Page:Visions and Prophecies of Zechariah (Baron, David).djvu/448



432 VISIONS AND PROPHECIES OF ZECHARIAH

melt their hard heart to true repentance, and cause them to " weep bitterly." But this is set forth fully in the last part of this chapter, and for the present we must return to the prophet s description of their outward deliverance and the destruction of their enemies.

While terror and confusion seize the ranks of the assembled hosts as the result of the plagues with which they shall be smitten, unity, confidence, and assurance of victory take possession of the " heart " of the reduced, and till then demoralised, remnant of Judah, from the moment that they become conscious that the eye of Jehovah is upon them for good, and that the " Captain of the Lord s host " Himself is with them : "And the governors (or princes ^} of Judah shall say in their hearts, The inhabitants of Jerusalem are my strength (or, a strength to me ) in Jehovah of hosts their God.

" The princes of Judah," as Keil truly observes, " recognise in the inhabitants of Jerusalem their strength or might not in the sense that Judah, being crowded together before Jerusalem, expects help against the foe from the strength of the city and the assistance of its inhabitants, as Hoffmann and Koehler maintain, for their whole account of the inhabitants of the land being shut up in the city (or crowded together before the walls of Jerusalem, and covered by them) is a pure invention, and has no foundation in the text but in this sense, that the inhabitants of Jerusalem are strong through Jehovah their God, i.e., through the fact that Jehovah has chosen Jerusalem, and by virtue of this election will save the city of His sanctuary " (comp. x. i 2 with iii. 2, i. 17, ii. 16).

It is the fact that Jehovah hath chosen Jerusalem, and has returned to her with mercies, 2 which makes the princes of Judah confident in her invincibility. " God is in the midst of her," sings the Psalmist, looking on to the solemn

1 ijVx, alluphei. See the footnote on the meaning of " alluph" in chap. ix. 7. The root-idea is expressed in the LXX, which renders "captain of thousands."

2 Chap. i. 1 6.