The figure of Jerusalem as a boulder, deeply bedded in the soil, which tears the hands that seek to remove it, is a most true and expressive summary of the history of heathen assaults upon her. Till she herself was rent by internal dissensions, and the Romans at last succeeded in tearing her loose, she remained planted on her own site.[1411] This was very true of all the Greek period. Seleucids and Ptolemies alike wounded themselves upon her. But at what period did either of them induce Judah to take part against her? Not in the Maccabean.
_Oracle of the Word of Jehovah upon Israel._
_Oracle of Jehovah, who stretched out the heavens and founded the earth, and formed the spirit of man within him: Lo, I am about to make Jerusalem a cup of reeling for all the surrounding peoples, and even Judah[1412] shall be at the siege of Jerusalem. And it shall come to pass in that day that I will make Jerusalem a stone to be lifted[1413] by all the peoples—all who lift it do indeed wound[1414] themselves—and there are gathered against it all nations of the earth. In that day—oracle of Jehovah—I will smite every horse with panic, and their riders with madness; but as for the house of Judah, I will open its[1415] eyes, though every horse of the peoples I smite with blindness. Then shall the chiefs[1416] of Judah say in their hearts, ...[1417] the inhabitants of Jerusalem through Jehovah of Hosts their God. In that day will I make the districts of Judah like a pan of fire among timber and like a torch among sheaves, so that they devour right and left all the peoples round about, but Jerusalem shall still abide on its own site.[1418] And Jehovah shall first give victory to the tents[1419] of Judah, so that the fame of the house of David and the fame of the inhabitants of Jerusalem be not too great in contrast to Judah._
9. FOUR RESULTS OF JERUSALEM’S DELIVERANCE (xii. 8—xiii. 6).
Upon the deliverance of Jerusalem, by the help of the converted Judah, there follow four results, each introduced by the words that it happened _in that day_ (xii. 8, 9, xiii. 1, 2). First, the people of Jerusalem shall themselves be strengthened. Second, the hostile heathen shall be destroyed, but on the house of David and all Jerusalem the spirit of penitence shall be poured, and they will lament for the good shepherd whom they slew. Third, a fountain for sin and uncleanness shall be opened. Fourth, the idols, the unclean spirit, and prophecy, now so degraded, shall all be abolished. The connection of these oracles with the preceding is obvious, as well as with the oracle describing the murder of the good shepherd (xiii. 7-9). When we see how this is presupposed by xii. 9 ff., we feel more than ever that its right place is between chaps. xi. and xii. There are no historical allusions. But again the language gives evidence of a late date.[1420] And throughout the passage there is a repetition of formal phrases which recalls the Priestly Code and the general style of the post-exilic age.[1421] Notice that no king is mentioned, although there are several points at which, had he existed, he must have been introduced.
1. The first of the four effects of Jerusalem’s deliverance from the heathen is the promotion of her weaklings to the strength of her heroes, and of her heroes to divine rank (xii. 8). _In that day Jehovah will protect the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the lame among them shall in that day be like David_ himself _, and the house of David like God, like the Angel of Jehovah before them_.
2. The second paragraph of this series very remarkably emphasises that upon her deliverance Jerusalem shall not give way to rejoicing, but to penitent lamentation for the murder of him whom she has pierced—the good shepherd whom her people have rejected and slain. This is one of the few ethical strains which run through these apocalyptic chapters. It forms their highest interest for us. Jerusalem’s mourning is compared to that for _Hadad-Rimmon in the valley_ or _plain of Megiddo_. This is the classic battle-field of the land, and the theatre upon which Apocalypse has placed the last contest between the hosts of God and the hosts of evil.[1422] In Israel’s history it had been the ground not only of triumph but of tears. The greatest tragedy of that history, the defeat and death of the righteous Josiah, took place there;[1423] and since the earliest Jewish interpreters the _mourning of Hadad-Rimmon in the valley of Megiddo_ has been referred to the mourning for Josiah.[1424] Jerome identifies Hadad-Rimmon with Rummâni,[1425] a village on the plain still extant, close to Megiddo. But the lamentation for Josiah was at Jerusalem; and it cannot be proved that Hadad-Rimmon is a place-name. It may rather be the name of the object of the mourning, and as Hadad was a divine name among Phœnicians and Arameans, and Rimmôn the pomegranate was a sacred tree, a number of critics have supposed this to be a title of Adonis, and the mourning like that excessive grief which Ezekiel tells us was yearly celebrated for Tammuz.[1426] This, however, is not fully proved.[1427] Observe, further, that while the reading Hadad-Rimmon is by no means past doubt, the sanguine blossoms and fruit of the pomegranate, “red-ripe at the heart,” would naturally lead to its association with the slaughtered Adonis.