1
Zechariah 8:1
英文原文
Dionysius: "After the Lord had, in the preceding chapter, manifoldly rebuked the Jewish people, He now comforts it with renewed promises, as a good physician, who after a bitter draught employs sweet and soothing remedies; as that most loving Samaritan poured in wine and oil." The chapter falls into two portions, each marked by the words, The Word of the Lord of hosts came or came unto me, the first Zechariah 8:1-17 declaring the reversal of the former judgments, and the complete, though conditional, restoration of God's favor; the 2nd Zechariah 8:18-23 containing the answer to the original question as to those fasts, in the declaration of the joy and the spread of the Gospel. The first portion has, again, a sevenfold, the second, a threefold subordinate division; marked by the beginning, "Thus saith the Lord of hosts."
2
Zechariah 8:2
「萬軍之耶和華如此說」——耶柔米說：「每逢應許那些因太偉大而幾乎令人難以置信的美事，在每一句話、每一個句子之前，先知都先說『萬軍之耶和華如此說』，彷彿在說：不要以為我向你們擔保的是我自己的話，也不要因我是人就拒絕相信我；我所展開的，乃是神的應許。」
「我極其火熱」——按字面是「我一直為之火熱，如今也火熱」。神以稍加變化、卻節奏相同的話，重複那一連串異象開始時所宣告的溫柔之愛，藉此預先保證這也和先前一樣，是平安的答覆。這措辭的形式表明，這是「為她」而生的火熱，而不是「向她」而發的嫉妒；然而這是同樣強烈、更是無限的愛，就是神所說「喜悅你們的列祖，愛他們，從萬民中揀選他們後裔」（申命記10:15）的那愛。祂對他們之罪的嫉妒，也是那愛的一部分；正如狄奧尼修斯所言，神「不因激情而動搖，也不失去平靜，施以嚴厲的刑罰，如同人痛責犯罪的妻子」。這是按兩種需要而有的兩種形式的愛。魯佩圖斯說：「神的火熱是善的——愛人，卻恨人的罪；相反，魔鬼的嫉妒是惡的——恨人，卻愛人的罪。」奧索里烏斯說：「神的怒氣既源於祂愛的熾烈（因為這一類嫉妒本於愛的宏大），就有盼望，這怒氣向她必容易平息。」
英文原文
Thus saith the Lord of hosts - Jerome: "At each word and sentence, in which good things, for their greatness, almost incredible are promised, the prophet premises, "Thus saith the Lord of hosts," as if he would say, Think not that what I pledge you are my own, and refuse me not credence as man. What I unfold are the promises of God."
I was jealous - Literally, "I have been and am jealous for." . He repeats in words slightly varied, but in the same rhythm, the declaration of tits tender love wherewith He opened the series of visions, thereby assuring beforehand that this was, like that, an answer of peace. The form of words shows, that this was a jealousy for, not with her; yet it was one and the same strong, yea infinite love, whereby God, as He says, "clave unto their fathers to love them and chose their seed after them out of all nations" Deuteronomy 10:15. His jealousy of their sins was part of that love, whereby, (Dionysius), "without disturbance of passion or of tranquillity, He inflicted rigorous punishment, as a man fearfully reproves a wife who sins." They are two different forms of love according to two needs. Rup.: "The jealousy (Zelus) of God is good, to love people and hate the sins of people. Contrariwise the jealousy of the devil is evil, to hate people and love the sins of people." Osorius: "Since God's anger had its origin in the vehemence of His love (for this sort of jealousy arises from the greatness of love), there was hope that the anger might readily be appeased toward her."
3
Zechariah 8:3
「我現在回到錫安」——狄奧尼修斯說：「我自身毫無改變，卻從公義的果效轉向憐憫的甘甜，歸向那百姓；『我必住在耶路撒冷中』——住在殿和百姓之中，以愛與恩典內住於善人的心。基督——真神亦是真人——也曾有形有體地在錫安與人同處，被人看見。」奧索里烏斯說：「祂說『我回來了』，就表明她也回轉了。祂曾說：『你們要轉向我，我就轉向你們』；不然，她就不會蒙祂重新接納恩寵。作為這回轉的果子，祂應許她自己的同在、真理的妝飾、安全的盼望，並以榮耀的名號裝飾她。」
神曾向以西結象徵性地顯明祂特殊同在的離去：那在殿上的「以色列神的榮耀」，從「他們安放那惹忌邪之像的地方」「從基路伯那裏上升」（以西結書8:4-5），隨後「到了門檻」（以西結書9:3）；然後「停在基路伯以上」（以西結書10:4、18）；最後「從城中上升，停在城東的那座山上」（以西結書11:23），如此離開了他們。祂又在象徵性聖殿的異象中預言那榮耀的歸回：「耶和華的榮光從朝東的門照入殿中…靈將我舉起，帶入內院，不料，耶和華的榮光充滿了殿」（以西結書43:4-5）。撒迦利亞也以第三個異象中同樣的話，預言這更新的內住：「我要住在耶路撒冷中」（撒迦利亞書2:10）。
「耶路撒冷必稱為誠實的城」——她必成為她所被稱的，因為神不會虛假地稱呼她；以賽亞也說：「此後，你必稱為公義之城，忠信之邑」（以賽亞書1:26），「人必稱你為耶和華的城，為以色列聖者的錫安」（以賽亞書60:14）。西番雅也曾預言：「以色列剩下的人必不行不義，也不說謊言」（西番雅書3:13）。真理涵蓋一切與虛假相反之物：信實之於不信，真誠之於偽裝，真實之於謊言，誠實之於行為上的虛假，真宗教或真信仰之於虛假的道理。狄奧尼修斯說：「她必稱為真理之城，就是真神之城，或有生命、道理、公義之真理的城。這主要應驗於基督的來臨：祂常在耶路撒冷傳道，那城後來也信了祂。」
「萬軍之耶和華的山」——聖殿將建於其上的錫安山，必稱為並實際成為「聖山」。這是詩篇作者和以賽亞所鍾愛的名號（以賽亞書11:9；56:7；57:13；65:11、25；66:20；另見約珥書2:1；3:17；俄巴底亞書1:16；西番雅書3:11；但以理書9:16、20）；俄巴底亞曾預告：「在錫安山必有逃脫的人，耶和華的山也必作聖」（俄巴底亞書1:17）；耶利米也說：「我使他們被擄的人歸回的時候，他們在猶大地和其中的城邑必再說這話：『公義的居所啊，聖山哪，願耶和華賜福給你！』」（耶利米書31:23）她必被如此稱呼，也必如此成為——必成全其名號所指向的定命；正如我們在使徒信經中承認信「聖而公之教會」，而聖潔正是教會的特徵之一。
英文原文
I am returned - Dionysius: "Without change in Myself, I am turned to that people from the effect of justice to the sweetness of mercy, "and I will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem," in the temple and the people, indwelling the hearts of the good by charity and grace. Christ also, Very God and Very Man, visibly conversed and was seen in Zion." Osorius: "When He says, 'I am turned,' He shows that she was turned too. He had said, "Turn unto Me and I will turn unto you;" otherwise she would not have been received into favor by Him. As the fruit of this conversion, He promises her His presence, the ornaments of truth, the hope of security, and adorns her with glorious titles."
God had symbolized to Ezekiel the departure of His special presence, in that the "glory of the God of Israel" which was over the temple, at "the very place where they placed the image of jealousy, "went up from the Cherub" Ezekiel 8:4-5, whereupon it was, "to the threshold of the house" Ezekiel 9:3; then "stood over the Cherubim" Ezekiel 10:4, Ezekiel 10:18; and then "went up from the midst of the city and stood upon the mountain, which is on the east side of the city" Ezekiel 11:23, so removing from them. He had prophesied its return in the vision of the symbolic temple, how "the glory of the Lord came into the house by the way of the gate looking toward the East, and the Spirit took me up and brought me into the inner court, and behold, the glory of the Lord filled the house" Ezekiel 43:4. This renewed dwelling in the midst of them, Zechariah too prophesies, in the same terms as in his third vision, "I will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem" (Zechariah 2:1-13 :14, Hebrew (Zechariah 2:10 in English)).
And Jerusalem shall be called the city of truth - , being what she is called, since God would not call her untruly; so Isaiah says, "afterward thou shalt be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city" Isaiah 1:26, and they shall call thee the city of the Lord, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel" . So Zephaniah had prophesied, "The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity, nor speak lies" Zephaniah 3:13. Truth embraces everything opposite to untruth; faithfulness, as opposed to faithlessness; sincerity, as opposed to simulation; veracity, as opposed to falsehood; honesty, as opposed to untruth in act; truth of religion or faith, as opposed to untrue doctrine. Dionysius: "It shall be called the city of truth, that is, of the True God or of truth of life, doctrine, and justice. It is chiefly verified by the Coming of Christ, who often preached in Jerusalem, in whom the city afterward believed."
And the mountain of the Lord of hosts - Mount Zion, on which the temple shall be built, shall be called and be "the mountain of holiness." This had been the favorite title of the Psalmists , and Isaiah (Isaiah 11:9; Isaiah 56:7; Isaiah 57:13; Isaiah 65:11, Isaiah 65:25; Isaiah 66:20; also in Joel 2:1; Joel 3:17; Obadiah 1:16; Zephaniah 3:11; Daniel 9:16, Daniel 9:20); and Obadiah had foretold, "upon Mount Zion there shall be holiness" Obadiah 1:17; and Jeremiah, "As yet they shall use this speech in the land of Judah and in the cities thereof, when I shall bring again their captivity; The Lord shall bless thee, O habitation of justice, and mountain of holiness" Jeremiah 31:23. It should be called and be; it should fulfill the destination of its titles; as, in the Apostles' Creed we profess our belief of "the holy Catholic Church," and holiness is one of its characteristics.
4
Zechariah 8:4
「必有年老的男女坐在耶路撒冷街上」——狄奧尼修斯說：「如今男女不再像從前巴比倫毀滅之時那樣被殺，而要終其天年。」必不再像「他將百姓交給刀劍…少年人被火燒滅；處女也無喜歌。祭司倒在刀下，寡婦卻不哀哭」（詩篇78:63-64）之時；也不再有異教戰爭那些可怕的暴行——那時未出生的嬰孩與母親同在胎中被殺（列王紀下15:16；何西阿書13:16；阿摩司書1:13）。然而（如撒迦利亞書1:17）必再度如古時之日，正如律法中有條件的應許（申命記4:10；5:16、33；6:2；11:9；17:20；22:7；32:47；以西結書20:17）。死既是罪的刑罰，生命延長到神如今所定為天然期限的時候，就更是祂良善的記號。以賽亞也曾更新這應許：「其中必沒有數日夭亡的嬰孩，也沒有壽數不滿的老者」（以賽亞書65:20）。在那些慘烈的戰爭中，年幼的和年老的都不得倖免。因此，人能活到人類壽命的極限，就意味著長久的和平。
「因為年紀老邁就手拿柺杖」——兩幅相反的圖畫：狄奧尼修斯說，「老得要用柺杖支撐衰顫肢體」的老人，與剛從創造主手中出來、滿有新生命之喜樂與活力的孩童——同樣見證那保護二者的創造主的良善：祂在孩童尚未長成的力量中保守他們，也在「這必死生命的一切變遷與際遇」中、在仍然持續的軟弱裏，扶持那些極老的人。極老者蹣跚的肢體與童年那躍動不息的動作，就像創造主之愛的整個音域中相距遙遠的兩個音符。耶路撒冷第一次面臨傾覆時，最悲慘的景象之一必是：「孩童和吃奶的在城街上發昏…孩童在各市口上挨餓衰弱」（耶利米哀歌2:11、19；參耶利米書6:11；9:21）。
我們只需設想自己所住的任何一座城，地上躺滿這些僅剩一口氣受苦的小小軀體。孩子們那天真而近乎不可摧折的喜樂有多大安慰，我們要到失去他們時纔知道。在1847年愛爾蘭那可怕的饑荒中，一位修道者告訴我，戈爾韋街頭孩子的消失乃是最淒涼的景象之一。在倫敦陰沉的後街窄巷裏，孩子們那抑制不住的喜樂，是那座大巴比倫的明亮陽光之一——在那些焦慮、冷酷、奢侈、無思、憂慮、急躁、肉慾、世俗、輕浮、虛榮、麻木、酗酒、狡詐的面孔往來其中的壓抑之間。神在此以祂的話認可我們為孩子的喜樂而喜樂——祂這位萬有之父也喜悅它。祂以滿足的心情所說的，正是他們的笑聲，是祂雙手所造這些歡樂的受造者充滿街市的情景。
英文原文
There shall yet dwell old men and old women - Dionysius: "Men and women shall not be slain now, as before in the time of the Babylonish destruction, but shall fulfill their natural course." It shall not be, as when "He gave His people over unto the sword; the fire consumed their young men and their maidens were not given to marriage; the priests were slain by the sword and their widows made no lamentation" Psalm 78:63-64; apart from the horrible atrocities of pagan war, when the unborn children were destroyed in their mothers' womb 2 Kings 15:16; Hosea 13:16; Amos 1:13, with their mothers. Yet (as in Zechariah 1:17), once more as in the days of old, and as conditionally promised in the law Deuteronomy 4:10; Deuteronomy 5:16, Deuteronomy 5:33; Deuteronomy 6:2; Deuteronomy 11:9; Deuteronomy 17:20; Deuteronomy 22:7; Deuteronomy 32:47; Ezekiel 20:17. As death is the punishment of sin, so prolongation of life to the time which God has now made its natural term, seems the more a token of His goodness. This promise Isaiah had renewed, "There shall no more be an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days" Isaiah 65:20. In those fierce wars neither young nor very old were spared. It implied then a long peace, that people should live to that utmost verge of human life.
The man, whose staff is in his hand for the multitude of days - The two opposite pictures, the old men, Dionysius), "so aged that they support with a staff their failing and trembling limbs," and the young in the glad buoyancy of recent life, fresh from their Creator's hands, attest alike the goodness of the Creator, who protecteth both, the children in their yet undeveloped strength, the very old whom He hath brought through "all the changes and chances of this mortal life," in their yet sustained weakness. The tottering limbs of the very old, and the elastic perpetual motion of childhood are like far distant chords of the diapason of the Creator's love. It must have been one of the most piteous sights in that first imminent destruction of Jerusalem Jeremiah 6:11; Jeremiah 9:21, how "the children and the sucklings swooned in the streets of the city; how the young children fainted for hunger in the top of every street" Lamentations 2:11, Lamentations 2:19.
We have but to picture to ourselves any city in which one lives, the ground strewn with these little all-but corpses, alive only to suffer. We know not, how great the relief of the yet innocent, almost indomitable joyousness of children is, until we miss them. In the dreadful Irish famine of 1847 the absence of the children from the streets of Galway was told me by Religious as one of its dreariest features . In the dreary back-streets and alleys of London, the irrepressible joyousness of children is one of the bright sun-beams of that great Babylon, amid the oppressiveness of the anxious, hard, luxurious; thoughtless, careworn, eager, sensual, worldly, frivolous, vain, stolid, sottish, cunning, faces, which traverse it. God sanctions by His word here our joy in the joyousness of children, that He too taketh pleasure in it, He the Father of all. It is precisely their laughing, the fullness of her streets of these merry creations of His hands, that He speaks of with complacency.
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Zechariah 8:6
「這事在這餘剩之民眼中看為希奇，在那日（不是這些日子）……萬軍之耶和華說：在我眼中也看為希奇嗎？」——人因着自己的不完全、並地上之事的明暗交錯，他的期待總以失望告終。神的作為因着祂無限的偉大與良善，總是超出我們的期待，達到難以置信的地步。使我們錯愕的，正是其偉大本身。所以這不僅是說，那些屬世的應許看來「好得不像真的」（用我們的話說）；照耶柔米的話，「在從被擄歸回之民的眼中，那幾乎荒涼的城、傾頹的城牆、燒焦的房屋，都顯出巴比倫人的作為」。這些事在他們眼中看為希奇，是在應驗之日，不是在期待之時，如詩篇作者所說：「這是耶和華所做的，在我們眼中看為希奇」。
神所要賜的屬世福分並不那麼難以置信。那不過是祂護理尋常的恩賜，不涉及他們外在境遇的改變。祂的子民仍要留在波斯主人之下，直到他們的時候也來到。耶路撒冷城牆得以重建，是喜樂的事，也是神的護理；但事成之時，並不那麼希奇。福音的奧祕卻連蒙福的天使也看為奇事。那應驗既還在未來，那在其眼中要看這應驗為希奇的子民，也屬未來。而且他們仍必是餘民。經上不是說「這餘剩之民」，也不是說「這民的餘民」——即從被擄之民中存留下來的那些人——而是「這民（歸回之民）的餘民」，即從歸回之民中存留的人。這是較大整體——「這民」——的餘民（見阿摩司書1:8註釋，第一卷247頁註28；及哈該書1:12註釋，305頁）。這仍是「照着揀選的恩典還有所留的餘數」；那揀選得了以色列全體所追求、卻因追求不得法而瞎眼的（羅馬書11:5-7）。
「在我眼中也看為希奇嗎？」——這是以感嘆形式出現的間接問句：「在我眼中也看為希奇！」——把這念頭斥為與神的本性不符而拒絕；在神，凡事都能，連人所不能的在祂也能（馬太福音19:26）。神對耶利米說：「看哪，我是耶和華，是凡有血氣者的神。豈有我難成的事嗎？」（耶利米書32:27）。「因為出於神的話，沒有一句不帶能力的」（路加福音1:37）。「在人所不能的事，在神卻能」（路加福音18:27）。「在神凡事都能」（馬可福音10:27）。區利羅（Cyril）說：「因為祂是眾權能之主，憑自己的旨意成那大大超越自然之事，一瞬間成就祂看為美的事。道成肉身的奧祕超乎一切驚奇與言語，它帶給我們的益處也是如此。那從神而生的道竟與肉身聯合，取了奴僕的形像，忍受十字架與猶太人的侮辱和凌辱，這豈非近乎不可信？又怎能不叫人驚歎不已——藉着這經綸，罪被毀滅，死被廢除，朽壞被逐，那曾經悖逆為奴的人，得着嗣子恩典的光輝？」
英文原文
If it should be marvelous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in those - (not these) days, shall it be marvelous in Mine eyes also? saith the Lord of hosts Man's anticipations, by reason of his imperfections and the chequered character of earthly things, are always disappointing. God's doings, by reason of His infinite greatness and goodness, are always beyond our anticipations, past all belief. It is their very greatness which staggers us. It is not then merely that the temporal promises seemed "too good to be true" (in our words) (Jerome), "in the eyes of the people who had come from the captivity, seeing that the city almost desolate, the ruins of the city-walls, the charred houses showed the doings of the Babylonians." It is in the day of the fulfillment, not of the anticipation, that they would seem marvelous in their eyes, as the Psalmist says, "This is the Lord's doing: and it is marvelous in our eyes" .
The temporal blessings which God would give were not so incredible. They were but the ordinary gifts of His Providence: they involved no change in their outward relations. His people were still to remain under their Persian masters, until their time too should come. It was matter of gladness and of God's Providence, that the walls of Jerusalem should be rebuilt: but not so marvelous, when it came to pass. The mysteries of the Gospel are a marvel even to the blessed angels. That fulfillment being yet future, so the people, in whose eyes that fulfillment should be marvelous, were future also. And this was to be a remnant still. It does not say, "this people which is a remnant," nor "this remnant of the people," that is, those who remained over out of the people who went into captivity, or this remnant, but "the remnant of this people," that is, those who should remain over of it, that is, of the people who were returned. It is the remnant of the larger whole, this people (see at Amos 1:8, vol. i. p. 247, n. 28, and on Haggai 1:12, p. 305). It is still "the remnant according to the election of grace;" that election which obtained what all Israel sought, but, seeking wrongly, were blinded Romans 11:5-7.
Shall it be marvelous in Mine eyes also? - It is an indirect question in the way of exclamation . "It be marvelous in Mine eyes also," rejecting the thought, as alien from the nature of God, to whom "all things are possible, yea, what with men is impossible" Matthew 19:26. As God says to Jeremiah, "Behold, I am, the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for Me?" Jeremiah 32:27. "For with God nothing shall be impossible" Luke 1:37. "The things which are impossible with men are possible with God" Luke 18:27. "For with God all things are possible." Mark 10:27 Cyril: "For He is the Lord of all powers, fulfilling by His will what exceedingly surpasseth nature, and efecting at once what seemeth Him good. The mystery of the Incarnation passeth all marvel and discourse, and no less the benefits redounding to us. For how is it not next to incredible, that the Word, Begotten of God, should be united with the flesh and be in the form of a servant, and endure the Cross and the insults and outrages of the Jews? Or how should one not admire above measure the issue of the dispensation, whereby sin was destroyed, death abolished, corruption expelled, and man, once a recreant slave, became resplendent with the grace of an adopted son?"
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Zechariah 8:7
「我要從東方之地、從西方之地拯救我的民」——迪奧尼修斯（Dionysius）說：「就是從全世界拯救；因為以色列已散居世界各處。」神曾對以色列說：「我必從東方招聚你的後裔，從西方聚集你。我要對北方說：交出來！對南方說：不要拘留！」（以賽亞書43:5-6）兩個支派曾被擄到巴比倫，或被分散，或獲准遷往巴比倫、波斯帝國的各省。但這些地方都在東方，雖然通常稱為北方，因為他們從北方侵入以色列。遷往埃及的在南邊。那時還沒有人在西方。分散與聚集，當時都仍在未來。到我們主來的時候，他們已經西遷；希臘、義大利、小亞細亞遍滿了他們，而他們也從所有這些地方被聚集。保羅所有寫給具名教會的書信，都是寫給由西方歸信者所組成之教會的。在這一切國家中，神要聚集祂獨一的子民——祂的教會——「不但從猶太人中，也從外邦人中」（羅馬書9:24），接枝在其中；正如我們的主所說：「我又告訴你們，從東從西，將有許多人來，在天國裏與亞伯拉罕、以撒、雅各一同坐席；惟有本國的子民（不是餘民的不信猶太人）竟被趕到外邊黑暗裏去」（馬太福音8:11-12）。
英文原文
I will save My people from the East country and from the West country - Dionysius: "that is, the whole world; for Israel had been scattered in every part of the world." God had said to Israel, "I will bring thy seed from the east and gather thee from the west; I will say to the north, Give up, and to the south, Keep not back" Isaiah 43:5-6. The two tribes had been carried to Babylon and had been dispersed, or had been allowed to migrate to the various provinces of the Babylonian or Persian empire. But these were in the East, though commonly called the north, because they invaded Israel from the north. Those who had migrated to Egypt were in the south. As yet none were in the West. The dispersion, as well as the gathering, was still future. When our Lord came, they had migrated westward. Greece, Italy, Asia minor, were full of them; and from all they were gathered. All Paul's Epistles written to named Churches, were written to Churches formed from converts in the West. In all these countries God would gather His one people, His Church, not of "the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles" Romans 9:24, grafted into them, as our Lord said, "I say unto you, that many shall come from the east and from the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven; but the children of the kingdom (the unbelieving Jews, who were not the remnant) shall be cast out into outer darkness" Matthew 8:11-12.
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Zechariah 8:8
「他們要住在耶路撒冷中」——這不是指字面的耶路撒冷；因為從世界各地而來的猶太人，隨著他們生養繁多，連全地也容納不下，字面的一座城斷不能容納他們；這乃是應許的耶路撒冷，就是那「必有人居住，好像無城牆的鄉村」的耶路撒冷，主要作它「四圍的火城」。
「他們要作我的子民」——神是把這話應許給那些已經屬祂的子民；「我要拯救我的子民——領他們來，使他們住在其中——他們要作我的子民」。而且他們要作祂的子民，是按著一種新的方式，就是藉著內心的歸正，正如耶利米所說：「我要賜他們認識我的心，知道我是耶和華；他們要作我的子民，我要作他們的神，因為他們要一心歸向我」（耶利米書24:7；另參30:22）；又說：「耶和華說：那些日子以後，我與以色列家所立的約乃是這樣：我要將我的律法放在他們裏面，寫在他們心上；我要作他們的神，他們要作我的子民」（耶利米書31:33）。
奧索里烏（Osorius）說：「一座城的境界容不下這麼多的群眾。但同一信仰的認信、同一追求聖潔的心志、同一宗教與公義的團契，卻能輕易懷抱一切從聖潔列祖而生、在信心和敬虔上與他們聯合的人。神也特別稱為這一切人的神。因為祂特別看顧這些人，以恩惠厚厚地加給他們，以至堅固的護衛四面環繞他們，以自己的光光照他們，並當他們堅立在祂榮美的形像中時，以不朽而屬神的榮耀為他們加冠。」
「都憑誠實和公義」——這話也是因著他們先前與神的關係而說的。以賽亞曾責備他們敬拜神「不憑誠實，不憑公義」（以賽亞書48:1）；耶利米曾說：「你必憑誠實、公平、公義，指著永生的耶和華起誓」（耶利米書4:2）。神要憑誠實和公義作他們的神；里貝拉（Ribera）說：「誠實，在於成就祂的應許；公義，在於照各人的行為報應各人。」
英文原文
They shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem - Not the literal Jerusalem; for this would not contain the Jews from all quarters of the world, whom, as they multiplied, the whole land could not contain; but the promised Jerusalem, the Jerusalem, which "should be inhabited as towns without walls," to which the Lord should be a wall of fire round about.
And they shall be My people - He promises this as to those who were already His people; "I will save My people - and will bring them, and they shall dwell - and they shall be My people." And this they were to be in a new way, by conversion of heart, as Jeremiah says, "I will give them an heart to know Me, that I am the Lord, and they shall be My people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto Me with their whole heart" (Jeremiah 24:7; add Jeremiah 30:22), and, "This shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put My law in their inward parts, and will write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be My people" Jeremiah 31:33.
Osorius: "The circuit of one city will not contain so great a multitude. But one confession of faith, one conspiration of sanctity, one communion of religion and righteousness, can easily enfold all born of the holy fathers, united to them in faith and piety. And God is specially called the God of all these. For He specially consults for these, loads them with benefits, fences them in with most strong protection, illumines them with His light, crowns them, when confirmed in the image of His beauty, with glory immortal and divine."
In truth and in righteousness - This too is on account of their former relation to God. Isaiah had upbraided them for a worship of God, "not in truth and righteousness" Isaiah 48:1. Jeremiah had said, "Thou shalt swear, the Lord liveth, in truth, in judgment, and in righteousness" Jeremiah 4:2. God should be their God in truth and righteousness; Ribera: "truth in fulfilling His promises; righteousness in rewarding every man according to his works."
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Zechariah 8:9
「你們的手要強壯」——神從前應許的應驗，是將來之事的憑據；祂從前的護理，是將來護理的憑據。他們既得了這些為將來存留的偉大應許，就當在那等候的期間，在神所吩咐他們作的一切事上殷勤。神對他們說話，稱他們為「在這些日子親耳聽見」的人——就是他們顯然當時身處其中的大利烏王第四年——聽見「萬軍之耶和華的殿立根基之日，那時先知的口中所出，使殿得以建造」的這些話。哈該這時已經安息；他的聲音已靜默了兩年；但他的話仍舊長存。眾先知當日奉神的名所說的話既已應驗，就成為一個根據，叫他們當時以後，在神所賜或將要賜的一切工作上，手都強壯。里貝拉（Ribera）說：「有些話是對耶路撒冷——即猶太人——說的，單單屬於他們；有些話則關乎他們與教會其他肢體——就是從外邦蒙召的人——所共有的。如今祂是對猶太人說話，卻不叫人以為祂忘記了先前所說的。祂的意思是：你們這些在殿立根基之日聽見哈該和撒迦利亞所說之話的人，要剛強起來，繼續那已開始的工——以建殿成就主的旨意，並脫離你們從前所陷的罪。因為你們未開始建殿以先，遭遇許多災禍；開始以後，正如哈該所說，一切盡都順利（哈該書2:15-19）；照樣，你們若培養敬虔、不離棄神，也必享受豐盛的屬靈之福。」奧索里烏（Osorius）說：「對往日災禍的記憶，使當時的安寧更加甘甜，並激發人心發出更大的感恩。於是，當他說以下的話時，便陳明瞭那些日子的苦情。」
英文原文
Let your hands be strong - The fulfillment of God's former promises are the earnest of the future; His former providences, of those to come. Having then those great promises for the time to come, they were to be earnest in whatever meantime God gave them to do. He speaks to them, "as hearing in these days," that is, that fourth year of Darius in which they apparently were, "these words from the mouth of the prophets, which were in the day when the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid, the temple, that it might be built." Haggai was now gone to his rest. His voice had been silent for two years. But his words lived on. The fulfillment of what the prophets had then spoken in God's Name, was a ground, why their hands should be strong, now and thereafter, for every work which God gave or should give them to do. Ribera: "Some things are said to Jerusalem, that is, to the Jews, which belong to them only; some relate to what is common to them and the other members of the Church, that is, these who are called from the Gentiles. Now he speaks to the Jews, but not so as to seem to forget what he had said before. He would say, Ye who hear the words, which in those days when the temple was founded, Haggai and Zechariah spake, be strong and proceed to the work which ye began of fulfilling the will of the Lord in the building of the temple, and in keeping from the sins, in which ye were before entangled. For as, before ye began to build the temple, ye were afflicted with many calamities, but after ye had begun, all things went well with you, as Haggai said, "so, if you cultivate piety and do not depart from God, ye shall enjoy great abundance of spiritual good" Haggai 2:15-19. Osorius: "The memory of past calamity made the then tranquillity much sweeter, and stirred the mind to greater thanksgiving. He set forth then the grief of those times when he says;"
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翻譯準備中 · 英文原文Zechariah 8:10
There was no hire for man - Literally, "hire for man came not to pass." It was longed for, waited for and came not. So little was the produce, that neither laborer nor beast of burden were employed to gather it in.
Neither was there peace to him who went out or came in because of the affliction, better, of the adversary - In such an empire as the Persian, there was large scope for actual hostility among the petty nations subject to it, so that they did not threaten revolt against itself, or interfere with the payment of tribute, as in the Turkish Empire now, or in the weak government of Greece. At the rebuilding of the walls, after this time, the Samaritans, "Arabians, Ammonites, Ashdodites conspired to fight against Jerusalem," and to "slay them" Nehemiah 4:7-11. They are summed up here in the general title used here, "our adversaries".
For I set - Literally, "and I set." Domestic confusions and strife were added to hostility from without. Nehemiah's reformation was, in part, to stop the grinding usury in time of dearth or to lear the king's taxes, through which men sold lands, vineyards, even their children Nehemiah 5:1-12.
(literally) let them loose, each against his neighbor - in that He left them to their own ways and did not withhold them.
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翻譯準備中 · 英文原文Zechariah 8:11
And now - The words imply a contrast of God's dealings, rather than a contrast of time. "I am not to the remnant of this people." He had said, "I will be to them God;" so now He does not say that He will not do to them, "as in former days," but "I am not to the remnant" of this people as heretofore. He would be, as tie was in Jesus, in a new relation to them.
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翻譯準備中 · 英文原文Zechariah 8:12
For the seed shall be peace - o"Your seed shall be peace and a blessing, so that they will call it 'a seed of peace.'" The unusual construction is perhaps adopted, in order to suggest a further meaning. It is a reversal of the condition, just spoken of, when there was "no peace to him that went, or to him that returned."
The vine shall give her fruit and the ground shall give her increase - The old promise in the law on obedience Leviticus 26:4, as the exact contrary was threatened on disobedience Leviticus 26:20. It had been revived in the midst of promise of spiritual blessing and of the coming of Christ, in Ezekiel EZechariah 34:27. Ribera: "By the metaphor of sensible things he explains (as the prophets often do) the abundance of spiritual good in the time of the new law, as did Hosea Hos 2:21-22, Joel Joe 2:23-25; Joel 3:18, Amos Amo 9:13, and many others." "And I will cause the remnant of the people to inherit." Ribera: "As if he said, I promised these things not to you who live now, but to the future remnant of your people, that is, those who shall believe in Christ and shall be saved, while the rest perish. These shall possess these spiritual goods, which I promise now, under the image of temporal." As our Lord said, "He that overcometh shall inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he shall be My son" Revelation 21:7.
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翻譯準備中 · 英文原文Zechariah 8:13
As ye were a curse among the nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so I will save you - The ten tribes bore the name of Israel, in contrast with the two tribes with the name of Judah, not only in the history but in the prophets; as Hosea says, "I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel, and on the house of Judah I will have mercy" Hosea 1:6-7. Here he unites both; both, in the time of their captivity, were a curse, were held to be a thing accursed, as it is said, "He that is hanged is the curse of God" Deuteronomy 21:23, that is, a thing accursed by Him; and God foretold of Judah, that they should be "a desolation and a curse" 2 Kings 22:10, and by Jeremiah, "I will deliver them to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth for hurt, a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse in all places whither I shall drive them" ; and in deed, when it was so, "therefore is your land a desolation and an astonishment and a curse without an inhabitant, as at this day" Jeremiah 44:22.
Now the sentence was to be reversed as to both. "As ye were a curse, among the nations, naming each, so I will save you." There would have been no proportion between the curse and the blessing, unless both had been included under the blessing, as they were under the curse. But Israel had no share in the temporal blessing, not returning from captivity, as Zechariah knew they were not returned hitherto. Therefore the blessings promised must be spiritual. Even a Jewish commentator saw this. "It is possible, that this may have been spoken of the second temple, on condition that they should keep the commandments of the Lord; or, it is still future, referring to the days of the Messiah: and this is proved by the following verse which says, 'O house of Judah and house of Israel.' During the second temple the house of Israel did not return."
And ye shall be a blessing - This is a revival and an application of the original promise to Abraham, "thou shalt be a blessing" Genesis 12:2; which was continued to Jacob, "God give thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee and to thy seed with thee" Genesis 28:4. And of the future king, of whom it is said, "Thou gavest him length of days forever and ever," David says, "Thou hast made him blessings forever" Psalm 21:4, Psalm 21:6, and again, "They shall be blessed in Him" Psalm 72:17). So Isaiah had said of the days of Christ, "In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the land;" Isaiah 19:24; and symbolically of the cluster of grapes, "Destroy it not: for a blessing is in it" Isaiah 65:8; and Ezekiel, "I will make them and the places round about My hill a blessing" Ezekiel 34:26. They were this; for of them, "according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, God blessed forever" Romans 9:5; of them were the Apostles and Evangelists, of them every writer of God's word, of them those who carried the Gospel throughout the world. Osorius: "Was this fulfilled, when the Jews were under the Persians? or when they paid tribute to the Greeks? or when they trembled, hour by hour, at the mention of the Roman name? Do not all count those who rule much happier than those oppressed by the rule of others? The prediction then was fulfilled, not then, but when Christ, the Sun of Righteousness, shone on the earth, and He chose from the Hebrews lights, through whom to dissipate darkness and illumine the minds of people who were in that darkness. The Jews, when restored from the captivity, seemed born to slavery." They were reputed to be of slaves the most despised. "But when they had through Christ been put in possession of that most sure liberty, they overthrew, through their empire, the power and tyranny of the evil spirits."
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翻譯準備中 · 英文原文Zechariah 8:14
As I thought to punish you - (Literally, to do evil to you) "and repented not." In like way God says in Jeremiah, "I have purposed and will not repent." Jeremiah 4:28.
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翻譯準備中 · 英文原文Zechariah 8:15
So have I turned and purposed in these days to do well unto Jerusalem - Dionysius: "God, to be better understood, speaketh with the feelings and after the manner of men, although, in the passionless and unchangeable God, there is no provocation to anger, nor turning, implying change in Himself." So He says by Jeremiah, "I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil" Jeremiah 29:11. And, with the same contrast as here, "As I have watched over them to pluck up and to break down and to throw down, and to destroy and to afflict, so will I watch over them, to build and to plant, saith the Lord" Jeremiah 31:28. His having done what He purposed before was an earnest the more, that He would do what He purposed now. His chastisements were the earnests of His mercies; for they too were an austere form of His love. Osorius: "When the Lord stretches out His hand to strike those who are contumacious in guilt, none can hold His hand that He exact not the due punishment. Therefore He says, that He repented not; so, when He receives to grace those who repent of their sins, no one can any way delay the course of His benevolence. "For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance" Romans 11:29.
And to the house of Judah - Ribera: He speaks to the two tribes, not to, or of the ten, because Christ was to come to the two tribes, and Zechariah was prophesying to them, and they were to be admonished to prepare themselves in good works, lest the coming of Christ should not profit them, on account of their depraved ways. But the ten tribes were far off in the cities of the Medes, nor was Christ to come to them; but they were to hear the Gospel through the Apostles, and so he prophesies of the conversion of all to the glory of Christ, yet he could not admonish all, but those only to whom he was sent.
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翻譯準備中 · 英文原文Zechariah 8:16
These are the things that ye shall do - He exhorts them to the same duties, to which the former prophets had exhorted their fathers, Zechariah 7:9-10, and, as before, first positively to truth and peace; then to avoid everything contrary to it. "Judgment of peace" must be judgment which issues in peace, as all righteous judgment righteously received, in which case each party acquiesces, must. Kimchi: "If ye judge righteousness, there will be peace between the litigants, according to that proverb, Sanhedr. f. 7. a. quoted by Me. Caul, p. 78), 'He that hath his coat taken from him by the tribunal, let him sing and go his way' ("because," says a gloss (Rashi, quoted Ibid.), "they have judged the judgment of truth, and have taken away that which would have been stolen property, if he retained it," being in fact not his). And they have quoted that, "And all this people shall go to their place in peace" Exodus 18:23. : "All this people," even he that is condemned in judgment. It is also interpreted of arbitration. What sort of judgment is that, in which there is peace? It is that of arbitration."
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翻譯準備中 · 英文原文Zechariah 8:17
For all these things do I hate - Literally, emphatic, "For they are all these things which I hate." This is the sum of what I hate; for they comprise in brief the breaches of the two tables, the love of God and of man.
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翻譯準備中 · 英文原文Zechariah 8:19
The fast of the fourth month - On the ninth day "of the fourth month" of Zedekiah's eleventh year, Jerusalem, in the extremity of famine, opened to Nebuchadnezzar, and his princes sat in her gate; in the "tenth month" of his ninth year Nebuchadnezzar began the siege. Ezekiel was bidden "on its tenth day; write thee the name of the day, of this same day," Ezekiel 24:1-2, as the beginning of God's uttermost judgments against "the bloody city" . The days of national sorrow were to be turned late exuberant joy, "joy and gladness and cheerful feasts" Esther 8:17; Esther 9:19, Esther 9:22; Ecclesiastes 7:14, for the sorrows, which they commemorated, were but the harbingers of joy, when the chastisements were ended; only He adds, love the truth and peace; for such love whereby they would be Israelites indeed, in whose spirits is no guile, were the conditions of their participating the blessings of the Gospel, of which he goes on to speak;
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翻譯準備中 · 英文原文Zechariah 8:20
It shall yet be that - The promises are those which God had already made by Isaiah (Isaiah 2:2 ff) and Micah (Micah 4:1 ff). Yet where was the show of their fulfillment? The Jews themselves, a handful: the temple unfinished; its completion depending, in human sight, upon the will of their pagan masters, the rival worship at Samaria standing and inviting to coalition. Appearances and experience were against it. God says virtually, that it was, in human sight, contrary to all expectations. But "weakness is aye Heaven's might." Despite of all, of the fewness of those who were returned, their downheartedness, broken condition, hopelessness, though all had hitherto failed, though, or rather because, all human energy and strength were gone, as God had said before, "The Lord shall yet (Zechariah 1:17; Zechariah 2:1-13 :16 (12 English)) choose Jerusalem," so now, It shall "yet" be "that."
Nations and many cities shall come - He describes vividly the eagerness and mutual impulse, with which not only many but mighty nations should throng to the Gospel, and every fresh conversion should win others also, until the great tide should sweep through the world.
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翻譯準備中 · 英文原文Zechariah 8:21
The inhabitants of one city shall go to another - It is one unresting extension of the fairly, the restlessness of faith and love. Osorius: "They shall not be satisfied with their own salvation, careless about the salvation of others; they shall employ all labor and industry, with wondrous love, to provide for the salvation of others as if it were their own." It is a marvelous stirring of minds. Missionary efforts, so familiar with us as to be a household word, were unknown then. The time was not yet come. "Before the faith" in Christ came, the Jewish people were not to be the converters of mankind. They were to await for Him, the Redeemer of the world, through whom and to whom they were to be first converted, and then the world through those who were of them. This mutual conversion was absolutely unknown. The prophet (see below on Zechariah 9:12) predicts certainly that it would be, and in God's time it was. "From you," Paul writes to a small colony in Greece, "sounded out the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God-ward is spread abroad" 1 Thessalonians 1:8. "Your faith" Romans 1:8, he writes to the pagan capital of the world, "is spoken of throughout the whole world."
Within eighty years after our Lord's Ascension, the Roman governor of Bithynia reported, on occasion of the then persecution, that it spread as a contagion. Pliny ad. Trajan Eph. x. 97: "The contagion of that superstition traversed not cities only but villages and scattered houses too." Before the persecution, the temples had been desolated, the solemn rites long intermitted, the sacrificed animals had very rarely found a purchaser. An impostor of the same date says, , Pontus is full of atheists and Christians." "There is no one race of people," it was said before the middle of the second century , "whether Barbarians or Greeks or by whatsoever name called, whether of those wandering houseless tribes who live in wagons or those pastoral people who dwell in tents, in which there are not prayers and Eucharists to the Father and Creator of all things, through the name of the crucified Jesus." "The word of our teacher," said another, , "abode not in Judaea alone, as philosophy in Greece; but was poured out throughout the whole world, persuading Greeks and barbarians in their several nations and villages and every city, whole houses and each hearer individually, and having brought over to the truth no few even of the very philosophers. And if any ordinary magistrate forbid the Greek philosophy, immediately it vanishes; but our teaching, immediately at its first announcement, kings and emperors and subordinate rulers and governors with all their mercenaries and countless multitudes forbid, and war against us and try to extirpate; but it the rather flourishes."
The second century had not closed, before another said, , "We are a people of yesterday, and yet we have filled every place belonging to you, cities, islands, castles, towns, assemblies, your very camp, your tribes, companies, palace, senate, forum! We leave you your temples only. We can count your armies; our numbers in a single province will be greater." "People cry out that the state is beset; that the Christians are in their fields, in their forts, in their islands. They mourn, as for a loss, that every sex, age, condition, and now even rank is going over to this sect." : "On whom besides have all nations believed, except on Christ who hath already come?" Then having enumerated the nations mentioned in the Acts Act 2:9-11, he adds, "And now the varieties of the Getulians, and the many tracts of the Moors, all the bounds of the Spains, and the divers nations of the Gauls, and places of the Britons, unreached by the Romans but subdued to Christ; of Sarmatians, Dacians, Germans, and Scythians, and of many remote nations, and many provinces and islands, unknown to us, and which we can scarce enumerate. In all which places the name of Christ, who hath already come, reigneth, seeing that before Him the gates of all cities are opened and none are shut against Him, before whom "the bars of iron are broken in pieces and the gates of brass are opened" Isaiah 45:2.
In all these places dwelleth a people called by the name of Christ. For who could reign over all, save Christ the Son of God, who was foretold as about to reign over all nations forever?" Then having contrasted the limited rule of Solomon, Darius, the Pharaohs, Nebuchadnezzar, Alexander, "the Romans who protect their own empire by the strength of their legions and are unable to extend the might of their kingdom beyond these nations (Germans, Britons, Moors, Getulians), he sums up, "but the kingdom and the Name of Christ is extended everywhere, is believed in everywhere, is worshiped by all the nations above enumerated. Everywhere He reigns, everywhere is adored, is given everywhere equally to all. With Him no king hath greater favor; no Barbarian inferior joy; no dignities or birth enhance the merit of any; to all He is equal; to all, King; to all Judge; to all, God and Lord." A little later, a pagan owns, while calumniating, , "Those most foul rites of that impious coalition are growing throughout the whole world, as bad things come up most luxuriantly, evil ways creeping on daily." The Christian answers . "That our number increases daily, this is no imputation of error, but a testimony to praise. For in a good mode of life, its own persevere, aliens accrue to it."
Let us go on and on - Perseveringly, until we attain "to entreat the face of the Lord." It is not a Theism or Monotheism, but the God, who had revealed Himself to Israel, who, when our Lord came, was worshiped in Jerusalem, to which those invited say, "I too would go with thee." Yet not so, but the words seem to speak of that which is a special gift of the Gospel, continued progress, "forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, to press toward the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us go on and on" Philippians 3:13-14; whence it is a Christian proverb, , "not to go on is to go back." : "The whole life of a good Christian is a holy longing to make progress." "The one perfection of man is, to have found that he is not perfect." : "If thou sayest, It sufficeth, thou art lost." : "To be unwilling to increase, is to decrease."
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翻譯準備中 · 英文原文Zechariah 8:23
Ten men of all languages of the nations - Ten is the symbol of a whole, all the numbers before it meeting in it and starting again from it. The day of Pentecost was to be the reversal of the confusion of Babel; all were to have one voice, as God had said, "It (the time) shall come to gather all nations and tongues, and they shall come and see My glory" Isaiah 66:18.
They shall lay hold of the skirt of one man who is a Jew - Jerome: "That is, of the Lord and Saviour, of whom it is said, "A prince shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until He shall come, for whom it is laid up, and for Him shall the Gentiles wait" Genesis 49:8-10; for "there shall be a rod of Jesse, and He who shall arise to rule over the Gentiles, to Him shall the Gentiles seek" Isaiah 11:10. And when they shall lay hold of Him, they shall desire to tread in His steps, since God is with Him. Or else, whosoever shall believe out of all nations, shall lay hold of a man who is a Jew, the Apostles who are from the Jews, and shall say, Let us go with you; for we have known through the prophets and from the voice of all the Scriptures, that the Son of God, Christ, God and Lord, is with you. Where there is a most manifest prophecy, and the coming of Christ and His Apostles and the faith of all nations is preached, let us seek for nothing more."
Cyril: "Christ turning our sorrow into joy and a feast and good days and gladness, and transferring lamentation into cheerfulness, the accession to the faith and union to God by sanctification in those called to salvation shall not henceforth be individually; but the cities shall exhort each other thereto, and all nations shall come in multitudes, the later ever calling out to those before them, "I too will go." For it is written, "iron sharpeneth iron, so doth a man the countenence of another" Proverbs 27:17. For the zeal of some is ever found to call forth others to fulfill what is good. But what is the aim proposed to the cities, that is, the Gentiles? "To entreat and to seek the face of the Lord," that is, Christ, who is the exact image of God the Father, and, as is written, "the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His Person" Hebrews 1:3, of whom also the divine David saith, "Shew Thy countenance to Thy servant" Psalm 119:135.
For the Image and Countenance of God the Father hath shone upon us. Having Him propitious and kind, we lay aside the injury from sin, being justified through faith, "not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to His great mercy" Titus 3:5. But how they shall come, he explains. By the ten men you are to understand time perfect number of those who come. For the number ten is the symbol of perfection. But that those of the Gentiles, who cleave to the holy Apostles, took in hand to go the same way with them, being justified by the faith in Christ, he sets evidently before us. For little children, if they would follow their fathers, lay hold of the hem of their dress, and, aided by the touch and hanging from their dress, walk steadily and safely. In like way, they too who "worshiped the creature rather than the Creator" Romans 1:25, choosing as their true fathers the bringers-in of the Gospel-doctrines, and joining themselves by like-mindedness to them, follow them, being still of childlike minds, and go the same way, ever showing themselves zealous followers of their life, and by continued progress advancing "to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" Ephesians 4:13.
But why do they follow them? Being persuaded that God is with them, that is, Emmanuel, God with us. But that this calling belongs not only to those of the blood of Israel but to all nations throughout the world, he indicated by saying, that those who laid hold of that hem should be of all languages. But when were the nations called to the knowledge of the truth, and when did they desire to seek the face of the Lord and to entreat it, and to go the same way, as it were, as the holy Apostles, except when the Only-Begotten came to us, who is "the expectations of the nations" Genesis 49:10; to whom also the divine David singeth, "All the naions, whom Thou hast made, shall come and worship before Thee, O Lord?" Psalm 86:9. For the multitude of the nations also is saved through Him."
The startling condescension of this passage is, that our Lord is spoken of as "a man, a Jew." Yet of His human Nature it is not only the simple truth, but essential to the truth. Pilate said to Him in scorn, "Am I a Jew? Thine own nation and the chief priests have delivered Thee unto me" John 18:35. But it was essential to the fulfillment of God's promises. The Christ was to be "the Son of David" Matthew 1:1; Matthew 22:42. "Hath not the Scripture said, That Christ cometh of the seed of David, and out of the linen of Bethlehem, where David was?" John 7:42. David, "being a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins according to the flesh, He would raise up Christ to sit on his throne Acts 2:30; "Of this man's seed hath God, according to promise, raised unto Israel a Savior, Jesus" Acts 13:23. Whence Paul begins his great doctrinal Epistle with this contrast, "the Gospel of God concerning His Son Jesus Christ, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power" Romans 1:1-4. He was that "one Man among a thousand, whom Solomon says, I found; but a woman among all those have I not found" Ecclesiastes 7:28; the one in the whole human race. It was fulfilled in the very letter when "they brought to Him all that were diseased, and besought Him that they might only touch the hem of His garment: and as many as touched were made perfectly whole" Matthew 14:35-36. "The whole multitude sought to touch Him, for there went virtue out of Him and healed all" (Luke 6:19, add Luke 8:46; Mark 5:30).
Even the Jews saw the reference to the Messiah. : "All nations shall come, falling on their faces before the Messiah and the Israelites, saying, Grant, that we may be Thy servants and of Israel. For as relates to the doctrine and the knowledge of the law, the Gentiles shall be their servants, according to that, "In those days ten men etc.""
狄奧尼修斯（Dionysius）：「主在前一章多方責備了猶太百姓之後，如今以更新的應許安慰他們，如同一位好醫生，在苦劑之後改用甘甜舒緩的療法；又如同那位滿有愛心的撒瑪利亞人，把油和酒倒在上頭。」本章分為兩段，各以「萬軍之耶和華的話臨到」或「臨到我」這話為標記：第一段 (Zechariah 8:1-17) 宣告先前審判的逆轉，以及神的恩惠雖有條件、卻是完全的恢復；第二段 (Zechariah 8:18-23) 藉著宣告喜樂與福音的廣傳，回答了最初關於那些禁食的問題。第一段再有七重、第二段有三重的細分，皆以「萬軍之耶和華如此說」的開頭為標記。