the glory of the house of David, and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem*, do not magnify themselves against Judah. 8. In that day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem: and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel Jehovah before them.

9. And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. 10. And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon him whom they have pierced; and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born. 11. In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of the vintage-shouting of Rimmon† in the valley of Megiddon. 12. And the land shall mourn, every family apart: the family of the house

*The inhabitants of Jerusalem.] "The people that defend "Jerusalem from within." Mr. Lowth in loc.

The vintage-shouting of Rimmon.] The word 777, or as it is here written 77, signifies loud shouting, either as of men treading grapes, in which sense it is used in Isaiah xvi. 10, and Jerem. xxv. 30; or as of soldiers encouraging one another to battle, in which sense it is used in Jeremiah li. 14. The second fignification is plainly borrowed from the first, the treading of the wine-press being a constant scriptural image of the slaughter of a battle. See Parkhurst's Heb. Lex. Vox 7.

of David apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart; 13. The family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; 14. All the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart. xiii. 1. In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness. 2. And it shall be in that day, saith the Lord of hosts, I will cut off the names of the idols* from the earth, and they shall not be mentioned any more; and also the prophets and the nnclean spirit will I cause to pass from out of the earth. 3. And it shall come to pass, when any one shall prophesy any more, that his father and his mother, who begat him, shall say unto him, Thou shalt not live, because thou hast spoken falshood in the name of the Lord: and his father and his mother, who begat him, shall thrust him through when he pro

* Idols.] "Ezekiel, confessedly prophesying of the latter "times, when Israel and Judah, incorporated again into one nation, shall return into their own land, says, to the same "effect as Zechariah, Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with “all their transgressions (Ezek. xxxvii. 23.)—We are taught to expect that the conversion of the Jews will be followed by a further reformation of the world (Rom. xi. 15); and that the "time will come when the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ (Rev. xi. 15), and the "beast and with him the false prophet shall be cast into a lake of

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fire and brimstone (Rev. xix. 20)." Dr. Blayney in loc.

phesietla

phesieth. 4. And it shall come to pass in that day, the prophets shall be ashamed every one of his vision, when he prophesied *; and they shall not wear a garment of hair † in order to deceive.. 5. But he shall say, I am not a prophet, I am a man that tilleth the ground; for a man hath had the property of met from my youth. 6. And, when one shall say unto him, What are those wounds in thy hands? then he shall say, They are what I inflicted in the house of my friends.

* Of his vision when he prophesied.] "That is, of the extraordinary communication, which he pretended to have re"ceived, when he uttered a prophecy which he knew to be "false." Dr. Blayney.

+ A garment of hair.] "See 2 Kings i. 8. Matt. iii. 4. They shall not affect the dress of the old prophets, in order "to pass off their impostures." Dr. Blayney.

Hath had the property of me.] "Disclaiming all pre"tensions to the character of a prophet, he shall profess himself to be no other than a plain ordinary labouring man, employed in husbandry business by those, whose property he "had been, quasi adstrictus glebæ, from his youth. Mr. Har"mer's observations on this passage, which he justly parallels "with the declaration of Amos, that he was no prophet, nor "the son of a prophet, but an herdsman and a gatherer of AL sycamore fruit, go to shew the incompatibility of such active "and laborious employments with the retired and sedentary "life of those, who were trained up in the schools or colleges "of the prophets, in order to qualify themselves for that pro“fession." Dr. Blayney.

Those wounds.] Two ancient usages are clearly alluded to here; "the one, that of the idolatrous priests and prophets,

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7. Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the mighty man my neighbour, saith the Lord of hosts. Sinite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered; for I will turn my hands even against the mean ones. 8. And it shall come to

pass, that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off, and die; but the third shall be left therein. 9. And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people; and they shall say, The Lord is my God.

xiv. 1. Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. 2. For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem

"who sought to engage the attention and favour of their deity "by cutting and slashing themselves, as the priests of Baal did " (1 Kings xviii. 28); the other, that of those who cut them"selves as a token of their grief and mourning for their de"ceased relations. and friends. It appears also from Jer. xlviii. "37, that these cuttings were performed on the hands in par"ticular. When therefore the man, now ashamed of his pre"tensions to prophesy, came to be challenged for those scars "that were visible on his hands, he would deny them to have 46 proceeded from any idolatrous cause, but would have them thought to be marks left by those wounds which he gave himself in the house of his relations and friends, in the paroxisms of his grief for the loss of them." Dr. Blayney, See also Mr. Lowth in loc.

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to battle and the city shall be taken city shall be taken *, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished: and half

* The city shall be taken.] I cannot but think the opinion adopted by some, that the sacking of Jerusalem by the Romans is here intended, very incongruous with the whole tenor of the prophecy. When the city was taken by Titus, not merely half of the inhabitants were made captive, and the other half left; but the whole nation was dispersed, insomuch that none were left except a few stragglers compared by Isaiah to the gleanings of the vintage. So again: immediately after the sacking of Je rusalem, here predicted by Zechariah, the Lord will go forth and fight against those very nations which had just taken it. Judah likewise will fight against them; agreeably to the former declaration of the prophet, that God would make Jerusalem a cup of trembling and a burdensome stone unto all the peoples that had gathered themselves together to besiege it. It is superfluous to observe, that no such events followed the sucking of Jerusalem by the Romans. In short both the whole tenor, and the whole chronology, of the prophecy compel me to suppose, that Zechariah is here speaking of the same taking of Jerusalem by Antichrist, that Daniel so plainly foretells when he declares, that that great enemy of God, ere he comes to his end, shall plant the curtains of his tents between the seas in the glorious holy mountain.

"It is impossible," as Dr. Blayney justly observes, “to re"concile these words the rest of the people shall not be cut off 'from the city with the state of facts at the time when Je"rusalem was taken by the Romans. For at that time we are "well assured by Josephus who was an eye witness, not only all "that were in the city were either slain or made captives, but "also the city itself was razed to the ground, so as to leave no

vestige of an habitation. How then could there be a residue "not cut off from the city? And, if there has been no cap16 ture since, to which these words can be applied, we must look forward to futurity for the completion of the prophecy."