Jews, as a nation, had often given the servants of God most shameful usage. They had often dealt with them as enemies, because they told them the truth. Some they had persecuted, and some they had scourged, and some they had even killed. They thought perhaps that no account would be required of their conduct. But our Lord tells them they were mistaken. There was an eye that saw all their doings. There was a hand that registered all the innocent blood they shed, in books of everlasting remembrance. The dying words of Zach- arias, who was " slain between the temple and the altar," would be found after eight hundred and fifty years, not to have fallen to the ground. — He said, as he died, " the Lord look upon it and require it." (2 Chron. xxiv. 22.)'*' Yet a few years, and there would be such an inquisition for blood at Jerusalem as the world had never seen. The holy city would be destroyed. The nation which had murdered so many prophets would itself be wasted by famine, pestilence, and the sword. And even those that escaped would be scattered to the four winds, and become, like Cain the murderer, " fugitives and vagabonds upon earth." We all know how literally these sayings were fulfilled. Well might
* It is remarkable that the Zacharias here spoken of is described in Chronicles as the son of Jehoida. Our Lord speaks of him as the son of Barachias. This discrepancy has led some to suppose that the Zacha- rias here spoken of could not be the one who was murdered in the days of Joash, but an entirely different person. But there seems no suffi- cient reason for this supposition. By far the most satisfactory explana- tion appears to be, that the father of Zacharias had two names, Jehoi- ada and Barachias. It was not at all uncommon among the Jews to have two names. Matthew was also called Levi, and Jude Thaddeus.