Page:Visions and Prophecies of Zechariah (Baron, David).djvu/295



AN EXAMINATION OF MODERN CRITICISM 279

only of Ephraim or the northern kingdom, but even of " Judah."

But in truth these full designations, " house of Judah and house of Joseph," or " Judah and Ephraim," or " Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem," are used by the prophet as all- inclusive terms, for the whole people, after both kingdoms had been overthrown, and the schism which had existed so long had ceased with the Captivity. " The entire nation," as I wrote in my note on chap. viii. 13, "which had previous to the Exile been divided for a time into two kingdoms, are now, after the partial restoration from Babylon, included in both parts of the book, in undivided unity in one common destiny." Together they are, during the Lo-ammi period, " scattered " and " a curse among the nations," and together (the prophet foretells) Jehovah shall " redeem " and gather them, " so that they shall be a blessing."

(iv.) The last of the internal grounds against the unity of Zechariah advanced by the critics, as summarised by Von Orelli, is that " the chief moral and religious faults presupposed in Part II. are pre-exilic. This part still contends chiefly against idolatry (x. 2), and regards the extirpation of false prophets as still future ; their number must still have been great at the time when Zechariah xiii. 2-6 was written."

In reference to idolatry, let me quote the words of another writer :

" Idolatry certainly was not the prevailing national sin after God had taught the people through the Captivity. It is commonly taken for granted that there was none. But where is the proof? Malachi would hardly have laid the stress on marrying the daughters of a strange god, had there been no danger that the marriage would lead to idolatry. Nehemiah speaks of the sin into which Solomon was seduced by outlandish women, as likely to occur through the heathen marriages ; but idolatry was that sin. Half of the children could only speak the language of their mothers. It were strange if they had not imbibed their mothers idolatry too. In a battle in the Maccabee war it is related,