(Branch.) Jonathan has also given this interpretation, "My servant, the Messiah."

9. "For behold the stone," that is, the plummet, by which they make the building straight. Or, the meaning may be, The stone which they shall lay first, Zerubbabel shall lay it before Joshua, as it is said below (iv. 7), “He shall bring forth the head-stone."

"Upon one stone seven eyes.”—Upon every stone there shall be seven eyes, i. e., many watchings from God, blessed be He, on account of the enemies, who think to cause the work to cease. And these are the seven eyes of the Lord, spoken of below. (c. iv. 9.) "Seven" is a definite number to express a multitude, not literally seven, as in Levit. xxvi. 21, "I will bring seven times more plagues upon you, according to your sins;" and again, "The righteous falleth seven times and riseth again;" and such like. My Lord, my father, interpreted "seven" literally, to signify Joshua, Ezra, Zerubbabel, Nehemiah, and the three prophets, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. Jonathan has interpreted, "Seven eyes looking to it."

"Behold, I will engrave the graving thereof," or, "I will open the openings thereof." As if the stone had been bound up all the time that the work was stopped; and now he would loose it, and place it in the building. But the true meaning is "engraving," as in Exod. xxviii. 36, "And thou shalt grave upon it according to the graving of a signet." For as the finishing of the preparation of precious stone is the figures, and bloom and pomegranates, which they figure upon it by graving, so it is here said parabolically, i. e., I will finish it in all its preparation for the building.

of this occurs in the word, serpent, which is made one of the names of Messiah, because its numerical value is that of me (Messiah). Perhaps our Lord alluded to this interpretation when he said, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so shall the Son of Man be lifted up." (John iii.)

"And I will remove." is a transitive verb, but in Numb. xiv. 44, p, "They departed not," is an intransitive. And this shall take place in the time in which the prophets promised an increase of Zerubbabel's dignity, as Haggai says, "I will take thee, Zerubbabel; and Zechariah says, "I will bring my servant, the Branch." Then Israel shall be in prosperity in the time of the second temple, therefore it is said, "Ye shall call every man his neighbour."

"The iniquity of the land" may be taken literally, or, it may signify the punishment, as in Gen. xv. 16, "The iniquity of the Amorite is not yet full;" that is to say, that he would remove from them all evil and all affliction, and they should be in prosperity.

10. "In that day ye shall call," on account of the abundance of peace which ye shall have.

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CHAPTER IV.

1. "And the angel came again and waked me."-In the other visions he says, "I lifted up mine eyes," because he saw of himself; but the angel waked him to see this vision.

ini (“that is, wakened out of his sleep"). This verb is in the Niphal conjugation, and is thus to be interpreted," He waked me, and I was awakened as a man that is wakened out of sleep."

ויאמר

2. . The k'thiv (the text) has the third person, "And he said," which is a continuation of the narrative; but the k'ri (the marginal note) has 7, the first person, "And I said," which refers to the words of Zechariah.

"And her bowl,". The point in the is mappik, and the word is not the third person feminine (of a verb). A similar instance is in Isa. xxviii. 4, 2 D

("As her hasty fruit before the summer.") And again, Job xxviii. 11, *is simba ("And her secret bringeth he forth to light.") And again, Ezek. xxii. 24, Dy‡ Diş maya, (" And her visitation with rain [did not take place] in the day of indignation.")

"And his seven lamps thereon;" like the candlestick in the law. And the middle one is a type of the Deity, who forms the bond of union to unite contraries. And thus the seven doubles + are contraries, and the governors

* Kimchi appears to have read with a Mappik.

By the seven doubles, Kimchi means the letters in which a dagesh can occur. We now commonly reckon only six, n 72, but the rabbies include the , as some instances are found where it is doubled. (See Gesen. Lehrgeb., § 37, 1.) In this reduplication the Cabbalistic writers find great mysteries, to which Kimchi here alludes. For instance, Saadiah Gaon says, "As these letters have got two opposite states (the dageshed and the undageshed), by their means were established those things which have got opposites. By means of the

to the world, which is made up of contraries, are the seven planets; and the world has also six sides and three planes (dimensions), but the master of the sides is the seventh, and that is the centre; and thus it is with the body of every thing. But the author of the book of Jetzirah attributes to the world six sides, answering to the six points, and the holy temple situate in the middle.† He mentions the thing most honoured among all creatures.

"Thereon," i. e., on the candlestick; and the bowl was above them; and he showed him this vision to inform him, that God, blessed be He, gives light to Israel, which is the contrary of their having been in darkness.

"Seven and seven pipes to the lamps." —The whole had seven pipes; one pipe to each lamp. And Rashi, of

dageshed letters, were created the things that are strong, as life, peace, riches, seed, grace, dominion, wisdom; and by means of the undageshed letters, were created the opposites of these. (Comment. in Sepher Jetzirah, edit. Mantua, fol. 88, col. 1.)

*

According to the Jewish astronomers, the seven planets are, the Sun, Venus, Mercury, the Moon, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, which were, according to Saadiah, in the place just cited, created by means of the seven double letters, and have, therefore, a double power of good and evil, according to their position with respect to the signs of the Zodiac. The rabbies believe in astrology, as may be seen abundantly in the commentaries to this book of Jetzirah, and in Aben Ezra's Commentary on the Tenth Commandment, &c. &c. They also believe that the heavenly bodies and spheres are living and intelligent beings, to whom is committed the management of things here below, as may be seen in Maimonides. (Hilchoth Jesode Torah, c. iii., and Moreh Nevuchim, part ii. c. 5.)

+ The passage to which Kimchi alludes is as follows, "The seven double letters, 1, answer to the seven extreme points. Of these six are, the zenith and the nadir, the east and the west, the north and the south, and the holy temple is placed in the centre, and it bears them all." The Commentary on which passage tells us, that "the holy temple is a mystical expression to signify the Creator." (Sepher Jetzirah, edit. Mantua, fol. 77, col. 1. Compare also fol. 103, col. 1.) (Marginal Translation.)

Seven several pipes.

blessed memory, has explained that there were seven pipes to each lamp.

"Pipes," nip, pourers; an adjective instead of a verb,* and this name was used, because they were pouring oil from lamp to lamp.

3. And two olive-trees."—And again I saw two olivetrees, either on the candlestick or on the bowl, but this is much the same.

"One upon the right of the bowl, and the other upon the left thereof." (p-by.)-The same as

WD, i. e., has the same force as . But he says, they were upon the bowl, and in a following verse (11) he says, Upon the right of the candlestick, and on the left thereof;" the sense, however, is the same.

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4. "So I answered," is clear.

5." And the angel answered," is clear.

6. "Then he answered Not by might, nor by power.' -As thou hast seen the work of the candlestick, that it was done of itself, and without any man or thing arranging the lamps, or pouring oil into them, thus shall the building of the temple be effected without the power of man, solely by the Spirit of God, blessed be He, and by his good pleasure. But he afterwards explains to him the vision in detail.

7. "Who art thou, O great mountain."-He says, in reference to Sanballat and his companions who were opposing, Though thou be like a great mountain, before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain, and shall not be able to stand before him to stop the work.

“And he shall bring forth the head-stone." + As he brought forth the head-stone, when he began the building, in the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, so he shall finish the work.

*The Michlal Jophi reads, "the active participle." Kimchi

צוק,Gesenius says : יצק makes the root

Kimchi takes in the past time.