ZECHARIAH. The word here translated red signifies blood-red, not any kind of bright bay, or other colour usual among horses. But the custom of painting or dying animals for riding, whether asses or horses, explains the nature of this description. Tavernier, speaking of a city which he visited, says, "five hundred paces from the gate of the city we met a young man of a good family, for he was attended by two servants, and rode upon an ass, the hinder part of which was painted red." And Mungo Park informs us, that the Moorish sovereign Ali, always rode upon a milk-white horse, with its tail died red. See also Zech. vi. 2. Rev. vi. 4.-BURDER. CHAPTER II. Ver. 4. And said unto him, Run, speak to this young man, saying, Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls for the multitude of men and cattle therein: 5. For I, saith the LORD, will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory in the midst of her. The promise of God's being to Jerusalem, or his church, a wall of fire, seems to be spoken in allusion to the manner in which travellers in desert parts of the earth defend themselves in the nighttime from the attacks of ferocious animals. They place fires in various directions around their encampment. This was our constant practice in the wilds of Africa, when timber to burn could be obtained. While the fires kept burning, we were in perfect safety, as no undomesticated animal, however ferocious, will approach near to fire. Something in its brightness seems to give alarm.-CAMPBELL. CHAPTER III. Ver. 2. And the LORD said unto Satan, The LORD rebuke thee, O Satan; even the LORD that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire? When a man has had a VERY narrow escape from danger or from death, he is called a firebrand! Thus, when the cholera rages, should only one in a family escape, he is named "the firebrand." When a person talks of selling his property in consequence of not having an heir, people "Sell it not, there will be yet a firebrand to inherit it." "Alas! alas! my relations are all dead, I am a firebrand." -ROBERTS. say, Ver. 3. Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the angel. It was usual, especially among the Romans, when a man was charged with a capital crime, and during his arraignment, to let down his hair, suffer his beard to grow long, to wear filthy ragged garments, and appear in a very dirty and sordid habit; on account of which they were called sordidati. When the person accused was brought into court to be tried, even his near relations, friends, and acquaintances, before the court voted, appeared with dishevelled hair, and clothed with garments foul and out of fashion, weeping, crying, and deprecating punishment. The accused sometimes appeared before the judges clothed in black, and his head covered with dust. In allusion to this ancient custom, the prophet Zechariah represents Joshua, the high-priest, when he appeared before the Lord, and Satan stood at his right hand to accuse him, as clothed with filthy garments. After the cause was carefully examined, and all parties impartially heard, the public crier, by command of the presiding magistrate, ordered the judges to bring in their verdict.-PAXTON. Ver. 10. In that day, saith the LORD of hosts, shall ye call every man his neighbour under the vine and under the fig-tree. See on Ps. 78. 47, and 1 Kings 1. 9. The oriental banquet, in consequence of the intense heat, is often spread upon the verdant turf, beneath the shade of a tree, where the streaming rivulet supplies the company with wholesome water, and excites a gentle breeze to cool their burning temples. The vine and the fig, it appears from the faithful page of inspiration, are preferred on such joyous occasions.-PAXTON. CHAPTER IV. Ver. 10. For who hath despised the day of small things? for they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven; they are the eyes of the LORD, which run to and fro through the whole earth. or The margin has, instead of "they shall rejoice," since the seven eyes of the Lord shall." (iii. 9, "Seven eyes.") Dr. Boothroyd says, these eyes represent "the perfect oversight and providence of God," which I doubt not is the true meaning. It is a curious fact that the sun which shines seven times in the course of the week, is spoken of as the "seven eyes" of the deity, because there is an eye for each day. Thus, the Sunday, the "first eye" of God shines, and so on through the rest of the days. In the 9th verse mention is made of laying the foundation stone of a temple for Jehovah, and again in the 10th verse it is asked, "Who hath despised the day of small things?" saying it is ONLY the foundation, this is a small beginning: fear not, for the seven eyes" of the Lord are over the work. His good providence shall accomplish the whole, because he has an eye for each day of the week. Has a man suffered a great evil, has an antagonist triumphed over another, either in a court of justice or any other way, he says, in "Well, friend, talking about his misfortunes, "God has lost his eyes, or I should not have fallen into this trouble." how is this? I hear you have gained the day."-" True, true, the eyes of God were upon me." Should there not have been rain for some time, the people say, "God has no eyes in these days," i. e. he does not take care of us. In the book Neethe-veanpă it is said, "To all there are two eyes; to the learned there are three; to the giver of alms there are SEVEN eyes, (alluding to each day;) but to those who through penance have received gracious gifts, there are innumerable eyes."-ROBERTS. CHAPTER V. Ver. 9. Then lifted I and looked, mine up eyes, and, behold, there came out two women, and the wind was in their wings; (for they had wings like the wings of a stork ;) and they lifted up the ephah between the earth and the heaven. In the vision of which these words are a part, the prophet beheld in fearful perspective, the future calamities of his nation. The ephah represented the measure of iniquity which the Jews were fast filling up by their increasing enormities. The woman whom he saw sitting in the midst of the ephah, signified the Jewish nation in their degenerate state; this woman the angel calls wickedness, the abstract being put for the concrete, the wicked people of the Jews, to whom God was about to render according to their works. Into the ephah the woman is thrust down, and a talent of lead cast upon the mouth of it, to keep her a close prisoner; denoting that the condemned sinner who has filled up the measure of his iniquity, can neither escape from the curse of God, nor endure the misery which it inflicts. The ephah containing this mystical woman, he now sees carried away into a far country; that is, the nation of the Jews overthrown, their civil and religious polity extinguished, their temple burned, their priests slain, and the poor remains of their people scattered over the face of all the earth. This great and terrible destruction is accomplished by the Roman emperors, Vespasian and Titus, symbolized by "two women who had wings like a stork," which are sufficiently powerful to waft that bird to a very distant country. These symbolical women lifted up the ephah between the earth and the heaven; which was fulfilled when the Roman armies, with a rapidity resembling the flight of a bird of passage, came up against the Jews, now ripe for destruction, and swept them from the land of their fathers into regions far remote, from which they were not, as in the first captivity, to return after seventy years, but to remain in a state of depression and suffering for many generations. Under the curse of incensed heaven they still remain, and must do so, till the fulness of the Gentiles be come in, and then all Israel shall be saved.PAXTON. CHAPTER VIII. Ver. 7. Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Behold, I will save my people from the east country, and from the west country. The margin has, instead of "west country," "country of the going down of the sun." The form in the margin is exceedingly common; thus people do not always say, We are to go to the east or west, but "to the side where is the going down," or " to the side where is the ascending place." "In what direction are you going?"-" To the place of the going down."-ROBERTS. Ver. 16. These are the things that ye shall do, Speak ye every man the truth to his neighbour; execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates. him the nail, out of him the battle-bow, out of him every oppressor together. See on Is. 22. 23. CHAPTER XI. Ver. 1. Open thy doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour thy cedars. See on Ps. 72. 16. Ver. 1. Open thy doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour thy cedars. 2. Howl, fir-tree, for the cedar is fallen; because all the mighty are spoiled howl, O ye oaks of Bashan; for the forest of the vintage is come down. The mountainous range of Lebanon was celebrated for the extent of its forests, and particularly for the size and excellence of its cedars. The ascent from the village of Eden, or Aden, near Tripoli, to the spot where the cedars grow, is inconsiderable. This distance is computed by Captains Irby and Mangles to be about five miles, allowing for the windings of the road, which is very rugged, and passes over hill and dale. These far-famed trees are situated on a small eminence in a valley at the foot of the highest part of the mountain: the land on the mountain's side has a steril aspect, and the trees are remarkable by being altogether in one clump. By the natives they are called Arsilebân. There are, in fact, two generations of trees; the oldest are large and massy, four, five, or even seven trunks springing from one base; they rear their heads to an enor mous height, spreading their branches afar; and they are not found in any other part of Lebanon, though young trees are occasionally met with. The ancient cedars-those which superstition has consecrated as holy, and which are the chief object of the traveller's curiosity, have been gradually diminishing in number for the last three centuries. In 1550, Belloni found them to be twenty-eight in number: Rauwolf, in 1575, counted twenty-four; Dandini, in 1600, and Thevenot, about fifty years after, enumerated twenty-three, which Maundrell, in 1697, states were reduced to sixteen. Dr. Pococke, in 1738, found fifteen standing, and one which had been recently blown down. Burckhardt, in 1810, counted eleven or twelve; twenty-five others were very large ones, about fifty of middling size, and more than three hundred smaller and young ones. Lastly, in 1818, Dr. Richardson found that the old cedars, "the glory of Lebanon," were no more than probable that not a vestige of them will remain, and the seven in number. In the course of another century, it is predictions of the prophets will then be most literally fulfilled:"Lebanon is ashamed and hewn down. The high ones of stature shall be hewn down: Lebanon shall fall mightily." (Isa. xxxiii. 9; x. 33, 34.) "Upon the mountains and in all the valleys his branches are fallen; to the end that none of all the trees by the water exalt themselves for their height, neither shoot up the top among the thick boughs." (Ezek. xxxi. 12, 14.) "Open thy doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may destroy thy cedars. The cedar is fallen; the forest of the vintage is come down." (Zech. xi. 1, 2.) It appears from the above, and other passages of scripture, that the kings of Israel distributed justice, or sat in judgment to decide causes that might be brought before them, at the gate,-that the gate of the city was the place where these causes came before them, and where they pronounced their decision ;-that the king held his councils at the gate, or where the elders or chiefs met the king, to consider the affairs of the nation;-and that, in fact, all their | principal assemblies were held at the gates of the city. The trunks of the old trees are covered with the names This Jewish custom still exists high in the interior of South of travellers and other persons who have visited them, some Africa. While in Kurreechane, a city about twelve or of which go as far back as 1640. These trunks are de thirteen hundred miles up from the Cape of Good Hope, I scribed by Burckhardt as seeming to be quite dead; their was told that a cause was going to be brought before the wood is of a gray teint. Maundrell, in 1697, measured one, king. Being anxious to witness it, I was led in haste to which he found to be twelve yards and six inches in girth, the gate, where I saw the king sit down at the right side of and thirty-seven yards in the spread of its boughs: at above it, with his secretary on his right hand, and the prosecutor, five or six yards from the ground it was divided into five or complainer, on his left, who stated his case across to the limbs, each of which was equal to a great tree. Forty-one secretary. During his narrating his case, the king was look- years afterward, (viz. 1738,) Dr. Pococke measured one ing about as if not attending to what was said, but I saw which had the roundest body, though not the largest, and from his eye that he was attending to what, for form's found it twenty-four feet in circumference; another, with sake, was addressed to the secretary. When the party had a sort of triple body and of a triangular_figure, measured finished what he had to say, the secretary repeated the twelve feet on each side. In 1818, Dr. Richardson measwhole to the king, as if he had been entirely ignorant of ured one, which he afterward discovered was not the larthe matter. The king immediately gave judgment.-gest in the clump, and found it to be thirty-two feet in cir CAMPBELL. CHAPTER X. cumference. Finally, in 1824, Mr. Madox rested under the branches of a cedar, which measured twenty-seven feet in circumference, a little way from the ground: after which Ver. 4. Out of him came forth the corner, out of he measured the largest of the trees now standing, which he found to be thirty-nine or forty feet in circumference: it has three very large stems, and seven large branches, with various smaller ones. The cedars of Lebanon are frequently mentioned in the sacred writings. Besides their uncommon size and beauty of shape and foliage, (which must be borne in mind in order to enter fully into the meaning of the sacred writers,) they send forth a fragrant odour, which seems to be intended by "the smell of Lebanon." (Hos. xiv. 6. Sol. Song iv. 11.) Its timber was used in the erection of the first and second temple at Jerusalem, as well as of the palace of Solomon; and in the last-mentioned edifice, so much cedar-wood appears to have been used, that it was called " the house of the forest of Lebanon." (1 Kings vii. 2; x. 19.) The Tyrians used it in ship-building, (Ezek. xxvii. 5, 6.)-HORNE. [See engraving of the CEDARS OF LEBANON, in the COMPREHENSIVE COMMENTARY.] Ver. 7. And I will feed the flock of slaughter, even you, O poor of the flock. And I took unto me two staves; the one I called Beauty, and the other I called Bands: and I fed the flock. Written obligations were cancelled in different ways; one was by blotting or drawing a line across them, and another by striking them through with a nail; in both cases the bond was rendered useless, and ceased to be valid. These customs the apostle applies to the death of Christ in his epistle to the Colossians: "Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to the cross.' A rod was sometimes broken, as a sign that the covenant into which they had entered was nullified. A trace of this ancient custom is still discernible in our own country: the lord steward of England, when he resigns his commission, breaks his wand of office, to denote the termination of his power. Agreeably to this practice, the prophet Zechariah broke the staves of Beauty and Bands, the symbols of God's covenant with ancient Israel, to show them, that in consequence of their numerous and long-continued iniquities, he withdrew his distinguishing favour, and no longer acknowledged them as his peculiar people. This is the exposition given by the prophet himself: "And I took my staff, even Beauty, and cut it asunder, that I might break my covenant which I had made with all the people; and it was broken in that day. Then I cut asunder my other staff, even Bands, that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel."-PAXTON. Ver. 9. And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried. The people of the East try the QUALITY of gold by the TOUCH. Thus, they have a small stone on which they first rub a needle of KNOWN quality: they then take the article they wish to try, and rub it near to the mark left by the other, and by comparing the two, they judge of the value of that which they "try." In those regions there are not any MARKS by which we can judge of the STANDARD, except in the way alluded to. Under such circumstances, there cannot be any wonder that there is much which is NOT "fine gold;" and such is the skill of some of the goldsmiths, they often deceive the most practised eye. The grand secret of ALCHYMY, by which other metals could be transmuted into gold, has never been FULLY divulged, but multitudes believe that certain individuals have this knowledge. Nor was that invaluable acquirement confined to Hindoos; for "Diocletian caused a diligent inquiry to be made for all the ancient books which treated of the admirable art of making gold and silver, and without pity committed them to the flames, apprehensive, as we are assured, lest the opulence of the Egyptians should inspire them with confidence to rebel against the empire." "The conquest of Egypt by the Arabs diffused that vain science over the globe." Numbers in the East waste their entire property in trying to acquire this wonderful secret. Not long ago a party of the "gold-makers," having heard of a very charitable man, went to him and said they had heard of his good deeds, and in order to enable him to be more benevolent, they offered, at a trifling expense, to make him a large quantity of gold. The kind-hearted creature was delighted at the thought, and furnished the required materials, among which, it must be observed, was a considerable quantity of gold. The time came for making the precious metal, and the whole was cast into the crucible, the impostors taking care to put in an extra quantity of gold. When it was nearly ready, the alchymists threw in some stalks of an unknown plant, and pronounced certain incantations: after which the contents were turned out, and there the astonished man saw a great deal more gold than he had advanced. Such an opportunity was not to be lost; he therefore begged them to make him a much larger quantity, and after some objections the knaves consented, taking good care immediately to decamp with the whole amount. An ARMENIAN gentleman, who died at the age of 82, as is recorded in the Madras Gazette of July 22, 1830, had expended the whole of his property, amounting to 30,000 pagodas, in search of the philosopher's stone, but left the world a beggar. "With crucible and furnace, bursting on his trunk, CHAPTER XIV. Ver. 18. And if the family of Egypt go not up and come not, that have no rain, there shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles. See on 1 Kings 17. 1. Ver. 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. The finest breed of Arabian horses is in this country, and has furnished us with those we make use of for the turf. They are here chiefly articles of luxury, used only in war, or for parade. The governor has a large stud opposite the house where I live, which affords me much pleasure, as I pay them frequent visits. They are small, but finely shaped and extremely active. Of this I had an opportunity of judging yesterday, when the cavalry had a field-day in the great square, which, from the mode of exercise, called to my mind the idea of our ancient tilts and tournaments. The horses were sumptuously caparisoned, being adorned with gold and silver trappings, bells hung round their necks, dresses, with white turbans, and the whole formed to me a and rich housings. The riders were in handsome Turkish new and pleasing spectacle. (Rooke's Travels to the Coast of Arabia Felix.)-BURDer. |