The Pulpit Commentary — Zechariah — Section 155

The deeoription ie symbolioal, though the with Umm-er-Rummamin, o. town ten miles natural featuN"s of the oouutry are BUppoead north of Beersheba. It aball be lifted UI\, to be <'-hanged in order to preserve veri- Jerusalem shall remain cxo.lted on its bill, similitude ((lomp. Ezek. xlvii. I, eto.; Joel while all the oountry around sinks into o. iii. 18). The former (emitem) ■ea .. , the plain-I\ figure representing the spiritual hinder (t~r•lem) ■ea. The Dee.d Sea is the exaltation of the new theooraoy. Inhabited eastern seR to one looldng to sunrise from in her plaoe ; or, shall dwell in her plaee. JerusRlc-m: the Mediterranean is the western Shall oC<'upy her ancient limits, and o.bide sea. behinrl the observer's back Into every there safely wit.hout fear (oomp. Jer. quartt>r thP salutary stream shall flow. In xxxi. 38-40; Ezck', xhriii. 15, eto.). From summer and in winM. Neither drought Benjamin's gate, etc. (Jer. xxxvii. 13). It nor fro8t shall stop their perennial flow. is difficult to define the given boundo.ries "Alike in times of peace and of persecution with certainty in every po.rtioulo.r. Beu- those waters shall cnntinue their course" j&min's go.te is the so.me as the gate of (St. Jerome); Septuagint., "In summer and Ephrnim (2 Kings xiv. 13; Neh. viii. 16), in spring "-a rendering which seems to so called as leading to the territory of indicate the home of the Alexandriau Benja.miu, and beyond a.gain to that of Version. Ephraim. It was situated in the north or Ver. 9.-All the earth; all the land of second wall. From this point the course of· Israel (.-ers. 8, 10)-:i. type of the kingdom the wall is followed, first to the west, atid of God in e.11 its extent (Rev. xi. 15, "The then to the east. The 11rst gate. This was kinc-doms of this world are become the in the eastern part of this wall, and is the' kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; same e.s "the old gate," or "gate of the and~ he she.II reign for ever and ever"). old town," of Neh. xii. 39. The comer gate Shall there be one Lord; rather, J eho-oah (2 Kings xiv. 13; Jer. xxxi. 38) was at sJ,a]l be one. He shall be universally the north-west oomer, west of the gate of acknowled~ed e.s "the blessed and only Benjamin, at the angle where the first and Potentate" (1 Tim. vi. 15). llis name one. second walls approached each other. These Idolatry shall be abolished, and the oue dimensions would give the breadth "of the God shall be everywhere e.dored (comp. city from east to west. The. tower , of eh. xiii. 2; Dent. vi. 4). Men shall no Hananeel (Neh. iii. 1) was at the north-east longer a ttribut.e operations and effects to corner of the north wall, where the citade\. various heavenly powers, but shell see and Baris or Antonia afterwards stood. The confess thB.t all a.re derived from and centre king's wine-pre■ses were probably near "the in him, and are only different revelations king's garden" (N eh. iii. 15), o.t the south- of his ineffable nature and attributes. We east extremity of the city. They may have do uot, indeed, see this prediction yet ful- been cut out of the rock, as was often the· filled, but the grace to acoomplish it is ree.dy case. This description gives the extent of and operating; it is only men's perverse wills the city from north to south. Thus Zechariah that.impede the gracious purpose of God. illustrates the growth and stability of the Ver. 10.-All the land shall be turned as Church of God by the figure of the earthly a plain. To ind!cate the exaltation and city Jerusalem, firmly and orderly built, stability of the centre of the new theocracy, and inhabited by o. teeming. population, as the prophet announces tha.t all the country the following verse shows. There is no round Jerusalem shall be turned into a ground for expecting the literal fulfilment plain, dominated by the metropolis, which of this prediction. · • stands sublime on a lofty mountain. The Ver. 11.-Men shall dwell in it. There Bevised Version renders, " shall be turned shall be no fear of exile and captivity, and as the Ara.bah," i.e. as the Jordan ghor, a no neceBBity to fly from a victorious enemy valley of abnormal fertility. From Geba to (vers. 2, 5). Utter destruotion; literally, Rimm.on south of Jerusalem; i.e. from the curse, ban; LXX. and Vulgate, "There shall. north of Judoh to its southern boundary. be no more anathema." The inhabitants Gtba wo.s a town and district on the edge shall not incur the curse which is inflicted of the great Wady Suweinit, five miles north on transgressors, idolaters, o.nd their cities of J eruso.lem. It is identified with Jabo. by the old Law (sea Exod. xxii. 20; Deut. (1 Sam. xiii. 3), and it formed the nort_hern vii. 2; xiii. 12-15; xx. 17; comp. Ezra boundary of the kingdom of Judah (Josh. :z:. 8; Isa. xllii. 28; Rev. xxii. 3). Shall be x viii 24 ). Rimmon is described as "south of safely inhabited; or, shall dwell safely. Bin Jeruaalem," to distinguish it from a town being removed, there will he no more occasion of tLe ~ame name in Galilee (Josh.~- 13), forohe.stisemen t; and the spiritual Jerusalem aud from the famous rock Rimmon, to which shall never be destroyed. tLe Benje.mites fled (Jndg. xx. 45, 47). It was situated in the territory of Simeon Vere. 12-15.-§ B. Having noud the (J o,h. n. 32; xix. 7), and hns been identified bUlf1ing1 011 the true braeliu,, the propheC OH, XIV, 1-21,] THE BOOK OF ZECHARIAH. 159