Page:Visions and Prophecies of Zechariah (Baron, David).djvu/305



THE PRINCE OF PEACE 289

as its goal, and from that centre it shall spread itself over the whole district which the passage goes on to describe.

The easiest and most natural translation of the second half of the first verse Ki la- Yehovah ein adam ve khol shibhte Israel is that given in the Authorised Version and in the text of the " Revised " i.e., "for the eye of man and of all the tribes of Israel is toward the Lord " ; but the margin of the Revised Version has another rendering, which is supported by the LXX, the Syriac, and the Targum, and is adopted also, with slight variations, by some modern scholars namely, "for Jehovah has an eye (or to Jehovah is an eye ) upon (or over ) man and the tribes of Israel" which is regarded as a parallelism to Jer. xxxii. 19 :" Great in counsel and mighty in work, for Thine eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of men, to give every one according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings But the rendering given in the Authorised Version is doubtless the true one.

It primarily describes the consternation into which men would be thrown at the approach of the conqueror, who would be the executor of God s judgment, or, as another has expressed it, when the fulfilment of this prophecy takes place " upon Hadrach and Damascus, and the wrath of God descends upon those cities and districts, the eyes of the nations, as well as those of the people of Israel, will look toward Jehovah, and marvel at the wonders of judgment which will then be performed in their sight, in accordance with the solemn warnings of the prophet."

The eye of all the tribes of Israel is particularly speci fied as directed then toward Jehovah, probably because the Jews had special reason to fear the wrath of Alexander, their high priest having from a sense of loyalty to the Persians refused at first to pay tribute or allegiance to the Macedonian conqueror. But what is here foretold as primarily taking place as the result of the terror inspired among the nations which then constituted parts of the

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