Zechariah 11 commentary

In figurative expressions, that destruction of Jerusalem, and of the Jewish church and nation, is foretold, which our Lord Jesus, when the time was at hand, prophesied plainly and expressly. How can the fir trees stand, if the cedars fall? The falls of the wise and good into sin, and the falls of the rich and great into trouble, are loud alarms to those every way their inferiors. It is sad with a people, when those who should be as shepherds to them, are as young lions. The pride of Jordan was the thickets on the banks; and when the river overflowed the banks, the lions came up from them roaring. Thus the doom of Jerusalem may alarm other churches.

Christ came into this world for judgment to the Jewish church and nation, which were wretchedly corrupt and degenerate. Those have their minds wofully blinded, who do ill, and justify themselves in it; but God will not hold those guiltless who hold themselves so. How can we go to God to beg a blessing on unlawful methods of getting wealth, or to return thanks for success in them? There was a general decay of religion among them, and they regarded it not. The Good Shepherd would feed his flock, but his attention would chiefly be directed to the poor. As an emblem, the prophet seems to have taken two staves; Beauty, denoted the privileges of the Jewish nation, in their national covenant; the other he called Bands, denoting the harmony which hitherto united them as the flock of God. But they chose to cleave to false teachers. The carnal mind and the friendship of the world are enmity to God; and God hates all the workers of iniquity: it is easy to foresee what this will end in. The prophet demanded wages, or a reward, and received thirty pieces of silver. By Divine direction he cast it to the potter, as in disdain for the smallness of the sum. This shadowed forth the bargain of Judas to betray Christ, and the final method of applying it. Nothing ruins a people so certainly, as weakening the brotherhood among them. This follows the dissolving of the covenant between God and them: when sin abounds, love waxes cold, and civil contests follow. No wonder if those fall out among themselves, who have provoked God to fall out with them. Wilful contempt of Christ is the great cause of men's ruin. And if professors rightly valued Christ, they would not contend about little matters.

God, having showed the misery of this people in their being justly left by the Good Shepherd, shows their further misery in being abused by foolish shepherds. The description suits the character Christ gives of the scribes and Pharisees. They never do any thing to support the weak, or comfort the feeble-minded; but seek their own ease, while they are barbarous to the flock. The idol shepherd has the garb and appearance of a shepherd, receives submission, and is supported at much expense; but he leaves the flock to perish through neglect, or leads them to ruin by his example. This suits many in different churches and nations, but the warning had an awful fulfilment in the Jewish teachers. And while such deceive others to their ruin, they will themselves have the deepest condemnation.

Chapter 11

Lecture One Hundred and Fifty-seventh

Zechariah 11:1-3

1. Open thy doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour thy cedars.

1. Aperi, Libane, protas tuas, et vorabit ignis cedros tuas:

2. Howl, fir tree; for the cedar is fallen; because the mighty are spoiled: howl, O ye oaks of Bashan; for the forest of the vintage is come down.

2. Ulula abies, quia cecidit cedrus, quia fortes (vel, praestantes) vastati sunt; ululate quercus Bashan, quia descendit (hoc est, excisa est, vel, prostrate) sylva munita.

3. There is a voice of the howling of the shepherds; for their glory is spoiled: a voice of the roaring of young lions; for the pride of Jordan is spoiled.

3. Vox ululatus pastorum, quia vastata est praestantia eorum (vel, fortitudo;) vox rugitus leonum, quia vastata est superbia Iordanis.

This Chapter contains severe threatenings, by which God designed in time to warn the Jews, that if there was any hope of repentance, they might be restored by fear to the right way, and that others, the wicked and the reprobate, might be rendered inexcusable, and also that the faithful might fortify themselves against the strong temptation to despond on seeing so dreadful a calamity awaiting that nation.

This prophecy does not indeed seem consistent with the preceding prophecies; for the Prophet has been hitherto not only encouraging the people to entertain hope, but has also declared that their condition would be so happy that nothing would be wanting to render them really blessed: but now he denounces ruin, and begins with reprobation; for he says, that God had been long the shepherd of that nation, but that now he renounced all care of them; for being wearied he would no longer bear with that perverse wickedness, which he had found in them all. These things seem to be inconsistent: but we may observe, that it was needful in the first place to set before the Jews the benefits of God, that they might with more alacrity proceed with the work of building the temple, and know that their labor would not be in vain; and now it was necessary to change the strain, lest hypocrites, vainly confiding in these promises, should become hardened, as it is commonly the case; and also, lest the faithful should not entertain due fear, and thus go heedlessly before God; for nothing is more ruinous than security, inasmuch as when a license is taken to sin, God’s judgment impends over us. We hence see how useful and reasonable was this warnings of the Prophet, as he made the Jews to understand, that God would not be propitious to his people without punishing their wickedness and obstinacy.

In order to render his prophecy impressive, Zechariah addresses Libanon; as though he was God’s herald, he bids it to open its gates, for the whole wood was now given up to the fire. Had he spoken without a figure, his denunciation would not have had so much force: he therefore denounces near ruin on Lebanon and on other places. Almost all think that by Lebanon is to be understood the temple, because it was built with timber from that mountain; but this view seems to me frigid, though it is approved by the common consent of interpreters. For why should we think the temple to be metaphorically called Lebanon rather than Bashan? And they think so such thing of Bashan, though there is equally the same reason. I therefore regard it simply as the Mount Lebanon; and I shall merely refer to what Joseph us declares, that the temple was opened before the city was destroyed by Titus. But though that history may be true, and it seems to me probable, it does not hence follow that this prophecy was then fulfilled, according to what is said of Rabbi Jonathan, who then exclaimed, “Lo! the prophecy of Zechariah; for he foretold that the temple would be burnt, and that the gates would be previously opened.” These things seem plausible, and at the first view gain our approbation. But I think that we must understand something more solid, and less refined: for I doubt not but that the Prophet denounces complete ruin on Mount Lebanon, and on Bashan and other places. Both to Jewish and Christian expounders for the most part have regarded the temple as meant by Libanon; with whom Blayney and Henderson agree. But the whole context clearly favors the opinion of Calvin, which has been followed by Marckius and Henry. There is in what follows no allusion to the temple, but the “land,” verse 6, is expressly mentioned. The “cedars” evidently represented the chief men in the state, not in the temple, called in the second verse “the might” ones. Indeed the whole of what follows countenances this idea, that the Jewish state or land is what is intended. What has chiefly led to the notion, that the temple is intended, is the fact that it was built by cedars from Libanon: but the burning of the cedars mentioned here does not represent the burning of the temple, but the destruction of the chief men in the land of Judah; and this consideration alone is fatal to the notion. — Ed.

But why does he bid Lebanon to open its gates? The reason is given, for shortly after he calls it a fortified forest, which was yet without walls and gates. Lebanon, we know, was nigh to Jerusalem, though far enough to be free from any hostile attack. As then the place was by nature sufficiently safe from being assailed, the Prophet speaks, as though Lebanon was surrounded by fortresses; for it was not exposed to the attacks of enemies. The meaning is, — that though on account of its situation the Jews thought that Lebanon was not exposed to any evils, yet the wantonness of enemies would lead them even there. We have already said why the Prophet bids Lebanon to open its gates, even because he puts on the character of a herald, who threatens and declares, that God’s extreme vengeance was already nigh at hand.

CHAPTER 11

Zec 11:1-17. Destruction of the Second Temple and Jewish Polity for the Rejection of Messiah.

1. Open thy doors, O Lebanon--that is, the temple so called, as being constructed of cedars of Lebanon, or as being lofty and conspicuous like that mountain (compare Eze 17:3; Ha 2:17). Forty years before the destruction of the temple, the tract called "Massecheth Joma" states, its doors of their own accord opened, and Rabbi Johanan in alarm said, I know that thy desolation is impending according to Zechariah's prophecy. Calvin supposes Lebanon to refer to Judea, described by its north boundary: "Lebanon," the route by which the Romans, according to Josephus, gradually advanced towards Jerusalem. Moore, from Hengstenberg, refers the passage to the civil war which caused the calling in of the Romans, who, like a storm sweeping through the land from Lebanon, deprived Judea of its independence. Thus the passage forms a fit introduction to the prediction as to Messiah born when Judea became a Roman province. But the weight of authority is for the former view.

2. fir tree ... cedar--if even the cedars (the highest in the state) are not spared, how much less the fir trees (the lowest)!

forest of ... vintage--As the vines are stripped of their grapes in the vintage (compare Joe 3:13), so the forest of Lebanon "is come down," stripped of all its beauty. Rather, "the fortified" or "inaccessible forest" [Maurer]; that is, Jerusalem dense with houses as a thick forest is with trees, and "fortified" with a wall around. Compare Mi 3:12, where its desolate state is described as a forest.

3. shepherds--the Jewish rulers.

their glory--their wealth and magnificence; or that of the temple, "their glory" (Mr 13:1; Lu 21:5).

young lions--the princes, so described on account of their cruel rapacity.

pride of Jordan--its thickly wooded banks, the lair of "lions" (Jr 12:5; 49:19). Image for Judea "spoiled" of the magnificence of its rulers ("the young lions"). The valley of the Jordan forms a deeper gash than any on the earth. The land at Lake Merom is on a level with the Mediterranean Sea; at the Sea of Tiberias it falls six hundred fifty feet below that level, and to double that depression at the Dead Sea, that is, in all, 1950 feet below the Mediterranean; in twenty miles' interval there is a fall of from three thousand to four thousand feet.

4. The prophet here proceeds to show the cause of the destruction just foretold, namely, the rejection of Messiah.

flock of ... slaughter--(Psa 44:22). God's people doomed to slaughter by the Romans. Zechariah here represents typically Messiah, and performs in vision the actions enjoined: hence the language is in part appropriate to him, but mainly to the Antitype, Messiah. A million and a half perished in the Jewish war, and one million one hundred thousand at the fall of Jerusalem. "Feed" implies that the Jews could not plead ignorance of God's will to execute their sin. Zechariah and the other prophets had by God's appointment "fed" them (Ac 20:28) with the word of God, teaching and warning them to escape from coming wrath by repentance: the type of Messiah, the chief Shepherd, who receives the commission of the Father, with whom He is one (Zec 11:4); and Himself says (Zec 11:7), "I will feed the flock of slaughter." Zechariah did not live to "feed" literally the "flock of slaughter"; Messiah alone "fed" those who, because of their rejection of Him, were condemned to slaughter. Jehovah-Messiah is the speaker. It is He who threatens to inflict the punishments (Zec 11:6, 8). The typical breaking of the staff, performed in vision by Zechariah (Zec 11:10), is fulfilled in His breaking the covenant with Judah. It is He who was sold for thirty pieces of silver (Zec 11:12, 13).

5. possessors--The buyers [Maurer], their Roman oppressors, contrasted with "they that sell men." The instruments of God's righteous judgment, and therefore "not holding themselves guilty" (Jr 50:7). It is meant that they might use this plea, not that they actually used it. Judah's adversaries felt no compunction in destroying them; and God in righteous wrath against Judah allowed it.

they that sell them--(Compare Zec 11:12). The rulers of Judah, who by their avaricious rapacity and selfishness (Joh 11:48, 50) virtually sold their country to Rome. Their covetousness brought on Judea God's visitation by Rome. The climax of this was the sale of the innocent Messiah for thirty pieces of silver. They thought that Jesus was thus sold and their selfish interest secured by the delivery of Him to the Romans for crucifixion; but it was themselves and their country that they thus sold to the Roman possessors."

I am rich--by selling the sheep (De 29:19; Ho 12:8). In short-sighted selfishness they thought they had gained their object, covetous self-aggrandizement (Lu 16:14), and hypocritically "thanked" God for their wicked gain (compare Lu 18:11).

say ... pity--In Hebrew it is singular: that is, each of those that sell them saith: Not one of their own shepherds pitieth them. An emphatical mode of expression by which each individual is represented as doing, or not doing, the action of the verb [Henderson]. Hengstenberg refers the singular verbs to Jehovah, the true actor; the wicked shepherds being His unconscious instruments. Compare Zec 11:6, For I will no more pity, with the Hebrew "pitieth not" here.

6. Jehovah, in vengeance for their rejection of Messiah, gave them over to intestine feuds and Roman rule. The Zealots and other factious Jews expelled and slew one another by turns at the last invasion by Rome.

his king--Vespasian or Titus: they themselves (Joh 19:15) had said, unconsciously realizing Zechariah's words, identifying Rome's king with Judah's ("his") king, "We have no king but Cæsar." God took them at their word, and gave them the Roman king, who "smote (literally, 'dashed in pieces') their land," breaking up their polity, when they rejected their true King who would have saved them.

7. And--rather, "Accordingly": implying the motive cause which led Messiah to assume the office, namely, the will of the Father (Zec 11:4, 5), who pitied the sheep without any true shepherd.

I will feed--"I fed" [Calvin], which comes to the same thing, as the past tense must in Zechariah's time have referred to the event of Messiah's advent then future: the prophets often speaking of the future in vision as already present. It was not My fault, Jehovah implies, that these sheep were not fed; the fault rests solely with you, because ye rejected the grace of God [Calvin].

even you, O poor of the flock--rather, "in order that (I might feed, that is, save) the poor (humble; compare Zec 11:11; Zep 3:12; Mt 5:3) of the flock"; literally, not you, but, "therefore (I will feed)" [Moore]. See Margin, "Verily the poor." It is for the sake of the believing remnant that Messiah took charge of the flock, though He would have saved all, if they would have come to Him. They would not come; therefore, as a nation, they are "the flock of (that is, doomed to) slaughter."

I took ... two staves--that is, shepherds' staves or rods (Psa 23:4). Symbolizing His assumption of the pastor's office.

Beauty--The Jews' peculiar excellency above other nations (De 4:7), God's special manifestation to them (Psa 147:19, 20), the glory of the temple ("the beauty of holiness," Psa 29:2; compare Psa 27:4; 90:17; 2Ch 20:21), the "pleasantness" of their land (Ge 49:15; Da 8:9; 11:16), "the glorious land."

Bands--implying the bond of "brotherhood" between Judah and Israel. "Bands," in Psa 119:61, Margin, is used for confederate companies: The Easterns in making a confederacy often tie a cord or band as a symbol of it, and untie it when they dissolve the confederacy [Ludovicus De Dieu]. Messiah would have joined Judah and Israel in the bonds of a common faith and common laws (Zec 11:14), but they would not; therefore in just retribution He broke "His covenant which He had made with all the people." Alexander, Antiochus Epiphanes, and Pompey were all kept from marring utterly the distinctive "beauty" and "brotherhood" of Judah and Israel, which subsisted more or less so long as the temple stood. But when Jehovah brake the staves, not even Titus could save the temple from his own Roman soldiery, nor was Jurian able to restore it.

8. Three shepherds ... I cut off--literally, "to cause to disappear," to destroy so as not to leave a vestige of them. The three shepherds whom Messiah removes are John, Simon, and Eleazar, three leaders of factions in the Jewish war [Drusius]. Or, as Messiah, the Antitype, was at once prophet, priest, and king, so He by the destruction of the Jewish polity destroyed these three orders for the unbelief of both the rulers and people [Moore]. If they had accepted Messiah, they would have had all three combined in Him, and would have been themselves spiritually prophets, priests, and kings to God. Refusing Him, they lost all three, in every sense.

one month--a brief and fixed space of time (Ho 5:7). Probably alluding to the last period of the siege of Jerusalem, when all authority within the city was at an end [Henderson].

loathed them--literally, "was straitened" as to them; instead of being enlarged towards them in love (2Co 6:11, 12). The same Hebrew as in Nu 21:4, Margin. No room was left by them for the grace of God, as His favors were rejected [Calvin]. The mutual distaste that existed between the holy Messiah and the guilty Jews is implied.

9. Then said I--at last when all means of saving the nation had been used in vain (Joh 8:24).

I will not--that is, no more feed you. The last rejection of the Jews is foretold, of which the former under Nebuchadnezzar, similarly described, was the type (Jr 15:1-3; 34:17; 43:11; Eze 6:12). Perish those who are doomed to perish, since they reject Him who would have saved them! Let them rush on to their own ruin, since they will have it so.

eat ... flesh of another--Let them madly perish by mutual discords. Josephus attests the fulfilment of this prophecy of threefold calamity: pestilence and famine ("dieth ... die"), war ("cut off ... cut off"), intestine discord ("eat ... one ... another").

10. covenant which I made with all the people--The covenant made with the whole nation is to hold good no more except to the elect remnant. This is the force of the clause, not as Maurer, and others translate. The covenant which I made with all the nations (not to hurt My elect people, Ho 2:18). But the Hebrew is the term for the elect people (Ammim), not that for the Gentile nations (Goiim). The Hebrew plural expresses the great numbers of the Israelite people formerly (1Ki 4:20). The article is, in the Hebrew, all the or those peoples. His cutting asunder the staff "Beauty," implies the setting aside of the outward symbols of the Jews distinguishing excellency above the Gentiles (see on Zec 11:7) as God's own people.

11. poor ... knew--The humble, godly remnant knew by the event the truth of the prediction and of Messiah's mission. He had, thirty-seven years before the fall of Jerusalem, forewarned His disciples when they should see the city compassed with armies, to "flee unto the mountains." Accordingly, Cestius Gallus, when advancing on Jerusalem, unaccountably withdrew for a brief space, giving Christians the opportunity of obeying Christ's words by fleeing to Pella.

waited upon me--looked to the hand of God in all these calamities, not blindly shutting their eyes to the true cause of the visitation, as most of the nation still do, instead of referring it to their own rejection of Messiah. Is 30:18-21 refers similarly to the Lord's return in mercy to the remnant that "wait for Him" and "cry" to Him (Zep 3:12, 13).

12. I said--The prophet here represents the person of Jehovah-Messiah.

If ye think good--literally, "If it be good in your eyes." Glancing at their self-sufficient pride in not deigning to give Him that return which His great love in coming down to them from heaven merited, namely, their love and obedience. "My price"; my reward for pastoral care, both during the whole of Israel's history from the Exodus, and especially the three and a half years of Messiah's ministry. He speaks as their "servant," which He was to them in order to fulfil the Father's will (Php 2:7).

if not, forbear--They withheld that which He sought as His only reward, their love; yet He will not force them, but leave His cause with God (Is 49:4, 5). Compare the type Jacob cheated of his wages by Laban, but leaving his cause in the hands of God (Ge 31:41, 42).

So ... thirty pieces of silver--thirty shekels. They not only refused Him His due, but added insult to injury by giving for Him the price of a gored bond-servant (Ex 21:32; Mt 26:15). A freeman was rated at twice that sum.

13. Cast it unto the potter--proverbial: Throw it to the temple potter, the most suitable person to whom to cast the despicable sum, plying his trade as he did in the polluted valley (2Ki 23:10) of Hinnom, because it furnished him with the most suitable clay. This same valley, and the potter's shop, were made the scene of symbolic actions by Jeremiah (Jr 18:1-19:15) when prophesying of this very period of Jewish history. Zechariah connects his prophecy here with the older one of Jeremiah: showing the further application of the same divine threat against his unfaithful people in their destruction under Rome, as before in that under Nebuchadnezzar. Hence Mt 27:9, in English Version, and in the oldest authorities, quotes Zechariah's words as Jeremiah's, the latter being the original author from whom Zechariah derived the groundwork of the prophecy. Compare the parallel case of Mr 1:2, 3 in the oldest manuscripts (though not in English Version), quoting Malachi's words as those of "Isaiah," the original source of the prophecy. Compare my Introduction to Zechariah. The "potter" is significant of God's absolute power over the clay framed by His own hands (Is 45:9; Jr 18:6; Ro 9:20, 21).

in the house of the Lord--The thirty pieces are thrown down in the temple, as the house of Jehovah, the fit place for the money of Jehovah-Messiah being deposited, in the treasury, and the very place accordingly where Judas "cast them down." The thirty pieces were cast "to the potter," because it was to him they were "appointed by the Lord" ultimately to go, as a worthless price (compare Mt 27:6, 7, 10). For "I took," "I threw," here Matthew has "they took," "they gave them"; because their (the Jews' and Judas') act was all His "appointment" (which Matthew also expresses), and therefore is here attributed to Him (compare Ac 2:23; 4:28). It is curious that some old translators translate, for "to the potter," "to the treasury" (so Maurer), agreeing with Mt 27:6. But English Version agrees better with Hebrew and Mt 27:10.

14. The breaking of the bond of union between Judah and Israel's ten tribes under Rehoboam is here the image used to represent the fratricidal discord of factions which raged within Jerusalem on the eve of its fall, while the Romans were thundering at its gates without. See Josephus [Wars of the Jews]. Also the continued severance of the tribes till their coming reunion (Ro 11:15).

15. yet--"take again"; as in Zec 11:7 previously he had taken other implements.

instruments--the accoutrements, namely, the shepherd's crook and staff, wallet, &c. Assume the character of a bad ("foolish" in Scripture is synonymous with wicked, Psa 14:1) shepherd, as before thou assumedst that of a good shepherd. Since the Jews would not have Messiah, "the Good Shepherd" (Joh 10:11), they were given up to Rome, heathen and papal, both alike their persecutor, especially the latter, and shall be again to Antichrist, the "man of sin," the instrument of judgment by Christ's permission. Antichrist will first make a covenant with them as their ruler, but then will break it, and they shall feel the iron yoke of his tyranny as the false Messiah, because they rejected the light yoke of the true Messiah (Da 11:35-38; 12:1; 9:27; 2Th 2:3-12). But at last he is to perish utterly (Zec 11:17), and the elect remnant of Judah and Israel is to be saved gloriously.

16. in the land--Antichrist will probably he a Jew, or at least one in Judea.

not visit ... neither ... seek ... heal ... broken, nor feed ... but ... eat ... flesh ... tear--Compare similar language as to the unfaithful shepherds of Israel in Eze 34:2-4. This implies, they shall be paid in kind. Such a shepherd in the worst type shall "tear" them for a limited time.

those ... cut off--"those perishing" [Septuagint], that is, those sick unto death, as if already cut off.

the young--The Hebrew is always used of human youths, who are really referred to under the image of the young of the flock. Ancient expositors [Chaldee Version, Jerome, &c.] translate, "the straying," "the dispersed"; so Gesenius.

broken--the wounded.

standeth still--with faintness lagging behind.

tear ... claws--expressing cruel voracity; tearing off the very hoofs (compare Ex 10:26), giving them excruciating pain, and disabling them from going in quest of pasture.

17. the idol--The Hebrew expresses both vanity and an idol. Compare Is 14:13; Da 11:36; 2Th 2:4; Re 13:5, 6, as to the idolatrous and blasphemous claims of Antichrist. The "idol shepherd that leaveth the flock" cannot apply to Rome, but to some ruler among the Jews themselves, at first cajoling, then "leaving" them, nay, destroying them (Da 9:27; 11:30-38). God's sword shall descend on his "arm," the instrument of his tyranny towards the sheep (2Th 2:8); and on his "right eye," wherewith he ought to have watched the sheep (Joh 10:12, 13). However, Antichrist shall destroy, rather than "leave the flock." Perhaps, therefore, the reference is to the shepherds who left the flock to Antichrist's rapacity, and who, in just retribution, shall feel his "sword" on their "arm," which ought to have protected the flock but did not, and on their "eye," which had failed duly to watch the sheep from hurt. The blinding of "the right eye" has attached to it the notion of ignominy (1Sa 11:2).

Open thy doors, O Lebanon - I will give Mr. Joseph Mede's note upon this verse: - "That which moveth me more than the rest, is in chap. 11, which contains a prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem, and a description of the wickedness of the inhabitants, for which God would give them to the sword, and have no more pity upon them. It is expounded of the destruction by Titus; but methinks such a prophecy was nothing seasonable for Zachary's time, (when the city yet for a great part lay in her ruins, and the temple had not yet recovered hers), nor agreeable to the scope. Zachary's commission, who, together with his colleague Haggai, was sent to encourage the people, lately returned from captivity, to build their temple, and to instaurate their commonwealth. Was this a fit time to foretell the destruction of both, while they were yet but a-building? And by Zachary too, who was to encourage them? Would not this better befit the desolation by Nebuchadnezzar?" I really think so. See Mr. J. Mede's 61. Epistle.

Lebanon signifies the temple, because built of materials principally brought from that place.

Howl, fir tree - This seems to point out the fall and destruction of all the mighty men.

Young lions - Princes and rulers. By shepherds, kings or priests may be intended.

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.

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 this false religion.

For I will no more pity - I have determined to deliver them into the hands of the Chaldeans.

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 probably by which they marked the sheep; dipping the end into vermillion, or some red liquid. And this was done when they were to mark every tenth sheep, as it came out of the field, when the tithe was to be set apart for the Lord.

The other I called Bands - Probably that with the hook or crook at the head of it, by which the shepherd was wont to catch the sheep by the horns or legs when he wished to bring any to hand.

And I fed the flock - These two rods show the beauty and union of the people, while under God as their Shepherd. It was the delight of God to see them in a state of peace and harmony.

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 the Asmonean race, Alexander, Hyrcanus, and Antigonus.

Perhaps three orders may be intended:

1. The priesthood.

2. The dictatorship, including the Scribes, Pharisees, etc.

3. The magistracy, the great sanhedrin, and the smaller councils.

These were all annihilated by the Roman conquest.

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 desperation that ye shall destroy one another.

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.

So the poor of the flock - The pious, who attended to my teaching, saw that this was the word - the design, of God.

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, Exo 21:32.

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 Mat 27:7. "Earthen vessels were used in the temple; and we may suppose that some Levites were employed within the sacred precincts to furnish them. To these, the humblest of his ministers in the temple, God commands that the degrading price should be cast." This is the substance of the notes on these two verses, given by Abp. Newcome.

We may look at it in another light, Give me my price! הבו שכרי habu sichri, bring my price, or give him any price; that is, Give the money to Judas which you have agreed to give him; for he can neither betray me nor you crucify me, but my own permission. But if not, forbear; take time to consider this bloody business, and in time forbear. For though I permit you to do it, yet remember that the permission does not necessitate you to do it; and the salvation of the world may be effected without this treachery and murder.

See my notes on this place, Mat 27:9, where I have examined the evidence for the reading of "Zechariah the prophet," instead of "Jeremiah."

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 2Kgs 16:5), or the captivity of the ten tribes, when the brotherly connection between these kingdoms ceased.

The instruments of a foolish shepherd - Such as a bag without bread, a scrip without measure, and a staff without a hook, etc., 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 with force and with cruelty.

I will raise up a shepherd in the land - Some wicked king; and Newcome supposes Hoshea may be meant. See 2Kgs 17:1, 2Kgs 17:2, and to such an abominable sovereign the prophecy may well apply.

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 Joh 10:11.

The sword shall be upon his arm - Punishment shall be executed upon the wicked Jews, and especially their wicked kings and priests. See Zac 11:16.

Arm - the secular power; right eye - the ecclesiastical state.

His arm shall be clean dried up - The secular power shall be broken, and become utterly inefficient.

His right eye shall be utterly darkened - Prophecy shall be restrained; and the whole state, ecclesiastical and civil, shall be so completely eclipsed, that none of their functions shall be performed. This may refer to the worthless and wicked governor mentioned in the preceding verse.

There are several things in this chapter that are very obscure, and we can hardly say what opinion is right; nor is it at all clear whether they refer to a very early or late period of the Jewish history.

Open thy doors - That destruction of the Jewish church and nation, is here foretold in dark and figurative expressions, which our Lord, when the time was at hand, prophesied of very plainly. Lebanon - Lebanon, a great mountain boundary between Judea and its neighbours on the north, is here commanded to open its gates, its fortifications raised to secure the passages, which lead into Judea. That the fire - Fire kindled by the enemy in the houses and buildings in Judea, and in Lebanon itself. The cedars - Palaces built with cedars.

Fir - tree - Houses and towns built with firs. The cedar - Much less shall ye escape. Ye Oaks - Used in that country for building palaces, cities, towns, and fortresses. The forest - Jerusalem, compared to a forest, in regard of the many and tall houses in it. In short, all are called to cry, for the miseries that will come upon all. Come down - Is laid desolate.

Of the shepherds - The enemy having driven away their flocks and herds. Their glory - What was their honour. Of Jordan - The great forests on the banks of Jordan, where the young lions were wont to range.

My God - God the father speaks to Christ. Of the slaughter - Appointed to the slaughter. The Jews, during four hundred and fifty years, were a flock of slaughter to the Egyptians, Chaldeans, and afterwards the Romans.

Whose possessors - Governors. Not guilty - Think they do no ill. That sell them - For slaves. For l am rich - Profanely give God thanks, that they thrive by cruelty and oppression.

I will deliver - To rob, imprison, banish, or kill each other. Of his king - The Roman Caesar, whom the Jews had chosen to be so. The land - Their king and his armies shall destroy the land.

Bands - The beauty of grace and glory, the bands of love and peace.

Then - After that time of his patient feeding the flock, and cutting off the unfaithful shepherds. Cut off - By the sword or famine. The flesh - Either live to be besieged, 'till hunger makes the living eat the dead, or by seditions and bloody intestine quarrels, destroy each other.

Even beauty - Which was the beauty and glory of them, the covenant of God, with all the blessings of it. That I might break - Declare it null. Christ calls it his covenant, for he was the mediator of it.

Broken - The covenant was disannulled. That waited - Believed in him, and obeyed him. Knew - Saw, and owned God in all this.

And I said - Upon parting, Christ seems after the manner of men, to mind them of his claims for them, and desire them to reckon with him. If ye think good - He puts it to them, whether they thought he deserved ought at their hands? So they - The rulers of the Jews, the high priest, chief priests, and pharisees. Weighed - Which was the manner of paying money in those days. Thirty pieces - Which amounts to thirty - seven shillings and six - pence, the value of the life of a slave, Exod 21:32. This was fulfilled when they paid Judas Iscariot so much to betray Christ.

The Lord - God the Father. Cast it - As being so little, it would hardly purchase any thing but what was the cheapest among them. A goodly price - God upbraids the shepherds of his people, who prized the great Shepherd no higher. Cast them to the potter - Or rather, cast them into the house of the Lord for the potter; all which the Jewish rulers acted over.

Then - So soon as I saw what value they put upon me. I cut asunder - Christ did it really, the prophet did it in the type. Break - Declare it broken. The brother - hood - That friendship which had been among them. Judah - The two tribes, and the remnant of the ten tribes.

Take unto thee - O Zechariah, personate a shepherd quite different from him thou hast represented.

Who shall not visit - Who seeks not out those that are lost. The young one - Which are aptest to perish through weakness. Nor heal - But leaves it to die of its wounds. That stand still - Not able to go forward. Will eat - Feast on the fattest of the flock. Tear their claws - Tear off their skin unto the very nails; in brief, a sluggish, negligent, covetous, riotous, oppressive, and cruel government, is shadowed out by a foolish shepherd.

The idol shepherd - To them that are but the images of shepherds. That leaveth - Casts off the care of the flock. The sword - Of the enemy, shall break his strength and be - fool his counsels. Dried up - They that have gifts which qualify them to do good, if they do it not, they will be taken away. They that should have been workmen, but were slothful, and would do nothing, will justly have their arm dried up. And they that should have been watchmen, but were drowsy, will justly have their eye blinded.

1 OPen thy doors, O Lebanon , that the fire may devour thy cedars .

Either the Temple because built with Cedars of Lebanon, so the Temple is called, Ezek. 17.3. and Hab. 2.17. Or Ierusalem, or Iudaea whose boundary Northward this Mountain was, if all these do not fully suit with the Text and Context, perhaps this added may. Lebanon a high and great Mountain boundary between Iudaea and its Neighbours on the North, is here spoken to open its Gates, its Fortifications raised to secure the passages which through the hollownesses of the Mountain, the deep, and dismal straits lead into Iudaea, and would be first attempted by the Enemy that first invades the Northern parts of Iudaea. These Garri[illegible: 1 letter]ons or Fortresses are foretold like to be easily taken as if they opened of themselves and the Romans would have easy entrance by this means into Iudaea.

Either figuratively the rage of the Enemy, or the wrath of God, or literally Fire by the Enemy kindled in the Houses and Buildings in Iudaea, and in Lebanon it self.

Palaces built with Cedars, or else figuratively Nobles, Princes, and eminent Men.

This Chapter is Minatory and foretells the ruine of Ierusalem and the Temple, this second Temple by the Romans, and the captivity of Jews under them for their rejecting of Christ, so the times of this chapter must be laid about the death of Christ and downwards.

2 Howl fir-tree for the cedar is fallen ; because the mighty are spoiled : howl, O ye oaks of Bashan , for the forest of the vintage is come down .

Either mean men, or Houses, and Towns built with Firres.

The greater and better escape not, much less shall the meaner and worse.

Howl because the mighty Men, Cities, Fortresses, and Munitions are taken, sackt, and ruined; or else held by Enemies which is worse, and of defences, and safety to us are become our greatest annoyances, and dangers.

Oakes either literally as they were used in that country, for building Palaces, Cities, Towns and Fortresses, or else figuratively the great men of that Countrey, a Land very fruitful and pleasant, of which Nahum 1.4.

Either all strong places which were for guarding and defending the Vineyards. Or Ierusalem it self compared to a Forest in regard of the many and tall Houses in it, this best pleaseth most Interpreters. In short all are called to weep, and cry, and howl for the miseries that will come upon all sorts, high and low, on them and theirs;

is laid desolate.

Marginal references: Or, gallants.; Or, the defenced forest.

3 ¶ There is a voice of the howling of the shepherds , for their glory is spoiled : a voice of the roaring of young lions ; for the pride of Jordan is spoiled .

'Tis as certain as if present, as sure all these shall howl, as if the things for which they do howl were already acted.

A most bitter, loud, passionate, and dismal howling.

Literally thus, the Enemy having broken in hath driven away, or eaten up their Flocks of Sheep, their Herds, and they undone, howl most bitterly on the Mountains where the eccho more doubles the horrour then the noise. Or figuratively Shepherds are Governours, Magistrates, and civil Officers, together with Priests and Prophets who are over the People as Shepherds over the Flocks.

What was their honour, their safety, their joy is spoiled, taken from them and given to others.

The dismall outcries.

Of men in Authority among the Jews who should have been Shepherds to defend but were as Lions to tear and devour, and which lurkt in Ierusalem, and in the Cities of Iudaea wheres[illegible: 1 letter]ever they could lie in wait to tear the peer and weak.

The great Forests on the Banks of Iordan called here the pride of Iordan, either because of the stately scituation of them; Or because the Prophet would keep the decorum of his Allegory he calls these the pride of Iordan, for that the young Lions were wont to walk proudly, to range over it without fear. So did these men-lions▪ securely prey in Ierusalem and its fellow cities, but these are cut down, and now they must no more range through to seek a prey, so all from the North to the East of the Land of Canaan, is represented as made a spoil▪

4 Thus saith the LORD my God , Feed the flock of the slaughter .

God the Father.

O Zechariah, feed, comfort, rule; but rather the Father speaks to Christ the Son, and appoints him who is the eternal Shepherd to feed his Sheep.

Appointed to the slaughter by different hands, and for different causes. It speaks of the people of the Jews who were killed by many hands, during 450 years they were a flock of slaughter to the Egyptians, Chaldeans &c afterward to the Romans, who ruined their Common-Wealth, slew their Citizens, and burnt their City.

5 Whose possessours slay them , and hold themselves not guilty : and they that sell them , say, Blessed be the LORD, for I am rich : and their own shepherds pity them not .

Either their own Governours, or the Romans who in right of conquerors are their possessours, which way ever they got them into their hands, they ruined them, destroyed them both in Body, and Estate,

think they do not sin in doing this, so low thoughts they had of this people, such extravagant thoughts they had of their own power and authority.

B[illegible: 1 letter]tray their p[illegible: 1 letter]rsons or liberty, or estate for profit, or sell them for slaves to Forreigners.

With profane ungodly hearts do give God thanks that they thrive by the most barbarous methods of cru[illegible: 1 letter]elty and oppression, by bloody murthers, as if these were ways of his appointing to gain Wealth, as if he blest them.

Who by Birth, call, and office were their proper Shepherds, the Governours of this poor People, the Princes, the Priests, had no pitty on them in their slavery, or blood; lookt on as unconcerned, it may be glad, that either they got a booty, or were rid of a disa[illegible: 1 letter]fected subject.

6 For I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land, saith the LORD: but lo, I will deliver the men every one into his neighbours hand , and into the hand of his king , and they shall smite the land , and out of their hand I will not deliver them .

Their great sins have turned away Gods compassions from them, and men shew no mercy where God withdraws his.

The generality of the Nation, the body of this sinful people.

Leave to a turbulent, cruel, seditious and fraudulent temper one against another, to make parties each against other, to rob, imprison, banish or kill each other, as in the la[illegible: 1 letter]ter times of their state 'tis known they did.

The Roman Caesar called here the Jew his King, for that they had chosen him to be so. Or else the head of the Faction.

Their King and his Armies shall destroy the Land, it may point to Vespasia[illegible: 1 letter] and Titus who sackt Ierusalem, burnt the Temple, captivated 97000 persons, and slew 600000 at least, though Iosephus reckons 1100 thousand

They shall never more be by my hand delivered, or I will cast them off for ever, and so their captivity under the Romans continueth to this day.

Marginal references: Heb. make to be found.

7 And I will feed the [illegible: 1 letter]lock of slaughter , even you, O poor of the flock : And I took unto me two staves ; the one I called Beauty , and the other I called Bands , and I fed the flock .

Or but as the Heb. particle is sometime read, as for the grea[illegible: 1 letter]est part they are so corrupt and obstinately disobedient I will cast them off; But▪ I will feed, &c. O therefore, so then, because it is the Will of God that the Flock of slaughter should be fed, I will feed, &c. the French Version seems this way inclined. Ie me suis don[illegible: 1 letter] mis a paistre les brebis exposees a tuerie. I am sent then to feed the sheep that are exposed to slaughter.

Either by the violence of their Enemies, or by the monstrous negligence of their Shepherds.

This is explicatory of the former, and by the ingemination of it shews us that God doth in his charge to the Prophet Typically, and in his charge to Christ Antitype distinguish clearly between People, and People among the Jews, between those that were poor, and forlorn, and those that were Tyrannical, proud, cruel, and made a prey of them these are left out of the Pastoral charge, the other are taken care of.

Thus he enters on the actual exercise of his office, and takes two staves to himself, at the meaning whereof we can but guesse. Two say some to signifie the twofold way of Christs Governing his people by lenity and severity. Or say others to note his singular care and diligence in his office, when other Shepherds, c[illegible: 1 letter]n[illegible: 1 letter]ent them[illegible: 1 letter]elves with [illegible: 1 letter]ne, Christ ta[illegible: 1 letter]es two. Or what if hereby Christ would [illegible: 1 letter]e provided with [illegible: 1 word] to guide the Flock, with an other to repel [illegible: 2 letters]ch as would s[illegible: 1 letter]aughter them to protect against violence [illegible: 1 letter]nd to d[illegible: 1 letter]rec[illegible: 1 letter] such as are m[illegible: 2 letters]k▪ Chr[illegible: 1 letter]st hath his Golden Scepter f[illegible: 1 letter]r his l[illegible: 1 letter]yal and obedient subjects, and his Ir[illegible: 1 letter]n rod for r[illegible: 1 letter]fractory rebels, and v[illegible: 1 letter]olent Enemies.

Or pleasantness, sweetness, and loveliness, this lay in the Holiness of his precepts, the excellency of his comforts, the glory of his reward. This is the first and answers to the character of the wayes of wisdom, Pr[illegible: 1 letter]v. 3 17. They are pleasantness, the Ordinances of God, and the enjoyment of them are the Beauty of the Lord, and our beholding it a[illegible: 1 letter] David, Psal. 27.4.

Either alluding to the lines wherewith the portion of the Holy Land was meted out to every one according to their lot. Or referring to the obligations Christ layes on men, to hold together in Peace and Unity. The Beauty of Grace and Glory, the Bands of Love and Peace.

With these in hand the Shepherd undertakes to feed and rule this flock.

Marginal references: Or, verily the poor.; Or, binde[illegible: 1 letter]s.

8 Three shepherds also I cut off in one month , and my soul lothed them and their soul also abhorred me n.

Put for many, a definite for an indefinite number.

Negligent or greatly faulty.

Put out of [illegible: 1 letter]ffice, or by discovering their faults made them lie hid and conceal themselves.

In a little time.

Hated their treachery, and Idleness.

Disgraced and turned out, they hated him, in which these Shepherds had too many of the Jews that sided with them, and that bore a hatred to the true Shepherd and to his impartial executing severity on the wicked Shepherds.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 paragraph]

9 Then said I, I will not feed you : that that dieth, let it die : and that that is to be cut off, let it be cut off : and let the rest eat, every one the flesh of another .

After that time of his patient, and vigilant fe[illegible: 1 letter]ding the Flock, and after his cutting off the three unfaithful Sheph[illegible: 1 letter]r[illegible: 2 letters] and after the ill resentment he met with for it; when he deserved love, and thanks for it he is repaid with disdain, and hatred, by the people, as well as by the Shepherds, when he saw all this, Then &c. Thus they rejected Christ, the true Shepherd.

Next he rejecteth them, he will no more take care of them, or provide for them.

That which is ready to dye, and will not be cured, but hath rejected the Shepherds love, and skill, let it die, 'tis like that if ye believe not, ye shall dye in y[illegible: 2 letters]r sins.

Either the same repeated to confirm, and affect them more, or else it intends to leave them naked, and unguarded to their Enemy to cut them off by the sword, or Famine, &c.

Eitheir live to be besieged till hunger and famine make the living eat the dead, or cruelly kill that they may eat as threatned, Deut. 28.52. to 58. or else by seditions and bloody intestine quarrels destroy each other, all which happened to them in the siege of Ierusalem by the Romans.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 paragraph]; [illegible: 1 paragraph]

10 ¶ And I took my staff, even Beauty and cut it asunder, that I might break my covenant which I had made with all the people .

Which I gave that name to, which was the Beauty and Glory of them, the Covenant of God with all the blessings of it, his presence with them, his love to the[illegible: 1 letter] [illegible: 1 letter]nd his protection of them, and his blessing on them.

Signifie and declare that they had rejected God and his favour, and refused his Covenant, and that now God would hold it for null'd, and not obligatory to him.

This somewhat illustrates the staff Beauty, which while unbroken the Covenant between God, and the Jews was whole, and unbroken; and 'tis to be noted, Christ calls it his Covenant, for he was the Mediator of it, to bring us to God in duty, and holy walking, and to reconcile God to us in Mercy, and Grace, which is the most Beautiful, and sweetest object we can see.

Here again all the people that is the generality in distinction to the poor and meek, the little remnant with whom the Covenant stood firm, though the body of the Nation were rejected, and cast off, for God nor Christ have neither of them ever cast away his people, Rom. 11.1, 2. whom he foreknew.

11 And it was broken in that day : and so the poor of the flock that waited upon me , knew that it was the word of the LORD .

The Covenant was abrogated by the Jews obstinate refusal of it, and the Mediator of it.

It is not to be wondred 'twas done in one day at last, for the unthankful, unbelieving, Jew had been through many Generations breaking it, now a day doth it, when it came to that, Not this man but Barabbas, and we have no King but Caesar, and cr[illegible: 1 letter]cifie, crucifie him.

Who knew the Messiah, believed in him, and obeyed him, observed his Doctrine, Miracles, and Life.

Saw, and owned God in all this. That he had justly cast off the Nation of the Jews for their sins, their bloody murther of the Lord of Life, and refusing his Government [illegible: 1 letter]hey saw God would by the Roman power punish the Jews and lay wast their Land, City and Temple for this their and other sins.

All which was both according to his wise counsel and express word, these understood what among others this Prophet had 490 years before written of these things.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 paragraph]

12 And I said unto them , If ye think good , give me my price , and if not, forbear, So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver .

Upon parting, Christ seems after the manner of men to mind them of his pains and care for them, and would have them reckon with him.

He puts it to them whether they thought he deserved ought at their hands and what it was.

Though I need not your money or pay, I deserve more then you will give, and therefore do in this as liketh you.

The Rulers of the Jews, the High Priest, Chief Priests and Pharisees.

Which was the manner of paying money in those dayes.

Which amounts to thirty seven shillings six pence, the value of the Life of a slave, Exod. 21.32. this was fulfilled when they paid Iudas Iscariot so much to betray Christ, Matth. 26.15. and 27.9.

Marginal references: Heb. [illegible: 1 word] be [illegible: 1 span].

13 And the LORD said unto me , Cast it unto the potter : a goodly price that I was prized at of them , And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the LORD .

God the Father with detestation of so vile an affront and undervalue of his son said

to Zechariah in this Theatre personating Christ sometimes.

As being so little 'twould hardly purchase any thing but what was cheapest among them, a little earthen ware.

In an Irony God upbraids the Shepherds of his people who prized the great Shepherd no higher.

Zechariah who in this part now emblematically doth what Iudas will with horrour do when he hath sold innocent blood, and betrayed it.

Or rather cast them into the house of the Lord for the potter, all which the Jewish Rulers act over in their prosecuting Christ unto death.

14 Then I cut asunder mine other staff, even Bands , that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel .

So soon as I saw what value they put upon me, or presently after the casting them off from the Covenant, and unchurching them.

Ch[illegible: 1 letter]ist did it really, the Prophet did it in the Type.

Took no further care to keep them in civil peace among themselves, but left them to their seditious humours, and in humane animosities. Religion which is true, is the best bond of peace, Friendship, and Love, when the Jews cast off Religion, and murthered their Lord, next they fall to murthering one another.

Declare it broken, leave them to shew 'twas broken.

That Friendship which had been among them.

The two Tribes.

The remnant of the ten Tribes which fell into most unnatural seditions after the death of Christ, till the taking of Ierusalem by the Romans.

Marginal references: Or, [illegible: 1 word].

15 ¶ And the LORD said unto me, Take unto thee yet the instruments of a foolish shepherd .

O Zechariah.

Put on the garb and personate once more a shepherd quite different from him thou hast represented.

This foolish people have rejected the wisest and best Shepherd; let them see, what one they will choose, in seeing what part thou now actest.

16 For lo, I will raise up a shepherd in the land, which shall not visit those that be cut off , neither shall seek the young one , nor heal that that is broken , nor feed that that standeth still : but he shall eat the flesh of the fat , and tear their claws in pieces .

As a just punishment of their sin, refusing Christ, the wise and good Shepherd, his Government they would not accept to their Salvation, that they choose shall be to their ruine.

Or that are hidden, it is a foolish Shepherd, who seeks not out those that are lost to bring them home.

Which are aptest to perish through weakness,

But leaves it to die of its wounds.

Either not able to go forward, or hungry stops to eat, but the Shepherd will not wait while this is done.

Will Feast on the fa[illegible: 2 letters]est of the Flock.

And with cruelty extort all from them, tear off their skin to the very nailes, in brief a sluggish, negligent, covetous, riotous, oppressive and cruel government shadow'd out by a foolish Shepherd is the punishment of the sins of the Jews.

Marginal references: Or, [illegible: 2 letters]dden.; Or, [illegible: 1 letter]ear.

17 Wo to the idol shepherd that leaveth the flock: the sword shall be upon his arm , and upon his right eye : his arm shall be clean dried up, and his right eye shall be utterly darkned .

To every one of them that are but the Images of Shepherds, worthless, and useless.

Casts off the care of the Flock, Ier 23.1. Ezek. 34.2.

Of the enemy.

To break his strength.

Blind and befool his counsels.

Power and Policy shall fail him, such shall be their Governours.

Israel under the Good Shepherd and the Foolish One - Zechariah 11

In the second half of the “burden” upon the world-power, which is contained in this chapter, the thought indicated in Zec 10:3 - namely, that the wrath of Jehovah is kindled over the shepherds when He visits His flock, the house of Judah - is more elaborately developed, and an announcement is made of the manner in which the Lord visits His people, and rescues it out of the hands of the world-powers who are seeking to destroy it, and then, because it repays His pastoral fidelity with ingratitude, gives it up into the hands of the foolish shepherd, who will destroy it, but who will also fall under judgment himself in consequence. The picture sketched in Zec 9:8-10, Zec 9:12, of the future of Israel is thus completed, and enlarged by the description of the judgment accompanying the salvation; and through this addition an abuse of the proclamation of salvation is prevented. But in order to bring out into greater prominence the obverse side of the salvation, there is appended to the announcement of salvation in Zec 10:1-12 the threat of judgment in Zec 11:1-3, without anything to explain the transition; and only after that is the attitude of the Lord towards His people and the heathen world, out of which the necessity for the judgment sprang, more fully described. Hence this chapter divides itself into three sections: viz., the threat of judgment (Zec 11:1-3); the description of the good shepherd (Zec 11:4-14); and the sketch of the foolish shepherd (Zec 11:15-17).

Zec 11:1-3

The Devastation of the Holy Land. - Zec 11:1. “Open thy gates, O Lebanon, and let fire devour thy cedars! Zec 11:2. Howl, cypress; for the cedar is fallen, for the glory is laid waste! Howl, ye oaks of Bashan; for the inaccessible forest is laid low! Zec 11:3. A loud howling of the shepherds; for their glory is laid waste! A loud roaring of the young lions; for the splendour of Jordan is laid waste!” That these verses do not form the commencement of a new prophecy, having no connection with the previous one, but that they are simply a new turn given to that prophecy, is evident not only from the omission of any heading or of any indication whatever which could point to the commencement of a fresh word of God, but still more so from the fact that the allusion to Lebanon and Bashan and the thickets of Judah points back unmistakeably to the land of Gilead and of Lebanon (Zec 10:10), and shows a connection between ch. 11 and Zec 10:1-12, although this retrospect is not decided enough to lay a foundation for the view that Zec 11:1-3 form a conclusion to the prophecy in Zec 10:1-12, to which their contents by no means apply. For let us interpret the figurative description in these verses in what manner we will, so much at any rate is clear, that they are of a threatening character, and as a threat not only form an antithesis to the announcement of salvation in Zec 10:1-12, but are substantially connected with the destruction which will overtake the “flock of the slaughter,” and therefore serve as a prelude, as it were, to the judgment announced in Zec 11:4-7.; The undeniable relation in which Lebanon, Bashan, and the Jordan stand to the districts of Gilead and Lebanon, also gives us a clue to the explanation; since it shows that Lebanon, the northern frontier of the holy land, and Bashan, the northern part of the territory of the Israelites to the east of the Jordan, are synecdochical terms, denoting the holy land itself regarded in its two halves, and therefore that the cedars, cypresses, and oaks in these portions of the land cannot be figurative representations of heathen rulers (Targ., Eph. Syr., Kimchi, etc.); but if powerful men and tyrants are to be understood at all by these terms, the allusion can only be to the rulers and great men of the nation of Israel (Hitzig, Maurer, Hengst., Ewald, etc.). But this allegorical interpretation of the cedars, cypresses, and oaks, however old and widely spread it may be, is not so indisputable as that we could say with Kliefoth: “The words themselves do not allow of our finding an announcement of the devastation of the holy land therein.” For even if the words themselves affirm nothing more than “that the very existence of the cedars, oaks, shepherds, lions, is in danger; and that if these should fall, Lebanon will give way to the fire, the forest of Bashan will fall, the thicket of Jordan be laid waste;” yet through the destruction of the cedars, oaks, etc., the soil on which these trees grow is also devastated and laid waste. The picture is a dramatic one. Instead of the devastation of Lebanon being announced, it is summoned to open its gates, that the fire may be able to enter in and devour its cedars. The cypresses, which hold the second place among the celebrated woods of Lebanon, are then called upon to howl over the fall of the cedars, not so much from sympathy as because the same fate is awaiting them.

The words אשׁר אדּירם שׁדּדוּ contain a second explanatory clause. אשׁר is a conjunction (for, because), as in Gen 30:18; Gen 31:49. 'Addı̄rı̄m are not the glorious or lofty ones among the people (Hengst., Kliefoth), but the glorious ones among the things spoken of in the context, - namely, the noble trees, the cedars and cypresses. The oaks of Bashan are also called upon to howl, because they too will fall like “the inaccessible forest,” i.e., the cedar forest of Lebanon. The keri habbâtsı̄r is a needless correction, because the article does not compel us to take the word as a substantive. If the adjective is really a participle, the article is generally attached to it alone, and omitted from the noun (cf. Ges. §111, 2, a). קול יללת, voice of howling, equivalent to a loud howling. The shepherds howl, because 'addartâm, their glory, is laid waste. We are not to understand by this their flock, but their pasture, as the parallel member גּאון היּרדּן and the parallel passage Jer 25:26 show, where the shepherds howl, because their pasture is destroyed. What the pasture, i.e., the good pasture ground of the land of Bashan, is to the shepherds, that is the pride of Jordan to the young lions, - namely, the thicket and reeds which grew so luxuriantly on the banks of the Jordan, and afforded so safe and convenient a lair for lions (cf. Jer 12:5; Jer 49:9; Jer 50:44). Zec 11:3 announces in distinct terms a devastation of the soil or land. It follows from this that the cedars, cypresses, and oaks are not figures representing earthly rulers. No conclusive arguments can be adduced in support of such an allegory. It is true that in Isa 10:34 the powerful army of Assyria is compared to Lebanon; and in Jer 22:6 the head of the cedar forest is a symbol of the royal house of Judah; and that in Jer 22:23 it is used as a figurative term for Jerusalem (see at Hab 2:17); but neither men generally, nor individual earthly rulers in particular, are represented as cedars or oaks. The cedars and cypresses of Lebanon and the oaks of Bashan are simply figures denoting what is lofty, glorious, and powerful in the world of nature and humanity, and are only to be referred to persons so far as their lofty position in the state is concerned. Consequently we get the following as the thought of these verses: The land of Israel, with all its powerful and glorious creatures, is to become desolate. Now, inasmuch as the desolation of a land also involves the desolation of the people living in the land, and of its institutions, the destruction of the cedars, cypresses, etc., does include the destruction of everything lofty and exalted in the nation and kingdom; so that in this sense the devastation of Lebanon is a figurative representation of the destruction of the Israelitish kingdom, or of the dissolution of the political existence of the ancient covenant nation. This judgment was executed upon the land and people of Israel by the imperial power of Rome. This historical reference is evident from the description which follows of the facts by which this catastrophe is brought to pass.

Zec 11:4-6

This section contains a symbolical act. By the command of Jehovah the prophet assumes the office of a shepherd over the flock, and feeds it, until he is compelled by its ingratitude to break his shepherd’s staff, and give up the flock to destruction. This symbolical act is not a poetical fiction, but is to be regarded in strict accordance with the words, as an internal occurrence of a visionary character and of prophetical importance, through which the faithful care of the Lord for His people is symbolized and exhibited. Zec 11:4. “Thus said Jehovah my God: Feed the slaughtering-flock; Zec 11:5. whose purchasers slay them, and bear no blame, and their sellers say, Blessed be Jehovah! I am getting rich, and their shepherds spare them not. Zec 11:6. For I shall no more spare the inhabitants of the earth, is the saying of Jehovah; and behold I cause the men to fall into one another’s hands, and into the king’s hand; and they will smite the land, and I shall not deliver out of their hand.” The person who receives the commission to feed the flock is the prophet. This is apparent, both from the expression “my God” (Zec 11:5, comp. with Zec 11:7.), and also from Zec 11:15, according to which he is to take the instruments of a foolish shepherd. This latter verse also shows clearly enough, that the prophet does not come forward here as performing these acts in his own person, but that he represents another, who does things in Zec 11:8, Zec 11:12, and Zec 11:13, which in truth neither Zechariah nor any other prophet ever did, but only God through His Son, and that in Zec 11:10 He is identified with God, inasmuch as here the person who breaks the staff is the prophet, and the person who has made the covenant with the nations is God. These statements are irreconcilable, both with Hofmann’s assumption, that in this symbolical transaction Zechariah represents the prophetic office, and with that of Koehler, that he represents the mediatorial office. For apart from the fact that such abstract notions are foreign to the prophet’s announcement, these assumptions are overthrown by the fact that neither the prophetic office nor the mediatorial office can be identified with God, and also that the work which the prophet carries out in what follows was not accomplished through the prophetic office. “The destruction of the three shepherds, or world-powers (Zec 11:8), is not effected through the prophetic word or office; and the fourth shepherd (Zec 11:15) is not instituted through the prophetic office and word” (Kliefoth). The shepherd depicted by the prophet can only be Jehovah Himself, or the angel of Jehovah, who is equal in nature to Himself, i.e., the Messiah. But since the angel of Jehovah, who appears in the visions, is not mentioned in our oracle, and as the coming of the Messiah is also announced elsewhere as the coming of Jehovah to His people, we shall have in this instance also to understand Jehovah Himself by the shepherd represented in the prophet. He visits His flock, as it is stated in Zec 10:3 and Eze 34:11-12, and assumes the care of them. The distinction between the prophet and Jehovah cannot be adduced as an argument against this; for it really belongs to the symbolical representation of the matter, according to which God commissions the prophet to do what He Himself intends to do, and will surely accomplish. The more precise definition of what is here done depends upon the answer to be given to the question, Who are the slaughtering flock, which the prophet undertakes to feed? Does it denote the whole of the human race, as Hofmann supposes; or the nation of Israel, as is assumed by the majority of commentators? צאן ההרגה, flock of slaughtering, is an expression that may be applied either to a flock that is being slaughtered, or to one that is destined to be slaughtered in the future. In support of the latter sense, Kliefoth argues that so long as the sheep are being fed, they cannot have been already slaughtered, or be even in process of slaughtering, and that Eze 34:6 expressly states, that the men who are intended by the flock of slaughtering will be slaughtered in future when the time of sparing is over, or be treated in the manner described in Eze 34:5. But the first of these arguments proves nothing at all, inasmuch as, although feeding is of course not equivalent to slaughtering, a flock that is being slaughtered by its owners might be transferred to another shepherd to be fed, so as to rescue it from the caprice of its masters. The second argument rests upon the erroneous assumption that ישׁבי הארץ in Eze 34:6 is identical with the slaughtering flock. The epithet צאן ההרגה, i.e., lit., flock of strangling - as hârag does not mean to slay, but to strangle - is explained in Eze 34:5. The flock is so called, because its present masters are strangling it, without bearing guilt, to sell it for the purpose of enriching themselves, and its shepherds treat it in an unsparing manner; and Eze 34:6 does not give the reason why the flock is called the flock of strangling or of slaughtering (as Kliefoth supposes), but the reason why it is given up by Jehovah to the prophet to feed. לא יאשׁמוּ does not affirm that those who are strangling it do not think themselves to blame - this is expressed in a different manner (cf. Jer 50:7): nor that they do not actually incur guilt in consequence, or do not repent of it; for Jehovah transfers the flock to the prophet to feed, because He does not wish its possessors to go on strangling it, and אשׁם never has the meaning, to repent. לא יאשׁמוּ refers rather to the fact that these men have hitherto gone unpunished, that they still continue to prosper. So that 'âshēm means to bear or expiate the guilt, as in Hos 5:15; Hos 14:1 (Ges., Hitzig, Ewald, etc.).

What follows also agrees with this, - namely, that the sellers have only their own advantage in view, and thank God that they have thereby become rich. The singular יאמר is used distributively: every one of them says so. ואעשׁר, a syncopated form for ואעשׁר (Ewald, §§73, b), and ו expressing the consequence, that I enrich myself (cf. Ewald, §235, b). רעיהם are the former shepherds. The imperfects are not futures, but express the manner in which the flock was accustomed to be treated at the time when the prophet undertook to feed it. Jehovah will put an end to this capricious treatment of the flock, by commanding the prophet to feed it. The reason for this He assigns in Zec 11:6 : For I shall not spare the inhabitants of the earth any longer. ישׁבי הארץ cannot be the inhabitants of the land, i.e., those who are described as the “flock of slaughtering” in Zec 11:4; for in that case “feeding” would be equivalent to slaughtering, or making ready for slaughtering. But although a flock is eventually destined for slaughtering, it is not fed for this purpose only, but generally to yield profit to its owner. Moreover, the figure of feeding is never used in the Scriptures in the sense of making ready for destruction, but always denotes fostering and affectionate care for the preservation of anything; and in the case before us, the shepherd feeds the flock entrusted to him, by slaying the three bad shepherds; and it is not till the flock has become weary of his tending that he breaks the shepherd’s staves, and lays down his pastoral office, to give them up to destruction. Consequently the ישׁבי הארץ are different from the צאן ההרגה, and are those in the midst of whom the flock is living, or in whose possession and power it is. They cannot be the inhabitants of a land, however, but since they have kings (in the plural), as the expression “every one into the hand of his king” clearly shows, the inhabitants of the earth, or the world-powers; from which it also follows that the “flock of slaughtering” is not the human race, but the people of Israel, as we may clearly see from what follows, especially from Zec 11:11-14. Israel was given up by Jehovah into the hands of the nations of the world, or the imperial powers, to punish it for its sin. But as these nations abused the power entrusted to them, and sought utterly to destroy the nation of God, which they ought only to have chastised, the Lord takes charge of His people as their shepherd, because He will no longer spare the nations of the world, i.e., will not any longer let them deal with His people at pleasure, without being punished. The termination of the sparing will show itself in the fact that God causes the nations to destroy themselves by civil wars, and to be smitten by tyrannical kings. המציא ביד ר, to cause to fall into the hand of another, i.e., to deliver up to his power (cf. 2Sa 3:8). האדם is the human race; and מלכּו, the king of each, is the king to whom each is subject. The subject of כּתּתוּ is רעהוּ and מלכּו, the men and the kings who tyrannize over the others. These smite them in pieces, i.e., devastate the earth by civil war and tyranny, without any interposition on the part of God to rescue the inhabitants of the earth, or nations beyond the limits of Israel, out of their hand, or to put any restraint upon tyranny and self-destruction.

Zec 11:7-11

From Zec 11:7 onwards the feeding of the flock is described. Zec 11:7. “And I fed the slaughtering flock, therewith the wretched ones of the sheep, and took to myself two staves: the one I called Favour, the other I called Bands; and so I fed the flock. Zec 11:8. And I destroyed three of the shepherds in one month.” The difficult expression לכן, of which very different renderings have been given (lit., with the so-being), is evidently used here in the same sense as in Isa 26:14; Isa 61:7; Jer 2:33, etc., so as to introduce what occurred eo ipso along with the other event which took place. When the shepherd fed the slaughtering flock, he thereby, or at the same time, fed the wretched ones of the sheep. עניּי הצּאן, not the most wretched of the sheep, but the wretched ones among the sheep, like צעירי הצּאן in Jer 49:20; Jer 50:45, the small, weak sheep. עניּי הצּאן therefore form one portion of the צאן ההרגה, as Hofmann and Kliefoth have correctly explained; whereas, if they were identical, the whole of the appended clause would be very tautological, since the thought that the flock was in a miserable state was already expressed clearly enough in the predicate הרגה, and the explanation of it in Zec 11:5. This view is confirmed by Zec 11:11, where עניּי הצּאן is generally admitted to be simply one portion of the flock. To feed the flock, the prophet takes two shepherds’ staves, to which he gives names, intended to point to the blessings which the flock receives through his pastoral activity. The fact that he takes two staves does not arise from the circumstance that the flock consists of two portions, and cannot be understood as signifying that he feeds one portion of the flock with the one staff, and the other portion with the other. According to Zec 11:7, he feeds the whole flock with the first staff; and the destruction to which, according to Zec 11:9, it is to be given up when he relinquishes his office, is only made fully apparent when the two staves are broken. The prophet takes two staves for the simple purpose of setting forth the double kind of salvation which is bestowed upon the nation through the care of the good shepherd. The first staff he calls נעם, i.e., loveliness, and also favour (cf. Psa 90:17, נעם יהוה). It is in the latter sense that the word is used here; for the shepherd’s staff shows what Jehovah will thereby bestow upon His people. The second staff he calls חובלים, which is in any case a kal participle of חבל fo elpic. Of the two certain meanings which this verb has in the kal, viz., to bind (hence chebhel, a cord or rope) and to ill-treat (cf. Job 34:31), the second, upon which the rendering staff-woe is founded, does not suit the explanation which is given in Zec 11:14 of the breaking of this staff. The first is the only suitable one, viz., the binding ones, equivalent to the bandage or connection. Through the staff nō‛am (Favour), the favour of God, which protects it from being injured by the heathen nations, is granted to the flock (Zec 11:10); and through the staff chōbhelı̄m the wretched sheep receive the blessing of fraternal unity or binding (Zec 11:14). The repetition of the words וארעה את־הצּאן (end of Zec 11:7) expresses the idea that the feeding is effected with both staves. The first thing which the shepherd appointed by God does for the flock is, according to Zec 11:8, to destroy three shepherds. הכחיד, the hiphil of כּחד, signifies ἀφανίζειν, to annihilate, to destroy (as in Exo 23:23). את־שׁלשׁת הרעים may be rendered, the three shepherds (τοὺς τρεῖς ποιμένας, lxx), or three of the shepherds, so that the article only refers to the genitive, as in Exo 26:3, Exo 26:9; Jos 17:11; 1Sa 20:20; Isa 30:26, and as is also frequently the case when two nouns are connected together in the construct state (see Ges. §111, Anm.). We agree with Koehler in regarding the latter as the only admissible rendering here, because in what precedes shepherds only have been spoken of, and not any definite number of them. The shepherds, of whom three are destroyed, are those who strangled the flock according to Zec 11:5, and who are therefore destroyed in order to liberate the flock from their tyranny. But who are these three shepherds? It was a very widespread and ancient opinion, and one which we meet with in Theodoret, Cyril, and Jerome, that the three classes of Jewish rulers are intended, - namely, princes (or kings), priests, and prophets. But apart from the fact that in the times after the captivity, to which our prophecy refers, prophesying and the prophetic office were extinct, and that in the vision in Zec 4:14 Zechariah only mentions two classes in the covenant nation who were represented by the prince Zerubbabel and the high priest Joshua; apart, I say, from this, such a view is irreconcilable with the words themselves, inasmuch as it requires us to dilute the destruction into a deposition from office, or, strictly speaking, into a counteraction of their influence upon the people; and this is quite sufficient to overthrow it. What Hengstenberg says in vindication of it - namely, that “an actual extermination cannot be intended, because the shepherds appear immediately afterwards as still in existence” - is founded upon a false interpretation of the second half of the verse. So much is unquestionably correct, that we have not to think of the extermination or slaying of three particular individuals,The attempts of rationalistic commentators to prove that the three shepherds are three kings of the kingdom of the ten tribes, have completely broken down, inasmuch as of the kings Zechariah, Shallu, and Menahem (2Ki 15:8-14), Shallum alone reigned an entire month, so that not even the ungrammatical explanation of Hitzig, to the effect that בּירח אחד refers to the reign of these kings, and not to their destruction, furnishes a sufficient loophole; whilst Maurer, Bleek, Ewald, and Bunsen felt driven to invent a third king or usurper, in order to carry out their view. and that not so much because it cannot be shown that three rulers or heads of the nation were ever destroyed in the space of a month, either in the times before the captivity or in those which followed, as because the persons occurring in this vision are not individuals, but classes of men. As the רעים mentioned in Zec 11:5 as not sparing the flock are to be understood as signifying heathen rulers, so here the three shepherds are heathen liege-lords of the covenant nation. Moreover, as it is unanimously acknowledged by modern commentators that the definite number does not stand for an indefinite plurality, it is natural to think of the three imperial rulers into whose power Israel fell, that is to say, not of three rulers of one empire, but of the rulers of the three empires. The statement as to time, “in one month,” which does not affirm that the three were shepherds within one month, as Hitzig supposes, but that the three shepherds were destroyed in one month, may easily be reconciled with this, if we only observe that, in a symbolical transaction, even the distinctions of time are intended to be interpreted symbolically. There can be no doubt whatever that “a month” signifies a comparatively brief space of time. At the same time, it is equally impossible to deny that the assumption that “in a month” is but another way of saying in a very short time, is not satisfactory, inasmuch as it would have been better to say “in a week,” if this had been the meaning; and, on the other hand, a year would not have been a long time for the extermination of three shepherds. Nor can Hofmann’s view be sustained, - namely, that the one month (= 30 days) is to be interpreted on the basis of Dan 9:24, as a prophetical period of 30 x 7 = 120 years, and that this definition of the time refers to the fact that the Babylonian, Medo-Persian, and Macedonian empires were destroyed within a period of 210 years. For there is no tenable ground for calculating the days of a month according to sabbatical periods, since there is no connection between the yerach of this verse and the שׁבעים of Daniel, to say nothing of the fact that the time which intervened between the conquest of Babylon and the death of Alexander the Great was not 210 years, but 215. The only way in which the expression “in one month” can be interpreted symbolically is that proposed by Kliefoth and Koehler, - namely, by dividing the month as a period of thirty days into three times ten days according to the number of the shepherds, and taking each ten days as the time employed in the destruction of a shepherd. Ten is the number of the completion or the perfection of any earthly act or occurrence. If, therefore, each shepherd was destroyed in ten days, and the destruction of the three was executed in a month, i.e., within a space of three times ten days following one another, the fact is indicated, on the one hand, that the destruction of each of these shepherds followed directly upon that of the other; and, on the other hand, that this took place after the full time allotted for his rule had passed away. The reason why the prophet does not say three times ten days, nor even thirty days, but connects the thirty days together into a month, is that he wishes not only to indicate that the time allotted for the duration of the three imperial monarchies is a brief one, but also to exhibit the unwearied activity of the shepherd, which is done more clearly by the expression “one month” than by “thirty days.”

The description of the shepherd’s activity is followed, from Zec 11:8 onwards, by a description of the attitude which the flock assumed in relation to the service performed on its behalf. Zec 11:8. “And my soul became impatient over them, and their soul also became weary of me. Zec 11:9. Then I said, I will not feed you any more; what dieth may die, and what perisheth may perish; and those which remain may devour one another’s flesh. Zec 11:10. And I took my staff Favour, and broke it in pieces, to destroy my covenant which I had made with all nations. Zec 11:11. And it was destroyed in that day; and so the wretched of the sheep, which gave heed to me, perceived that it was the word of Jehovah.” The way in which Zec 11:8 and Zec 11:8 are connected in the Masoretic text, has led the earlier commentators, and even Hengstenberg, Ebrard, and Kliefoth, to take the statement in Zec 11:8 as also referring to the shepherds. But this is grammatically impossible, because the imperfect c. Vav. sonec. ותּקצר in this connection, in which the same verbal forms both before and after express the sequence both of time and thought, cannot be used in the sense of the pluperfect. And this is the sense in which it must be taken, if the words referred to the shepherds, because the prophet’s becoming impatient with the shepherds, and the shepherds’ dislike to the prophet, must of necessity have preceded the destruction of the shepherds. Again, it is evident from Zec 11:9, as even Hitzig admits, that the prophet “did not become disgusted with the three shepherds, but with his flock, which he resolved in his displeasure to leave to its fate.” As the suffix אתכם in Zec 11:9 is taken by all the commentators (except Kliefoth) as referring to the flock, the suffixes בּהם and נפשׁם in Zec 11:8 must also point back to the flock (הצּאן, Zec 11:7). קצרה נפשׁ, to become impatient, as in Num 21:4. בּחך, which only occurs again in Pro 20:21 in the sense of the Arabic bchl, to be covetous, is used here in the sense of the Syriac, to experience vexation or disgust. In consequence of the experience which the shepherd of the Lord had had, according to Zec 11:8, he resolves to give up the feeding of the flock, and relinquish it to its fate, which is described in Zec 11:9 as that of perishing and destroying one another. The participles מתה, נכחדת, and נשׁארות are present participles, that which dies is destroyed (perishes) and remains; and the imperfects תּמוּת, תּכּחד, and תּאכלנה are not jussive, as the form תּמוּת clearly proves, but are expressive of that which can be or may happen (Ewald, §136, d, b).

As a sign of this, the shepherd breaks one staff in pieces, viz., the nō‛am, to intimate that the good which the flock has hitherto received through this staff will be henceforth withdrawn from it; that is to say, that the covenant which God has made with all nations is to be repealed or destroyed. This covenant is not the covenant made with Noah as the progenitor of all men after the flood (Kliefoth), nor a relation entered into by Jehovah with all the nationalities under which each nationality prospered, inasmuch as the shepherd continued again and again to remove its flock-destroying shepherds out of the way (Hofmann, Schriftbeweis, ii. 2, p. 607). For in the covenant with Noah, although the continuance of this earth was promised, and the assurance given that there should be no repetition of a flood to destroy all living things, there was no guarantee of protection from death or destruction, or from civil wars; and history has no record of any covenant made by Jehovah with the nationalities, which secured to the nations prosperity on the one hand, or deliverance from oppressors on the other. The covenant made by God with all nations refers, according to the context of this passage, to a treaty made with them by God in favour of His flock the nation of Israel, and is analogous to the treaty made by God with the beasts, according to Hos 2:20, that they should not injure His people, and the treaty made with the stones and the beasts of the field (Job 5:23, cf. Eze 34:25). This covenant consisted in the fact that God imposed upon the nations of the earth the obligation not to hurt Israel or destroy it, and was one consequence of the favour of Jehovah towards His people. Through the abrogation of this covenant Israel is delivered up to the nations, that they may be able to deal with Israel again in the manner depicted in Zec 11:5. It is true that Israel is not thereby delivered up at once or immediately to that self-immolation which is threatened in Zec 11:9, nor is this threat carried into effect through the breaking in pieces of one staff, but is only to be fully realized when the second staff is broken, whereby the shepherd entirely relinquishes the feeding of the flock. So long as the shepherd continues to feed the flock with the other staff, so long will utter destruction be averted from it, although by the breaking of the staff Favour, protection against the nations of the world is withdrawn from it. Zec 11:11. From the abrogation of this covenant the wretched among the sheep perceived that this was Jehovah’s word. כּן, so, i.e., in consequence of this. The wretched sheep are characterized as השּׁמרים אתי, “those which give heed to me.” אתי refers to the prophet, who acts in the name of God, and therefore really to the act of God Himself, What is affirmed does not apply to one portion, but to all, עניּי הצּאן, and proves that we are to understand by these the members of the covenant nation who give heed to the word of God. What these godly men recognised as the word of Jehovah, is evident from the context, viz., not merely the threat expressed in Zec 11:9, and embodied in the breaking of the staff Favour, but generally speaking the whole of the prophet’s symbolical actions, including both the feeding of the flock with the staves, and the breaking of the one staff. The two together were an embodied word of Jehovah; and the fact that it was so was discerned, i.e., discovered by the righteous, from the effect produced upon Israel by the breaking of the staff Favour, i.e., from the consequences of the removal of the obligation imposed upon the heathen nations to do no hurt to Israel.

Zec 11:12-13

With the breaking of the staff Favour, the shepherd of the Lord has indeed withdrawn one side of his pastoral care from the flock that he had to feed, but his connection with it is not yet entirely dissolved. This takes place first of all in Zec 11:12-14, when the flock rewards him for his service with base ingratitude. Zec 11:12. “And I said to them, If it seem good to you, give me my wages; but if not, let it alone: and they weighed me as wages thirty silverlings. Zec 11:13. Then Jehovah said to me, Throw it to the potter, the splendid price at which I am valued by them; and so I took the thirty silverlings, and threw it into the house of Jehovah to the potter. Zec 11:14. And I broke my second staff Bands, to destroy the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.” אליהם (to them), so far as the grammatical construction is concerned, might be addressed to the wretched among the sheep, inasmuch as they were mentioned last. But when we bear in mind that the shepherd began to feed not only the wretched of the sheep, but the whole flock, and that he did not give up any one portion of the flock by breaking the staff Favour, we are forced to the conclusion that the words are addressed to the whole flock, and that the demand for wages is only intended to give the flock an opportunity for explaining whether it is willing to acknowledge his feeding, and appreciate it rightly. The fact that the prophet asks for wages from the sheep may be explained very simply from the fact that the sheep represent men. The demand for wages is not to be understood as implying that the shepherd intended to lay down his office as soon as he had been paid for his service; for in that case he would have asked for the wages before breaking the first staff. But as he does not ask for it till afterwards, and leaves it to the sheep to say whether they are willing to give it or not (“if it seem good to you”), this demand cannot have any other object than to call upon the sheep to declare whether they acknowledge his service, and desire it to be continued. By the wages the commentators have very properly understood repentance and faith, or piety of heart, humble obedience, and heartfelt, grateful love. These are the only wages with which man can discharge his debt to God. They weighed him now as wages thirty shekels of silver (on the omission of sheqel or keseph, see Ges. §120, 4, Anm. 2). “Thirty,” - not to reward him for the one month, or for thirty days - that is to say, to give him a shekel a day for his service (Hofm., Klief.): for, in the first place, it is not stated in Zec 11:8 that he did not feed them longer than a month; and secondly, a shekel was not such very small wages for a day’s work, as the wages actually paid are represented as being in Zec 11:13. They rather pay him thirty shekels, with an allusion to the fact that this sum was the compensation for a slave that had been killed (Exo 21:32), so that it was the price at which a bond-slave could be purchased (see at Hos 3:2). By paying thirty shekels, they therefore give him to understand that they did not estimate his service higher than the labour of a purchased slave. To offer such wages was in fact “more offensive than a direct refusal” (Hengstenberg). Jehovah therefore describes the wages ironically as “a splendid value that has been set upon me.”

As the prophet fed the flock in the name of Jehovah, Jehovah regards the wages paid to His shepherd as paid to Himself, as the value set upon His personal work on behalf of the nation, and commands the prophet to throw this miserable sum to the potter. But the verb hishlı̄kh (throw) and the contemptuous expression used in relation to the sum paid down, prove unmistakeably that the words “throw to the potter” denote the actual casting away of the money. And this alone is sufficient to show that the view founded upon the last clause of the verse, “I threw it into the house of Jehovah to the potter,” viz., that hayyōtsēr signifies the temple treasury, and that yōtsēr is a secondary form or a copyist’s error for אוצר, is simply a mistaken attempt to solve the real difficulty. God could not possibly say to the prophet, They wages paid for my service are indeed a miserable amount, yet put it in the temple treasury, for it is at any rate better than nothing. The phrase “throw to the potter” (for the use of hishlı̄kh with 'el pers. compare 1Ki 19:19) is apparently a proverbial expression for contemptuous treatment (= to the knacker), although we have no means of tracing the origin of the phrase satisfactorily. Hengstenberg’s assumption, that “to the potter” is the same as to an unclean place, is founded upon the assumption that the potter who worked for the temple had his workshop in the valley of Ben-hinnom, which, having been formerly the scene of the abominable worship of Moloch, was regarded with abhorrence as an unclean place after its defilement by Josiah (2Ki 23:10), and served as the slaughter-house for the city. But it by no means follows from Jer 18:2 and Jer 19:2, that this potter dwelt in the valley of Ben-hinnom; whereas Jer 19:1, Jer 19:2 lead rather to the opposite conclusion. If, for example, God there says to Jeremiah, “Go and buy a pitcher of the potter (Jer 19:1), and go out into the valley of Ben-hinnom, which lies in front of the potter’s gate” (Jer 19:2), it follows pretty clearly from these words that the pottery itself stood within the city gate. But even if the potter had had his workshop in the valley of Ben-hinnom, which was regarded as unclean, he would not have become unclean himself in consequence, so that men could say “to the potter,” just as we should say “zum Schinder” (to the knacker); and if he had been looked upon as unclean in this way, he could not possibly have worked for the temple, or supplied the cooking utensils for use in the service of God - namely, for boiling the holy sacrificial flesh. The attempts at an explanation made by Grotius and Hofmann are equally unsatisfactory. The former supposes that throwing anything before the potter was equivalent to throwing it upon the heap of potsherds; the latter, that it was equivalent to throwing it into the dirt. But the potter had not to do with potsherds only, and potter’s clay is not street mire. The explanation given by Koehler is more satisfactory; namely, that the meaning is, “The amount is just large enough to pay a potter for the pitchers and pots that have been received from him, and which are thought of so little value, that men easily comfort themselves when one or the other is broken.” But this does not do justice to hishlı̄kh involves the idea of contempt, and earthen pots were things of insignificant worth. The execution of the command, “I threw it ('ōthō, the wages paid me) into the house of Jehovah to the potter,” cannot be understood as signifying “into the house of Jehovah, that it might be taken thence to the potter” (Hengstenberg). If this were the meaning, it should have been expressed more clearly. As the words read, they can only be understood as signifying that the potter was in the house of Jehovah when the money was thrown to him; that he had either some work to do there, or that he had come there to bring some earthenware for the temple kitchens (cf. Zec 14:20). This circumstance is not doubt a significant one; but the meaning is not merely to show that it was as the servant of the Lord, or in the name and by the command of Jehovah, that the prophet did this, instead of keeping the money (Koehler); for Zechariah could have expressed this in two or three words in a much simpler and clearer manner. The house of Jehovah came into consideration here rather as the place where the people appeared in the presence of their God, either to receive or to solicit the blessings of the covenant from Him. What took place in the temple, was done before the face of God, that God might call His people to account for it.

Zec 11:14

In consequence of this shameful payment for his service, the shepherd of the Lord breaks his second staff, as a sign that he will no longer feed the ungrateful nation, and but leave it to its fate. The breaking of this staff is interpreted, in accordance with its name, as breaking or destroying the brotherhood between Judah and Israel. With these words, which are chosen with reference to the former division of the nation into two hostile kingdoms, the dissolution of the fraternal unity of the nation is depicted, and the breaking up of the nation into parties opposing and destroying one another is represented as the result of a divine decree. Hofmann, Ebrard (Offenbarung Johannis), and Kliefoth have erroneously supposed that this relates to the division of the covenant nation into two parties, one of which, answering to the earlier Judah, would receive Christ, and remain the people of God; whilst the other, answering to the Ephraim or Israel of the times after Solomon, would reject Christ, and therefore be exposed to hardening and judgment. According to the evident meaning of the symbolical representation, the whole flock paid the good shepherd wages, which were tantamount to a rejection of his pastoral care, and was therefore given up by him; so that by falling into parties it destroyed itself, and, as the shepherd tells it in Zec 11:9, one devoured the flesh of the other. This is not at variance with the fact that by this self-destroying process they did not all perish, but that the miserable ones among the sheep who gave heed to the Lord, i.e., discerned their Saviour in the shepherd, and accepted Jesus Christ as the Messiah, were saved. This is simply passed over in our description, which treats of the fate of the whole nation as such, as for example in Rom 9:31; Rom 11:11-15, because the number of these believers formed a vanishing minority in comparison with the whole nation. The breaking up of the nation into parties manifested itself, however, in a terrible manner soon after the rejection of Christ, and accelerated its ruin in the Roman war.

There is this difference, however, in the interpretation which has been given to this symbolical prophecy, so far as the historical allusion or fulfilment is concerned, by expositors who believe in revelation, and very properly understand it as referring to the times of the second temple: namely, that some regard it as setting forth the whole of the conduct of God towards the covenant nation under the second temple; whilst others take it to be merely a symbol of one single attempt to save the nation when on the verge of ruin, namely, that of the pastoral office of Christ. Hengstenberg, with many of the older commentators, has decided in favour of the latter view. But all that he adduces in proof of the exclusive correctness of this explanation does not touch the fact itself, but simply answers weak arguments by which the first view has been defended by its earlier supporters; whilst the main argument which he draws from Zec 11:8, to prove that the symbolical action of the prophet sets forth one single act of pastoral fidelity on the part of the Lord, to be accomplished in a comparatively brief space of time, rests upon a false interpretation of the verse in question. By the three shepherds, which the shepherd of Jehovah destroyed in a month, we are to understand, as we have shown at Zec 11:8, not the three classes of Jewish rulers, but the three imperial rulers, in whose power Israel continued from the times of the captivity to the time of Christ. But the supposition that this section refers exclusively to the work of Christ for the salvation of Israel during His life upon earth, is quite irreconcilable with this. We cannot therefore come to any other conclusion than that the first view, which has been defended by Calvin and others, and in the most recent times by Hofmann, Kliefoth, and Koehler, is the correct one, though we need not therefore assume with Calvin that the prophet “represents in his own person all the shepherds, by whose hand God ruled the people;” or discern, as Hofmann does, in the shepherd of the Lord merely a personification of the prophetic order; or, according to the form in which Koehler expresses the same view, a representation of the mediatorial work in the plan of salvation, of which Daniel was the first representative, and which was afterwards exhibited on the one hand by Haggai and Zechariah, and on the other hand by Zerubbabel and his successors, as the civil rulers of Israel, and by Joshua and those priests who resumed the duties of their office along with him. For the extermination or overthrow of the three imperial rulers or imperial powers was no more effected or carried out by the prophets named, than by the civil rulers and priesthood of Israel. The destruction was effected by Jehovah without the intervention of either the prophets, the priest, or the civil authorities of the Jews; and what Jehovah accomplished in this respect as the Shepherd of His people, was wrought by Him in that form of revelation by which He prepared the way for His coming to His people in the incarnation of Jesus Christ, namely as the Angel of Jehovah, although this form is not more precisely indicated in the symbolical action described in the chapter before us. In that action the shepherd, to whom thirty silverlings are weighed out as his wages, is of far from being regarded as distinct from Jehovah, that Jehovah Himself speaks of these wages as the price at which He was valued by the people; and it is only from the gospel history that we learn that it was not Jehovah the superterrestrial God, but the Son of God, who became incarnate in Christ, i.e., the Messiah, who was betrayed and sold for such a price as this.

What the Evangelist Matthew observes in relation to the fulfilment of Zec 11:12 and Zec 11:13, presents various difficulties. After describing in Mat 26:1 the betrayal of Jesus by Judas, the taking of Jesus, and His condemnation to death by the Roman governor Pontius Pilate at the instigation of the high priests and elders of the Jews; and having still further related that Judas, feeling remorse at the condemnation of Jesus, brought back to the high priests and elders the thirty silverlings paid to him for the betrayal, with the confession that he had betrayed innocent blood, and that having thrown down the money in the temple, he went and hanged himself, whereupon the high priests resolved to apply the money to the purchase of a potter’s field as a burial-ground for pilgrims; he adds in Mat 27:9, Mat 27:10 : “Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying, And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was valued, whom they of the children of Israel did value, and gave them for the potter’s field, as the Lord appointed me.” The smallest difficulty of all is occasioned by the fact that the thirty silverlings were weighed, according to the prophecy, as wages for the shepherd; whereas, according to the fulfilment, they were paid to Judas for the betrayal of Jesus. For, as soon as we trace back the form of the prophecy to its idea, the difference is resolved into harmony. The payment of the wages to the shepherd in the prophetical announcement is simply the symbolical form in which the nation manifests its ingratitude for the love and fidelity shown towards it by the shepherd, and the sign that it will no longer have him as its shepherd, and therefore a sign of the blackest ingratitude, and of hard-heartedness in return for the love displayed by the shepherd. The same ingratitude and the same hardness of heart are manifested in the resolution of the representatives of the Jewish nation, the high priests and elders, to put Jesus their Saviour to death, and to take Him prisoner by bribing the betrayer. The payment of thirty silverlings to the betrayer was in fact the wages with which the Jewish nation repaid Jesus for what He had done for the salvation of Israel; and the contemptible sum which they paid to the betrayer was an expression of the deep contempt which they felt for Jesus. There is also no great importance in this difference, that here the prophet throws the money into the house of Jehovah to the potter; whereas, according to Matthew’s account, Judas threw the silverlings into the temple, and the high priests would not put the money into the divine treasury, because it was blood-money, but applied it to the purchase of a potter’s field, which received the name of a field of blood. For by this very fact not only was the prophecy almost literally fulfilled; but, so far as the sense is concerned, it was so exactly fulfilled, that every one could see that the same God who had spoken through the prophet, had by the secret operation of His omnipotent power, which extends even to the ungodly, so arranged the matter that Judas threw the money into the temple, to bring it before the face of God as blood-money, and to call down the vengeance of God upon the nation, and that the high priest, by purchasing the potter’s field for this money, which received the name of “field of blood” in consequence “unto this day” (Mat 27:8), perpetuated the memorial of the sin committed against their Messiah. Matthew indicates this in the words “as the Lord commanded me,” which correspond to ויּאמר יהוה אלי in Zec 11:13 of our prophecy; on which H. Aug. W. Meyer has correctly observed, “that the words 'as the Lord commanded me' express the fact, that the application of wages of treachery to the purchase of the potter’s field took place 'in accordance with the purpose of God,' whose command the prophet had received. As God had directed the prophet (μοι) how to proceed with the thirty silverlings, so was it with the antitypical fulfilment of the prophecy by the high priests, and thus was the purpose of the divine will accomplished.” The other points in which the quotation in Matthew differs from the original text (for the lxx have adopted a totally different rendering) may be explained from the fact that the passage is quoted memoriter, and that the allusion to the mode of fulfilment has exerted some influence upon the choice of words. This involuntary allusion shows itself in the reproduction of ואקחה וגו, “I took the thirty silverlings, and threw them to the potter,” by “they took the thirty pieces of silver,... and gave them for the potter’s field;” whilst “the price of him that was valued” is only a free rendering of אדר חיקר, and “of the children of Israel” an explanation of מעליהם.

The only real and important difficulty in the quotation is to be found in the fact that Matthew quotes the words of Zechariah as “that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet,” whereas all that he quotes is taken simply and solely from the prophet Zechariah. The reading Ἱερεμίου in Matthew is critically unassailable; and the assumption that Matthew refers to some lost scripture, or to a saying of Jeremiah handed down by oral tradition, and others of a similar kind, are simply arbitrary loopholes, which cannot come into any further consideration at all. On the other hand, the attempts made to explain the introduction of Jeremiah’s name in the place of that of Zechariah, on the ground that, so far as the principal features are concerned, our prophecy is simply a resumption of the prophecy in Jer 19:1-15, and that Zechariah announces a second fulfilment of this prophecy (Hengstenberg), or that it rests upon the prophecy of Jeremiah 18, in which the potter is also introduced, and that its fulfilment goes beyond Zechariah’s prophecy in those features which deviate from the words of Zechariah, so that Jeremiah 18-19 was fulfilled at the same time (Kliefoth), are deserving of serious consideration. Matthew, it is supposed, intended to point to this relation by mentioning Jeremiah instead of Zechariah. We would support this view without reserve, if the connection assumed to exist between our prophecy and the prophecies of Jeremiah 18 and Jer 19:1-15 could only be shown to be a probable one. But the proof adduced by Hengstenberg that our prophecy rests upon Jeremiah 18 reduces itself to these two remarks: (1) That the potter, of whom Jeremiah purchased a pot (Jer 19:1-15) to break it in the valley of Ben-hinnom, had his workshop in this valley, which was regarded with abhorrence, as being unclean; and (2) that Zechariah was to throw the bad wages into the valley of Ben-hinnom precisely at the spot where this potter’s workshop was. This he supposes to have taken place with a distinct allusion to the prophecy in Jer 19:1-15, and with the assumption that the readers would have this prophecy before their minds. But in our exposition of Zec 11:13 we have already shown that Jeremiah did not purchase his pot in the valley of Ben-hinnom, but of the potter who dwelt within the city gate; and also that the words of Zechariah, “I threw it into the house of Jehovah to the potter,” do not affirm that the prophet threw the wages paid him into the valley of Ben-hinnom. But with these false assumptions, the view founded upon them - namely, that our prophecy is a resumption of that of Jeremiah - necessarily falls to the ground. The symbolical action enjoined upon Jeremiah, and carried out by him, viz., the breaking to pieces in the valley of Ben-hinnom of the pot purchased of the potter in the city, does not stand in any perceptible relation to the word of the Lord to Zechariah, to throw the wages paid to him into the house of Jehovah to the potter, so as to lead us to take this word as a resumption of that prophecy of Jeremiah. Kliefoth appears to have seen this also, inasmuch as he gives up the idea of finding the proof that our prophecy rests upon that of Jeremiah in the prophecy itself. He therefore bases this view upon the simple fact that Matthew (Mat 27:9) does not quote our passage as a word of Zechariah, but as a word of Jeremiah, and therefore at any rate regarded it as such; and that our passage has nothing independent in its contents, but is rather to be completed or explained form Jeremiah, though not from Jer 19:1-15, but from Jeremiah 18, where the potter who makes a pot, and breaks it in pieces because it is marred, represents God, who is doing just the same with Israel as the potter with the pot that is marred. Consequently even in Zechariah we are to understand by the potter, to whom the prophet throws the wages in the temple, Jehovah Himself, who dwells in the temple. But apart from the impossibility of understanding the words of God in Zec 11:13, “Throw the splendid price at which I have been valued by them to the potter,” as meaning “Throw this splendid price to me,” this view founders on the simple fact that it necessitates the giving up of the agreement between the prophecy and its historical fulfilment, inasmuch as in the fulfilment the price of the betrayal of Jesus is paid, not to the potter, Jehovah, but to a common potter for his field in the valley of Ben-hinnom. If, therefore, it is impossible to show any connection between our prophecy and the prophecies of Jeremiah, there is no other course left than to follow the example of Luther, - namely, either to attribute the introduction of Jeremiah’s name in Mat 27:9 in the place of that of Zechariah to a failure of memory, or to regard it as a very old copyist’s error, of a more ancient date than any of the critical helps that have come down to us.Luther says, in his Commentary on Zechariah, of the year 1528: “This chapter gives rise to the question, Why did Matthew attribute the text concerning the thirty pieces of silver to the prophet Jeremiah, whereas it stands here in Zechariah? This and other similar questions do not indeed trouble me very much, because they have but little bearing upon the matter; and Matthew does quite enough by quoting a certain scripture, although he is not quite correct about the name, inasmuch as he quotes prophetic sayings in other places, and yet does not even give the words as they stand in the Scripture. The same thing may occur now; and if it does not affect the sense that the words are not quoted exactly, what is to hinder his not having given the name quite correctly, since the words are of more importance than the name?”

Zec 11:15-17

The Foolish Shepherd. - Zec 11:15. “And Jehovah said to me, Take to thee yet the implement of a foolish shepherd. Zec 11:16. For, behold, I raise up to myself a shepherd in the land: that which is perishing will he not observe, that which is scattered will he not seek, and that which is broken will he not heal; that which is standing will he not care for; and the flesh of the fat one will he eat, and tear their claws in pieces. Zec 11:17. Woe to the worthless shepherd, who forsakes the flock! sword over his arm, and over his right eye: his arm shall wither, and his right eye be extinguished.” After Israel has compelled the good shepherd to lay down his shepherd’s office, in consequence of its own sin, it is not to be left to itself, but to be given into the hand of a foolish shepherd, who will destroy it. This is the thought in the fresh symbolical nation. By עוד, “yet (again) take the instruments,” etc., this action is connected with the previous one (Zec 11:4.); for עוד implies that the prophet had already taken a shepherd’s instruments once before in his hand. The shepherd’s instruments are the shepherd’s staff, and taking it in his hand is a figurative representation of the feeding of a flock. This time he is to take the implement of a foolish shepherd, i.e., to set forth the action of a foolish shepherd. Whether the pastoral staff of the foolish shepherd was of a different kind from that of the good shepherd, is a matter of indifference, so far as the meaning of the symbol is concerned. Folly, according to the Old Testament view, is synonymous with ungodliness and sin (cf. Psa 14:1.). The reason for the divine command is given in Zec 11:16 by a statement of the meaning of the new symbolical action. God will raise up a shepherd over the land, who will not tend, protect, and care for the flock, but will destroy it. That we are not to understand by this foolish shepherd all the evil native rulers of the Jewish people collectively, as Hengstenberg supposes, is as evident from the context as it possibly can be. If the good shepherd represented by the prophet in Zec 11:4-14 is no other than Jehovah in His rule over Israel, the foolish shepherd who is raised up over the land in the place of the good shepherd, who had been despised and rejection, can only be the possessor of the imperial power, into whose power the nation is given up after the rejection of the good shepherd sent to it in Christ, i.e., the Roman empire, which destroyed the Jewish state. The rule of the foolish shepherd is depicted not only as an utter neglect, but as a consuming of the flock, as in Eze 34:3-4; Jer 23:1-2. The perishing sheep he will not seek, i.e., will not take charge of them (cf. Jer 23:9). הנּער cannot be the young or tender one; for not only is na‛ar, the boy, not used of animals, but even when used of men it has not the meaning tender or weak. The word is a substantive formation from nâ‛ar, to shake, piel to disperse, used in the sense of dispulsio, and the abstract being used for the concrete, the dispersed, the scattered, as the early translators rendered it. Hannishbereth, that which is broken, i.e., injured through the fracture of a limb. The opposite of nishbereth is הנּצּבה, that which stands upon its feet, and therefore is still strong. But not only will he neglect the flock: he will also seize upon it, and utterly consume it, not only devouring the flesh of the fat one, but even tearing in pieces the claws of the sheep. Not indeed by driving them along bad and stony roads (Tarn., Ewald, Hitzig), for this does no great harm to sheep, but so that when he consumes the sheep, he even splits or tears in pieces the claws, to seize upon the swallow the last morsel of flesh of fat. But this tyrant will also receive his punishment for doing so. The judgment which is to fall upon him is set forth in accordance with the figure of the shepherd, as punishment through the loss of the arm and of the right eye. These two members are mentioned, because with the arm he ought to have protected and provided for the flock, and with the eye to have watched over them. The Yod in רעי and עזבי is not the suffix of the first person, but the so-called Yod campaginis with the construct state (see at Hos 10:11). האליל is a substantive, as in Job 13:4; it does not mean worthlessness, however, but nothingness. A worthless shepherd is one who is the opposite of what the shepherd should be, and will be: one who does not feed the flock, but leaves it to perish (עזבי הצּאן). The words from cherebh to yemı̄nō are a sentence in the form of a proclamation. The sword is called to come upon the arm and the right eye of the worthless shepherd, i.e., to hew off his arm, to smite his right eye. The further threat that the arm is to wither, the eye to become extinct, does not appear to harmonize with this. But the sword is simply mentioned as the instrument of punishment, and the connecting together of different kinds of punishment simply serves to exhibit the greatness and terrible nature of the punishment. With this threat, the threatening word concerning the imperial power of the world (ch. 9-11) is very appropriately brought to a close, inasmuch as the prophecy thereby returns to its starting-point.

Destruction of the Jewish State. (b. c. 510.)

1 Open thy doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour thy cedars. 2 Howl, fir tree; for the cedar is fallen; because the mighty are spoiled: howl, O ye oaks of Bashan; for the forest of the vintage is come down. 3 There is a voice of the howling of the shepherds; for their glory is spoiled: a voice of the roaring of young lions; for the pride of Jordan is spoiled.

In dark and figurative expressions, as is usual in the scripture predictions of things at a great distance, that destruction of Jerusalem and of the Jewish church and nation is here foretold which our Lord Jesus, when the time was at hand, prophesied of very plainly and expressly. We have here, 1. Preparation made for that destruction (v. 1): "Open thy doors, O Lebanon! Thou wouldst not open them to let thy king in—he came to his own and his own received him not; now thou must open them to let thy ruin in. Let the gates of the forest, and all the avenues to it, be thrown open, and let the fire come in and devour its glory." Some by Lebanon here understand the temple, which was built of cedars from Lebanon, and the stones of it white as the snow of Lebanon. It was burnt with fire by the Romans, and its gates were forced open by the fury of the soldiers. To confirm this, they tell a story, that forty years before the destruction of the second temple the gates of it opened of their own accord, upon which prodigy Rabbi Johanan made this remark (as it is found in one of the Jewish authors), "Now I know," said he, "that the destruction of the temple is at hand, according to the prophecy of Zechariah, Open thy doors, O Lebanon! that the fire may devour thy cedars." Others understand it of Jerusalem, or rather of the whole land of Canaan, to which Lebanon was an inlet on the north. All shall lie open to the invader, and the cedars, the mighty and eminent men, shall be devoured, which cannot but alarm those of an inferior rank, v. 2. If the cedars have fallen (if all the mighty are spoiled, and brought to ruin), let the fir-tree howl. How can the slender fir-trees stand if stately cedars fall? If cedars are devoured by fire, it is time for the fir-trees to howl; for no wood is so combustible as that of the fir. And let the oaks of Bashan, that lie exposed to every injury, howl, for the forest of the vintage (or the flourishing vineyard, that used to be guarded with a particular care) has come down, or (as some read it) when the defenced forests, such as Lebanon was, have come down. Note, The falls of the wise and good into sin, and the falls of the rich and great into trouble, are loud alarms to those that are every way their inferiors not to be secure. 2. Lamentation made for the destruction (v. 3): There is a voice of howling. Those who have fallen howl for grief and shame, and those who see their own turn coming howl for fear. But the great men especially receive the alarm with the utmost confusion. Those who were roaring in the day of their revels and triumphs are howling in the day of their terrors; for now they are tormented more than others. Those great men were by office shepherds, and such should have protected God's flock committed to their charge; it is the duty both of princes and priests. But they were as young lions, that made themselves a terror to the flock with their roaring and the flock a prey to themselves with their tearing. Note, It is sad with a people when those who should be as shepherds to them are as young lions to them. But what is the issue? The shepherds howl, for their glory is spoiled. Their pastures, and the flocks which covered them, which were the glory of the swains, are laid waste. The young lions howl, for the pride of Jordan is spoiled. The pride of Jordan was the thickets on the banks, in which the lions reposed themselves; and therefore, when the river overflowed and spoiled them, the lions came up from them (as we read Jer. xlix. 19), and they came up roaring. Note, When those who have power proudly abuse their power, and, instead of being shepherds, are as young lions, they may expect that the righteous God will humble their pride and break their power.

Judgments Predicted and Typified. (b. c. 510.)

4 Thus saith the Lord my God; Feed the flock of the slaughter; 5 Whose possessors slay them, and hold themselves not guilty: and they that sell them say, Blessed be the Lord ; for I am rich: and their own shepherds pity them not. 6 For I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land, saith the Lord : but, lo, I will deliver the men every one into his neighbour's hand, and into the hand of his king: and they shall smite the land, and out of their hand I will not deliver them. 7 And I will feed the flock of slaughter, even you, O poor of the flock. And I took unto me two staves; the one I called Beauty, and the other I called Bands; and I fed the flock. 8 Three shepherds also I cut off in one month; and my soul loathed them, and their soul also abhorred me. 9 Then said I, I will not feed you: that that dieth, let it die; and that that is to be cut off, let it be cut off; and let the rest eat every one the flesh of another. 10 And I took my staff, even Beauty, and cut it asunder, that I might break my covenant which I had made with all the people. 11 And it was broken in that day: and so the poor of the flock that waited upon me knew that it was the word of the Lord . 12 And I said unto them, If ye think good, give me my price; and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver. 13 And the Lord said unto me, Cast it unto the potter: a goodly price that I was prised at of them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the Lord . 14 Then I cut asunder mine other staff, even Bands, that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

The prophet here is made a type of Christ, as the prophet Isaiah sometimes was; and the scope of these verses is to show that for judgment Christ came into this world (John ix. 39), for judgment to the Jewish church and nation, which were, about the time of his coming, wretchedly corrupted and degenerated by the worldliness and hypocrisy of their rulers. Christ would have healed them, but they would not be healed; they are therefore left desolate, and abandoned to ruin. Observe here,

I. The desperate case of the Jewish church, under the tyranny of their own governors. Their slavery in their own country made them as miserable as their captivity in strange countries had done: Their possessors slay them and sell them, v. 5. In Zechariah's time we find the rulers and the nobles justly rebuked for exacting usury of their brethren; and the governors, even by their servants, oppressive to the people, Neh. v. 7, 15. In Christ's time the chief priests and the elders, who were the possessors of the flock, by their traditions, the commandments of men, and their impositions on the consciences of the people, became perfect tyrants, devoured their houses, engrossed their wealth, and fleeced the flock instead of feeding it. The Sadducees, who were deists, corrupted their judgments. The Pharisees, who were bigots for superstition, corrupted their morals, by making void the commandments of God, Matt. xv. 16. Thus they slew the sheep of the flock, thus they sold them. They cared not what became of them so they could but gain their own ends and serve their own interests. And, 1. In this they justified themselves: They slay them and hold themselves not guilty. They think that there is no harm in it, and that they shall never be called to an account for it by the chief Shepherd; as if their power were given them for destruction, which was designed only for edification, and as if, because they sat in Moses's seat, they were not under the obligation of Moses's law, but might dispense with it, and with themselves in the breach of it, at their pleasure. Note, Those have their minds woefully blinded indeed who do ill and justify themselves in doing it; but God will not hold those guiltless who hold themselves so. 2. In this they affronted God, by giving him thanks for the gain of their oppression: They said, Blessed be the Lord, for I am rich, as if, because they prospered in their wickedness, got money by it, and raised estates, God had made himself patron of their unjust practices, and Providence had become particeps criminis—the associate of their guilt. What is got honestly we ought to give God thanks for, and to bless him whose blessing makes rich and adds no sorrow with it. But with what face can we go to God either to beg a blessing upon the unlawful methods of getting wealth or to return him thanks for success in them? They should rather have gone to God to confess the sin, to take shame to themselves for it, and to vow restitution, than thus to mock him by making the gains of sin the gift of God, who hates robbery for burnt-offerings, and reckons not himself praised by the thanksgiving if he be dishonoured either in the getting or the using of that which we give him thanks for. 3. In this they put contempt upon the people of God, as unworthy their regard or compassionate consideration: Their own shepherds pity them not; they make them miserable, and then do not commiserate them. Christ had compassion on the multitude because they fainted and were scattered abroad, as if they had no shepherd (as really they had worse than none); but their own shepherds pitied them not, nor showed any concern for them. Note, It is ill for a church when its pastors have no tenderness, no compassion for precious souls, when they can look upon the ignorant, the foolish, the wicked, the weak, without pity.

II. The sentence of God's wrath passed upon them for their senselessness and stupidity in this condition. There was a general decay, nay, a destruction, of religion among them, and it was all one to them; they regarded it not. My people love to have it so, Jer. v. 31. Though they were oppressed and broken in judgment, yet they willingly walked after the commandment, Hos. v. 11. And, as their shepherds pitied them not, so they did not bemoan themselves; therefore God says (v. 6), "I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land. They have courted their own destruction, and so let their doom be." But those are truly miserable whom the God of mercy himself will no more have compassion upon. Those who are willing to have their consciences oppressed by those who teach for doctrines the commandments of men (as the Jews were, who called those Rabbi, Rabbi, that did so, Matt. xv. 9; xxiii. 7), are often punished by oppression in their civil interests, and justly, for those forfeit their own rights who tamely give up God's rights. The Jews did so; the Papists do so; and who can pity them if they be ruled with rigour? God here threatens them, 1. That he will deliver them into the hand of oppressors, every one into his neighbour's hand, so that they shall use one another barbarously. The several parties in Jerusalem did so; the zealots, the seditious, as they were called, committed greater outrages than the common enemy did, as Josephus relates in his history of the wars of the Jews. They shall be delivered every one into the hand of his king, that is, the Roman emperor, whom they chose to submit to rather than to Christ, saying, We have no king but Cæsar. Thus they thought to ingratiate themselves with their lords and masters. But for this God brought the Romans upon them, who took away their place and nation. 2. That he will not deliver them out of their hands: They shall smite the land, the whole land, and out of their hand I will not deliver them; and, if the Lord do not help them, none else can, nor can they help themselves.

III. A trial yet made whether their ruin might be prevented by sending Christ among them as a shepherd; God had sent his servants to them in vain, but last of all he sent unto them his Son, saying, They will reverence my Son, Matt. xxi. 37. Divers of the prophets had spoken of him as the Shepherd of Israel, Isa. xl. 11; Ezek. xxxiv. 23. He himself told the Pharisees that he was the Shepherd of the sheep, and that those who pretended to be shepherds were thieves and robbers (John x. 1, 2, 11), apparently referring to this passage, where we have, 1. The charge he received from his Father to try what might be done with this flock (v. 4): Thus saith the Lord my God (Christ called his Father his God because he acted in compliance with his will and with an eye to his glory in his whole undertaking), Feed the flock of the slaughter. The Jews were God's flock, but they were the flock of slaughter, for their enemies had killed them all the day long and accounted them as sheep for the slaughter; their own possessors slew them, and God himself had doomed them to the slaughter. Yet "feed them by reproof instruction, and comfort; provide wholesome food for those who have so long been soured with the leaven of the scribes and Pharisees." Other sheep he had, which were not of this fold, and which afterwards must be brought; but he is first sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, Matt. xv. 24. 2. His acceptance of this charge, and his undertaking pursuant to it, v. 7. He does as it were say, Lo, I come to do thy will, O my God! and, since this is thy will, it is mine: I will feed the flock of slaughter. Christ will care for these lost sheep; he will go about among them, teaching and healing even you, O poor of the flock! Christ did not neglect the meanest, nor overlook them for their meanness. The shepherds that made a prey of them regarded not the poor; they were conversant with those only that they could get by; but Christ preached his gospel to the poor, Matt. xi. 5. It was an instance of his humiliation that his converse was mostly with the inferior sort of people; his disciples, who were his constant attendants, were of the poor of the flock. 3. His furnishing himself with tools proper for the charge he had undertaken: I took unto me two staves, pastoral staves; other shepherds have but one crook, but Christ had two, denoting the double care he took of his flock, and what he did both for the souls and for the bodies of men. David speaks of God's rod and his staff (Ps. xxiii. 4), a correcting rod and a supporting staff. One of these staves was called Beauty, denoting the temple, which is called the beauty of holiness and one of its gates beautiful, which Christ called his Father's house, and for which he showed a great zeal when he cleared it of the buyers and sellers; the other he called Bands, denoting their civil state, and the incorporate society of that nation, which Christ also took care of by preaching love and peace among them. Christ, in his gospel, and in all he did among them, consulted the advancement both of their civil and of their sacred interests. 4. His execution of his office, as the chief Shepherd. He fed the flock (v. 7), and he displaced those under-shepherds that were false to their trust (v. 8): Three shepherds I cut off in one month. Through the deficiency and uncertainty of the history of the Jewish church, in its latter ages, we know not what particular event this had its accomplishment in; in general, it seems to be an act of power and justice for the punishment of the sinful shepherds and the redress of the grievances of the abused flock. Some understand it of the three orders of princes, priests, and scribes or prophets, who, when Christ had finished his work, were laid aside for their unfaithfulness. Others understand it of the three sects among the Jews, of Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herodians, all whom Christ silenced in dispute (Matt. xxii.) and soon after cut off, all in a little time.

IV. Their enmity to Christ, and making themselves odious to him. He came to his own, the sheep of his own pasture; it might have been expected that between them and him there would be an entire affection, as between the shepherd and his sheep; but they conducted themselves so ill that his soul loathed them, was straitened towards them (so it may be read); he intended them kindness, but could not do them the kindness he intended them, because of their unbelief, Matt. xiii. 58. He was disappointed in them, discouraged concerning them, grieved for them, not only for the shepherds, whom he cut off, but for the people, whom Christ often looked upon with grief in his heart and tears in his eyes. Their provocations even wore out his patience, and he was weary of that faithless and perverse generation. Their soul also it abhorred me; and therefore it was that his soul loathed them; for, whatever estrangement there is between God and man, it begins on man's side. The Jewish shepherds rejected this chief Shepherd, as the Jewish builders rejected this chief corner stone. They had indignation at Christ's doctrine and miracles, and his interest in the people, to whom they did all they could to render him odious, as they had made themselves odious to him. Note, There is a mutual enmity between God and wicked people; they are hateful to God and haters of God. Nothing speaks more the sinfulness and misery of an unregenerate state than this does. The carnal mind, the friendship of the world, are enmity to God, and God hates all the workers of iniquity; and it is easy to foresee what this will end in, if the quarrel be not taken up in time, Isa. xxvii. 4, 5.

V. Christ's rejecting them as incurable, and leaving them their house desolate, Matt. xxiii. 38. The things of their peace are now hidden from their eyes, because they knew not the day of their visitation. Here we have,

1. The sentence of their rejection passed (v. 9): "Then said I, I will not feed you. I will take no further care of you; you shall not see me again; take your own course. As I will not feed you, so I will not cure you; that that dieth, let it die (the Shepherd will do nothing to save its forfeited life); that that is to be cut off, let it be cut off; that which will make itself a prey to the wolf, let it be a prey, and let the rest so far forget their own mild and gentle nature as to eat the flesh of one another; let these sheep fight like dogs." Those that reject Christ will be certainly and justly rejected by him, and then are miserable of course.

2. A sign of it given (v. 10): I took my staff, even Beauty, and cut it asunder, in token of this, that he would be no longer a shepherd to them, as the lord high steward determines his commission by breaking his white staff, and as Moses's breaking the tables of the law put a stop, for the present, to the treaty between God and Israel. The breaking of this staff signified the breaking of God's covenant which he had made with all the people, the covenant of peculiarity made with all the tribes of Israel, and all other people who, by being proselyted to their religion, were incorporated into their nation. The Jewish church was now stripped of all its glory; its crown was profaned and cast to the ground, and all its honour laid in the dust; for God departed from it, and would no more own it for his. When Christ told them plainly that the kingdom of God should be taken from them, and given to another people, then be broke the staff of Beauty, Matt. xxi. 43. And it was broken in that day, though Jerusalem and the Jewish nation held up forty years longer, yet from that day we may reckon the staff of Beauty broken, v. 11. And though the great men did not, or would not, understand it as a divine sentence, but thought to put it by with a cold God forbid (Luke xx. 16), yet the poor of the flock, the disciples of Christ, that waited on him, and understood with what authority he spoke, and could distinguish the voice of their Shepherd from that of a stranger, knew that it was the word of the Lord, and trembled at it, and were confident that it should not fall to the ground. Note, Christ is waited on by the poor of the flock; he chose them to be with him, to be his pupils, to be his witnesses; the poor received him and his gospel, when those that had great possessions turned their backs upon him. And those that wait upon Christ, that sit at his feet, to hear and receive his words, shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God, John vii. 17.

3. A further reason given for their rejection. It was said before, Their souls abhorred him; and here we have an instance of it, their buying and selling him for thirty pieces of silver, either thirty Roman pence, or rather thirty Jewish shekels; this is here foretold in somewhat obscure expressions, as it is fit that such particular prophecies should be delivered, lest otherwise the plainness of the prophecy might prevent the accomplishment of it. Here, (1.) The Shepherd comes to them for his wages (v. 12): "If you think good, give me my price; you are weary of me, pay me off and discharge me; and, if not, forbear; if you be willing to continue me longer in your service, I will continue, or, if to turn me off without wages, I am content." Christ was no hireling, and yet the labourer is worthy of his hire. Compare with this what Christ said to Judas when he was going to sell him, "What thou doest do quickly; be at a word with the chief priests; let them either take the bargain or leave it," John xiii. 27. Those that betray Christ are not forced to it; they might have chosen. (2.) They value him at thirty pieces of silver. Many years' service he had done them as a Shepherd, yet this is all they will now turn him off with—"A goodly price that I with all my care and pains was valued at by them." If Judas fixed this sum in his demand, it is observable that his name was Judah, the same name with that of the body of the people, for it was a national act; or, if (as it rather seems) the chief priests pitched upon this sum in their proffers, they were the representatives of the people; it was part of the priest's office to put a value upon the devoted things (Lev. xxvii. 8), and thus they valued the Lord Jesus. It was the ordinary price of a slave, Exod. xxi. 32. Making light of Christ, and undervaluing the love of that great and good Shepherd, are the ruin of multitudes, and justly so. (3.) The silver being no way proportionable to his worth, it is thrown to the potter with disdain: "Let him take it to buy clay with, or for any use that a little money will serve to, for it is not worth hoarding; it may be enough for a potter's stock, but not for the pay of such a shepherd, much less for his purchase." So the prophet cast the thirty pieces of silver to the potter in the house of the Lord: "Let him take them, and do what he will with them." Now we find a particular accomplishment of this in the history of Christ's sufferings, and reference is had to this prophecy, Matt. xxvii. 9, 10. Thirty pieces of silver was the very sum for which Christ was sold to the chief priests; the money, when Judas would not keep it, and the chief priests would not take it back was laid out in the purchase of the potter's field. Even that sudden resolve of the chief priests was according to an ancient prophecy and the more ancient counsel and foreknowledge of God.

4. The completing of their rejection in the cutting asunder of the other staff, v. 14. The former denoted the ruin of their church, by breaking the covenant between God and them—that defaced their beauty; this denotes the ruin of their state, by breaking the brotherhood between Judah and Israel, by reviving animosities and contention among them, such as were of old between Judah and Israel, the writing of whom as one stick in the hand of the Lord was one of the blessings promised after their return out of captivity, Ezek. xxxvii. 19. But that union shall now be dissolved; they shall be crumbled into parties and factions, exasperated one against another; and their kingdom, being thus divided, shall be brought to desolation. (1.) Nothing ruins a people so certainly, so inevitably, as the breaking of the staff of Bands, and the weakening of the brotherhood among them; for hereby they become an easy prey to the common enemy. (2.) This follows upon the dissolving of the covenant between God and them, and the decay of religion among them. When iniquity abounds love waxes cold. No wonder if those fall out among themselves that have provoked God to fall out with them. When the staff of Beauty is broken the staff of Bands will not hold long. An unchurched people will soon be an undone people.

Judgments Predicted and Typified. (b. c. 510.)

15 And the Lord said unto me, Take unto thee yet the instruments of a foolish shepherd. 16 For, lo, I will raise up a shepherd in the land, which shall not visit those that be cut off, neither shall seek the young one, nor heal that that is broken, nor feed that that standeth still: but he shall eat the flesh of the fat, and tear their claws in pieces. 17 Woe to the idol shepherd that leaveth the flock! the sword shall be upon his arm, and upon his right eye: his arm shall be clean dried up, and his right eye shall be utterly darkened.

God, having shown the misery of this people in their being justly abandoned by the good Shepherd, here shows their further misery in being shamefully abused by a foolish shepherd. The prophet is himself to personate and represent this pretended shepherd (v. 15): Take unto thee the instruments or accoutrements of a foolish shepherd, that are no way fit for the business, such a shepherd's coat, and bag, and staff, as a foolish shepherd would appear in; for such a shepherd shall be set over them (v. 16), who, instead of protecting them, shall oppress them and do them mischief. 1. They shall be under the inspection of unfaithful ministers. Their scribes, and priests, and doctors of their law, shall bind heavy burdens upon them, and grievous to be borne, and, with their traditions imposed, shall make the ceremonial law much more a yoke than God had made it. The description here given of the foolish shepherd suits very well with the character Christ gives of the scribes and Pharisees, Matt. xxiii. 2. They shall be under the tyranny of unmerciful princes, that shall rule them with rigour, and make their own land as much a house of bondage to them as ever Egypt or Babylon was. When they had rejected him by whom princes decree justice it was just that they should be turned over to those who decree unrighteous decrees. 3. They shall be imposed upon and deluded by false Christs and false prophets, as our Saviour foretold, Matt. xxiv. 5. Many such there were, who by their seditious practices provoked the Romans, and hastened the ruin of the Jewish nation; but it is observable that they were never cheated by a counterfeit Messiah till they had refused and rejected the true Messiah. Now observe,

I. What a curse this foolish shepherd should be to the people, v. 16. God will, for their punishment, raise up a foolish shepherd, who will not do the duty of a shepherd; he will not visit those that are cut off, nor go after those that go astray, nor seek those that are missing, to find them out and bring them home, as the good shepherd does, Matt. xviii. 12, 13. Their shepherds take no care of the young ones, that need their care and are well worthy of it, as Christ does, Isa. xl. 11. They do not heal that which was broken, which was worried and torn, but let it die of its bruises, when a little thing, in time, would have saved it. They do not feed those who, through weakness, stand still, and are ready to faint, and cannot get forward, but leave them behind, let who will take them up; they do not carry that which stands still (so some read it); they never do any thing to support the weak and comfort the feeble-minded; but, on the contrary, 1. They are luxurious themselves: They eat of the flesh of the fat; they will have of the best for themselves; and, like that wicked servant that said, My lord delays his coming, they eat and drink with the drunken, and serve their own bellies. 2. They are barbarous to the flock. Their passions are as ill-governed as their appetites, for, when they are in a rage against any of the flock, they tear their very claws in pieces by over-driving them; they beat their hoofs; they smite their fellow servants. Woe unto thee, O land! when thy king is such a child!

II. What a curse this foolish shepherd should bring upon himself (v. 17): Woe to the idol-shepherd, who, like an idol, has eyes and sees not, who, like an idol, receives abundance of respect and homage from the people and the chief of their offerings, but neither can nor will do them any kindness. He leaves the flock when they most need his care, leaves them destitute, and flees, because he is a hireling; his doom is that the sword of God's justice shall be upon his arm and his right eye, so that he shall quite lose the use of both. His arm shall wither and be dried up, so that he who would not help his friends when it was required shall not know how to help himself; his right eye shall be utterly darkened, that he shall not discern the danger that his flock is in, nor know which way to look for relief. This was fulfilled when Christ said to the Pharisees, I have come that those who see may be made blind, John ix. 39. Those that have gifts which qualify them to do good, if they do not do good with them, shall be deprived of them; those that should have been workmen, but were slothful and would do nothing, will justly have their arm dried up; and those that should have been watchmen, but were sleepy and would never look about them, will justly have their eye blinded.

CHAP. XI.

Verſe 1. OPen thy doors O Lebanon This chapter is no leſſe comminatory, then the two former had been Conſolatory. The tartneſſe of the threatening maketh men beſt taſt the ſweetneſſe of the Promiſe. So wre and ſweet make the beſt ſawce: Promiſes and threatnings mingled, ſerve to keep the heart in the beſt temper. Hypocrites catch at the Promiſes, as children do at ſweet-meats: and ſtuff themſelves therewith a pillow as it were, that they may ſin more ſecurely. Here therefore they are given to underſtand, that God will ſo be mercifull to the penitent, as that he will by no meanes cleare the guilty. That's the laſt letter in Gods name Exod. 34.7. and muſt never be forgotten. It is fit the wicked ſhould be forewarned of their danger; and the god[illegible: 1 letter]y forearmed. This chapter h[illegible: 1 letter]ngs over Jeruſlaem as that blazing-ſtarr in the form of a bloody ſword is ſaid to [illegible: 1 word] none for a whole y[illegible: 1 letter]eres-ſpace, a little before that laſt deſtruction of it, that is here [illegible: 2 letters] retold five hundred yeers before it fell out.

open thy doors O Lebanon] i. e. lay open thou thy ſelf to utter ruine: for it is [illegible: 1 span] cannot be avoided. Lebanon was the confine of the countrey on that [illegible: 1 word], whereby the Romans made their firſt irruption, as by an inlet Doors [illegible: 1 word] a[illegible: 3 letters]ttributed to this forreſt; becauſe againſt Lebanus is ſet A[illegible: 2 letters]thbanus, [illegible: 1 word] mountain; which is joyned unto it as it were with a certain wail: ſo that theſe were and are narrow paſſages and gates kep ſometimes of the kings of Perſia by a ſpeciall officer, [illegible: 1 span] the defended [illegible: 1 span] 2. Neb. 2.8. and fortified by nature: yet not ſo ſtrongly, but that the Romanes brake in this way, and much waſted the for[illegible: 1 letter]eſt, to employ, the tree[illegible: 1 letter] for the beſieging of Jerualem; as Eſay 14 8. The Ch[illegible: 3 letters]ee Paraphraſt by Lebanon here underſtandeth the Temple, which was built of the Cedars of Lebanon: and Ezech, 17.3. Lebanon is put for Jeruſalem: which alſo had in it that houſe of the fo[illegible: 1 letter]reſt of Lebanon, built by Salomon 1 King. 7.2. wherein he had both his throne of judgement ver. 7. and his armonry chap. 10.17. So that by Lebanon may be very well meant the whole countrey of Judea: but eſpecially the city and Temple,Lib. [illegible: 1 letter]. de [illegible: 1 letter]ell. Jud. cap. 12. the iron gates whereof opened themſelves of their own accord, that had not been open in ſeven yeers before: and could ſcarce be ſhut by twenty men, ſaith loſephus. This fell out not long before the city was taken by Titus, R. David. I[illegible: 2 letters]ra Gala[illegible: 1 letter]in. l. 4. c. 8. whereupon R[illegible: 1 letter]ble Jonathan the ſon of Zach[illegible: 1 letter]i cryed out, En vaticinium Zach[illegible: 1 letter]riae, Behold the Propheſie of Zachary ſulfilled: for he foretold this, that this temple ſhould be burnt, and that the gates thereof ſhould firſt be opened.

that the fire may devour thy Cedars] Warr is as a fire, that feedeth upon the people Iſa. 9.19. or like as an hungry man ſnatcheth &c. ver. 20. there is in warr no meaſure or ſatiety of blood. the Greek word to warr ſignifieth much blood. [non-Latin text not transcribed] The Hebrew word, devouring and eating of men, as they cat bread. The Latine Bellum, à belluis. it deſtroyes the Lord as well as the loſell, the cedar as well as the ſhrub. Tamberlanes coach horſes were conquered kings. Adonibezecks dogs, ſeventy kings gathering crumbs under his table. Let fire come out of the bramble, and devour the Cedars of Lebanon Iudg. 9.15. that is, Let fire come out ſ[illegible: 1 letter]om Abimeleck, and devour the men of Si[illegible: 4 letters]en. ver 20.

Verſe 2 Howle fir[illegible: 1 letter]rce that is ye of lower rank: or ye meaner cityes, thoſe daughters of le[illegible: 1 letter]uſalem, that felt the Romans force: [illegible: 1 word], take up a loud out-cry, a doleful ditty after the manner of thoſe that are carri[illegible: 3 letters] captive by the enemy. Pſal. 137 3. For there they, that carried [illegible: 1 letter]s away captive, required of us a ſong: and they that waſted us, qui contumulaban[illegible: 1 letter] nos, that threw us on [illegible: 1 word] (ſo Tremellius [illegible: 1 letter]endreth[illegible: 1 letter]t, conſer Iſa. 25.2.) or thoſe that made us [illegible: 1 span] noſtri, (ſo S[illegible: 1 letter]hindler) required of us mirth.

becauſe all the mighty are ſpoiled] the magnifico[illegible: 1 letter]s, the men of power as they are called Pſal. 76.5. ſtout hearted and every way able for ſtrength, courage and riches; [illegible: 1 span] which oft take away the life of the owners, and exp[illegible: 2 letters]e them to ſpoile; as every man deſireth to lop the tice that hath thick and large boughs and branches.

howle O ye oakes of Baſhan] Ogs countrey, who only remained of the remnant of Gyants Deut. 3.11. The Iews fable that he eſcaped in the flood, by-riding aſtride on the Ark. By the oaks of his countrey underſtand, the ſtrong and eminent. The Chaldee rendreth it Satrapae provinciarum, ye provinciall Governours.

for the forreſt of the vintage] Or the defenced forreſt, viz. of Lebanon i. e. Ieruſalem that ſeemed impregnable, but at length came down ruit alto à culmine, as a cedar that is felled by a Mighty One Eſay 10.34. Death hewed its way thorough a wood or forreſt of men in a minute of time from the mouth of a murdering peece, or ſome ſuch warlike engine. When the ſword is once ſharpened, it makes a ſore ſlaughter: it contemneth the rod Ezek. 21.10. q. d. what does this ſilly rod do here? theſe leſſer and lighter judgements? let me come, Ile make work amongſt them: down with theſe oakes, down with this defenced forreſt &c.

Verſe 3. There is a voice of the howling of the ſhepheards] Potentes potenter torquebuntur. The loftineſſe of man ſhall be bowed down: and the haughtineſſe of men ſhall be made low: and the Lord alone ſhall be exalted in that day. Eſay 2.17. The ſhepheards were grown fooliſh ver. 15. Idol-ſhepheards 17. they cared for no other inſtruments but forcipes & mulctram the ſheares and the milk-paile: they were become greedy dogs, Eſay 56.11. which could never have enough (they were ſick of the bulimy or appetitus caninus) yea they were as ſo many yong lions ramping and ravening, as it is here, and Ezek. 19.2, 3.Pſal. 78.72. Both Princes and Prieſts were turned tyrants: and inſtead of feeding the people in the integrity of their hearts, and guiding them with the skilfulneſſe of their hands, prey'd upon them and pluckt the skin from off them, and their fleſh from off their bones Mio. 3.2.

for the pride of Iordan is ſpoiled] the ſwelling of Iordan dryed up by the Romans, as Hierome interprets it: Or the proud and ſtately palaces and poſſeſſions that the great Ones had gotten upon the banks of Iordan for fruitfulneſſe and pleaſance, as à Lapide; Or the numerous and proud nation of the Iews likned to the yearly overflowing of Iordan, whereof ſee Ioſh. 3.15. Ier. 49.19. as Diodate.

Verſe 4. Thus ſaith the Lord my God, Feed the flock of ſlaughter] ſo lately pulled out of the jawes of thoſe lions ver. 3. with Am. 3.12. and yet deſtined to deſtruction by the Romans, thoſe Raptores Orbis (their former preſervation being but a reſervation to future miſchief) for their deſperate obſtinacy and incorrigibleneſſe.

feed them] ſaith God to the Prophets: for their ordinary ſhepheards have caſt off all care of their good. Tell them what evill will betide them, unleſſe they repent: forewarn them to flee from the wrath to come:Mat. 3. Luke 21.36. to take courſe that they may eſcape all theſe things that ſhall come to paſſe. O the goodneſſe of God to a nation ſo ſhameleſly, ſo lawleſly wicked! Beſides himſelf, the Shepheard of Iſrael that led Ioſeph like a flock Pſal. 80.1. and neglected no good office of ſeeking and feeding them, of handling and healing them, of waſhing them and watching over them &c. how carefull was he ever to raiſe them up ſeven ſhepheards and eight principal men, Mic. 5.5. till at length he ſent the man Chriſt Ieſus who is the chief of ten thouſand, the chief Shepheard as St. Peter calls him 1 Epiſt. 5.4. that One and only Shepheard, as Solomon Eccleſ. 12.11. that gteat Shepheard of the ſheep, as Paul Heb. 13.20. who came to look up the loſt ſheep of the houſe of Iſrael, whom (to move compaſſion and affection) here calleth the ſheep of ſlaughter, untill the time prefixed for their totall diſperſion, by reaſon of their ingratitude.

Verſe 5. Whoſe Poſſeſſours ſtay them] flaying their skin from off them, eating their fleſh, breaking their bones &c. Mic. 3.3. feeding themſelves, and not the flock of God Ezek. 34.2, as if they had been Lords over Gods heritage 1 Pet. 5.3. Owners and Poſſeſſours as here, vel precio vel praemio: and as the Pope and his Curia Romana quae non vult ovem ſine lana, as the old Proverb was.

and hold themſelve not guilty] Non peccant. They fault not themſelves: they are not found guilty by others. Such an illimited power over Gods people they have uſurped, as if they might uſe them at their pleaſure, and never be once queſtioned, or puniſhed for the ſame; but ſcape ſcotfree. This was the extremity of tyranny; ſuch as the cruell Spaniards exerciſe over the poor Indians: they ſuppoſe they ſhew the wretches great favour, when they do not, for their pleaſures, whip them with cords; and day by day drop their naked bodies with burning bacon; which is one of the leaſt cruelties they inflict upon them.World encompaſſed by S. F. Drake 53.

and they that ſell them] Sell them for ſlaves (whom they ought to redeem rather with their own blood) and grow rich by them: being greedy of filthy lucre, not without foule blaſphemy againſt God, whom they entitle to their riches ſacrilegiouſly and moſt theeviſhly gotten; whileſt they ſay,

bleſſed be the Lord, for I am rich] Deo gratias, Bleſſed be God is a very good ſaying, and was much in Auſtins mouth. But as the fountain of goodneſſe will not be laden at with unwaſhen hands: ſo fair words from a foul mouth, are infinitely diſpleaſing to him that inhabiteth the praiſes of Iſrael. Pſal. 22.3. Hypocrites are not unfitly compared to Monkies, that have the graveſt countenances of all creatures; but are unceſſantly doing miſchief: or to the Harpies, that are ſaid to have Virgins faces, Vultures tallons. Mel in ore, verba lactis: Fel in corde, fraus in factis. Phariſees, under pretence of long prayers, devoured widdows houſes Mat. 23.14. whiles their lips ſeemed to pray or praiſe God, they were but chewing and champing ſome ſweet morſel ſnatcht from the flock, but ſawced with the wrath of God Job 20.15. See how our Saviour ſets them out in their colours Mat. 23.15, 16, 23. &c. Such fair profeſſours, but foul ſinners were their predeceſſours, Eſay 66.5. who when they had done evil as they could, thought to ſalve all by ſaying, Let the Lord be glorified. And ſuch alſo are their Succeſſours, The Pope and his followers. Verba tua Dei planè ſunt, facta verò diaboli (ſaid one once to Pope Innocent the third preaching peace but ſowing diſcord) you ſpeak like a God, but do like a divel: wherefore you ſhall receive the greater damnation. When one of our perſecuting Biſhops read the ſentence of excommunication againſt a certain Martyr: and began as the uſual form was,Act. and Mon. In the name of God, Amen, the Martyr cryed out, you begin in a wrong name. And it grew to a common proverb, In nomine Dei incipit omne malum. All miſchief begins on that maner. Gentilis that impious Anti-Trinitarian gave out, that he ſuffered for the glory of the moſt High God. Becket the Archtraitour pretended to ſubmit to his Soveraign, but with this falſe reſerve, Salv[illegible: 1 letter] honore Dei. The Swenckfeldians entituled themſelves the confeſſours of the glory of Chriſt. And Conradus Vorſtius his late monſter hath De Deo in the front: and Atheiſme and blaſphemy in the text.

and their own ſhepheards pitty them not] Which yet they ought to have done, had they had never ſo much right and reaſon to deſtroy them. A ſhepheard hath his name from friendly feeding: in Greek from earneſt deſire and love to the ſheep. David when he was hunted from Samuel the Prophet, he fleeth to Abimelech the Prieſt: as one that knew Juſtice and Compaſſion ſhould dwell in thoſe breaſts, that are conſecrated to God and his people. But theſe ſhepheards through want of Gods holy fear Iob. 6.14. had brawny breaſts, horny heart-ſtrings, their hearts firſt turned into earth and mud, did afterwards freeze into ſteel and adamant: curſed children they were,2 Pet. 2.24. having their hearts exerciſed with covetouſneſſe and cruelty.

Verſe 6. For I will no more pitty the inhabitants of the land] Or ſurely I will no more &c. A feareful ſentence, written in blood, and breathing out nothing but utter deſtruction, David knew what he did, when he choſe rather to fall into the hand of the Lord, then of men. For his mercies are many, and it ſoon repents him concerning his ſervants:Prov. 12 10. but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel. Thoſe ſhepheards in the former verſe were grievous wolves: what wonder therefore that they ſpared not the flock?Act. 20.29. But yet whiles God pittied them there was hope in Iſrael concerning this thing, as He ſaid Ezr. 10.2. whereas now that Gods ſoul is disjoynted from them, and his bowels ſhut up, deſolation muſt needs be at [illegible: 1 letter]ext door by Ier. 6.8.Jer. 17.17. Be not thou a terrour unto me, O Lord, ſaid that Prophet, and then I care not, though all the world frown upon me, and ſet againſt me. But woe be to Lo-ruamah, the people of Gods wrath, and of his curſe. I have noted before out of Ier. 16.13. that Gods I will ſhew you no favour, was worſe then I will caſt you out of this land.

I will deliver the men] Heb. I will make them to be found, pulling them out of their ſtarting holes, and lurking places. Evil ſhall hunt the violent man to deſtroy him. Pſal. 140.11.

every one unto his neighbours hand] As into the hang-mans hand. this was fulfilled, eſpecially during the ſiege by the ſeditious within the walls of Jeruſalem,Joſeph[illegible: 1 letter]d bel. J[illegible: 1 letter]d. l. 6. cap. 2. and 4. one man proving a wolf, nay a devil to another.

and into the hand of his king! The Roman Emperour, who diſclaimed indeed the name of a king to avoid the hatred of the people, and yet exerciſed the full power of kings both at home and abroad. Theſe lews firſt ſubdued by the Romans and reduced into a province, did afterwards rebel (though they had once in oppoſition to Chriſt cryed out, we have no king but Caeſar) and were therefore, after five moneths ſiege utterly ruined: For what with extremity of famine and what with the fury of the ſword, there periſhed in Jeruſalem, and in the province adjoyning,Joſeph, v[illegible: 1 letter]i ſupra as Euſ[illegible: 1 letter]buis affirms about 600000. able men to bear armes. Or as Joſephus holds, who was an eye-witneſſe, and prelent in the war, there died 1100000. beſides others taken captive, to the number of 97000.

and I will ſmite the Land] So that it hath lain, as it were bed-ridden ever ſince.

Verſe 7. And will I ſeed the flock of ſlaughter, even you, O poor of the flock.] Or, as M[illegible: 1 letter]ntanus readeth it, for you, for your ſakes, O poor of the flock, i.e. O ye that are poor in ſpirit, pure in heart, my little little flock, as our Saviours expreſſion is in Luke. Even for your ſakes will I yet for a time ſpare the reprobate goates, feeding them by my Prophets, and provoking them to repentance. The word and Sacraments, and all Gods common temporal favours are, in reſpect of external participation, communicated to Reprobates by way of Concomitancy onely: becauſe they are intermixed with the Elect. Thus tares mingled among wheat, partake of the fat of the land, and moyſture of the manure, which was not intended for them.

and I took unto me two ſtaves] viz. That I might therewith do the office of a ſhepheard: and yet in more then an ordinary manner. For ſhepheards commonly carry but one ſtaffe, or crook: or, at moſt, but a ſtaffe on their ſhoulders, and a rod in their hands, as David ſhews in his Paſtoral Pſal. 23.3. But here are two ſtaves taken: to ſhew, ſaith Mr. Calvin, that God would ſurpaſſe all the care and pains of men, in governing that people.

the one I called Beauty, and the other I called Bands] What theſe two ſhould mean, much adoe is made among Interpreters. Some are for the two Governants: Others for the two Teſtaments: Others for the order of Chriſts preaching, ſweet and mild at firſt, terrible and full of threatnings at laſt, as appeareth in Ma. 24.24, 25. But what a wilde conceit was that of Anth[illegible: 3 letters] Arch-Biſhop of Florence, who underſtood the words of Dominick and his Order; conſtruing them thus: I, that is God took unto me two ſtaves vir. Beauty, that is, the Order of Preachers,Hiſt. Proph. 3 tit. 23. and Bonds, that is, the Order of Minorites, who are girt with a cord? The ſounder ſort of lixpoſitours make it to be a figure, of the two wayes which Chriſt uſeth at all times in feeding of his Church; the one by love, guiding them by his word and Spirit: the other by ſeverity, puniſhing them by the cruel hand of their enemies. See Eſay 10.5. Thus Va[illegible: 1 letter]ai lus, D[illegible: 1 letter]odue &c. And that this is the true ſenſe, ſaith A Lapide, it appeareth: Firſt, becauſe this oracle of the Prophet is of the time to come, and not of the time paſt. Secondly the event, (that beſt interpreter of prophecies) maketh for it. For firſt Gods government of the common-wealth of Iſrael was beautiful, and gentle in the time of the Maccabees, and of Chriſt: and then terrible and deſtructory, in the time of the Romans, of Nero, Veſpaſian, Adrian &c. Thirdly becauſe that a little after the Prophet ſaith, that he brake both the ſtaves, that is, he utterly rejected the Jews, and brought his wrath upon them to the utmoſt, which cannot be meant of any other time then that of Chriſt, and of Titus. Eſpecially ſince (in the fourth place) the Prophet declareth Verſe 13. that the ſt[illegible: 1 letter]ff of Beauty was broken at the death of Chriſt, for their unworthy ſelling and ſlaughtering of him, as if he had been ſome ſlave or baſe perſon,

and I fed the ſlock] q. d. I did my part by them. Thy deſtruction therefore is of thy ſelf, O Iſrael. England is a mighty Animal (ſaith a Politician) which can never die, except it kill it ſelf. The ſame might be much more ſaid of the Jeſish Common-wealth, which Ioſephus truely and trimly calleth a Theocratia, or a God-government for the form and firſt conſtitution of it: and Moſes in this reſpect, magnifieth that nation above all other Deut. 4.6, 7.

Verſe 8. Three ſhepheards alſo I cut off in one moneth] That is, in a ſhort time, I took away and diſplaced even by the heathen Princes, many proud princes, and Prieſts: ſuch as were Menelaus, Jaſon the Ariſtobuli, Hireani, Annas, Caiaphas, and others: Or, I removed thoſe three ſorts of ſhepheards of the old Law, viz. Princes Prophets and Prieſts. Thus Theodoret and Vatablus. Diodate underſtands the text of the three chief Empires that had tyrannized over the people, ver. 6, 3, and 12,10. Namely the Caldean, Perſian, and Grecian Empire, which were deſtroyed by the Son of God, Dan. 2.45. But they do beſt in mine opinion, that by theſe three ſhepheards underſtand thoſe three ſects among the Jews at Chriſts coming in the fleſh; viz. Phariſees, Sadduces, and Eſſenes: whereof, though the Phariſees were the beſt, and moſt exact for the outward obſervation of the Law, yet are they in the Goſpel for their putid hypocriſy, firſt ſharply taxed by our Saviour (after the Baptiſt) and then plainly rejected, and even ſent to hell by a chain-ſhot of eight links of woes Mat. 23.

and my ſoul loathed them] Or, was taken off from them, or was ſtraitned for them; becauſe I ſaw that they received my grace in vain, and conſidered not of my care for their good. Theodotion and Srmmackus render it Anima mea exanimata eſt, I am diſpirited as it were, and even diſheartened to do any more for them.

and their ſoul alſo abhorred me] And ſo they became God-haters as Rom. 1.30. and therefore hateful to God Tit. 3.3. hateful as hell (ſo the word imports) yea more, [non-Latin text not transcribed]. and worſe, for hell is but an effect of Gods juſtice: but wickedneſſe is a breach of his Law. The Prophet here ſeemeth to allude to thoſe murmurers in the wilderneſſe, that diſdainfully cryed out, Our ſoul loatheth this light bread Num. 21.5. Let Gods ſervants take heed how they hang looſe toward him: and leſt, by diſuſe and diſcontinuance of a duty, there grow upon them an alienation of affection, a ſecret diſreliſhing and nauſeating at that which we oughtmoſt deeply to affect, and duely to perform. Surely as loathing of meat and difficulty of breathing are two ſymptomes of a ſick body: ſo are careleſneſſe of hearing, and irkſomneſs of praying two ſure ſignes of a ſick ſoul.

Verſe 9. Then ſaid I, I will not feed you] Now the wrath of the Lord aroſe againſt his people, ſo that there was no remedy, as 2 Chron. 36.16. Now his decree brought forth Zeph. 2.2. Now he growes implacable, inexorable, peremptory. Wherein nevertheleſſe the Lord might very well break forth into that ſpeech of the Heathen Emperour, when he was to paſſe ſentence upon a malefactour, Non niſi coactus, I would not do this, if I could do otherwiſe. Chriſt could not tell Ieruſalem without tears, that her day of grace was expired, that her deſtruction was determined. As a woman brings not forth without pain: as a hee ſtings not, till provoked: ſo neither doth God proceed againſt a ſinfull people or perſon, till there be an abſolute neceſſity; leſt his truth and juſtice ſhould be queſtioned and ſlighted. See Ezek. 12.22, 23, 24, 25. Fury is not in God, till our ſins put thunderbolts into his hands: and then, who knoweth the power of his anger? Pſal. 90.11. Eſ. 33.14. who can abide with everlaſting burnings? If he but caſt a man off as here, and relinquiſh the care of him, he is utterly undone. Saul found it ſo, and complaines dolefully (but without pitty) that God had forſaken him,1 Sam. 28.15. and the Philiſtines were upon him: all miſeries and miſchief came ruſhing into him, as by a ſluce. Let us ſo carry matters, that God may not abandon us: that he may not refuſe to feed us, and take the charge of us as a ſhepheard. He yet offereth us this mercy, as Alexande did thoſe he warred againſt, while the lamp burned.

that that dieth, let it die] viz. of the murraine, or peſtilence, For man being in honour, if God but blow upon him, abideth not, but is like the beaſts that periſh, pecoribus morticinis, ſaith Tremellius the beaſts that die of the murrain. Vatablus thinks peſtilence, ſword and famine, are here threatened under the names of death, of cutting off, and of devouring one another. All which befell the refractary Jews in the laſt ſiege: the hiſtory whereof will make any mans heart bleed within him, that hath but the leaſt ſpark of grace, or good nature. It went hard with them, when the reſt, that the peſtilence and ſword had left, fell to eating the fleſh one of another; when the mother killed and boyled the dead body of her harmleſſe ſuckling, and eating the one half, reſerved the other for another time. Behold O Lord, and conſider to whom thou haſt done this? ſaith the Prophet: Shall the women eat their fruit and children of a ſpan long? Lam. 2.20 Oh the miſery, or rather mock of mans life! And oh, the venemous nature of ſinne, that moves God (who is not [non-Latin text not transcribed], a man-hater, but delights in mercy) to deal ſo ſeverely with his poor creature.

Verſe 10. And I took my ſtaffe even Beauty, and cut it aſunder] In token that he had caſt off his office of ſhepherd, he breaks his ſtaffe the enſigne and inſtrument of his office: and this in token that he had broke his covenant which hee had made with all the people [illegible: 1 letter] i. e. with all the tribes of Iſrael, which were as ſo many ſeverall peoples, over whom God had reigned (but now rejected) and in whom He delighted more then in all the nations of the world beſides. The Saints are called All things, Coloſ. 1.20. becauſe they are of more worth then a world of wicked men, Heb. 11.38. And the Jews have a ſaying, that thoſe ſeventy ſouls that went with Iacob into Egypt, were as much as all the ſeventy Nations in the world. What great account God once made of them above others, ſee Eſay 43.3, 4. Deut. 33.29. But now behold they are diſcarded, and diſcovenanted: I have broken my covenant, and (ver. 11.) it was broken in that day] that is, in the day that they put themſelves out of my precincts, I put them out of my protection. That peace that I had granted to my people, that they ſhould bee no more moleſted by any ſtrange Nation (which was verified from the time of the Maccabees till a little before the coming of Chriſt) ſhall now be forfeited. The glory is departed, the Beauty broken in pieces, the golden head of the picture, Religion defaced, and good order baniſhed: all things out of order both in Church and State, for ſo they were when Chriſt came to his own, and his own received him not: he found them in Dothan, that is, in Defection, as Ioſeph found his brethren) therefore he now diſowns and diſavowes them as much as once he did when they had made a golden calf. Thy people which thou broughteſt out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themſelves, ſaith God to Moſes; upon whom he now fathereth them,Exod. 32 7 as if he had never been in covenant with them. Danaeus upon this Text concludeth, that the Jews are now ſtrangers from the covenant of God: and that this is hereby confirmed, for that they are without Baptiſme, the ſeal of the covenant.

Verſe 11. And it was broken in that day] When they filled up the meaſure of their fathers ſinnes, and added this to all their other evils, that they crucified the Lord of glory: the Mediatour of the new Covenant, Heb. 12.24. Now they were, by an irrevocable decree, to bear their iniquities, and to know Gods breach of promiſe, as once was threatened to their faithleſſe fathers, Num. 14.24.

and ſo the poor of the ſlock] i. e. the lowly and meek,Mat. 11.19 the Apoſtles and other of wiſdomes children, theſe all juſtified her, and glorified God when they ſaw his ſeverity againſt their refractary countreymen,Euſeb. Hiſt, lib. 3. cap. 5. and themſelves ſweetly ſecured and provided for at Pella. See the Note on verſe 7.

that waited upon me] Heb. that obſerved me, by obeying my precepts. Pagnine tendreth it, Qui cuſtodiunt me, ſc. as their moſt precious treaſure, wherein they hold themſelves very happy, and wealthy, though otherwiſe poor and indigent.

Knew that it was the word of the Lord] Were ſenſible of Gods heavy diſpleaſure upon the land; which others paſſed by as a common occurrence, or a chance of war. The Elect made benefit of that generall viſitation: and acknowledged that the warres moved by the Romans were the effects of Gods providence, according to the ancient prophecies. This the rich and noble (whoſe hearts were fat as greaſe, Pſal. 119.70. Qui animas etiam incarnaverunt, who were deſperately bard and bruitiſh) took no notice of.

Verſe 12. If ye think good, give me my price] Pay me for my pains, lay mee down my ſhepherds wages. Is not the labourer worthy of his hire? Shall I be forced to ſay of you as my ſervant David of Nabal, that unthankfull churl; Surely in vain have I kept all that this fellow had in the wilderneſs, 1 Sam. 25.21. ſo that nothing was miſſed of all that pertained unto him, and he hath requited me evil for good. If God will be Davids ſhepherd, David will dwell in Gods houſe to all perpetuity, Pſal. 23.1, 6. If the Lord deal bountifully with him, he will ſit down and bethink himſelf what to render unto the Lord for all his benefits, Pſal. 116.7, 12. A Chriſtian counts all that he can do for God, by way of retribution, but a little of that much he could beteem him: and thinks nothing more unbeſeeming himſelf, then to receive the grace of God in vain. His two mites of thankfulneſſe and obedience, he daily preſents: and then cries out as the poor Grecian did to the Emperour, If I had a better preſent, thou ſhouldſt be ſure of it. [non-Latin text not transcribed]. But Ingratitude is a grave, which receives all the bodies (the benefits) that are put into it; but will render none up again, without a miracle. Hence that paſſionate expoſtulation, Deut. 32.6. Do ye thus requite the Lord, O ye fooliſh people and unwiſe? Sic etiam ſtomachosè loquitur Deus hoc loco, ſaith Calvin upon this text: i.e. So likewiſe doth the Lord here in high diſpleaſure and with great animoſity, or ſtomach beſpeak his people, Give me my wages howſoever: or, if not, forbear till I fetch it, till I recover it: you ſhall be ſure to pay then, not the debt onely, but the charges likewiſe: I will be paid both for my pains and patience too. In the mean ſpace I need you not, nor care for your wages; for I am no hireling, &c.

So they weighed for my price, thirty pieces of ſilver] that is, thirty ſhekels, or ſhillings. The price of a ſlain ſervants life, Exod. 31.22. This they weighed, as the manner of paying money then was, Gen. 23.16. Jer. 32.9. But they heaved their hands very high, it ſeems, when they valued the Lord Chriſt at ſo vile a rate. See Mat. 26.15. with the Note.

Verſe 13. Caſt it unto the potter] q. d. Do they deal with me as with ſome ſordid ſwineherd? Do they award me leſſe then Carters wages? throw't away, let the potter take it: and let us ſee how many tiles he can afford us for it, to repair the roof of the Temple. Their undervaluing and vilipending of me in this ſort, is not onely injurious, but contumelious: it is to turn my glory into ſhame; to ſpet in my face: or to uſe me as homely as Rachel did her fathers gods, which ſhe laid among the litter, and ſat upon.

A goodly price that I was valued at of them] So he calleth it by an Irony, or a holy jear. Poor Joſeph was ſold for leſſe; for twenty pieces of ſilver, Gen. 37.28. They ſold the juſt one for ſilver, and the poor for a pair of ſhoots, Amos 2.6. The Hebrews tell us,Pirk R. Eliez. cap 38. that of thoſe twenty ſhekels, every of the ten brethren had two to buy ſhooes for his feet. The Jews that bought Chriſt for thirty pieces of ſilver (this goodly price) of the traytour that ſold him, were themſelves afterwards (by a juſt hand of God upon them) bought and ſold thirty of them for a peny by the Romans,Hegeſipp. de excid. Hieroſol. p. 680. ad illudendum, ſaith mine Authour, for a ſcorn to their Nation. God loves to retaliate; and to ſet the ſcales even; mens cruelty in the one, and their reward in the other. If we be at any time under-rated by the world, (as we are ſure to be; for the world knows us not, 1 Joh. 3.2.) what ſo great matter is it, ſith Chriſt himſelf was no more ſet by? We muſt be content to paſſe to heaven (as he did) as concealed men. It muſt ſuffice us, that our precious faith ſhall bee found to praiſe, honour, and glory at that great fair-day: when all fardles ſhall be opened, and our beſt wares expoſed to publike view.

and caſt them to the potter] I gave them for the potters field, 1 Pet. 1.7 as the Lord appointed me, ſaith the Evangeliſt, expounding the Prophet, and applying the words to Chriſt,Mat. 27.10 who is hereby alſo proved to be God. So true is that obſervation of Divines, that the old Teſtament is both explained and fulfilled in the New, by an happy harmony.

in the houſe of the Lord] That thereby he might the more ſharply prick the Prieſts: whoſe care it ought to have been, that God ſhould be better prized by the people, and his ſervice better obſerved.

Verſe 14. Then I cut aſunder mine other ſtaffe, even Bands] Or, Binders: the the bond of unity, ſay ſome: by ſending a ſpirit of perverſities among them, ſuch as that was which made way for the ruine of Egypt, Eſay 19.14, 16, 17. But ſee for the ſence hereof what is noted on verſe 7. of this chapter. God ſeems to ſay, that he will now no more govern this people in mildneſſe and clemency: nor yet exerciſe his ſhepherdly ſeverity in ſaving corrections and viſitations, as formerly hee had done [illegible: 1 span]

that [illegible: 1 span] houſe of [illegible: 1 span] Rehoboam beſides [illegible: 1 span] twelve thouſand at [illegible: 1 span] And in Jeruſalem [illegible: 1 span] and of the children [illegible: 1 span] brotherly conjunction, and [illegible: 1 span] it, or a nationall covenant. This God [illegible: 1 span] to [illegible: 1 span] [illegible: 1 span] ſo that Ephraim ſhall be againſt Manaſſeh, [illegible: 1 span] [illegible: 1 span] and both againſt Judah, Not many, yeers hefore [illegible: 1 span] two brethren Hircanul and Ariſtobulus fell out about the [illegible: 1 span] prieſthood; and called in Pompey, who ſubdued the [illegible: 1 span] a province. And not many yeers after Chriſts [illegible: 1 span] utterly broke the brotherhood between [illegible: 1 span] them, that like thoſe prieſts in Ezra, they have [illegible: 1 span] not one another by their tribe, or family, nor [illegible: 1 span] of them that were in Spain, and are now [illegible: 1 span] they hold to be of the tribe of Judah: and the other [illegible: 1 span] of the tribe of Benjamin: who in honour of the more [illegible: 1 span] with them the better, do learn the Spaniſh tongue, which [illegible: 1 span]

Verſe 15. Take unto thee yet the inſtruments [illegible: 1 span] preſent in a type, or figure the wicked and depraved [illegible: 1 span] puniſhment of their frowardneſſe, and [illegible: 1 span] people The inſtru[illegible: 2 letters]nts of a fooliſh ſhepherd, that [illegible: 1 span] ſeeking Magiſtrate, are not virg a & [illegible: 1 word], a [illegible: 1 span] mulctra, ſheers to clip them, and a milk-pail to, [illegible: 1 span] they look after. Now it is threaten [illegible: 1 span] hate you ſhall reigne over you [illegible: 1 span] bed in the next verſes England was [illegible: 1 span] burdens and impoſitions. [illegible: 1 span] An Emperor [illegible: 1 span] the King of France was king of Aſſes [illegible: 1 span] his Exactours received from his ſubjects [illegible: 1 span] ſaith our Chronicler [illegible: 1 span] [illegible: 2 letters] fections; the joynts [illegible: 1 span] A [illegible: 1 span] the third, became a precedent to the next [illegible: 1 span] greateſt, popular inſurrection that ever was ſeen [illegible: 1 span] of our Hiſtorians. and what ſad effect [illegible: 1 span] duct-money, and other opprelin [illegible: 1 span] known to all. But, what [illegible: 1 span] lancthon; that when he want [illegible: 1 span] of his, and reqire of him what he [illegible: 1 span] would knock out firſt one of his teeth [illegible: 1 span] like by all the reſt, in caſe the money [illegible: 2 letters]ere not brought in by [illegible: 1 span] not this one of thoſe fooliſh, or rather [illegible: 1 span] in the next [illegible: 1 span] eat the fleſh of the fat, and tear their [illegible: 1 span] that ſhall [illegible: 1 span] drink thy milk, as another Prophet phraſeth [illegible: 1 span] lit[illegible: 2 letters] quam [illegible: 1 word] Chriſte: [illegible: 1 span] plaineth. And no leſſe [illegible: 1 word] Another, Some follow the [illegible: 1 span] as a trade onely: with an unquenchable, and unconſcionable [illegible: 1 span] juſtifieth the common [illegible: 1 span] of ill Governours [illegible: 1 span] the ſheep [illegible: 1 span] defence in weather, he is ſure to lo[illegible: 1 letter]e [illegible: 1 span] ſeek to Courts of Juſtice to he [illegible: 1 span] his mind: who [illegible: 1 span] to hell, and the other to the [illegible: 1 span] to [illegible: 1 span] the other.

Verſe 16. For lo, I will raiſe up a ſhepherd in the land] Evil ſhe [illegible: 1 span] is Rulers in State, and [illegible: 1 word], ſee Jer. 6.3. Nabum 3.1[illegible: 1 letter]. Eiſay 44.28 [illegible: 2 letters] are ſet [illegible: 2 letters]by. God for a puniſhment of a ſinfull people. See the Note on Verſe 1, The evil ſhepherd the pherd here meant; was Antiocha Ephiphanes, ſaith Theodoret: Herod the Infanticide, ſaith [illegible: 1 word] Titus and the Romans, ſaith [illegible: 1 letter] Caſtro: All the perverſe Prieſts and Princes that [illegible: 1 word] over the Jews, after the time of this Prophecy, ſaith A Lapides as Jaſon, Mentlaus, 2 Machab. 4. [illegible: 1 span] Herod, Pilate, Annas and Caiaphas, the Scribes, and [illegible: 4 letters]ſees: But eſpecially Antichriſt, (according to Joh. 5.43.) whoſe fore-runners all the former were. Of one Pope, it is ſaid by thoſe of his own ſide, that he entred upon the government of the Church as a Fox, reigned as a Wolf, died as a Dog: and its true enough of all the reſt, and to them the following words do moſt fitly agree.

who ſhall not viſit thoſe that be cut off] Or, look for the thing that is loſt. Illos [illegible: 3 letters] erraverunt, non quaeret, ſaith the Chaldee: the word ſignifieth, ſuch as are hid in thickets, hang'd among thorns and briers, and there like to periſh without help.

neither ſhall ſeek the young one] the tender lambs of Chriſt, which Peter was double-charged to feed. Stolidam non requiret, ſaith the Tigurine Tranſlation. Lambs are ſilly things, very apt to ſtraggle; and leaſt able of any creature to find their way home again.

nor heal that that is broken] David, by leaping over the pale (as it were) of Gods precepts, brake his bones, Pſal. 51.8. and felt the fall the longeſt day of his life: So may any of Chriſts flock. The good ſhepherd therefore in pera geſtat unguentum, hath his medicines ready in ſcrip, to apply as need requireth. Not ſo the Idol ſhepherd, who will rather break the ſound, then bind up the broken.

nor feed that, that ſtandeth ſtill] Or, that is well underlaid, and is full of vigour: Vatablus rendreth it, Eam quae reſtitat, non portabit. He will not carry that which can go no further. Hitherto the negligence of theſe evil-ſhepherds. Followeth next their cruelty, and that is more then beſtiall. For the ravening beaſts lightly leave ſome foot or bone undevoured, Am. 3.12. But theſe do not onely eat the fleſh of the flock, and ſuck the fat, but barbarouſly tear the claws alſo in pieces, exerciſe utmoſt immanity; as it is here graphically and gallantly deſcribed.

Verſe 17. Wo to the idol ſhepherd] The Vulgar hath, O paſtor & idolum, O thou ſhepherd and idol: thou that haſt the ſhew onely, and ſemblance of a ſhepherd; the name, but not the thing, thou that art the ape of a ſhepherd, non verus ſed vanus, non vivus ſed pictus & fictus paſtor, that art cleped a ſhepherd, as an idol is a god: but ſhouldſt be called rather a dumb-dog, a greedy-dog; a ſhepherd that cannot underſtand, Eſay 56.10, 11. a fooliſh ſhepherd, as verſe 15. an [non-Latin text not transcribed], [non-Latin text not transcribed] Per agnominationem alludit ad [non-Latin text not transcribed] ver. 15 one that hath nothing in him of any true worth; but art vain and vile, and of no value, as this word is rendred, Job 13.4. and 11.17. Vae, vae, vae, tibi. Chriſt (the great ſhepherd of the ſheep) will ſurely pull off they viſour, waſh off thy varnifh with rivers of brimſtone, brand thee for an hireling, that leaveth the flock] to ſhift, as it can, among theeves and wolves, Joh. 10.13. See the Note there.

The ſword ſhall be upon his arm, adn upon his right eye] i. e. The curſe of God ſhall light upon his power,Many Paſtors ſay as He, Pan cures oves oviumque magiſtres. Virg. and policy, both which ſhall be blaſted.

his arm ſhall be clean dried up] as a keck, or ſtick.

and his right eye ſhall be utterly darkned] Or, ſhrivelled up, wrinkled and dusk: as in old biſons. The idle and evil ſervant had his talent taken from him, and worthily. The barren fig-tree was cut down from cumbring. God will recover his gifts from thoſe that miſuſe,Mar. 25.28 Luke 13 Moſ. 2.9 or but diſuſe them, Away they go, as ſtrength went from Sampſon, wiſdome from Solomon: they cry unto God under our abuſe, who thereupon gives them the wings of an Eagle, and layes aſide their owner, as ſo many broken veſſels; cauſing them to be even forg otter as dead me[illegible: 2 letters]out of mind. Eſal. 31.21. This is now eſpecially fulfilled among the Jews, who [illegible: 1 span] ſon have been without God, without a teaching prieſt, and without [illegible: 1 span] 15.3.