Page:Visions and Prophecies of Zechariah (Baron, David).djvu/444



428 VISIONS AND PROPHECIES OF ZECHARIAH

Jerusalem with its inhabitants and the house of David we are to understand the unbelieving portion of Israel ; and by Judah with its princes, Christendom, or the true people of God, formed of believing Israelites and increased by believing Gentiles. Judah is not opposed to Jerusalem, but simply distinguished from it, just as the Jewish kingdom or people is frequently designated by the prophets as Jerusalem and Judah. The Dj&gt;, gam, which does not separate, but adds, is of itself inapplicable to the idea of opposition. Consequently, we should expect the words also upon Judah to express the thought that Judah will be visited with the same fate as Jerusalem as Luther, Calvin, and many others follow the Peshito in supposing that they do."

The best rendering of the clause in my view is that suggested by a Hebrew student, 1 namely : " And also on Judah sJiall be (or, fall, this reeling) in (or during } the siege (which is to take place] against Jerusalem " the sense being that already expressed by Keil, that Judah, which stands here for all the rest of the people of the land, shall experience the same ordeal of suffering in that siege as the inhabitants of Jerusalem, ere the Lord finally interferes on their behalf as the destroyer of their enemies.

The prediction of judgment against the nations who will be gathered against Jerusalem " in that day," is strengthened in the 3rd verse by the use of another figure: "And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone (lit., a stone for lifting) for all the peoples ; all that burden themselves with it (lit., all tJiat lift if] shall be sore wounded (or lacerated! or tear rents for themselves ) ; and all the nations of the earth shall be gathered together against it," z

1 W. H. Lowe, M.A., in his Hebrew Studenfs Commentary. Pusey thinks that the " Burden of the Word of the Lord" is the subject to be supplied, i.e., the burden which was to be, or should be, upon Judah, i.e., upon all great and small ; but that phrase is too remote from the verb to admit of its being regarded as the "natural subject."

2 The figure of the "burdensome stone" is, according to Jerome (died 420) and others, based on a custom which prevailed in Palestine. That "old