Charles Ellicott Commentary Zechariah 10:2

"For the teraphim have spoken vanity, and the diviners have seen a lie; and they have told false dreams, they comfort in vain: therefore they go their way like sheep, they are afflicted, because there is no shepherd." — Zechariah 10:2 (ASV)

Idols. — Better, as in the margin, teraphim. (See the notes on Judges 17:5.)

Against the post-exilic origin of this passage, and of 13:2, it has been objected that idols and false prophets harmonize only with a time prior to the exile. It is true that after the captivity idolatry was not the sin to which the people were especially inclined, as they were in former times. Still, even if the prophet was not speaking of sins of the past, rather than those of his own day, it must be remembered that the marriage with heathen women, which is so often spoken of after the captivity, must have been, as was the case with Solomon, a continual source of danger in that respect.

Moreover, idolatry, soothsaying, and similar practices were actually practiced up to the time of the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus. Thus we read of false prophets who opposed Nehemiah (Nehemiah 6:10–14), of “sorcerers” in Malachi 3:5, and also of false prophets in Acts 5:36-37, Acts 13:6, and other passages, and at the destruction of Jerusalem (Josephus, Bellum Judaicum vi. 5, sections 2, 3).

In the wars of the Maccabees, we also read , “under the coats of everyone who was slain they found things consecrated to the idols of the Jannites, which is forbidden to the Jews by their law.”

And have told false dreams. — Better, and dreams tell that which is vain. The prophet, doubtless, had in mind the words of Jeremiah 14:22: “Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain? Or can the heavens give showers? Art not thou He, O Lord our God? Therefore, we wait upon thee; for thou hast made all these things.”

Zechariah refers here chiefly to those sins which had in former times caused their captivity. But such passages as Ezra 9:0, Nehemiah 13:23, Nehemiah 6:10, Nehemiah 6:12, and Nehemiah 6:14 show that even after the restoration the people were in danger of falling into idolatry and of being deceived by false prophets. (Compare also Zechariah 13:2, and the note on Malachi 3:5.)

Went their way. — Better, migrated — namely, into captivity.

Troubled. — Or, humbled.

No shepherd. — That is, none to guide and lead them rightly. This is the interpretation that the context seems to require and is in accordance with the use of the expression in Ezekiel 34:5 and Ezekiel 34:8, as it is also our Lord’s application of the idea (Matthew 9:36; Mark 6:34).

However, some take “shepherd” here to mean native king. The paraphrase of the Septuagint, “because they had no healer” (meaning probably “because the True Shepherd of Israel had ceased to guide and protect them”), might possibly be defended.