Page:Visions and Prophecies of Zechariah (Baron, David).djvu/322



3 o6 VISIONS AND PROPHECIES OF ZECHARIAH

different aspects, by this word " Behold," which correspond also to the fourfold portraiture of Christ in the four Gospels. Here it is especially as Zion s King that we are called upon to contemplate Him : " Behold, thy King cometh unto thee" He does not say " a King," but " thy King ; thine own, the long-promised, the long-expected ; He who, when they had kings of their own given them by God, had been promised as the King ; l the Righteous Ruler among men, of the seed of David ; He who, above all other kings, was their King and Saviour, whose Kingdom was to absorb in itself all kingdoms of the earth, the King of kings and Lord of lords." 2

"Cometh unto thee" that is, to Zion, or Israel. He was in a manner, then, " of her," and not of her, as another writer observes. " Of her, since He was to be her King ; not of her, since He was to come to her. As man He was born of her ; as God, the Word made flesh, He came to her."

But the word, ^, lakh, rendered " unto thee," means also "for thy good" as Keil points out, as is implied also from the whole context, " He cometh unto thee" that is, as thy Deliverer, or, as an ancient cabalistic Jewish writing para phrases it, " He shall come to thee to upraise thee ; He shall come to thee to raise thee up to His temple, and to espouse thee with an everlasting espousal." 3

Zion s coming Saviour-King is described first as (tsaddik\ " righteous " (rendered in the English version " just "), which means, not " one who has a right cause," as one or two commentators have explained, nor merely " one righteous in character, answering in all respects to the will of Jehovah," as Koehler expresses it, but one animated with righteousness, and maintaining and displaying in His righteous rule this fundamental attribute of the ideal king.

Secondly, He is JWfo (noska \ which the English Bible renders " having salvation," in which it is supported by the

1 e.^., Ps. ii., Ixxii. ; Isa. xxxii. i ; Jer. xxiii. 5, 6 ; 2 Sam. xxiii. 3. a 1 usey. s Zohar.