Albert Barnes Commentary Zechariah 12

The burden of the word of the Lord for - Rather, “upon (see Nahum 1:1, p. 129) Israel.” If this prophecy is a continuation of the last, despite its fresh title, then “Israel” must be the Christian Church, formed of the true Israel which believed, and the Gentiles who were grafted into them.

So Cyril wrote: “Having spoken sufficiently of the Good Shepherd Christ, and of the foolish, most cruel shepherd who butchered the sheep, that is, antichrist, he appropriately makes mention of the persecutions which would from time to time arise against Israel; not the Israel according to the flesh, but the spiritual, that Jerusalem which is indeed holy, ‘the Church of the Living God’ (1 Timothy 3:15). For as we say, that ‘he’ is spiritually a Jew, who has the ‘circumcision in the heart’ (Romans 2:29), which is through the Spirit and not in the flesh through the letter; so also ‘Israel’ may be conceived, not as that of the blood of Israel, but rather as that which has a mind beholding God.”

Since the Good Shepherd was rejected by all, except the “poor of the flock,” the “little flock” which believed in Him, and as a result the “band” of “brotherhood” was dissolved between Israel and Judah, “Israel” in those times could not be Israel after the flesh, which at that time too was the deadly antagonist of the true Israel, and thus early also chose antichrist, such as Bar-Cochba, with whom so many hundreds of thousands perished.

There was no war then against Jerusalem, since it had ceased to be (see the notes on Micah 3:12).

But Zechariah does not say that this prophecy, to which he has attached a separate title, chronologically follows the last; rather, since he has so separated it by its title, he has marked it as a distinct prophecy from the preceding.

Perhaps he began again from the time of the Maccabees and took God’s deliverances of the people Israel then as the foreground of the deliverances to the end.

Yet in the times of Antiochus, it was one people only which was against the Jews, and Zechariah himself speaks only of the Greeks (Zechariah 9:13); here he repeatedly emphasizes that they were “all nations” (Zechariah 12:2–3, Zechariah 12:6, Zechariah 12:9).

Instead, it may be that the future, the successive efforts of the world to crush the people of God, its victory amid suffering, and its conversions of the world through the penitent looking to Jesus, are exhibited in one great perspective, according to the manner of prophecy, which usually exhibits the prominent events, not their order or sequence: “The penitential act of contrite sinners, especially of Jews, looking at Him ‘whom they pierced,’ dates from the Day of Pentecost, and continues to the latter days, when it will be greatly intensified and will produce blessed results, and is here concentrated into one focus.

The rising up of God’s enemies against Christ’s Church, which began at the same time, and has been continued in successive persecutions from Jews, Gentiles, and other unbelievers in every age, and which will reach its climax in the great antichristian outbreak of the last times, and be defeated by the Coming of Christ to judgment, is here summed up in one panoramic picture, exhibited at once to the eye.”

Which stretches forth the heavens - God’s creative power is an ever-present working, as our Lord says, “My Father worketh hitherto and I work” (John 5:17). His preservation of the things which He has created is a continual re-creation.

All “forces” are supported by Him, who alone has life in Himself. He still “uphold[s] all things by the word of His power,” because, until the successive generations, with or without their will, with or against His Will for them, shall have completed His Sovereign Will, He upholds them uniformly in being by His Unchanging Will.

People are always forgetting this. And because “since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as from the beginning of the creation” (2 Peter 3:4), they relegate the Creator and His creating as far as they can to some time, as far back as they can imagine, enough to fill their imaginations, and forget Him who made them, in whose hands is their eternity, who will be their Judge.

So the prophets remind them and us of His continual working, which people forget in the sight of His works: “Thus saith the Lord; He that createth the heavens, and stretcheth them out; He that spreadeth forth the earth and its produce, who giveth breath to the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein” (Isaiah 42:5); and, “I am the Lord who maketh all things, who stretcheth out the heavens alone, who spreadeth abroad the earth by Myself” (Isaiah 44:24).

He speaks at once of that which is past in its beginning yet present to us in its continuance, but to Him an ever-present present; and of things actually present to us, such as “that frustrateth the tokens of the liars” (Isaiah 44:25); and of things to those of that day still future, such as “that confirmeth the word of His servant, and performeth the counsel of His messengers” (Isaiah 44:26)—the beginning of which was not to be until the taking of Babylon.

And the Psalmist unites past and present in one: “Donning light as a garment, stretching out the heavens as a curtain; who layeth the beams of His chambers on the waters, who maketh the clouds His chariot; who walketh on the wings of the wind; who maketh His angels spirits, His ministers a flame of fire; He founded the earth upon its base” (Psalms 104:2–5).

And Amos writes, “He that formeth the mountains and createth the winds, and declareth unto man his thoughts” (Amos 4:13); adding whatever lies nearest to each of us.

And forms the spirit of man within him - This occurs both by the unceasing creation of souls (at every moment in some spot on our globe) and by the re-creation for which David prays: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me” (Psalms 51:10).

He who formed the hearts of people can overrule them as He wills. Cyril says: “But the spirit of man is formed by God in him, not by being called to the beginnings of being, although it was made by Him, but, as it were, transformed from weakness to strength, from unmanliness to endurance, altogether being transelemented from things shameful to better things.”

Cyril also notes: “It is the custom of the holy prophets, when about to foretell things of significant importance, to try to show beforehand the Almightiness of God, so that their word may gain credibility, even if they should declare what was beyond all hope and (to speak of our conceptions) above all reason and credibility.”

I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling - For encouragement, He promises the victory, and at first mentions the attack incidentally. Jerusalem is as a cup or basin, which its enemies take into their hands; a stone, which they put forth their strength to lift; but they themselves reel with the draft of God’s judgments which they would give to others; they are torn by the stone which they would lift to fling.

The image of the “cup” is mostly of God’s displeasure, which is given to His own people, and then, His judgment of chastisement being exceeded, given in turn to those who had been the instruments of giving it. Thus, Isaiah speaks of “the cup of trembling.” You, Jerusalem, have drunk the dregs of the cup of trembling, have wrung them out. Therefore hear this, you afflicted and drunken but not with wine.

Thus says your Lord, the LORD, and your God that pleads the cause of His people, Behold, I have taken out of your hand the cup of trembling, the dregs of the cup of My fury; you shall no more drink it again: but I will put it into the hand of them that afflict you (Isaiah 51:17, Isaiah 51:21–23).

Jeremiah speaks of “the cup of God’s anger,” as given by God first to Jerusalem, then to all whom Nebuchadnezzar should subdue, then to Babylon itself (Jeremiah 25:15–26); and as passing through to Edom also (Lamentations 4:21; Jeremiah 49:12). Ezekiel also speaks of “Aholibah” (Jerusalem) drinking the cup of Samaria (Ezekiel 23:31–33).

In Jeremiah alone, Babylon is herself the cup: “Babylon” is a golden cup in the Lord’s hand, that made all the nations drunken; the nations have drunken of the wine; therefore the nations are mad (Jeremiah 51:7).

Now Jerusalem is to be, not an ordinary cup, but a large “basin” or vessel, from which all nations may drink what will make them reel.

And also upon Judah will it be in the siege against Jerusalem; that is, the burden of the word of the Lord which was on Israel should be upon Judah, that is, upon all, great and small.

I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone to all nations – What is “a stone to all nations?” It is not a rock or anything in its own nature immovable, but a “stone,” a thing rolled up and down, moved, lifted, displaced, piled on others, in every way at the service and command of people, to do with it what they willed. So they thought of that stone cut out without hands (Daniel 2:45); that tried stone and sure foundation, laid in Zion (Isaiah 28:16); that “stone” which, God said in Zechariah, I have laid (Zechariah 3:9); of which our Lord says, the stone, which the builders rejected, is become the head of the corner (Luke 20:17); whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken, but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder (Matthew 21:44; Luke 20:18).

The Church, built on the stone, seems a thing easily annihilated. Ten persecutions in succession strove to efface it; Diocletian erected a monument, commemorating that the Christian name was blotted out.

It survived; he perished.

The image may have been suggested by the custom, so widely prevailing in Judea, of trying the relative strength of young men, by lifting round stones selected for that purpose.

Jerome says: “The meaning then is, I will make Jerusalem for all nations like a very heavy stone to be lifted up. They will lift it up, and according to their varied strength, will injure themselves with it; but it must be that, while it is lifted, in the very strain of lifting the weight, that most heavy stone should leave some gash or scrape on the bodies of those who lift it.

Of the Church it may be interpreted this way: that all persecutors, who fought against the house of the Lord, are intoxicated with that cup which Jeremiah gives to all nations, to drink and be intoxicated and fall and vomit and be mad.

Whoever would uplift the stone shall lift it, and in the anger of the Lord, by which He chastens sinners, will hold it in his hands; but he himself will not go unpunished, the sword of the Lord fighting against him.”

All that burden themselves with it will be cut to pieces – More exactly, “gashed and torn;” they shall bear the scars. Though (rather, “and”) all the people (peoples, nations) of the earth shall be gathered together against it. The prophet marshals them all against Jerusalem, only to say how they should perish before it.

So in Joel God says, I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat, speaking of that last closing strife of antichrist against God. Wars against Israel had either been petty, though anti-theistic, wars of neighboring petty nations, pitting their false gods against the True, or they were waged by a world-empire wielded by a single will. The more God made Himself known, the fiercer the opposition. The Gospel claiming obedience to the faith among all nations (Romans 1:5), provoked universal rebellion. Herod and Pontius Pilate became friends through the rejection of Christ; the Roman Caesar and the Persian Sapor, Goths and Vandals, at war with one another, were one in persecuting Christ and the Church.

Yet in vain.

In that day, says the Lord, I will smite every horse with astonishment, stupefying - Zechariah revives the words emphasized by Moses to express the stupefaction at their troubles, which God would heap upon His people if they persistently rebelled against Him. Each expresses the intensity of the visitation.

The horse and his rider (Deuteronomy 27:28) had, through Moses’ song at the Red Sea, become the emblem of worldly power, overthrown. That song opens: I will sing to the Lord; for He has triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider He has cast into the sea (Exodus 15:1). The frightened cavalry throws into confusion the ranks of which it was the boast and strength.

And on the house of Judah I will open My eyes - In pity and love and guidance, as the Psalmist says, I will counsel, with My eye upon you (Psalms 32:8), in contrast with the blindness with which God would smite the powers arrayed against them.

And the princes of Judah - He pictures the onemindedness of the Church. No one will assume anything for himself; each will exalt the strength which the other was to him; but all, "in the Lord." The princes of Judah will say in their heart, not outwardly or politically, but in inward conviction, Strength to me (all speak as one) are the inhabitants of Jerusalem in the Lord of hosts their God.

The highest in human estimation acknowledge that their strength is in those who are of no account in this world; in fact, the hearts of the poor are always the strength of the Church; but that strength is "in the Lord of hosts"; in Him, in whose hands are the powers of heaven and earth, in contrast to the petty turmoil on earth. God had chosen Jerusalem (Zechariah 1:17; Zechariah 2:12; Zechariah 3:2); therefore she was invincible. That most glorious prince of Judah, Paul, said, I can do all things in Christ who instrengthens me.