--- title: "Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 2: Lamentations to Revelation" author: "Adam Clarke" languages: [en] shelf: "Commentaries" section: 148 of 769 url: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/148/ cite: "Adam Clarke, Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 2: Lamentations to Revelation, section 148. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/148/" --- # Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 2: Lamentations to Revelation *Adam Clarke* Clarke's learned notes on the Hebrew and Greek, verse by verse, from Genesis to Revelation: volume 2 of 2. ## 148. Zechariah · 10 of 13 Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/148/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/148/#p-N ### Verse 8 [¶1] Three shepherds also I cut off in one month - Taking this literally, some think the three shepherds mean the three Maccabees, Judas, Jonathan, and Simon; others, the three wicked high priests, Jason, Alcimus, and Menelaus; others, the three last princes of the Asmonean race, Alexander, Hyrcanus, and Antigonus. [¶2] Perhaps three orders may be intended: [¶3] 1. The priesthood. [¶4] 2. The dictatorship, including the Scribes, Pharisees, etc. [¶5] 3. The magistracy, the great sanhedrin, and the smaller councils. [¶6] These were all annihilated by the Roman conquest. ### Verse 9 [¶8] I will not feed you - I shall instruct you no longer: some of you are appointed to death by famine; others, to be cut off by the sword; and others of you, to such desperation that ye shall destroy one another. ### Verse 10 [¶10] I took my staff - Beauty, and cut it asunder - And thus I showed that I determined no longer to preserve them in their free and glorious state. And thus I brake my covenant with them, which they had broken on their part already. ### Verse 11 [¶12] So the poor of the flock - The pious, who attended to my teaching, saw that this was the word - the design, of God. ### Verse 12 [¶14] If ye think good, give me my price - "Give me my hire." And we find they rated it contemptuously; thirty pieces of silver being the price of a slave, [Exo 21:32]. ### Verse 13 [¶16] And the Lord said unto me, Cast it unto the potter - Jehovah calls the price of his prophet his own price; and commands that it should not be accepted, but given to a potter, to foreshadow the transaction related [Mat 27:7]. "Earthen vessels were used in the temple; and we may suppose that some Levites were employed within the sacred precincts to furnish them. To these, the humblest of his ministers in the temple, God commands that the degrading price should be cast." This is the substance of the notes on these two verses, given by Abp. Newcome. [¶17] We may look at it in another light, Give me my price! הבו שכרי habu sichri, bring my price, or give him any price; that is, Give the money to Judas which you have agreed to give him; for he can neither betray me nor you crucify me, but my own permission. But if not, forbear; take time to consider this bloody business, and in time forbear. For though I permit you to do it, yet remember that the permission does not necessitate you to do it; and the salvation of the world may be effected without this treachery and murder. [¶18] See my notes on this place, [Mat 27:9], where I have examined the evidence for the reading of "Zechariah the prophet," instead of "Jeremiah." ### Verse 14 [¶20] That I might break the brotherhood - I cannot, says Newcome, explain this passage, without supposing that the kingdom of Israel subsisted when the prophet wrote it; and that either the wars between Judah and Israel are referred to, (see [2Kgs 16:5]), or the captivity of the ten tribes, when the brotherly connection between these kingdoms ceased. ### Verse 15 [¶22] The instruments of a foolish shepherd - Such as a bag without bread, a scrip without measure, and a staff without a hook, etc., things that were needless or of no use; to point out to the Jewish pastors, who took no care of the flock, but devoured them, or ruled them with force and with cruelty. ### Verse 16 [¶24] I will raise up a shepherd in the land - Some wicked king; and Newcome supposes Hoshea may be meant. See [2Kgs 17:1], [2Kgs 17:2], and to such an abominable sovereign the prophecy may well apply. ### Verse 17 [¶26] Wo to the idol shepherd - רעי האליל roi haelil, "the worthless," or "good for nothing shepherd." The shepherd in name and office, but not performing the work of one. See [Joh 10:11]. [¶27] The sword shall be upon his arm - Punishment shall be executed upon the wicked Jews, and especially their wicked kings and priests. See [Zac 11:16]. [¶28] Arm - the secular power; right eye - the ecclesiastical state. [¶29] His arm shall be clean dried up - The secular power shall be broken, and become utterly inefficient. [¶30] His right eye shall be utterly darkened - Prophecy shall be restrained; and the whole state, ecclesiastical and civil, shall be so completely eclipsed, that none of their functions shall be performed. This may refer to the worthless and wicked governor mentioned in the preceding verse. [¶31] There are several things in this chapter that are very obscure, and we can hardly say what opinion is right; nor is it at all clear whether they refer to a very early or late period of the Jewish history. ### Introduction [¶33] The first part of this chapter, with several passages in chap. 14, relates to an invasion that shall be made on the inhabitants of Judea and Jerusalem in the latter ages of the world, some time after the restoration and settlement of the Jews in their own land. It also describes, in very magnificent terms, the signal interposition of God in their favor. From this the prophet proceeds in the latter part of the chapter, [Zac 14:10-14], to describe the spiritual mercies of God to converting his people; and gives a very pathetic and affecting account of the deep sorrow of that people, when brought to a sense of their great sin in crucifying the Messiah, comparing it to the sorrow of a parent for his first-born and only son, or to the lamentations made for Josiah in the valley of Megiddon, [2Chr 35:24], [2Chr 35:25]. A deep, retired sorrow, which will render the mourners for a season insensible to all the comforts and enjoyments of the most endearing society. ### Verse 1 [¶35] The burden of the word of the Lord - This is a new prophecy. It is directed both to Israel and Judah, though Israel alone is mentioned in this verse. [¶36] Which stretcheth forth the heavens - See on [Isa 42:5] (note). [¶37] Formeth the spirit of man within him - Then it is not the same substance with his body. It is a Spirit within Him. ### Verse 2 [¶39] Jerusalem a cup of trembling - The Babylonians, who captivated and ruined the Jews, shall in their turn be ruined. [¶40] I incline to think that what is spoken in this chapter about the Jews and Jerusalem, belongs to the "glory of the latter times." [¶41] Shall be in the siege - This may refer to some war against the Church of Christ, such as that mentioned [Rev 20:9]. ### Verse 3 [¶43] A burdensome stone - Probably referring to that stone which was thrown on the breast of a culprit adjudged to lose his life by stoning, by which the whole region of the thorax, heart, lungs, liver, etc., was broken to pieces. ### Verse 4 [¶45] I will smite every horse - Some apply this to the wars of the Maccabees with the Syrians; but it is more likely to be a prophecy not yet accomplished. The terms are too strong for such petty and evanescent victories as those of the Maccabees.