_THE CONTENTS OF “ZECHARIAH” IX.—XIV._
From the number of conflicting opinions which prevail upon the subject,
we have seen how impossible it is to decide upon a scheme of division
for “Zech.” ix.—xiv. These chapters consist of a number of separate
oracles, which their language and general conceptions lead us on the
whole to believe were put together by one hand, and which, with the
possible exception of some older fragments, reflect the troubled times
in Palestine that followed on the invasion of Alexander the Great. But
though the most of them are probably due to one date and possibly come
from the same author, these oracles do not always exhibit a connection,
and indeed sometimes show no relevance to each other. It will therefore
be simplest to take them piece by piece, and, before giving the
translation of each, to explain the difficulties in it and indicate the
ruling ideas.
1. THE COMING OF THE GREEKS (ix. 1-8).
This passage runs exactly in the style of the early prophets. It
figures the progress of war from the north of Syria southwards by
the valley of the Orontes to Damascus, and then along the coasts of
Phœnicia and the Philistines. All these shall be devastated, but
Jehovah will camp about His own House and it shall be inviolate.
This is exactly how Amos or Isaiah might have pictured an Assyrian
campaign, or Zephaniah a Scythian. It is not surprising, therefore,
that even some of those who take the bulk of “Zech.” ix.—xiv. as
post-exilic should regard ix. 1-5 as earlier even than Amos, with
post-exilic additions only in vv. 6-8.[1324] This is possible. Vv. 6-8
are certainly post-exilic, because of their mention of the half-breeds,
and their intimation that Jehovah will take unclean food out of the
mouth of the heathen; but the allusions in vv. 1-5 suit an early date.
They equally suit, however, a date in the Greek period. The progress of
war from the Orontes valley by Damascus and thence down the coast of
Palestine follows the line of Alexander’s campaign in 332, which must
also have been the line of Demetrius in 315 and of Antigonus in 311.
The evidence of language is mostly in favour of a late date.[1325] If
Ptolemy I. took Jerusalem in 320,[1326] then the promise, no assailant
shall return (ver. 8), is probably later than that.
In face then of Alexander’s invasion of Palestine, or of another
campaign on the same line, this oracle repeats the ancient confidence
of Isaiah. God rules: His providence is awake alike for the heathen
and for Israel. _Jehovah hath an eye for mankind, and all the tribes
of Israel._[1327] The heathen shall be destroyed, but Jerusalem rest
secure; and the remnant of the heathen be converted, according to the
Levitical notion, by having unclean foods taken out of their mouths.
_Oracle._
_The Word of Jehovah is on the land of Hadrach, and Damascus is its
goal[1328]—for Jehovah hath an eye _upon_ the heathen,[1329] and all
the tribes of Israel—and on[1330] Hamath, _which_ borders upon it, Tyre
and Sidon, for they were very wise.[1331] And Tyre built her a
fortress, and heaped up silver like dust, and gold like the dirt of the
streets. Lo, the Lord will dispossess her, and strike her rampart[1332]
into the sea, and she shall be consumed in fire. Ashḳlon shall see and
shall fear, and Gaza writhe in anguish, and Ekron, for her
confidence[1333] is abashed, and the king shall perish from Gaza and
Ashḳlon lie uninhabited. Half-breeds[1334] shall dwell in Ashdod, and I
will cut down the pride of the Philistines. And I will take their blood
from their mouth and their abominations from between their teeth,[1335]
and even they shall be left for our God, and shall become like a clan
in Judah, and Ekron shall be as the Jebusite. And I shall encamp for a
guard[1336] to My House, so that none pass by or return, and no
assailant again pass upon them, for now do I regard it with Mine eyes._
2. THE PRINCE OF PEACE (ix. 9-12).
This beautiful picture, applied by the Evangelist with such fitness
to our Lord upon His entry to Jerusalem, must also be of post-exilic
date. It contrasts with the warlike portraits of the Messiah drawn in
pre-exilic times, for it clothes Him with humility and with peace. The
coming King of Israel has the attributes already imputed to the Servant
of Jehovah by the prophet of the Babylonian captivity. The next verses
also imply the Exile as already a fact. On the whole, too, the language
is of a late rather than of an early date.[1337] Nothing in the passage
betrays the exact point of its origin after the Exile.
The epithets applied to the Messiah are of very great interest. He does
not bring victory or salvation, but is the passive recipient of
it.[1338] This determines the meaning of the preceding adjective,
_righteous_, which has not the moral sense of _justice_, but rather
that of _vindication_, in which _righteousness_ and _righteous_ are so
frequently used in Isa. xl.—lv.[1339] He is _lowly_, like the Servant
of Jehovah; and comes riding not the horse, an animal for war, because
the next verse says that horses and chariots are to be removed from
Israel,[1340] but the ass, the animal not of lowliness, as some have
interpreted, but of peace. To this day in the East asses are used, as
they are represented in the Song of Deborah, by great officials, but
only when these are upon civil, and not upon military, duty.
It is possible that this oracle closes with ver. 10, and that we should
take vv. 11 and 12, on the deliverance from exile, with the next.
_Rejoice mightily, daughter of Zion! shout aloud, daughter of
Jerusalem! Lo, thy King cometh to thee, vindicated and victorious,[1341]
meek and riding on an ass,[1342] and on a colt the she-ass’ foal.[1343]
And I[1344] will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the horse from
Jerusalem, and the war-bow shall be cut off, and He shall speak peace
to the nations, and His rule shall be from sea to sea and from the
river even to the ends of the earth. Thou, too,—by thy covenant-blood,
[1345] I have set free thy prisoners from the pit.[1346] Return to the
fortress, ye prisoners of hope; even to-day do I proclaim: Double will
I return to thee._[1347]
3. THE SLAUGHTER OF THE GREEKS (ix. 13-17).
The next oracle seems singularly out of keeping with the spirit of the
last, which declared the arrival of the Messianic peace, while this
represents Jehovah as using Israel for His weapons in the slaughter of
the Greeks and heathens, in whose blood they shall revel. But Stade has
pointed out how often in chaps. ix.—xiv. a result is first stated and
then the oracle goes on to describe the process by which it is
achieved. Accordingly we have no ground for affirming ix. 13-17 to be
by another hand than ix. 9-12. The apocalyptic character of the means
by which the heathen are to be overthrown, and the exultation displayed
in their slaughter, as in a great sacrifice (ver. 15), betray Israel in
a state of absolute political weakness, and therefore suit a date after
Alexander’s campaigns, which is also made sure by the reference to the
_sons of Javan_, as if Israel were now in immediate contact with them.
Kirkpatrick’s note should be read, in which he seeks to prove _the sons
of Javan_ a late gloss;[1348] but his reasons do not appear conclusive.
The language bears several traces of lateness.[1349]
_For I have drawn Judah for My bow, I have charged_ it _with Ephraim;
and I will urge thy sons, O Zion, against the sons of[1350] Javan, and
make thee like the sword of a hero. Then will Jehovah appear above
them, and His shaft shall go forth like lightning; and the Lord Jehovah
shall blow a blast on the trumpet, and travel in the storms of the
south.[1351] Jehovah will protect them, and they shall devour
_(?)_[1352] and trample ...;[1353] and they shall drink their
blood[1354] like wine, and be drenched with it, like a bowl and like
the corners of the altar. And Jehovah their God will give them victory
in that day....[1355] How good it[1356] is, and how beautiful! Corn
shall make the young men flourish and new wine the maidens._
4. AGAINST THE TERAPHIM AND SORCERERS (x. 1, 2).
This little piece is connected with the previous one only through the
latter’s conclusion upon the fertility of the land, while this opens
with rain, the requisite of fertility. It is connected with the piece
that follows only by its mention of the shepherdless state of the
people, the piece that follows being against the false shepherds. These
connections are extremely slight. Perhaps the piece is an independent
one. The subject of it gives no clue to the date. Sorcerers are
condemned both by the earlier prophets, and by the later.[1357] Stade
points out that this is the only passage of the Old Testament in which
the Teraphim are said to speak.[1358] The language has one symptom of a
late period.[1359]
After emphasising the futility of images, enchantments and dreams, this
little oracle says, therefore the people wander like sheep: they have
no shepherd. Shepherd in this connection cannot mean civil ruler, but
must be religious director.
_Ask from Jehovah rain in the time of the latter rain.[1360] Jehovah is
the maker of the lightning-flashes, and the winter rain He gives to
them—to every man herbage in the field. But the Teraphim speak
nothingness, and the sorcerers see lies, and dreams discourse vanity,
and they comfort in vain. Wherefore they wander (?)[1361] like a flock
of sheep, and flee about,[1362] for there is no shepherd._
5. AGAINST EVIL SHEPHERDS (x. 3-12).
The unity of this section is more apparent than its connection with the
preceding, which had spoken of the want of a shepherd, or religious
director, of Israel, while this is directed against their shepherds and
leaders, meaning their foreign tyrants.[1363] The figure is taken from
Jeremiah xxiii. 1 ff., where, besides, _to visit upon_[1364] is used in
a sense of punishment, but the simple _visit_[1365] in the sense of to
look after, just as within ver. 3 of this tenth chapter. Who these
foreign tyrants are is not explicitly stated, but the reference to
Egypt and Assyria as lands whence the Jewish captives shall be brought
home, while at the same time there is a Jewish nation in Judah, suits
only the Greek period, after Ptolemy had taken so many Jews to
Egypt,[1366] and there were numbers still scattered throughout the
other great empire in the north, to which, as we have already seen, the
Jews applied the name of Assyria. The reference can hardly suit the
years after Seleucus and Ptolemy granted to the Jews in their
territories the rights of citizens. The captive Jews are to be brought
back to Gilead and Lebanon. Why exactly these are mentioned, and
neither Samaria nor Galilee, forms a difficulty, to whatever age we
assign the chapter. The language of x. 3-12 has several late
features.[1367] Joseph or Ephraim, here and elsewhere in these
chapters, is used of the portion of Israel still in captivity, in
contrast to Judah, the returned community.
The passage predicts that Jehovah will change His poor leaderless
sheep, the Jews, into war-horses, and give them strong chiefs and
weapons of war. They shall overthrow the heathen, and Jehovah will
bring back His exiles. The passage is therefore one with chap. ix.
_My wrath is hot against the shepherds, and I will make visitation on
the he-goats:[1368] yea, Jehovah of Hosts will[1369] visit His flock,
the house of Judah, and will make them like His splendid war-horses.
From Him the corner-stone, from Him the stay,[1370] from Him the
war-bow, from Him the oppressor—shall go forth together. And in battle
shall they trample on heroes as on the dirt of the streets,[1371] and
fight, for Jehovah is with them, and the riders on horses shall be
abashed. And the house of Judah will I make strong and work salvation
for the house of Joseph, and bring them back,[1372] for I have pity
for them,[1373] and they shall be as though I had not put them
away,[1373] for I am Jehovah their God[1373] and I will hold converse
with them.[1373] And Ephraim shall be as heroes,[1374] and their heart
shall be glad as with wine, and their children shall behold and be
glad: their heart shall rejoice in Jehovah. I will whistle for them and
gather them in, for I have redeemed them, and they shall be as many as
they once were. I scattered them[1375] among the nations, but among the
far-away they think of Me, and they will bring up[1376] their children,
and come back. And I will fetch them home from the land of Miṣraim, and
from Asshur[1377] will I gather them, and to the land of Gilead and
Lebānon will I bring them in, though_ these _be not found_ sufficient
_for them. And they[1378] shall pass through the sea of Egypt,[1379]
and He shall smite the sea of breakers, and all the deeps of the Nile
shall be dried, and the pride of Assyria brought down, and the sceptre
of Egypt swept aside. And their strength[1380] shall be in Jehovah, and
in His Name shall they boast themselves[1381]—oracle of Jehovah._
6. WAR UPON THE SYRIAN TYRANTS (xi. 1-3).
This is taken by some with the previous chapter, by others with the
passage following. Either connection seems precarious. No conclusion as
to date can be drawn from the language. But the localities threatened
were on the southward front of the Seleucid kingdom. _Open, Lebānon,
thy doors_ suits the Egyptian invasions of that kingdom. To which of
these the passage refers cannot of course be determined. The shepherds
are the rulers.
_Open, Lebānon, thy doors, that the fire may devour in thy cedars.
Wail, O pine-tree, for the cedar is fallen;[1382] wail, O oaks of
Bashan, for fallen is the impenetrable[1383] wood. Hark to the wailing
of the shepherds! for their glory is destroyed. Hark how the lions
roar! for blasted is the pride[1384] of Jordan._
7. THE REJECTION AND MURDER OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD
(xi. 4-17, xiii. 7-9).
There follows now, in the rest of chap. xi., a longer oracle, to which
Ewald and most critics after him have suitably attached chap. xiii. 7-9.
This passage appears to rise from circumstances similar to those of the
preceding and from the same circle of ideas. Jehovah’s people are His
flock and have suffered. Their rulers are their shepherds; and the
rulers of other peoples are their shepherds. A true shepherd is sought
for Israel in place of the evil ones which have distressed them. The
language shows traces of a late date.[1385] No historical allusion is
obvious in the passage. The _buyers_ and _sellers_ of God’s sheep might
reflect the Seleucids and Ptolemies between whom Israel were exchanged
for many years, but probably mean their native leaders. The _three
shepherds cut off in a month_ were interpreted by the supporters of the
pre-exilic date of the chapters as Zechariah and Shallum (2 Kings xv.
8-13), and another whom these critics assume to have followed them to
death, but of him the history has no trace. The supporters of a
Maccabean date for the prophecy recall the quick succession of high
priests before the Maccabean rising. The _one month_ probably means
nothing more than a very short time.
The allegory which our passage unfolds is given, like so many more in
Hebrew prophecy, to the prophet himself to enact. It recalls the
pictures in Jeremiah and Ezekiel of the overthrow of the false
shepherds of Israel, and the appointment of a true shepherd.[1386]
Jehovah commissions the prophet to become shepherd to His sheep that
have been so cruelly abused by their guides and rulers. Like the
shepherds of Palestine, the prophet took two staves to herd his flock.
He called one _Grace_, the other _Union_. In a month he cut off three
shepherds—both _month_ and _three_ are probably formal terms. But he
did not get on well with his charge. They were wilful and quarrelsome.
So he broke his staff Grace, in token that his engagement was
dissolved. The dealers of the sheep saw that he acted for God. He asked
for his wage, if they cared to give it. They gave him thirty pieces of
silver, the price of an injured slave,[1387] which by God’s command he
cast into the treasury of the Temple, as if in token that it was God
Himself whom they paid with so wretched a sum. And then he broke his
other staff, to signify that the brotherhood between Judah and Israel
was broken. Then, to show the people that by their rejection of the
good shepherd they must fall a prey to an evil one, the prophet assumed
the character of the latter. But another judgment follows. In chap.
xiii. 7-9 the good shepherd is smitten and the flock dispersed.
The spiritual principles which underlie this allegory are obvious.
God’s own sheep, persecuted and helpless though they be, are yet
obstinate, and their obstinacy not only renders God’s good-will to them
futile, but causes the death of the one man who could have done them
good. The guilty sacrifice the innocent, but in this execute their own
doom. That is a summary of the history of Israel. But had the writer of
this allegory any special part of that history in view? Who were the
_dealers of the flock_?
_Thus saith Jehovah my God:[1388] Shepherd the flock of slaughter,
whose purchasers slaughter them impenitently, and whose sellers
say,[1389] Blessed be Jehovah, for I am rich!—and their shepherds do
not spare them. [For I will no more spare the inhabitants of the
land—oracle of Jehovah; but lo! I am about to give mankind[1390] over,
each into the hand of his shepherd,[1391] and into the hand of his
king; and they shall destroy the land, and I will not secure it from
their hands.[1392]] And I shepherded the flock of slaughter for the
sheep merchants,[1393] and I took to me two staves—the one I called
Grace, and the other I called Union[1394]—and so I shepherded the
sheep. And I destroyed the three shepherds in one month. Then was my
soul vexed with them, and they on their part were displeased with me.
And I said: I will not shepherd you: what is dead, let it die; and what
is destroyed, let it be destroyed; and those that survive, let them
devour one another’s flesh! And I took my staff Grace, and I brake it
so as to annul my covenant which I made with all the peoples.[1395] And
in that day it was annulled, and the dealers of the sheep,[1396] who
watched me, knew that it was Jehovah’s word. And I said to them, If it
be good in your sight, give me my wage, and if it be not good, let it
go! And they weighed out my wage, thirty pieces of silver. Then said
Jehovah to me, Throw it into the treasury[1397] (the precious wage at
which I[1398] had been valued of them). So I took the thirty pieces of
silver, and cast them to the House of Jehovah, to the treasury.[1399]
And I brake my second staff, Union, so as to dissolve the brotherhood
between Judah and Israel.[1400] And Jehovah said to me: Take again to
thee the implements of a worthless shepherd: for lo! I am about to
appoint a shepherd over the land; the destroyed he will not visit, the
...[1401] he will not seek out, the wounded he will not heal, the
...;[1402] he will not cherish, but he will devour the flesh of the fat
and....[1403] Woe to My worthless[1404] shepherd, that deserts the
flock! The sword be upon his arm and his right eye! May his arm wither,
and his right eye be blinded._
Upon this follows the section xiii. 7-9, which develops the tragedy of
the nation to its climax in the murder of the good shepherd.
_Up, Sword, against My shepherd and the man My compatriot[1405]—oracle
of Jehovah of Hosts. Smite[1406] the shepherd, that the sheep may be
scattered; and I will turn My hand against the little ones.[1407] And
it shall come to pass in all the land—oracle of Jehovah—that two-thirds
shall be cut off in it, and perish, but a third shall be left in it.
And I shall bring the third into the fire, and smelt it as _men_ smelt
silver and try it as _men_ try gold. It shall call upon My Name, and I
will answer it. And I will[1408] say, It is My people, and it will say,
Jehovah my God!_
8. JUDAH _versus_ JERUSALEM (xii. 1-7).
A title, though probably of later date than the text,[1409] introduces
with the beginning of chap. xii. an oracle plainly from circumstances
different from those of the preceding chapters. The nations, not
particularised as they have been, gather to the siege of Jerusalem,
and, very singularly, Judah is gathered with them against her own
capital. But God makes the city like one of those great boulders,
deeply embedded, which husbandmen try to pull up from their fields, but
it tears and wounds the hands of those who would remove it. Moreover
God strikes with panic all the besiegers, save only Judah, who, her
eyes being opened, perceives that God is with Jerusalem and turns to
her help. Jerusalem remains in her place; but the glory of the victory
is first Judah’s, so that the house of David may not have too much fame
nor boast over the country districts. The writer doubtless alludes to
some temporary schism between the capital and country caused by the
arrogance of the former. But we have no means of knowing when this took
place. It must often have been imminent in the days both before and
especially after the Exile, when Jerusalem had absorbed all the
religious privilege and influence of the nation. The language is
undoubtedly late.[1410]
The figure of Jerusalem as a boulder, deeply bedded in the soil, which
tears the hands that seek to remove it, is a most true and expressive
summary of the history of heathen assaults upon her. Till she herself
was rent by internal dissensions, and the Romans at last succeeded in
tearing her loose, she remained planted on her own site.[1411] This
was very true of all the Greek period. Seleucids and Ptolemies alike
wounded themselves upon her. But at what period did either of them
induce Judah to take part against her? Not in the Maccabean.
_Oracle of the Word of Jehovah upon Israel._
_Oracle of Jehovah, who stretched out the heavens and founded the
earth, and formed the spirit of man within him: Lo, I am about to make
Jerusalem a cup of reeling for all the surrounding peoples, and even
Judah[1412] shall be at the siege of Jerusalem. And it shall come to
pass in that day that I will make Jerusalem a stone to be lifted[1413]
by all the peoples—all who lift it do indeed wound[1414] themselves—and
there are gathered against it all nations of the earth. In that
day—oracle of Jehovah—I will smite every horse with panic, and their
riders with madness; but as for the house of Judah, I will open
its[1415] eyes, though every horse of the peoples I smite with
blindness. Then shall the chiefs[1416] of Judah say in their hearts,
...[1417] the inhabitants of Jerusalem through Jehovah of Hosts their
God. In that day will I make the districts of Judah like a pan of fire
among timber and like a torch among sheaves, so that they devour right
and left all the peoples round about, but Jerusalem shall still abide
on its own site.[1418] And Jehovah shall first give victory to the
tents[1419] of Judah, so that the fame of the house of David and the
fame of the inhabitants of Jerusalem be not too great in contrast to
Judah._
9. FOUR RESULTS OF JERUSALEM’S DELIVERANCE
(xii. 8—xiii. 6).
Upon the deliverance of Jerusalem, by the help of the converted Judah,
there follow four results, each introduced by the words that it
happened _in that day_ (xii. 8, 9, xiii. 1, 2). First, the people of
Jerusalem shall themselves be strengthened. Second, the hostile heathen
shall be destroyed, but on the house of David and all Jerusalem the
spirit of penitence shall be poured, and they will lament for the good
shepherd whom they slew. Third, a fountain for sin and uncleanness
shall be opened. Fourth, the idols, the unclean spirit, and prophecy,
now so degraded, shall all be abolished. The connection of these
oracles with the preceding is obvious, as well as with the oracle
describing the murder of the good shepherd (xiii. 7-9). When we see how
this is presupposed by xii. 9 ff., we feel more than ever that its
right place is between chaps. xi. and xii. There are no historical
allusions. But again the language gives evidence of a late date.[1420]
And throughout the passage there is a repetition of formal phrases
which recalls the Priestly Code and the general style of the
post-exilic age.[1421] Notice that no king is mentioned, although there
are several points at which, had he existed, he must have been
introduced.
1. The first of the four effects of Jerusalem’s deliverance from the
heathen is the promotion of her weaklings to the strength of her
heroes, and of her heroes to divine rank (xii. 8). _In that day Jehovah
will protect the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the lame among them
shall in that day be like David_ himself _, and the house of David like
God, like the Angel of Jehovah before them_.
2. The second paragraph of this series very remarkably emphasises that
upon her deliverance Jerusalem shall not give way to rejoicing, but to
penitent lamentation for the murder of him whom she has pierced—the
good shepherd whom her people have rejected and slain. This is one of
the few ethical strains which run through these apocalyptic chapters.
It forms their highest interest for us. Jerusalem’s mourning is
compared to that for _Hadad-Rimmon in the valley_ or _plain of
Megiddo_. This is the classic battle-field of the land, and the theatre
upon which Apocalypse has placed the last contest between the hosts of
God and the hosts of evil.[1422] In Israel’s history it had been the
ground not only of triumph but of tears. The greatest tragedy of that
history, the defeat and death of the righteous Josiah, took place
there;[1423] and since the earliest Jewish interpreters the _mourning
of Hadad-Rimmon in the valley of Megiddo_ has been referred to the
mourning for Josiah.[1424] Jerome identifies Hadad-Rimmon with
Rummâni,[1425] a village on the plain still extant, close to Megiddo.
But the lamentation for Josiah was at Jerusalem; and it cannot be
proved that Hadad-Rimmon is a place-name. It may rather be the name of
the object of the mourning, and as Hadad was a divine name among
Phœnicians and Arameans, and Rimmôn the pomegranate was a sacred tree,
a number of critics have supposed this to be a title of Adonis, and the
mourning like that excessive grief which Ezekiel tells us was yearly
celebrated for Tammuz.[1426] This, however, is not fully proved.[1427]
Observe, further, that while the reading Hadad-Rimmon is by no means
past doubt, the sanguine blossoms and fruit of the pomegranate,
“red-ripe at the heart,” would naturally lead to its association with
the slaughtered Adonis.
_And it shall come to pass in that day that I will seek to destroy all
the nations who have come in upon Jerusalem. And I will pour upon the
house of David and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of
grace and of supplication, and they shall look to him[1428] whom they
have pierced; and they shall lament for him, as with lamentation for an
only son, and bitterly grieve for him, as with grief for a first-born.
In that day lamentation shall be as great in Jerusalem as the
lamentation for Hadad-Rimmon[1429] in the valley of Megiddo. And the
land shall mourn, every family by itself: the family of the house of
David by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the house
of Nathan by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the
house of Levi by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of
Shime’i[1430] by itself, and their wives by themselves; all the
families who are left, every family by itself, and their wives by
themselves._
3. The third result of Jerusalem’s deliverance from the heathen
shall be the opening of a fountain of cleansing. This purging of
her sin follows fitly upon her penitence just described. _In that
day a fountain shall be opened for the house of David, and for the
inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness._[1431]
4. The fourth consequence is the removal of idolatry, of the unclean
spirit and of the degraded prophets from her midst. The last is
especially remarkable: for it is not merely false prophets, as
distinguished from true, who shall be removed; but prophecy in general.
It is singular that in almost its latest passage the prophecy of Israel
should return to the line of its earliest representative, Amos, who
refused to call himself prophet. As in his day, the prophets had become
mere professional and mercenary oracle-mongers, abjured to the point of
death by their own ashamed and wearied relatives.
_And it shall be in that day—oracle of Jehovah of Hosts—I will cut off
the names of the idols from the land, and they shall not be remembered
any more. And also the prophets and the unclean spirit will I expel
from the land. And it shall come to pass, if any man prophesy again,
then shall his father and mother who begat him say to him, Thou shall
not live, for thou speakest falsehood in the name of Jehovah; and his
father and mother who begat him shall stab him for his prophesying. And
it shall be in that day that the prophets shall be ashamed of their
visions when they prophesy, and shall not wear the leather cloak in
order to lie. And he will say, No prophet am I! A tiller of the ground
I am, for the ground is my possession[1432] from my youth up. And they
shall say to him, What are these wounds in[1433] thy hands? and he
shall say, What I was wounded with in the house of my lovers!_
10. JUDGMENT OF THE HEATHEN AND SANCTIFICATION
OF JERUSALEM (xiv.).
In another apocalyptic vision the prophet beholds Jerusalem again beset
by the heathen. But Jehovah Himself intervenes, appearing in person,
and an earthquake breaks out at His feet. The heathen are smitten, as
they stand, into mouldering corpses. The remnant of them shall be
converted to Jehovah and take part in the annual Feast of Booths. If
any refuse they shall be punished with drought. But Jerusalem shall
abide in security and holiness: every detail of her equipment shall be
consecrate. The passage has many resemblances to the preceding
oracles.[1434] The language is undoubtedly late, and the figures are
borrowed from other prophets, chiefly Ezekiel. It is a characteristic
specimen of the Jewish Apocalypse. The destruction of the heathen is
described in verses of terrible grimness: there is no tenderness nor
hope exhibited for them. And even in the picture of Jerusalem’s
holiness we have no really ethical elements, but the details are purely
ceremonial.
_Lo! a day is coming for Jehovah,[1435] when thy spoil will be divided
in thy midst. And I will gather all the nations to besiege Jerusalem,
and the city will be taken and the houses plundered and the women
ravished, and the half of the city shall go into captivity, but the
rest of the people shall not be cut off from the city. And Jehovah
shall go forth and do battle with those nations, as in the day when He
fought in the day of contest. And His feet shall stand in that day on
the Mount of Olives which is over against Jerusalem on the east, and
the Mount of Olives shall be split into halves from east to west by a
very great ravine, and half of the Mount will slide northwards and half
southwards. ...,[1436] for the ravine of mountains[1437] shall extend
to ‘Aṣal,[1438] and ye shall flee as ye fled from before the earthquake
in the days of Uzziah king of Judah,[1439] and Jehovah my God will come
and[1440] all the holy ones with Him.[1441] And in that day there shall
not be light, ... congeal.[1442] And it shall be one[1443] day—it is
known to Jehovah[1444]—neither day nor night; and it shall come to pass
that at evening time there shall be light._
_And it shall be in that day that living waters shall flow forth from
Jerusalem, half of them to the eastern sea and half of them to the
western sea:_ both _in summer and in winter shall it be. And Jehovah
shall be King over all the earth: in that day Jehovah will be One and
His Name One. All the land shall be changed to plain,[1445] from Geba
to Rimmon,[1446] south of Jerusalem; but she shall be high and abide in
her place[1447] from the Gate of Benjamin up to the place of the First
Gate, up to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hanan’el as far as
the King’s Winepresses. And they shall dwell in it, and there shall be
no more Ban,[1448] and Jerusalem shall abide in security. And this
shall be the stroke with which Jehovah will smite all the peoples who
have warred against Jerusalem: He will make their flesh moulder while
they still stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall moulder in their
sockets, and their tongue shall moulder in their mouth._
[_And it shall come to pass in that day, there shall be a great
confusion from Jehovah among them, and they shall grasp every man the
hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall be lifted against the hand
of his neighbour.[1449] And even Judah shall fight against Jerusalem,
and the wealth of all the nations round about shall be swept up, gold
and silver and garments, in a very great mass._ These two verses, 13
and 14, obviously disturb the connection, which ver. 15 as obviously
resumes with ver. 12. They are, therefore, generally regarded as an
intrusion.[1450] But why they have been inserted is not clear. Ver. 14
is a curious echo of the strife between Judah and Jerusalem described
in chap. xii. They may be not a mere intrusion, but simply out of their
proper place: yet, if so, where this proper place lies in these oracles
is impossible to determine.]
_And even so shall be the plague upon the horses, mules, camels and
asses, and all the beasts which are in those camps—just like this
plague. And it shall come to pass that all that survive of all the
nations who have come up against Jerusalem, shall come up from year to
year to do obeisance to King Jehovah of Hosts, and to keep the Feast of
Booths. And it shall come to pass that whosoever of all the races of
the earth will not come up to Jerusalem to do obeisance to King Jehovah
of Hosts, upon them there shall be no rain. And if the race of Egypt go
not up nor come in, upon them also shall[1451] come the plague, with
which Jehovah shall strike the nations that go not up to keep the Feast
of Booths. Such shall be the punishment[1] of Egypt, and the
punishment[1452] of all nations who do not come up to keep the Feast of
Booths._
The Feast of Booths was specially one of thanksgiving for the harvest;
that is why the neglect of it is punished by the withholding of the
rain which brings the harvest. But such a punishment for such a neglect
shows how completely prophecy has become subject to the Law. One is
tempted to think what Amos or Jeremiah or even “Malachi” would have
thought of this. Verily all the writers of the prophetical books do
not stand upon the same level of religion. The writer remembers that
the curse of no rain cannot affect the Egyptians, the fertility of
whose rainless land is secured by the annual floods of her river. So he
has to insert a special verse for Egypt. She also will be plagued by
Jehovah, yet he does not tell us in what fashion her plague will come.
The book closes with a little oracle of the most ceremonial
description, connected not only in temper but even by subject with what
has gone before. The very horses, which hitherto have been regarded as
too foreign,[1453] or—as even in this group of oracles[1454]—as too
warlike, to exist in Jerusalem, shall be consecrated to Jehovah. And so
vast shall be the multitudes who throng from all the earth to the
annual feasts and sacrifices at the Temple, that the pots of the latter
shall be as large as the great altar-bowls,[1455] and every pot in
Jerusalem and Judah shall be consecrated for use in the ritual. This
hallowing of the horses raises the question, whether the passage can be
from the same hand as wrote the prediction of the disappearance of all
horses from Jerusalem.[1456]
_In that day there shall be upon the bells of the horses, Holiness unto
Jehovah. And the_ very _pots in the House of Jehovah shall be as the
bowls before the altar. Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall
be holy to Jehovah of Hosts, and all who sacrifice shall come and take
of them and cook in them. And there shall be no more any pedlar[1457]
in the House of Jehovah of Hosts in that day._
FOOTNOTES:
[1324] So Staerk, who thinks Amos I. made use of vv. 1-5.
[1325] ix. 1, אדם, _mankind_, in contrast to the tribes of Israel; 3,
חרוץ, _gold_; 5, ישב as passive, cf. xii. 6; הוביש, Hi. of בּוּשׁ, in
passive sense only after Jeremiah (cf. above, p. 412, on Joel); in 2
Sam. xix. 6, Hosea ii. 7, it is active.
[1326] See p. 442.
[1327] ix. 1.
[1328] Heb. _resting-place_: cf. Zech. vi. 8, _bring Mine anger to
rest_. This meets the objection of Bredenkamp and others, that מנוחה is
otherwise used of Jehovah alone, in consequence of which they refer the
suffix to Him.
[1329] The expression _hath an eye_ is so unusual that Klostermann,
_Theo. Litt. Zeit._, 1879, 566 (quoted by Nowack), proposes to read for
עין ערי, _Jehovah’s are the cities of the heathen_. For אדם, _mankind_,
as = _heathen_ cf. Jer. xxxii. 20.
[1330] So LXX.: Heb. _also_.
[1331] So LXX.: Heb. has verb in sing.
[1332] Cf. Nahum iii. 8; Isa. xxvi. 1.
[1333] Read מִבְטָחָה.
[1334] Deut. xxiii. 3 (Heb., 2 Eng.).
[1335] The prepositions refer to the half-breeds. Ezekiel uses the term
_to eat upon the blood_, _i.e._ meat eaten without being ritually slain
and consecrated, for illegal sacrifices (xxxiii. 35: cf. 1 Sam. xiv. 32
f.; Lev. xix. 26, xvii. 11-14).
[1336] מִצַָּּבָה for מִן־צָבָא; but to be amended to מַצָּבָה, 1 Sam. xiv. 12,
_a military post_. Ewald reads מֻצָּבָה, _rampart_. LXX. ἀνάστημα = מַצֵּבָה.
[1337] ix. 10, מֹשֶׁל, cf. Dan. xi. 4; אפסי ארץ only in late writings
(unless Deut. xxxiii. 17 be early)—see Eckardt, p. 80; 12, בצּרון is
ἅπαξ λεγόμενον; the last clause of 12 is based on Isa. lxi. 7. If our
interpretation of צדיק and נושע be right, they are also symptoms of a
late date.
[1338] נושׁע (ver. 9): the passive participle.
[1339] Cf. _Isaiah xl.—lxvi._ (Expositor’s Bible), p. 219.
[1340] Why _chariot from Ephraim_ and _horse from Jerusalem_ is
explained in _Hist. Geog._, pp. 329-331.
[1341] See above.
[1342] Symbol of peace as the horse was of war.
[1343] Son of she-asses.
[1344] Mass.: LXX. _He_.
[1345] Heb. _blood of thy covenant_, but the suffix refers to the whole
phrase (Duhm, _Theol. der Proph._, p. 143). The covenant is Jehovah’s;
the blood, that which the people shed in sacrifice to ratify the
covenant.
[1346] Heb. adds _there is no water in it_, but this is either a gloss,
or perhaps an attempt to make sense out of a dittography of מבור, or a
corruption of _none shall be ashamed_.
[1347] Isa. lxi. 7.
[1348] _Doctrine of the Prophets_, Note A, p. 472.
[1349] 14, on תימן see Eckardt; 15, זויות, Aramaism; כבשׁ is late; 17,
התנוסס, only here and Psalm lx. 6; נוב, probably late.
[1350] So LXX.: Heb. reads, _thy sons, O Javan_.
[1351] LXX. ἐν σάλῳ τῆς ἀπειλῆς αὐτοῦ, _in the tossing of His threat_,
בשער גערו (?) or בשער העדו. It is natural to see here a reference to
the Theophanies of Hab. iii. 3, Deut. xxxiii. (see above, pp. 150 f.).
[1352] Perhaps וְיָכְלוּ, _overcome them_. LXX. καταναλώσουσιν.
[1353] Heb. _stones of a sling_, אבני קלע. Wellhausen and Nowack read
_sons_, בני, but what then is קלע?
[1354] Reading דמם for Heb. והמו, _and roar_.
[1355] Heb. _like a flock of sheep His people_, (but how is one to
construe this with the context?) _for (? like) stones of a diadem
lifting themselves up (? shimmering) over His land_. Wellhausen and
Nowack delete _for stones ... shimmering_ as a gloss. This would leave
_like a flock of sheep His people in His land_, to which it is proposed
to add _He will feed_. This gives good sense.
[1356] Wellhausen, reading טובה, fem. suffix for neuter. Ewald and
others _He_. Hitzig and others _they_, the people.
[1357] Of these cf. “Mal.” iii. 5; the late Jer. xliv. 8 ff.; Isa. lxv.
3-5; and, in the Priestly Law, Lev. xix. 31, xx. 6.
[1358] _Z.A.T.W._, I. 60. He compares this verse with 1 Sam. xv. 23. In
Ezek. xxi. 26 they give oracles.
[1359] חזיז, _lightning-flash_, only here and in Job xxviii. 26,
xxxviii. 25.
[1360] LXX. read: _in season early rain and latter rain_.
[1361] נסעו, used of a nomadic life in Jer. xxxi. 24 (23), and so
it is possible that in a later stage of the language it had come to
mean to wander or stray. But this is doubtful, and there may be a false
reading, as appears from LXX. ἐξηράνθησαν.
[1362] For יענו read וינעו. The LXX. ἐκακώθησαν read וירעו.
[1363] There can therefore be none of that connection between the two
pieces which Kirkpatrick assumes (p. 454 and note 2).
[1364] פקד על
[1365] פקד את
[1366] See above, p. 444.
[1367] x. 5, בוס, Eckardt, p. 82; 6, 12, גִּבֵּר, Pi., cf. Eccles. x.
10, where it alone occurs besides here; 5, 11, הבישו in passive sense.
[1368] As we should say, _bell-wethers_: cf. Isa. xiv. 9, also a late
meaning.
[1369] So LXX., reading כי־יפקד for כי־פקד.
[1370] _Corner-stone_ as name for a chief: cf. Judg. xx. 2; 1 Sam. xiv.
38; Isa. xix. 13. _Stay_ or _tent-pin_, Isa. xxii. 23. _From Him_,
others _from them_.
[1371] Read בַּגִּבֹּרִים and כְּטִיט (Wellhausen).
[1372] Read וַהֲשִׁבוֹתִים for the Mass. וְהוֹשְׁבוֹתִים, _and I will
make them to dwell_.
[1373] רחמתים and אלהיהם ,זנחתים and אענם, keywords of Hosea i.—iii.
[1374] LXX.; sing. Heb.
[1375] Changing the Heb. points which make the verb future. See
Nowack’s note.
[1376] With LXX. read וְחִיּוּ for Mass. וְחָיוּ.
[1377] See above, pp. 451, 471.
[1378] So LXX.; Mass. sing.
[1379] Heb. צרה, _narrow sea_: so LXX., but Wellhausen suggests מצרים,
which Nowack adopts.
[1380] גברתם for גברתים.
[1381] For יתהלכו read יתהללו, with LXX. and Syr.
[1382] Heb. adds here a difficult clause, _for nobles are wasted_.
Probably a gloss.
[1383] After the Ḳerî.
[1384] I.e. _rankness_; applied to the thick vegetation in the larger
bed of the stream: see _Hist. Geog._, p. 484.
[1385] xi. 5, וַאעְשִׁר, Hiph., but intransitive, _grow rich_; 6, ממציא; 7,
10, נעם (?); 8, בחל, Aram.; 13, יְקָר, Aram., Jer. xx. 5, Ezek. xxii. 25,
Job xxviii. 10; in Esther ten, in Daniel four times (Eckardt); xiii. 7,
עמית, one of the marks of the affinity of the language of “Zech.”
ix.—xiv. to that of the Priestly Code (cf. Lev. v. 21, xviii. 20,
etc.), but in P it is concrete, here abstract; צערים; 8, גוע, see
Eckardt, p. 85.
[1386] Jer. xxiii. 1-8; Ezek. xxxiv., xxxvii. 24 ff.: cf. Kirkpatrick
P. 462.
[1387] Exod. xxi. 32.
[1388] LXX. _God of Hosts_.
[1389] Read plural with LXX.
[1390] That is the late Hebrew name for the heathen: cf. ix. 1.
[1391] Heb. רֵעֵהוּ, _neighbour_; read רֹעֵהוּ.
[1392] Many take this verse as an intrusion. It certainly seems to add
nothing to the sense and to interrupt the connection, which is clear
when it is removed.
[1393] Heb. לָכֵן עֲנִיֵּי הַצֹּאן, _wherefore the miserable of the flock_,
which makes no sense. But LXX. read εἰς τήν Χαναάνιτην, and this
suggests the Heb. לכנעני, _to the Canaanites_, i.e. _merchants_, _of
the sheep_: so in ver. 11.
[1394] Lit. _Bands_.
[1395] The sense is here obscure. Is the text sound? In harmony with
the context עמים ought to mean _tribes of Israel_. But every passage in
the O.T. in which עמים might mean _tribes_ has been shown to have a
doubtful text: Deut. xxxii. 8, xxxiii. 3; Hosea x. 14; Micah i. 2.
[1396] See above, note 1393, on the same mis-read phrase in ver. 7.
[1397] Heb. הַיּוֹצֵר, _the potter_. LXX. χωνευτήριον _smelting
furnace_. Read הָאוֹצָר by change of א for י: the two are often
confounded; see n. 1399.
[1398] Wellhausen and Nowack read _thou hast been valued of them_. But
there is no need of this. The clause is a sarcastic parenthesis spoken
by the prophet himself.
[1399] Again Heb. _the potter_, LXX. _the smelting furnace_, as above
in ver. 13. The additional clause _House of God_ proves how right it is
to read _the treasury_, and disposes of the idea that _to throw to the
potter_ was a proverb for throwing away.
[1400] Two codd. read _Jerusalem_, which Wellhausen and Nowack adopt.
[1401] Heb. הַנַּעַר, _the scattered_. LXX. τὸν ἐσκορπίσμενον.
[1402] הַנִּצָּבָה, obscure: some translate _the sound_ or _stable_.
[1403] Heb. _and their hoofs he will tear_ (?).
[1404] For Heb. האליל read as in ver. 15 האוילי.
[1405] עמית: only in Lev. and here.
[1406] הך. Perhaps we should read אַכֶּה, _I smite_, with Matt. xxvi. 31.
[1407] Some take this as a promise: _turn My hand towards the little
ones_.
[1408] LXX. Heb. אמרתי, but the ו has fallen from the front of it.
[1409] See above, p. 462.
[1410] xii. 2, רַעַל, a noun not found elsewhere in O. T. We found the
verb in Nahum ii. 4 (see above, p. 106), and probably in Hab. ii. 16
for והערל (see above, p. 147, n. 412): it is common in Aramean; other
forms belong to later Hebrew (cf. Eckardt, p. 85). 3, שׂרט is used in
classic Heb. only of intentional cutting and tattooing of oneself; in
the sense of _wounding_ which it has here it is frequent in Aramean.
3 has besides אבן מעמסה, not found elsewhere. 4 has three nouns
terminating in ־ון, two of them—תמהון, _panic_, and עורון, judicial
_blindness_—in O. T. only found here and in Deut. xxviii. 28, the
former also in Aramean. 7 למען לא is also cited by Eckardt as used only
in Ezek. xix. 6, xxvi. 20, and four times in Psalms.
[1411] xii. 6, תחתיה.
[1412] The text reads _against_ Judah, as if it with Jerusalem suffered
the siege of the heathen. But (1) this makes an unconstruable clause,
and (2) the context shows that Judah was _against_ Jerusalem. Therefore
Geiger (_Urschrift_, p. 58) is right in deleting על, and restoring to
the clause both sense in itself and harmony with the context. It is
easy to see why על was afterwards introduced. LXX. καὶ ἐν τῇ Ἰουδαίᾳ.
[1413] Since Jerome, commentators have thought of a stone by throwing
or lifting which men try their strength, what we call a “putting
stone.” But is not the idea rather of one of the large stones
half-buried in the earth which it is the effort of the husbandman to
tear from its bed and carry out of his field before he ploughs it? Keil
and Wright think of a heavy stone for building. This is not so likely.
[1414] שׂרט, elsewhere only in Lev. xxi. 5, is there used of
intentional cutting of oneself as a sign of mourning. Nowack takes the
clause as a later intrusion; but there is no real reason for this.
[1415] Heb. _upon Judah will I keep My eyes open_ to protect him, and
this has analogies, Job xiv. 3, Jer. xxxii. 19. But the reading _its
eyes_, which is made by inserting a ו that might easily have dropped
out through confusion with the initial ו of the next word, has also
analogies (Isa. xlii. 7, etc.), and stands in better parallel to the
next clause, as well as to the clauses describing the panic of the
heathen.
[1416] Others read אַלְפֵי, _thousands_, i.e. _districts_.
[1417] Heb. _I will find me_; LXX. εὑρήσομεν ἑαυτοῖς.
[1418] Hebrew adds a gloss: _in Jerusalem_.
[1419] The population in time of war.
[1420] xii. 10, שׁפך רוח, not earlier than Ezek. xxxix. 29, Joel
iii. 1, 2 (Heb.); תחנונים, only in Job, Proverbs, Psalms and Daniel;
המר, an intrans. Hiph.; xiii. 1, מקור, _fountain_, before Jeremiah
only in Hosea xiii. 15 (perhaps a late intrusion), but several times
in post-exilic writings instead of pre-exilic באר (Eckardt); נִדָּה
only after Ezekiel; 3, cf. xii. 10, דקר, chiefly, but not only, in
post-exilic writings.
[1421] See especially xii. 12 ff., which is very suggestive of the
Priestly Code.
[1422] _Hist. Geog._, Chap. XIX. On the name _plain of Megiddo_ see
especially notes, p. 386.
[1423] 2 Chron. xxxv. 22 ff.
[1424] Another explanation offered by the Targum is the mourning for
“Ahab son of Omri, slain by Hadad-Rimmon son of Tab-Rimmon.”
[1425] LXX. gives for Hadad-Rimmon only the second part, ῥοῶν.
[1426] Ezek. viii. 14.
[1427] Baudissin, _Studien z. Sem. Rel. Gesch._, I. 295 ff.
[1428] Heb. _Me_; several codd. _him_: some read אֱלֵי _to_ (him) _whom
they have pierced_; but this would require the elision of the sign of
the acc. before _who_. Wellhausen and others think something has fallen
from the text.
[1429] See above, p. 482.
[1430] LXX. Συμεών.
[1431] Cf. Ezek. xxxvi. 25, xlvii. 1.
[1432] Read אֲדָמָה קִנְיָנִי for the Mass. אדם הקנני: so Wellhausen.
[1433] Heb. _between_.
[1434] But see below, p. 490.
[1435] ליהוה: or _belonging to Jehovah_; or like the _Lamed
auctoris_ or Lamed when construed with passive verbs (see Oxford
_Heb.-Eng. Dictionary_, pp. 513 and 514, col. 1), _from, by means of,
Jehovah_.
[1436] Heb.: _and ye shall flee, the ravine of My mountains_. The text
is obviously corrupt, but it is difficult to see how it should be
repaired. LXX., Targ. Symmachus and the Babylonian codd. (Baer, p. 84)
read וְנִסְתַּם, _shall be closed_, for וְנַסְתֶּם, _ye shall flee_, and this is
adopted by a number of critics (Bredenkamp, Wellhausen, Nowack). But it
is hardly possible before the next clause, which says the valley
extends to ’Aṣal.
[1437] Wellhausen suggests the ravine (גיא) of Hinnom.
[1438] אָצַל, place-name: cf. אָצֵל, name of a family of Benjamin,
viii. 37 f., ix. 43 f.; and בֵית הָאֵצֶל, Micah i. 11. Some would read אֵצֶלּ,
the adverb _near by_.
[1439] Amos i. 1.
[1440] LXX.
[1441] LXX.; Heb. _thee_.
[1442] Heb. Kethibh, יְקָרוֹת יִקְפָּאוּן, _jewels_ (? hardly stars
as some have sought to prove from Job xxxi. 26) _grow dead_ or
_congealed_. Heb. Ḳerê, _jewels and frost_, וְקִפָּאוֹן. LXX. καὶ ψύχη
καὶ πάγος, וְקָרוּת וְקִפָּאוֹן, _and cold and frost_. Founding on this
Wellhausen proposes to read חוֹם for אוֹר, and renders, _there shall be
neither heat nor cold nor frost_. So Nowack. But it is not easy to see
how חוֹם ever got changed to אוֹר.
[1443] _Unique_ or _the same_?
[1444] Taken as a gloss by Wellhausen and Nowack.
[1445] עֲרָבָה, the name for the Jordan Valley, the Ghôr (_Hist.
Geog._, pp. 482-484). It is employed, not because of its fertility, but
because of its level character. Cf. Josephus’ name for it, “the Great
Plain” (IV. _Wars_ viii. 2; IV. _Antt._ vi. 1): also 1 Macc. v. 52,
xvi. 11.
[1446] Geba “long the limit of Judah to the north, 2 Kings xxiii. 8”
(_Hist. Geog._, pp. 252, 291). Rimmon was on the southern border of
Palestine (Josh. xv. 32, xix. 7), the present Umm er Rummamin N. of
Beersheba (Rob., _B. R._).
[1447] Or _be inhabited as it stands_.
[1448] Cf. “Mal.” iii. 24 (Heb.).
[1449] Ezek. xxxviii. 21.
[1450] So Wellhausen and Nowack.
[1451] So LXX. and Syr. The Heb. text inserts a _not_.
[1452] חטאת, in classic Heb. _sin_; but as in Num. xxxii. 23 and
Isa. v. 18, _the punishment that sin brings down_.
[1453] Hosea xiv. 3.
[1454] ix. 10.
[1455] So Wellhausen.
[1456] ix. 10.
[1457] Heb. _Canaanite_. Cf. Christ’s action in cleansing the Temple of
all dealers (Matt. xxi. 12-14).
_JONAH_
“And this is the tragedy of the Book of Jonah, that a Book which is
made the means of one of the most sublime revelations of truth in the
Old Testament should be known to most only for its connection with a
whale.”