Zechariah 11

Notes

Ver. 1-3. Lebanon may denote the temple, Jerusalem, or even Judea in general. Fir-trees, cedars, oaks, shepherds, lions, may denote their great men, valiant soldiers, and cruel rulers. The forest may denote Jerusalem, or the common people, unfruitful in holiness, but numerous, entangling, and dangerous. The pride of Jordan may denote all Judea, overrun by the Roman armies, which enraged their rulers, even as the overflow of Jordan enraged the lions which lodged in its banks. 4, 7, 11. For about forty years before their last dispersion, Jesus Christ personally, and by his harbinger and apostles, called the Jews to himself; and many of the poorer sort were converted, and rendered poor in spirit; and, by following his directions in leaving their country and fleeing to Pella eastward of Jordan, most of them were preserved from the common ruin. 5, 6, 8, 9. The Jews were partly destroyed by the cruelty and violence of their own governors, by their intestine divisions, and by the Roman emperor, whom they had avowed for their king in opposition to Jesus Christ. Their princes, priests, and prophets, and the three sects of Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herodians, together with the three civil factions, all haters of God, and detested by him, were cut off one after another; and the nation in general abandoned to sword, famine, pestilence, and miserable captivity. 10, 14. The breaking of these staves may denote his renouncing all claim to them as his peculiar people, and dissolving all connection of government and affection among them; or his entire removal of the ordinances of the gospel from them, which were means of honourably uniting them to the church, and to one another in love. 15-17. They were given up to corrupt teachers and pretended Messiahs, who, by their false doctrines, &c., cruelly murdered their souls, preyed upon their substance, and decoyed them into ruinous calamities; and to civil rulers, whether of their own nation, or of the Romans, Persians, Antichristians, Turks, &c., who miserably oppressed them.—Yea, these teachers and rulers did but render themselves miserable in the issue.

Ver. 7. Beauty: salvation, meekness of spirit, holiness of heart and life, Ps.149.4; 1 Pe.3.4; Ps.110.3.—Bands: union in doctrine, object, and love, 1 Pe.3.8; Phi.2.2; Col.2.2. The word may also well imply brotherly and national union in one place previous to the dispersion, ver. 14. C.

Ver. 8. Three shepherds. Are these the Scribes, Pharisees, and Sadducees—the three great classes of the enemies of Christ the true Shepherd? Or, are they kings, priests, and prophets—the three pastoral orders in Israel? Or, are they 'the priests, people, and king,' threatened with judgment in 'a month,' Ho.5.7; who are also addressed in the same chapter as Ephraim (ver. 3), Judah (ver. 5), and Benjamin (ver. 8), all described as shepherds (ver. 6), and summoned together to execution in Gibeah, Ramah, and Beth-aven? ver. 8. This last view, though unsupported by authorities, seems decidedly preferable, as the people to whom Zechariah wrote must have been well acquainted with the writings of Hosea, the only prophet who had previously threatened a threefold destruction within a month. C.

Reflections.—Awfully alarming are the falls of cities, churches, or nations, or even of persons eminent in station. And dreadful and desperate is the condition of nations and churches when their rulers become oppressors and murderers, and when hearers become pleased with clerical monsters of wickedness. Before the most ruinous judgments God often tries men with the offered grace of his gospel. And great is the mercy if even the poorer sort embrace it and repent, when the rich and great pour contempt upon it. But dreadful is the case if the final offers of grace do but occasion men's impenitence and obstinate wickedness. Awful prelude to their misery whose churches are dissolved and abandoned by Heaven. Mutual contentions and common calamities quickly issue in their destruction. God justly gives up the refusers of his Son into the hands of unfaithful ministers, deceitful impostors, and unmerciful princes. And dreadful is the guilt of such, and certain and fearful their plagues.