as that which is presupposed by the final vision in Ezekiel. Israel in the future, will again be a state under Davidic princes and each of the inhabitants of Jerusalem will be provided according to their need and their calling with supernatural strength, but on the contrary as ver. 9 affirms in the gathering of the nations against Jerusalem God accomplishes the divine decree in their destruction.

$ 75.

The Pierced One.

In XII, 10 the prophet establishes what he presupposes in ver. 5-8, that there will be a Jerusalem true to God and beloved by Him at a time when Judah will still be among His enemies (ver. 10):

"And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the in

habitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplication [for grace]." No mention is made here or hereafter of Judah. The house of David by synecdoche of the part for the whole (partis pro toto) takes the place of that which Paul (Rom. IX, 25 etc.) calls all Israel. The word also occurs in Jeremiah's predictions of the restoration of Israel (Jer. III, 25; XXXI, 9). The change in the relation to the God of salvation, which the prophet after the example of Joel (III, 1) and Deutero-Isaiah (XLIV, 3) indicates as the effect of an out-pouring of the Holy Spirit, is at the same time a change with respect to the Mediator of salvation:

"And they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him like the mourning for his only son, and weep bitterly for him, as one weeps bitterly for his first-born." The reading instead of 1 is confirmed by the Septuagint, the Peschitto, the Targum and Jerome, on the contrary the New Testament cites the passage in an abbreviated form (Joh. XIX, 37; Rev. I, 7). The Septuagint translatates: èmißhéçovτai πpòs μè ávỡ ŵv xаτwρXýзаvто, which presupposes the reading instead of

but to dance signifying to insult (Hesychius, Suidas, Phavorinus: καταρχήσαντο κατεχάρησαν, ἔπαιξαν, ἐνέπαιξαν, Jerome: pro eo quod insultaverunt) is impossible in this connection, and likewise it is improbable in the signification of going away (Targ.) Jerome in his independent translation interprets correctly: adspicient ad me quem confixerunt. Although we should naturally expect

qui,

,yet that could signify in me אֵלַי אֵת אֲשֶׁר instead of אֲשֶׁר

whereas on the contrary was chosen as an unequivocal expression for in me quem (compare Jer. XXXVIII, 9). The idea which is conveyed when Jehovah here indicates Himself as the pierced One, pierced namely in the good Shepherd, extends incomparably farther than that which is usually expressed concerning the inhabitation of Jehovah in His angel, or of Jehovah in His Prophet. It is the utmost individualization of the phrase Is. LXIII, 9:

que e

5. It presupposes an unique mutual immanence of Jehovah and His Shepherd or His Servant who is also called a pierced One Is. LIII, 5. The prophet next proceeds in the description of the final repentance of his people (ver. 11):

"In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon" that is, as in that place a great and deep mourning of the people was heard when it was known that the much beloved king Josiah had been mortally wounded (2 Chron. XXXV, 25). The prophet then describes how all ranks of the people are seized with repentant sorrow, and break out in lamentation (vs. 12- -I 14):

“And the land shall mourn, every family apart; the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of Shimei apart, and their wives apart all the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart." The unusual specification of the women is intended to show that the matter is not merely of a national character, in which the men alone are concerned, but that it is personal in which both duties and privileges are alike for man and wife.

Moreover it is a national mourning

like that for Josiah. It extends
David throughout the entire land.
at the head, with which that of Nathan is coordinated (2 Sam.
V, 14), and then is followed by the priestly family of Levi, with
which the family of Shimei (Num. III, 21) is reckoned. In both
cases the chief and the side lines are classed together in order to
indicate the families in their full extent. Finally the enumeration
ends with the mention of all families which will still remain at that

from Jerusalem and the house of
Hence the family of David stands

time of Israel's great repentance. It will be the remnant () of
the people which is penetrated through judgment; not the mass,
but the remnant will recognize in the pierced One their Saviour.

And while the Spirit from above compels the Jewish people to feel the pain of repentance, nevertheless they need not despair because of the consciousness of their guilt (XIII, 1):

"In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and uncleanness." Here also the house of David and Jerusalem represent the entire people, and here also sin and forgiveness are placed in the closest connection with the pierced One, so that there is only a step to Heb. X, 22 etc.; 1 John I, 7, compare V, 6.

$76.

The Shepherd's Death and the scattering of the Flock.

The prophecy in XIII, 7 after the analogy of these two oracles () recedes and transports itself to the time of the fateful murder and its direful consequences:

"Sword, awake against my Shepherd, and against the man of my fellowship, saith Jehovah Zebaoth. Smite the Shepherd, so that the sheep may be scattered: and I will turn my hand to the little ones." Jehovah Himself summons the sword, for all the sins of men serve even against their will the plan of God, and exactly in this judicial murder God fulfills His counsel (Is. LIII, 5 and 10). There arises for the mass of the people in connection with this capital crime deserved misfortune. The consequence of the Shepherd's death is the scattering of the flock, but there are some from whom God's grace does not turn away, little ones (□), that is, those who are meanly esteemed by themselves and others, whose opinion is not that of the mass. The New Testament references (Matt. XXVI, 31 etc., Mark XIV, 27) are so far fully justified, as they apply these utterances to Jesus Christ, to His death and its consequences. The verses 8-9 are a sketch of the final stadia of Israel's history resembling that in Is. VI, 11-13.

$ 77.

Recapitulation of the Christological Predictions in Zech. II.

In the two oracles () of the second part of the book of Zechariah there are, as we have found, in each two christological prophecies: in chapters IX-XI the prediction of the entrance of

the King into Jerusalem with the air of a sufferer, and of the Shepherd who received a contemptuous reward. These two prophecies are a hysteron-proteron, for first the future One consumes Himself in work for His people, He is then exalted to a kingdom which rules the world and in chapters XII-XIV the prophecy of remorseful recognition by the Jewish people of their capital crime on the pierced God-man, and on the Shepherd beloved of God, upon whom Jehovah's sword falls; even these two prophecies move from the more remote to the nearer, for the lamentation because of the murdered One precedes the bloody deed, which they will confess as their greatest national sin, God's surrender of Him and this surrender of Himself, which they will recognize as the source of their salvation. After the great predictions of the passion in the second part of Isaiah such special disclosures respecting the sufferings and death of Christ need not surprise us. They cannot be explained on natural principles. It is enough that it was then God's chosen time to reveal them. There is a great difference between properly prophetic addresses, which were delivered more or less as they are written, and such apocalyptic disclosures which remain sealed until the time of fulfilment.

$ 78.

The Completion of the Theocracy.

--

Zechariah, beginning with XIII, 8, describes the period of judgment which will purge away their dross, and the glory which will then break forth. The nations besiege Jerusalem. An earthquake which cleaves the mount of Olives helps the inhabitants to flee. It will be a day without a parallel, a nocturnal day, but at evening time it will be light. Jerusalem will then be a source of living water. The three descriptions, Zech. XIV, 8; Ezek. XLVII, 1; Joel IV, 18 through their deviations from each other show that this eschatological picture of the living waters flowing from Jerusalem must not be understood literally. The prophet is transported to the period of the completed kingdom of God (XIV, 9): "And Jehovah shall be King over all the earth; in that day shall Jehovah be one, and His name one." The goal of redemptive history is nowhere more deeply, clearly, and pregnantly expressed in the Old Testament. The theocracy at length breaks through the existing barriers of the nation, and becomes in the entire earth a

"the Lord The above pre

"There shall be Jehovah will be

reality and a truth. This thought is also the solution of the theocratic psalms, which like Ps. XCIII begin with has taken the kingdom" (deus regnum capessivit). diction of the prophet coincides with Joh. X, 16: one fold, one shepherd (μía oíμvn, siç пoμýv). one, since in the consciousness and worship of the nations He has judged the false gods through the exhibition of His power and grace, and His name is one, since the names of the idols will be no more remembered (XIII, 2), and His name alone will be called on in prayer, and proclaimed in preaching.

$ 79.

Universal Holiness.

When Jehovah, as thus described, shall have become one and His name one, Jerusalem will be throughout a holy city, in which nothing will be found which is not consecrated to God and hallowed by Him (XIV, 20):

"In that day there shall be upon the bells of the horses, Holiness unto Jehovah! and the pots in Jehovah's house shall be like the sacrificial bowls before the altar." The most common things will then be so hallowed that the inscription upon the plate of the high priest's holy crown (Ex. XXVIII, 36) shall now stand upon the bells of the horses, and the former gradation in sanctity shall disappear to such an extent, that the pots in which the sacrificial flesh shall be boiled will be just as holy as the vessels, in which the priests catch the atoning blood that they may sprinkle it before the Lord. The prophet adds (ver. 21):

"And every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness to Jehovah Zebaoth, and all they that come to sacrifice shall take from them and shall boil in them, and there shall no longer be a Canaanite in the house of Jehovah Zebaoth in that day", that is there shall be no more temple-servants like the Gibeonites (Josh. IX, 27, compare Zech. XLVI, 4-8). The difference of rank in the service and in the relation to God has ceased. All is serviceable to God, and that which is serviceable to God is, without distinction, holy. The prophet thus describes in images and words, with which his age furnishes him the final glory of this world and the future glory of the next, which follows the final redemption. He beholds the final period of this world, and the next world in one vision.