225 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
The black horses which [are] therein,.... Which were in the second chariot: no further mention is made of the red horses in the first chariot, because the kingdom of the Chaldeans was now extinct: these design the Medes and Persians: go forth into the north country: into the country of Babylon or Chaldea, which lay north of Judea; see Jeremiah...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the bay went forth, and sought to go,.... Without leave: these design either the Romans; or, since distinct from the grisled, the Huns, Goths, and Vandals; who sought to go out of their own places into other countries: and were desirous that they might walk to and fro through the earth: without control; overrunning as they, did the Roman...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Then cried he upon me, and spake unto me, saying,.... That is, the Lord of the whole earth spoke to the prophet with a loud voice, and uttered the following words: Behold, these that go toward the north country; meaning the Medes and Persians, which went towards Babylon: have quieted my spirit in the north country; by executing the judgments of...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying.] Either "the word of prophecy from the Lord", as the Targum paraphrases it; the visions being ended, the prophetic part of the book begins; and many excellent prophecies concerning the Messiah, and his kingdom, are contained in this and the following chapters: or an order from the Lord, which is...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Take of "them of" the captivity,.... That is, some of them that were returned from the captivity of Babylon, and who are mentioned by name: even of Heldai, of Tobijah, and Jedaiah, which are come from Babylon; either with Zerubbabel and Joshua, when they came from thence; or who were now just come from those that remained there: and come thou the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Then take silver and gold, c. Which the Jewish writers suppose were brought by the above men from their brethren in Babylon, as a free will offering towards the building of the temple: and make crowns two at least, one of silver, and another of gold; the one to be put upon the head of Joshua the high priest; the other upon the head of Zerubbabel,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And speak unto him, saying,.... That is, to Joshua the high priest, having the crowns on his head: thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, behold the man whose name [is] The BRANCH; which is not to be understood of Zerubbabel, as some Jewish writers interpret it; for he was not "the Branch", by way of eminency, much less that righteous Branch of...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Even he shall build the temple of the Lord,.... Which is repeated, as Kimchi observes, for confirmation sake: and he shall bear the glory; that is, of building the temple; and the phrase denotes that the glory of it shall be upon him, shall be hung upon him, as in Isaiah 22:24 and so shall be visible; that it would be weighty and heavy, he having...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the crowns shall be to Helem,.... The same with Heldai, Zechariah 6:10: and to Tobijah, and to Jedaiah, and to Hen the son of Zephaniah; the same with Josiah, Zechariah 6:10: for a memorial in the temple of the Lord; the crowns, after they had been put upon the head of Joshua, were taken off, and laid up in some part of the temple, of which...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And they [that are] afar off shall come,..... Into the temple; not the material temple; nor is this a prophecy which was fulfilled in Herod, a stranger, repairing that, as Kimchi suggests; but into the spiritual temple, the church; and is a prophecy of the calling of the Gentiles, who are said to be "afar off", Ephesians 2:12, from God; from...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
INTRODUCTION TO Zechariah 7 This chapter treats concerning the nature and use of certain fasts kept by the Jews, on account of the destruction of the temple, and other things; and concerning the message of the former prophets to them, and the effects of it. The occasion of the former was an embassy sent by the Jews to the priests and prophets, to...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And it came to pass, in the fourth year of King Darius,.... Near two years after the foundation of the temple was laid, Haggai 2:10 and near two years before it was finished, Ezra 6:15 when the work was going forward, and there was a great deal of reason to believe it would be completed: [that] the word of the Lord came unto Zechariah, in the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
When they had sent unto the house of God,.... It is, in the Hebrew text, "when he sent Bethel"; which some, as Kimchi observes, take to be the name of a man that was sent along with those after mentioned; but the Targum and the Septuagint render it, "when", or "after he had sent unto Bethel": not the place so called in Jacob's time; but Jerusalem,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And to speak unto the priests which were in the house of the Lord of hosts,.... That ministered in the sanctuary, as the Targum explains it, who offered sacrifices, c. and who were to be consulted in matters of religion, Malachi 2:7: and to the prophets who were then in being, as Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi: saying, Should I weep in the fifth...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Then came the word of the Lord of hosts unto me, saying. Upon the sending of this embassy, and upon putting this question.
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Speak unto all the people of the land,.... Of Judea, who had sent these men on this errand, and whom they represented, and in whose name they spake: and to the priests; who were consulted on this occasion: saying, When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth; on the seventh or tenth day of the fifth month Ab, on account of the temple being burnt by...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And when ye did eat, and when ye did drink,.... Either at common meals, or at their festivals: did not ye eat [for yourselves], and drink [for yourselves]? merely and only for their own refreshment and pleasure, and not for the glory of God; though that ought to be the principal end in eating and drinking, 1 Corinthians 10:31.
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
[Should ye] not [hear] the words which the Lord hath cried by the former prophets,.... As Hosea, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and others; suggesting that it would have been much better for them to have regarded the exhortations and instructions which the Lord sent them by his servants, which would have prevented their captivity; and so would have had no...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the word of the Lord came unto Zechariah, saying. Giving him orders to repeat what the former prophets had said, and to urge the same things on the people which they had before rejected, the rejection of which had issued in their ruin.
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying,.... The same things as he had before; for the things following are ever in force, and always to be attended to, and to be regarded and preferred before anything merely ritual and ceremonial; and especially before the traditions and commandments of men, of which nature the above fasts were: Execute true...