29 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
INTRODUCTION TO Zechariah 11 This chapter contains a prophecy of the destruction of the Jews, and shows the causes and reasons of it; and is concluded with a prediction concerning antichrist. The destruction of the temple and city of Jerusalem, and the inhabitants of it, is signified by figurative expressions, Zechariah 11:1 which occasions an...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Open thy doors, O Lebanon,.... By which may be meant, either the temple of Jerusalem, which was built of the cedars of Lebanon; "the gates of which are said (w) to open of themselves forty years before the destruction of Jerusalem, when Jochanan ben Zaccai, who lived at the same time, rebuked them, saying, O temple, temple, wherefore dost thou...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
God's prophet, who, in the chapters before, was an ambassador sent to promise peace, is here a herald sent to declare war. The Jewish nation shall recover its prosperity, and shall flourish for some time and become considerable; it shall be very happy, at length, in the coming of the long-expected Messiah, in the preaching of his gospel, and in...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Howl, fir tree; for the cedar is fallen,.... By which are designed the princes, nobles, and magistrates of the land: so the Targum interprets them of kings and princes; see Nahum 2:3: because all the mighty are spoiled; which is an explanation of the figurative expressions in the former clause, and in the following; and designs rich men, as the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
[There is] a voice of the howling of the shepherds,.... Which may be understood either of the civil rulers among the Jews, who now lose their honour and their riches; and so the Targum, Jarchi, and Aben Ezra, interpret it of kings; or of the ecclesiastical rulers, the elders of the people, the Scribes and Pharisees: for their glory is spoiled;...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Thus saith the Lord my God,.... The Syriac version adds, "to me"; not the Prophet Zechariah, but the Messiah, who calls the Lord his God, as he was man and Mediator, John 20:17 for what follow are the words of God the Father to him, calling upon him, and giving him a commission to Feed the flock of the slaughter; meaning the people of the Jews in...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Thus saith the LORD my God; Feed the flock of the slaughter; This is a deep prophecy. It may be interpreted concerning many events, but I think it primarily refers to the departure of the people of Israel from God, and their rejection of Christ. It has to do with the first coming of Christ, and the way in which they cast off the great Shepherd,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Whose possessors slay them, and hold themselves not guilty,.... Not the Romans after Christ came, into whose hands they were delivered, and by whom they were slain in great numbers, not accounting it any sin to put them to death; but the priests, Scribes, Pharisees, and doctors, among the Jews, who ruined and destroyed their souls, by feeding them...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Whose possessors slay them, and hold themselves not guilty: and they that sell them say, Blessed be the LORD; for I am rich; and their own shepherds pity them not. They bound heavy burdens upon them, grievous to be borne, but they touched them not with one of their fingers. The Scribes and Pharisees were false shepherds, and had clean departed...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
For I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land, saith the Lord,.... Or spare them; but cause his wrath to come upon them to the uttermost, as it did at the time of Jerusalem's destruction by the Romans; but, lo, I will deliver the men everyone into his neighbour's hand; this seems to refer to the factions and divisions among themselves during...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
For I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land, saith the LORD: but, lo, I will deliver the men every one into his neighbour’s hand, and into the hand of his king: and they shall smite the land, and out of their hand I will not deliver them. Christ gathered a few round him who were his true sheep, who knew his voice, and these he fed; they...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And I will feed the flock of slaughter,.... According to the call and commission he had from his divine Father, Zechariah 11:4 he determines to do as it was enjoined him, and as he had undertook: [even] you, O poor of the flock; besides the people of the Jews in general, to whom Christ was sent, and he came to feed, there were a small remnant,...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
And I will feed the flock of slaughter, even you, O poor of the flock. And I took unto me two staves; the one I called Beauty, and the other I called Bands; and I fed the flock. The “Beauty” is the loving-kindness of the presence of God; “thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.” By “Bands” we understand binders, the unity of the flock; that which...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Three shepherds also I cut off in one month,.... Not Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, as is suggested in the Talmud (e); nor David, Adonijah, and Joab, who died in the space of a month; nor the three kings, Jehoash, Jehoiakim, and Zedekiah, who died by the hand of their enemies in a very little time; which is the sense of some, as Abendana observes; nor...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Three shepherds also I cut off in one month; and my soul loathed them, and their soul also abhorred me. There is a mutual loathing between God and ungodly men. They, to whom Christ came, were of this character; they loathed him. and he could not endure them. See how he cried to them, “Woe unto you, Scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites; woe unto you...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Then said I, I will not feed you,.... That is, any longer; either personally, or by his apostles; he fed them himself, during his public ministry; and afterwards by his apostles, whom he ordered to preach the Gospel to the Jews first; but that being contradicted, blasphemed, and despised by them, they were ordered to turn away from them, and go to...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Then said I, I will not feed you: that that dieth, let it die; and that that is to be cut off, let it be cut off; and let the rest eat every one the flesh of another. And I took my staff, even Beauty, and cut it asunder, that I might break my covenant which I had made with all the people. And it was broken in that day: and so the poor of the flock...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And I took my staff, [even] Beauty, and cut it asunder,.... Signifying that he dropped his pastoral care of them: the Gospel indeed, which is meant by the staff "Beauty", cannot be made void; it will have its designed effect; it is the everlasting Gospel, and will endure; its blessings, promises, doctrines, ordinances, and ministers, shall...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And it was broken in that day,.... In right, the day Christ died; apparently, when the Gospel, the substance of it, was removed; and, in fact, at the time of Jerusalem's destruction: and so the poor of the flock; [See comments on Zechariah 11:7]: that waited upon me; as servants on their masters; as clients on their patron; as beggars at the door...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And I said unto them, If ye think good,.... Not to the poor of the flock that waited on him, and knew the word of the Lord, and valued it; but to the other Jews that despised Christ and his Gospel: give me my price; or, "give my price" (i); what I am valued at by you, to Judas the betrayer: or the price due unto him for feeding the flock, such as...