Zechariah 9:6-7

Zechariah 9:6-7. And a bastard shall dwell in Ashdod Newcome reads, strangers, understanding by the expression, “a strange and spurious race; a despicable race; born of harlots.” But Blayney, who reads, a stranger, observes, that the Hebrew word, ממזר here used, does not imply an illegitimate offspring. In proof of which he quotes Psalms 69:8, where מוזר , a word from which the above is derived, is translated a stranger, so that he supposes the sense of this clause to be, that the city of Ashdod should be peopled with strangers, not descended from its present possessors. The LXX. and Chaldee understand the expression in the same sense. And I will cut off the pride of the Philistines Ashdod, or Azotus, was burned and destroyed by Jonathan, brother of Judas Maccabeus, and eight thousand of its men burned or slain, 1Ma 10:84-85 . These were probably intended here by the pride of the Philistines, that is, the pride, or excellence, of the ancient inhabitants, in whose room the strangers were introduced. And I will take away his blood out of his mouth The Philistine shall be brought down so low, that he shall not be in a condition to molest or threaten slaughter to his neighbours, as he did formerly. And his abominations from between his teeth He shall be reduced to such poverty, that he shall no more make banquets in honour of his idols, and feast upon them. “The idolatrous and abominable practices of the Philistines shall cease. The metaphor is taken from beasts of prey, who gorge themselves with blood.” Ashdod is mentioned by Josephus among the cities of the Phenicians which were under the dominion of the Jews; and it is well known that they exacted of all who were under their authority, a conformity, in a certain degree, to their religious rites and ceremonies. This will explain what is meant by taking his blood, &c. The stranger was required to abstain from eating blood, and from such things as were held in abomination by the Jewish law. But he that remaineth, even he shall be for our God This was fulfilled in the times of the Maccabees, and also in the times of Alexander Jannæus, who subdued their principal cities, as Josephus relates, ( Antiq., lib. 13. cap. 23,) and made them part of the Jewish dominions, the inhabitants of several of which embraced the Jewish religion. And he shall be as a governor in Judah Shall be regarded and honoured. Blayney renders it, Shall be as a citizen in Judah, considering the expression as being used in contrast to the word which he renders stranger, Zechariah 9:6; and signifying that the stranger who should come to dwell in Ashdod, would, after renouncing all his heathenish practices, become a convert to the true God, and, as a governor in Judah, entitled to all the same privileges in that city, as a prime citizen enjoyed among the Jews: terms these which exactly correspond with those used by St. Paul, who, having called the unconverted Gentiles, ξενοι και παροικοι , strangers and foreigners, entitles them, after their conversion, συμπολιται των αγιων και οικειοι του Θεου , fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God, Ephesians 2:19. And Ekron as a Jebusite And the Philistines shall have the same privileges allowed them, and be put on the same footing, as the Jebusites, the ancient inhabitants of Jerusalem were, when the Israelites conquered them: see Judges 1:21.