Page:Visions and Prophecies of Zechariah (Baron, David).djvu/429



REJECTION OF THE TRUE SHEPHERD 413

had only properly understood it, a call to repentance ; but instead of " fruit " as the result of His care and blessed labours, they brought Him forth the " wild grapes " of con tempt and black ingratitude. And thus reluctantly He had to give over " the dearly beloved of His soul," not only into the hands of their enemies without, which was symbolised by the breaking of the first staff called " Noam" but the still more terrible calamity of civil strife and destructive feuds among themselves, which is symbolised by the breaking of the staff called ffobhlim (" Bands " or " Binders ").

The ninx, ac/iavah, " brotherhood," which was to be de stroyed " between Judah and between Israel," is not to be understood in the sense " that the unity of the nation would be broken up again in a manner similar to that in the days of Rehoboam, and that two hostile nations would be formed out of one people," although the disruption of national unity which took in the days of Jeroboam may be referred to as an illustration of that which would occur again in a more serious form. " The schism of Jeroboam had a weakening and disintegrating effect on the nation of the twelve tribes, and the dissolution of the brotherhood here spoken of was to result in still greater evil and ruin ; for Israel, deprived of the Good Shepherd, was to fall into the power of the foolish, or evil, shepherd, who is depicted at the close of the prophecy."

The preposition P?, bein, which is twice repeated, has the meaning not only of" between" but also of " among" * and the formula, House of Judah and House of Israel, or simply, "Judah and Israel," is, as we have had again and again to notice, this prophet s inclusive designation of the whole ideally (and to a large extent already actually) reunited one people. I think, therefore, that we may rightly render the sentence " to destroy the brotherhood among Judah and among Israel " that is to say, among the entire nation. The consequence of it would be the fulfilment of the threat in the 9th verse : " Let them which are left eat every one the

1 See, e.g., Isa. xliv. 4.