Zechariah 12

The Pulpit Commentary - Zechariah 12:13

Levi … Shimei. As before, the priestly family is first mentioned generally, and then individualized by naming Shimei, the son of Gershon, and grandson of Levi, of whom was the family of the Shimeites ( Numbers 3:17 , Numbers 3:18 , Numbers 3:21 ). The LXX . gives, "the tribe of Simeon," instead of "the family of Shimei." But there is no reason for singling out this tribe. In one sense, this prophecy began to be fulfilled when a great company of priests were converted by the preaching... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Zechariah 12:14

The families that remain. All the families that have not been mentioned already. read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Zechariah 12

Jerome: “from ‘I will make Jerusalem’ to ‘Awake, O sword,’ there is a threefold exposition. For some of the Jews say that these things have already been fulfilled in part from Zerobabel to Pompey who, first of the Romans, took Judea and the temple, as Josephus relates. Others think that it is to be fulfilled at the end of the world, when Jerusalem shall be restored, which the miserable Jewish race promiseth itself with its anointed, of whom we read above as the foolish shepherd. But others,... read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Zechariah 12:1

The burden of the word of the Lord for - Rather, “upon (see at Nahum 1:1, p. 129) Israel.” If this prophecy is a continuation of the last, notwithstanding its fresh title, then “Israel” must be the Christian Church, formed of the true Israel which believed, and the Gentiles who were grafted into them. So Cyril; “Having spoken sufficiently of the Good Shepherd Christ, and of the foolish, most cruel shepherd who butchered the sheep, that is, antichrist, he seasonably makes mention of the... read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Zechariah 12:2

I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling - For encouragement, He promises the victory, and at first mentions the attack incidentally. Jerusalem is as a cup or basin, which its enemies take into their hands; a stone, which they put forth their strength to lift; but they themselves reel with the draught of God’s judgments which they would give to others, they are torn by the stone which they would lift to fling. The image of the “cup” is mostly of God’s displeasure, which is given to His own... read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Zechariah 12:3

I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone to all nations - What is “a stone to all nations?” It is not a rock or anything in its own nature immovable, but a “stone,” a thing rolled up and down, moved, lifted, displaced, piled on others, in every way at the service and command of people, to do with it what they willed. So they thought of that “stone cut out without hands” Daniel 2:45; that “tried stone and sure foundation, laid in Zion” Isaiah 28:16; that “stone” which, God said in Zechariah, “I... read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Zechariah 12:4

In that day, saith the Lord, I will smite every horse with astonishment, stupefying - Zechariah revives the words concentrated by Moses, to express the stupefaction at their ills, which God would accumulate upon His people, if they perseveringly rebelled against Him. Each expresses the intensity of the visitation. “The horse and his rider” Deut. 27:28 had, through Moses’ song at the Red Sea, become the emblem of worldly power, overthrown. That song opens; “I will sing unto the Lord; for He hath... read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Zechariah 12:5

And the princes of Judah - He pictures the onemindedness of the Church. No one shall assume anything to himself; each shall exalt the strength which the other was to him; but all, “in the Lord. The princes of Judah” shall say “in their heart,” not outwardly or politically, but in inward conviction, “strength to me” (all speak as one) “are the inhabitants of Jerusalem in the Lord of hosts their God.” The highest in human estimation acknowledge that their strength is in those who are of no... read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Zechariah 12:6

I will make the governors of Judah like a hearth - or “cauldron” of fire large, broad, deep, and full of fire, among the wood which is prepared for burning, and like a torch of fire in a sheaf The fire could not kindle the wood or the sheaf, of itself, unless applied to it. All is of the agency of God: “I will make.”Ribera: “He foretells the increase of the Church, which by such persecutions shall not be diminished, but shall be marvelously increased. The preachers of the Church shall raise up... read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Zechariah 12:7

The Lord also shall save the tents of Judah first - Still it is, ‘the Lord shall save.’ We have, on the one side, the ‘siege,’ the gathering of all the peoples of the earth ‘against Jerusalem, the horse and his rider.’ On the other, no human strength; not, as before, in the prophecy of the Maccabees, the bow, the arrow, and the sword, though in the hand of God Zechariah 9:13. It is thrice, ‘I will make’ Zechariah 9:2-3,; ‘I will smite’ (Zechariah 9:4 bis); and now, ‘The Lord shall save.’ By... read more

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