CHAPTER XI _The commencement of this chapter relates to the destruction of_ _Jerusalem and the Jewish polity, probably by the Babylonians;_ _at least in the first instance, as the_ fourth _verse speaks of_ _the people thus threatened as the prophet's charge_, 1-6. _The prophet then gives an acc... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Zechariah 11:2. _HOWL, FIR TREE_] This seems to point out the fall and destruction of all the mighty men.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Zechariah 11:3. _YOUNG LIONS_] Princes and rulers. By _shepherds, kings_ or _priests_ may be intended.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Zechariah 11:4. _FEED THE FLOCK OF THE SLAUGHTER_] This people resemble a flock of sheep _fattened_ for the shambles; _feed_, instruct, this people who are about to be _slaughtered_.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Zechariah 11:5. _WHOSE POSSESSORS_] Governors and false prophets, _slay_ _them_, by leading them to those things that will bring them to destruction. _AND THEY THAT SELL THEM_] Give them up to idolatry; and bless God, strange to tell, that they get _secular advantage_ by the establishment of... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Zechariah 11:6. _FOR I WILL NO MORE PITY_] I have determined to deliver them into the hands of the Chaldeans.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Zechariah 11:7. _AND I WILT FEED THE FLOCK OF SLAUGHTER_] I showed them what God had revealed to me relative to the evils coming upon the land; and I did this the more especially for the sake of _the poor_ _of the flock_. _TWO STAVES_] Two _shepherd's crooks_. One I called _Beauty_-that proba... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Zechariah 11:8. _THREE SHEPHERDS ALSO I CUT OFF IN ONE MONTH_] Taking this _literally_, some think the _three shepherds_ mean the _three_ Maccabees, _Judas, Jonathan_, and _Simon_; others, the _three_ wicked high priests, _Jason, Alcimus_, and _Menelaus_; others, the _three_ last princes of th... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Zechariah 11:9. _I WILL NOT FEED YOU_] I shall instruct you no longer: some of you are appointed to death by _famine_; others, to be _cut_ _off_ by the _sword_; and others of you, to such _desparation_ that ye shall _destroy one another_.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Zechariah 11:10. _I TOOK MY STAFF - BEAUTY, AND CUT IT ASUNDER_] And thus I showed that I determined no longer to preserve them in their _free_ and _glorious_ state. And thus I _brake my covenant with them_, which they had broken on their part already.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Zechariah 11:11. _SO THE POOR OF THE FLOCK_] The pious, who attended to my teaching, saw that this was the _word _- the _design_, of God.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Zechariah 11:12. _IF YE THINK GOOD, GIVE_ ME _MY PRICE_] "Give me my hire." And we find they rated it contemptuously; _thirty_ pieces of silver being the price of a slave, Exodus 21:32.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Zechariah 11:13. _AND THE LORD SAID UNTO ME, CAST IT UNTO THE POTTER_] Jehovah calls the price of his prophet _his own price_; and commands that it should not be accepted, but given to a potter, to foreshadow the transaction related Matthew 27:7. "Earthen vessels were used in the temple; and... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Zechariah 11:14. _THAT I MIGHT BREAK THE BROTHERHOOD_] I cannot, says _Newcome_, explain this passage, without supposing that the kingdom of Israel _subsisted_ when the prophet wrote it; and that either the wars between Judah and Israel are referred to, (see 2 Kings 16:5,) or the captivity of... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Zechariah 11:15. _THE INSTRUMENTS OF A FOOLISH SHEPHERD._] Such as a _bag_ _without bread_, a _scrip without measure_, and a _staff without a_ _hook_, c., things that were needless or of no use to point out to the Jewish pastors, who took no care of the flock, but devoured them, or ruled them... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Zechariah 11:16. _I WILL RAISE UP A SHEPHERD IN THE LAND_] Some wicked king; and _Newcome_ supposes _Hoshea_ may be meant. See 2 Kings 17:1, and to such an abominable sovereign the prophecy may well apply.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Zechariah 11:17. _WO TO THE IDOL SHEPHERD_] רעי האליל _roi haelil_, "the worthless," or "good for nothing shepherd." The shepherd in name and office, but not performing the _work_ of one. See John 10:11. _THE SWORD_ SHALL BE _UPON HIS ARM_] Punishment shall be executed upon the wicked Jews, a... [ Continue Reading ]