Zacarias 9:9-17

(9-17) The advent of the king. It has been urged as an objection against the post-exilic authorship of this passage that “Ephraim” and “Jerusalem” are mentioned, as though Israel were still separated from Judah. But, on the contrary, Ephraim and Jerusalem are here strictly parallel terms, as are also “Judah” and “Ephraim” (Zacarias 9:13), where both are represented as equally opposed to the sons of Javan. The nation was now one (Ezequiel 37:22) and known by the names of “Israel” (Zacarias 12:1; Malaquias 1:1; Malaquias 1:5), “all the tribes of Israel” (Zacarias 9:1), also the “house of Judah” (Zacarias 10:3; Zacarias 10:6), “house of Joseph” and “Ephraim” (Zacarias 10:6). For now that the “dead bones of the whole house of Israel” were revived (Ezequiel 37:11), and “my servant David” was about to be “King over them” (Ezequiel 37:24), the prophecy of Ezekiel (Ezequiel 37:16) was fulfilled, and the staves (tribes, shibhete) of Joseph and of Judah had become one in God’s hand. Hence the interchangeable terms. This passage is now generally admitted to be Messianic. But the prophecy was not to be immediately fulfilled. The nation had yet severe sufferings to endure and triumphs to achieve, viz. in those struggles with the “sons of Greece” which render the Maccabean period (B.C. 167-130) one of the most noble pages in Jewish history. Those who still remained in the land of their exile are exhorted to come forth (comp. Zacarias 2:7), confident in the help of the Lord of Hosts, who would wield the reunited Judah and Ephraim (comp. Isaías 11:13) as His weapons of war (comp. Jeremias 51:20); He Himself will appear as their champion, with the rolling of the thunder as His war-trumpet, the forked lightning as His arrows, “the wild storm blowing from the southern desert, the resistless fury of His might.” And then, when they had fought the good fight, and not before, God promises “the flock His people” the blessings of peace (Zacarias 9:16).