Глава 11

Zechariah 11:1–2. Open your doors, Lebanon, and let your cedars burn with fire. May the pitis weep and let the cedar fall. Therefore, all who think highly of their strength and with the dream of arrogance are likened to the heights of Lebanon, prepare for the punishment that threatens you; and you, who do not have their power (the Prophet calls them “pitis”), seeing the death of the strongest, lament about your own misfortunes. For it is said: “Let Pitis cry, before the cedar falls.” And the Prophet, explaining what he said in a figurative sense, added: As the nobles of the nobles have become impoverished: weep, oak Vasanitidstiya, as the oak grove planted has been cut. Zechariah 11:3. The voice of weeping shepherds, as if their greatness had been overcome: the voice of roaring lions, as if the vacillation of the Jordan was embittered. All this, according to his characteristic way of speaking, the Prophet said in a figurative sense. “Lions” and also “shepherds” refers to kings and princes, and “oak plantations” refers to barren dominion. He commanded all of them to weep and cry, who thought highly of the Jordan and were deceived in their hope. And by “Jordan” he meant the land of Judea; because the Jordan flows through it. Therefore, the divine Zechariah, just as he foreshadowed this about the future well-being of the Jews upon their return, so from here he begins to foretell the disasters that will befall them for their own iniquity. Zechariah 11:4. The Lord Almighty says to Sitsa: feed the sheep of the slaughter. Who saved them if not the Lord Christ, Who in the Holy Gospel cries: “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11)? But let no one dare to disparage Him as He who is called a shepherd; because for the sake of our salvation He was called not only a shepherd, but also a lamb and a sheep; and what do I say: a sheep and a lamb? even called oath and sin, in order to solve the sin and oath of people. To him, who wanted to take on the image of a slave in order to free human nature from slavery, the Father says: “Feed the sheep of the slaughter.” And as a man, and not as God, He accepts these commandments; because, like God, he is equal to the One who gave birth; but as a man, he cries: “I do not speak about myself” (John 14:10), the commandment has been accepted, “what I speak, and what I speak” (John 12:49). So here too He is commanded: “Feed the sheep of the slaughter.” And the Prophet, showing why he called them that, added: Zechariah 11:5. Even those who have acquired hard labor and do not repent, and those who sell, I say: Blessed is the Lord, and we are enriched, and their shepherds do not care about them any more, because, ruled by evil kings and lawless priests, they suffered thousands of evils from them. The history of the Maccabees and the writings of Joseph are filled with these stories about them; because, having become infected with the disease of ambition and covetousness, they made the priesthood corrupt, and bought an order that did not belong to them in the least. Because of this, thousands of disasters befell the Jews. That is why God threatens the shepherds with punishment, but takes every care for the sheep. And about the wicked he says: Zechariah 11:6. For this reason, I will not spare anyone who lives on the earth, says the Lord: and behold, I will betray the people who are in his sincere hand, and they will cut up the earth: and I will not take it out of their hand. But leaving them without care for their own iniquity, I will make every provision for the most well-behaved. For he expressed this in the addendum: Zechariah 11:7. And I will feed the sheep of slaughter into the land of Canaan. It seemed to others that this meant Palestine; but it seems to me that this means a foreign land; because by Canaan is meant a foreign land. Therefore, God says: wherever there are those who want to believe in Me, I will take them under My care. And I will take for myself two rods, one I called kindness, and the other I called it, and I will feed the sheep. He calls the Gentiles and the Jews two rods; because in ancient times there were two main teachings; in one, piety was taught, and it had power among the Jews; Otherwise, they preferred the charm of idols, with which all peoples were possessed to varying degrees in ancient times. Therefore, says God, I will gather sheep from both Jews and Gentiles, and from both I will form one flock. He also said this in the Holy Gospel: “And there are other sheep that are not of this fold: these also must be brought to Me, and they will hear My voice: and there will be one flock, and one shepherd” (John 10:16); because he added those who believed among the Gentiles to those who believed among the Jews, and made one flock. Zechariah 11:8. And I will destroy three shepherds in one month. Understands the Jewish kings, prophets and priests; therefore these three ranks of the flock were Jews. And showing the reason for this, he adds: And My soul is weary against her: for their souls roar against Me. The Master Himself teaches this more clearly through the mouth of the Prophet Jeremiah, saying: “I have left My house, I have left My inheritance, I have given My beloved soul into the hands of her enemies. My property became like a lion in an oak grove, and it gave its voice against Me: for this reason I hated it” (Jer. 12:7-8); and through the mouth of Isaiah he cries: “I have waited for judgment to be done, but create iniquity, and not righteousness, but crying” (Is. 5:7). So, since they approached Me brutally, as if roaring and thirsting for My murder, I also say to them: Zechariah 11:9. It is not the imam who shepherds you; let the dying die, and the vanishing one disappear, and let each one destroy the flesh of his neighbor. All this needs to be with those deprived of God's care for them. Zechariah 11:10. And I will take My good rod and cast it away, to destroy My covenant, which I commanded to all people. land; because when those who have accepted the preaching of the knowledge of God will be separated by the divine shovel, and, like some wheat, cleared of the chaff: then it is absolutely necessary, according to the word of the great John, that the “chaff be burned up” by “unquenchable fire” (Matthew 3:12). Zechariah 11:11. And he will go broke on that day. That this does not say about all those who came from the pagans, but only about those who did not believe, is evidenced by the addition: And the Canaanite sheep that I keep will understand that the word of the Lord is for them. Canaanites calls those who believed from the pagans as foreigners; He calls them sheep worthy of protection for the faith they have acquired. And he says: having seen the death of the unbelievers, they will learn by experience that the prophetic word is God’s word. Having said this about those who did not believe and those who believed from the Gentiles, he turns the word to the Jews and says: Zechariah 11:12–13. And I say to them: if there is good before you, give My reward, or deny it. And you set My reward at thirty pieces of silver. And the Lord said to Me: Put me into the furnace, and see if they are tempted to eat, in the same way they were tempted about them. And he took thirty pieces of silver, and put them in the church of the Lord in the furnace. This, I think, does not require any interpretation, because the interpretation of this lies in the telling of the sacred Gospel. For there, too, for the same number of staters, Judas betrayed the Lord, and, repenting, returned them to those who gave them; but, since they did not want to take it, having overthrown them, he withdrew for his unrighteousness from the judge of unrighteousness, the devil, accepting a fair reward - strangulation. Therefore, here too the Lord demands faith as a reward for good deeds, but instead of it they gave thirty pieces of silver. But the Lord commands the Prophet to test with some kind of fire whether this reward for good deeds is worthy; The prophet said that he cast the pieces of silver into the church of God, which he rightly called “the crucible,” because in it those who come to repentance, as in some kind of crucible, are renewed, having cast off the poison of sin and having become worthy of God’s love for mankind. Therefore the Prophet says: Zechariah 11:14. And he rejected the second rod, which would destroy the covenant that was in the midst of Judah and in the midst of Israel. For, having separated those who believed in them from the unbelievers, He deprived others of His care for them. And this prophecy is confirmed by what we see today; because the Jews, deprived of the Prophets, and the priests, and the kings, and the church, and the ark, and the altar, and the atonement, and the altar, and the lamp, and the meal, and everything that was necessary for the performance of service according to the law, became deprived of care for them from above, and living in dispersion, migration, exile, they involuntarily serve those preaching Christ. And although His dominion is denied, they nevertheless render a service to His servants. They suffer from such bitterness! Therefore, the Prophet, having foreshadowed this about God and our Savior Christ, and having denounced the stubbornness of the Jews, rightly after this turns the prophecy to that anti-God Christ whom the Jews are waiting for, as they themselves say about it. The Lord told them the same thing in the Holy Gospel: “I came in the name of My Father, and you did not accept Me: he will come in his name, you will believe him” (John 5:43). Blessed Paul also said this about them: “Because they did not accept the truth for love, so that they could be saved, God would send upon them the power of deceit, so that they believed lies: so that all who did not believe the truth, but were pleased with unrighteousness, would receive judgment” (2 Thess. 2:10-12). Blessed Zechariah also foretells a similar thing, having received into himself the effectiveness of God’s Spirit. Zechariah 11:15–16. And the Lord spoke to me: again, receive for yourself vessels of shepherding, the shepherd is unskilled. Therefore I will raise up an unskilled shepherd on the earth: he will not visit the perishing, and will not seek the lost, and will not heal the broken, and will not guide the healthy, and will girdle the flesh of the elect, and twist their eyes. These disastrous and difficult events are also predicted by the Lord in the Holy Gospel, for he says: “There will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the age, it will never come into being. And if these days had not ceased, all flesh would not have been saved: but for the sake of My elect these days will come to an end” (Matthew 24:21-22). The Prophet also says this: “and he will girdle the flesh of the elect and twist their eyes,” thereby signifying the excessiveness of the disasters. He calls their shepherd unskillful, or, according to other interpreters, insane, as deceived by the devil’s delusion and not knowing the death determined by it. According to divine Scripture he is usually called mad and wicked. It is said: “The fool speaks in his heart: there is no God” (Ps. 13:1) So the Prophet, having shown the brutal nature of the shepherd, depicts his future death. Zechariah 11:17. About the vain shepherds, and the abandoned sheep! Having said this about those who obey the unskillful shepherd, and mourned them because they abandoned communication with the sheep, and preferred the vain and destructive honor that this shepherd gives, he speaks about himself: The sword is on his arm, and on his right eye. He will lead those who obey him to eternal destruction, and those who contradict him will be delivered to death. For the word “muscle” is used to mean killing, and the word “eye” to mean deception. However his muscle will wither away, and his right eye will become blind. God's punishment will befall him. So the Apostle says: “Whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the spirit of His mouth, and will bring to nothing by the appearance of His coming: whose coming is according to the work of Satan in all kinds of signs and lying wonders” (2 Thess. 2:8-9). Some of those who interpreted this Prophet applied this to Antiochus Epiphanes, claiming that he was called “an unskillful shepherd.” Therefore, it is all the more fitting for the Antichrist, because his prototype is Antiochus. Just as he entered into war with God, setting up a demonic altar in the church, and forcing those dedicated to God to make sacrifices to demons: so the Antichrist will command the pious to renounce the Lord Christ, and will hand over all kinds of executions to those who disobey. Therefore, if the prophecy befits Antiochus, then, without a doubt, it also befits Antichrist: because he dares to do more than Antiochus, as one who entered into battle with the strongest. So, since the Jews believe in him, but have denied the Savior and Lord, the Holy Spirit clearly predicts through the Prophet those sorrowful events that will befall them for unbelief.