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In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the LORD unto Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet, saying,

In the eight month, in the second year of Darius — Two months after Haggai began to prophesy. See Trapp on " Haggai 1:1 " These two prophets did jointly together reprove the Jews for their sloth in rebuilding the temple, and incite them to set forward the work, Ezra 5:1 , contributing their utmost help thereunto, Zechariah 1:2 . They were also a singular help the one to the other, in the execution of their office. For "two are better than one"; and why, see Ecclesiastes 4:9 . See Trapp on " Ecclesiastes 4:9 " For which cause also Christ sent out first the twelve, and then the seventy, by two and two, Mark 6:7 Luke 10:1 . So Paul and Barnabas were sent abroad; the two faithful witnesses, Revelation 11:8 . Sυν τε δυ ερχομενω , as the poet speaks of Ulysses, and Diomedes sent to fetch in the palladium. Gr. and Lat. Myth. The image of the goddess Pallas, in the citadel of Troy, on which the safety of the city was supposed to depend, reputed to have been thence brought to Rome. ŒD One good man may be an angel to another (as Bradford was to his fellow martyr, Dr Taylor), nay, a god to another, as Moses was to Aaron, Exodus 4:16 . And for others; in the mouth of two or three witnesses a truth is better believed by them; and a twisted cord not easily broken. Haggai lays down the mind of God to the people more plainly in direct and downright terms; Zechariah flies a higher pitch, abounding with types and visions; and is therefore worthily reckoned among the abstrusest and profoundest penmen of Holy Scripture, Prae caeteris obscurus est, profundas, varius, prolixus, et aenigmaticus (Cor. a Lapide). For it must be understood (and let it here be prefaced) that albeit all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable to instruct, 2 Timothy 3:16 , pure, precious, and profitable, every leaf, line, and letter of it, Psalms 12:6 Proverbs 30:5 ; yet, between Scripture and Scripture there is no small difference; some pieces of God’s Book for their antiquity, and some other for their obscurity, do justly challenge our greater attention and industry. Of the former sort, famous for their antiquity, are the five Books of Moses, whom Theodoret fitly calleth the great Ocean of divinity ( τον της Yεολογιας ωκεανον ), the fountain of the following Scriptures. Of the second sort, noted for their difficulty, and that will not be acquainted with us but upon further suit, some are hard through their fulness of matter in fewness of words, as the poetical books, wherein (no doubt) the verse also hath caused some cloud: and others again, by the sublimity of the subject they handle; such as are the Books of Ezekiel, and Daniel, and this of Zechariah, who is totus fere symbolicus, the whole is to take symbolically and is much followed by St John in his Revelation. Hence Jerome in his prologue to this prophet saith, Ab obscuris ad obscuriora transimus, et cum Mose ingredimur ad nubem et caliginem. Abyssus abyssum invocat. We pass from dark prophecies to that which is much more dark; and with Moses we are entering into the cloud and thick darkness. Here one deep calleth upon another. And, being in a labyrinth, we hope to get out by Christ’s golden clue; concerning whose passion, resurrection, and glory, he speaketh more like an evangelist than a prophet, and may therefore be rightly styled, The evangelical prophet.

Came the word of the Lord unto Zechariah, the son of Berechiah — Therefore the same that our Saviour speaketh of Matthew 23:35 Luke 11:51 , though I once thought otherwise, after Jerome, Luther, Calvin, Beza, Glassius, Grotius. But, 1. the name of his father, Berechiah; 2. the manner of Christ’s account (reckoning from Abel, the first martyr, to this, penultimus prophetarum, last, save one, of the prophets, and last of all that was slain by the Jews, after the rebuilding of the temple, whither, being assaulted, he ran for sanctuary), easily persuades me to alter mine opinion. As for those that hold that our Saviour there speaketh of Zacharias, the father of John Baptist, Luke 1:59 , slain by the Jews, because he preached Virginis partum et Christi ortum, Christ born of a virgin, Baronius, Tolet, and others, as they affirm it without reason, so they may be dismissed without refutation. Hoc, quia de scripturis non habet authoritatem, eadem facilitate contemnitur, qua probatur, saith Jerome.

The son of Iddo the prophet — Whether the word prophet be to be referred to Zechariah or to Iddo is uncertain. That there was a prophet Iddo we read, and Zechariah might well be of his line, after many descents, 2 Chronicles 12:15 . He is here mentioned (as also Ezra 5:1 ) ut nepoti suo Zachariae nomen et decus conciliet, for an honour to his ab-nephew, Zechariah; according to that of Solomon, "The glory of children are their fathers," to wit, if they be godly and religious, Proverbs 17:6 . What an honour was it to Jacob that he could swear by the fear of his father Isaac! to David, that he could say, "Truly, Lord, I am thy servant, I am thy servant, the son of thine handmaid!" Psalms 116:16 ; to Timothy, that he had such a mother as Lois, such a grandmother as Eunice! 2 Timothy 1:5 ; to the children of the elect lady, to the posterity of Latimer, Bradford, Ridley, and other of those men of God, who suffered for the truth! If the degenerate Jews so boasted of Abraham, their father, John 8:33 Matthew 3:9 , how much more might Zechariah (no degenerate plant, no bastardly brood, as they were, Matthew 12:39 , γενεα μοιχαλις ) boast and bear himself bold on his lather, Berechiah (the blessing of God), and his grandfather, Iddo (God’s witness, confessor, or ornament), since he trod in their holy steps, and was adorned with their gifts and virtues! The Papists brag much of Peter, and other apostles, their founders and predecessors; but this is but an empty title, to talk of personal succession (which yet cannot be proven), unless they could also show us their gifts and graces, as all the world may see they cannot. We read of a painter who, being blamed by a cardinal for colouring the visages of Peter and Paul too red, tartly replied that he painted them so, as blushing at the lives of their successors.

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The LORD hath been sore displeased with your fathers.

The Lord hath been sore displeased with your fathers — Heb. He hath boiled against your fathers with foaming anger, with height of heat. There are degrees of anger, see Matthew 5:22 Deuteronomy 29:28 . The Lord rooted them out of their land in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation. Surgit hic oratio: and the last of those three words is the same here used in the text; noting a higher degree than the two former, even such a fervour and fierceness of God’s wrath as maketh him ready to kill and cut off, see 2 Kings 6:6 , and note the affinity of that word with this like as he had much ado to forbear killing of Moses, when he met him in the inn, Exodus 4:24 , and as Nebuchadnezzar was not only angry, but very furious, and commanded to destroy all the wise men of Babylon, Daniel 2:12 . Now if the wrath of a king be as many messengers of death, Proverbs 16:14 , what shall we think of the foaming and frothing wrath of God, which burns unto the lowest hell, and sets on fire the foundations of the mountains, Deuteronomy 32:22 . After which followeth, in the next verse, "I will heap mischiefs upon them; I will spend mine arrows upon them," Deuteronomy 32:23 . He had done so upon the ancestors of these refractory Jews, who had been saepius puncti et repuncti, minime tamen ad resipiscentiam compuncti, often punished, but could never be reclaimed; so incorrigibly flagitious, so shamelessly, so prodigiously wicked were they, till there was no remedy. This their vile stubbornness made him sore displeased with them; and put thunderbolts into his hands to destroy them; for though fury be not in God, Isaiah 27:5 , to speak properly, he is free from any such passions as we are subject to, yet if briars and thorns set against him in battle, if a rabble of rebels conspire to cast him out of his throne, saying, "We will not have this man to rule over us," …, "I would go through them, I would burn them together," saith he, in the same breath. Abused mercy turneth into fury. Nothing so cold as lead, and yet nothing so scalding, if molten. Nothing more blunt than iron; and yet nothing so keen, if sharpened. The air is soft and tender; yet out of it are engendered thunder and lightnings. The sea is calm and smooth; but if tossed with tempests, it is rough above measure. The Lord, as he is Father of mercies, so he is God of recompences: and it is a fearful thing to fall into his punishing hands, Hebrews 10:31 . If his wrath be kindled, yea, but a little, woe be to all those upon whom it lights, Psalms 2:12: how much more when he is sore displeased with a people or person, as here! For "who knoweth the power of thine anger?" saith Moses; "even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath," Psalms 90:11 ; that is, let a man fear thee never so much, he is sure to feel thee much more, if once he fall into thy fingers. And this is here urged by the prophet as a motive to true repentance; since by their fathers’ example they might see there was no way to escape the dint of the Divine displeasure but to submit to God’s justice, and to implore his mercy: men must either turn or burn, "For even our God is a consuming fire," Hebrews 12:29 .

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Therefore say thou unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Turn ye unto me, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will turn unto you, saith the LORD of hosts.

Therefore say thou unto them — These Jews, saith Cyrill, had neither seen their fathers’ wickedness, nor heeded their calamities. Mittitur ergo ad cos Zacharias quasi paedagogus, Zechariah therefore is sent unto them as a schoolmaster or monitor; that by considering what had been, they might prevent what otherwise would be, and redeem their own sorrows.

Thus saith the Lord of hosts — A far greater Lord and potentate than that great King of Persia, who was now their sovereign. True it is that they had been commanded by a former king to desist from building the city, Ezra 4:12 ; Ezra 4:21 . But there was no one word in that letter to forbid the building of the temple. There was also now another king set up, and of another family. They are therefore by this prophet and by Haggai called upon again and again to turn to the Lord, and to return afresh to their work, Ezra 5:1 . Wherein, because they were sure to meet with many enemies, therefore here and elsewhere (eighteen several times in that eighth chapter) there is frequent mention made of the Lord of hosts, for their better encouragement. See Trapp on " Malachi 3:17 "

Turn ye unto me, saith the Lord of hosts — This is the great doctrine of the Old Testament; as "Repent ye" is of the New. And this he purposely prefixeth as a preface and preparative to the other prophecies both of mercies and judgments, whereof the whole is fitly made up. Sour and sweet make the best sauce. Promises and menaces mixed make the most fruitful discourse; and serve to keep the heart in the best temper. Hence David’s ditty was composed of discords, Psalms 101:1 "I will sing of mercy and judgment," and so be both merry and wise. But, to the words of the text:

Turn ye unto me, … — By sin men run away from God (whereby it appeareth that sin is the greatest evil, because it sets us furthest off from the greatest good), and by repentance they return unto him, Deuteronomy 30:2 ; Deuteronomy 30:8-10 Malachi 3:7 Jeremiah 4:1 Hosea 14:1 Acts 26:18 . Hence, Acts 3:19 "Repent, and be converted." Contrition is repentance for sin, 2 Corinthians 12:21 Revelation 9:20 . Conversion is repentance for sin, Acts 8:22 Hebrews 6:1 . Hereunto is required first a serious search of our ways (for it is a metaphor taken from a traveller), "Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord," Lamentations 3:40 . I considered my ways, and then (seeing myself far wide) I turned my feet to thy testimonies, Psalms 119:59 . Satius est recurrere, quam male currere, said that emperor in his symbol; It is better to stop or step back, than run on when out of the way; for here he that hasteth with his feet sinneth, Proverbs 19:2 , the faster he runs the farther he is out. But as the deceived traveller (when once he finds his error) in his judgment he disliketh it, in his will he turneth from it, in his affections he grieveth at it, and is angry with his false guides, with his utmost endeavour he not only turns again to the right way, but makes the more haste that he be not benighted; so is it here, David not only turned his feet to God’s testimonies, from which he had swerved, but he thenceforth made haste and delayed not to keep his commandments, Psalms 119:59-60 . For this true conversion we are speaking of, this repentance never to be repented of, is an upright, earnest, and constant endeavour of an entire change of the whole man from all that is evil to all which is good. This is the doctrine of the gospel, Titus 2:11 , and this is all the fruit, Isaiah 27:9 . To turn from one sin to another is but to be tossed from one hand of the devil to the other; it is but with Benhadad to recover of one disease and die of another; it is but to take pains to go to hell. See this in Saul, John, Herod, Agrippa, and others, who gave but the half turn; turned not from east to west, but from east to north only; their change was not essential, but only gradual; it is not a thorough change for subject and object, but partial and temporal, as being but moral, or formal, or merely mental. It proceeds from conviction of judgment only, and not from aversion of will; from horror of punishment, not from hatred of sin; which they leave (haply) but loathe not; leave it, I say, for the inconveniences that follow it, for the fire that is in it, not for the filthiness that is in it. Now all these seeming converts, because they cast not away all their transgressions (all is a little word, but of large extent), are therefore to be reckoned among those fools of the people that pass on and are punished, Proverbs 22:8 , those enemies of God, that instead of turning again (turning short again upon themselves with the prodigal, and returning to the Lord with Ephraim), go on still in their trespasses till their hairy scalp be wounded, Psalms 68:21 , till evident and inevitable judgments be incurred, till iniquity prove to be their utter ruin, Ezekiel 18:30 . Wherefore now "Turn ye unto me, saith the Lord of hosts." Add not to all your other sins that of impenitence, for which there remains no more sacrifice (as Herod added to all his former abominations the beheading of the Baptist), but "Turn you, turn you, for why will ye die, O house of Israel?" And for this, consider these ensuing particulars. 1. Who you are that are required to return; weak and worthless creatures, the slime of your fathers’ loins, dust and ashes, altogether unable to avert or avoid God’s judgments; beaten rebels you are; and have therefore no help left, but to fall down before God and implore his mercy. Turn and live; except ye repent ye shall all perish. 2. Next, see who it is to whom ye are required to return: not to some tyrant, or implacable enemy, that having gotten us into his hands, will deal cruelly with us (as the Duke of Alva roasted some to death, starved others, and that even after quarter), but to "the Lord your God, who is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and quickly repenteth him of the evil," Joel 2:13 . He will surely both assist such as have but a mind to return (why else doth he bid us turn, which he knows we cannot do without him? and why doth he bid us pray to him to turn us? when we bid our children ask us for this or that, it is because we mean to give it them). He will also accept us with all sweetness, as he did Ephraim, Jeremiah 31:19-20 , and the prodigal, Luke 15:20-24 The father met him, Luke 15:20 , so he will do us, Isaiah 65:24 . The prodigal came, the father ran, Tantum velis, et Deus tibi praeoccurret (Basil); he fell on his neck, as Jacob did on his dear Joseph’s, he kissed him, when one would have thought he should have kicked him, or killed him rather, for his former riotousness. He calleth for the best robe, and for the gold ring, and for the fatted calf Filius timet convitium, Pater adornat convivium (Ambrose), "Let us eat, and be merry," saith he, "For this my son was dead" (given up for dead, "free among the dead," Psalms 88:5 , free of that company), "and is alive again: he was lost, and is found." Of himself he left his father and ran riot; and yet he is called the lost son, in the best sense. Hunger drove the wolf out of the wood; and yet he is accepted, as if not necessitated. 3. Thirdly, take notice from what you are required to turn. "Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, ye house of Israel?" Ezekiel 33:11 . It is your sin only that you are to part with, and why should ye be so fond of it? if you look upon it, either in the author of it, the devil, John 8:44 , or in the nature of it, as it is an offence against God (your rightful Lord, your bountiful benefactor), and a breach of his law, which is holy and just and good; or in the horrid effects of it (as upon other creatures for man’s sake, so especially) upon man himself, whom sin hath excluded from the possession of the lower paradise, and the possibility of the higher, into an eternity of all extremities, after many a little hell here beforehand; or (lastly) in the ransom of it, Christ’s blood and bitter sufferings, that soul of sufferings which his soul then suffered when God made our sins to meet upon him, Isaiah 53:6 . Oh think on these things sadly, seriously, fixedly, and copiously, and you will soon see cause enough to turn to him from whom these children of Israel had deeply revolted, and were therefore grievously plagued, they and their fathers, that they might return to him that smote them, Isaiah 31:6 . Which because they did not, but stood stouting it out with God (which was their manner from their youth), therefore were the Syrians before, and the Philistines behind, to devour Israel with open mouth: and for all this his anger was not turned away, but his hand was stretehed out still, Isaiah 9:12-13 . Besides the hindrance and hurt they did to others by standing out: "For if ye turn again to the Lord, your brethren shall find compassion," said Hezekiah to his people, moving them to repent, 2 Chronicles 30:9 . And should not we lend them this friendly help.

And I will turn to you, saith the Lord of hosts — And should not such a favour from such a Lord melt them and make them malleable? Should not the goodness of God lead them to repentance? Romans 2:4 . Should they not rend their hearts because God is gracious? return unto him because he will multiply pardon? repent because his kingdom is now at hand? fear him the rather, because with him there is mercy? draw nigh to him, who thus draws nigh to them? make haste home, with the prodigal, where there is bread enough? Surely nothing worketh so much as kindness upon those that are ingenuous, Isaiah 55:7 Matthew 3:3 Psalms 130:4 James 4:4 . Those Israelites at Mizpeh drew water, and poured it forth before the Lord, upon the return of the ark. There is no mention of their lamenting after the Lord, while he was gone; but when he was returned and settled in Kirjathjearim, 1 Samuel 7:6 , David argues from mercy to duty, Psalms 116:8-9 ; Ezra, from deliverance to obedience, Ezra 9:13-14 "The love of Christ constraineth us," saith Paul; his grace that bringeth salvation teacheth us to deny ungodliness, and to live up to our principles, 2 Corinthians 5:14 Titus 2:14 "I beseech you, by the mercies of God," saith the same apostle, as not having any more prevailing, more heart-attaching, attracting argument in the world to press them with, Romans 12:1 . I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with mercy have I drawn thee, Jeremiah 31:8 . And again, I drew them with the cords of a man, with bands of love, Hosea 11:4 , that is, with reasons and motives of mercy befitting the nature of a man, with rational motives; to neglect mercy is to sin against humanity; not to convert by kindness, is to receive the grace of God in vain; nay, it is to heap up wrath against the day of wrath. A son, feeling his father’s love, creeps nearer under his wing. A Saul, sensible of David’s courtesy in sparing him, when he might have spilt his blood, was strangely mollified and melted into tears. Shall God offer to turn to us, and we refuse to turn to him? Shall he beseech us to be reconciled, and we go on in our animosities and hostilities? Doth he offer to pour out his Spirit even upon scorners, and to make known his words unto them, and all this that they may turn at his reproof, Proverbs 1:23 ; and shall they yet turn their backs upon such blessed and bleeding embracements? Had God given us but one prophet, and forty days’ time only to turn unto him (as he dealt by Nineveh, that great city), surely we should have repented long ago, in sackcloth and ashes. But how justly, alas, may he complain of us, as he did once of Jezebel, Revelation 2:21 . I gave them time to repent, but they repented not. I have striven with them by my Spirit, and wooed them by my word. I have heaped upon them mercies without measure; and all to bring them back into mine own bosom. I have also smitten them with blasting and mildew, with judgments public and personal; and yet they have not turned unto me, saith the Lord, Amos 4:9 . Ah sinful nation, … If any ask, What can we do toward the turning of ourselves to God? I answer:

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Be ye not as your fathers, unto whom the former prophets have cried, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Turn ye now from your evil ways, and [from] your evil doings: but they did not hear, nor hearken unto me, saith the LORD.

Be ye not as your fathers — Man is a creature apt to imitate, to be led more by his eyes than by his ears; and children think they may lawfully be as their fathers. St Peter’s converts had received their vain conversation from their fathers, as it were, ex traduce, or by tradition, 1 Peter 1:18 . And St Stephen tells his perverse hearers that they were as good at resisting the Holy Ghost as their fathers had been before them, Acts 7:51 . They used to boast much of their ancestors, John 8:33 , and to bind much upon their example and authority, Jeremiah 44:17 Matthew 5:21 . They thought they were not much to be blamed, because they did but as their fathers had done before them. The prophet therefore dehorts or rather deters them from that folly; setting forth both the crime and doom of their forefathers, whom they so much admired, and so stiffly imitated, and this he often repeateth that they might once consider it, and be wrought upon by those domestic examples.

Have cried — Loudly and lustily; according to that, "Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet," Isaiah 58:1: sic clames ut stentora vineas, A minister should be a Simon Zelotes, a son of thunder; as Basil was said to thunder in his preaching, lightning in his life; as Jerome for his vehemence was called Fulmen Ecclesiasticum, the Church’s light bolt; as Harding, before his shameful apostasy, wished he could cry out against Popery as loud as the bells of Oseney; and as Farellus (that notable French preacher), whose voice when the envious monks sought to drown by ringing the bells as he was preaching at Metis, he lifted up his voice ad ravim usque; and would not suffer himself to be outroared. The saint’s bell (as they called it) Pierius useth for a hieroglyphic of a preacher, who must not speak the word only, but sound it out into all the earth, Romans 10:18 , not preach it only, but cry it, as the apostle’s word signifieth, 2 Timothy 4:2 , clangite, clamate, Jeremiah 4:5 . Boate, vociferate, Matthew 3:3 ( Bοωντος , boantis, vociferantis ). Ministers have to do with deaf men, dead men, living carcases, walking sepulchres of themselves. Now therefore as our Saviour lifted up his voice when he said, "Lazarus, come forth"; so must they stand over men and cry aloud, "Awake, thou that sleepest, and stand up from the dead, that Christ may give thee light," Ephesians 5:14 .

Turn you now from your evil ways, … — This was the constant cry of the prophets, as here, and apostles, as Acts 26:18 , to open men’s eyes (naturally closed up that they cannot see the evil of their ways, Jeremiah 2:35 Revelation 3:15 ), to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God.

And from your evil doings — Heb. Designs, gests, or exercises, enterprised advisedly, and prosecuted studiously, of natural disposition and inclination, as Proverbs 20:11 1 Samuel 25:3 . This St John usually calleth committing of sin, 1 John 3:4 ; 1 John 3:8-9 John 8:34 ; this is to add rebellion to sin, Job 34:37 , impudence to impotence, brows of brass to iron sinews, Isaiah 48:4 . This is wickedness with a witness, which if men could but see in its native colours and cursed consequents, they would soon be persuaded to turn from it. As the eye cannot but be offended with a loathsome object, so neither can the understanding. Take rat poison, it looketh not evil; but when a man feels it boil, burn, torture him, …, he hates it extremely. So he should do sin; he will do else at length, when it is too late. For prevention: take the counsel of a martyr, get thee God’s law, as a glass to look in. So shall you see your faces foul arrayed, and so shameful, mangy, pocky, and scabbed, that you cannot but be sorry at the contemplation thereof, and seek out for cure; especially if you look to the tag tied to God’s law, the malediction; which is such, as cannot but make us to cast our currish tails between our legs, if we believe it. But O faithless hard hearts! O Jezebel’s guests, rocked and laid asleep in her bed! O wicked wretches! …

But they did not hear — Though the prophets cried, and spake loud enough to be heard and heeded. A heavy ear is a singular judgment, Isaiah 6:10 ; a hearing ear, a precious mercy, Proverbs 20:12 . God must be entreated to bore our ear, Psalms 40:6 , and to make the bore so big that the word may enter; to say as Isaiah 42:18 , Hear, ye deaf, and look, ye blind, that ye may see.

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Your fathers, where [are] they? and the prophets, do they live for ever?

Your fathers, where are they? — Is not the grave their house? have they not made their beds in the dark? are not they gone down to the congregation of all living? Job 30:23 . Every man should die the same day as he is born; as being born a child of death; the wages of sin is death, and this wages should be paid him down presently. But Christ begs their lives for a season, 1 Timothy 4:10 ; he is the Saviour of all men, not of eternal preservation, but of temporal reservation. But what a sad thing is it for men to die in their sins, as these in the text and their nephews did, John 8:21 ; John 8:24 . How may such men, on their deathbeds, say to their sins, as Charles V did of his honours, victories, riches, Abite hinc, abite longe, Go, go, get you out of my sight (Mornaeus); or as Cornelius Agrippa, the conjuror, did to his familiar that used to accompany him in the shape of a dog, Abi a me perdita bestia, quae me perdidisti, Begone, thou wretched beast that hast wrought my ruin (Joh. Manl.). Petrius Sutorius speaks of one that, preaching a funeral sermon on a religious man (as he calls him), and giving him large commendations, heard at the same time a voice in the church, mortuus sum, iudicatus sum, damnatus sum, I am dead, judged, and damned. The devil preached Saul’s funeral, 1 Samuel 28:19 , though David made his epitaph, 2 Samuel 1:19-27 .

And do the prophets live for ever? — Those false prophets (so Jerome senseth it) that cried peace, peace, to your fathers, and made all fair weather before them, when the fierce wrath of God was even ready to burst out upon them as an overflowing scourge. But they do better that understand it of God’s true prophets, who are dead indeed (for wise men die as well as fools, Psalms 44:10 , good men die as well as bad, Ezekiel 21:4 , yea, good men often before the bad, Isaiah 57:1 ), but their words died not with them; the truth of their prophecies not only lived for ever (for ever, O Lord, thy word is stablished in heaven, Psalms 119:89 ), but struck in the hearts and flesh of their perverse hearers like the envenomed arrows of the Almighty throughout all eternity. Wicked men may, as the wounded hart, frisk and skip up and down when the deadly arrow sticks in their ribs, but not so easily shake it off, Haeret lateri lethalis arundo.

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But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not take hold of your fathers? and they returned and said, Like as the LORD of hosts thought to do unto us, according to our ways, and according to our doings, so hath he dealt with us.

Did they not take hold of your fathers — Overtake and catch them (as huntsmen their prey, or as one enemy doth another in flight, 1 Kings 18:27 2 Kings 25:5 ), to drag them down to the bottom of hell. A godly man, as he hath peace with God, with himself, and with the creatures; so he hath also with the ordinances, and may say, as Hezekiah, Good is the word of the Lord which thou hast spoken. Are not my words always good, saith God, to them that walk uprightly? Micah 2:7 . Excellently Augustine, Adversarius est nobis, quamdiu sumus et ipsi nobis: quamdiu tu tibi inimicus es, inimicum habebis sermonem Dei. God’s word is adversary to none but such as are adversaries to themselves; neither doth it condemn any but such as shall be assuredly condemned by the Lord; for what is the word but the heart and soul of God ( cor et anima Dei ), as Gregory saith. And what saith the essential Word of God, who came out of the bosom of his Father and knew all his counsel? "He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day," John 12:48 . Oh consider this, ye that forget God, that slight his word as if it were but wind, that belie the Lord, and say, "It is not he; neither shall the evil" (foretold) "come upon us; neither shall we see sword nor famine. And the prophets shall become wind, and the word is not in them: thus shall it be done unto them. Wherefore thus saith the Lord God of hosts, Because ye speak this word" (and is there not such language of many men’s hearts today?) "behold, I will make my words" (not wind, but) "fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them," Jeremiah 5:12-14 . The word of God in the mouths of his ministers may well be likened to Moses’ rod; which, while he held it in his hand, it flourished, and brought forth almonds; but, being cast upon the ground, it became a serpent. Semblably, God’s words and statutes, if laid to heart, they yield fruit and comfort; but if slighted or snuffed at, as Malachi 1:13 serpent-like they will sting the soul, and become a savour of death, … This contempt will also call for a sword, to revenge the quarrel of the covenant; as it did upon these men’s fathers for their instance and admonition. It is reckoned by Daniel as a great aggravation of Belshazzar’s sin, Daniel 5:22 , that he was not sensible of his father Nebuchadnezzar’s pride and fall "And thou, his son, Belshazzar, hast not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all this." The sin of these Jews in the text was the greater because their fathers and elders (either out of sound conversion, or at least out of clear conviction of conscience) had confessed and remonstrated the truth and justice of God in threatening and executing his judgments upon themselves, saying, as Lamentations 1:18 "The Lord is righteous; for we have rebelled against his commandments"; and as Lamentations 2:17 "The Lord hath done that which he had devised; he hath fulfilled his word; he hath thrown down and hath not pitied," … Hear them in their own words here: "Like as the Lord of hosts," whose power is irresistible, "thought" (devised, determined with himself, and accordingly denounced by his prophets) "to do unto us," who did not the words which he commanded us, Jeremiah 11:8 "according to our ways," which were always grievous, Psalms 10:5 "and according to our doings," that were not good, Ezekiel 36:31 "so hath he dealt with us"; for he loves to retaliate, and to render to every transgression and disobedience a just recompence of reward, Hebrews 2:2 .

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Upon the four and twentieth day of the eleventh month, which [is] the month Sebat, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the LORD unto Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet, saying,

Upon the four and twentieth day of the eleventh month — The third month after the former prophecy, when the Jews probably had practised the doctrine of repentance, so earnestly pressed upon them; and had humbled themselves under the mighty hand of God, who was now ready to lift them up by this and the seven following most comfortable visions touching the restoration and reformation of the Church and State. The devil and his imps love to bring men into the briars, and there to leave them, as familiars forsake their witches when they have brought them once into fetters; as the priests left Judas the traitor, to look to himself, Matthew 27:4 ; and as the Papists cast off Cranmer, after that, by subscribing their articles, he had cast himself into such a wretched condition, that there was neither hope of a better nor place for a worse; ut iam nec honeste mori nec vivere inhoneste liceret (Melch. Ad. in Vita). But such is not God’s manner of dealing with those that tremble at his word, and humble at his feet. Deiecit ut relevet, premit ut solatia praestet. He comforteth those that are cast down, 2 Corinthians 7:6 , commandeth others to comfort the feebleminded, 1 Thessalonians 5:14 , and noteth those that do not with a black-coal, Job 6:14 , Nigro carbone notari. See the workings of his bowels, the rollings of his compassions, kindled into repentance toward his penitentiaries, Jeremiah 31:20 Hosea 11:8 Isaiah 40:1-2 . See how he comforts them with cordials according to the time wherein he had afflicted them, Psalms 90:15 , and in the very thing wherein he had abased them; as he once dealt with their head, Philippians 2:7-8 .

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I saw by night, and behold a man riding upon a red horse, and he stood among the myrtle trees that [were] in the bottom; and behind him [were there] red horses, speckled, and white.

I saw by night — The usual time for such revelations. It may note, moreover, the obscurity of the prophecy; hence also the mention of myrtle trees, low and shady, and that in a bottom, as Calvin conceiveth; and all this that he might give a taste of good hope to the Jews by little and little.

And behold a man riding upon a red horse — Not Alexander the Great, riding upon his horse Bucephalus, and translating the empire from the Persians to the Grecians, as Arias Montanus conceited it; but the man Christ Jesus, 1 Timothy 2:5 , the Captain of the Lord’s host, Joshua 4:14 , and of our salvation, Heb. ii. 0.

Riding upon a red horse — In the same sense, saith one, that this colour is given to his garments, Isaiah 63:1-3 , and to the angel’s horse, Revelation 6:4 . The wild bull, saith another, of all things, cannot abide any red colour. Therefore the hunter for the nonce, standing before a tree, puts on a red garment; whom when the bull seeth, he runneth at him as hard as he can drive; but the hunter, stepping aside, the bull’s horns stick fast in the tree; as, when David slipped aside, Saul’s spear stuck fast in the wall. Such a hunter is Christ; he, lifted up upon the tree of his cross, had his garment dipped and dyed in his own blood, as one that cometh with red garments from Bozrah. Therefore the devil and his angels (like wild bulls of Bashan) ran at him with all their force (in that three-hours’ darkness especially), but he, delivering himself as a mighty conqueror, their horns stick fast, as it were, in his cross; as Abraham’s ram, by his horns, stuck fast in the brier.

And he stood among the myrtle trees that were in the bottom — Myrrh trees some render it. Here Christ, that horseman and head of his Church, keepeth himself, as touched with the feeling of our infirmities, Hebrews 4:15 , as suffering and sorrowing with his people, who are fitly compared to myrtles, that grow in a shady grove, in valleys and bottoms, and by waters’ sides, et amantes littora myrtos (Virg. Georg.). "Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters," Isaiah 32:20 . Myrtles also are odoriferous, and precious, Isaiah 41:19 ; Isaiah 55:13 ; so are the saints, Isaiah 43:4 Colossians 4:6 , they cast a good scent wherever they go, by the grace of God that is in them; as Alexander the Great is said to do, by the excellent temperament of his body. Lastly, Leviticus 23:40 cf. Nehemiah 8:15 , the Jews, at their joyful feast of tabernacles, used myrtle branches among others, to testify their thankfulness for a settlement in the promised land, after so long wandering in the wilderness. The Gentiles also in their solemn feasts, interludes, and - cingebant tempera myrto, wore garlands made of myrtles. Let us keep the feast; let us keep holy day ( εορταζωμεν ), saith the apostle, 1 Corinthians 5:8 , who himself did over abound exceedingly with joy, had an exuberance of it, at that constant feast of a good conscience, 2 Corinthians 7:4 . Diogenes could say that a good man keeps holy day all the year about. Christ crowneth the calendar of his people’s lives with continual, festivals here how much more in heaven! Pliny tells us that ex myrto facta est ovantium corona, subinde et triumphantium; of myrtle was made, among the Romans, the crown or garland of those that did shout for victory, or ride in triumph.

And behind him were there red horses — i.e. Horsemen: Nam nimis crassum est illud commentum, fuisse locatos equos, saith Calvin here. These horsemen are angels, as Zechariah 1:10 , deputed to several offices and executions, for judgment, for mercy, or both; shadowed by the various colours of their horses.

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