John Gill Commentary Zechariah 12

The burden of the word of the Lord for Israel
And against their enemies; for the good of the church of God, for its joy, comfort, and salvation; or, "concerning Israel" ^F24 ; what shall befall them in the latter day, as the destruction of antichrist, prophesied of in the preceding chapter (Zechariah 11:1–17) ; and what is hereafter said may be believed that it shall be accomplished. The Lord is described in the greatness of his power, speaking as follows: saith the Lord, which stretches forth the heavens :
as a curtain, (Psalms 104:2) the expanse or firmament of heaven, which is stretched out as a canopy over all the earth around: and lays the foundation of the earth ;
firm and sure, though upon the seas and floods, yea, upon nothing, (Psalms 24:2) (Job 26:7) : and forms the spirit of man within him ;
the soul of man, with all its powers and faculties, gifts and endowments; which is of his immediate creation, and which he continues daily to form, and infuse into the bodies of men, and holds in life there; hence he is called the Father of spirits, (Hebrews 12:9) .

FOOTNOTES:

• F24: (le) "de", Piscator, Drusius; "super Israele", Cocceius, Burkius.

Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all
the people round about
The Targum renders it, "a vessel full of inebriating liquor;" which intoxicates and makes giddy, and causes to tremble, stagger, and fall like a drunken man. The phrase denotes the punishment inflicted by the Lord upon the enemies of his church and people; see (Isaiah 51:22Isaiah 51:23).

when they shall be in the siege both against Judah [and] against
Jerusalem ;
not by Antiochus Epiphanes; nor by Titus Vespasian; nor by Gog and Magog, as Kimchi; but by the antichristian powers, especially the Mahometan nations, the Turks, which shall come against Jerusalem, when the Jews are returned there, and resettled in their own land. The words should be rendered, "and upon Judah shall it be" ^F25 , i.e. the cup of trembling, "in the siege against Jerusalem"; according to the Targum, and the Jewish commentators, the nations of the earth shall bring the men of Judah by force to join with them in the siege of Jerusalem; as, in the times of Antiochus, many of the Jews were drawn in to fight against their brethren; but the meaning is, that not only the wrath of God will come upon the Mahometan nations that shall besiege Jerusalem; but also on those who bear the Christian name, who are Jews outwardly, but not inwardly; and shall join with the Turks in distressing the people of the Jews upon their return to their own land.

to besiege Judah, or a country, is not proper and pertinent: Jerusalem, when again in the hands of the Jews, according to this prophecy, only is to be besieged, as it will, by the Turks; and it should be observed, that it never was besieged by Antiochus, and therefore the prophecy cannot be applied to his times, as it is by many.

FOOTNOTES:

• F25: hyhy hdwhy le Mgw ) "et etiam super Jehudah erit", Pagninus, Montanus, Burkius.

And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone
for all people

The Targum renders it "a stone of offence"; at which they shall stumble and fall; but it seems to design the immovableness of the state and condition of Jerusalem, that those who attempt to remove her out of her place, or to make any alteration in her happy circumstances, will not be able to do it, (Psalms 125:1).

Jerom makes mention of a custom in the cities of Palestine, and which continued to his times throughout all Judea, that large, huge, round stones, used to be placed in the towns and villages, which the youths exercised themselves with, by trying to lift them up as high as they could, by which they showed their strength; and the same ancient writer observes that a like custom obtained in Greece; for he says he himself saw in the tower at Athens, by the image of Minerva, a globe of brass, of at very great weight, which he, through the weakness of his body, could not move; and asking the meaning of it, he was told that the strength of wrestlers was tried by it; and no man might be admitted a combatant, until it was known, by the lifting up of that weight, with whom he should be matched;

and the throwing of the "discus" was an ancient military exercise, as old as the times of Homer, who speaks ^F26 of it; and is mentioned by Latin writers, as appears from some lines of Martial ^F1 ; see the Apocrypha:

``In like manner also Judas gathered together all those things that were lost by reason of the war we had, and they remain with us,''

and this, as it tried the strength of men, so it was sometimes dangerous to themselves, or to bystanders, lest it should fall upon their heads: and as it was usual to defend themselves and oppress enemies by casting stones at them, so young men used to exercise themselves by lifting up and casting large stones; to which Virgil ^F2 sometimes refers;

and it is well known that Abimelech was killed even by a woman casting a piece of a millstone upon his head, (Judges 9:53) and such heavy stones, and the lifting of them up, in order to cast them, may he alluded to here:

all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces ;

all that attempt to unsettle and remove it shall be pressed down with the weight of it, and be utterly destroyed: or, "shall be torn to pieces" ^F3 ; as men's hands are cut and torn with rough and heavy stones, The Targum is, ``all that injure her shall be consumed;'' which gives the sense of the passage:

though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it ;

so safe and secure will the people of God be; he being a wall of fire round about them, and the glory in the midst of them.

FOOTNOTES:

• F26: Iliad. 2. & 23.
• F1: "Splendida cum volitent Spartani pondera disci Este procul pueri; sit se nel ille nocens." ---Epigr. l. 14. Ep. 157.
• F2: "Certabant Troes contra defendere saxis." ---Aeneid. l. 9. "Mijaculis, illi certent defendere saxis." --Aeneid. l. 10. --Vid. Lydium de Re Militari, l. 5. c. 2. p. 178, 179. & Menochium de Republica Hebr. l. 6. col. 555, 556.
• F3: (wjrvy jwrv) "incidendo incidentur", Montanus, Burkius; "lacerando lacerabuntur", Pagninus, Cocceius.

In that day, says the Lord, I will smite every horse with
astonishment, and his rider with madness
The meaning is, the enemies of God's people shall be astonished at the failure of their attempts, and be filled with fury and madness because they cannot accomplish their designs; and shall be at their wits' end, not knowing what course to take: perhaps reference is had to the Turkish armies, that shall be brought against Jerusalem to recover it into their possession, which generally consist of a large cavalry; see (Revelation 9:16Revelation 9:17) :

and I will open mine eyes upon the house of Judah ;
which phrase is sometimes used, as expressive of the wrath of God against his enemies, (Amos 9:4Amos 9:8) and, if the house of Judah signifies the same as Judah, joined with the nations of the earth in the siege, (Zechariah 12:2) , it must be so understood here; but rather it seems to be different, and to intend those who will inhabit other parts of Judea, and who will be truly the people of God, Jews not only literally, but spiritually; and so is to be interpreted in a good sense, of the divine love to them, care of them, and protection over them; see (Job 14:13) and so the Targum paraphrases it,

And the governors of Judah shall say in their heart
The governors of the rest of the cities in Judea, besides Jerusalem, when they shall observe the armies of the people, their horses and their riders, smitten by the Lord, as above, shall take heart, and be of good courage: and secretly say within themselves,

The inhabitants of Jerusalem [shall be] my strength in the Lord of
hosts their God ;
that is, they, in the strength of the Lord, shall overcome their enemies, and so be the means of preserving and securing the other cities of Judah from destruction: the governors do not place their strength and confidence in the inhabitants of Jerusalem, but as they are strengthened in and by the Lord their God, from whom all strength, safety, and salvation come. In this and the following verse (Zechariah 12:6) , by "the governors of Judah" are not meant Judas Maccabeus, and his brethren, as some think; for though there are some things in the context that seem to agree with them, and they may be an emblem of the governors in the times referred to, for their courage, bravery, and success; yet the thread of history, and series of prophecy, will not admit such a sense.