Bible Commentaries

The burden - o of the word of the Lord in (or, upon) the land of Hadrach The foreground of this prophecy is the course of the Victories of Alexander, which circled round the holy land without hurting it, and ended in the overthrow of the Persian empire. The surrender of Damascus followed first, immediately on his great victory at the Issus; then Sidon yielded itself and received its ruler from the conqueror, Tyre he utterly destroyed; Gaza, we know, perished; he passed harmless by Jerusalem. Samaria, on his return from Egypt, he chastised.

It is now certain that there was a city called Hadrach in the neighborhood of Damascus and Hamath, although its exact site is not known. "It was first found upon the geographical tablets among the Assyrian inscriptions." "In the catalogue of Syrian cities, tributary to Nineveh, (of which we have several copies in a more or less perfect state, and varying from each other, both in arrangement and extent) there are three names, which are uniformly grouped together and which we read Manatsuah, Magida (Megiddo) and Du'ar (Dor). As these names are associated with those of Samaria, Damascus, Arpad, Hamath, Carchemish, Hadrach, Zobah, there can be no doubt of the position of the cities" . In the Assyrian Canon, Hadrach is the object of three Assyrian expeditions , 9183 (b.c. 818), 9190 (811) and 9200 (801). The first of these follows upon one against Damascus, 9182 (817). In the wars of Tiglath-pileser II.((the Tiglath-pileser of Holy Scripture,) it has been twice deciphered;

(1) In the war b.c. 738, 737, after the mention of "the cities to Saua the mountain which is in Lebanon were divided, the land of Bahalzephon to Ammana" (Ammon), there follows Hadrach ; and subsequently there are mentioned as joined to the league, "19 districts of Hamath, and the cities which were round them, which are beside the sea of the setting sun."

(2) In his "War in Palestine and Arabia" , "the city of Hadrach to the land of Saua," and six other cities are enumerated, as "the cities beside the upper sea," which, he says, "I possessed, and six of my generals as governors over them I appointed." No other authority nearly approaches these times. The nearest authority is of the second century after our Lord, 116 a.d. : "R. Jose, born of a Damascene mother, said," answering R. Yehudah ben Elai, , "I call heaven and earth to witness upon me, that I am of Damascus, and that there is a place called Hadrach." Cyril of Alexandria says that "the land of Hadrach must be somewhere in the eastern parts, and near to Emath (now Epiphania of Antioch) a little further than Damascus, the metropolis of the Phoenicians and Palestine." A writer of the 10th century says that there was "a very beautiful mosque there, called the Mesjed-el-Khadra, and that the town was named from it." The conjecture that Hadrach might be the name of a king , or an idol , will now probably be abandoned, nor can the idea, (which before seemed the most probable and which was very old), that it was a symbolic name, hold any longer.

For the prophets do use symbolic names ; but then they are names which they themselves frame. Micah again selects several names of towns, now almost unknown and probably unimportant, in order to impress upon his people some meaning connected with them , but then he does himself so connect it. He does not name it (so to say), leaving it to explain itself. The name Hadrach would be a real name, used symbolically, without anything in the context to show that it is a symbol.

The cities, upon which the burden or heavy prophecy tell, possessed no interest for Israel. Damascus was no longer a hostile power; Hamath had ever been peaceable, and was far away; Tyre and Sidon did not now carry on a trade in Jewish captives. But the Jews knew from Daniel, that the empire, to which they were in subjection, would be overthrown by Greece Daniel 8:20-21. When that rapid attack should come, it would be a great consolation to them to know, how they themselves would fare. It was a turning point in their history and the history of the then known world. The prophet describes (see below at Zechariah 9:8) the circuit, which the conqueror would take around the land which God defended; how the thunder-cloud circled round Judaea, broke irresistibly upon cities more powerful than Jerusalem, but was turned aside from the holy city "in going and returning," because God encamped around it.

"The selection of the places and of the whole line of country corresponds very exactly to the march of Alexander after the battle of Issus, when Damascus, which Darius had chosen as the strong depository of his wealth, of Persian women of rank, confidential officers and envoys, , was betrayed, but so opened its gates to his general, Parmenio. Zidon, a city renowned for its antiquity and its founders, surrendered freely; Tyre, here specially marked out, was taken after a 7 months' siege; Gaza too resisted for 5 months, was taken, and, as it was said, 'plucked up.'"

And Damascus shall be the rest thereof - God's judgment fell first upon Damascus. But the word "resting-place" is commonly used of quiet peaceful resting, especially as given by God to Israel; of the ark, the token of the Presence of God, after its manifold removals, and of the glorious dwelling-place of the Christ among people . The prophet seems then purposely to have chosen a word of large meaning, which should at once express (as he had before) Zechariah 6:8, that the word of God should fall heavily on Damascus and yet be its resting-place. Hence, about the time of our Lord, the Jews interpreted this of the coming of the Messiah, that "Jerusalem should reach to the gates of Damascus. Since Damascus shall be the place of His rest, but the place of His rest is only the house of the sanctuary, as it is said, "This is My rest for ever; here will I dwell." Another added, , "All the prophets and all prophesied but of the years of redemption and the days of the Messiah." Damascus, on the conversion of Paul, became the first resting-place of the word of God, the first-fruits of the Gentiles whom the Apostle of the Gentiles gathered from east to west throughout the world.

When (or For) the eyes of man - As (literally, and that is, especially beyond others) "of all the tribes of Israel, shall be toward the Lord." This also implies a conversion of Gentiles, as well as Jews. For man, as contrasted with Israel, must be the pagan world, mankind . "The eyes of all must needs look in adoration to God, expecting all good from Him, because the Creator of all provided for the well-being of all, as the Apostle says, "Is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also of the Gentiles? Yea, of the Gentiles also" Romans 3:29. God's time of delivering His people is, when they pray to Him. So Jehoshaphat prayed, "O our God, wilt Thou not judge them? For we have no strength against this great company, which is come against us, and we know not what we shall do; but our eyes are on Thee" 2 Chronicles 20:12; and the Psalmist says, "The eyes of all wait toward Thee; and, "toward them that fear Him." Psalm 33:18, or in Ezra's Chaldee, "The eye of their God was upon the elders of the Jews" Ezra 5:5., or, "the eyes of the Lord thy God are upon it" (the land), Deuteronomy 11:12; but there is no construction like "the Lord hath an eye on (obj.) man" (as 70: Jonathan, Syr.) The passages, "whose eyes are opened upon all the ways of the sons of men, to give etc." Jeremiah 32:19, "his eyes behold the nations," are altogether different. "The eye of" must be construed as "his own eye.") "as the eyes of servants are unto the hand of their masters, add as the eyes of a maiden are unto the hand of her mistress, so our eyes are unto the Lord our God, until He have mercy upon us."

"For in those days," says a Jew, who represents the traditional interpretation, (Rashi), man shall look to his Creator, and his eyes shall look to the Blessed One, as it was said above, we will go with you, and they shall join themselves, they and their cities, to the cities of Israel." And another; (Kimchi), "In those days the eyes of all mankind shall be to the Lord, not to idols or images; therefore the land of Hadrach and Damascus, and the other places near the land of Israel - shall be included among the cities of Judah, and shall be in the faith of Israel."

And Hamath also shall border thereby - o. Near to it in place and character, it shall share its subdual. After the betrayal of Damascus, Parmenio was set over all Syria. "The Syrians, not as yet tamed by the losses of war, despised the new empire, but, swiftly subdued, they did obediently what they were commanded."

And Zidon - Zidon, although probably older than Tyre , is here spoken of parenthetically, as subordinate. Perhaps, owing to its situation, it was a wealthy , rather than a strong place. Its name is "Fishing-town;" in Joshua, it is called "the great" Joshua 11:8; Joshua 19:28, perhaps the metropolis; while Tyre is named from its strength Joshua 19:29. It infected Israel with its idolatry Judges 10:6, and is mentioned among the nations who oppressed them and from whom God delivered them on their prayers Judges 10:12, probably under Jabin. In the time of the Judges, it, not Tyre, was looked to for protection Judges 18:7, Judges 18:28. In the times of Ezekiel it had become subordinate, furnishing "rowers" Ezekiel 27:8 to Tyre; but Esarhaddon, about 80 years before, boasts that he had taken it, destroyed its inhabitants, and re-populated it with people from the East, building a new city which he called by his own name . Tyre too had been taken by Nebuchadnezzar . At the restoration from the captivity, Sidon had the first place, Ezra 3:7, which it retained in the time of Xerxes . But Artaxerxes Ochus gained possession of it by treachery, when all Phoenicia revolted from Persia, and, besides those crucified, 40,000 of its inhabitants perished by their own hands , twenty years before the invasion of Alexander, to whom it submitted willingly .

The prophet having named Tyre and Zidon together, yet continues as to Tyre alone, as being alone of account in the days of which he is speaking, those of Alexander.

Although - Rather, "because she is very wise." Man's own wisdom is his foolishness and destruction, "as the foolishness of God" is his wisdom and salvation. God "taketh the wise in their own craftiness" Job 5:13. "For after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe" 1 Corinthians 1:21. Of the Hagarenes it is said, they "seek wisdom upon earth; none of these know the way of wisdom, or remember her paths" (Baruch 3:23). The wisdom of Tyre was the source of her pride, and so of her destruction also. "Because thy heart is lifted up, and thou hast said, I am a god, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas; yet thou art a man and not God, though thou hast set thine heart as the heart of God; behold thou art wiser them Daniel, there is no secret that they can hide from thee. Therefore I will bring strangers upon thee - they shall bring thee down to the pit" Ezekiel 28:2, Ezekiel 28:8. So of Edom Obadiah says, "The pride of thy heart hath deceived thee, thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock. Shall I not destroy the wise men out of Edom, and understanding out of the mount of Esau?" Obadiah 1:3, Obadiah 1:8.

And Tyre did build herself a stronghold - She built it for herself, not for God, and trusted to it, not to God, and so its strength brought her the greater fall. The words in Hebrew express yet more. "Tyre" (Zor) literally, "the rock," "built herself mazor, tower," a rock-like fort, as it were, a rock upon exceeding strength, binding her together. . "The walls, 150 feet high and of breadth proportionate, compacted of large stones, embedded in gypsum," seemed to defy an enemy who could only approach her by sea. "In order to make the wall twice as strong they built a second wall ten cubits broad, leaving a space between of five cubits, which they filled with stones and earth." Yet high walls do not fence in only; they also hem in. Mazor is both "a stronghold" and "a siege." Wealth and strength, without God, do but invite and embitter the spoiler and the conqueror."

And she heaped up silver as the dust, and fine gold as the mire of the streets - "Though he heap up silver as the dust," Job says, "The King" Job 27:16, Solomon, "made silver in Jerusalem as stones" 2 Chronicles 9:27. Through her manifold commerce she gathered to herself wealth, as abundant as the mire and the dust, and as valueless. "Gold and silver," said a pagan, "are but red and white earth." Its strength was its destruction. Tyre determined to resist Alexander, , "trusting in the strength of the island, and the stores which they had laid up," the strength within and without, of which the prophet speaks.

Behold - Such were the preparations of Tyre. Over against them, as it were, the prophet sets before our eyes the counsels of God. Theodoret: "Since they had severed themselves from the providence of God, they were now to experience His power." "The Lord will cast her out" , literally, deprive her of her possessions, give her an heir of what she had amassed, namely: the enemy; "and he will smite her power or wealth" , of which Ezekiel says, "With thy wisdom and with thine understanding thou hast gotten thee riches, and hast gotten gold and silver into thy treasures: by the greediness of thy wisdom and by thy traffic thou hast increased thy riches, and thine heart is lifted up because of thy riches" Ezekiel 28:4-5. All wherein she relied, and so too the stronghold itself, God would smite in the sea. The sea was her confidence and boast. She said "I am a God; I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas" Ezekiel 28:2.

The scene of her pride was to be that of her overthrow; the waves, which girt her round, should bury her ruins and wash over her site. Even in the sea the hand of God should find her, and smite her in it, and into it, and so that she should abide in it. "They mocked at the king, as though be thought to prevail against Neptune (the sea)." "Ye despise this land-army, through confidence in the place, that ye dwell in an island," was the message of Alexander, "but soon will I show you that ye dwell on a continent."

Every device had been put in force in its defense: the versatility by which the inhabitants of an island, some 2 12 miles in circumference, held at bay the conqueror of the battle of Issus with unlimited resources, , "engineers from Cyprus and all Phoenicia," and , "a fleet of 180 ships from Cyprus," attests the wisdom in which the prophet says, she would trust. "She had already a profusion of catapults and other machines useful in a siege, and easily prepared manifold others by the makers of war-engines and all sorts of artificers whom she had, and these invented new engines of all sorts; so that the whole circuit of the city was filled with engines." Divers who should loosen the mole; grappling hooks and nets to entangle near-assailants; melted metal or heated sand to penetrate between the joints of their armor; bags of sea-weed to deaden the blows of the battering machines; a fireship navigated so as to destroy the works of the enemy, while its sailors escaped; fiery arrows; wheels set in continual motion, to turn aside the missiles against them, , bear witness to an unwearied inventiveness of defense. The temporary failures might have shaken any mind but Alexander's (who is even said to have hesitated but that he dared not, by abandoning the enterprise, lose the prestige of victory. Yet all ended in the massacre of 6,000, 7,000, or 8,000 of her men, the crucifixion of 2,000, the sale of the rest, whether 13,000 or 30,000, into slavery . None escaped save those whom the Sidonians secreted in the vessels, , with which they had been compelled to serve against her.

And she herself - When her strength is overthrown, "shall be devoured with fire." : "Alexander, having slain all, save those who fled to the temples, ordered the houses to be set on fire."

And I will take away his blood from his mouth;

And his abominations from between his teeth;

And he too shall be left to our God,

And he shall be as a govenor in Judah;

And Ekron as a Jebusite.

Zechariah 9:5Ashkelon shall see and fear - The words express that to see and fear shall be as one. The mightiest and wealthiest, Tyre, having fallen, the neighbor cities of Philistia who had hoped that her might should be their stay, shall stand in fear and shame. Tyre, being a merchant-city, the mother-city of the cities of the African coast and in Spain, its desolation caused the more terror Isaiah 23:5-11.

And the - (a) king shall perish from Gaza - that is it shall have no more kings. It had been the policy of the world-empires to have tributary kings in the petty kingdoms which they conquered, thus providing lot their continued tranquil submission to themselves . The internal government remained as before: the people felt no difference, except as to the payment of the tribute. The policy is expressed by the title "king of kings," which they successively bore. Sennacherib speaks of the kings of Ascalon, Ekron and Gaza .

A contemperary of Alexander mentions, that the king of Gaza was brought alive to Alexander on its capture. Alexander's policy was essentially different from that of the world-monarchs before him. They desired only to hold an empire as wide as possible, leaving the native kings, if they could; and only, if these were intractable, placing their own lieutenants. Alexander's policy was to blend East and West into one. . These petty sovereignties, so many insulated centers of mutual repulsion, were essentially at variance with this plan, and so this remnant of sovereignty of 1,500 years was taken away by him, when, after a siege in which he himself was twice wounded, he took it. Alexander wholly depopulated it, and repeopled the city with strangers.

And Ashkelon shall not be inhabited - Ashkelon yielded at once to Jonathan, when he "camped against it" (1 Macc. 10:86), after he had taken and "burned Ashdod and the cities round about it." In another expedition of Jonathan its inhabitants "met him honorably," while "they of Gaza shut him out" at first (1 Macc. 11:60, 61). "Simon - passed through the country unto Ascalon, and the holds there adjoining," without resistance, whereas "he turned aside to Joppe, and won it" (1 Macc. 12:33). He placed Jews in Gaza, but of Ascalon nothing is said. The ruins of a Christian city, built on its site, "khirbet-Ascalon," have been lately discovered in the hills near Tell Zakariyeh, , and so, a little south of Timnath, a Philistine city in the days of Samson, whence Samson went to it, to gain the 30 changes of raiment Judges 14:19. Commentators have assigned reasons, why Samson might have gone so far as the maritime Ascalon, whereas, in fact, he went to a city close by.

That city, in 536 a.d., had its Bishop . : "The site shows the remains of an early Christian Church or convent:" as a great lintel of stone , resembling somewhat the Maltese Cross, lies on the ground." It was probably destroyed by the inundation of Muslim conquest. In 1163 a.d. it was a ruin. The distance of the ruins from the Ascalon Maiumas corresponds to that assigned by Benjamin of Tudela, being twice the distance of that city from Ashdod ; but since he was at Beth Jibrin, he must have been not far from the spot where it has been recently discovered . The Ashkelon, which was Herod's birth-place and which he beautified, must have been the well-known city by the sea; since the distance from Jerusalem assigned by Josephus is too great for the old Ashkelon, and he speaks of it as on the sea .

And a bastard shall dwell at Ashdod - o The "mamzer" was one born unlawfully, whether out of marriage, or in forbidden marriage, or in adultery . Here it is, probably, like our "spurious brood" ; whether it was so itself or in the eyes of the Ashdodites; whence he adds.

I will cut off the pride of the Philistines - Pride would survive the ruin of their country, the capture of their cities, the less of independence. It would not survive the loss of their nationality; for they themselves would not be the same people, who were proud of their long descent and their victories over Israel. The breaking down of nationalities, which was the policy of Alexander, was an instrument in God's hands in cutting off their pride.

"In that day, saith the Lord,

I will smite every horse with astonishment,

And his rider with madness;

And upon the house of Judah I will open my eyes,

And every horse of the nations I will smite with blindness."

Zechariah 9:7And I will take away his blood out of his mouth - The "abominations" being idol-sacrifices , the "bloods" will also be, the blood mingled with the wine of sacrifices, of which David says, "Their drink-offerings of blood will I not offer" Psalm 16:4; and Ezekiel unites the offences, "Ye eat With the blood, and lift up your eyes toward your idols, and shed blood" Ezekiel 33:25.

But he that remaineth - Better, "And he too" shall remain over to our God." Of the Philistines too, as of Israel, "a remnant shall be saved." After this visitation their idolatry should cease; God speaks of the Philistine nation as one man; He would wring his idol-sacrifices and idol-enjoyments from him; he should exist as a nation, but as God's.

And he shall be as a governor in Judah - Literally, "a captain of a thousand," merged in Judah as in a larger whole, as each tribe was divided into its "thousands," yet intimately blended, in no inferior position, with the people of God, as each converted nation became an integral yet unseparated whole in the people of God.

And Ekron as a Jebusite - Ekron was apparently the least important of the few remaining Philistine cities (see at Joel 1:8, vol. 1); yet he shall he, as those of the Canaanite nations who were not destroyed, nor fled, but in the very capital and center of Israel's worship, "dwelt with the children of Benjamin and Judah" Joshua 15:63; Judges 1:21, and were, as a type of the future conversion and absorption of the pagan, incorporatcd into Judah.

And I will encamp about my house - (for my house's sake) because of the army "Because," it is added in explanation, "of him that passeth by and of him that returneth;" Alexander, who passed by with his army, on his way to Egypt, and "returned," having founded Alexandria.

It was a most eventful march; one of the most eventful in the history of mankind. The destruction of the Persian empire, for which it prepared, was in itself of little moment; Alexander's own empire was very brief. As Daniel had foretold, he came, cast down Persia "to the ground, waxed very great, and when he was strong, the great horn was broken" Daniel 8:7-8. But with the marvelous perception which characterized him, he saw and impressed upon his successors the dependibleness of the Jewish people. When he came into Judaea, he sent to the high priest for aid against Tyre and for the like tribute as he used to pay to Darius, promising that he would not repent of choosing the friendship of the Macedonians . The high priest refused on the ground of the oath, by which his people were bound in fealty to the earthly king of kings, whom Alexander came to subdue.

Alexander threatened to teach all, through its fate, to whom fealty was due. This, after the conquest of Gaza, he prepared to fulfill. He came, he saw, he was conquered . Jaddua and his people prayed to God. Taught by God in a dream not to fear, he went to meet the conqueror. The gates of the city were thrown open. There marched out, not an army such as encountered the Romans, but as he had been taught, a multitude in white garments, and the priests going belove in their raiment of fine linen. The high priest, in his apparel of purple and gold, having on his head the mitre, and on it the golden plate , whereon was written the name of God, advanced alone, and the Conqueror, who was expected to give the city to be plundered, and the high priest to be insulted and slain, kissed the name of God, recognizing in the priest one whom lie had seen in the like dress in a dream, who had bidden him, when hesitating, cross to Asia; for that he would go before his army and deliver the Persian empire to him.

The result is related to have been, that Alexander promised to allow the Jews in Judea to live according to their own laws, remitted the tribute of every seventh year, acceded beforehand to the terms to be proposed by those in Babylonia and Media, and that many Jews joined his army, under condition that they might live under their own laws.

Rationalism, while it remains such, cannot admit of Daniel's prophecies which the high priest showed him, declaring that a Greek should destroy the Persian empire, which Alexander rightly interpreted of himself. But the facts remain; that the conqueror, who, above most, gave way to his anger, bestowed privileges almost incredible on a nation, which under the Medes and Persians had been "the most despised part of the enslaved;" made them equal in privileges to his own Macedonians , who could hardly brook the absorption of the Persians, although in inferior condition, among themselves .

The most despised of the enslaved became the most trusted of the trusted. They became a large portion of the second and third then known cities of the world. They became Alexandrians, Antiochenes, Ephesians , without ceasing to be Jews. The law commanded faithfulness to oaths, and they who despised their religion respected its fruits.

The immediate successors of Alexander, Ptolemy Lagi and Antiochus Nicator, followed his policy; Ptolemy especially on the ground of the fealty shown to Darius; Nicator, as having observed their faithfulness as soldiers, who had served with him ; but they were so enrolled on this visit to Jerusalem. The pagan kings multiplied, in their own purpose, faithful subjects to themselves; in God's design, they prepared in Asia and Egypt a seed-plot for the Gospel. The settlement of the Jews at Alexandria formed the language of the Gospel; that wonderful blending of the depth of the Hebrew with the clearness and precision of the Greek. Everywhere the seed of the preparatory dispensation was sown, to be fostered, grow and ripen with the harvest of the Gospel.

For now have I seen with Mine eyes - This is the counterpart of what the Psalmists and pious people so often pray, "Awake to help me and behold" Psalm 59:4; "Look down from heaven, behold and visit this vine" Psalm 80:14; Psalm 9:13; "Look upon my trouble from them that hate me" "Look upon my affliction and my trouble; look upon my enemies, for they are many" Psalm 25:18-19; "Look upon my adversity and deliver me" Psalm 119:153; "O Lord, behold my affliction" (Lamentations 1:9, add 11; Lamentations 2:20); "Behold, O Lord, for I am in distress" Lamentations 1:20; "Look and behold my reproach" Lamentations 5:1; "Open Thine eyes, O Lord, and see" Isaiah 37:17; Daniel 9:18; "Look clown from heaven, and behold from the habitation of Thy holiness and glory" Isaiah 63:15. With God, compassion is so intrinsic an attribute, that He is pictured as looking away, when He does not put it forth. With God, to behold is to help.