God shall protect his church against her persecutors. The mourning of
Jerusalem.
12:1. The burden of the word of the Lord upon Israel. Thus saith the
Lord, who stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundations of
the earth, and formeth the spirit of man in him:
12:2. Behold I will make Jerusalem a lintel of surfeiting to all the
people round about: and Juda also shall be in the siege against
Jerusalem.
A lintel of surfeiting... That is, a door into which they shall seek to
enter, to glut themselves with blood; but they shall stumble, and fall
like men stupefied with wine. It seems to allude to the times of
Antiochus, and to the victories of the Machabees.
12:3. And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will make Jerusalem
a burdensome stone to all people: all that shall lift it up shall be
rent and torn, and all the kingdoms of the earth shall be gathered
together against her.
12:4. In that day, saith the Lord, I will strike every horse with
astonishment, and his rider with madness: and I will open my eyes upon
the house of Juda, and will strike every horse of the nations with
blindness.
12:5. And the governors of Juda shall say in their heart: Let the
inhabitants of Jerusalem be strengthened for me in the Lord of hosts,
their God.
12:6. In that day I will make the governors of Juda like a furnace of
fire amongst wood, and as a firebrand amongst hay: and they shall devour
all the people round about, to the right hand, and to the left: and
Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place in Jerusalem.
12:7. And the Lord shall save the tabernacles of Jada, as in the
beginning: that the house of David, and the glory of the inhabitants of
Jerusalem, may not boast and magnify themselves against Juda.
12:8. In that day shall the Lord protect the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
and he that hath offended among them in that day shall be as David: and
the house of David, as that of God, as an angel of the Lord in their
sight.
12:9. And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy
all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
12:10. And I will pour out upon the house of David, and upon the
inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace, and of prayers: and they
shall look upon me, whom they have pierced: and they shall mourn for him
as one mourneth for an only son, and they shall grieve over him, as the
manner is to grieve for the death of the firstborn.
12:11. In that day there shall be a great lamentation in Jerusalem like
the lamentation of Adadremmon in the plain of Mageddon.
Adadremmon... A place near Mageddon, where the good king Josias was
slain, and much lamented by his people.
12:12. And the land shall mourn: families and families apart: the
families of the house of David apart, and their women apart:
12:13. The families of the house of Nathan apart, and their women apart:
the families of the house of Levi apart, and their women apart: the
families of Semei apart, and their women apart.
12:14. All the rest of the families, families and families apart, and
their women apart.