The Pulpit Commentary — Zechariah — Section 143

CHAPTER XIll. exilian authorship of this part of Zechariah. But the prophet, grounding hie message on Vere. 1-6.-§ 3. This f"epentance tM?l l.ead past history, does well to give assurance to purificatio,n from past d,efil,ement. and a that such lapses shall not happen a.gain. rwzction against i&latry and false prophets. Nor is it altogether certain that the warning against these errors was not needed after Ver. 1.-In that day. At the time when the return. There were false prophets in the great mourning (eh. xii.) takes place, or, N ehemi11.h'e time (Neh. vi.14); and we read more generally,in the Messianic period, when in the Book of Maccabees that many Jews ell these things shall be fulfilled. Shall be a adopted heathen rites and customs, among fountain opened, etc. Shall be opened and which the worship of idols must have been continue open. The allusion is to the lustral included (I Mace. i. 11, eto.; 2 Maco. iv. rites practised in the consecration of the 13, etc.), and the people and even priests Lentes, who were to have "water of sin" contracted marriages with heathen wives sprinkled on them, and to "the water of (Ezra ix. 2; N eh. xiii; 23); so that there separation," or "water of uncleanness" ( the was real danger of relapse. The prophets. word found in our passage), used for purposes The false prophets are meant; as is evident of legal purification (see Numb. viii 7; xix. from their being associated with idols and 9). Instead of this merely ceremonial the unclean spirit, and from vere. 3-6.. cleansing, there should be in the Christian The Septuagint has, " the false prophets; " Church the cleansing of tl.Je soul by the so the V ulgate. The unclean spirit. Thie blood of Christ (I Pet. i. 2; I John i 7). is the lying spirit which works in the false Septuagint, ~E.,.-ra., ,rris -r&1ros liia.110,-yoµ.,110s, prophets (see I Kings xxii. 19-23), aud "Every place shall be opened.'' The house which we find later denounced by apostles of David and the inhabitant& of J"erusalem (Acts xvi. 18; 1 Cor. x. 20, 21 ; 2 These. ii, represent the whole nation, as in eh. xii 10; 9, 10; I Tim. iv. 1). Septuagint, .,.b 1r11,iiµca the cleansing is as universal as the sin (see 'Tb l11,d.6a.p'To11 (comp. Matt. xii. 43; Rev. the announcement in Ezek. xx.xvi. 25; xviii. 2). xl rii. 1-12 ; Joel iii. 18). For Bin and for Ver. 3.-When any shall yet prophesy; uncleauneea. The latter word is used for i.e. if any man shall pretend to have predic- the separation on account of uncleanness tive powers conferred on him by God. There (Lev. xv. 20, etc.); and the two terms to- is here no intimation that true prophecy gether comprise all guilt and pollution. should cease, as Keil and Kohler suppose; Ver. 2.-I will cut off:' the name■ of the the man is punished, not because he pro- idols. Idols should be so utterly abolished phesies, but because "he speaketh lies." that their very names should perish (Hoe. His father and his mother. The passage i1 ii. 17; Micah v. 12, 13; Zeph. i. 4). The grounded on the enactments in Dent xiii, prophet names the two chief sins which had 6-10 and xviii. 20, which commanded the brought ruin on the old theocracy-idolatry death of o. false P,rophet or of one who and fe.lse-prophetism, e.nd declares that these enticed others to idolatry. Here the holy shall not be found in the new theocracy. zeal of the parents should put tl.Je law in All these two sins were not specis.lly preva- force. Thie was quite a different state of lent afler the Captivity, some see in their things from that which obtained in former mentlon here an argument for tl.Je pre- times. The earlier prophets continually 011. :nn. 1-9.J THE BOOK OF ZECHARIAH. 147