Zechariah 13:9

ersion of the Jews, foretold in the preceding chapter, they are here promised the full pardon of their sins, and a deliverance from idolatry and false prophets, Zac 13:1-6 . Prophecy concerning the death of the Messiah, and the persecution of his disciples, Zac 13:7 . The remaining verses may refer to those Jewish converts to Christianity who survived the calamities which their country suffered from the Romans, Zac 13:8 , Zac 13:9 . Verse 1 In that day there shall be a fountain opened - This chapter is a continuation of the preceding, and should not have been separated from it. A fountain - The source of mercy in Christ Jesus; perhaps referring to the death he should die, and the piercing of his side, when blood and water issued out. To the house of David - To David's family, and such like persons as it included. See the history of David and his sons, and then learn for whom Christ shed his blood. Inhabitants of Jerusalem - Such like persons as the Jews were in every part of their history, and in their last times, when they clamoured for the blood of Christ, and pursued him unto death! Learn from this also for whom Christ died! These were the worst of the human race; and if he died for them, none need despair. They rejected, betrayed, crucified, slew, and blasphemed Christ, and afterwards persecuted his followers. For these he died! Yes: and he tasted death for Every Man. For sin and for uncleanness - For the removal of the guilt of sin, and for the purification of the soul from the uncleanness or pollution of sin. Verse 2 I will cut off the names of the idols - There shall not only be no idolatry, but the very names of the idols shall be forgotten, or be held in such abhorrence that no person shall mention them. This prophecy seems to be ancient, and to have been delivered while idolatry had prevalence in Israel and Judah. I will cause the prophets - All false teachers. And the unclean spirit - That which leads to impurity, the spirit of divination; the lust of the flesh, and of the eye, and the pride of life. Satan shall have neither a being in, nor power over, the hearts of sincere believers in Christ. Verse 3 When any shall yet prophesy - Falsely; such shall be the horror of such an evil, that there shall be no toleration of it. Itself, and they who practice it, shall be everywhere destroyed. Verse 4 Neither shall they wear a rough garment - A rough garment made of goats' hair, coarse wool, or the course pile of the camel, was the ordinary garb of God's prophets. And the false prophets wore the same; for they pretended to the same gifts, and the same spirit, and therefore they wore the same kind of garments. John Baptist had a garment of this kind. Verse 5 But he shall say, I am no prophet - This must be the case of a false prophet or diviner, who had been obliged to give up his infamous practice, and become even a laborer in the land. But having been known to be such, he is questioned by the people to see if he still were addicted in heart to the same practices. He declares he is no prophet, neither true nor false; that he is now a husbandman, and was brought up a herdsman. Verse 6 What are these wounds in thine hands? - Marks which he had received in honor of his idols. But he shall excuse himself by stating that he had received these marks in his own family; when, most probably, they had been dedicated to some of those idols. See the note on Isa 44:5 . I do not think that these words are spoken at all concerning Jesus Christ. I have heard them quoted in this way; but I cannot hear such an application of them without horror. In quoting from the Old Testament in reference to the New, we cannot be too cautious. We may wound the truth instead of honoring it. Verse 7 Awake, O sword, against my Shepherd - This is generally understood of Jesus Christ. The sword is that of Divine justice which seemed to have been long asleep, and should long ago have struck either Man, or his Substitute, the Messiah. Jesus is here called God's Shepherd, because he had appointed him to feed and govern, as well as to save, the whole lost world. This is a prosopopoeia, and the address to the sword is very poetic. There is a fine passage in Aeschylus to the same effect: - Ξενος δε κληροις επινωμᾳ, Χαλυβος Σκυθων αποικας, Κτεανων χρηματοδαιτας Πικρος, ωμοφρων σιδαρος, Χθονα ναιειν διαπηλας Ὁποσαν αν και φθιμενοισι κατεχειν, Των μεγαλων πεδιων αμοιροις, Aeschyl. Sept. cont. Hebrews 733. "The rude barbarian, from the mines Of Scythia, o'er the lots presides; Ruthless to each his share assigns, And the contested realm divides: To each allots no wider a domain Than, on the cold earth as they lie, Their breathless bodies occupy, Regardless of an ampler reign: Such narrow compass does the sword - A cruel umpire - their high claims afford." Potter. The man that is my Fellow - ועל גבר עמיתי veal geber amithi, "upon the strong man," or "the hero that is with Me;" my neighbor. "The Word was God, and the Word was With God;" Joh 1:1 . "I and my Father are One;" Joh 10:30 . Smite the Shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered - This is quoted by our Lord, Mat 26:31 , in relation to his disciples, who should be scattered on his crucifixion: and they were so; for every one, giving up all for lost, went to his own house. And I will turn mine hand upon the little ones - I will take care of the little flock, and preserve them from Jewish malice and Gentile persecution. And so this little flock was most wondrously preserved, and has been increasing from year to year from that time to the present day. Verse 8 Two parts therein shall be cut off - In the war with the Romans. But the third shall be left - Those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ shall be preserved alive; and not one of these perished in the siege, or afterwards, by those wars. Verse 9 I will bring the third part through the fire - The Christian Church shall endure a great fight of afflictions, by which they shall be refined - not consumed. They shall call on my name - In this way shall they offer all their prayers and supplications to God. I will say, It is my people - The Church that I have chosen in the place of the Jews who have filled up the measure of their iniquity. And they shall say, The Lord is my God - And thus communion shall be established between me and them for ever. Thus there shall be a general restoration. Introduction The commencement of this chapter relates to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, and to the calamities cons

7 Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts: smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered: and I will turn mine hand upon the little 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. Here is a prophecy, I. Of the sufferings of Christ, of him who was to be pierced, and was to be the fountain opened. Awake, O sword! against my Shepherd, v. 7 . These are the words of God the Father, giving order and commission to the sword of his justice to awake against his Son, when he had voluntarily made his soul an offering for sin; for it pleased the Lord to bruise him and put him to grief; and he was stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted, Isa. liii. 4 , 10 . Observe, 1. How he calls him. "As God, he is my fellow; " for he thought it no robbery to be equal with God. He and the Father are one. He was from eternity by him, as one brought up with him, and, in the work of man's redemption, he was his elect, in whom his soul delighted, and the counsel of peace was between them both. "As Mediator, he is my Shepherd, that great and good Shepherd that undertook to feed the flock," ch. xi. 7 . He is the Shepherd that was to lay down his life for the sheep. 2. How he uses him: Awake, O sword! against him. If he will be a sacrifice, he must be slain, for without the shedding of blood, the life-blood, there was no remission. Men thrust him through as the good Shepherd (compare v. 3 ), that he might purchase the flock of God with his own blood, Acts xx. 28 . It is not a charge given to a rod to correct him, but to a sword to slay him; for Messiah the prince must be cut off, but not for himself, Dan. ix. 26 . It is not the sword of war that receives this charge, that he may die in the bed of honour, but the sword of justice, that he may die as a criminal, upon an ignominious tree. This sword must awake against him; he having no sin of his own to answer for, the sword of justice had nothing to say to him of itself, till, by particular order from the Judge of all, it was warranted to brandish itself against him. He was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, in the decree and counsel of God; but the sword designed against him had long slumbered, till now at length it is called upon to awake, not, "Awake, and smite him; strike home; not with a drowsy blow, but an awakened one;" for God spared not his own Son. II. Of the dispersion of the disciples thereupon: Smite the Shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered. This our Lord Jesus himself declares to have been fulfilled when all his disciples were offended because of him in the night wherein he was betrayed, Matt. xxvi. 31 ; Mark xiv. 27 . They all forsook him and fled. The smiting of the Shepherd is the scattering of the sheep. They were scattered every one to his own, and left him alone, John xvi. 32 . Herein they were like timorous sheep; yet the Shepherd thus provided for their safety, for he said, If you seek me, let these go their way. Some make another application of this; Christ was the Shepherd of the Jewish nation; he was smitten; they themselves smote him, and therefore they were justly scattered abroad, and dispersed among the nations, and remain so at this day. These words, I will turn my hand upon the little ones, may be understood either as a threatening (as Christ suffered, so shall his disciples, they shall drink of the cup that he drank of and be baptized with the baptism that he was baptized with) or as a promise that God would gather Christ's scattered disciples together again, and he should give them the meeting in Galilee. Though the little ones among Christ's soldiers may be dispersed, they shall rally again; the lambs of his flock, though frightened by the beasts of prey, shall recover themselves, shall be gathered in his arms and laid in his bosom. Sometimes, when the sheep are scattered and lost in the wilderness, yet the little ones, which, it was feared, would be a prey ( Num. xiv. 31 ), are brought in, are brought home, and God turns his hand upon them. III. Of the rejection and ruin of the unbelieving Jews ( v. 8 ); and this word has, and shall have, its accomplishment, in the destruction of the corrupt and hypocritical part of the church. It shall come to pass that in all the land of Israel two parts shall be cut off and die. The Roman army laid the country waste, and slew at least two-thirds of the Jews. Some understand by the cutting off, and dying, or two parts in all the earth, the abolishing of heathenism and Judaism, that Christianity, the third part, might be left to reign alone. The Jewish worship was quite taken away by the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. And, some time after, Pagan idolatry was in a manner extirpated, when the empire became Christian. IV. Of the reformation and preservation of the chosen remnant, those of them that believed, and the Christian church in general ( v. 9 ): The third part shall be left. When Jerusalem and Judea were destroyed, all the Christians in that country, having among them the warning Christ gave them to flee to the mountains, shifted for their own safety, and were sheltered in a city called Pella, on the other side Jordan. We have here first the trials and then the triumphs of the Christian church, and of all the faithful members of it. 1. Their trials: I will bring that third part through the fire of affliction. and will refine and try them as silver and gold are refined and tried. This was fulfilled in the persecutions of the primitive church, the fiery trial which tried the people of God then, 1 Pet. iv. 12 . Those whom God sets apart for himself must pass through a probation and purification in this world; they must be tried that their faith may be found to praise and honour ( 1 Pet. i. 6, 7 ), as Abraham's faith was when it was tried by the command given him to offer up Isaac, Now know I that thou fearest me. They must be tried, that both those that are perfect and those that are not may be made manifest. They must be refined from their dross; their corruption must be purged out; they must be brightened and bettered. 2. Their triumphs. (1.) Their communion with God is their triumph: They shall call on my name, and I will hear them. They write to God by prayer, and receive from him answers of peace, and thus keep up a comfortable communion with him. This honour have all his saints. (2.) Their covenant with God is their triumph: " I will say, It is my people, whom I have chosen and loved, and will own; and they shall say, the Lord is my God, and a God all-sufficient to me; and in me they shall boast every day and all the day long. This God is our God for ever and ever. "