Rup.: “‘All the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth,’ saith the Psalmist Psalms 25:11, and, ‘I will sing to Thee of mercy and judgment’ Psalms 101:1. So is this prophecy divided. Above , almost all were promises of mercy, which are now fulfilled in deed; and from this, “Open, O Lebanon, thy doors”... [ Continue Reading ]
OPEN THY DOORS, O LEBANON - Lebanon, whose cedars had stood, its glory, for centuries, yet could offer no resistance to him who felled them and were carried off to adorn the palaces of its conquerors (see above at Zephaniah 2:14, and note 2. p. 276), was in Isaiah Isaiah 14:8; Isaiah 37:24 and Jerem... [ Continue Reading ]
HOWL, O CYPRESS, FOR THE CEDAR IS FALLEN - Jerusalem or the temple having been likened to Lebanon and its cedars, the prophet carries on the image, speaking of the priests princes and people, under the title of firs, cypresses and oaks, trees inferior, but magnificent. He shows that it is imagery, b... [ Continue Reading ]
A VOICE OF THE HOWLING OF THE SHEPHERDS, FOR THEIR GLORY IS SPOILED - It echoes on from Jeremiah before the captivity, “Howl, ye shepherds - A voice of the cry of the shepherds. and an howling of the principal of the flock; for the Lord hath spoiled their pasture” Jeremiah 25:34, Jeremiah 25:36. The... [ Continue Reading ]
THUS SAITH THE LORD MY GOD, FEED THE FLOCK OF THE SLAUGHTER - The fulfillment of the whole prophecy shows, that the person addressed is the prophet, not in, or for himself, but (as belongs to symbolic prophecy) as representing Another, our Lord. It is addressed, in the first instance, to Zechariah.... [ Continue Reading ]
WHOSE POSSESSORS - (buyers) slay them and hold themselves not guilty, rather, are not guilty either in their own eyes, or in the sight of God, since He gave them up and would no more avenge them. They contract no guilt. Aforetime God said; “Israel was holiness to the Lord, the first-fruits of His in... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR I WILL NO MORE PITY - Therefore were they a “flock of the slaughter,” because God would “have no pity” on those who went after shepherds “who had no Pity” upon them, but corrupted them; who “entered not in themselves, and those who were entering in, they hindered” Luke 11:52. THE INHABITANTS OF... [ Continue Reading ]
The prophetic narrative which follows, differs in its form, in some respects, from the symbolical actions of the prophets and from Zechariah’s own visions. The symbolical actions of the prophets are actions of their own: this involves acts, which it would be impossible to represent, except as a sort... [ Continue Reading ]
AND I CUT OFF THREE SHEPHERDS IN ONE MONTH - Jerome: “I have read in some one’s commentary, that the shepherds, cut off in the indignation of the Lord, are to be understood of priests and false prophets and kings of the Jews, who, after the passion of Christ, were all cut off in one time, of whom Je... [ Continue Reading ]
AND I SAID, I WILL NOT FEED YOU - God, at last, leaves the rebellious soul or people to itself, as He says by Moses, “Then My anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and will hide My Face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall find... [ Continue Reading ]
AND I TOOK MY STAFF BEAUTY, AND CUT IT ASUNDER - Not, as aforetime, did He chasten His people, retaining His relation to them: for such chastening is an austere form of love. By breaking the staff of His tender love, He signified that this relation was at an end. THAT I MIGHT DISSOLVE MY COVENANT WH... [ Continue Reading ]
AND SO THE POOR OF THE FLOCK THAT WAITED UPON ME KNEW - The rest were blinded; those who listened to God’s word, observed His prophet, waited on Him and observed His words, knew from the fulfillment of the beginning, that the whole was God’s word. Every darkening cloud around the devoted city was an... [ Continue Reading ]
AND I SAID UNTO THEM, IF YE THINK GOOD, GIVE ME MY PRICE - God asks of us a return, not having any proportion to His gifts of nature or of grace, but such as we can render. He took the Jews out of the whole human race, made them His own, “a peculiar people,” freed them from “the bondage and the iron... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE LORD SAID UNTO ME, CAST IT - As a thing vile and rejected, as torn flesh was to be cast to dogs Exodus 22:31, or a corpse was cast unburied Isaiah 14:19; Isaiah 34:3; Jeremiah 14:16; Jeremiah 22:19; Jeremiah 26:23; Jeremiah 36:30, or the dead body of Absalom was cast into the pit... [ Continue Reading ]
AND I CUT ASUNDER MINE OTHER STAFF, BANDS, TO DISSOLVE THE BROTHERHOOD BETWEEN JUDAH AND ISRAEL - Hitherto prophecy had spoken of the healing of the great breach between Israel and Judah, in Christ. “The Lord,” Isaiah said, “shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of... [ Continue Reading ]
TAKE TO THEE YET THE INSTRUMENT - o OF A FOOLISH SHEPHERD - Osorius: “Yet He had enacted one tragedy, in which he clearly set forth the future guilt of Judas; now another is set forth, the accumulated scoffing through antichrist. For as Paul said, because they receive not the Spirit of truth, the A... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL RAISE UP - God supplies the strength or wisdom which people abuse to sin. He, in His Providence, disposeth the circumstances, of which the ambitious avail themselves. antichrist, whom the Jews look for, will be as much an instrument of God for the perfecting the elect, as the Chaldees Habakku... [ Continue Reading ]
WOE TO THE IDOL SHEPHERD - (A shepherd of nothingness, one who hath no quality of a shepherd ;) “who leaveth the flock.” The condemnation of the evil shepherd is complete in the abandonment of the sheep; as our Lord says, “He that is an hireling and not the Shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, see... [ Continue Reading ]