Zechariah 10:3

Mine anger was kindled against the shepherds, and I punished the goats: for the LORD of hosts hath visited his flock the house of Judah, and hath made them as his goodly horse in the battle. MINE ANGER WAS KINDLED AGAINST THE SHEPHERDS - the civil rulers of Israel and Judah, who abetted idolatry. AND I PUNISHED - literally, 'visited upon.' The same word, 'visited' [ paaqad (H6485)], without the 'upon,' is presently after used in a good sense to heighten the contrast. THE GOATS - he-goats. As "shepherds" described what they ought to have been, so 'he-goats' describes what they were, the emblem of headstrong wantonness and offensive lust (margin, Isaiah 14:9;...

He had said that the Jews had been driven into exile, and had been oppressed by their enemies, because they had no shepherd; not indeed to lessen their fault, for they were wholly inexcusable, since they had wilfully renounced God, who would have been otherwise their perpetual shepherd: but he now turns his discourse to the false teachers, to the false prophets and to the wicked priests. Though then they were all unworthy of pardon, yet God here justly summons the shepherds first before his tribunal, who had been the cause of making others to go astray: as when a blind man leads the blind into a ditch, so ungodly pastors become the cause of ruin to others. We have elsewhere observed similar passages, in which God threatened priests and prophets with special punishment, because they had unfaithfully discharged their office; but yet he did not absolve the common people, for from the least...

1-5 Spiritual blessings had been promised under figurative allusions to earthly plenty. Seasonable rain is a great mercy, which we may ask of God when there is most need of it, and we may look for it to come. We must in our prayers ask for mercies in their proper time. The Lord would make bright clouds, and give showers of rain. This may be an exhortation to seek the influences of the Holy Spirit, in faith and by prayer, through which the blessings held forth in the promises are obtained and enjoyed. The prophet shows the folly of making addresses to idols, as their fathers had done. The Lord visited the remnant of his flock in mercy, and was about to renew their courage and strength for conflict and victory. Every creature is to us what God makes it to be. Every one raised to support the nation, as a corner-stone does the building, or to unite those that differ, as nails join the diffe...

Verse Zechariah 10:3. _MINE ANGER WAS KINDLED AGAINST THE SHEPHERDS_] Bad kings and bad priests. _I will punish the goats_; these were the wicked _priests_, who were _shepherds_ by their _office_, and _goats_ by the _impurity_ of their _lives_. _AS HIS GOODLY HORSE IN THE BATTLE._] The honourable _war horse_, or the _horse_ that carried the general's equipage. In the unaccountable variation of interpreters on these chapters, this, among other things, is thought to be spoken of _Matthias_, and _Judas_ _Maccabeus_, who assembled the people from all quarters, as a shepherd gathers his sheep together; and led them against the _sons_ _of Greece_, the _Seleucidae Greeks_. Others refer every thing here to times before the _captivity_....

MINE ANGER WAS KINDLED AGAINST THE SHEPHERDS - As Ezekiel continued, “Thus saith the Lord God; Behold I am against the shepherds, and I will require My flock at their hand” Ezekiel 34:10. I PUNISHED THE HE-GOATS - The evil powerful are called the “he-goats of the earth: Isaiah 14:9; and in Ezekiel God says, “I will judge between cattle and cattle, between rams and he-goats” Ezekiel 34:17; and our Lord speaks of the reprobate as goats, the saved as sheep Matthew 25:32. God “visited upon these in His displeasure, “because” He “visited His flock, the people of Judah

EXPOSITION ZECHARIAH 10:1, ZECHARIAH 10:2 § 4. A connecting link between the last section and the next. _The condition for obtaining the promised blessings is that they are to be sought from the Lord, not from idols._ ZECHARIAH 10:1 ASK YE OF THE LORD RAIN. The promise of abundance at the end of the last chapter suggests to the prophet to make a special application to the practice of his countrymen. They must put their trust in God alone for the supply of temporal as well as spiritual bounties. THE LATTER RAIN was due at the time of the vernal equinox, and was necessary in

MINE ANGER WAS KINDLED AGAINST THE SHEPHERDS,.... The Targum interprets it of "kings"; as the "goats" of "princes", in the next clause; by whom, according to Jarchi, Aben Ezra, Kimchi, and Abarbinel, are meant the kings of Greece; but rather the antichristian kings are designed, the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication with the whore of Rome, which is the cause of the anger of the Lord being kindled: or else ecclesiastical rulers are meant, the Romish clergy, the chief of them, as cardinals, archbishops, bishops, c. who may fitly be represented by the shepherds of Israel in the times of the prophets for their name, professing to be of Israel, or to be Christians and by them for their ignorance, covetousness, luxury, disregard to the flock, tyranny and cruelty over it, and murder of it; see Isaiah 56:10, against these the fire of God's wrath will be kindled, and with it will...

Zechariah 10:1. _Ask ye of the LORD rain in the time of the latter rain; so the LORD shall make bright clouds, and give them showers of rain, to every one grass in the field._ The atheistic philosopher of the present day laughs at such a verse as this, and sneeringly asks, « What possible connection can there be between men and women praying to God and the showers of rain which fall upon the earth?» «Why!» saith he, «according to the laws of nature, showers fall at such-and-such seasons; and if the atmosphere should not happen to be in such-and-such a state, all the praying in the world cannot produce a single drop of rain.» But faith can clearly see where reason is blind; and the prayer of faith moves the arm of God, and the arm of God controls what the philosopher calls the laws of nature, and so the rain descends. Let us learn, from this precept and promise, the power of bel

CHAPTER 10:1-12 _ 1. The apostasy of Israel in the last days (Zechariah 10:2) _ 2. The victory over the enemies (Zechariah 10:5) 3. Deliverance and restoration (Zechariah 10:8) Zechariah 10:1. Idolatry was the great sin of both Judah and Israel. They practiced the occult things of heathendom and worshipped their false gods; they had teraphim used for divination. On account of this the wrath fell upon the former generations, and the Lord's anger was kindled against their leaders, the shepherds, and they were dispersed. We have called attention before to...

This is made up of several fragments. Zechariah 10:3_ a_ is apparently the beginning of a denunciation of Israel's leaders founded upon Ezekiel 34, whereas Zechariah 10:3_ b_ describes the Lord as visiting His distressed sheep, and making them as his warhorse. The cue which has caused Zechariah 10:3_ b_ to be attached to Zechariah 10:3_ a_ is the word visit, which the EV renders punish in the first instance. The Jewish sheep became warhorses in the Maccabean struggle. Zechariah 10:4, which is a later insertion, pr