Page:Visions and Prophecies of Zechariah (Baron, David).djvu/324



3 o8 VISIONS AND PROPHECIES OF ZECHARIAH

Hengstenberg suggests, in a more general sense (as in Deut. xxxiii. 29 and Ps. xxxiii. 16, where nosha "saved" is found) as describing one " who is endowed with salva tion," or " furnished with the assistance of God " requisite for the fulfilment of His mission.

We shall see presently the application of the prophecy contained in this word to our Lord, Jesus of Nazareth, but to the prophet s contemporaries the expression would probably recall, as Dr. Wright suggests, the language of the 2nd Psalm, " where the Messiah is represented as saved and delivered, in spite of all the combinations made against Him, and destined to be one day seated on His royal throne."

But taken in its passive sense as meaning " saved," there is none the less promise in the word for the people as well as for the Messiah ; for, as has been well observed, if the King of Israel is " saved," His people (whose Head and Representative He is) must be saved likewise. " His deliverance, or salvation, is a sure sign of the deliverance of His people, which is to be accomplished by His means."

The ideal King of Israel is further characterised as ^y ( ani\ which is rendered in the English versions " lowly," but which primarily means "poor" " afflicted" This word, as is properly observed by Hengstenberg, Keil, and others, gathers up " the whole of the lowly, miserable, suffering condition " of the righteous Servant of Jehovah, as it is elaborately depicted in Isa. liii. ; l and those who feel them selves constrained to recognise in that great prophecy in Isaiah a vivid description of the suffering and death of the Messiah, cannot regard it as strange that Zechariah, who

1 Keil. The apparent paradox that the King who is endowed with salvation and comes to deliver should be " afflicted," or " poor," led the translators of the LXX, the Targumists, the majority of Jewish commentators, and many critics in modern days, to adopt the translation " lowly," or "meek," which is also the rendering given by the evangelists in the Gospels, who, however, simply quote the word from the Greek LXX. iy ( am ), and ijj? ( anav), both come from njj; ( ana/i), to be "bowed down," to be "humbled"; but Jj; (ani) seems, as Von Orelli points out, to refer more to the physical state (in the sense of being "poor" "wretched" " afflicted "), and ijj; ( anav) to qualities of the spirit (in the sense of being " harmless," "humble," " meek," etc.).