{"commentary":{"id":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","website":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamieson-Fausset-Brown_Bible_Commentary","licenseUrl":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/","licenseNotes":null,"licenseNotice":null,"englishName":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","language":"eng","textDirection":"rtl","sha256":"db3d4c8b3c1f32ef9d1430a57392e02bda3a17aac1f9bbe398461de021a3cb13","availableFormats":["json"],"listOfBooksApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/books.json","listOfProfilesApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/profiles.json","numberOfBooks":66,"totalNumberOfChapters":1187,"totalNumberOfVerses":17056,"totalNumberOfProfiles":0,"languageName":"English","languageEnglishName":"English"},"book":{"id":"ZEC","commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Zechariah","commonName":"Zechariah","introduction":"THE name Zechariah means one whom Jehovah remembers: a common name, four others of the same name occurring in the Old Testament. Like Jeremiah and Ezekiel, he was a priest as well as a prophet, which adapts him for the sacerdotal character of some of his prophecies (Zac 6:13). He is called \"the son of Berechiah the son of Iddo\" (Zac 1:1); but simply \"the son of Iddo\" in Ezr 5:1; Ezr 6:14. Probably his father died when he was young; and hence, as sometimes occurs in Jewish genealogies, he is called \"the son of Iddo,\" his grandfather. Iddo was one of the priests who returned to Zerubbabel and Joshua from Babylon (Neh 12:4).\n\nZechariah entered early on his prophetic functions (Zac 2:4); only two months later than Haggai, in the second year of Darius' reign, 520 B.C. The design of both prophets was to encourage the people and their religious and civil leaders, Joshua and Zerubbabel, in their work of rebuilding the temple, after the interruption caused by the Samaritans (see Introduction to Haggai). Zechariah does so especially by unfolding in detail the glorious future in connection with the present depressed appearance of the theocracy, and its visible symbol, the temple. He must have been very young in leaving Babylonia, where he was born. The Zechariah, son of Barachias, mentioned by our Lord (Mat 23:35) as slain between the porch and the altar, must have been the one called the son of Jehoiada in Ch2 24:21, who so perished: the same person often had two names; and our Lord, in referring to the Hebrew Bible, of which Second Chronicles is the last book, would naturally mention the last martyr in the Hebrew order of the canon, as He had instanced Abel as the first. Owing to Mat 27:9 quoting Zac 11:12-13 as the words of Jeremiah, MEDE doubts the authenticity of the ninth through the fourteenth chapters, and ascribes them to Jeremiah: he thinks that these chapters were not found till after the return from the captivity, and being approved by Zechariah, were added to his prophecies, as Agur's Proverbs were added to those of Solomon. All the oldest authorities, except two manuscripts of the old Italian or Pre-Vulgate version, read Jeremiah in Mat 27:9. The quotation there is not to the letter copied from Zechariah, Jer 18:1-2; Jer 32:6-12, may also have been in the mind of Matthew, and perhaps in the mind of Zechariah, whence the former mentions Jeremiah. HENGSTENBERG similarly thinks that Matthew names Jeremiah, rather than Zechariah, to turn attention to the fact that Zechariah's prophecy is but a reiteration of the fearful oracle in Jer. 18:1-19:15, to be fulfilled in the destruction of the Jewish nation. Jeremiah had already, by the image of a potter's vessel, portrayed their ruin in Nebuchadnezzar's invasion; and as Zechariah virtually repeats this threat, to be inflicted again under Messiah for the nation's rejection of Him, Matthew, virtually, by mentioning Jeremiah, implies that the \"field of blood\" (Mat 27:8-9), now bought by \"the reward of iniquity\" (Act 1:18) in the valley of Hinnom, was long ago a scene of prophetic doom in which awful disaster had been symbolically predicted: that the present purchase of that field with the traitor's price renewed the prophecy and revived the curse--a curse pronounced of old by Jeremiah, and once fulfilled in the Babylonian siege--a curse reiterated by Zechariah, and again to be verified in the Roman desolation. LIGHTFOOT (referring to B. BATHRA and KIMCHI) less probably thinks the third division of Scripture, the prophets, began with Jeremiah, and that the whole body of prophets is thus quoted by the name \"Jeremiah.\" The mention of \"Ephraim\" and \"Israel\" in these chapters as distinct from Judah, does not prove that the prophecy was written while the ten tribes existed as a separate kingdom. It rather implies that hereafter not only Judah, but the ten tribes also, shall be restored, the earnest of which was given in the numbers out of the ten tribes who returned with their brethren the Jews from captivity under Cyrus. There is nothing in these characters to imply that a king reigned in Judah at that time. The editor of the Hebrew canon joined these chapters to Zechariah, not to Jeremiah; the Septuagint, three hundred years B.C., confirms this.\n\nThe prophecy consists of four parts: (1) Introductory, Zac 1:1-6. (2) Symbolical, Zac 1:7, to the end of the sixth chapter, containing nine visions; all these were vouchsafed in one night, and are of a symbolical character. (3) Didactic, the seventh and eighth chapters containing an answer to a query of the Beth-elites concerning a certain feast. And (4) Prophetic, the ninth chapter to the end. These six last chapters predict Alexander's expedition along the west coast of Palestine to Egypt; God's protection of the Jews, both at that time and under the Maccabees; the advent, sufferings, and reign of Messiah; the destruction of Jerusalem by Rome, and dissolution of the Jews' polity; their conversion and restoration; the overthrow of the wicked confederacy which assailed them in Canaan; and the Gentiles' joining in their holy worship [HENDERSON]. The difference in style between the former and the latter chapters is due to the difference of subject; the first six chapters being of a symbolical and peculiar character, while the poetical style of the concluding chapters is adapted admirably to the subjects treated. The titles (Zac 9:1; Zac 12:1) accord with the prophetic matter which follows; nor is it necessary for unity of authorship that the introductory formulas occurring in the first eight chapters should occur in the last six. The non-reference in the last six chapters to the completion of the temple and the Jews' restoration after the captivity is just what we should expect, if, as seems likely, these chapters were written long after the completion of the temple and the restoration of the Jews polity after the captivity, in circumstances different from those which engaged the prophet when he wrote the earlier chapters.\n\nThe style varies with the subject: at one time conversational, at another poetical. His symbols are enigmatical and are therefore accompanied with explanations. His prose is like that of Ezekiel--diffuse, uniform, and repetitious. The rhythm is somewhat unequal, and the parallelisms are not altogether symmetrical. Still, there is found often much of the elevation met with in the earlier prophets, and a general congruity between the style and the subjects. Graphic vividness is his peculiar merit. ChaldÃ&brvbrisms occur occasionally. Another special characteristic of Zechariah is his introduction of spiritual beings into his prophetic scenes. \n\n\n\nNext: Zechariah Chapter 1\n\n","order":38,"numberOfChapters":14,"sha256":"d1c647660fec77e6b63ae1f1ed01101ef9ff627de36526793f2ddb3e2416cdd2","firstChapterNumber":1,"firstChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ZEC/1.json","firstChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ZEC","chapter":1},"lastChapterNumber":14,"lastChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ZEC/14.json","lastChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ZEC","chapter":14},"totalNumberOfVerses":189},"chapter":{"number":8,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["I am returned--that is, I am determined to return. My decree to that effect is gone forth. \n\nJerusalem . . . city of truth--that is, faithful to her God, who is the God of truth (Isa 1:21, Isa 1:26; Joh 17:17). Never yet fully fulfilled, therefore still to be so. \n\nthe mountain of the Lord-- (Isa 2:2-3). \n\nholy mountain-- (Jer 31:23).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["So tranquil and prosperous shall the nation be that wars shall no longer prematurely cut off the people: men and women shall reach advanced ages. The promise of long life was esteemed one of the greatest blessings in the Jewish theocracy with its temporal rewards of obedience (Exo 20:12; Deu 4:40). Hence this is a leading feature in millennial blessedness (Isa 65:20, Isa 65:22). \n\nfor very age--literally, \"for multitude of days.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["boys and girls playing--implying security and a numerous progeny, accounted a leading blessing among the Jews. Contrast Jer 6:11; Jer 9:21.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["However impossible these things just promised by Me seem to you, they are not so with God. The \"remnant\" that had returned from the captivity, beholding the city desolate and the walls and houses in ruins, could hardly believe what God promised. The expression \"remnant\" glances at their ingratitude in rating so low God's power, though they had experienced it so \"marvellously\" displayed in their restoration. A great source of unbelief is, men \"limit\" God's power by their own (Psa 78:19-20, Psa 78:41). \n\nthese days--\"of small things\" (Zac 4:10), when such great things promised seemed incredible. MAURER, after JEROME, translates, \"in those days\"; that is, if the thing which I promised to do in those days, seems \"marvellous,\" &c.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["save my people from . . . east . . . west--that is, from every region (compare Psa 50:1; the \"West\" is literally, \"the going down of the sun\") to which they are scattered; they are now found especially in countries west of Jerusalem. The dispersion under Nebuchadnezzar was only to the east, namely, to Babylonia. The restoration, including a spiritual return to God (Zac 8:8), here foretold, must therefore be still future (Isa 11:11-12; Isa 43:5-6; Eze 37:21; Amo 9:14-15; also Zac 13:9; Jer 30:22; Jer 31:1, Jer 31:33).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":8,"content":["in truth--in good faith, both on their side and Mine: God being faithful to His everlasting covenant and enabling them by His Spirit to be faithful to Him.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["All adversities formerly attended them when neglecting to build the temple: but now God promises all blessings, as an encouragement to energy in the work. \n\nhands . . . strong--be of courageous mind (Sa2 16:21), not merely in building, but in general, as having such bright prospects (Zac 8:13, &c.). \n\nthese days--the time that had elapsed between the prophet's having spoken \"these words\" and the time (Zac 8:10; compare Hag 2:15-19) when they set about in earnest restoring the temple. \n\nthe prophets--Haggai and Zechariah himself (Ezr 5:1-2). The same prophets who promised prosperity at the foundation of the temple, now promised still greater blessings hereafter.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":10,"content":["before these days--before the time in which ye again proceeded with the building of the temple (Zac 8:9), namely, at the time that the temple lay neglected. \n\nno hire for man . . . beast--that is, no produce of the field to repay the labor of man and beast on it (Hag 1:6, Hag 1:9-10; Hag 2:16). \n\nneither . . . peace to him that went out or came in-- (Ch2 15:5). No one could in safety do his business at home or abroad, in the city or in the country, whether going or returning. \n\nbecause of the affliction--so sorely pressed were they by the foe outside. MAURER translates, \"Because of the foe\" (Ezr 4:1). \n\nevery one against . . . neighbour--There was internal discord, as well as foes from without.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":11,"content":["\"But now that the temple has been built, I will not do as I had formerly done to those who returned from Babylon\" [JEROME]. Henceforth I will bless you.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["seed . . . prosperous--that is, shall not fair to yield abundantly (Hos 2:21-22; Hag 2:19). Contrast with this verse Hag 1:6, Hag 1:9-11; Hag 2:16. \n\ndew--especially beneficial in hot countries where rain is rare.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["a curse--As the heathen have made you another name for \"a curse,\" wishing to their foes as bad a lot as yours (Jer 24:9; Jer 29:18); so your name shall be a formula of blessing, so that men shall say to their friend, May thy lot be as happy as that of Judah (Gen 48:20). Including also the idea of the Jews being a source of blessing to the Gentile nations (Mic 5:7; Zep 3:20). The distinct mention of \"Judah\" and \"Israel\" proves that the prophecy has not yet had its full accomplishment, as Israel (the ten tribes) has never yet been restored, though individuals of Israel returned with Judah.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":14,"content":["I thought--I determined. \n\nyou--that is, your fathers, with whom ye are one; the Jewish Church of all ages being regarded as an organic whole (compare Hag 2:5; Mat 23:31-32). \n\nrepented not--I changed not My purpose, because they changed not their mind (Ch2 36:16). With the froward God shows Himself froward (Psa 18:26). If the threatened punishment has been so unchangeably inflicted, much more will God surely give the promised blessing, which is so much more consonant to His nature (Jer 31:28).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":16,"content":["The promised blessings are connected with obedience. God's covenanted grace will lead those truly blessed by it to holiness, not licentiousness. \n\ntruth to . . . neighbour--not that the truth should not be spoken to foreigners too; but He makes it an aggravation of their sin, that they spared not even their brethren. Besides, and above all outward ordinances (Zac 7:3), God requires truth and justice. \n\njudgment of . . . peace--Equitable decisions tend to allay feuds and produce peace. \n\ngates--the place where courts of judicature in the East were held.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":17,"content":["all these . . . I hate--therefore ye too ought to hate them. Religion consists in conformity to God's nature, that we should love what God loves and hate what God hates.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":18,"content":["The prophet answers the query (Zac 7:3) as to the fast in the fifth month, by a reply applying to all their fasts: these are to be turned into days of rejoicing. So Jesus replied to His disciples when similarly consulting Him as to why fasting was not imposed by Him, as it was by John the Baptist. When the Sun of righteousness shines, tears are dried up (Mat 9:15). So hereafter (Isa 35:10).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":19,"content":["fast of . . . fourth month--On the fourth month of the eleventh year of Zedekiah's reign, on the ninth day, Jerusalem was taken (Jer 39:2; Jer 52:6-7). It was therefore made a fast day. \n\nfifth . . . seventh--(See on Zac 7:3; Zac 7:5). \n\ntenth--On the tenth month and tenth day, in the ninth year of Zedekiah, the siege began (Jer 52:4). \n\ntherefore love the truth--or, \"only love.\" English Version is better. God's blessing covenanted to Israel is not made to depend on Israel's goodness: but Israel's goodness should follow as the consequence of God's gracious promises (Zac 8:16-17; Zac 7:9-10). God will bless, but not those who harden themselves in sin.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":20,"content":["(Isa 2:3; Mic 4:2). \n\nThus saith the Lord of hosts--a preface needed to assure the Jews, now disheartened by the perils surrounding them, and by the humble aspect of the temple. \"Unlikely as what follows may seem to you, Jehovah of hosts, boundless in resources, saith it, therefore it shall be so.\" Just before Christ's coming, a feeling grew up among the heathen of the unsatisfactoriness of their systems of religion and philosophy; this disposed them favorably towards the religion of the Jew, so that proselytes embraced the worship of Jehovah from various parts of Asia; these again were predisposed to embrace Christianity when it was preached to them (Act 2:9-12, Act 2:41). But the full accomplishment of the conversion of the Gentiles foretold here is reserved till \"Jerusalem\" (Zac 8:22) becomes the center of Christianized Jewry (Rom 11:12, Rom 11:15).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":21,"content":["Let us . . . I--manifesting zeal and love: converted themselves, they seek the conversion of others (Sol 1:4). To exhortation in general (\"Let us go\"), they add individual example (\"I will go\"). Or, the change from plural to singular implies that the general consent in religious earnestness leads each individual to decide for God. \n\ngo speedily--literally, \"go, going\"; implying intense earnestness. \n\npray--Hebrew, \"entreat the face\" (Zac 7:2); entreat His favor and grace.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":22,"content":["many . . . strong nations . . . in Jerusalem--In contrast to the few and weak Jews now building the temple and city, then such shall be their influence that many and strong nations shall come to worship Jehovah their God in Jerusalem (Isa 60:3; Isa 66:23).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":23,"content":["ten--a definite number for an indefinite. So in Lev 22:26; Num 14:22. \n\nof all languages of the nations--that is, of nations of all languages (compare Isa 66:18; Rev 7:9). \n\ntake hold of the skirt--a gesture of suppliant entreaty as to a superior. Compare Isa 3:6; Isa 4:1, on a different occasion. The Gentiles shall eagerly seek to share the religious privileges of the Jew. The skirt with a fringe and blue ribbon upon it (Num 15:38; Deu 22:12) was a distinguishing badge of a Jew. \n\nGod is with you--the effect produced on unbelievers in entering the assemblies of the Church (Co1 14:25). But primarily, that produced on the nations in witnessing the deliverance of the Jews by Cyrus. Finally, that to be produced on the nations by the future grand interposition of Messiah in behalf of His people.\n\nWritten long after the previous portions of the book, whence arise the various features which have been made grounds for attacking their authenticity, notwithstanding the testimony of the Septuagint and of the compilers of the Jewish canon in their favor. See Introduction.\n\nALEXANDER'S CONQUESTS IN SYRIA (Zac 9:1-8). GOD'S PEOPLE SAFE BECAUSE HER COMETH LOWLY, BUT A SAVIOUR (Zac 9:9-10). THE MACCABEAN DELIVERANCE A TYPE THEREOF (Zac 9:11-17).\n\n\n\n\nNext: Zechariah Chapter 9\n\n"]}],"introduction":"CONTINUATION OF THE SUBJECT IN THE SEVENTH CHAPTER. After urging them to obedience by the fate of their fathers, he urges them to it by promises of coming prosperity. (Zec. 8:1-23)\n\njealous for Zion-- (Zac 1:14). \n\nwith great fury--against her oppressors.\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ZEC/8.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ZEC","chapter":8},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ZEC/9.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ZEC","chapter":9},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ZEC/7.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ZEC","chapter":7},"numberOfVerses":20}