Zechariah 9:17 - Exposition

His goodness. The goodness, i.e. the prosperity, of Israel or the land. Revised Version margin, "their prosperity." If the affix "his" is referred to Jehovah, the nouns "goodness" and "beauty" must be taken, not as his attributes, but as gifts bestowed by him, the prosperity and beauty which he confers. But it is more suitable to the context to consider the reference to be to the people, who in the next clause are divided into young men and maidens, and to take the "goodness," or goodliness, as appertaining more especially to the former, and the "beauty" to the latter. His beauty (comp. Ezekiel 16:14 ). (For the Messianic interpretation, see Psalms 45:2 ; Isaiah 33:17 .) Corn … new wine. This is an expression often found to denote great abundance and prosperity. The two are distributed poetically between the youths and maidens ( Deuteronomy 33:28 ; Psalms 72:16 ; Jeremiah 31:12 , Jeremiah 31:13 ; Joel 2:18 , Joel 2:19 ). Make … cheerful; literally, make sprout. It probably refers to the increase of population occurring in times of plenty. This outward prosperity is a symbol of God's favour and the uprightness of the people. In these things, too, we may see adumbrated the spiritual blessings of the gospel, which are, as corn and wine, to strengthen and refresh the soul.