Глава 10

1–2. God is the giver of blessings; hope in idols is vain and a source of disaster. 3–7. Image of the upcoming restoration of the house of Judah and the house of Ephraim. 8–12. The gathering of scattered Israel from all countries and their complete conversion to God. Zechariah 10:1. Ask the Lord for rain in your time of need; The Lord will flash lightning and give you abundant rain, and for everyone there will be grain in the field. Ch. X represents the extension and explanation of the previous one. Interpreters disagree only as to whether Zechariah 10:1–2 belongs to Zechariah 9:17 or Zechariah 10:3. Keil sees in Zech. 10:1 the beginning of a new series of thoughts, although standing in connection with Zech. 9:17 (S. 607). The ninth chapter ends with the promise of an abundance of earthly blessings for the people of God; the tenth, in the first verses, points to the Lord as the only giver of these benefits: one must turn to Him with prayer for rain at the time when it is most necessary for the successful growth of all the products of the earth, that is, in spring. Zechariah 10:2. For the teraphim speak empty things, and the prophets see false things, and tell lying dreams; they console with emptiness; therefore they wander like sheep, they are in poverty because there is no shepherd. It would be in vain to address such petitions to idols (teraphim): the broadcasts on their behalf are nothing but emptiness, their admirers - soothsayers and false prophets - are deceived themselves and deceive others, their comforting predictions are vain: they not only do not come true, but entail inevitable disaster. Stade, in his Critical Study of Deuterosacharias, points out the peculiarity with which the teraphim appear here: this is the only place in the Old Testament in which the teraphim are presented as speaking; only here and in Ezek.21:26 (Ezek.21:21 Synod. transl.) are they generally prophetic (Zatw 1881, S. 60; cf. Now. 364). Draw any conclusions regarding the time of origin of the second part of the book. Zechariah, on the basis of the mention of idols in it, as learned critics do, however, it is impossible. The question of idols did not lose its significance even after the captivity: even if the Jews no longer had a predilection for gross idolatry; but the godless spirit of apostasy from the true faith, which always had such a close connection with idolatry, did not completely disappear. Rougemont argues: “at the time of Zechariah, without a doubt, the Jews no longer had teraphim, but the spirit of idolatry was not completely exterminated, and if the false prophets with whom Nehemiah dealt (Nehemiah 6 seq.) disappear in the centuries of the Maccabees and Herods, they give way to false teachers and false messiahs in whom the same spirit lives” (p. 222, cf. Zatw 1881, S. 61 u. Zechariah 10:3. My wrath is kindled against the shepherds, and I will punish the goats; For the Lord of hosts will visit His flock, the house of Judah, and will set them up as His glorious horse in battle. By unfaithful shepherds subject to the wrath of God, interpreters mean either the leaders and leaders of the Jewish people from their own midst (Theod. 105, Jer. 116–117) or pagan kings and rulers who had Jews under their subordination (Keil 608). A somewhat peculiar interpretation is offered by St. Cyril, who, here meaning by shepherds “false prophets and false soothsayers and teachers of error,” finds it not contrary to the truth “to add to the false prophets some of the great Hellenic people, who, considered very wise, misled with their eloquence the people who were carried away by them” (p. 137). Zechariah 10:4. From it will be the cornerstone, from it the nail, from it the bow of war, from it will come all the rulers of the people. Zechariah 10:5. And they will be like heroes, trampling down enemies in war, like street dirt, and they will fight, because the Lord is with them, and they will put the horsemen to shame. The House of Judah, now humiliated and enslaved, will again serve for the people of God as a support for civil improvement and military power; from Judah will come rulers who will subdue the power of the Gentiles. Zechariah 10:8. I will give them a sign and gather them, because I have redeemed them; they will be as numerous as before; Zechariah 10:9. And I will scatter them among the nations, and in distant countries they will remember Me and live with their children and return; This victorious struggle against paganism and the fulfillment of other promises must be preceded by the gathering of Israel from all countries. The Lord gives a sign by which all those whom He decided to deliver from the scourge of dispersion are gathered together. The Jews will not stop multiplying, as they once multiplied in Egypt amid hard work and long-term oppression. Those who, due to the large population, do not have a place in their native country, will again settle among the nations, but will not forget about the true God and will proclaim his name to the pagans. According to Keil, there is no talk here of the secondary dispersion of Ephraim as a means of punishment (S. 611). Rougemont, on the contrary, interprets the first word of Art. 9 precisely in the sense of scattering for sins: “He will scatter them, because they will sin against Him, but they will become a seed that will bear good fruit throughout the whole earth” (p. 224). This disagreement does not concern the essence of this prediction, which is that through the settlement of Jews in all countries, the true knowledge of God will spread everywhere. Laying the foundation for their own families and clans in foreign lands, i.e. living there for a long time, they will not completely break ties with their land and will return to it as far as possible. Zechariah 10:11. And disaster will pass through the sea, and the waves of the sea will be struck, and all the depths of the river will dry up, and the pride of Assyria will be humbled, and the scepter will be taken away from Egypt. Zechariah 10:12. I will strengthen them in the Lord, and they will walk in His name, says the Lord. The means of liberation of Israel will be so miraculous that they will resemble the circumstances of the Jews' exit from Egypt under Moses. The Nile, the source of fertility of the land of Egypt, will dry up, the domination of Egypt will come to an end; The proud conqueror Assur will also be humiliated. And the sons of Ephraim, about whom it is mainly spoken of in v. 6, The Lord will make you strong; their enterprises will be successful because they will walk in His name. Note. Ch. location IX-XI, as Rougemont notes, does not quite correspond to the actual course of events outlined in prophetic contemplation: in ch. IX “the prophet finished depicting the first prosperous era that he has before his eyes. He opens a second, more distant era (Zech. 10:4-12), but he is separated from it by a period of fall and punishment. However, he does not yet want to draw the attention of his listeners to this gloomy night; he will return to it later (XI), but now he points to it as briefly as possible (Zechariah 10:1-3), because he must first of all encourage and comfort his people” (p. 221). According to Keil's interpretation, the prophecy of Chapter X. realized in the period of time from Zechariah to Christ; During this time, many Jews returned to their land, and Galilee was again densely populated; in the struggle of the great monarchies over dominion over Palestine, the Lord showed his protection to the chosen people. Essentially, this prophecy is of a spiritual nature and comes into fulfillment through the acceptance of the Jews into the Kingdom of Christ (S. 613). You might be interested in: