Zechariah 11:8 Komentář

God's prophet, who, in the chapters before, was an ambassador sent to promise peace, is here a herald sent to declare war. The Jewish nation shall recover its prosperity, and shall flourish for some time and become considerable; it shall be very happy, at length, in the coming of the long-expected Messiah, in the preaching of his gospel, and in the setting up of his standard there. But, when thereby the chosen remnant among them are effectually called in and united to Christ, the body of the nation, persisting in unbelief, shall be utterly abandoned and given up to ruin, for rejecting Christ; and it is this that is foretold here in this chapter - the Jews rejecting Christ, which was their measure-filling sin, and the wrath which for that sin came upon them to the uttermost. Here is, I. A prediction of the destruction itself that should come upon the Jewish nation (Zac 11:1-3). II. The putting of it into the hands of the Messiah. 1. He is charged with the custody of that flock (Zac 11:4-6). 2. He undertakes it, and bears rule in it (Zac 11:7, Zac 11:8). 3. Finding it perverse, he gives it up (Zac 11:9), breaks his shepherd's staff (Zac 11:10, Zac 11:11), resents the indignities done him and the contempt put upon him (Zac 11:12, Zac 11:13), and then breaks his other staff (Zac 11:14). 4. He turns them over into the hands of foolish shepherds, who, instead of preventing, shall complete their ruin, and both the blind leaders and the blind followers shall fall together into the ditch (Zac 11:15-17). This is foretold to the poor of the flock before it comes to pass, that, when it does come to pass, they may not be offended.

INTRODUCTION TO ZECHARIAH 11 This chapter contains a prophecy of the destruction of the Jews, and shows the causes and reasons of it; and is concluded with a prediction concerning antichrist. The destruction of the temple and city of Jerusalem, and the inhabitants of it, is signified by figurative expressions, Zac 11:1 which occasions an howling among the shepherds or rulers of Israel, on account of whose cruelty and covetousness the wrath of God came upon them without mercy, Zac 11:3 but inasmuch as there were a remnant according to the election of grace among them, named the flock of the slaughter, Christ is called upon to feed them; who undertakes it, and prepares for it, Zac 11:4 but being abhorred by the shepherds, whom he therefore loathed and cut off, he determines to leave the people to utter ruin and destruction, Zac 11:8 and, as a token of it, breaks the two staves asunder he had took to feed them with, Zac 11:10 and, as an instance of their ingratitude to him, and which is a justification of his conduct towards them, notice is taken of his being valued at and sold for thirty pieces of silver, Zac 11:12 but, in the place of these shepherds cut off, it is suggested that another should arise, who is described by his folly, negligence, and cruelty, Zac 11:15 to whom a woe is denounced, Zac 11:17.

Three shepherds also I cut off in one month,.... Not Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, as is suggested in the Talmud (e); nor David, Adonijah, and Joab, who died in the space of a month; nor the three kings, Jehoash, Jehoiakim, and Zedekiah, who died by the hand of their enemies in a very little time; which is the sense of some, as Abendana observes; nor the three last prophets, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, according to Aben Ezra; nor the three Maccabees, Judas, Jonathan, and Simon, as Abarbinel; rather the three sects among the Jews, the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes, instead of which last some put the Herodians; and others the Scribes; though some are of opinion that the three sanhedrim or courts of judicature among the Jews are designed; but it seems best of all to interpret them of the three orders of magistrates among them, princes, prophets, and priests; and the "cutting" them "off" may denote the cessation of civil government, the sealing up of vision and prophecy, and the putting an end to sacrifice; which is much better than to interpret them of the three Roman emperors who succeeded Nero; that is, Galba, Otho, and Vitellius, who were put to death by their own subjects, within the space of a year and some days (f); and which is a term of time that can not well be thought to be expressed by a month; which either signifies in general a small space of time; or, if a certain month is meant, either it designs the month Nisan, in which Christ suffered, when of right sacrifice should have ceased, as well as then prophecy was sealed up, and there was no more of it among the Jews, nor any civil government in their hands: or else the month Ab, in which the city of Jerusalem was burnt; and so an end was put in fact to all the above offices there. It may be that a month of years is intended, as in Rev 11:2 and so Abarbinel here interprets it; though he applies it to the times of the Maccabees; but it may respect the thirty years, or thereabout, which were between the death of Christ and the destruction of Jerusalem, within which compass of time the above events were actually and manifestly fulfilled: and my soul loathed them; because they did not perform the duties of their office; the civil magistrate did not govern according to the laws of God; the prophets did not teach sound doctrine; and the priests did not do their service aright, nor teach the people the use and end of sacrifices, and in them direct to the Messiah, as they should have done: wherefore Christ expressed his dislike of them by words in his ministry, particularly in Matthew chapter twenty three, Mat 23:1 and by deeds, causing vengeance to come upon them to the entire removal of them: or, "my soul was shortened", or "contracted in them", or "towards them" (g); his affections were lessened towards them; he loathed their ways and works, which were not good; and he rejected and cast them off as his people, and wrote a "loammi" on them; took away his Gospel from them, and abolished their civil and church state: and their soul also abhorred me; which is the reason of the former; and so the Targum paraphrases it, "and my Word cast them away, because their soul abhorred my worship;'' all ranks and orders of men among the Jews had Christ in abhorrence; they abhorred his person, his name, his miracles, his doctrines, his ordinances, and his people; this they did because of his mean appearance; and because of his inveighing against their traditions, superstitions, and immoralities; and this appeared by their contemptuous rejection of him as the Messiah; by their crucifixion of him; and by persecuting his disciples and followers. (e) T. Bab. Taanith, fol. 9. 1. (f) Calmet's Dictionary, in the word "Shepherds". (g) "et abbreviata est anima mea in eis", Montanus, Cocceius, Burkius; "coarctata est", Calvin; "contractabatur, vel contrahetsese", Vatablus; "contracta est", Drusius, Grotius.

We may understand this historically of Moses and Aaron. Moses—and Aaron also—was conducted to but not inducted into the Promised Land. Jesus took Moses’ place. Be sure you grasp the significance of what is written. Moses died in a desert; Aaron died; Mary died; and hear now what is written in the prophet: “In a single month I did away with three shepherds.” They died, for they could not enter the Promised Land. They merely looked over toward the land of promise, but enter it they could not. The Jews beheld the Promised Land but could not enter it. They died in the desert, and their dead bodies lie in the wilderness, the corpses of those who died in the desert. We, their children, under the leadership of Jesus, have come to the Jordan and have entered the Promised Land; we have come to Gilgal and have been circumcised with spiritual circumcision and have been cleansed of the reproach of Egypt. Even now Jesus himself, our leader, holds the sword and always goes before us and fights for us and conquers our adversaries. For seven days, we march around the city of Jericho, in other words, this world. We sound the priestly trumpets and march around Jericho, this world, and the walls fall, and we enter and consider ourselves victors. Next we conquer the city Ai; then go to Jebus, to Azor, to other cities; we conquer the enemies that we were unable to vanquish under Moses.

(Verse 8, 9.) And I took for myself two staffs: one I called Beauty, and the other I called Cords (or Funicles); and I fed the flock. And I cut off three shepherds in one month, and my soul was grieved with them; for their soul also varied against me. And I said, I will not feed you; let it die, let it die; and let it be cut off, let it be cut off; and let the rest eat every one the flesh of another. LXX: And I will take for myself two staffs: one to be called Beauty, and the other I called Cords (or Funicles), and I will feed the sheep. And I will take away three shepherds in one month, and my soul will be embittered against them: for their soul also roared upon me. And I said, I will not feed you: that which is dying, let it die: and that which is cut off, let it be cut off: and let the rest devour every one the flesh of his neighbor. The Lord God had said: Feed the sheep of the slaughter, which their possessors have killed, and do not sin against them to glory, that a buyer may be found for them over them, and their possessors may say: Blessed be the Lord, for I am become rich: and their shepherds will have no pity for them. For I will no more have mercy on the inhabitants of the land, saith, the Lord. And this seemed to be said about one Jewish people, that having killed the prophets, they even laid hands on the Son of God and shouted with a rash voice: His blood be on us and on our children (Matthew 27:25)! Now the Creator of the universe and the Lord explains the mysteries of his world, and says that he had two staffs, one of which he called Beauty, the other Cords, and he fed the flock while being bound with these two staffs; he also cut down three shepherds in one month, and my soul was angry with them; undoubtedly the shepherds signify those whom he cut down in one month. And he explained the reason why he was so indignant with the shepherds that he killed them all in one month: 'Because,' he said, 'their souls changed towards me. And the meaning is this: They did not love me with their whole heart. The hireling shepherds loved the shepherd, not truly me. For the good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep (John 10:11)'. Therefore, I also expressed my indignation and spoke to the shepherds themselves, whom I had killed in my anger, or to the remaining flock after the shepherds were killed: 'I will not feed you; but let him who has chosen death die by his own will, and let them devour each other and tear each other apart with mutual slaughter.' We have said these things paraphrastically, in order to pave the way for future interpretation. The Creator and Shepherd, whose sheep know his voice and follow him, took for himself two staffs, or two rods, which in Hebrew are called Macaloth, to demonstrate the appearance of a shepherd. He called one staff Beauty, that is, he protected all the human race with his blessing, from the time of Noah, when the world was restored and sin had not yet defiled it. And for this reason, the calling of all nations is called honorable and beautiful, because nothing is more just than to equally call the parent of the universe, those whom he generated with equal conditions. And another he called the boundaries; for when the Most High was dividing the nations, and dispersing the sons of Adam, he established the boundaries of the nations, according to the number of God's angels (Deut. XXXII). And the part of the Lord became his people Jacob; the boundaries of his inheritance, Israel. And he said, 'I pastured the flock, whether it was Israel itself or the entire human race with Israel.' And he said, 'I cut down three shepherds in one month.' I read in the commentaries of someone: 'The shepherds of the Lord who were cut down with indignation are understood to be the priests, false prophets, and kings of the Jews; because after the passion of Christ, all things were cut down at once, of which Jeremiah speaks: 'The priests did not say, 'Where is the Lord?' Those who hold onto my law did not know me.' And the shepherds have transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied in Baal, and they have followed idols (Jeremiah 2:8). Not satisfied with this explanation, he wants to interpret that the three shepherds who were cut off in one month refer to those who have sinned against the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; for all heretics, they sin either against one, or two, or three persons simultaneously. Let him say what he wishes, for his interpretation must not be undermined. We have three shepherds who were killed in one month, Moses seems to be, and Aaron, and Mary (Num. 20); of whom Mary died in the first month, which is called Nisan (), in the desert of Sin, and in the same place because of the water of contradiction, and in the same month, Moses and Aaron were condemned, so that they would not enter the promised land. And so it happened, that out of the three shepherds, one was struck by immediate death, and the others by the sentence of future death. And my soul was contracted, he says, against them: specifically against the three shepherds whom I had placed over my flock. Because their soul also changed towards me, for they did not glorify me at the water of contradiction. But if we refer to the people, that the soul of the people has changed towards God, it must be explained in this way: Therefore, I was angry with them, because they themselves, being wavering between me and idols, fought against me in various ways. Therefore, being angry, I said to Moses: I will not feed you: leave me, and I will destroy them (Exod. XXXII, 10). However, when he says 'Forgive me' in anger, he incites to ask and shows that he can be held back by it. 'Let him die who is destined to die, and let him be cut off who is destined to be cut off; let all bodies be destroyed in solitude, and turned against each other in sedition, like animals tearing each other with mutual bites, and let no one enter the land of promise. Some understood the two callings of Jews and Gentiles, in the first Israel, and in the last by the name Christians. But they did not pay enough attention to how the Christian calling had been previously discarded, and how the Jews remained and were fed by God.

The commencement of this chapter relates to the destruction of Jerusalem and the Jewish polity, probably by the Babylonians; at least in the first instance, as the fourth verse speaks of the people thus threatened as the prophet's charge, Zac 11:1-6. The prophet then gives an account of the manner in which he discharged his office, and the little value that was put on his labors. And this he does by symbolical actions, a common mode of instruction with the ancient prophets, Zac 11:7-14. After the prophet, on account of the unsuccessfulness of his labors, had broken the two crooks which were the true badges of his pastoral office, (to denote the annulling of God's covenant with them, and their consequent divisions and dispersions), he is directed to take instruments calculated to hurt and destroy, perhaps an iron crook, scrip, and stones, to express by these symbols the judgments which God was about to inflict on them by wicked rulers and guides, who should first destroy the flock, and in the end be destroyed themselves, Zac 11:15-17. Let us now view this prophecy in another light, as we are authorized to do by Scripture, Mat 27:7. In this view the prophet, in the person of the Messiah, sets forth the ungrateful returns made to him by the Jews, when he undertook the office of shepherd in guiding and governing them; how they rejected him, and valued him and his labors at the mean and contemptible price of thirty pieces of silver, the paltry sum for which Judas betrayed him. Upon which he threatens to destroy their city and temple; and to give them up to the hands of such guides and governors as should have no regard to their welfare.

Three shepherds also I cut off in one month - Taking this literally, some think the three shepherds mean the three Maccabees, Judas, Jonathan, and Simon; others, the three wicked high priests, Jason, Alcimus, and Menelaus; others, the three last princes of the Asmonean race, Alexander, Hyrcanus, and Antigonus. Perhaps three orders may be intended: 1. The priesthood. 2. The dictatorship, including the Scribes, Pharisees, etc. 3. The magistracy, the great sanhedrin, and the smaller councils. These were all annihilated by the Roman conquest.

DESTRUCTION OF THE SECOND TEMPLE AND JEWISH POLITY FOR THE REJECTION OF MESSIAH. (Zec. 11:1-17) Open thy doors, O Lebanon--that is, the temple so called, as being constructed of cedars of Lebanon, or as being lofty and conspicuous like that mountain (compare Eze 17:3; Hab 2:17). Forty years before the destruction of the temple, the tract called "Massecheth Joma" states, its doors of their own accord opened, and Rabbi Johanan in alarm said, I know that thy desolation is impending according to Zechariah's prophecy. CALVIN supposes Lebanon to refer to Judea, described by its north boundary: "Lebanon," the route by which the Romans, according to JOSEPHUS, gradually advanced towards Jerusalem. MOORE, from HENGSTENBERG, refers the passage to the civil war which caused the calling in of the Romans, who, like a storm sweeping through the land from Lebanon, deprived Judea of its independence. Thus the passage forms a fit introduction to the prediction as to Messiah born when Judea became a Roman province. But the weight of authority is for the former view.

Three shepherds . . . I cut off--literally, "to cause to disappear," to destroy so as not to leave a vestige of them. The three shepherds whom Messiah removes are John, Simon, and Eleazar, three leaders of factions in the Jewish war [DRUSIUS]. Or, as Messiah, the Antitype, was at once prophet, priest, and king, so He by the destruction of the Jewish polity destroyed these three orders for the unbelief of both the rulers and people [MOORE]. If they had accepted Messiah, they would have had all three combined in Him, and would have been themselves spiritually prophets, priests, and kings to God. Refusing Him, they lost all three, in every sense. one month--a brief and fixed space of time (Hos 5:7). Probably alluding to the last period of the siege of Jerusalem, when all authority within the city was at an end [HENDERSON]. loathed them--literally, "was straitened" as to them; instead of being enlarged towards them in love (Co2 6:11-12). The same Hebrew as in Num 21:4, Margin. No room was left by them for the grace of God, as His favors were rejected [CALVIN]. The mutual distaste that existed between the holy Messiah and the guilty Jews is implied.

Israel under the Good Shepherd and the Foolish One - Zechariah 11 In the second half of the "burden" upon the world-power, which is contained in this chapter, the thought indicated in Zac 10:3 - namely, that the wrath of Jehovah is kindled over the shepherds when He visits His flock, the house of Judah - is more elaborately developed, and an announcement is made of the manner in which the Lord visits His people, and rescues it out of the hands of the world-powers who are seeking to destroy it, and then, because it repays His pastoral fidelity with ingratitude, gives it up into the hands of the foolish shepherd, who will destroy it, but who will also fall under judgment himself in consequence. The picture sketched in Zac 9:8-10, Zac 9:12, of the future of Israel is thus completed, and enlarged by the description of the judgment accompanying the salvation; and through this addition an abuse of the proclamation of salvation is prevented. But in order to bring out into greater prominence the obverse side of the salvation, there is appended to the announcement of salvation in Zac 10:1-12 the threat of judgment in Zac 11:1-3, without anything to explain the transition; and only after that is the attitude of the Lord towards His people and the heathen world, out of which the necessity for the judgment sprang, more fully described. Hence this chapter divides itself into three sections: viz., the threat of judgment (Zac 11:1-3); the description of the good shepherd (Zac 11:4-14); and the sketch of the foolish shepherd (Zac 11:15-17).