--- title: "Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 2: Lamentations to Revelation" author: "Adam Clarke" languages: [en] shelf: "Commentaries" section: 149 of 769 url: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/149/ cite: "Adam Clarke, Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 2: Lamentations to Revelation, section 149. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/149/" --- # 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. ## 149. Zechariah · 11 of 13 Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/149/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/149/#p-N ### Verse 5 [¶1] The governors of Judah - This supposes a union between the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah. ### Verse 6 [¶3] Jerusalem shall be inhabited again - This seems to refer to the future conversion of the Jews, and their "return to their own land." ### Verse 7 [¶5] The Lord also shall save the tents of Judah first - This, I suppose, refers to the same thing. The Gospel of Christ shall go from the least to the greatest. Eminent men are not the first that are called; the poor have the Gospel preached to them. And this is done in the wise providence of God, that the "glory of the house of David," etc., that secular influence may appear to have no hand in the matter; and that God does not send his Gospel to a great man, because he is such. ### Verse 8 [¶7] He that is feeble among them - shall be as David - Here is a marked difference between Judaism and Christianity. So clear, full, and efficient shall be the salvation of believers under the Gospel that the feeblest among them shall be as strong, as full of courage, and as successful as David when he went against Goliath. The least in the kingdom of heaven was greater than John the Baptist. [¶8] And the house of David - as the angel of the Lord - The family the Church of the true David, the Lord Jesus, shall be as the angel of the Lord; shall stand in the Divine presence like Gabriel; for Christ hath said, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." So "we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed from glory into glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord." Thus the house of David, the true Christians, shall here walk with, after, and before God. ### Verse 9 [¶10] I will seek to destroy all the nations - When this time shall arrive, all nations that "will not receive the faith of our Lord Jesus" shall be destroyed, when the longsuffering of God shall no longer wait upon them. This seems to belong to a period yet very remote. ### Verse 10 [¶12] I will pour upon the house of David - This is the way in which the Jews themselves shall be brought into the Christian Church. [¶13] 1. "They shall have the spirit of grace," God will show them that he yet bears favor to them. [¶14] 2. They shall be excited to fervent and continual prayer for the restoration of the Divine favor. [¶15] 3. Christ shall be preached unto them; and they shall look upon and believe in him whom they pierced, whom they crucified at Jerusalem. [¶16] 4. This shall produce deep and sincere repentance; they shall mourn, and be in bitterness of soul, to think that they had crucified the Lord of life and glory, and so long continued to contradict and blaspheme, since that time. ### Verse 11 [¶18] A great mourning - A universal repentance. [¶19] As the mourning of Hadadrimmon - They shall mourn as deeply for the crucified Christ as their forefathers did for the death of Josiah, who was slain at Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon. See [2Chr 35:24], [2Chr 35:25]. ### Verse 12 [¶21] Every family apart - The meaning of the word apart, which recurs here so often, may be this: Their sorrow shall be so deep and distressing, that every one will endeavor to avoid another, and vent his grief and distress of soul in private. And even husbands and wives shall separate from each other in this general mourning, as they were obliged to do by law in certain circumstances. See [1Cor 7:5] (note), and the note there. ### Introduction [¶23] After the humiliation and conversion of the Jews, foretold in the preceding chapter, they are here promised the full pardon of their sins, and a deliverance from idolatry and false prophets, [Zac 13:1-6]. Prophecy concerning the death of the Messiah, and the persecution of his disciples, [Zac 13:7]. The remaining verses may refer to those Jewish converts to Christianity who survived the calamities which their country suffered from the Romans, [Zac 13:8], [Zac 13:9]. ### Verse 1 [¶25] In that day there shall be a fountain opened - This chapter is a continuation of the preceding, and should not have been separated from it. [¶26] A fountain - The source of mercy in Christ Jesus; perhaps referring to the death he should die, and the piercing of his side, when blood and water issued out. [¶27] To the house of David - To David's family, and such like persons as it included. See the history of David and his sons, and then learn for whom Christ shed his blood. [¶28] Inhabitants of Jerusalem - Such like persons as the Jews were in every part of their history, and in their last times, when they clamoured for the blood of Christ, and pursued him unto death! Learn from this also for whom Christ died! These were the worst of the human race; and if he died for them, none need despair. They rejected, betrayed, crucified, slew, and blasphemed Christ, and afterwards persecuted his followers. For these he died! Yes: and he tasted death for Every Man. [¶29] For sin and for uncleanness - For the removal of the guilt of sin, and for the purification of the soul from the uncleanness or pollution of sin. ### Verse 2 [¶31] I will cut off the names of the idols - There shall not only be no idolatry, but the very names of the idols shall be forgotten, or be held in such abhorrence that no person shall mention them. This prophecy seems to be ancient, and to have been delivered while idolatry had prevalence in Israel and Judah. [¶32] I will cause the prophets - All false teachers. [¶33] And the unclean spirit - That which leads to impurity, the spirit of divination; the lust of the flesh, and of the eye, and the pride of life. Satan shall have neither a being in, nor power over, the hearts of sincere believers in Christ. ### Verse 3 [¶35] When any shall yet prophesy - Falsely; such shall be the horror of such an evil, that there shall be no toleration of it. Itself, and they who practice it, shall be everywhere destroyed. ### Verse 4 [¶37] Neither shall they wear a rough garment - A rough garment made of goats' hair, coarse wool, or the course pile of the camel, was the ordinary garb of God's prophets. And the false prophets wore the same; for they pretended to the same gifts, and the same spirit, and therefore they wore the same kind of garments. John Baptist had a garment of this kind. ### Verse 5 [¶39] But he shall say, I am no prophet - This must be the case of a false prophet or diviner, who had been obliged to give up his infamous practice, and become even a laborer in the land. But having been known to be such, he is questioned by the people to see if he still were addicted in heart to the same practices. He declares he is no prophet, neither true nor false; that he is now a husbandman, and was brought up a herdsman. ### Verse 6 [¶41] What are these wounds in thine hands? - Marks which he had received in honor of his idols. But he shall excuse himself by stating that he had received these marks in his own family; when, most probably, they had been dedicated to some of those idols. See the note on [Isa 44:5]. I do not think that these words are spoken at all concerning Jesus Christ. I have heard them quoted in this way; but I cannot hear such an application of them without horror. In quoting from the Old Testament in reference to the New, we cannot be too cautious. We may wound the truth instead of honoring it. ### Verse 7 [¶43] Awake, O sword, against my Shepherd - This is generally understood of Jesus Christ. The sword is that of Divine justice which seemed to have been long asleep, and should long ago have struck either Man, or his Substitute, the Messiah. Jesus is here called God's Shepherd, because he had appointed him to feed and govern, as well as to save, the whole lost world. This is a prosopopoeia, and the address to the sword is very poetic. There is a fine passage in Aeschylus to the same effect: - Ξενος δε κληροις επινωμᾳ, Χαλυβος Σκυθων αποικας, Κτεανων χρηματοδαιτας Πικρος, ωμοφρων σιδαρος, Χθονα ναιειν διαπηλας Ὁποσαν αν και φθιμενοισι κατεχειν, Των μεγαλων πεδιων αμοιροις, [¶44] Aeschyl. Sept. cont. Hebrews 733. "The rude barbarian, from the mines