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414 VISIONS AND PROPHECIES OF ZECHARIAH

flesh of another" solemn and awful words, which, as already shown above, had their first literal fulfilment in the party feuds and mutually destructive strife, and in the terrible " dissolution of every bond of brotherhood and of our common nature, which made the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans a proverb for horror, and precipitated its destruction."

There remains yet one act in this prophetic drama which sets forth the terrible fact that as a consequence of their rejection of the Good Shepherd they would be given over to the domination of one who would be the very opposite of Him Who came to seek and to save that which was lost.

" And Jehovah said unto me&gt; Take unto thee yet again the instruments of a foolish shepherd"

The word liy, od (" yet again ") connects this action with the previous one (vers. 48), for it implies that the prophet had already acted in the capacity, and had had in his hands the emblems of the shepherd s office once before. The adjective y)X evili (the sound of which is very much like the English word evil) expresses more than the English rendering "foolish" given in this passage. It may almost be rendered " wicked." l " Folly and sin were almost identical terms in the eyes of the sacred writers," and the word is frequently used as the synonym for ungodliness? 1

What the instruments of the foolish shepherd were, and in what respects they differed from those of the Good Shepherd, are matters for speculation, since we are not told. Hengstenberg supposes that the " instruments of the foolish shepherd consisted of a strong stick mounted with iron, with which the sheep were hurt and wounded, whereas the Good Shepherd was wont to keep the sheep in order with a thin staff and gentle strokes " ; but this is only conjecture.

1 See Job v. 3, where the same word is used.

2 See Ps. xiv. I ; Prov. i. 7, etc.