Page:Visions and Prophecies of Zechariah (Baron, David).djvu/85

 emphatic) " who stumble and fall," and we can confidently say:

" Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; Though war should rise against me, even then will I be confident"

Ps. xxvii. 2, 3.

And as He is our protection from without, so He is our light and our salvation within; for even now the word is true to those who walk with Him, "Jehovah shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory."

But to return to the exposition. Because Jehovah hath spoken well concerning Zion, and hath such purposes of grace concerning Jerusalem, while the nations which were then " at ease," and in apparently undisturbed peace, were about to be visited with judgment, those still in the lands of the exile are exhorted to hasten back to their home.

" Ho, ho, flee from the land of the north, saith Jehovah; for I have spread you abroad as the four winds of heaven, saith Jehovah, Ho Zion, escape, thou that dwellest with the daughter of Babylon"

The Hebrew Mn, ho or hoi, which has not always the same meaning, is here used simply as a particle of exhortation, and for calling attention.

" The land of the north " is the same as Babylon in the next verse, which, though really more an eastern, or south eastern, power in relation to Palestine, is so called because, like Assyria before, it always invaded the Holy Land from the north, and the great caravan route entered the country from the same quarter. The whole passage seems to be made up of inspired echoes of similar utterances in the "former prophets"; as, for instance, Isa. xlviii. 20: " Go ye forth of Babylon, flee ye from the Chaldeans; with a voice of singing declare ye, tell ye this, utter it even to the end of the earth: say ye, Jehovah Iiath redeemed His servant Jacob."

And again in chap. Hi. 1 1 of the same prophet: " Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean, that bear the vessels of Jehovah" It is almost an exact reiteration also of the solemn words of Jeremiah: " Flee out of the midst of