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482 VISIONS AND PROPHECIES OF ZECHARIAH

tion into its actual meaning, " / will smite" The offend ing of the disciples took place when Jesus was taken prisoner, and they all fled. This flight was a prelude to the dispersion of the flock at the death of the Shepherd. The closing words of our Lord, " I will go before you into Galilee," is, I think, rightly taken by Keil and others as a practical exposition of the words of the prophet, " / will turn My hand upon the little (or humble ) ones," inasmuch as it was a promise of their re-gathering to Him and of His care for them after His resurrection.

But, to repeat, this special fulfilment did not exhaust the meaning of the prophecy as some erroneously think. " The correct view," to quote again from an English writer, " appears to be that the desertion of Christ in the hour of trial by His most faithful followers, whereby they were scattered every man to his own, and left the Saviour alone x a desertion which added so much to the bitterness of that hour of darkness was indeed of importance in itself, but still more so as prefiguring the rejection of Christ by the Jewish nation, and the terrible scattering of the flock of Israel." 2

That the primary reference of the words, " the flock shall be scattered," etc., is to the Jewish nation, is placed beyond a doubt by the verses which follow, for the 8th verse sets forth the misery which the dispersion of the flock brings upon Israel, and the 9th verse shows how the words, " I will turn My hand upon (or, back upon ) the little ones," would be realised in the final deliverance and salva tion of the remnant : " And it shall come to pass that in all the land, saitli Jehovah, two parts therein shall be cut off, shall die, and the third part shall remain therein. And I will bring the third part through (lit., into ) the fire, and refine (or melt ) them as silver is refined"

The idiomatic expression DW ""S {pi sttnaynri] is found in Deut. xxi. 1 7 and 2 Kings ii. 9, and is primarily used of the " double portion " inherited by the first-born ; but here, in Zechariah, it means two-thirds, as is shown by the

1 John xvi. 32. 2 C. H. H. Wright.