God will defend his church, and bring over even her enemies to the
faith. The meek coming of Christ, to bring peace, to deliver the
captives by his blood, and to give us all good things.
9:1. The burden of the word of the Lord in the land of Hadrach, and of
Damascus the rest thereof: for the eye of man, and of all the tribes of
Israel is the Lord's.
Hadrach... Syria.
9:2. Emath also in the borders thereof, and Tyre, and Sidon: for they
have taken to themselves to be exceeding wise.
9:3. And Tyre hath built herself a strong hold, and heaped together
silver as earth, and gold as the mire of the streets.
9:4. Behold the Lord shall possess her, and shall strike her strength in
the sea, and she shall be devoured with fire.
9:5. Ascalon shall see, and shall fear, and Gaza, and shall be very
sorrowful: and Accaron, because her hope is confounded: and the king
shall perish from Gaza, and Ascalon shall not be inhabited.
9:6. And the divider shall sit in Azotus, and I will destroy the pride
of the Philistines.
9:7. And I will take away his blood out of his mouth, and his
abominations from between his teeth: and even he shall be left to our
God, and he shall be as a governor in Juda, and Accaron as a Jebusite.
His blood... It is spoken of the Philistines, and particularly of
Azotus, (where the temple of Dagon was,) and contains a prophecy of the
conversion of that people from their bloody sacrifices and abominations
to the worship of the true God.
9:8. And I will encompass my house with them that serve me in war, going
and returning, and the oppressor shall no more pass through them: for
now I have seen with my eyes.
That serve me in war... Viz., the Machabees.
9:9. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Sion, shout for joy, O daughter of
Jerusalem: BEHOLD THY KING will come to thee, the just and saviour: he
is poor, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of an ass.
9:10. And I will destroy the chariot out of Ephraim, and the horse out
of Jerusalem, and the bow for war shall be broken: and he shall speak
peace to the Gentiles, and his power shall be from sea to sea, and from
the rivers even to the end of the earth.
9:11. Thou also by the blood of thy testament hast sent forth thy
prisoners out of the pit, wherein is no water.
9:12. Return to the strong hold, ye prisoners of hope, I will render
thee double as I declare today.
9:13. Because I have bent Juda for me as a bow, I have filled Ephraim:
and I will raise up thy sons, O Sion, above thy sons, O Greece, and I
will make thee as the sword of the mighty.
Thy sons, O Sion, etc... Viz., the apostles, who, in the spiritual way,
conquered the Greeks, and subdued them to Christ.
9:14. And the Lord God shall be seen over them, and his dart shall go
forth as lightning: and the Lord God will sound the trumpet, and go in
the whirlwind of the south.
9:15. The Lord of hosts will protect them: and they shall devour, and
subdue with the stones of the sling: and drinking they shall be
inebriated as it were with wine, and they shall be filled as bowls, and
as the horns of the altar.
9:16. And the Lord their God will save them in that day, as the flock of
his people: for holy stones shall be lifted up over his land.
Holy stones... The apostles, who shall be as pillars and monuments in
the church.
9:17. For what is the good thing of him, and what is his beautiful
thing, but the corn of the elect, and wine springing forth virgins?
The corn, etc... His most excellent gift is the blessed Eucharist,
called here The corn, that is, the bread of the elect, and the wine
springing forth virgins; that is, maketh virgins to bud, or spring
forth, as it were, like flowers among thorns; because it has a wonderful
efficacy to give and preserve purity.