is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them. I will say, It is my people; and they shall say, The Lord is my God.

xiv. 1. Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee, 2. For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle: and the city shall be taken *, and the houses

The city shall be taken.] I cannot but think the opinion adopted by some, that the sacking of Jerusalem by the Romans is here intended, very incongruous with the whole tenor of the prophecy. When the city was taken by Titus, not merely half of the inhabitants were made captive, and the other half left; but the whole nation was dispersed, insomuch that none were left except a few stragglers compared by Isaiah to the gleanings of the vintage. So again: immediately after the sucking of Jerusalem, here predicted by Zechariah, the Lord will go forth and fight against those very nations which had just taken it. Judah likewise will fight against them; agreeably to the former declaration of the prophet,, that God would make Jerusalem a cup of trembling and a burdensome stone unto all the peoples that had gathered themselves together to besiege it. It is superfluous to observe, that no such events followed the sucking of Jerusalem by the Romans. In short both the whole tenor, and the whole chronology, of the prophecy compel me to suppose, that Zechariah is here speaking of the same taking of Jerusalem by Antichrist, that Daniel so plainly foretells when he declares, that that great enemy of God, ere he comes to his end, shall plant the curtains of his tents between the seas in the glorious holy mountain.

"It is impossible," as Dr. Blayney justly observes, "to re"concile these words the rest of the people shall not be cut off the city with the state of facts at the time when Je"rusalem

from

houses rifled, and the women ravished: and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.

3. Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fighteth in the day of battle. 4. And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east: and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley: and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it towards the south. 5. And the valley of the mountains shall be choked up* * (for the valley of the mountains will reach near); and it shall be choked up, as it was choked up by the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah and the Lord shall go, the God of all saints, with thee. 6. And it shall come to pass in that day, that there shall not be light, but cold and a thick fog. 7. And there shall be one day

"rusalem was taken by the Romans. For at that time we are "well assured by Josephus who was an eye witness, not only all "that were in the city were either slain or made captives, but

also the city itself was razed to the ground, so as to leave no "vestige of an habitation. How then could there be a residue "not cut off from the city? And, if there has been no cap "ture since, to which these words can be applied, we must "look forward to futurity for the completion of the prophecy." Choked up.] See Dr. Blayney in loc.

+ Cold and a thick fog.] See Dr. Blayney in loc.

9

(known

(known it is unto the Lord *) neither day nor night yet it shall come to pass in the evening time that it shall be light. 8. And it shall come to pass in that day, that living waters † shall go go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the eastern sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea in summer and in winter shall it be. 9. And the Lord shall be king over all the earth. In that day the Lord shall be one; 16. And his name One shall encompass the whole earth, as the plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem;

* Known it is unto the Lord.] "This sentence seems to have "been inserted by way of prolepsis, to the following effect :-"Such a phenomenon, though it may appear extraordinary, is "hewever worthy of belief, because revealed by God, to whom "both the matter and the time is known. So it is said, Acts xv. 18, Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world." Dr. Blayney in loc.

+ Living waters.]" By living waters there is good reason to "believe are meant the gifts and graces of the gospel dispensation. "See Isaiah xii. 3.-xliv. 3.—lv. 1.—Jer. ii. 13.-Ezek. xlvii. 66 1, &c.-Joel iii. 18.-John iv. 10.-vii. 38, 39. That these "benefits will be diffused more extensively by the restoration of the Jews, is not obscurely intimated, Rom. xi. 15." Dr. Blayney in loc.

↑ His name One.] "By the name of Jehovah I conceive to be "meant the profession of his true religion, which, it is here "foretold, should compass or pervade the whole earth, as it "had done the country of Judèa included within the plain "extending from Geba north to Rimmon south of Jerusalem"The universal propagation of God's name or religion is pre“dicted, as in other places of Scripture, so particularly Isaiah “lix. 19.-Mal. i. 11." Dr. Blayney in loc.

and

*

and she shall be raised up, and sit in her own place, from Benjamin's gate unto the place of the first gate, unto the corner-gate, and from the tower of Hananeel unto the king's winepresses. 11. And men shall dwell in her, and there shall be no more utter destruction †; but Jerusalem shall sit in security.

13.

12. And this shall be the plague, wherewith the Lord will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem: their flesh shall consume away, while they stand upon their feet; and their eyes shall consume away in their holes; and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth. And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the Lord shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one of them on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour. 14. And Judah also shall fight at Jerusalem: and the wealth of all the nations round about shall be gathered together, gold, and silver, and apparel, in great abundance. 15. And so shall be the plague of the horse, of the mule, of the camel, of the ass, and of all the beasts that shall be in these tents, as this plague.

* She.]"That is, Jerusalem, which is here, as elsewhere, "represented as a female figure, raised from the ground, and "sitting tranquil on her ancient seat." Dr. Blayney in loc..

+ There shall be no more utter destruction.] "The city shall 86 never be utterly destroyed, as it was by the Chaldeans and "Romans." Mr. Lowth in loc.

16. And

16. And it shall come to pass, that every one, that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem, shall go up even from year to year, to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of the tabernacles. 17. And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem, to worship the King the Lord of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain. 18. And, if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, although there be not upon them the plague wherewith the Lord will smite the nations that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles; 19. The same shall be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all the nations, that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles.

*

20. In that day shall there be upon the bells of. the horses, Holiness unto the Lord; and the pots in the Lord's house shall be like the bowls before the altar. 21. Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and

"That is,

* Although there be not upon them the plague.] "although they be not visited precisely in the same manner as "the other nations, namely with a want of rain, which of itself "would be no punishment to that country where by the situ"ation of the country no rain usually falls; yet, as it follows "in the next verse, they should not be exempt from the same "punishment with the other nations that sinned in like manner

66

namely famine, which would be the sure consequence, as Abp. Newcome observes, if the rains did not fall in Ethiopia so as to cause an overflowing of the Nile. This interpretation "is according to the present reading of the text, which needs no alteration." Dr. Blayney in loc.

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YOL. II.

X

in