bulation, and will punish such of her children as rejoice in their pride and have stayed themselves upon the arm of Antichrist rather than upon the arm of God; yet will he leave in the midst of her a humble and contrite people who shall trust in his holy name. Then will he be her king, so that she shall behold evil no more. Then will he undo all that afflict her, and give her praise and renown in every land where she hath been put to shame. Then will he bring her back from all the ends of the earth, and restore her captivity before her eyes.

PROPHECY XXXVII.

The various dispersions of Israel by four kingdoms of the Gentiles—The final restoration and prosperity of the Jews-The miraculous overthrow of Antichrist.

Zechariah i. 12. The angel of the Lord answered and said, O Lord of hosts, how long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which thou hast had indignation these threescore and ten years? 13. And the Lord answered the angel that talked with me with good words and comfortable words-16. Thus saith the Lord; I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies; my house shall be built in it, saith the Lord of hosts,

hosts, and a line shall be stretched forth upon Jerusalem

18. Then lifted I up mine eyes, and saw, and behold, four horns. 19. And I said unto the angel that talked with me, What be these? And he answered me, These are the horns, which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem. 20. And the Lord shewed me four artificers. 21. Then said I, What come these to do? And he spake, saying, Those were the horns which scattered Judah, so that no man did lift up his head: but these are come to fray them, to cast out the horns of the Gentiles which lifted up the horn over the land of Judah to scatter it.

ii. 1. I lifted up mine eyes again, and looked, and behold, a man with a measuring line in his hand. 2. Then said I, Whither goest thou? And he said unto me, To measure Jerusalem, to see what is the breadth thereof, and what is the length thereof. 3. And behold, the angel that talked with me went forth, and another angel went out to meet him, 4. And said unto him, Run, speak to this young man, saying, Jerusalem shall inhabit towns without walls for the multitude of men and cattle within her *. 5. For I, saith the Lord, will

1

be

* Jerusalem shall inhabit.] "Jerusalem is here personified "under the symbol of a woman, by which cities and countries are often figuratively represented-Under this character, Je"rusalem may be understood to occupy or inhabit, not only

"the

be unto her a wall of fire round about her, and will be for glory in the midst of her. 6. Ho, ho, come forth, and flee from the land of the north, saith the Lord: for I have spread you abroad as the four winds of heaven *, saith the Lord. 7. Ho Zion, be thou delivered, thou that dwellest with the daughter of Babylon. 8. For thus saith the Lord of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you for he, that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of his eye. 9. For behold, I will shake mine hand upon them, and they shall be a spoil to their servants: and ye shall know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me. 10. Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion: for lo, I' come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the Lord. 11. And many nations shall be joined unto the Lord in that day, and shall be my people: and I will dwell in the midst of thee, and thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me unto thee. 12. And the Lord shall inherit Judah

"the houses within her walls, but the open villages round "about, on account of her enlarged population." Dr. Blayney's Trans, of Zechar, in loc.

* I have spread you abroad as the four winds of heaven.] "As I have scattered you and your brethren of the ten tribes "all the world over, so in due time I will gather you from

your several dispersions, of which your present restoration "from Babylon shall be an earnest." Mr. Lowth in loc.

VOL. II.

S

his

his portion in the holy land, and shall choose Jerusalem again. 13. Be silent, O all flesh, before the Lord: for he is raised up out of his holy habitation.

COMMENTARY.

The beginning of this twofold prophecy relates entirely to the 70 years captivity of Judah. The people had now returned from Babylon: and Zechariah encourages them in the erection of the second temple, by declaring that it should be built in Jerusalem. But from this particular captivity he immediately passes to a general view of all the captivities and persecutions both of Israel and Judah. He beholds four horns, which the interpreting angel informs him denote four kingdoms of the Gentiles, that have scattered and afflicted Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem. To know what four kingdoms are here intended, we must consult history. Now the Assyrians led away captive the ten tribes. The Babylonians afterwards carried away the two remaining tribes of Judah and Benjamin. The Syro-Macedonians most cruelly persecuted them, and Antiochus Epiphanes in particular wreaked his vengeance on Jerusalem; insomuch

* The Lord shall inherit Judah his portion in the holy land.] "God shall give visible tokens, that the land of Judea and its "inhabitants are his peculiar people-This may perhaps be more fully verified at the general restoration of that nation." Mr. Lowth in loc.

that,

that, in the reigns of the two first Ptolemies, many of the Jews, as we learn from Josephus*, were slaves in Egypt. Lastly, the Romans utterly dissolved the Jewish polity, and scattered them over the face of the whole earth. These then seem to be the four kingdoms, which scatter Israel, Judah, and Jerusalem for so the prophet, with reference to their several afflictions, most accurately distinguishes into three divisions the sons of Jacob t. As for the four artificers, they are plainly allegorical characters and this part of the prophecy merely denotes, that the four persecuting horns should be successively broken 1.

*Ant. Jud. Lib. xii. C. 1, 2.

Having

The four great empires, as they are usually called, cannot, as it appears to me, be intended by the four horns; because Israel was led into captivity previous to the rise of the Babylonian empire properly so called, and because the Persians were protectors, not persecutors, of Judah. Yet it is proper to observe that the Jews themselves have generally been of opinion, that these four horns symbolize the four great empires described in the seventh chapter of Daniel. See Dr. Blayney in loc. Mr. Lowth thinks the expression four may perhaps be indefinite, signifying their enemies in general among whom they were dispersed to the four winds of heaven.

Dr. Blayney translates the passage in the following manner. "And Jehovah shewed me four plowmen. And I said, "What come these to do? And he replied, saying, These are "the horns which have scattered Judah, so that no man lifted "up his head. And these are come, sharpening their coulter, "for to use upon the horns of the nations, which lifted up a "horn against the land of Judah to scatter it." The idea however,

ડેટ

$2