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296 VISIONS AND PROPHECIES OF ZECHARIAH

The second line in the 6th verse may be taken as explanatory of the first. By the dwelling of the mamzer in Ashdod " the pride of the Philistines shall be cut off"

" It would appear that the Philistines were wont to pride themselves upon their nationality, their prowess, and their independence. Their pride would be humbled by Gaza s being deprived of any ruler bearing the name of king, by the city of Ashkelon being removed from its ancient place (i.e., ceasing to exist), and by Ashdod being inhabited by a mixed and bastard population." *

In the 7th verse there is a ray of promised mercy shining out of the thick cloud of judgment which was to alight upon Philistia, for the end of the judgment is the deliverance of the people from their idolatrous abominations, and the incorporation of the remnant which shall remain, among God s people.

"And I will take away his blood and his abominations from between his teeth, and he also shall be a remnant (or shall remain ) for our God : and he shall be as a chieftain (or, as a small tribe, or family ) in Judah, and Ekron shall be as a Jebusite" It is the Philistine nation or people personified as one man who are here spoken of in the singular. The blood (or, literally, " bloods," for the word is in the plural) which God will " take," or " cause to pass away " from his mouth, is the blood of his idolatrous sacrifices, which in the next sentence are called shiqqutsim " abomina tions " and thus deprived of, or delivered from, their polluting idolatry, the remnant that remains shall belong to " our God " the living God of Israel who stands out so glorious in His holiness when contrasted with the " abomina tions " of the heathen, " and He shall be as a chieftain in Judah." 2

1 Wright.

2 The word ^N (alliiph) is used in the earlier books of the Bible of the "dukes," or tribal chiefs or princes of Edom and of the Horites (Gen. xxxvi.; Ex. xv. 15) ; but is applied by Zechariah in chap. xii. of the princes or chieftains of Judah. It is connected with ^N (elleph), "a thousand," and stands perhaps literally for chief, or " head of a thousand. Some critics would substitute eleph for alluph in our passage, and render it "he shall be as a thousand," i.e., a small