dealing with a yet distant future.

(b) That there is a general agreement between the predictions in the first and second sections; that their scope is the same; and that they alike have their fulfilment in the times of the Messiah.

(4) That there are frequent allusions in the later chapters to Zephaniah, Jere