Zechariah 14:9 Komentář

Divers things were foretold, in the two foregoing chapters, which should come to pass "in that day;" this chapter speaks of a "day of the Lord that cometh," a day of his judgment, and ten times in the foregoing chapters, and seven times in this, it is repeated, "in that day;" but what that day is that is here meant is uncertain, and perhaps will be so (as the Jews speak) till Elias comes; whether it refer to the whole period of time from the prophet's days to the days of the Messiah, or to some particular events in that time, or to Christ's coming, and the setting up of his kingdom upon the ruins of the Jewish polity, we cannot determine, but divers passages here seem to look as far forward as gospel-times. Now the "day of the Lord" brings with it both judgment and mercy, mercy to his church, judgment to her enemies and persecutors. I. The gates of hell are here threatening the church (Zac 14:1, Zac 14:2) and yet not prevailing. II. The power of Heaven appears here for the church and against the enemies of it (Zac 14:3, Zac 14:5). III. The events concerning the church are here represented as mixed (Zac 14:6, Zac 14:7), but issuing well at last. IV. The spreading of the means of knowledge is here foretold, and the setting up of the gospel-kingdom in the world (Zac 14:8, Zac 14:9), which shall be the enlargement and establishment of another Jerusalem (Zac 14:10, Zac 14:11). V. Those shall be reckoned with that fought against Jerusalem (Zac 14:12-15) and those that neglect his worship there (Zac 14:17-19). VI. It is promised that there shall be great resort to the church, and great purity and piety in it (Zac 14:16, Zac 14:20, Zac 14:21).

INTRODUCTION TO ZECHARIAH 14 This chapter treats of the coming of Christ with all his saints, and his personal appearance among them; and of the signs of the times before that; and of what shall befall the enemies of the church, both open and secret; and of the happy state and condition of the church itself. First there will be a time of great affliction to the people of God, Zac 14:1, when the Lord will appear and fight for them, and will appear to them, and with them, Zac 14:3 but before this time it will be an uncommon season, neither day nor night; at the close of which, light will break forth, Zac 14:6 the Gospel will be spread far and near, attended with the Spirit and grace of God in great plenty, Zac 14:8 which will bring on the spiritual reign of Christ over all the earth, Zac 14:9 particularly the land of Judea, and the city of Jerusalem, shall be inhabited by men with safety, Zac 14:10 and all those that oppose and fight against the Lord's people shall be destroyed, partly by an immediate plague from the Lord upon them, and partly by the hands of one another, and also by the saints of the most High; and the plague shall not only be upon their persons, but upon their cattle likewise, Zac 14:12 and as for those that profess the Christian name, and yet neglect or refuse to worship the Lord in a spiritual and evangelical manner, there shall be no rain upon them, Zac 14:17 and as for the church and people of God, there shall be universal holiness among them, and not a single Canaanite to be found in the midst of them, Zac 14:20.

And the Lord shall be King over all the earth,.... This refers to the spiritual reign of Christ in the latter day; upon the success of the Gospel everywhere, there will be great conversions in all places; Gospel churches will be set up and ordinances administered everywhere; the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord; his kingdom will be from sea to sea, from the eastern to the western one, and his dominion will reach to the ends of the earth; Popish nations, Mahometan kingdoms, Pagan ones, and all the kings of the earth, will become Christian, and submit to the sceptre of Christ's kingdom: in that day shall there be one Lord; there is but one Lord in right now, and there is but one in fact that is owned by real Christians; and there will be but one in the spiritual reign, among all that are called Christians; there will be but one Lord and Head to Jews and Gentiles, Hos 1:11 the pope of Rome will be no more owned as head of the church, nor any other: and his name, one; this refers not to any particular name by which Christ shall be called; but rather to that by which his people shall be called; all names of distinction being now laid aside, and only that of Christians retained; though it chiefly designs unity of doctrine, uniformity of worship, one and the same way of administering ordinances: it signifies that there will be one true, spiritual, uniform worship and religion; there will be no different sentiments and principles in religion; nor different practices and modes of worship; nor different sects; but all agreeing in the same faith and practice, under one Lord and King, Christ Jesus. So the Targum, "they shall serve before the Lord with one shoulder; for his name is firm in the world, and there is none besides it.'' This passage is referred by the ancient Jews (l) to the times of the Messiah. (l) Zohar in Deut. fol. 110. 2.

It is clear that this passage refers to the glorious time of the Maccabees when, after the idolatry that Antiochus had introduced had been rejected, all of Judea embraced the cult of the one God. At the same time, the things which you see here to be foreshadowed were fulfilled and perfected by Christ. Therefore the prophet calls summer the very happy time of the manifestation of Christ to the whole world, because Nisan aptly represents the end of the winter month and the beginning of the fruitful summer. On the other hand, he calls winter the night, which constantly oppresses the devil, after the birth of Christ. Again the words “as it was in the ancient times” appear to be suitable to the day, which brought salvation to Moses and the children of Israel. Indeed, it opened a splendid summer for them, whom it carried safe and uninjured through the sea, while it generated a sorrowful winter to the Egyptians by submerging and suffocating their army. On that day the Lord will be one and his name one. What I said to refer to the time of the Maccabees and the dominion of the Jews was brought to its completion all over the world, when, after the promulgation of the gospel of Christ, the whole world believed in him and recognized that he is God and the true king.

(Verse 9 and following). In that day there will be one Lord, and his name will be one: and all the land will return to the desert from the hill of Remmon to the South of Jerusalem: and it will be exalted, and it will be inhabited in its place, from the Benjamin gate to the place of the former gate, to the corner gate: and from the Tower of Ananeel to the king's winepresses, and they will dwell in it, and there will no longer be a curse, but Jerusalem will sit securely. LXX: In that day there will be one Lord, and his name will be one: encircling all the land, and the desert from Gabaa to Remmon to the South of Jerusalem: But Rama will remain in place, from the Benjamin gate to the first gate, to the corner gate, and to the tower of Anamael, to the king's winepresses they will dwell in it, and there will no longer be a curse, and Jerusalem will dwell confidently. The destruction of the city of Jerusalem, and the flowing forth of the waters from its midst, which flow to both seas, the Jews and the Judaizing Christians promise to themselves in the last times, when circumcision will again be practiced, and victims will be sacrificed, and all the precepts of the Law will be observed, so that Christians become not Jews, but Jews become Christians. On that day, they say, when Christ will sit in Jerusalem, golden and adorned, reigning, there will be no idols nor diverse worship of divinity, but there will be one Lord, and all the earth will return to solitude, that is, to its ancient state. And he sets forth the names of the places from which place to which place Jerusalem is to be built: from the hill Remmon (for this is what Gabaa means, where the Maligranati tree is) to the southern region of Jerusalem. And what follows: However, Rama will remain in its place, which Aquila and others have better interpreted to mean, it will be exalted. For Rama means exaltation, according to that prophetic and gospel saying: A voice was heard in Rama, that is, it sounded on high (Matthew 2:18). Therefore, Jerusalem will be exalted and rebuilt in its original place, from the Gate of Benjamin to the Gate called the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Ananeel (not as the Greeks and Latins wrongly read it as Anamael) to the Winepresses of the King, which in Hebrew is written Ammelech (or, according to some, Amalech). And it is said that they will dwell in it, that is, in Jerusalem, and there will no longer be any curse: no hostile attack, no fear; but Jerusalem will sit or be inhabited in eternal peace and rest. The Jews dream literally and our chiliasts, who desire to hear again: Increase and multiply, and fill the earth (Gen. 1:28), and for the sake of continence of this life and brief fasting, they promise themselves onions, and vulvas, and the birds of Phasis, and the attagen, not the Ionic, but the Jewish ones, concerning which the Lord can truly say: My spirit shall not remain in these men, because they are flesh (Gen. 6:3). For the flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh (Galatians. V, 17). And let not the book of Revelation (Chapter XX) be opposed to us, for it must also be interpreted spiritually. But we shall interpret the heavenly Jerusalem as the Church, which, though walking in the flesh, does not live according to the flesh, whose citizenship is in heaven (Philippians. III). For when the Lord Jesus shall reign over all the earth, of whom the Holy Spirit speaks to the Father through the Prophet: O God, give Your judgment to the king, and Your justice to the king's son (Psalm. LXXI, 1): then there will be one Lord, of whom it is written: Know that the Lord Himself is God (Deuteronomy. IV, 35): And His name will be one, with all false religion trampled underfoot, according to what the Prophet sings: O Lord, our Lord, how admirable is your name in all the earth (Psalm. VIII, 1)! And again: You have magnified your holy name above all (Psalm 137:3). And elsewhere: As is your name, O God, so is your praise unto the ends of the earth (Psalm 48:11); of which Habakkuk also speaks: The earth is full of his praise (Habakkuk 3:5). Of the glory of his name, God himself speaks: Apart from me, you will not know God, and besides my name, which is magnified above all (Isaiah 44:8). Then all the earth will return, in which the Jews dwelt up to the desert, that is, up to the people of the Gentiles, which was formerly deserted and did not have knowledge of the Law: from Geba to Rimmon, that is, from the hill to the high place, for we ascend from the earth and the desert to the hills, and from the hills to the mountains. And the bridegroom in the Song of Songs passes over the smaller hills and leaps upon the tall mountains (Song 1), of which it is written: He makes the mountains skip like deer (Psalm 104). But if we wish to understand the Remmon, which both words signify in Hebrew, let us say that the limits of the Church begin from the hills, so that the whole ecclesiastical order be constructed, as we have said above, when we interpreted the lament of the only-begotten, and the lament like Adadremmon. And the Church is not content with this end; but it will reach as far as the South in the fullest light, as we have previously explained. And now we remain silent about it, so as not to annoy the reader by repeating the same things often. And the Church which began from the hills will be exalted and will reach the South; and it will dwell in its place, as it is written: 'He has set me in a place of pasture' (Psalm 22:1). From the gate of Benjamin, which is interpreted as the Son of the right hand, and not the Son of days, as some suspect wrongly: for it is one thing if it ends with the letter Nun, another if it ends with the letter Mem. And it shall come to the place of the eastern and former gate, even to the gate of the corners. We begin with virtue, for this indeed signifies the right hand, and we arrive at the former gate, so that we may enter through it to the others. And immediately we encounter the gate of the corners, where the corner stone is, which the builders rejected and has become the head of the corner (Ps. CXVII, 22). This corner stone connects both walls and brings two peoples into one (Ephes. II), about which God speaks through Isaiah: Behold, I will place in Zion a corner stone, chosen and precious in its foundation; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame (Isai. XXVIII, 16). Here the cornerstone and other cornerstones wanted to be built, so that the apostle Paul might freely say: Built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone (Ephesians 2:20). These stones do not imitate the heretics, who do everything for the sake of glory and profit, and pray in the corners of the streets, leaving the straight path. For every corner breaks the straight line, and therefore the prostitute in Proverbs (Chapter 7), however we may understand her, whose feet do not rest at home, but wanders outside or lies in wait in all the corners of the streets, when she sees a foolish young man (for she does not invite one whom she perceives to be wise and mature in age, of whom it is written: The wisdom of an old man is his gray hair), she immediately seizes him, and kisses and flatters him, and leads him to the brothel, and invites him to have intercourse. Let us therefore leave behind false angles and pass on to the firm and robust angles of Christ, to which when we have arrived, we are immediately met by the Tower of Ananeel, which is interpreted as the favor of God. For what is more pleasing than the Tower of Solomon? of which it is said to the bride: 'Your neck is like the tower of David, which is built with bulwarks; a thousand shields hang upon it; all the spears of the mighty are upon it' (Song of Solomon 4:4). The Lord wants this tower to be built in the Gospel (Chapter XIV), with previous expenses and costs computed: and about which it is said to Jerusalem: Let there be peace within your walls, and abundance within your towers (Psalm 122:7), about which the saint also speaks to the Lord: You have led me, for you have become my hope: a tower of strength against the enemy (Psalm 60:4). From the Tower of Ananeel, we come to the king's wine press, for which three psalms also have a title. And the Lord says in Isaiah: I have trodden the winepress alone (Isa. LXIII, 3), so that our vineyard may abound in them, and we may press out the grapes, and in Christ's blood we may trample the reddened juice; so that we may drink the wine that gladdens the heart of man (Ps. CIII); and the bride desires the companions of the bridegroom, saying: Lead me into the wine cellar, set love upon me (Cant. II, 4). If we are made drunk by such winepresses, we will dwell in Jerusalem, where there will no longer be anathema, namely curse and abomination. And the Apostle says: If anyone does not love the Lord, let him be accursed (I Cor. XVI, 2). And in another place: No one speaking in the Spirit of God says 'Jesus be accursed' (I Cor. XII). And for the sake of the salvation of his brothers, he desires to be accursed, imitating his Lord who, though he was not a curse, became a curse for us (Rom. IX). But when all the curse is removed, Jerusalem will dwell secure and confident, and she will fulfill that which is said of her: 'Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord.' And: It is better to trust in the Lord than to trust in man (Ps. CXVII, 8): about this security and confidence the prophet Jeremiah also mentions: Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord (Jerem. XVII, 7).

The commencement of this chapter relates to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, and to the calamities consequent on that event. From this great Jewish tragedy the prophet immediately passes to the utter extermination of the enemies of Christianity in the latter days. God will display his power in behalf of his people in a manner so astonishing and miraculous, that even they themselves, and much more their enemies, shall be struck with terror, Zac 14:4, Zac 14:5. The national prosperity of the Jews shall then be permanent and unmixed, Zac 14:6, Zac 14:7; and these people shall be made the instruments of converting many to the faith of the Messiah, Zac 14:8, Zac 14:9. The great increase and prosperity of the Christian Church, the New Jerusalem, is then described in terms accommodated to Jewish ideas; and the most signal vengeance denounced against all her enemies, Zac 14:10-19. From that happy period God's name will be honored in every thing, and his worship every where most reverently observe, Zac 14:20, Zac 14:21.

And the Lord shall be King - When this universal diffusion of Divine knowledge shall take place. Wherever it goes, the laws of God shall be acknowledged; and, consequently, he shall be King over the whole earth. One Lord, and his name one - There shall be in those blessed days, only one religion, and one form of religion. There shall not be gods many, and lords many. All mankind shall be of one religion, the essence of which is, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, mind, and strength; and thy Neighbor as thyself."

LAST STRUGGLE WITH THE HOSTILE WORLD POWERS: MESSIAH-JEHOVAH SAVES JERUSALEM AND DESTROYS THE FOE, OF WHOM THE REMNANT TURNS TO THE LORD REIGNING AT JERUSALEM. (Zec. 14:1-21) day of the Lord--in which He shall vindicate His justice by punishing the wicked and then saving His elect people (Joe 2:31; Joe 3:14; Mal 4:1, Mal 4:5). thy spoil . . . divided in the midst of thee--by the foe; secure of victory, they shall not divide the spoil taken from thee in their camp outside, but "in the midst" of the city itself.

king over all . . . earth-- Isa 54:5 implies that this is to be the consequence of Israel being again recognized by God as His own people (Dan 2:44; Rev 11:15). one Lord . . . name one--Not that He is not so already, but He shall then be recognized by all unanimously as "One." Now there are "gods many and lords many." Then Jehovah alone shall be worshipped. The manifestation of the unity of the Godhead shall be simultaneous with that of the unity of the Church. Believers are one in spirit already, even as God is one (Eph 4:3-6). But externally there are sad divisions. Not until these disappear, shall God reveal fully His unity to the world (Joh 17:21, Joh 17:23). Then shall there be "a pure language, that all may call upon the name of the Lord with one consent" (Zep 3:9). The Son too shall at last give up His mediatorial kingdom to the Father, when the purposes for which it was established shall have been accomplished, "that God may be all in all" (Co1 15:24).