Albert Barnes Commentary Zechariah 9

The burden - of the word of the Lord in (or, upon) the land of Hadrach. The foreground of this prophecy is the course of the victories of Alexander, which circled around the holy land without hurting it, and ended in the overthrow of the Persian empire. The surrender of Damascus followed first, immediately after his great victory at the Issus; then Sidon yielded itself and received its ruler from the conqueror. Tyre he utterly destroyed; Gaza, we know, perished; he passed harmlessly by Jerusalem. Samaria, on his return from Egypt, he chastised.

It is now certain that there was a city called Hadrach in the neighborhood of Damascus and Hamath, although its exact site is not known. “It was first found on the geographical tablets among the Assyrian inscriptions.” “In the catalogue of Syrian cities, tributary to Nineveh (of which we have several copies in a more or less perfect state, and varying from each other, both in arrangement and extent), there are three names, which are uniformly grouped together and which we read Manatsuah, Magida (Megiddo) and Du’ar (Dor). As these names are associated with those of Samaria, Damascus, Arpad, Hamath, Carchemish, Hadrach, Zobah, there can be no doubt of the position of the cities.” In the Assyrian Canon, Hadrach is the object of three Assyrian expeditions: 9183 (B.C. 818), 9190 (B.C. 811), and 9200 (B.C. 801).

The first of these follows one against Damascus, 9182 (B.C. 817). In the wars of Tiglath-pileser II (the Tiglath-pileser of Holy Scripture), it has been twice deciphered:

1. In the war B.C. 738, 737, after the mention of “the cities to Saua the mountain which is in Lebanon were divided, the land of Bahalzephon to Ammana” (Ammon), Hadrach follows; and subsequently there are mentioned as joined to the league, “19 districts of Hamath, and the cities which were around them, which are beside the sea of the setting sun.”
2. In his “War in Palestine and Arabia,” “the city of Hadrach to the land of Saua,” and six other cities are enumerated, as “the cities beside the upper sea,” which, he says, “I possessed, and six of my generals as governors over them I appointed.”

No other authority nearly approaches these times. The nearest authority is from the second century after our Lord, A.D. 116: “R. Jose, born of a Damascene mother, said,” answering R. Yehudah ben Elai, “I call heaven and earth to witness upon me, that I am of Damascus, and that there is a place called Hadrach.” Cyril of Alexandria says that “the land of Hadrach must be somewhere in the eastern parts, and near Emath (now Epiphania of Antioch) a little further than Damascus, the metropolis of the Phoenicians and Palestine.” A writer of the 10th century says that there was “a very beautiful mosque there, called the Mesjed-el-Khadra, and that the town was named from it.” The conjecture that Hadrach might be the name of a king, or an idol, will now probably be abandoned; nor can the idea (which before seemed the most probable and which was very old) that it was a symbolic name, hold any longer.

For the prophets do use symbolic names; but then they are names that they themselves frame. Micah again selects several names of towns, now almost unknown and probably unimportant, in order to impress on his people some meaning connected with them, but then he himself does connect it. He does not name it (so to speak), leaving it to explain itself. The name Hadrach would be a real name, used symbolically, without anything in the context to show that it is a symbol.

The cities upon which the burden or heavy prophecy fell possessed no interest for Israel. Damascus was no longer a hostile power; Hamath had always been peaceable and was far away; Tyre and Sidon did not at that time carry on a trade in Jewish captives. But the Jews knew from Daniel that the empire to which they were in subjection would be overthrown by Greece (Daniel 8:20–21). When that rapid attack should come, it would be a great consolation to them to know how they themselves would fare.

It was a turning point in their history and the history of the then known world. The prophet describes (see below at Zechariah 9:8) the circuit that the conqueror would take around the land that God defended; how the thunder-cloud circled around Judea, broke irresistibly on cities more powerful than Jerusalem, but was turned aside from the holy city “in going and returning,” because God encamped around it.

“The selection of the places and of the whole line of country corresponds very exactly to the march of Alexander after the battle of Issus, when Damascus, which Darius had chosen as the strong depository of his wealth, of Persian women of rank, confidential officers and envoys, was betrayed, but so opened its gates to his general, Parmenio. Zidon, a city renowned for its antiquity and its founders, surrendered freely; Tyre, here specially marked out, was taken after a 7 months’ siege; Gaza too resisted for 5 months, was taken, and, as it was said, ‘plucked up.’”

And Damascus shall be the rest thereof - God’s judgment fell first on Damascus. But the word “resting-place” is commonly used of quiet peaceful resting, especially as given by God to Israel; of the ark, the token of the Presence of God, after its manifold removals; and of the glorious dwelling-place of the Christ among people. The prophet seems then purposely to have chosen a word of large meaning, that should at once express (as he had before, Zechariah 6:8) that the word of God should fall heavily on Damascus and yet be its resting-place.

Hence, about the time of our Lord, the Jews interpreted this of the coming of the Messiah, that “Jerusalem should reach to the gates of Damascus. Since Damascus shall be the place of His rest, but the place of His rest is only the house of the sanctuary, as it is said, This is My rest for ever; here will I dwell.” Another added, “All the prophets and all prophesied only about the years of redemption and the days of the Messiah.”

Damascus, on the conversion of Paul, became the first resting-place of the word of God, the first-fruits of the Gentiles whom the Apostle of the Gentiles gathered from east to west throughout the world.

When (or For) the eyes of man - As (literally, and that is, especially beyond others) of all the tribes of Israel, shall be toward the Lord. This also implies a conversion of Gentiles, as well as Jews. For man, as contrasted with Israel, must be the pagan world, mankind.

“The eyes of all must necessarily look in adoration to God, expecting all good from Him, because the Creator of all provided for the well-being of all, as the Apostle says, Is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also of the Gentiles? Yea, of the Gentiles also” (Romans 3:29).

God’s time for delivering His people is when they pray to Him. So Jehoshaphat prayed, O our God, will You not judge them? For we have no strength against this great company that has come against us, and we do not know what we shall do; but our eyes are on You (2 Chronicles 20:12). The Psalmist also says, The eyes of all wait toward You; and, toward them that fear Him (Psalms 33:18). Or in Ezra’s Chaldee, The eye of their God was on the elders of the Jews (Ezra 5:5); or, the eyes of the Lord your God are upon it (the land) (Deuteronomy 11:12).

However, there is no construction like “the Lord has an eye on (object) man” (as found in the Septuagint, Jonathan, Syriac versions). The passages, whose eyes are opened upon all the ways of the sons of men, to give etc. (Jeremiah 32:19), and his eyes behold the nations, are altogether different. “The eye of” must be construed as “his own eye.”

As the eyes of servants are to the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden are to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes are to the Lord our God, until He has mercy upon us.

“For in those days,” says a Jew who represents the traditional interpretation (Rashi), “man shall look to his Creator, and his eyes shall look to the Blessed One, as it was said above, we will go with you, and they shall join themselves, they and their cities, to the cities of Israel.” And another (Kimchi) says, “In those days the eyes of all mankind shall be to the Lord, not to idols or images; therefore the land of Hadrach and Damascus, and the other places near the land of Israel, shall be included among the cities of Judah, and shall be in the faith of Israel.”

And Hamath also shall border thereby - Near to it in place and character, it will share its subjugation. After the betrayal of Damascus, Parmenio was set over all Syria. “The Syrians, not yet tamed by the losses of war, despised the new empire, but, swiftly subdued, they obediently did what they were commanded.”

And Zidon - Zidon, although probably older than Tyre, is here spoken of parenthetically, as subordinate. Perhaps, owing to its situation, it was a wealthy, rather than a strong place. Its name is “Fishing-town;” in Joshua, it is called “the great” (Joshua 11:8; Joshua 19:28), perhaps the metropolis; while Tyre is named from its strength (Joshua 19:29).

It infected Israel with its idolatry (Judges 10:6), and is mentioned among the nations who oppressed them and from whom God delivered them when they prayed (Judges 10:12), probably under Jabin. In the time of the Judges, it, not Tyre, was looked to for protection (Judges 18:7; Judges 18:28).

In the times of Ezekiel it had become subordinate, furnishing “rowers” (Ezekiel 27:8) to Tyre; but Esarhaddon, about 80 years before, boasts that he had taken it, destroyed its inhabitants, and repopulated it with people from the East, building a new city which he called by his own name. Tyre too had been taken by Nebuchadnezzar.

At the restoration from the captivity, Sidon had the first place (Ezra 3:7), which it retained in the time of Xerxes. But Artaxerxes Ochus gained possession of it by treachery, when all Phoenicia revolted from Persia, and, besides those crucified, 40,000 of its inhabitants perished by their own hands, twenty years before the invasion of Alexander, to whom it submitted willingly.

The prophet, having named Tyre and Zidon together, yet continues concerning Tyre alone, as it alone was significant in the days of which he is speaking, those of Alexander.

Although - Rather, because she is very wise. Man’s own wisdom is his foolishness and destruction, just as the foolishness of God is his wisdom and salvation. God taketh the wise in their own craftiness (Job 5:13). For after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe (1 Corinthians 1:21). Of the Hagarenes it is said, they seek wisdom upon earth; none of these know the way of wisdom, or remember her paths .

The wisdom of Tyre was the source of her pride, and so of her destruction also. Because thy heart is lifted up, and thou hast said, I am a god, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas; yet thou art a man and not God, though thou hast set thine heart as the heart of God; behold thou art wiser than Daniel, there is no secret that they can hide from thee. Therefore I will bring strangers upon thee - they shall bring thee down to the pit (Ezekiel 28:2, 8). So of Edom Obadiah says, The pride of thy heart hath deceived thee, thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock. Shall I not destroy the wise men out of Edom, and understanding out of the mount of Esau? (Obadiah 1:3, 8).

And Tyre built herself a stronghold – she built it for herself, not for God, and trusted in it, not in God, and so its strength brought her the greater fall. The words in Hebrew express even more: “Tyre” (Zor), literally “the rock,” built herself “mazor,” a tower—a rock-like fort, as it were, a rock upon exceeding strength, binding her together. “The walls, 150 feet high and of proportionate breadth, compacted of large stones embedded in gypsum,” seemed to defy an enemy who could only approach her by sea.

“In order to make the wall twice as strong, they built a second wall ten cubits broad, leaving a space between of five cubits, which they filled with stones and earth.” Yet high walls do not only fence in; they also hem in. Mazor is both “a stronghold” and “a siege.” Wealth and strength, without God, only invite and embitter the plunderer and the conqueror.

And she heaped up silver as the dust, and fine gold as the mire of the streets – “Though he heap up silver as the dust,” Job says (Job 27:16). The King, Solomon, “made silver in Jerusalem as stones” (2 Chronicles 9:27). Through her manifold commerce she gathered to herself wealth, as abundant as the mire and the dust, and as valueless. “Gold and silver,” said a pagan, “are but red and white earth.” Her strength was her destruction. Tyre determined to resist Alexander, “trusting in the strength of the island, and the stores which they had laid up”—the strength within and without, of which the prophet speaks.

Behold - Such were the preparations of Tyre. Over against them, as it were, the prophet sets before our eyes the counsels of God. Theodoret: “Since they had severed themselves from the providence of God, they were now to experience His power.” “The Lord will cast her out,” literally, deprive her of her possessions, give her an heir of what she had amassed, namely, the enemy; “and he will smite her power or wealth,” of which Ezekiel says, “With thy wisdom and with thine understanding thou hast gotten thee riches, and hast gotten gold and silver into thy treasures: by the greediness of thy wisdom and by thy traffic thou hast increased thy riches, and thine heart is lifted up because of thy riches” (Ezekiel 28:4–5). All in which she relied, and so too the stronghold itself, God would smite in the sea.

The sea was her confidence and boast. She said, “I am a God; I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas” (Ezekiel 28:2).

The scene of her pride was to be that of her overthrow; the waves, which surrounded her, would bury her ruins and wash over her site. Even in the sea the hand of God would find her, and smite her in it, and into it, and so that she would abide in it. “They mocked at the king, as though he thought to prevail against Neptune (the sea).” “You despise this land-army, through confidence in the place, because you dwell on an island,” was the message of Alexander, “but soon will I show you that you dwell on a continent.”

Every device had been put in force in its defense. The versatility by which the inhabitants of an island, some two and a half miles in circumference, held at bay the conqueror of the battle of Issus with unlimited resources, “engineers from Cyprus and all Phoenicia,” and “a fleet of 180 ships from Cyprus,” attests the wisdom in which, the prophet says, she would trust. She had already a profusion of catapults and other machines useful in a siege, and easily prepared many others by the makers of war-engines and all sorts of craftsmen whom she had; and these invented new engines of all sorts, so that the whole circuit of the city was filled with engines.

Divers who would loosen the mole, grappling hooks and nets to entangle near-assailants, melted metal or heated sand to penetrate between the joints of their armor, bags of seaweed to deaden the blows of the battering machines, a fireship navigated so as to destroy the works of the enemy while its sailors escaped, fiery arrows, and wheels set in continual motion to turn aside the missiles against them—all these bore witness to an unwearied inventiveness of defense.

The temporary failures might have shaken any mind but Alexander’s (who is even said to have hesitated, but he dared not abandon the enterprise, lest he lose the prestige of victory). Yet all ended in the massacre of 6,000, 7,000, or 8,000 of her men, the crucifixion of 2,000, and the sale of the rest—whether 13,000 or 30,000—into slavery. None escaped except those whom the Sidonians secreted in the vessels with which they had been compelled to serve against her.

And she herself - When her strength is overthrown, “shall be devoured with fire.”: “Alexander, having slain all, except those who fled to the temples, ordered the houses to be set on fire.”

Ashkelon shall see and fear - The words express that seeing and fearing will be as one. The mightiest and wealthiest, Tyre, having fallen, the neighboring cities of Philistia, which had hoped that her might would be their support, will stand in fear and shame. Tyre, being a merchant city—the mother city of the cities on the African coast and in Spain—its desolation caused greater terror (Isaiah 23:5–11).

And the king shall perish from Gaza - that is, it will have no more kings. It had been the policy of the world empires to have tributary kings in the petty kingdoms they conquered, thus providing for their continued tranquil submission to themselves. The internal government remained as before: the people felt no difference, except for the payment of tribute. The policy is expressed by the title “king of kings,” which they successively bore. Sennacherib speaks of the kings of Ascalon, Ekron and Gaza.

A contemporary of Alexander mentions that the king of Gaza was brought alive to Alexander upon its capture. Alexander’s policy was essentially different from that of the world monarchs before him. They desired only to hold an empire as wide as possible, leaving the native kings in place if they could, and placing their own lieutenants only if these kings proved intractable. Alexander’s policy, in contrast, was to blend East and West into one.

These petty sovereignties, being so many insulated centers of mutual repulsion, were essentially at variance with this plan. Therefore, this 1,500-year remnant of sovereignty was taken away by him when, after a siege in which he himself was twice wounded, he captured it. Alexander wholly depopulated it and repeopled the city with strangers.

And Ashkelon shall not be inhabited - Ashkelon yielded at once to Jonathan when he “camped against it” , after he had taken and “burned Ashdod and the cities round about it.” In another expedition of Jonathan, its inhabitants “met him honorably,” while “they of Gaza shut him out” at first (1 Maccabees 11:60, 61). “Simon passed through the country to Ascalon, and the strongholds there adjoining,” without resistance, whereas “he turned aside to Joppa, and won it” .

He placed Jews in Gaza, but of Ascalon nothing is said. The ruins of a Christian city built on its site, “Khirbet-Ascalon,” have recently been discovered in the hills near Tell Zakariyeh, and so, a little south of Timnath, a Philistine city in the days of Samson, from which Samson went to it to gain the thirty changes of raiment (Judges 14:19). Commentators have assigned reasons why Samson might have gone as far as the maritime Ascalon, whereas, in fact, he went to a city close by.

That city, in A.D. 536, had its Bishop. It is recorded: “The site shows the remains of an early Christian Church or convent: as a great lintel of stone, resembling somewhat the Maltese Cross, lies on the ground.” It was probably destroyed by the wave of Muslim conquest. In A.D. 1163, it was a ruin.

The distance of the ruins from Ascalon Maiumas corresponds to that assigned by Benjamin of Tudela, being twice the distance of that city from Ashdod; but since he was at Beth Jibrin, he must have been not far from the spot where it has recently been discovered.

The Ashkelon that was Herod’s birthplace and which he beautified must have been the well-known city by the sea, since the distance from Jerusalem assigned by Josephus is too great for the old Ashkelon, and he speaks of it as being on the sea.