Ask ye of the Lord rain in the time of the latter rain Zechariah 10:1 The rain W. L. Alexander, D. D. The rainfall in Palestine is normally periodical; occasional showers and even storms of rain may occur at any season, but as a rule it is at the time of the autumnal and that of the vernal equinox that the rain for the year falls. These two periodic seasons of rain the Hebrews spoke of as the early and the latter ram; and on the occurrence of them the fruitfulness of the field and the return of the harvest depended. In other passages both the former and the latter rain are referred to as indispensable to this. At an early period God promised to Israel that He would give the rain of their land in due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that they might gather in their corn, manifestation of special regard for His people by Jehovah (comp. Hosea 6:3 ; Joel 2:23 ; Isaiah 30:23 ; Jeremiah 5:24 ). The latter rain only is mentioned here, probably because this was the more important for the fructification of the grain; and possibly also, because, being this, it might be regarded as including or representing temporal blessing generally. This the prophet here exhorts the people to ask of the Lord "at the time of the latter rain," s.c., at the season when it was due; though God had promised it to His people, it was fitting and needful that they should pray to Him for it at the time when it was required. This "direction to ask" does not "simply express the readiness of God to grant their request"; it does this, for when God enjoins on men the asking for blessing, He implicitly engages to give the blessing asked for; but besides this, and even more than this, there is intimated here that the obtaining of promised blessing is conditioned by its being specially asked of God in the season of need. God's promises are given not to supersede prayer, but rather to encourage and stimulate to prayer. ( W. L. Alexander, D. D. )

Benson Commentary Zechariah 10:1 Ask ye of the LORD rain in the time of the latter rain; so the LORD shall make bright clouds, and give them showers of rain, to every one grass in the field. Zechariah 10:1 . Ask ye of the Lord rain, &c. — Make supplication to Jehovah, and not to idols. The promise of future plenty made in the preceding verse, with which this appears to be closely connected, suggested the mentioning the means by which it might be procured. As if he had said, The fulfilling of the promise of fruitful seasons depends on the people’s asking them of God, who will hear their petitions if offered to him with sincerity and fervour, and will give them both the former and the latter rain in its season. Of which rains see notes on Deuteronomy 11:14 ; Hosea 6:3 . So the Lord shall make bright clouds — Or lightnings, as the margin reads, and as the word is rendered Job 28:25 . Great rains usually accompany thunder and lightning. And give them — Namely, the Jews; showers of rain — Or rather, abundance of rain, as the Hebrew means; to every one grass in the field — Or, to every man the herb, or fruits of the field, as the original word signifies. The sense is, that God, upon their asking it of him, would give plenty of all kinds of herbs and fruits that were useful to men, or to the animals which men make use of. Zechariah 10:2 For the idols have spoken vanity, and the diviners have seen a lie, and have told false dreams; they comfort in vain: therefore they went their way as a flock, they were troubled, because there was no shepherd. Zechariah 10:2 . For the idols have spoken vanity — What I have said will certainly be verified when, with sincere and pious minds, you apply to God in prayer for his blessing on you and your land; but the case was quite otherwise when your fathers asked for any thing of idols; the priests, who answered in the names of the idols, could only give vain answers, which were not fulfilled by the events according to their promises. And the diviners have seen a lie — Those who pretended to divine, or predict future things, have uttered falsehoods. They comfort in vain — Rather, they comfort vainly, or with vain words. This they certainly did, because they promised prosperity to the people though they continued in their sins. Therefore they went their way as a flock — They were carried into captivity, and brought into great distress, as sheep are driven away and scattered, when there is no one to guide or take care of them. Because there was no shepherd — No ecclesiastical or civil governors, that would faithfully do their duty. Zechariah 10:3 Mine anger was kindled against the shepherds, and I punished the goats: for the LORD of hosts hath visited his flock the house of Judah, and hath made them as his goodly horse in the battle. Zechariah 10:3 . Mine anger was kindled against the shepherds — Against the kings, princes, and priests. These were the leaders of the Jewish people into idolatry and vice. The word shepherds is beautifully taken up from the preceding verse. And I punished the goats — The chief ones, as Newcome renders it. The principal men are meant. For — Or rather, but, the Lord of hosts hath visited his flock — In mercy. He hath now given his people manifest tokens of his favour and protection. And hath made them — Or, will make them, as his goodly horse in the battle — Will give them strength and courage. This must relate to the times of the Maccabees, and afterward, when God punished several nations by the hands of the Jewish people. Zechariah 10:4 Out of him came forth the corner, out of him the nail, out of him the battle bow, out of him every oppressor together. Zechariah 10:4 . Out of him — From God, came forth — Or rather, shall come forth the corner — The prince or ruler, who is in a body politic, as a corner stone in a building; the nail — Which fastens the tents of war, or the timber together in a house; the battle-bow — All warlike provision both of men and arms. Out of him every oppressor — Officer, exactor, or collector of tribute. It was from God that Nebuchadnezzar mightily prevailed and oppressed Israel; and it was from God also that Judah grows up to such power as to be able to cope with his adversaries, and to impose tribute on them. Newcome reads, From him shall go forth every ruler together, observing, that the word which we translate oppressor is also used in a good sense Isaiah 60:17 : that is, Judah shall furnish both civil and military governors. Blayney’s interpretation of the verse is, Out of it, that is, out of the house of Judah, shall go forth a corner, the commander-in- chief; out of it a nail, the officers next in rank; the bow of battle, the archers; out of it all that draw near together; so he renders ?? ????? ???? , instead of every oppressor, or ruler, together. “In the house, or building,” says he, “the words would denote the stones of common use, placed contiguous, or close in order, one by another. Correspondently in the army must be meant, the close-imbodied phalanx, or main body of men of war, advancing on together in regular order to meet the enemy.” Zechariah 10:5 And they shall be as mighty men , which tread down their enemies in the mire of the streets in the battle: and they shall fight, because the LORD is with them, and the riders on horses shall be confounded. Zechariah 10:5-7 . And they — The Jews, under the conduct of their captains; shall be as mighty men which tread down their enemies — God shall inspire them with courage to subdue their enemies, and trample upon their carcasses. This it seems must be understood of the victories obtained by the Jews under the Maccabees, or of those which they shall obtain over their enemies in the latter times, to which the latter part of the chapter seems ultimately to relate. And the riders on horses shall be confounded — The cavalry of Antiochus seems to be intended by this. We have a description of this cavalry in some heathen writers, which shows it to have been a very formidable one. And I will strengthen the house of Judah — I will not only give courage to attempt, but also strength to go through with and finish the undertaking. This was remarkably verified in the wars of the Jews against the Seleucidæ, in which wars they had wonderful difficulties, and as wonderful courage and success. And I will save the house of Joseph — The remnant of the kingdom of Israel, the residue of the ten tribes. And I will bring them again — Both Judah and Joseph, out of captivity, or from their various dispersions; to place them — In their own land and in their own cities. This promise is understood by many interpreters to relate to the general restoration of the Jewish nation upon their conversion, a subject which seems to be treated of in many passages of the Old Testament, in which Judah and Israel are represented as equal sharers of this blessing: see the note on Isaiah 11:11 , and compare Ezekiel 37:16 . And they shall be as though I had not cast them off — They shall be in as flourishing a condition as they were before I cast them off. And they of Ephraim shall be like a mighty man — Ephraim is put here for the ten tribes, as the house of Joseph is, Zechariah 10:6 . And their heart shall rejoice as through wine — Their heart shall be made as glad by their victories, as if they had been made merry through wine. Yea, their children shall see it and be glad — The children and youths, not yet fit for war, shall partake of their fathers’ joy. Zechariah 10:6 And I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph, and I will bring them again to place them; for I have mercy upon them: and they shall be as though I had not cast them off: for I am the LORD their God, and will hear them. Zechariah 10:7 And they of Ephraim shall be like a mighty man , and their heart shall rejoice as through wine: yea, their children shall see it , and be glad; their heart shall rejoice in the LORD. Zechariah 10:8 I will hiss for them, and gather them; for I have redeemed them: and they shall increase as they have increased. Zechariah 10:8-10 . I will hiss for them — Rather, whistle, as the word ???? should be here translated. I will call them from distant countries, as a shepherd calls his flock together with his whistle. For I have redeemed them — For I have, and will, by the workings of my divine providence, deliver and redeem them out of their enemies’ hands, and from those who hold them captives. And they shall increase as they have increased — Namely, in the most flourishing times, such as were the reigns of David and Solomon. I will sow — Rather, I have sown, them among the people — Or nations, for it appears beyond a doubt that what had been formerly done is here spoken of. And they shall remember me in far countries — Whithersoever they were driven. I will bring them again also out of the land of Egypt — Ptolemy Philadelphus, one of the kings of Egypt, redeemed no fewer than 100,000 of the Jews, and sent them home; God, no doubt, inclining him to be thus remarkably favourable and kind to them. For this, we have the testimony of Josephus’s history; as also, that other kings released many of those who still remained slaves, or servants in Egypt, and sent them back to their own land. And gather them out of Assyria — This was done by Alexander, the son of Antiochus Epiphanes, and by both the Demetriuses, as Josephus relates. This redeeming and releasing of the Jews, who were captives or servants in divers countries, by several kings, and sending them home at their charge or expense, which Josephus affirms to have been done, is a fact so very extraordinary that it deserves to be attended to; for it is a certain proof that the divine providence can accomplish whatever it pleases. And as this extraordinary particular was repeatedly foretold and promised by God’s prophets, long before it took place, and when there was not the least human probability of it, it is a striking proof of the truth and divine inspiration of the Holy Scriptures. I will bring them unto the land of Gilead and Lebanon — Gilead was taken by the arms of the Maccabees, and the cities of Syria, (here signified by Lebanon, a famous mountain in Syria,) by Hyrcanus and his successors. Gilead and Lebanon were countries remarkable for their fruitfulness. And place shall not be found for them — The land shall be too narrow for them. But this verse, and indeed the whole paragraph, has a further and mystical meaning. It relates to the success of the gospel, and the bringing in of the Jews and Gentiles into the Christian Church; and probably also to the restoration of the Jews, and of the whole remnant of the house of Israel from their present dispersions to their own land, as has been observed on Zechariah 10:6 . Zechariah 10:9 And I will sow them among the people: and they shall remember me in far countries; and they shall live with their children, and turn again. Zechariah 10:10 I will bring them again also out of the land of Egypt, and gather them out of Assyria; and I will bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon; and place shall not be found for them. Zechariah 10:11 And he shall pass through the sea with affliction, and shall smite the waves in the sea, and all the deeps of the river shall dry up: and the pride of Assyria shall be brought down, and the sceptre of Egypt shall depart away. Zechariah 10:11-12 . And he shall pass through the sea with affliction — The sense might be more properly expressed, And he [Israel] shall pass through the straits of the sea: so the LXX. and the Vulgate understand the word. And [God] shall smite the waves of the sea, &c. — The expressions allude to the miraculous passage of the Israelites through the Red sea, and the river Jordan; and to God’s destroying the Egyptians, and the Assyrian, or Babylonian empire, in order to the deliverance of his people. And the verse imports that God would, in a future time, do as great things for them as he had done formerly for their fathers. In this sense the Chaldee expounds the word. Egypt and Assyria, it must be observed, being two potent kingdoms, bordering upon Judea, and being by turns either allies to the Jews, or their conquerors; and the Jews frequently either going thither for refuge, or being carried thither as captives; therefore, when the prophets foretel the general restoration of the Jewish nation, they often express it by their returning from Egypt and Assyria. We may observe, likewise, that God’s bringing his people again from these countries, and especially from Egypt, was a proverbial expression to signify any deliverance, as great or greater than these. Thus, the next clause, And the pride of Assyria shall be brought down, and the sceptre of Egypt shall depart, signifies, the enemies of God and his truth shall all be subdued, and broken in pieces, when Christ shall come in his glorious power to set up his kingdom on the earth: see Daniel 2:33-34 ; Isaiah 60:12 . And I will strengthen them in the Lord — That is, I will strengthen them in myself, or I will be their helper, and give them all needful strength and protection. And they shall walk up and down in his name, saith the Lord — Their evils and actions shall be under the influence of his grace, and under the government of his laws, and he shall give them success answerable to their upright intentions. Zechariah 10:12 And I will strengthen them in the LORD; and they shall walk up and down in his name, saith the LORD. Benson Commentary on the Old and New Testaments Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.

Expositor's Bible Commentary 00000000 "ZECHARIAH" (9-14) "Lo, thy King cometh to thee, vindicated and victorious, meek and riding on an ass, and on a colt, the foal of an ass." "Up, Sword, against My Shepherd! Smite the Shepherd, that the sheep may be scattered!" "And I will pour upon the house of David and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplication, and they shall look to Him whom they have pierced, and they shall lament for Him, as with lamentation for an only son, and bitterly grieve for Him, as with grief for a first-born." CHAPTERS 9-14 OF "ZECHARIAH" WE saw that the first eight chapters of the Book of Zechariah were, with the exception of a few verses, from the prophet himself. No one has ever doubted this. No one could doubt it: they are obviously from the years of the building of the Temple, 520-516 B.C. They hang together with a consistency exhibited by few other groups of chapters in the Old Testament. But when we pass into chapter 9, we find ourselves in circumstances and an atmosphere altogether different. Israel is upon a new situation of history, and the words addressed to her breathe another spirit. There is not the faintest allusion to the building of the Temple-the subject from which all the first eight chapters depend. There is not a single certain reflection of the Persian period, under the shadow of which the first eight chapter were all evidently written. We have names of heathen powers mentioned which not only do not occur in the first eight chapters, but of which it is not possible to think that they had any interest whatever for Israel between 520 and 516: Damascus, Hadrach, Hamath, Assyria, Egypt, and Greece. The peace, and the love of peace, in which Zechariah wrote, has disappeared. Nearly everything breathes of war actual or imminent. The heathen are spoken of with a ferocity which finds few parallels in the Old Testament. There is a reveling in their blood of which the student of the authentic prophecies of Zechariah will at once perceive that gentle lover of peace could not have been capable. And one passage figures the imminence of a thorough judgment upon Jerusalem, very different from Zechariah’s outlook upon his people’s future from the eve of the completion of the Temple. It is not surprising, therefore, that one of the earliest efforts of Old Testament criticism should have been to prove another author than Zechariah for chaps, 9-14, of the book called by his name. The very first attempt of this kind was made so far back as 1632 by the Cambridge theologian Joseph Mede, who was moved thereto by the desire to vindicate the correctness of St. Matthew’s ascription { Matthew 27:9 } of "Zechariah" { Zechariah 11:13 } to the prophet Jeremiah. Mede’s effort was developed by other English exegetes. Hammond assigned chapters 10-12, Bishop Kidder and William Whiston, the translator of Josephus, chapters 9-14 to Jeremiah. Archbishop Newcome divided them, and sought to prove that while chapters 9-11 must have been written before 721, or a century earlier than Jeremiah, because of the heathen powers they name, and the divisions between Judah and Israel, chapters 12-14, reflect the imminence of the Fall of Jerusalem. In 1784 Flugge offered independent proof that chapters 9-14 were by Jeremiah; and in 1814 Bertholdt suggested, that chapters 9-11 might be by Zechariah the contemporary of Isaiah, and on that account attached to the prophecies of his younger namesake. These opinions gave the trend to the main volume of criticism, which, till fifteen years ago, deemed "Zechariah" 9-14 to be pre-exilic. So Hitzig, who at first took the whole to be from one hand, but afterwards placed 12-14 by a different author under Manasseh. So Ewald, Bleek, Kuenen (at first), Samuel Davidson, Schrader, Duhm (in 1875), and more recently Konig and Orelli, who assign chapters 9-11 to the reign of Ahaz, but 12-14 to the eve of the Fall of Jerusalem, or even a little later. Some critics, however, remained unmoved by the evidence offered for a pre-exilic date. They pointed out in particular that the geographical references were equally suitable to the centuries after the Exile. Damascus, Hadrach, and Hamath, { Zechariah 9:1 } though politically obsolete by 720, entered history again with the campaigns of Alexander the Great in 332-331, and the establishment of the Seleucid kingdom in Northern Syria. Egypt and Assyria { Zechariah 10:10 } were names used after the Exile for the kingdom of the Ptolemies, and for those powers which still threatened Israel from the north or Assyrian quarter Judah and Joseph or Ephraim, { Zechariah 9:10 ; Zechariah 9:13 etc.} were names still used after the Exile to express the whole of God’s Israel; and in chapters 9-14, they are presented, not divided as before 721, but united. None of the chapters give a hint of any king in Jerusalem; and all of them, while representing the great Exile of Judah as already begun, show a certain dependence in style and even in language upon Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Isaiah 40:1-31 ; Isaiah 41:1-29 ; Isaiah 42:1-25 ; Isaiah 43:1-28 ; Isaiah 44:1-28 ; Isaiah 45:1-25 ; Isaiah 46:1-13 ; Isaiah 47:1-15 ; Isaiah 48:1-22 ; Isaiah 49:1-26 ; Isaiah 50:1-11 ; Isaiah 51:1-23 ; Isaiah 52:1-15 ; Isaiah 53:1-12 ; Isaiah 54:1-17 ; Isaiah 55:1-13 ; Isaiah 56:1-12 ; Isaiah 57:1-21 ; Isaiah 58:1-14 ; Isaiah 59:1-21 ; Isaiah 60:1-22 ; Isaiah 61:1-11 ; Isaiah 62:1-12 ; Isaiah 63:1-19 ; Isaiah 64:1-12 ; Isaiah 65:1-25 ; Isaiah 66:1-24 . Moreover, the language is post-exilic, sprinkled with Aramaisms and with other words and phrases used only, or mainly, by Hebrew writers from Jeremiah onwards. But though many critics judged these grounds to be sufficient to prove the post-exilic origin of "Zechariah" 9-14, they differed as to the author and exact date of these chapters. Conservatives like Hengstenberg, Delitzsch, Keil, Kohler, and Pusey used the evidence to prove the authorship of Zechariah himself after 516, and interpreted the references to the Greek period as pure prediction. Pusey says that chapters 9-11 extend from the completion of the Temple and its deliverance during the invasion of Alexander, and from the victories of the Maccabees, to the rejection of the true shepherd and the curse upon the false; and chapters 11-12 "from a future repentance for the death of Christ to the final conversion of the Jews and Gentiles." But on the same grounds Eichhorn saw in the chapters, not a prediction, but a reflection of the Greek period. He assigned chapters 9 and 10 to an author in the time of Alexander the Great; Zechariah 11:1-17 - Zechariah 13:6 he placed a little later, and brought down Zechariah 13:7 . to the Maccabean period. Bottcher placed the whole in the wars of Ptolemy and Seleucus after Alexander’s death; and Vatke, who had at first selected a date in the reign of Artaxerxes Longhand, 464-425, finally decided for the Maccabean period, 170 ff. In recent times the most thorough examination of the chapters has been that by Stade, and the conclusion he comes to is that chapters 9-14, are all from one author, who must have written during the early wars between the Ptolemies and Seleucids about 280 B.C., but employed, especially in chapters 9, 10, an earlier prophecy. A criticism and modification of Stade’s theory is given by Kuenen. He allows that the present form of chapters 9-14 must be of post-exilic origin: this is obvious from the mention of the Greeks as a world power; the description of a siege of Jerusalem by all the heathen; the way in which ( Zechariah 9:11 f., but especially Zechariah 10:6-9 ) the captivity is presupposed, if not of all Israel, yet of Ephraim; the fact that the House of David are not represented as governing; and the thoroughly priestly character of all the chapters. But Kuenen holds that an ancient prophecy of the eighth century underlies chapters 9-11, Zechariah 13:7-9 , in which the several actual phrases of it survive; and that in their present form 12-14 are older than 9-11 and probably by a contemporary of Joel, about 400 B.C. In the main Cheyne, Cornill, Wildeboer, and Staerk adhere to Stade’s conclusions. Cheyne proves the unity of the six chapters and their date before the Maccabean period. Staerk brings down Zechariah 11:4-17 and Zechariah 13:7-9 to 171 B.C. Wellhausen argues for the unity, and assigns it to the Maccabean times. Driver Jdg 9:1-57 ; Jdg 10:1-18 ; Jdg 11:1-40 , with its natural continuation, Zechariah 13:7-9 , as not earlier than 333; and the rest of 12-14 as certainly post-exilic, and probably from 432-300. Rubinkam places Zechariah 9:1-10 in Alexander’s time, the rest in that of the Maccabees, but Zeydner all of it to the latter. Kirkpatrick, after showing the post-exilic character of all the chapters, favors assigning 9-11 to a different author from 12-14. Asserting that to the question of the exact date it is impossible to give a definite answer, he thinks that the whole may be with considerable probability assigned to the first sixty or seventy years of the Exile, and is therefore in its proper place between Zechariah and "Malachi." The reference to the sons of Javan he takes to be a gloss, probably added in Maccabean times. It will be seen from this catalogue of conclusions that the prevailing trend of recent criticism has been to assign "Zechariah" 9-14 to post-exilic times, and to a different author from chapters 1-8; and that while a few critics maintain a date soon after the Return, the bulk are divided between the years following Alexander’s campaigns and the time of the Maccabean struggles. There are, in fact, in recent years only two attempts to support the conservative position of Pusey and Hengstenberg that the whole book is a genuine work of Zechariah the son of Iddo. One of these is by C.H.H. Wright in his Bampton Lectures. The other is by George L. Robinson, now Professor at Toronto, in a reprint (1896) from the American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures, which offers a valuable history of the discussion of the whole question from the days of Mede, with a careful argument of all the evidence on both sides. The very original conclusion is reached that the chapters reflect the history of the years 518-516 B.C. In discussing the question, for which our treatment of other prophets has left us too little space, we need not open that part of it which lies between a pre-exilic and a post-exilic date. Recent criticism of all schools and at both extremes has tended to establish the latter upon reasons which we have already stated, and for further details of which the student may be referred to Stade’s and Eckhardt’s investigations in the Zeitschrift fur A.T. Wissenschaft and to Kirkpatrick’s impartial summary. There remain the questions of the unity of chapters 9-14; their exact date or dates after the Exile, and as a consequence of this their relation to the authentic prophecies of Zechariah in chapters 1-8. On the question of unity we take first chapters 9-11, to which must be added (as by most critics since Ewald) Zechariah 13:7-9 , which has got out of its place as the natural continuation and conclusion of chapter 11. Zechariah 9:1-8 predicts the overthrow of heathen neighbors of Israel, their possession by Jehovah and His safeguard of Jerusalem. Zechariah 9:9-12 follow with a prediction of the Messianic King as the Prince of Peace; but then come Zechariah 9:13-17 , with no mention of the King, but Jehovah appears alone as the hero of His people against the Greeks, and there is indeed sufficiency of war and blood. Chapter 10 makes a new start: the people are warned to seek their blessings from Jehovah, and not from Teraphim and diviners, whom their false shepherds follow. Jehovah, visiting His flock, shall punish these, give proper rulers, make the people strong and gather in their exiles to fill Gilead and Lebanon. Chapter 11 opens with a burst of war on Lebanon and Bashan and the overthrow of the heathen ( Zechariah 11:1-3 ), and follows with an allegory, in which the prophet first takes charge from Jehovah of the people as their shepherd, but is contemptuously treated by them ( Zechariah 11:4-14 ), and then taking the guise of an evil shepherd represents what they must suffer from their next ruler ( Zechariah 11:15-17 ). This tyrant, however, shall receive punishment, two-thirds of the nation shall be scattered, but the rest, further purified, shall be God’s own people ( Zechariah 8:7-9 ). In the course of this prophesying there is no conclusive proof of a double authorship. The only passage which offers strong evidence for this is chapter 9. The verses predicting the peaceful coming of Messiah ( Zechariah 9:9-12 ) do not accord in spirit with those which follow predicting the appearance of Jehovah with war and great shedding of blood. Nor is the difference altogether explained, as Stade thinks, by the similar order of events in chapter 10, where Judah and Joseph are first represented as saved and brought back in Zechariah 10:6 , and then we have the process of their redemption and return described in Zechariah 10:7 ff. Why did the same writer give statements of such very different temper as Zechariah 9:9-17 ? Or, if these be from different hands, why were they ever put together? Otherwise there is no reason for breaking up chapters 9-11, Zechariah 13:7-9 . Rubinkam, who separates Zechariah 9:1-10 by a hundred and fifty years from the rest; Bleek, who divides 9 from 10; and Staerk, who separates 9-11:3 from the rest, have been answered by Robinson and others. On the ground of language, grammar, and syntax, Eckardt has fully proved that 9-11 are from the same author of a late date, who, however, may have occasionally followed earlier models and even introduced their very phrases. More supporters have been found for a division of authorship between chapters 9-11, Zechariah 13:7-9 , and chapters 12-14. {less Zechariah 13:7-9 } Chapter 12 opens with a title of its own. A strange element is introduced into the historical relation. Jerusalem is assaulted, not by the heathen only, but by Judah, who, however, turns on finding that Jehovah fights for Jerusalem, and is saved by Jehovah before Jerusalem in order that the latter may not boast over it. { Zechariah 12:1-9 } A spirit of grace and supplication is poured upon the guilty city, a fountain opened for uncleanness, idols abolished, and the prophets, who are put on a level with them, abolished too, where they do not disown their profession. { Zechariah 12:10 - Zechariah 13:6 } Another assault of the heathen on Jerusalem is described, half of the people being taken captive. Jehovah appears, and by a great earthquake saves the rest. The land is transformed. And then the prophet goes back to the defeat of the heathen assault on the city, in which Judah is again described as taking part; and the surviving heathen are converted, or, if they refuse to be, punished by the withholding of rain. Jerusalem is holy to the Lord (chapter 14). In all this there is more that differs from chapters 9-11, Zechariah 13:7-9 , than the strange opposition of Judah and Jerusalem. Ephraim, or Joseph, is not mentioned nor any return of exiles, nor punishment of the shepherds, nor coming of the Messiah, the latter’s place being taken by Jehovah. But in answer to this we may remember that the Messiah, after being described in Zechariah 9:9-12 , is immediately lost behind the warlike coming of Jehovah. Both sections speak of idolatry, and of the heathen, their punishment and conversion, and do so in the same apocalyptic style. Nor does the language of the two differ in any decisive fashion. On the contrary, as Eckardt and Kuiper have shown, the language is on the whole an argument for unity of authorship. There is, then, nothing conclusive against the position, which Stade so clearly laid down and strongly fortified, that chapters 9-14 are from the same hand, although, as he admits, this cannot be proved with absolute certainty. So also Cheyne: "With perhaps one or two exceptions, chapters 9-11 and 12-14 are so closely welded together that even analysis is impossible." The next questions we have to decide are whether chapters 9-14 offer any evidence of being by Zechariah, the author of chapters 1-8, and if not to what other post-exilic date they may be assigned. It must be admitted that in language and in style the two parts of the Book of Zechariah have features in common. But that these have been exaggerated by defenders of the unity there can be no doubt. We cannot infer anything from the fact that both parts contain specimens of clumsy diction, of the repetition of the same word, of phrases (not the same phrases) unused by other writers; or that each is lavish in vocatives; or that each is variable in his spelling. Resemblances of that kind they share with other books: some of them are due to the fact that both sections are post-exilic. On the other hand, as Eckardt has dearly shown, there exists a still greater number of differences between the two sections, both in language and in style. Not only do characteristic words occur in each which are not found in the other, not only do chapters 9-14 contain many more Aramaisms than chapters 1-8, and therefore symptoms of a later date; but both parts use the same words with more or less different meanings, and apply different terms to the same objects. There are also differences of grammar, of favorite formulas, and of other features of the phraseology, which, if there be any need, complete the proof of a distinction of dialect so great as to require to account for it distinction of authorship. The same impression is sustained by the contrast of the historical circumstances reflected in each of the two sections. Zechariah 1:1-21 ; Zechariah 2:1-13 ; Zechariah 3:1-10 ; Zechariah 4:1-14 ; Zechariah 5:1-11 ; Zechariah 6:1-15 ; Zechariah 7:1-14 ; Zechariah 8:1-23 , were written during the building of the Temple. There is no echo of the latter in "Zechariah" 9-14. Zechariah 1:1-21 ; Zechariah 2:1-13 ; Zechariah 3:1-10 ; Zechariah 4:1-14 ; Zechariah 5:1-11 ; Zechariah 6:1-15 ; Zechariah 7:1-14 ; Zechariah 8:1-23 picture the whole earth as at peace, which was true at least of all Syria; they portend no danger to Jerusalem from the heathen, but describe her peace and fruitful expansion in terms most suitable to the circumstances imposed upon her by the solid and clement policy of the earlier Persian kings. This is all changed in, "Zechariah" 9-14. The nations are restless; a siege of Jerusalem is imminent, and her salvation is to be assured only by much war and a terrible shedding of blood. We know exactly how Israel fared and felt in the early sections of the Persian period: her interests in the politics of the world, her feelings towards her governors and her whole attitude to the heathen were not at that time those which are reflected in "Zechariah" 9-14. Nor is there any such resemblance between the religious principles of the two sections of the Book of Zechariah as could prove identity of origin. That both are spiritual, or that they have a similar expectation of the ultimate position of Israel in the history of the world, proves only that both were late offshoots from the same religious development, and worked upon the same ancient models. Within these outlines there are not a few divergences. Zechariah 1:1-21 ; Zechariah 2:1-13 ; Zechariah 3:1-10 ; Zechariah 4:1-14 ; Zechariah 5:1-11 ; Zechariah 6:1-15 ; Zechariah 7:1-14 ; Zechariah 8:1-23 , were written before Ezra and Nehemiah had imposed the Levitical legislation upon Israel; but Eckardt has shown the dependence on the latter of "Zechariah" 9-14. We may, therefore, adhere to Canon Driver’s assertion, that Zechariah in chapters 1-8 "uses a different phraseology, evinces different interests, and moves in a different circle of ideas from those which prevail in chapters 9-14. Criticism has indeed been justified in separating, by the vast and growing majority of its opinions, the two sections from each other. This was one of the earliest results which modern criticism achieved, and the latest researches have but established it on a firmer basis." If, then, chapters 9-14 be not Zechariah’s, to what date may we assign them? We have already seen that they bear evidence of being upon the whole later than Zechariah, though they appear to contain fragments from an earlier period. Perhaps this is all we can with certainty affirm. Yet something more definite is at least probable. The mention of the Greeks, not as Joel mentions them about 400, the most distant nation to which Jewish slaves could be carried, but as the chief of the heathen powers, and a foe with whom the Jews are in touch and must soon cross swords, { Zechariah 9:13 } appears to imply that the Syrian campaign of Alexander is happening or has happened, or even that the Greek kingdoms of Syria and Egypt are already contending for the possession of Palestine. With this agrees the mention of Damascus, Hadrach, and Hamath, the localities where the Seleucids had their chief seats. { Zechariah 9:1 f} In that case Asshur would signify the Seleucids and Egypt the Ptolemies: it is these, and not Greece itself, from whom the Jewish exiles have still to be redeemed. All this makes probable the date which Stade has proposed for the chapters, between 300 and 280 B.C. To bring them further down, to the time of the Maccabees, as some have tried to do, would not be impossible so far as the historical allusions are concerned; but had they been of so late a date as that, viz. , 170 or 160, we may assert that they could not have found a place in the prophetic canon, which was closed by 200, but must have fallen along with Daniel into the Hagiographa. The appearance of these prophecies at the close of the Book of Zechariah has been explained, not quite satisfactorily, as follows. With the Book of "Malachi" they formed originally three anonymous pieces, which because of their anonymity were set at the end of the Book of the Twelve. The first of them begins with the very peculiar construction " Massa’ Debar Jehovah ," "oracle of the word of Jehovah," which, though partly belonging to the text, the editor read as a title, and attached as a title to each of the others. It occurs nowhere else. The Book of "Malachi" was too distinct in character to be attached to another book, and soon came to have the supposed name of its author added to its title. But the other two pieces fell, like all anonymous works, to the nearest Writing with an author’s name. Perhaps the attachment was hastened by the desire to make the round number of Twelve Prophets. ADDENDA Whiston’s work is " An Essay towards restoring the True Text of the O.T. and for vindicating the Citations made thence in the N.T. ," 1722, pp. 93 ff (not seen). Besides those mentioned (seen.) as supporting the unity of Zechariah there ought to be named De Wette, Umbreit, von Hoffmann, Ebrard, etc. Kuiper’s work is "Zachariah 9-14," Utrecht, 1894 (not seen). Nowack’s conclusions are: 9-11:3 date from the Greek period (we cannot date them more exactly, unless 9:8 refers to Ptolemy’s capture of Jerusalem in 320); 11, 13:7-9, are post-exilic; 12-13:6 long after Exile; 14 long after Exile, later than "Malachi." Zechariah 10:1 Ask ye of the LORD rain in the time of the latter rain; so the LORD shall make bright clouds, and give them showers of rain, to every one grass in the field. 4. AGAINST THE TERAPHIM AND SORCERERS Zechariah 10:1-2 This little piece is connected with the previous one only through the latter’s conclusion upon the fertility of the land, while this opens with rain, the requisite of fertility. It is connected with the piece that follows only by its mention of the shepherdless state of the people, the piece that follows being against the false shepherds. These connections are extremely slight. Perhaps the piece is an independent one. The subject of it gives no clue to the date. Sorcerers are condemned both by the earlier prophets, and by the later. Stade points out that this is the only passage of the Old Testament in which the Teraphim are said to speak. The language has one symptom of a late period. After emphasizing the futility of images, enchantments, and dreams, this little oracle says, therefore the people wander like sheep: they have no shepherd. Shepherd in this connection cannot mean civil ruler, but must be religious director. "Ask from Jehovah rain in the time of the latter rain. Jehovah is the maker of the lightning-flashes, and the winter rain He gives to them-to every man herbage in the field. But the Teraphim speak nothingness, and the sorcerers see lies, and dreams discourse vanity, and they comfort in vain. Wherefore they wander(?) like a flock of sheep, and flee about, for there is no shepherd." THE CONTENTS OF "ZECHARIAH" Chapters 9-14 FROM the number of conflicting opinions which prevail upon the subject, we have seen how impossible it is to decide upon a scheme of division for "Zechariah" 9-14. These chapters consist of a number of separate oracles, which their language and general conceptions lead us on the whole to believe were put together by one hand, and which, with the possible exception of some older fragments, reflect the troubled times in Palestine that followed on the invasion of Alexander the Great. But though the most of them are probably due to one date and possibly come from the same author, these oracles do not always exhibit a connection, and indeed sometimes show no relevance to each other. It will therefore be simplest to take them piece by piece, and; before giving the translation of each, to explain the difficulties in it and indicate the ruling ideas. Zechariah 10:3 Mine anger was kindled against the shepherds, and I punished the goats: for the LORD of hosts hath visited his flock the house of Judah, and hath made them as his goodly horse in the battle. 5. AGAINST EVIL SHEPHERDS Zechariah 10:3-12 The unity of this section is more apparent than its connection with the preceding, which had spoken of the want of a shepherd, or religious director, of Israel, while this is directed against their shepherds and leaders, meaning their foreign tyrants. The figure is taken from Jeremiah 23:1 ff., where, besides, "to visit upon" is used in a sense of punishment, but the simple "visit" in the sense of to look after, just as within Zechariah 10:3 of this tenth chapter. Who these foreign tyrants are is not explicitly stated, but the reference to Egypt and Assyria as lands whence the Jewish captives shall be brought home, while at the same time there is a Jewish nation in Judah, suits only the Greek period, after Ptolemy had taken so many Jews to Egypt, and there were numbers still scattered throughout the other great empire in the north, to which, as we have already seen, the Jews applied the name of Assyria. The reference can hardly suit the years after Seleucus and Ptolemy granted to the Jews in their territories the rights of citizens. The captive Jews are to be brought back to Gilead and Lebanon Why exactly these are mentioned, and neither Samaria nor Galilee, forms a difficulty, to whatever age we assign the chapter. The language of Zechariah 10:3-12 has several late features. Joseph or Ephraim, here and elsewhere in these chapters, is used of the portion of Israel still in captivity, in contrast to Judah, the returned community. The passage predicts that Jehovah will change His poor leaderless sheep, the Jews, into war-horses, and give them strong chiefs and weapons of war. They shall overthrow the heathen, and Jehovah will bring back His exiles. The passage is therefore one with chapter 9. "My wrath is hot against the shepherds, and I will make visitation on the he-goats: yea, Jehovah of Hosts will visit His flock, the house of Judah, and will make them like His splendid war horses. From Him the corner-stone, from Him the stay, from Him the war-bow, from Him the oppressor-shall go forth together. And in battle shall they trample on heroes as on the dirt of the streets, and fight, for Jehovah is with them, and the riders on horses shall be abashed. And the house of Judah will I make strong and work salvation for the house of Joseph, and bring them back, for I have pity for them, and they shall be as though I had not put them away, for I am Jehovah their God and I will hold converse with them. And Ephraim shall be as heroes, and their heart shall be glad as with wine, and their children shall behold and be glad: their heart shall rejoice in Jehovah. I will whistle for them and gather them in, for I have redeemed them, and they shall be as many as they once were. I scattered them among the nations, but among the faraway they think of Me, and they will bring up their children, and come back. And I will fetch them home from the land of Misraim, and from Asshur will I gather them, and to the land of Gilead and Lebanon will I bring them in, though these be not found sufficient for them. And they shall pass through the sea of Egypt, and He shall smite the sea of breakers, and all the deeps of the Nile shall be dried, and the pride of Assyria brought down, and the scepter of Egypt swept aside. And their strength shall be in Jehovah, and in His Name shall they boast themselves-oracle of Jehovah." The Expositor's Bible Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.