A Prophecy of Esau and Jacob

The prophecy of Nahum chiefly relates to the Assyrian empire and its chief city, Nineveh, of their destruction. God used Assyria as a rod of his anger to punish Israel but finally this rod itself had to be punished for its own haughtiness and malice.

Some references over Assyria are yet to be fulfilled. The king of Assyria will come towards Israel and Egypt again in a day to come will find his end in Palestine. Psalms 83.

The period in which Nahum prophesied may approximately before the destruction of Nineveh in the year 606 BC but after the dissolution of the northern kingdom through the Assyrian hosts and after some serious visitation which struck the southern kingdom.

Nahum 1

¹ The burden of Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite. — the burden of Nineveh; a burden is a heavy message of weighty importance, heavy in the sense that it produces sorrow or grief.

—Jonah was earlier sent to this city to warn it with ruin for its sins; at that time the king and all his people humbled themselves and repented and the threatened destruction was averted; but they soon relapsed to their former iniquities, and that Nahum prophesied after Jonah a considerable time, perhaps a hundred to a hundred and fifty years later;

— this prophecy is called a burden; it was taken up by Nahum the prophet at the command of the Lord, and was sent by him to Nineveh; and that ‘burden’ was a hard, heavy and grievous prophecy to that city, predicting its utter ruin and desolation.

² God is jealous, and the Lord avengeth; the Lord avengeth and is furious. The Lord will take vengeance on His adversaries, and He reserveth wrath for His enemies.

— God is jealous of his own honour and glory and for his own worship and ordinances; and will not give his glory to another, nor to graven images;

— the Lord is furious and avenges; or is “master of wrath” full of it or has it at his command; he can restrain it and let it out as he pleases, which man cannot do. The Lord’s avenging is repeated for its certainty and confirmation; yea, it is a third time observed; which some Jewish writers think has respect to the three times the king of Assyria carried the people of Israel captive and for which the Lord would avenge on Israel’s behalf, by punishing him, too:

— the Targum explains it, “that hate his people;” vengeance belongs to the Lord, and he will repay it sooner or later;

— and he reserves wrath for his enemies; and them for that; if not in this world, yet in the world to come; he lays it up among his treasures and brings it forth at his pleasure. The word “wrath” is not in the text; it is not said what he reserves for the enemies of himself and church; it is inconceivable and inexpressible.

³ The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked. The Lord hath His way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of His feet.

— the Lord is slow to anger, long-suffering and patient against wickedness of long standing; his almighty strength becoming evident when he does strike and will not at all acquit the wicked;

— the Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, which are but instruments and exhibitions of his power, and the clouds are the dust of his feet, they are insignificant before him and he uses them as he pleases;

— a parallel Scripture in Isaiah says: “Behold the day of the Lord cometh cruel, both with wrath and fierce anger to lay the land desolate. And he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it … Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall move out of her place in the wrath of the Lord of hosts and in the day of his fierce anger” (Isaiah 13:9,13).

⁴ He rebuketh the sea and maketh it dry, and drieth up all the rivers; Bashan languisheth and Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon languisheth.

— when he rebukes the seas they becomes dry as when he caused the Red Sea to part before the children of Israel, Exodus 14:15, and dries up all the rivers, since they all are subject to his directions; Bashan, the rich pasture-land east of Jordan, languishes; and Carmel, the wooded slopes of the mountain overlooking the Mediterranean and the flower of Lebanon, otherwise a symbol of rich fertility, languishes, namely, when he withholds the moisture or bids the river go dry;

— and drieth up all the rivers; that is, he can do it if he will; he divided the waters of Jordan, through the midst of which the Israelites passed on dry ground; and will dry up the river Euphrates to make way for the kings of the east; and as for Tigris, on the banks of which the city of Nineveh stood;

— “Bashan … Carmel … Lebanon …” these names are associated with the richest and most-favoured dwelling places of antiquity; and they were mentioned here to show that no place on earth is beyond the judgement of God when the sins of its inhabitants require judgement and punishment. The Tigris valley, where Nineveh lay, was another of the garden spots of the earth; but today it’s a desolation!

⁵ The mountains quake at Him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at His presence, yea, the world and all that dwell therein.

— the mountains quake before him, or in front of him; as at Mount Sinai, when the Lord descended on it, Exodus 19:18. Mountains figuratively signify large countries; hills are smaller countries;

— and the hills melt before him as at the time of terrible earthquakes, and the earth is burned at his presence, yea, the world and all that dwell therein, both men and any irrational brutes.

⁶ Who can stand before His indignation? And who can abide in the fierceness of His anger? His fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by Him.

— who can stand before his indignation? before his wrath when it burns freely. And who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? Cf Jeremiah 10:10.

— his fury is poured out like fire in a torrent consuming everything before it, Deuteronomy 4:24, and the rocks are thrown down by him. Cf Jeremiah 23:29. But this wrath of God may or may not strike those who keep his commandments and put their trust in him.

⁷ The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and He knoweth them that trust in Him. — the Lord is good, even in the midst of his judgements, a strong refuge in the day of trouble,

— a safe place when distress and misery come upon believers; and he knows them that trust in him; he has that intimate knowledge of them, that peculiar insight into their needs which guarantees them his help.

⁸ But with an overrunning flood He will make an utter end of the place thereof, and darkness shall pursue His enemies.

— but with an overrunning flood, a deluge which carries everything before it; he will make an utter end of Nineveh, so that Nineveh would cease to be a city and its very site be used for altogether different purposes, and darkness shall pursue his enemies into complete desolation.

⁹ What do ye contrive against the Lord? He will make an utter end; affliction shall not rise up the second time.

— what do ye imagine against the Lord? O ye Ninevites or Assyrians; do you think you can frustrate the designs of the Lord, resist his power, and hinder him from executing what he has threatened to do?

— he will make an utter end; affliction shall not rise up the second time, for the one blow on the part of the Lord would be sufficient so that the affliction which Judah suffered on the part of Assyria would not arise twice.

— Q: if so, our understand of Psalm 83 would need to be studied further otherwise it is faulty, because Assyria did rise again in Psalm 83!

¹⁰ For while they are folded together as thorns and while they are drunken as drunkards, they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry. — for though the Assyrians are folded together as thorns, braided together or entangled;

— and while they are drunken as drunkards, though they are drowned in their carousing in their wine, so that it might seem that fire would not be able to reach them or to affect them seriously, they shall be devoured as being fully dried up.

¹¹ There is one that comes out of thee, that imagineth evil against the Lord, a wicked counselor. — there is one come out of thee, namely, Sennacherib or one of the other rulers who invaded Judah,

— that imagined evil against the Lord, meditating and speaking in this sense, a wicked counselor, one who advised worthlessness, things that were foolish and brought no results. Cf Isaiah 36:14-20.

— or as the Targum says: formed a scheme to invade the land of Judea; take the fenced cities and seize upon Jerusalem and carry the king, princes and all the people captive as Shalmaneser his father had carried away the ten tribes.

¹² Thus saith the Lord: “Though they be quiet and likewise many, yet thus shall they be cut down when he shall pass through. Though I have afflicted thee, I will afflict thee no more;

— thus saith the Lord, Though they be quiet and likewise many, no matter how tranquilly secure and how numerous they are, yet thus shall they be cut down;

— suddenly disappearing as though mowed down, when he shall pass through, rather, and he passes away, namely, the daring invader who had meditated evil against Yehovah. Though God have afflicted them, bending Judah down to the ground, he will afflict them no more, this being a source of consolation to the Lord’s people.

¹³ for now will I break his yoke from off thee, and will burst thy bonds asunder.”

¹⁴ And the Lord hath given a commandment concerning thee, that no more of thy name be sown: “Out of the house of thy gods will I cut off the graven image and the molten image. I will make thy grave, for thou art vile.”

— and the Lord hath given a commandment that no more of their name be remembered, that the dynasty of the Assyrian kings should become extinct;

— out of the house of thy gods will God cut off their graven image and the molten image, their goddess Ishtar, and others in whom the Assyrians placed their trust; God would make their graves for thou art vile, morally unworthy, no longer fit to live and to be in power. Thus the destruction of the power of Assyria was clearly set forth, in outlines that could not be misunderstood;

— thus the Targum says, “there will I put [thee into] thy grave.”

¹⁵ Behold upon the mountains the feet of Him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace! O Judah, keep thy solemn feasts, perform thy vows; for the wicked shall no more pass through thee; he is utterly cut off.

— behold upon the mountains the feet of him that brought good tidings of the messenger of joy hastening forward to bring the good news, that publishes peace, announcing to Judah the overthrow of the enemies;

— O Judah, keep thy solemn feasts, resuming their celebration of the Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles especially at this time, when the deliverance of the Lord’s people from violence and oppression constituted a further incentive for joy and thanksgiving, perform thy vows, those made in anticipation of this deliverance; for the wicked Assyrians shall no more pass through thee, they were utterly cut off.

Nahum 2

¹ He that dasheth in pieces has come up before thy face. Man the defenses! Watch the way! Make thy loins strong! Fortify thy power mightily!

— “He that dasheth in pieces …” is the Lord of hosts; the instrument by which his will would be executed upon Nineveh was Babylon. The fourfold warning of “keep… watch … make strong … fortify” is irony. Who can stand against the Almighty? What human strength could avail against the Lord?

² For the Lord hath turned away the excellency of Jacob, as the excellency of Israel; for the emptiers have emptied them out and marred their vine branches.

— for the Lord hath turned away the excellency of Jacob; “Jacob” is used here, not Judah; and Jacob necessarily included all of Israel, northern and southern; Yehovah being on the side of the invading army, making them captives before he restored them back their glory as when the covenant nation was at the height of its glory;

— for the invaders have emptied them out, or “plunderers have plundered them” and marred their vine-branches;

— the Targum interprets it of their renowned cities; these and towns and villages, being to the land as branches to the vine; and which had been ransacked and pillaged by the Assyrians outrageously destroying the land and outraging its inhabitants, so that the Lord felt obliged to avenge this indignity.

³ The shield of his mighty men is made red, the valiant men are in scarlet; the chariots shall be with flaming torches in the day of his preparation, and the fir trees shall be terribly shaken.

— the shield of his mighty men, of the heroes commissioned by the Lord to execute his judgement, is made red; red, either with the blood of the slain or thus coloured on purpose to inject terror to their enemies; or this may express the lustre of them, which being gilded or made of gold or brass in the rays of the sun glittered, and looked of a fiery red; all shining for the battle;

— the valiant men are in scarlet; their shield are red as are their cloaks; clothed in scarlet; partly to show their greatness and nobleness and partly to strike their enemies with terror and to hide their blood should they be wounded and so keep up their own spirits and not encourage their enemies:

— the chariots shall be with flaming torches in the day of his preparation, blazing with their iron equipments and the fir-trees shall be terribly shaken, the spears made of cypresses are brandished.

⁴ The chariots shall rage in the streets, they shall jostle one against another in the broad ways; they shall seem like torches, they shall run like the lightning.

— the chariots shall rage in the streets of Nineveh as they are driven furiously in the attack, they shall jostle one against another like madmen in their broadways, running to and fro in the market-places of Nineveh, all confused by the attack of the enemy;

— they shall seem like torches as the light struck the steel ornaments of the chariots; because of their numbers and the haste they shall make, they shall run like the lightnings, namely, as lightning plays in blinding flashes.

⁵ He shall muster his worthies; they shall stumble in their walk; they shall make haste to the wall thereof, and the defense shall be prepared.

— the Assyrian king shall recount his worthies; remembering and counting on his nobles and the troops; but they shall stumble in their charge; being many and in haste to obey the orders of their commander, all became confused and uncertain in their effort to reach the point where the attack is launched against the city;

— they shall make haste to the wall thereof but the defense shall be readied. The entire paragraph pictures the haste and confusion which takes hold upon the citizens and the soldiers of a city which has been too secure and now finds itself surrounded by a host of enemies.

⁶ The gates of the rivers shall be opened, and the palace shall be dissolved. — the gates of the city which lay nearest to the river Tigris shall be opened,

— the reference being to some natural or artificial inundation of the city which helped in its destruction, and the palace shall be flooded, its inhabitants being overcome with terror and losing all semblance of careful thinking and planning.

⁷ And Huzzab shall be led away captive, she shall be brought up; and her maids shall lead her as with the voice of doves, beating upon their breasts.

— and the queen of Assyria, Huzzab, perhaps a reference to the patron goddess of Assyria, Ishtar; shall be led away captive as the Targum says, literally, “It is determined,” by God; “she is made bare,” namely, Nineveh, “like a ravished woman, and carried away.”

— or the king himself may be intended as Huzzab, who may be represented as a woman for his effeminacy; she shall be brought up, and her maids shall lead her, the inhabitants of the city being so regarded, as with the voice of doves, with mournful cries;

— she shall be brought up; the queen or the king, out of the palace or private retirement, where they were in peace and safety; or Nineveh and its inhabitants out of their secure state and condition:

— as with the voice of doves, tabering upon their breasts; mourning like doves, inwardly and secretly, not daring to express their sorrow more publicly because of their enemies; but knocking and beating upon their breasts, as men do upon tabrets or drums, thereby expressing the inward grief of their minds;

⁸ But Nineveh is of old like a pool of water; yet they shall flee away. “Stand, stand!” shall they cry, but none shall look back.

— but Nineveh is liked an old pool of water; this was a very ancient city, built by Nimrod, as some say; or rather by Ashur, as appears from Genesis 10:10

— and it was like fish pool, full of people as it was in the times of Jonah, an expression of her great population and prosperity; yet they shall flee away, her great population leaving her to her fate. Stand, stand! shall they cry, in an attempt to stop the heedless rush; but none shall look back, refusing to return to the ravished city.

⁹ Take ye the spoil of silver, take the spoil of gold; for there is no end of the store and glory of all the pleasant furnishings.

— the looting by Assyria is taking place: take ye the spoil of silver, take the spoil of gold! For there is none end of the store and glory out of all the pleasant furniture, of the various rich treasures with which the palaces of the city of Nineveh were filled;

— no people who ever lived on earth knew any more about looting than the Assyrians; and now it was their turn to be the looted! What a fat city Assyria was! It was the grand central warehouse of looted treasures of the whole ancient world; that there was nothing else like it on earth; and yet all that wealth was carried away, leaving nothing but a mound of ruins forever!

¹⁰ She is empty and void and waste; and the heart melteth, and the knees smite together; and much pain is in all loins, and the faces of them all gather blackness.

— the city of Nineveh, now empty, void and in waste, literally, “emptiness and being emptied out and desolation!” and the heart melted in utter discouragement;

— and the knees smite together in the terror which cannot control itself and much pain is in all loins, Isaiah 21:3, and the faces of them all gather blackness, all of them pale with fear. Thus the mighty city would be destroyed with all its rich treasures;

— and the faces of them all gather blackness; like a pot, as the Targum adds; being in great distress and disconsolation, which make men appear in a dismal hue, and their countenances look very dark and gloomy; see Joel 2:6;

— the story of the Assyrians or the city of Nineveh is not just a manifestation of a people or a city but a manifestation of any nation or tribe before God’s Omniscience and Omnipotence.

¹¹ Where is the dwelling of the lions and the feeding place of the young lions, where the lion, even the old lion, walked, and the lion’s whelp, and none made them afraid?

— of the kings of Assyria, comparable to lions for their strength, courage, and cruelty, tyranny and oppression; such as Pul, Tiglathpileser, Shalmaneser, and Sennacherib. So the Targum says “where are the habitations of kings?”

— “Where is the den … etc,” the city of Nineveh, long a center of terror for the whole world, where was it when the blow fell? Where were the powers dreaded all over the earth? Where was the mighty king? Where was the rapacious army, red with the blood of all peoples? Where was it? Where is it now? Where has it ever been since “the day of the wrath of the Lord?”

— Q: if the Assyrians or Nineveh will never rise again our understand of Psalm 83 would be questionable, or is it?

¹² The lion tore in pieces enough for his whelps and strangled for his lionesses, and filled his holes with prey and his dens with rapine.

— the lion did tear in pieces enough for his whelps as much as his young ones desired and strangled for his lionesses and filled his holes, the dens occupied by him, with prey and his dens with ravin, his lurking-places with spoil. Even so the kings of Assyria heaped up treasures taken from every part of the world for the use of the inhabitants of Nineveh.

¹³ “Behold, I am against thee,” saith the Lord of hosts, “and I will burn her chariots in the smoke, and the sword shall devour thy young lions; and I will cut off thy prey from the earth, and the voice of thy messengers shall no more be heard.”

— behold, I, the Lord is against thee, against Nineveh and the whole Assyrian empire for such rapine, violence and oppression, saith the Lord of hosts, the ruler of the heavenly armies, and God will burn her chariots in the smoke, so that all her war material goes up in smoke, and the sword shall devour thy young lions, the mighty men of the city;

— and God will cut off thy prey from the earth, and the voice of thy messengers shall no more be heard as they boasted of the might and prowess of Assyria and Nineveh. God has ways of subduing even the mightiest enemies, no matter how mightily they rise up in their own conceit;

— Q: if so, could Psalm 83 be historic? And if so, is this the correct understanding?

Nahum 3

¹ Woe to the bloody city! It is all full of lies and robbery; the prey departeth not. — woe to the bloody city, Nineveh, in which many murders were daily committed;

— or “O city of blood, of blood-guiltiness!” It is a city full of lies and robbery, so that deceit, violence and extortion were the order of the day; the prey departs not, robbery goes on without ceasing; like the cities of Paris, London, Los Angeles, New York or Chicago today!

— or the real CIA as  Mike Pompeo, Donald Trump’s Secretary of State, admitted:

“I was the CIA director. We lied, we cheated, we stole,” former CIA director and now Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on April 15, 2019 at a forum at Texas A&M University, TX. “It was like – we had entire training courses. It reminds you of the glory of the American experiment.”

— the prey departeth not; Gill: they go on in making a prey of their neighbours, in pillaging and plundering their substance; they repent not of such evil practices, nor desist from them; or because of the above sins they shall fall a prey to the enemy, who will not cease plundering them till he has utterly stripped them of all they have; and who is represented in the next verse Nahum 3:2 as just at hand.

² The noise of a whip and the noise of the rattling of the wheels, and of the prancing horses and of the jumping chariots! — the noise of a whip, its sharp crack heard as the horses are urged forward in battle,

— or of a horseman or chariot driver whipping his horses to make speed to Nineveh, and the noise of the rattling of the wheels and of the prancing horses and of the jumping chariots, bounding along over the ground as the horses broke into a gallop.

³ The horseman lifteth up both the bright sword and the glittering spear, and there is a multitude of slain and a great number of carcasses. And there is no end of their corpses—they stumble upon their corpses”

— the Ninevites in fleeing and endeavouring to make their escape from the Chaldeans pursuing them; the horseman mounting, rather, “horsemen rearing,” as they directed their mounts to charge, both the bright sword and the glittering spear, or “the name of the sword and the lightning of the lance”

— and there is a multitude of slain or of wounded and a great number of carcasses, a wall of corpses heaped up; they, the invading enemies, stumble upon their corpses, unable to pick their way forward because the entire battlefield is strewn with the dead;

⁴ because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the well-favoured harlot, the mistress of witchcraft, that selleth nations through her whoredom, and families through her witchcraft.

— because of the multitude of whoredoms, meaning Nineveh; which as it was an ancient city, was a well built one; full of stately and beautiful buildings, the seat of the kings of Assyria, and the metropolis of the nation, and abounded with wealth and riches; the acts of idolatry and wickedness;

— of the well-favoured harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts, idolatry and witchcraft being the special marks of the heathen character, that seduced nations through her whoredoms, with her hypocritical friendship and feigned interest, and families, smaller tribes, through her witchcrafts,

— namely, by her political schemes and intrigues, enslaved whole kingdoms and brought them under her power and dominion, to be her vassals; but the Lord will plunge Nineveh into a shameful destruction.

⁵ “Behold, I am against thee,” saith the Lord of hosts, “and I will uncover thy skirts upon thy face; and I will show the nations thy nakedness and the kingdoms thy shame.

— behold, I am against Nineveh, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will uncover thy skirts and throw them up so high that they would reach over her face, and I will show the nations thy nakedness as that of a lewd woman, and the kingdoms thy shame, in bringing the utmost disgrace upon Nineveh and the kingdom of Assyria;

— Q; is God intending this “uncover thy skirts” for the house of Israel at a latter day, too? False landing on the moon? The Covid-19 origin, still covering up where Congress had asked WH to disclose declassify information? Why are there so many bio-labs all over the world? What were they scheming to achieve?

6 And I will cast abominable filth upon thee and make thee vile, and will set thee as a gazingstock. — and I will cast abominable filth upon thee, as an expression of the utmost disgust and loathing,

— and make thee vile, an object of disgrace, and will set thee as a gazing-stock, upon which men would look with contempt and derision.

⁷ And it shall come to pass that all they that look upon thee shall flee from thee and say, ‘Nineveh is laid waste! Who will bemoan her?’ From whence shall I seek comforters for thee?”

— and it shall come to pass that all they that look upon thee shall flee from thee, with a feeling of deepest revulsion, and say, Nineveh is laid waste; who will bemoan her?

— whence shall I seek comforters for thee? so the prophet interjects his question. No one would have the slightest sympathy with the stricken city because she had so thoroughly deserved her judgement and its subsequent punishment.

⁸ Art thou better than populous No, that was situated among the rivers, that had the waters round about it, whose rampart was the sea and her wall was from the sea?

— art thou better than populous No, that is, No-Amon, Thebes, the capital of Upper Egypt, that was situate among the rivers, that had the waters round about it, namely, in the great irrigation canals, whose rampart was the sea, and her wall was from the sea? the great expanse of the Nile;

— No-Amon, Thebes, signifies the mansion or palace of Ham, or Hamon; the Egyptians, as Herodotus says, call Jupiter by the name of Ammon; thus the Targum interprets it of Alexandria the Great, a city so called long after this, when it was rebuilt by Alexander the Great;

⁹ Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength, and it was infinite; Put and Lubim were thy helpers. — Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength; that is, the strength, support, protection, and defence of No, whether Alexandria, or Thebes or Memphis:

— Egypt was for these cities were in it, and subject to it; or if this was a free city, as some think, yet in alliance with Egypt and under its protection; and in like connection it was with Ethiopia, a country that lay near to it; and yet, though it was strengthened by such powerful neighbours and allies, it was not secure from the devastation of the enemy.

¹⁰ Yet was she carried away; she went into captivity. Her young children also were dashed in pieces at the top of all the streets; and they cast lots for her honorable men, and all her great men were bound in chains.

— yet, in spite of all her own power and the strength of her allies, was she carried away, she went into captivity, after a conquest by either Sennacherib or Sargon; her young children also were dashed in pieces at the top, that is, at the corners, of all the streets; and they cast lots for her honorable men, the conquerors dividing them among themselves by lot, as slaves, and all her great men were bound in chains.

¹¹ Thou also shalt be drunken; thou shalt be hid; thou also shalt seek strength because of the enemy. — thou also, namely, Nineveh, shalt be drunken, upon receiving the cup of God’s fury in judgement;

— thou shall be hid, covered over, as though she had never existed; thou also shalt seek strength because of the enemy, protection or refuge before the advancing enemy, without being able to find it;

— thou shalt be hid; as Nineveh is at this day, “hid” from the sight of men, not to be seen any more; so the Targum says, “thou shall be swallowed up or destroyed.”

¹² All thy strongholds shall be like fig trees with the first ripe figs: if they be shaken, they shall even fall into the mouth of the eater.

— all thy strongholds, the fortresses and castles of the Assyrian country, shall be like fig-trees with the first-ripe figs, considered a special delicacy; if they be shaken, they shall even fall into the mouth of the hunter, they would readily be taken or consumed by the invading enemy.

¹³ Behold, thy people in the midst of thee are women; the gates of thy land shall be set wide open unto thine enemies; the fire shall devour thy bars.

— behold, thy people in the midst of thee are women: weak and feeble, fearful and timorous; frightened at the first approach of the enemy; without strength and courage for the battle;

— the gates of thy land shall be set wide open, the Lord making the land easy of access to the invaders, unto thine enemies; the fire shall devour thy bars, those which held the great gates of the city shut.

¹⁴ Draw thee waters for the siege! Fortify thy strongholds! Go into clay and tread the mortar; make strong the brickkiln!

— draw thee waters for the siege; before the siege has begun, fetch water from the river, wells, or fountains outside the city, that needed for a long period of siege of the enemies; fortify thy strongholds, strengthening the forts; go into clay, for making bricks and tread the mortar in order to fashion bricks for the bulwarks; make strong the brickkiln, in order to burn the bricks.

¹⁵ There shall the fire devour thee; the sword shall cut thee off; it shall eat thee up like the cankerworm. Make thyself many as the cankerworm, make thyself many as the locusts.

— there shall the fire devouring thee, either the fire of divine wrath; or the fire of the enemy in the very midst of these preparations; the sword shall cut thee off, it shall eat thee up like the cankerworm, as locusts destroy; make thyself many as the cankerworm, like devouring insects; make thyself many as the locusts;

— the thought is this: the fire and the sword, like locusts devouring everything before them, would consume Nineveh, even though the city with its masses of houses and inhabitants, in swarms and innumerable, would in turn, resemble a swarm of locusts.

¹⁶ Thou hast multiplied thy merchants above the stars of heaven. The cankerworm despoileth, and fleeth away.

— thou hast multiplied thy merchants above the stars of heaven, the number of its people engaged in commercial pursuits of every kind being very great; the cankerworm spoileth, literally, “the licking locusts enter to plunder,” and fled in haste, or be suddenly stripped of their power or riches; the military might of Assyria being powerless before the armies of the invaders.

¹⁷ Thy crowned ones are as the locusts, and thy captains as the great grasshoppers, which camp in the hedges in the cold day; but when the sun ariseth they flee away, and their place is not known where they are.

— thy crowned, the vassal princes are as the locusts, and thy captains, the commanders of her armies as the great grasshoppers, or “locusts of locusts” which camp in the hedges in the cold day, too chilled to use their wings;

— but when the sun ariseth, they flee away, and their place is not known where they are. In a similar way the Assyrian army would vanish from sight; it would not be in evidence to withstand the invaders.

¹⁸ Thy shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria; thy nobles shall dwell in the dust; thy people are scattered upon the mountains, and no man gathereth them.

— thy shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria, that is, the mighty ones, the leaders of the people, were resting in a false security; thy nobles shall dwell in the dust, rather, “thy powerful ones are lying still” not making a move to defend their country;

— thy people is scattered upon the mountains, and no man gathereth them, like sheep without a shepherd, which being frightened by beasts of prey, run here and there, and there is none to get them together, and bring them back again; no one assumes the leadership over them, and so their identity as an Assyrian nation is lost.

¹⁹ There is no healing of thy bruise; thy wound is grievous. All that hear the report of thee shall clap the hands over thee. For upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed continually?

— there is no healing of thy bruise, the ruin of it was irreparable and irrecoverable; of the fracture which the Lord had inflicted; thy wound is grievous, the stroke or ruin being deadly;

— all that hear the bruit, the report, of thee shall clap the hands over thee, in a gesture of joy over the downfall of the oppressor; for upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed continually? The Lord indeed used Assyria as his scourge,

— but he, at the same time, wanted Assyria to acknowledge his sovereignty. When Nineveh and the entire country, therefore, persisted in their wickedness, his punishment came upon them with crushing force;

— but another Q arises: Is this exposition speaking of the house of Israel instead of the Assyrian empire?

Selah!

Posted in Minor Prophets

The Prophecy of Joel describes a dreadful calamity upon the people of the Jews by locusts, caterpillars and drought. Rashi thought Joel was a contemporary with Elisha and say he prophesied in the days of Jehoram the son of Ahab, when the seven years’ famine called for came upon the land.

And it seems indeed as if Joel prophesied after the ten tribes were carried captive, which was in the sixth year of Hezekiah’s reign, since no mention was made of Israel but with respect to future times, only of Judah and Jerusalem.

Joel 1

¹ The word of the Lord that came to Joel the son of Pethuel. — the name Joel signifies “Yehovah is God,” or “whose God is Yehovah.”

— Rashi: to Joel, son of Pethuel: the son of Samuel the prophet who persuaded God with his prayer (פִתָּה לְאֵל). Some say that this prophecy was said in those seven years in which Elisha said: “For the Lord has decreed a famine etc.” and they took place during the days of Jehoram son of Ahab.

² Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers?

— Hear this, ye old men, whose memory reached back through generations of men and give ear in yielding a most willing and careful attention;

— all ye inhabitants of the land. It is a spirited challenge to all the people of Judah to mark the lesson of the great calamity which has befallen them. Hath this been in your days or even in the days of your fathers? A visitation of this kind and grievous to this extent had never yet been seen in Palestine.

³ Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation.

— tell ye your children of it and let your children tell their children and their children another generation, passing it on from father to son, all of them accepting this tradition with awe, fear and trembling as being an unparalleled manifestation of God’s anger against men on account of their sins.

⁴ That which the palmer worm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpillar eaten. — this could be a prophecy of plagues of locusts as yet in the future;

— that which the palmer-worm, literally, “the gnawer-off,” hath left the locust eaten, the swarming or multiplying locust of the desert;

— and that which the locust hath left hath the canker-worm, the devouring grasshopper, eaten; and that which the canker-worm hath left hath the caterpillar eaten, that is, the consuming locust;

— the desolation wrought by the plague of the locusts is described in the most graphic manner; one feature after another being depicted in a way to arouse the people to a realization of the seriousness of the situation.

⁵ Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine, for it is cut off from your mouth. — weep and howl: signs of dark days;

— awake, ye drunkards and weep; howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine, since the supply of grapes and therefore of the liquor made from them were not available; for it is cut off from your mouth. This appeal is introduced to describe the complete devastation of the land.

⁶ For a nation has come up upon my land, strong and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a great lion. — for a nation of locusts come up upon my land, a great and mighty army of fierce warriors, strong and without number in swarms of countless myriads;

— insects are described as a nation or people marching in order under their leaders because of their power to do mischief; the prophet now urges his countrymen to mourn;

— whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek-teeth of a great lion or like the “the grinders” of teeth being hard, strong and sharp to bite off the tops, boughs and branches of trees: the jaw-teeth of a lioness protecting or avenging her young, grinding to pieces everything that came in their path.

⁷ He hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig tree; he hath made it clean bare and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white. — he, the nation of locust;

— the locust hath laid the Lord’s vine waste, that is, and spoiled the vines by consuming its foliage and barked at his fig-tree; gnawing off the bark and laying bare stem and branches, so that they hath made it clean bare and cast it away; by the complete removal of the bark, stripped it of its leaves, fruit and bark also: this being the condition in which the land was left after the visit of the locusts,

⁸ Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth. — personified as a woman, lamenting like a virgin, girded with sackcloth, the “daughter of Judah,” or “daughter of my people,”

— the dress of mourning for the husband of her youth, whom after their betrothal, death took away. The grief of a bereaved virgin and bride is represented also in other passages as deep and overwhelming. Cf Isaiah 54:6.

⁹ The meat offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the Lord; the priests, the Lord’S ministers, mourn.

— the meat-offering and the drink-offering, the sacrifices in the worship of God Almighty is cut off from the house of the Lord because it was impossible to procure the necessary materials since everything was destroyed;

— the priests, the Lord’s ministers, mourn on account of the decay resulting from the devastation which was followed also by a dearth of the animals used for sacrificial purposes.

¹⁰ The field is wasted, the land mourneth, for the corn is wasted; the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth.

— the field is wasted, made desolate; the land mourneth, both the uncultivated and the cultivated sections of the land suffering in the same measure; for the corn is wasted, destroyed by the locusts, the grain completely consumed;

— the new wine is dried up, the grapes being spoiled for want of foliage on the vines; the oil languisheth because the olive-trees produced no fruit.

¹¹ Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen; howl, O ye vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley, because the harvest of the field is perished. — manifest by overt signs your distress;

— be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen, bearing the shame of disappointed hopes after working hard for a crop; howl, O ye vine-dressers; these two representing the agricultural classes of the land for the wheat and for the barley because the harvest of the field is perished, this being the cause of the farmers’ lament.

¹² The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languisheth; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree—even all the trees of the field are withered, because joy is withered away from the sons of men.

— the ravages produced by the locusts and the drought are universal; the vine is dried up and the fig-tree languisheth so that gardener and horticulturist likewise had reasons for mourning; the pomegranate-tree, the palm-tree also, the date-palm, which ordinarily escaped the onslaughts of the locust;

— and the apple-tree, or the quince, even all the trees of the field are withered; because joy is withered away from the sons of men so that there could be no rejoicing over a bountiful harvest as usual; Cf Psalms 4:7; Isaiah 9:3.

¹³ Gird yourselves and lament, ye priests; howl, ye ministers of the altar. Come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God; for the meat offering and the drink offering is withheld from the house of your God.

— gird yourselves, namely, with garments of mourning and lament, ye priests; howl, ye ministers of the altar, whose chief duties were concerned with the sacrifices brought on the two altars of the Temple;

— Come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God, extending their exercises of mourning even through the night season; for the meat-offering and the drink-offering is withholden from the house of your God, so that all the usual sacrifices had to be discontinued;

— as Ahab did, when he humbled himself before Elijah (1 Kings 21:27). The sackcloth would be a token not only of grief, but also of sorrow, regret and repentance (Nehemiah 9:1; Jonah 3:5-6).

¹⁴ Sanctify ye a fast; call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord your God, and cry unto the Lord!

— sanctify ye a fast, appointing a day or a number of days for a special religious service, during which the depth of the people’s grief should be indicated by their abstaining from food;

— call a solemn assembly, such as were held in connection with the great festivals; gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord, your God, and cry unto the Lord with impetuous and importunate praying.

¹⁵ Alas for the day! For the day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.

— alas for the day coming near! so the prophet himself laments for the Day of the Lord, the time of stern visitation is coming soon as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come, bringing its desolating scourge upon the land.

¹⁶ Is not the meat cut off before our eyes, yea, joy and gladness from the house of our God?

— is not the meat cut off before our eyes as their food supply was destroyed by the invading hordes of locusts? Yea, joy and gladness from the house of our God since the various sacrifices and meals of thanksgiving were no longer possible.

¹⁷ The seed is rotten under their clods, the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn is withered.

— the seed is rotten under their clods, withering in the soil on account of the terrible drought; the garners are laid desolate, the granaries being empty because there could be no harvest;

— the barns, which otherwise harbored such rich crops are broken down, falling to pieces for want of money to repair them; for the corn is withered.

¹⁸ How the beasts do groan! The herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture; yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate.

— how do the beasts groan? since the meadows also were dried up. The herds of cattle are perplexed, restless hunting of hungry cattle because they have no pasture; yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate, bearing their sufferings as a consequence of the transgressions of the people of the land. All this causes the prophet to lift up his voice to the Lord in a cry for help.

¹⁹ O Lord, to Thee will I cry! For the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned all the trees of the field.

— O Lord, to thee will I cry; for the fire, the parching heat hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness of the great Judean steppes; indicating land which iare unenclosed and uncultivated,

— and the flame, the fierce heat of the drought hath burned all the trees of the field.

²⁰ The beasts of the field cry also unto Thee; for the rivers of waters are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness.

— the beasts of the field, both domestic and wild animals, cry also unto thee, their dumb misery being a powerful appeal for help;

— for the rivers of waters are dried up and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness. Cf Job 38:41; Psalms 104:21; 145:15; 147:9; Jeremiah 14:5-6. All creation groans and travails in pain together until now on account of the burden of man’s guilt. Romans 8:19-22.

Joel 2

¹ Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand—

— blow ye the trumpet in Zion; this signal the priests announcing the coming calamity and sound an alarm in the Lord’s holy mountain, from the Temple as the center of Yehovah’s worship and the place of his presence in the midst of his people;

— let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, shaken up out of their care-free condition; for the Day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand, the visitation is no longer in the dim and distant future, but is an event to be expected soon;

— the whole world will be given a Mount Sinai experience as the children had when they came out of Egypt; so that the fear of the Lord will always be embedded in them, all the nations of the world to fear Him; Exodus 19:16-18, 20:18-21.

² a day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains. A great people and a strong, there hath not been ever the like; neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations.

— a day of darkness and of gloominess as when the light of the sun is shut out by immense swarms of locusts, a day of clouds and of thick darkness of heavy, dense and obscuring cloudiness;

— as the morning spread upon the mountains, a great people and a strong, the wings of the locusts reflecting the rays of the sun in a murky light before their immense numbers shut out the sun altogether. There hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations, Cf Joel 1:2.

³ A fire devoureth before them, and behind them a flame burneth. The land is as the Garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.

— a fire, a most intense and parching heat, devoureth before them in preparing for the desolation to follow; and behind them a flame burneth, the terrible, withering heat continuing even after the swarms of grasshoppers had passed;

— the land is as the Garden of Eden before them like the beautiful park of paradise described in Genesis 2, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them, the devastation would be thorough.

⁴ The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run. — the appearance of the locusts is as the appearance of horses, whom they resemble as to the shape of their heads; and as horsemen, so shall they run with uncanny swiftness.

⁵ Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array.

— like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains as they clatter along over rough mountain roads shall they leap; such would be the noise of their crackling movements in a great mass;

— like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble as a strong people set in battle array for there is a strong similarity to all these rushing, pounding sounds in the movements of vast swarms of locusts.

⁶ Before their face the people shall be much pained; all faces shall gather blackness. — before their face as they proceed on their path of devastation, the people all those so visited, shall be much pained, trembling and helpless with terror;

— all faces shall gather blackness, losing the glowing color of health, growing pale with conscious helplessness.

⁷ They shall run like mighty men; they shall climb the wall like men of war; and they shall march every one on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks.

— they shall run like mighty men, straightforward to the attack; they shall climb the wall like men of war in an advance that cannot be stopped;

— and they shall march every one on his ways and they shall not break their ranks, this peculiarity being noted by all observers. It was and is vain to resist them by the means ordinarily used to stop the progress of an invading army.

⁸ Neither shall one thrust another; they shall walk every one in his path; and when they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded.

— neither shall one thrust another, not pressing ahead, upon those going before; they shall walk every one in his path, like a well-drilled army; and when they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded for they are represented as an invincible army of the Lord.

⁹ They shall run to and fro in the city, they shall run upon the wall; they shall climb up upon the houses, they shall enter in at the windows like a thief.

— they shall run to and fro in the city, being altogether unhindered in their advance; they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up upon the houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief;

— when the locusts come and fill the whole space between earth and sky, they fly in perfect order, as if obedient to a divine command so that they look like the squares of a pavement; each one holds its own place, not diverging from it even so much as by a finger’s breadth. To these locusts nothing is impenetrable, fields, meadows, trees, cities, houses, even their most secret chambers.

¹⁰ The earth shall quake before them, the heavens shall tremble; the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining.

— the earth shall quake before them, liked before Mount Sinai, terrified by their dreadful host, the heavens shall tremble, resounding with the rushing of their flight;

— the sun and the moon shall be dark and the stars shall withdraw their shining, their light shut out by the immense hosts of locusts.

¹¹ And the Lord shall utter His voice before His army, for His camp is very great. For He is strong that executeth His word; for the day of the Lord is great and very terrible, and who can abide it?

— and the Lord shall utter his voice before his army, which the grasshoppers here represent; for his camp is very great, the host under his command exceedingly large; for he (the Son?) is strong that executeth his word, carrying out the will of the Lord; for the day of the Lord, his coming visitation, is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?

— it is evident that the entire description is incidentally symbolical of the great and mighty Judgement Day of the Lord, which, in its preliminary features, is seen in the Deluge, in the two destructions of Jerusalem and in various other calamities and cataclysms, but which is destined to be immeasurably greater than man can conceive of when it actually comes to pass. Cf Malachi 3:2. This being true, the admonition of the prophet comes with particular force.

¹² “Therefore also now,” saith the Lord, “turn ye even to Me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning.”

— therefore also now, saith the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart, in a true repentance and with fasting and with weeping and with mourning, as outward indications of the change of heart,

¹³ And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God; for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth of the evil.

— and rend your heart in a true and unfeigned sorrow, and not your garments for the latter may be done also by hypocrites;

— and turn unto the Lord, your God; for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil, that is, he is persuaded not to let stern justice alone rule. Cf Exodus 34:6.

¹⁴ Who knoweth if He will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind Him—even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the Lord your God?

— who knoweth if he will return, not carry out the threatened punishment, and repent and leave a blessing behind him, namely, when he, as men pictured him, returns to his throne in heaven;

— even a meat-offering and a drink-offering unto the Lord, your God? for by an abundant harvest which he may be persuaded to give, the people would again be enabled to bring their usual sacrifices in the Temple. In order to accomplish this, however, it was necessary that the people unite in a great service of prayer and supplication.

¹⁵ Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast! Call a solemn assembly, — blow the trumpet in Zion, the call once more going forth; sanctify a fast; call a solemn assembly,

¹⁶ gather the people! Sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children and those that suck the breasts; let the bridegroom go forth from his chamber and the bride out of her retreat.

— gather the people for a great meeting of worship and supplication; sanctify the congregation, so that no one would be Levitically unclean;

— assemble the elders, the aged people of the congregation; gather the children and those that suck the breast for no one is to be omitted in this great appeal for mercy, since all of them, from the smallest to the greatest, were guilty;

— let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber and the bride out of her closet, where they were preparing for the coming wedding. The fact that even infants in arms and bride and groom were included in the appeal of the prophet shows that the guilt was universal and beyond excuse.

¹⁷ Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar; and let them say, “Spare Thy people, O Lord, and give not Thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them.Why should they say among the people, ‘Where is their God?’”

— let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, who occupied the position of mediators between God and his people, weep between the porch and the altar and let them say, in a solemn litany chanted at the very door of the Holy Place;

— Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine heritage, the people of his own possession to reproach, Cf Exodus 32:11-12, that the heathen should rule over them, or “make mockery of them.” Wherefore should they say among the people, among the nations everywhere, Where is their God? thus bringing disgrace upon the holy name of the Lord.

¹⁸ Then will the Lord be jealous for His land, and pity His people.

— then, when the Lord saw that his people were truly penitent, will he be jealous for his land be filled with the zeal of his love, rather, he was so filled and acted accordingly, and pity his people.

¹⁹ Yea, the Lord will answer and say unto His people: “Behold, I will send you corn and wine and oil, and ye shall be satisfied therewith; and I will no more make you a reproach among the heathen.

— yea, the Lord will answer and say unto his people, actuated with the zeal of his love for them, Behold, the Lord will send you corn and wine and oil, the richest temporal blessings made possible by the renewed fertility of the land;

— and ye shall be satisfied therewith; and the Lord will no more make you a reproach among the nations of which their prayer had complained.

²⁰ But I will remove far off from you the northern army, and will drive him into a land barren and desolate, with his face toward the east sea, and his hinder part toward the utmost sea. And his stink shall come up, and his ill savor shall come up” because He hath done great things.

— but the Lord will remove far off from you the northern army, the swarms of locusts which came from that direction, and will drive him into a land barren and desolate into the desert of Arabia;

— with his face toward the East Sea, that is, the Dead Sea and his hinder part, his rearguard toward the utmost sea, that is, the Mediterranean; and his stink shall come up, the terrible stench of the decaying insects, and his ill savor shall come up, because he hath done great things;

The Message Bible offers a more colorful description:

At that, God went into action to get his land back. He took pity on his people. God answered and spoke to his people, “Look, listen—I’m sending a gift: Grain and wine and olive oil. The fast is over—eat your fill! I won’t expose you any longer to contempt among the pagans. I’ll head off the final enemy coming out of the north and dump them in a wasteland. Half of them will end up in the Dead Sea, the other half in the Mediterranean. There they’ll rot, a stench to high heaven. The bigger the enemy, the stronger the stench!”

²¹ Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice, for the Lord will do great things!

— fear not, O land, the entire country being included in this new admonition as before; be glad and rejoice, namely, over the hosts that laid waste the country; for the Lord will do great things, Yehovah is able to perform marvelous works in delivering his people.

²² Be not afraid, ye beasts of the field; for the pastures of the wilderness spring up, for the tree beareth her fruit, the fig tree and the vine do yield their strength.

— be not afraid, ye beasts of the field which had been so sorely in need of food supplies; for the pastures of the wilderness of the great prairies of the South, do spring, once more verdant with an abundance of grass;

— for the tree beareth her fruit as before the terrible visitation, the fig-tree and the vine do yield their strength so as to bring forth fruit as of old.

²³ Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God; for He hath given you the early rain moderately, and He will cause to come down for you the rain, the early rain and the latter rain in the first month.

— be glad, then, ye children of Zion, the inhabitants of Judah, the children of the Lord and rejoice in the Lord, your God, the God of the covenant, the Lord of mercy;

— for he hath given you the former rain moderately, literally, “a teacher for righteousness” or “rain in just measure” and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain and the latter rain in the first month, the former rain being due right after seeding-time, in the fall, and the latter rain coming just before harvest, in the spring.

²⁴ And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with wine and oil.

— and the floors, the threshing-floors shall be full of wheat, the result of a new, rich harvest and the fats shall overflow with wine and oil, the receptacles of the vineyards being unable to hold the rich measure of blessings.

²⁵ “And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm and the caterpillar and the palmer worm, My great army which I sent among you.

— and the Lord will restore to you, make up the years that the locust hath eaten, the canker-worm and the caterpillar and the palmer-worm, his great army which he sent among you, the insects of Joel 1:4 being named in the reverse order.

²⁶ And ye shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God that hath dealt wondrously with you; and My people shall never be ashamed.

— and ye shall have plenty to eat, having an abundance of the best food and be satisfied and praise the name of the Lord your God that hath dealt wondrously with you, making his wonders known through the manner in which he dealt with them;

— and the Lord’s people shall never be ashamed again, never to be heaped with mockery and disgrace, since it would be so evident that the Lord was on their side. This would, moreover, be substantiated more than ever by the fullness of spiritual blessings which he intended to pour out upon his children after their restoration to his sonship.

²⁷ And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God, and none else; and My people shall never be ashamed.

— and ye shall know that the Lord is in the midst of Israel as his chosen people, and that Yehovah is the Lord, their God, the God of the covenant and none else; and his people, the true spiritual Israel shall never be ashamed again.

²⁸ “And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions;

— and it shall come to pass afterward, in the Millennium toward which this prophecy converged, that the Lord will pour out his Spirit upon all flesh, upon men of every race and nation;

— and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, openly proclaiming the great deeds of God, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions, the great possibilities of the Lord’s work and the energy for carrying out the plans of the Lord coming to them and urging them forward with irresistible power, the barriers of both sex and age being removed, except as limited in other parts of the Scriptures;

²⁹ and also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out My Spirit. — and also upon the servants and upon the handmaids, upon the lowliest of the land;

— in those days will the Lord pour out his Spirit, all social distinction being abandoned during the Millennium as far as the work of the Kingdom is concerned;

— this prophecy was fulfilled, so far as its beginning is concerned, on the Day of Pentecost, as Peter also states in the introduction to his powerful sermon held before the astonished inhabitants of the city of Jerusalem, Acts 2:17-21. But this event by no means exhausted its wonderful promises;

— for the spirit of the Lord is being poured out on the members of the Kingdom of the New Era and will continue to be given to all true believers until the end of time. But this great and wonderful deed of the Lord is placed side by side with His judgement upon the nations.

³⁰ “And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth— blood and fire and pillars of smoke.

— and the Lord will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, strange and terrifying portents, blood and fire and pillars of smoke, miracles in the sky above and signs of His majesty on the earth beneath, blood and fire and smoky vapor.

³¹ The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the Lord come.

— the sun shall be turned into darkness, being changed into a dark and cold mass, and the moon into blood, as bloody wars and devastations would occur on the earth, before the great and the terrible Day of the Lord come, namely, the Day of final Judgement.

³² And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered; for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call.

— and it shall come to pass, throughout this great Day of the Lord’s preparation for the final Judgement, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord, Yehovah, confessing the Messiah and accepting him as the one Savior of mankind, shall be delivered, saved from the wrath to come;

— for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, the Gospel-message proclaimed in and by the Chosen people of God bringing redemption and the assurance of eternal life to all believers, as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call;

— namely, the remainder according to the selection by the Lord, Yehovah, the people whom the Lord has chosen from all nations of the earth. This glorious promise is held out to this day to all who turn to the Lord in keeping his commandments, repentance and faith, confessing his name as the only Savior and fervently calling upon him for deliverance from all evil, especially that of the body of sin;

— God’s name is the four-letter Hebrew word יהוה‎ YHVH Yehovah (not Jehovah since the letter J wasn’t around but only after the sixteenth century).

Joel 3

¹ “For behold, in those days and in that time, when I shall bring back the captives of Judah and Jerusalem,

— for behold, heading towards the Millennium, in those days and in that time which had just been described with the Day of Judgement very prominent in the description, when the Lord of hosts shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem for forty years, by the deliverance through the Messiah, of which the return of Judah from exile was but a type;

For more into another Captivity: see Ezekiel Timeline – 190/40 Years
For more about a prophecy of Esau or Edom, see Obadiah
For more on the enemy from the South, see A Sword from the South!

² I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the Valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for My people and for My heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted My land.

— the Lord will also gather all nations, with the great and mighty heathen nations, and will bring them down into the Valley of Jehoshaphat, another Mount Sinai experience, which is here remade the scene of another Face to Face before the last Great Judgement and the Lord will plead with them there;

— for the Lord’s people and for his heritage Israel, in the interest of the Lord’s, whom they have scattered among the nations, in the various oppressions and captivities which have struck the Lord’s people from the earliest days, and parted his land, appropriating it or dividing it as they saw fit.

³ And they have cast lots for My people, and have given a boy for a harlot and sold a girl for wine, that they might drink.

— and they have cast lots for the Lord’s people, after they had taken them captive and have given a boy for an harlot, namely, as the price for which they secured the services of a prostitute;

— and sold a girl for wine, for the sake of a drunken debauch that they might drink. The description is typical of the manner with which the Lord’s enemies have ever dealt with the captive Israelites.

⁴ Yea, and what have ye to do with Me, O Tyre and Sidon and all the coasts of Palestine? Will ye render Me a recompense? And if ye recompense Me, swiftly and speedily will I return your recompense upon your own head,

— yea, and what have ye to do with the Lord, O Tyre and Zidon and all the coasts of Palestine? that is, what object did they have in acting as they did, when not only the capitals of Phoenicia but also the state of Philistia were showing such enmity against him?

— will ye render the Lord a recompense? seeking revenge for what they consider a wrong done them? They had neither cause to seek revenge nor occasion to carry it out. And if ye recompense the Lord, swiftly and speedily will he return your recompense upon your own head, Cf Psalms 7:17,

⁵ because ye have taken My silver and My gold, and have carried into your temples My goodly, pleasant things.

— because ye have taken silver and gold from the Lord, in the Temple-treasures and throughout the city of Jerusalem, and have carried into your temples, including also the palaces of their rulers, the Lord’s goodly, pleasant things, his most costly possessions;

⁶ The children also of Judah and the children of Jerusalem have ye sold unto the Grecians, that ye might remove them far from their border.

— the children of Judah and the children of Jerusalem have ye sold unto the Grecians, the Philistines being those who reduced the captives to slavery, the Phoenicians those who acted as agents in selling the Hebrew slaves that ye might remove them far from their border, to be slaves in distant countries.

⁷ Behold, I will raise them out of the place whither ye have sold them, and will return your recompense upon your own head.

— behold, the Lord will raise them out of the place whither ye have sold them, delivering them from the masters to whom they had been sold, and will return your recompense upon your own head so that their revenge would react upon themselves.

⁸ And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah, and they shall sell them to the Sabeans, to a people far off; for the Lord hath spoken it.”

— and the Lord will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah, when Tyre and Sidon were captured and their inhabitants either killed or reduced to slavery and they shall sell them to the Sabeans who are mentioned as being the remotest nation toward the east in the Arabian Desert;

— to a people far off; for the Lord hath spoken it. The imagery of this paragraph is based, at least in part, upon happenings of those days; but the application includes far more than this for the Lord makes those incidents typical of the punishments which He intended for all His enemies.

⁹ Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles: Prepare war! Wake up the mighty men! Let all the men of war draw near; let them come up.

— proclaim ye this among the nations as they made ready to wage war against the Lord’s people. Prepare war, consecrate the undertaking by means of sacrifices, wake up the mighty men, let them arouse themselves from their inactivity, let all the men of war draw near, let them come up, assembling for the campaign.

¹⁰ Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weak say, “I am strong.”

— beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning-hooks into spears, bending every effort toward the winning of their unholy war. Let the weak say, I am strong, as when warlike excitement takes hold of a whole nation.

¹¹ Assemble yourselves and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about; thither cause Thy mighty ones to come down, O Lord.

— assemble yourselves and come, all ye nations, and gather yourselves together round about for the Lord’s people are ever regarded as occupying a central position in the earth; thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Lord, to meet the invasion of the enemies with a fearless countercharge.

¹² “Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about.

— let the nations awake, stir up to warfare and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; for there will the Lord sits to judge all the nations round about, all the nations of the world, since they all, by the time of the final Judgement, would have come into contact with the God of Israel.

¹³ Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, get you down; for the press is full, the vats overflow—for their wickedness is great!”

— put ye in the sickle so the Lord shouts to his mighty champions for the harvest is ripe, the crop of the world having reached its maturity. Come, get you down, stamping the vats of gathered grapes;

— for the press is full, the fats overflow, the earth being more than ripe for Judgment; for their wickedness is great. Cf Revelation 14:15-18

¹⁴ Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision; for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.

— multitudes, multitudes in the Valley of Decision; for the Day of the Lord, the Day of final Judgement, is also call the Valley of Decision, bound to be revealed as soon as all men would have had an opportunity to learn the Warning.

¹⁵ The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining. — the Lord wants the whole world to fear him;

— Targum of Zephaniah 2:3 says, “seek the fear of the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, who do the judgements of his will; seek truth, seek meekness; it may be there will be a protection for you on the day of the Lord’s anger.”

¹⁶ The Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and utter His voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth shall shake; but the Lord will be the hope of His people, and the strength of the children of Israel.

— the Lord also shall roar out of Zion, with a voice of thunder terrifying his enemies, everyone given a Mount Sinai experience, and utter his voice from Jerusalem, in the Word which was proclaimed there for so many centuries;

— and the heavens and the earth shall shake; but the Lord will be the hope of his people and the Strength of the children of Israel. “Zion, or Jerusalem, is naturally not the earthly Jerusalem, but the Holy City of the living God, in which the Lord will be forever united with his saved and glorified congregation.”

— as in Joel 2:1 above, “the earth will shake” that is, the whole world will be given a Mount Sinai experience as the children had when they came out of Egypt; so that the fear of the Lord will always be embedded in them, all the nations of the world to fear Him; Exodus 19:16-18, 20:18-21.

¹⁷ “So shall ye know that I am the Lord your God dwelling in Zion, My holy mountain. Then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more.

— so shall ye know that Yehovah is the Lord, your God, dwelling in Zion, his holy mountain, in the midst of the congregation of Israel. Then shall Jerusalem be holy, a true congregation of the saints; and there shall no strangers pass through her any more, only those who have been brought nigh by the blood of the Messiah (the Lamb, the Christ).

¹⁸ “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk; and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth from the house of the Lord and shall water the valley of Shittim.

— and it shall come to pass in that day when the blessings of the Millennium would be dispensed that the mountains shall drop down new wine and the hills shall flow with milk and all the rivers of Judah, most of which were dry except during the rainy season;

— shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord and shall water the Valley of Shittim, otherwise an arid desert and bringing fertility even to the unfruitful places of the earth, to the hearts of unbelievers and all other nations everywhere.

¹⁹ Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, for the violence against the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land.

— Egypt shall be a desolation and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, these two being representative of the Lord’s enemies, for the violence against the children of Judah and Israel, the representatives of the Lord’s Chosen because they have shed innocent blood in their land.

²⁰ “But Judah shall dwell for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation.

²¹ For I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed, for the Lord dwelleth in Zion.”

— for the Lord will cleanse their blood that he has not cleansed before, namely, through the atonement wrought by the Messiah; for the Lord dwelleth in Zion. The entire description clearly does not speak of a mere earthly, temporal glorification of Jerusalem and a corresponding desolation of Egypt and Edom;

— but the latter are types of the powers opposing the Kingdom of God and is setting forth the blessings which the work of the Church is bringing to men on the basis of the redemption brought about by the Messiah. Cf Revelation 22:2. The Lord is dwelling in the midst of his Kingdom and revealing himself as the King of all people, partly by the destruction of his enemies, partly by the perfection of his Kingdom.

Posted in Minor Prophets

Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi were among the last of the prophets; but Haggai’s prophecy about Zerubbabel the governor of Judah and Joshua the high priest set the intriguing scenes of a prophetic endtime.

The hand of Zerubbabel with those seven eyes of the Lord which are also the seven spirits of God, sent forth to and fro into all the earth; only a Divine Being could have seven eyes or seven spirits of the Lord which run to and fro through the whole earth; thus the Scriptures testify that Zerubbabel is the Son of God, the Messiah.

Haggai 1

¹ In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, saying,

— in the second year of Darius, king of Persia, the year 520 BC in the first day of the sixth month, a feast of the new moon, the month Elul, that is, of the Jewish Sacred year, came the word of the Lord to Haggai, the prophet unto Zerubbabel the governor, and to Joshua the high priest, Cf Ezra 3:2, saying,

— today, we have repudiated God’s way of numbering months that he has given us but adopted a system to honor the host of heaven with a pagan-named week and a paganised monthly calendar; hence we have Covid and yet not realizing what is happening (more at the end);

— the Targum of Zephaniah 2:3 says, “seek the fear of the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, who do the judgements of his will; seek truth, seek meekness; it may be there will be a protection for you on the day of the Lord’s anger.”

² “Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying: This people say, ‘The time has not come, the time that the Lord’S house should be built.’”

— thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, This people say, ‘The time is not come, the time that the Lord’s house should be built,’ it was not a time fit and convenient to carry on such a building effort; that being showing their ingratitude and the lame excuse with which the people tried to cover their indifference for they had allowed themselves to drift along.

³ Then came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet, saying,

⁴ “Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your ceilinged houses, and this house lie waste?” — Is It time for you, O ye, to dwell in your panelled houses, for yourselves to dwell in the most expensive manner, showing that they lived not only in comfort, but in luxury,

— and this house of God to lie in waste? since it had never gotten beyond the foundations, only the altar of burnt offerings standing on the top of Moriah.

⁵ Now therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts: “Consider your ways! — Now, therefore, thus saith the Lord, Consider your ingratitudes,

— “Set your hearts upon your ways,” contemplating the consequences of your bad behavior and upon the manner in which the Lord would have make judgement on your self-indulgence.

⁶ Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe yourselves, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages, earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes.”

— Ye have sown much, or have been sowing much, in the expectation of big crops but bring in little, the harvest being small in spite of all their efforts; ye eat, but ye have not enough, they were not really satisfied in spite of their abundance;

— ye drink but ye are still thirsty; ye clothe yourselves, seemingly having enough clothes; but there is no warm; and he that earn wages earn wages to put it Into a bag with holes, that is, they found themselves unable to buy much. All this indicated that there could be no real prosperity without the blessing of the Lord and that was evidently lacking as it always is when people think only of themselves and not of Him.

⁷ Thus saith the Lord of hosts: “Consider your ways! — thus saith the Lord, Consider your ways, think them over very carefully, for the matter was urgent,

⁸ Go up to the mountain, and bring wood and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified,” saith the Lord.

— Go up to the mountain, to the great forests of Lebanon, to cut down cedars, and bring them from thence for the building of the temple; and bring wood, timber for building;

— and build the house; and the Lord of hosts will take pleasure in, glad to regard it as the house where he might be worshiped, and the Lord will be glorified, receiving the honor which was due to him, causing his Shekinah to dwell here in glory as the Targum says.

⁹ “Ye looked for much, and lo, it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I blew upon it. Why?” saith the Lord of hosts. “Because of Mine house that is laid waste, and ye run every man unto his own house.

— Ye looked for much, expecting still greater crops and a corresponding prosperity, and, lo, it came to little; and when ye brought it home, believing that at least the little which they had gotten was safe, the Lord did blow upon it, thus dissipating and scattering it; as the Targum interprets it, “behold, I sent a curse upon it:”

— Why? asked the Lord of hosts; he himself undertakes to explain this condition to the people in order to explain it to them more impressively. Because of his house that is in waste, still unfinished and desolate, and ye run every man unto his own house, in a base selfishness, which regarded only their own interests.

¹⁰ Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit. — therefore the heaven over you is restrained from dew, withholding the moisture necessary to insure full crops and the earth is withheld from her fruit, it does not yield even its ordinary harvest.

¹¹ And I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground bringeth forth, and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon all the labor of the hands.”

— and the Lord of hosts called for a drought upon the land, upon the cultivated fields and upon the mountains, with their rich meadows and upon the corn, the grain products;

— and upon the new wine and upon the oil, all the chief products of the country; and upon that which the ground bringeth forth and upon men and upon cattle and upon all the labor of the hands, his blessing being withheld from all animate and inanimate beings. This earnest rebuke was heeded by the people.

¹² Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord their God had sent him; and the people feared before the Lord.

— then Zerubbabel the governor, and Joshua the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, all the rest of the returned exiles;

— obeyed the voice of the Lord and the words of Haggai as the Lord had sent him, considering them as coming from the Lord himself and the people did fear the Lord with reverence and awe.

¹³ Then spoke Haggai, the Lord’S messenger, in the Lord’S message unto the people, saying, “I am with you, saith the Lord.”

— then, when the people showed such obvious signs of repentance, Haggai spoke unto the people, saying, the Lord is with you, he has accepted your repentance as genuine and acted accordingly.

¹⁴ And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people; and they came and began work on the house of the Lord of hosts their God,

— and the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel, governor of Judah and the spirit of Joshua, the high priest and the spirit of all the remnant of the people and they came and worked; they took steps to continue the building operations in the house of the Lord,

¹⁵ on the four and twentieth day of the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king. — in the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month, twenty-three days after the first message of Haggai, in the second year of Darius, the king, the people were filled with the spirit of repentance and of the fear of the Lord and they took up the work which the Lord has entrusted them.

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More about today’s Repudiation of God’s Sacred Calendar and Adopting a Paganised calendar:

— Days of the Week Names: “Sunday” is the Sun’s day and “Monday” is the Moon’s day. “Tuesday” is Tiw’s day; Tiw is an Anglo-Saxon god of war. “Wednesday” comes from Woden, the Anglo-Saxon king of the gods; in Saxon the name is Wodnesdaeg. “Thursday” is Thursdaeg, Thor’s day; Thor is a Norse god of thunder, lightning and storms. “Friday” is Frigedaeg, Frigga’s day; Frigg is a Norse goddess of home, marriage and fertility. “Saturday” is Saeterndaeg, Saturn’s day; Saturn is an ancient Roman god of fun and feasting;

— Months of the Year Names: January (derived from the Latin Januarius) is to honor their Roman gods Janus; and March, named for Mars, is the Roman mighty god of war; February is derived from the Februa festival or its eponymous februa (“purifications, expiatory offerings”); April relates to what the Romans called the month Aprilis; from a word meaning “to open” and further back from Aphrodite, the Greek name for the goddess of love. May – named for Maia, is the Roman goddess of spring and growth;

— June is a name attributed to Juno, the female mighty wife of Jupiter in Roman mythology. She is also called the “Queen of Heaven” and “Queen of Mighty Ones.” July is to honor Julius Caesar; the Roman Senate named it “Julius” in honor of Roman emperor Julius Caesar. August honor Julius Caesar’s successor, the emperor Augustus; and the months September, October, November, and December are archaic adjectives derived from the ordinal numbers 7 to 10;

Should we think we can get away from His wrath and judgement by repudiating His Word and His Calendar; adopping paganisation and get away with impunity?

Haggai 2

¹ In the seventh month, on the one and twentieth day of the month, came the word of the Lord by the prophet Haggai, saying,

— after a short time after the construction of the Temple had resumed in the seventh month, month Tisri, in the twenty-first day of the month, came the word of the Lord by the word of prophecy to Haggai, as the Targum says;

² “Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to the residue of the people, saying:

³ ‘Who is left among you who saw this house in her first glory? And how do ye see it now? Is this not in your eyes by comparison with it as nothing?

— Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory? the Temple of Solomon with its almost unequaled rich ornamentation. And how do ye see it now? What impression did this second Temple make upon them as they observed it?

— it appears by this question of the prophet, that some of the Jews there present had seen the former temple when young, before they were carried to Babylon, and could remember what a magnificent building it was. Is it not in your eyes as nothing? that is, in comparison of the former; as seen from Ezra 3:12;

⁴ Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel,’ saith the Lord; ‘and be strong, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak the high priest; and be strong, all ye people of the land,’ saith the Lord, ‘and work, for I am with you,’ saith the Lord of hosts.

— Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, saith the Lord of hosts, filled with reassuring comfort; and be strong, O Joshua, the high priest; and be strong, all ye people of the land, saith the Lord, all filled with the same reassurance and work to complete the erection of the Temple; for the Lord be with you;

⁵ ‘According to the word that I covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt, so My Spirit remaineth among you. Fear ye not.’

— according to the word that the Lord of hosts covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt, when Israel was formally accepted as Yehovah’s people in the great assembly at Mount Sinai, so the Lord remaineth among you, to strengthen them for the successful conclusion of their work. Fear ye not!

⁶ For thus saith the Lord of hosts: ‘Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens and the earth, and the sea and the dry land.

— for thus saith the Lord of hosts, the same powerful God of the covenant who had entered into fellowship with them at Horeb, Yet once, it is a little while, but a short time as men reckon time, and the Lord will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land, in a mighty commotion involving practically the entire known world, such as took place when the Roman emperors ordered their periodical censuses of the empire.;

— as in Joel 3:16, “the earth will shake” that is, the whole world will be given a Mount Sinai experience as the children had when they came out of Egypt; so that the fear of the Lord will always be embedded in them, all the nations of the world to fear him; Exodus 19:16-18, 20:18-21.

⁷ And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come; and I will fill this house with glory,’ saith the Lord of hosts. — and the Lord of hosts will shake all nations, that is, every nation will be having a Mount Sinai experience as the Israelite had, all of them being drawn into this agitation, and the Desire of all nations, the long-expected Messiah, shall come; and the Lord will fill this house, now so lowly and unpretentious, with glory.

⁸ ‘The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine,’ saith the Lord of hosts. — the silver and the gold belong to the Lord of hosts, for which reason it would be a small matter for Him to fill any mere earthly house with ornamentation and treasures beyond the dreams of avarice. But that is not the Lord’s chief concern.

⁹ ‘The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former,’ saith the Lord of hosts. ‘And in this place will I give peace,’ saith the Lord of hosts.”

— the glory of this latter house, of the Millenium shall be greater than of that of Solomon’s, saith the Lord of hosts; and in this place will he give peace, namely, the peace of the redemption gained by the promised Messiah.

¹⁰ In the four and twentieth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet, saying,

— in the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, the month Chisleu, a little more than two months later, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the Lord by Haggai, saying,

¹¹ “Thus saith the Lord of hosts: Ask now the priests concerning the law, saying,

¹² ‘If one bear holy flesh in the skirt of his garment, and with his skirt toucheth bread, or pottage, or wine, or oil, or any meat, shall it be holy?’” And the priests answered and said, “No.”

— if one bear holy flesh in the skirt of his garment, namely, the meat of sacrifices which had been offered, and with his skirt do touch bread or pottage, any of the holy food that was sodden, or wine or oil or any meat, such as was used in offering sacrifices or in connection with sacrificial meals, shall it be holy?

— and the priests answered and said, No. This was in agreement with the Law, Leviticus 6:20-27; for though the garment itself was sanctified by such consecrated food, it could impart no holiness to one who, by neglecting the will of the Lord, had become unholy.

¹³ Then said Haggai, “If one who is unclean from a dead body touch any of these, shall it be unclean?” And the priests answered and said, “It shall be unclean.”

— then said Haggai, If one that is unclean by a dead body, by touching a corpse, touch any of these, shall it be unclean? And the priests answered and said, It shall be unclean, again in perfect agreement with the Law and Ordinances established since the days of Moses, Leviticus 22:4; Numbers 5:2; Numbers 9:10.

¹⁴ Then answered Haggai and said, “‘So is this people, and so is this nation before Me,’ saith the Lord, ‘and so is every work of their hands; and that which they offer there is unclean.

— then answered Haggai and said, So is this people, and so is this nation before the Lord, in his presence as Ruler and Judge; and so is every work of their hands, everything that they might undertake;

— Rashi: So is this people: Just as you err in this, so do you err in many halachot (‘Jewish’ Laws and Ordinances established since the days of Moses);

— and that which they offer there is unclean. The children of Israel were in disgrace because of their neglect to finish the house of the Lord, and though their land was holy land, consecrated to the Lord, yet its fruits found no favor in his eyes and could not serve to make the people clean by a mere outward service, as long as their hearts were not in the right relation to him, so that they were constrained to give him the worship which lie desired.

¹⁵ And now, I pray you, consider from this day and upward, from before a stone was laid upon a stone in the temple of the Lord:

— and now, I pray you, consider from this day and upward, by applying their hearts to this problem, from before a stone was laid upon a stone in the Temple of the Lord, before its reconstruction was resumed;

¹⁶ Since those days were, when one came to a heap of twenty measures, there were but ten. When one came to the wine vat to draw out fifty vessels out of the press, there were but twenty.

— since those days were, when one came to an heap of twenty measures, a stack of sheaves which promised a yield of twenty bushels or pecks, there were but ten; when one came to the press-fat for to draw out fifty vessels out of the press, thinking that the harvest should have brought that much, there were but twenty.

¹⁷ I smote you with blight and with mildew and with hail in all the labors of your hands; yet ye turned not to Me,’ saith the Lord.

— the Lord of hosts smote you with blasting, with blight of the fruits and grains, and with mildew, from excessive moisture, and with hail in all the labors of your hands, the harvests over which they had worked so hard; yet ye turned not to the Lord, all his punishments did not have the desired effect.

¹⁸ ‘Consider now from this day and upward, from the four and twentieth day of the ninth month, even from the day that the foundation of the Lord’S temple was laid, consider it:

— Consider now from this day and onward, applying their hearts to the consideration of that which pertained to their best interests, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, even from the day that the foundation of the Lord’s Temple was laid,

— consider it, for the entire period of time since the Jews, in accordance with the decree of Cyrus, had first laid the foundation till the day of the assembly at which these words were spoken, was a time during which the blessing of the Lord was not poured out in its fullest measure, because all their labor for the new Temple had been fitful.

¹⁹ Is the seed yet in the barn? Yea, as yet the vine, and the fig tree, and the pomegranate, and the olive tree hath not brought forth. From this day will I bless you.’”

— Is the seed yet in the barn? They were still suffering as a consequence of the shortage. Yea, as yet the vine and the fig-tree and the pomegranate and the olive-tree hath not brought forth, the results of their former lack of zeal were still in evidence; from this day will the Lord bless you;

— times would now change, since they were showing evidence of the change which had come over their hearts. If men turn to the Lord in true repentance, he may turn to them in mercy and give them blessings of this life in rich measure.

²⁰ And again the word of the Lord came unto Haggai in the four and twentieth day of the month, saying, — and again the word of the Lord came unto Haggai in the twenty-fourth day of the month, this being a second revelation on the same day, saying,

²¹ “Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying: ‘I will shake the heavens and the earth.

— Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, in a message of encouragement which was nevertheless intended for the entire assembly of returned exiles, the Lord will shake the heavens and the earth, setting their machinery in motion in the interest of his plans for his people;

— as in Joel 3:16 and Haggai 2:6 above, “and I will shake the heavens and the earth” that is, the whole world will be given a Mount Sinai experience as the children had when they came out of Egypt; so that the fear of the Lord will always be embedded in them, all the nations of the world to fear Him; Exodus 19:16-18, 20:18-21.

²² And I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms, and I will destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the heathen; and I will overthrow the chariots and those who ride in them, and the horses and their riders shall come down, every one by the sword of his brother.

— and the Lord of hosts will overthrow the throne of kingdoms, all the world-powers opposed to his reign and he will destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the heathen, all the forces of evil that are opposed to the Kingdom of God;

— and the Lord will overthrow the chariots and those that ride in them, the leaders of the hostile forces; and the horses and their riders shall come down, being overthrown and destroyed, everyone by the sword of his brother; for that, in the end is a condition which favors the Lord’s Kingdom, the fact that the enemies are often not at peace among themselves, but turn their weapons against one another.

²³ In that day,’ saith the Lord of hosts, ‘will I take thee, O Zerubbabel, My servant, the son of Shealtiel,’ saith the Lord, ‘and will make thee as a signet; for I have chosen thee,’ saith the Lord of hosts.”

— on that day, the Lord God will take thee, O Zerubbabel, my servant, and will make thee as a signet, a very precious possession in the eyes of its Oriental possessor; for the Lord have chosen thee;

— the fulfilment of tills prophecy is found in the Messiah, the son of David for he established the Kingdom of His father David in a most unique manner, as a spiritual rule and reign, which is to last throughout eternity. Cf Luke 1:32-33. The Targum says of Zerubbabel: “for in thee I am well pleased.”

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More on Zerubbabel, from Zechariah 4

¹⁰ For who hath despised the day of small things? For they shall rejoice and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven. They are the eyes of the Lord, which run to and fro through the whole earth.” — “the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven” and these seven are “the seven eyes of the Lord” which are also the seven spirits of God, sent forth “to and fro” into all the earth; Revelations 5:6;

— only a Divine Being could have seven eyes or seven spirits of the Lord “which run to and fro through the whole earth,” thus the Scriptures testify that Zerubbabel is the Son of God, the Messiah. Selah!

Posted in Minor Prophets

Zephaniah, the son of Cushi, who would be the most ancient of the prophets, and a contemporary of Jeremiah, Habakkuk, Amaziah and Uzziah, kings of Judah, about the year 625 BC when he is expressly said to prophesy in the days of Josiah.

Its theme is the great day of judgement, the Day of the Lord, or the Lord’s Day, upon Judah and Jerusalem, as well as upon the entire world in graphic details. His name, which is compounded of Saphon, to hide, and Yah the Lord, signifies the secrets of the Lord.

Zephaniah 1

¹ The word of the Lord which came unto Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah.

— the word of the Lord which came unto Zephaniah, the son of Cushi; when the name of a prophet and his father’s name are mentioned; he is a prophet, the son of a prophet; or whether a prince, a person of some great family, or maybe of the blood royal;

— the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hezekiah, four representative members from his ancestry being given; in the days of Josiah, the son of Amon, king of Judah, there were but three generations from him to Josiah, in whose days Zephaniah prophesied as though it is very probable that these progenitors of the prophet were men of note and character.

² “I will utterly consume all things from off the face of the land,” saith the Lord. — the Lord of host will utterly consume all things off the land, sweeping them off the face of the earth in an utter devastation.

³ “I will consume man and beast; I will consume the fowls of the heaven and the fishes of the sea, and the stumbling blocks with the wicked; and I will cut off man from off the land,” saith the Lord.

— God will make his judgement to consume man and beast, even the creatures being affected by the universality of the decision;

— he will consume the fowls of the heaven and the fishes of the sea and the stumbling-blocks with the wicked, that is, whatever men have offended and transgressed with together with the objects of their idolatry; he will cut off man from off the land, certainly destroying them off the face of the earth, in a great fiery destruction.

⁴ “I will also stretch out Mine hand upon Judah, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place, and the name of the Chemarim with the priests,

— God will also stretch out his hand upon Judah and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for the people of the land followed the inhabitants of the capital in their transgressions; and he will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place,

— for there were still such as adhered to his idolatrous worship, and the name of the Chemarim, the idol-priests, those engaged in the worship of Baal, with the priests, for these also had polluted themselves and were therefore destined for destruction;

— a parallel Scripture in Malachi 3:2 speaks of a “refiner’s fire” that shall purify the sons of Levi; hence within 700 years later, both the Boethusians, who hailed from Egyptian’s “idolatrous priests” and the Hellenised Sadducees, who played harlotry with the Greek gods of Zeus and goddess Athena, were consumed in the AD 70 inferno.

— the Boethusians and the Sadducees were members of two Jewish sects that, following the Samaritans, kept a heretic passover, and that flourished for a century or so before their destruction in the prophesied refiner’s purification of the Levites;

— the Essene/Qumran has their own 364 day solar calendar totally at odds with the calendrics of the Sanhedrin; they acted presumptuously by repudiating the Calendar that God has instituted through his Word; they, too, were wiped out during the AD 70 inferno.

⁵ and them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops, and them that worship and that swear by the Lord, and that swear by Milcom,

— and them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops, had a full view of the host of heaven, regarding the Sun, Moon and Stars as their gods; and them that worship and that swear by the Lord and that swear by their pagan deity, Malcham, so that they tried to combine the service of the true God and that of Baal, solemnly pledging themselves to the latter’s service;

— Israel being warned the danger of worshiping the heavenly bodies (Deuteronomy 4:19) and prescribed the death penalty for the crime of worshiping the sun, or the moon, or any of the “host of heaven” (Deuteronomy 17:2-7).

— a parallel in Jeremiah 8:2 the heads of the twenty-four courses of the priesthood, led by the high priest, making up the “twenty five men” were not only worshipping the SUN: they were doing so in the very temple of God, with their backs turned upon the presence of God!

— today, many pretending Christians honor the host of heaven with a pagan-named week and a paganised monthly calendar; and more than 98.5 percent of Christians are honouring the Sun by observing Sunday worship. They have “their backs toward the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the SUN toward the east; whose Godly penalty is to be “cut off” or “shalt stone them with stones” to death (Deuteronomy 17:5) – ’till they die (more at the end).

⁶ and them that are turned back from the Lord, and those that have not sought the Lord nor inquired for Him.” — and them that are turned back from the Lord, their backs against the Temple of the Lord;

— and their faces toward the east, worshipping the Sun; and those that have not sought the Lord nor enquired for him, both the openly wicked and the irreligious or else seeking advice from other gods: Egyptian, Babylonian, Greek or Roman.

⁷ Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord God, for the day of the Lord is at hand. For the Lord hath prepared a sacrifice; He hath bidden His guests.

— hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord God! ready to submit to his judgement as outlined above; for the day of the Lord—the Lord’s Day; as in Revelation 1:10; not Sunday but the day of his Judgement—is at hand, when his punishment must strike the transgressors;

— for the Lord hath prepared a sacrifice, the Jewish nation itself, his people the Jews, who were to fall to his justice, to atone for the injury done to their sins, he hath bid his guests, namely, the world-powers, the Chaldeans, the Greeks, the Romans and their allies, all ready to devour Judah.

⁸ “And it shall come to pass in the day of the Lord’S sacrifice, that I will punish the princes and the king’s children, and all such as are clothed with strange apparel.

— and it shall came to pass in the day of the Lord’s sacrifice, when his punishment is put into effect, that the Lord of host will punish the princes, the mighty ones, the dignitaries of state, and the king’s children, all those belonging to the royal family;

— and all such as are clothed with strange apparel, their dress showing that they were estranged from the national spirit and customs; the Targum says, “and upon all those that make a noise at the worship of idols.”

⁹ In the same day also will I punish all those that leap on the threshold, who fill their masters’ houses with violence and deceit.

— in the same day also God will punish all those that leap over the threshold, namely, that of the temple of Dagon, the idol of the Philistines, 1 Samuel 5:5 which fill their masters’ houses with violence and deceit;

— this also sounds like a dramatic transformed deceitful Mike Pompeo CIA’s “We lie, we cheat, we stole” in bringing power, wealth, money and influence, unjustly acquired through “violence and deceit” into the houses of the Pentagon which they hope to get away with impunity, for the moment at least;

— or the deeds and mischiefs of Victoria Nuland that she had created in Ukraine!

¹⁰ “And it shall come to pass in that day,” saith the Lord, “that there shall be the noise of a cry from the Fish Gate, and a howling from the Second, and a great crashing from the hills.

— and it shall come to pass in that day, the Lord’s Day, saith the Lord, that there shall be the noise of a cry, of a woeful shout, from the fish-gate, that through which the road to Joppa passed;

— and an howling from the second, from the lower city, where the attack of the enemy would be launched, and a great crashing from the hills, those extending upward from the lower city. The Lord set out to punish, and his Judgement was thorough, as it always is in the case of such as refuse to heed his warning.

¹¹ Howl, ye inhabitants of Maktesh, for all the merchant people are cut down; all they that bear silver are cut off.

— howl, ye inhabitants of Maktesh, meaning the mortar, a small section of Jerusalem, so called because it presented a depression or hollow; the Targum says differently, “howl, all ye that dwell in the valley of Kidron;”

— for all the merchant people are cut down, entirely destroyed; all they that bear silver, the traders laden with silver, who occupied that part of the lower city, are cut off by the sword of the enemy.

¹² And it shall come to pass at that time that I will search Jerusalem with candles, and punish the men that are settled on their dregs, that say in their heart, ‘The Lord will not do good, neither will He do evil.’

— and it shall come to pass at that time that the Lord of host will search Jerusalem with candles, investigating even the dark and hidden corners, so that not one of the wrong-doers is overlooked;

— that say in their heart, The Lord will not do good, neither will he do evil, which is a flat denial of his providence; saying that he takes no notice of what is done by men on earth, whether good or bad; and neither rewards the one, nor punishes the other;

— so the Targum says, “it is not the good pleasure of God to do good to the righteous, or to do evil to the wicked;” that is, there is no need of worry, matters will go on as they always have been.

¹³ Therefore their goods shall become a booty, and their houses a desolation. They shall also build houses, but not inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, but not drink the wine thereof.”

— therefore their wealth will be plundered by the enemies, and their houses a desolation, in the overthrow of the city;

— they shall also build houses, but not inhabit them, the destruction taking place before they can move into them, and they shall plant vineyards, but not drink the wine thereof. Cf Amos 5:11; Micah 6:15.

¹⁴ The great day of the Lord is near; it is near and hasteneth greatly, even the voice of the day of the Lord; the mighty man shall cry there bitterly.

— the great Day of the Lord, “the Lord’s Day” as in Revelation 1:10; not Sunday but the day of his Judgement is near; it is near and hasteth greatly, there will be no further delay, even the voice of the day of the Lord, or “Hark! the day of Yehovah”

— the mighty man shall cry there bitterly, the mighty men within the city of Jerusalem besieged, as was in AD 70; the Boethusian and Sadducaic elites of Jerusalem, crying in bitter lamentation, because he cannot save themselves, but must yield to the foe.

¹⁵ That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of waste and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness,

— that day is a day of wrath and judgement, Cf Isaiah 19:18, a day of trouble and distress, of anguish and pressure, Job 15:24, a day of wasteness and desolation, of the greatest devastation, a day of darkness and gloominess, Joel 2:2, a day of clouds and thick darkness, Deuteronomy 4:11,

¹⁶ a day of the trumpet and alarm against the fortified cities and against the high towers. — a day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, in proclaiming God’s power upon a sinful people,

— in the war-signal of desolation and against the high towers, these signify their princes, governors, magistrates and great men, well-protected by the battlements of their forts.

¹⁷ “And I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the Lord; and their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as the dung.”

— and the Lord of host will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, not knowing which way to go, groping about in a futile effort to escape from existing evils;

— because they have sinned against the Lord; and their blood shall be poured out as dust, in endless quantities, and their flesh as the dung, or their carcasses, that is, their dead bodies shall lie unburied, and rot and putrefy and shall be cast upon fields like dung, to fatten them.

¹⁸ Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord’S wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of His jealousy, for He indeed shall make a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.

— neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them; like the Medes when they took on Babylon, Isaiah 13:17 in the day of the Lord’s wrath, they would not be able to buy themselves off when His fury is once set in motion;

— but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy, his indignation for his honor; for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land, consuming them with a suddenness which they had not anticipated. Even so will the Day of Wrath come upon a world which, as a whole, is not prepared for the coming of the Lord’s Day of Judgement. Cf Matthew 24:44.

Zephaniah 2

¹ Gather yourselves together, yea, gather together, O nation not desired, — Gather yourselves together, yea, gather together; O nation not desired; that is, not desirable; unworthy of the favor of God;

— to call a solemn assembly, to gather the people, priests and elders together, to one place as for a penitential assembly with earnest self-examination, O nation not desired, literally, “that does not grow pale,” not desirable to God, which till now has felt no sense of shame,

— Rashi: O nation that has no desire: That has no desire to return to the Torah.

² before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you, before the day of the Lord’S anger come upon you!

— before the decree bring forth, when, according to God’s plan, the day of judgement upon Judah would suddenly come, before the day pass quickly as when the wind carries the chaff along, before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you, as it surely would if they would not show the proper repentance;

— the Targum explains more fully, “before the decree of the house of judgement come out upon you, and ye be like chaff which the wind blows away, and like a shadow which passes from before the day,” like the Boethusian and Sadducaic elites during the AD 70 inferno.

³ Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, who have wrought His judgement; seek righteousness, seek meekness; it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord’S anger.

— seek ye the Lord, in proper repentance, all ye meek of the earth, the humble of the land, those who were still disposed to be guided by his will, which have wrought his judgement, observed his right, trying to fulfill the decrees of his holy Word; seek righteousness, with ever greater truth and sincerity, seek meekness, with all humility, with a constant sense of their own unworthiness;

— it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord’s anger, so that the Lord would make use of mercy rather than in wrath and fierce anger and save them in the general overthrow. This exhortation is now supported by a reference to the doom of many nations;

— the Targum of the whole says, “seek the fear of the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, who do the judgements of his will; seek truth, seek meekness; it may be there will be a protection for you on the day of the Lord’s anger.”

Remember: the Targum is an indispensable source of understanding the Bible. Started by Ezra for those returning Jews from Babylon and for these returnees they could only understand the Sacred Text in Aramaic; hence the Targum is as if Ezra is speaking to us in modern times from the Sacred Text.

⁴ For Gaza shall be forsaken, and Ashkelon a desolation; they shall drive out Ashdod at the noonday, and Ekron shall be rooted up. — for Gaza shall be forsaken, overthrown and forgotten; and Ashkelon a desolation;

— they shall drive out Ashdod, the chief seat of the worship of Dagon, at the noon day, since she would be helpless even at midday, so that there would be no need of resorting to a night attack, and Ekron shall be rooted up. The four Philistine city-states mentioned here are clearly representative of the entire country.

⁵ Woe unto the inhabitants of the seacoast, the nation of the Cherethites! The word of the Lord is against you, O Canaan, the land of the Philistines: “I will even destroy thee, that there shall be no inhabitant.”

— Woe unto the inhabitants of the seacoast, of the plains along the Mediterranean sea, the nation of the Cherethites, for a part of the Philistines, at least, traced their descent to the ancient people of Crete;

— the word of the Lord is against you, O Canaan, the land of the Philistines, the word Canaan here applied chiefly to the lowlands of Palestine to the west; the Lord of host will even destroy thee that there shall be no inhabitant, the nation as such to be destroyed;

— Rashi: the nation of Cherethites: the people liable to destruction. Who are the inhabitants of the seacoast of Canaan, the land of the Philistines? The Philistines, who dwell on the coast of the western sea, in the west of Eretz lsrael, within its boundaries.

Although Jonathan explains this phrase homiletically as [the nation of] destruction, the nation of the Cherethites is a province of the Philistines; its name is Cherethi. So Scripture states (I Sam. 30:14) regarding Ziklag: “We made a raid upon the south of the Cherethites, etc.”

Jonathan translates: on the south of Cherethi. Below (ibid. 30:16) it is written: “Because of all the great spoil which they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from the land of Judah.”

— note: this seacoast in Cherethites is destined for destruction; yet the same seacoast in the next verses are prophesied to be a place of refuge for shepherds and folds of flocks – that is, the remnant of the house of Judah, for the Lord their God shall visit them and return them from captivity!

⁶ And the seacoast shall be dwellings and cottages for shepherds, and folds for flocks. — and the seacoast, then teeming with the life of rich commercial cities,

— shall be dwellings and cottages for shepherds, dugouts and shanties, or places for pastures where they would carry on the work of their calling, and folds for flocks, the land reverting to the use of nomads;

— Rashi: breakfast nooks for shepherds: a temporary dwelling where the shepherds eat bread in the morning. כְּרֹת is an expression related to (II Kings 6:23) “He prepared for them a lavish feast.”

— this is a prophecy: Yavne, where it is a “dwellings and cottages for shepherds and folds for flocks” on the Mediterranean coast, seems to fit this verse perfectly in a subtle way by God of referring to this seacoast!

— during the inferno in Jerusalem around AD 70, the Hillel branch of Pharisees, those of the House of Hillel, fled to Yavne. They were headed by a Pharisaic rabbi, Johanan ben Zakkai, the head of the Sanhedrin, he was smuggled out of besieged Jerusalem in a coffin;

— they escaped first to Yavne, and later to Tiberias; his followers re-emerged as Rabbinic Jews, who established the Hillel Calendar, which was revealed by Hillel II in about AD 359 concerning the rules of the calendar.

⁷ And the coast shall be for the remnant of the house of Judah; they shall feed thereupon. In the houses of Ashkelon shall they lie down in the evening; for the Lord their God shall visit them, and return them from captivity.

— and the coast shall be for the remnant of the house of Judah, those whom the Lord would lead hack to their own country; the Pharisees of the House of Hillel; they escaped to Yavne on the Mediterranean coast and, later, his followers re-emerged as Rabbinic Jews, who established the Hillel Calendar; they shall feed thereupon, making the country a pasture-ground; their God shall visit them, to make the nucleus of a renewed people, members of the Jewish nation that returned;

— Rashi: And it shall be a lot for the remnant of the house of Judah: And that border shall be a lot for the remnant. This חֶבֶל is an expression of a lot. In this manner, Jonathan rendered: And it shall be a lot for the remnant of the house of Judah.

— with them the Jews are also embedded with the Oral Law, the knowledge of where the Vowels are in the Scriptures (which were then written only in consonants and no spaces nor punctuations); and how and when to use them; Romans 3:1-4; see a Study here and here; or see The Word from Moses to King James; that’s why God provide a refuge for them; and bring them back from captivity!

⁸ “I have heard the reproach of Moab, and the revilings of the children of Ammon, whereby they have reproached My people, and magnified themselves against their border.

— the Lord of host have heard the reproach of Moab, Cf Jeremiah 48:27, and the revilings of the children of Amman, two people that descended from Lot, east of Jordan and of the Dead Sea, but later became the enemies of God’s people and made known their hostility in bitter blasphemies;

— whereby they have reproached God’s people, in mockery and scorn, they spoke reproachfully of the land of Israel, and magnified themselves against their border, acted violently against the boundary of the Lord’s people, constantly attempting to get into possession of some of Israel’s territory;

— Rashi: who taunted My people: When [the people of] Israel were being led into exile toward the land of the Chaldeans, and they were passing through Ammon and Moab, and they would see Israel weeping, sighing, and crying out, they would taunt them and say, “Why are you suffering? Aren’t you going to your father’s house? Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the river from earliest times.” (Josh. 24:2).

⁹ Therefore as I live,” saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, “surely Moab shall be as Sodom, and the children of Ammon as Gomorrah” even the breeding of nettles and salt pits, and a perpetual desolation. The residue of My people shall despoil them, and the remnant of My people shall possess them.”

— therefore as the Lord of host lives, the God of Israel, the Supreme Ruler of the world, Surely Moab shall be as Sodom, and the children of Amman as Gomorrah, being overwhelmed by the destruction which was the fate of their ancestor’s cities;

— even the breeding of nettles, a plant with pointed leave; a weed growing only in desolate places, and salt-pits, on the shore of the Dead Sea, and a perpetual desolation, a waste, barren and uncultivated; a desert until the end of time; the residue of God’s people shall spoil them, take possession of their land, and the remnant of his people shall possess them; that is, the Jews, the remnant of them that returned from Babylon: these events being typical of the destruction of the sinners in contrast to the redemption of the Lord’s people;

— Rashi: for Moab shall be like Sodom: You, too, shall return to your previous dwelling. Was not your father, Lot, from Sodom?

¹⁰ This shall they have for their pride, because they have reproached and magnified themselves against the people of the Lord of hosts.

— this shall they have for their (that of the Moabites and Ammonites) pride, in proper retaliation for the manner in which they had dealt with Yehovah’s people, because they have reproached and magnified themselves against the people of the Lord of hosts; they spoke contemptibly of them, of their nation and religion.

¹¹ The Lord will be fearsome unto them; for He will famish all the gods of the earth; and men shall worship Him, every one from his place, even all the isles of the heathen.

— the Lord will be terrible unto the Moabites and Ammonites; dealing with them in a manner which is hound to strike terror to their hearts; for he will famish, make them extremely hungry, or be destroyed;

— all the gods of the earth, all the idols in which men placed their trust: Dagon, Chemosh, Molech, Bel, Astarte, Mithra or Mitra (the Sun-God whose birthday many drunks honor and celebrate on December 25th), Zeus and others; called “gods of the earth” in distinction from the God of heaven; and men shall worship these earthly gods, acknowledging their supremacy, everyone from his place, Protestants or Catholics alike, even all the isles of the heathen, that is, men from every nation of the earth.

¹² “Ye Ethiopians also, ye shall be slain by My sword.” — ye Ethiopians also, not just Ethiopians in Africa but all beyond Egypt, ye shall be slain by my Sword, an instrument in the hand of God for punishing all the nations of the earth.

¹³ And He will stretch out His hand against the north and destroy Assyria, and will make Nineveh a desolation and dry like a wilderness.

— and the Lord of host will stretch out his hand against the North and destroy Assyria, powerful though it was at that time, and will make Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, Jonah 1:2, a desolation, although it was then surrounded by a network of irrigation canals, and dry like a wilderness.

¹⁴ And flocks shall lie down in the midst of her, all the beasts of the nations: both the cormorant and the bittern shall lodge in the upper lintels of it: their voice shall sing in the windows; desolation shall be in the thresholds; for He shall uncover the cedar work.

— and flocks shall lie down in the midst of her, the former great city had been leveled to the ground and reverted back to a pasture-ground, all the beasts of the nations, beasts of all kinds in droves or great masses;

— both the cormorant, the pelicans, and the bittern, or hedge-hog, shall lodge in the upper lintels of it, on the capitals of pillars standing in the midst of the ruins; their voice shall sing in the windows, or “hark how tile singer sings in the window,” where he has built his nest; desolation, or dirt, shall be in the thresholds; for the Lord of hosts shall uncover the cedar work, all the beautiful cedar paneling of their palaces the Lord has torn away, and it has fallen into decay;

— Rashi: for the cedarwork has been destroyed: For he has uprooted its cedars, as in (Ps. 137:7) “Raze it, raze it.” Jonathan rendered: And they demolished its roof. That is the roof of the house that is ceiled with cedar; even stone houses are ceiled with boards of wood.

¹⁵ This is the rejoicing city that dwelt without care, that said in her heart, “I am, and there is none besides me.” How she has become a desolation, a place for beasts to lie down in! Every one that passeth by her shall hiss and wag his hand.

— this is the rejoicing city, where shouts of gaiety were heard without ceasing, that dwelt carelessly, in perfect security; that said in her heart, in proud self-confidence, I am, and there is none beside me.

— How is she become a desolation, a deserted place, a place for beasts to lie down in, a lair for the animals of the desert. Everyone that passeth by her shall hiss and wag his head, in scorn and derision, both astonished and gratified at the overthrow of the proud city, a consequence of the ending in which the Lord carried out his judgements upon his enemies.

Zephaniah 3

¹ Woe to her that is filthy and polluted, to the oppressing city! — Woe to her that is filthy and polluted, meaning the city of Jerusalem,

— and its inhabitants; not just before the Babylonish captivity, but after their return, under the second temple, stubborn and full of uncleanness.

² She obeyed not the voice; she received not correction; she trusted not in the Lord; she drew not near to her God.

— she obeyed not the voice of his servants the prophets, paying no attention to the Lord’s admonitions; she received not correction, the instruction or discipline which was intended to be of benefit to her; she trusted not in the Lord, placing no confidence in his exhortations and promises; she drew not near to her God, she has become indifferent to Yehovah.

³ Her princes within her are roaring lions; her judges are evening wolves, they gnaw not the bones till the morrow.

— her princes within her are roaring lions, bent upon rapine and murder; her judges are evening wolves of civil magistrates in common; the members of the Sanhedrin; their princes with their mouths like ravening and roaring lions driven forth by hunger in the evening;

— their greed being insatiable; they gnaw not the bones till the morrow, that is, they leave not the bones till the morning; they are so hungry that they eat up bones and all at once, their voracious appetite causing them to devour their victims instantly.

⁴ Her prophets are light and treacherous persons; her priests have polluted the sanctuary, they have done violence to the law.

— her false prophets are light and treacherous, dishonest, unscrupulous, boastful and faithless; her priests have polluted the Sanctuary, desecrating the Temple by their neglect of the prescribed sacrifices or by their blasphemous manner in offering them; they have done violence to the Law, simply setting aside the precepts of God whose guardians they were supposed to be.

⁵ The just Lord is in the midst thereof; He will not do iniquity: Every morning doth He bring His judgement to light, He faileth not. But the unjust knoweth no shame.

— the just Lord is in the midst thereof, he, the righteous One, having left nothing untried; he will not do iniquity, he commits no wrong; every morning doth he bring his judgement to light, giving evidence of the justice of all his dealings;

— he faileth not, no blame, therefore, rests on him. But the unjust knoweth no shame, the wicked people of Jerusalem are not influenced either by the example of God or by his threat of punishment.

⁶ “I have cut off the nations; their towers are desolate; I made their streets waste, that none passeth by; their cities are destroyed, so that there is no man, that there is no inhabitant.

— the Lord of host have cut off the nations, also as an act of warning Israel; their towers are desolate, their walls and fortresses leveled to the ground; the Lord made their streets waste, the roads obliterated, that none passeth by their cities are destroyed, so that there is no man, that there is none inhabitant, all this being done, in part at least, to serve as an example of warning to the people of Jerusalem and Judah.

⁷ I said, ‘Surely thou wilt fear Me, thou wilt receive instruction’—so their dwelling should not be cut off, howsoever I punished them; but they rose early and corrupted all their doings.

— the Lord of host said, Surely thou wilt fear me, the kindness and tenderness of the warning being emphasized; thou wilt receive instruction, if only thou wouldst suffer thyself to be taught!

— so their dwelling should not be cut off, howsoever the Lord of host punished them, or “in accordance with all that the Lord had appointed them” that is, Yehovah still hoped to have mercy on them, so that he would not have to send the threatened punishment;

— but they rose early, zealous for their wicked works, and corrupted all their doings, they were eager to speed their perverted actions, their infamous deeds. Thus many a godless person refuses to heed the Lord’s call to repentance and deliberately plunges all the more deeply into transgressions of every kind.

⁸ “Therefore wait ye upon Me,” saith the Lord, “until the day that I rise up to the prey; for My determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them Mine indignation, even all My fierce anger; for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of My jealousy.

— therefore wait ye upon the Lord, this merciful invitation being extended to all who will still listen to his words, until the day that the Lord rise up to the prey, when he pours out his wrath upon the nations;

— for his determination is to gather the nations, to carry out his punishment upon them, that the Lord may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them his indignation, even all his fierce anger, all the burning wrath which he has stored tip against them;

— for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of his jealousy, by the zeal which he would show on his Day of Judgement. That is the promise of the Millennium, the elimination of the enemies as a factor in interfering with the progress of the Lord’s Kingdom;

— as in Joel 3:16, “the earth will shake” or here “all the earth shall be devoured with the fire” that is, the whole world will be given a Mount Sinai experience as the children had when they came out of Egypt; so that the fear of the Lord will always be embedded in them, all the nations of the world to fear him; Exodus 19:16-18, 20:18-21.

⁹ For then will I return to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the Lord, to serve Him with one accord.

— for then will the Lord of host turn to the people a pure language, by purifying their sinful lips and thereby enabling them to call upon him with pure lips, that they may all call upon the name of the Lord, Yehovah, in the true unity of a common faith to serve him with one consent, literally, “with one shoulder,” all bearing together the pleasant yoke of our great God.

¹⁰ From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia My suppliants—even the daughter of My dispersed—shall bring Mine offering.

— from beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, from the remotest corners of the earth, the Lord’s suppliants, those who would worship Yehovah in spirit and in truth, even the daughter of his dispersed, gained for the Lord from the midst of a strange nation, shall bring his offering, turning to him with true worship.

¹¹ “In that day shalt thou not be ashamed for all thy doings wherein thou hast transgressed against Me; for then I will take away out of the midst of thee them that rejoice in thy pride, and thou shalt no more be haughty because of My holy mountain.

— in that day shalt thou, the restored Israel, the Kingdom of God, not be ashamed for all thy doings wherein thou hast transgressed against him, there being no more occasion for such a feeling;

— for then the Lord of host will take away out of the midst of thee them that rejoice in thy pride, the wicked and blasphemous whom the prophet had described at the beginning of the Chapter, and thou shalt no more be haughty because of his holy mountain, all boastfulness and pride being eliminated in favor of a meek and humble submission to Yehovah’s reign of mercy.

¹² I will also leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of the Lord.

— the Lord of host will also leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people, one fully conscious of its absolute dependence upon the grace and mercy of God, and they shall trust in the name of the Lord, Yehovah, placing all their confidence in him alone.

¹³ The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity nor speak lies, neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth; for they shall feed and lie down, and none shall make them afraid.”

— the remnant of Israel, the nucleus of the Kingdom, which would become the stock of the Kingdom of God, shall not do iniquity, not willfully serve wickedness, nor speak lies, becoming guilty of deliberate falsehood,

— neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth, particularly so far as false doctrine is concerned; for they shall feed, of the rich pasture offered by the Good Shepherd, and lie down, in calm satisfaction, and none shall make them afraid. Cf Micah 7:14; Psalms 23.

¹⁴ Sing, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O Israel! Be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem!

— Sing, O daughter of Zion, the Kingdom of God; shout, O Israel, namely, the spiritual Israel; be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem, for the communion of the elect is established in the Jerusalem which is above. Cf Galatians 4:26.

¹⁵ The Lord hath taken away thy judgments; He hath cast out thine enemy. The King of Israel, even the Lord, is in the midst of thee; thou shalt not see evil any more.

— the Lord of host hath taken away thy judgements, the sentences of condemnation which had rightly been spoken upon her on account of her sins;

— he hath cast out thine enemy, sweeping away the world-power which personified all the hostile forces of the world. The King of Israel, even the Lord, is in the midst of thee, namely, in the person of the Messiah; thou shalt not see evil any more, his blessings removing everything that might bring evil.

¹⁶ In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, “Fear thou not”; and to Zion, “Let not thine hands be slack.

— in that day, in the great Messianic period, it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear thou not, this being the fundamental note of the Kingdom of God, no more weird stories from either the paganised Christmas or Easter shows; and to Zion, Let not thine hands be slack, namely, in terror at the prospect of danger and affliction from without.

¹⁷ The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; He will save, He will rejoice over thee with joy; He will rest in His love, He will joy over thee with singing.”

— the Lord, thy God, the Lord of host in the midst of thee is mighty, not at a dim distance, but in the closest proximity, and powerful to help; he will save, that’s his name Yeshua, he is the Savior;

— he will rejoice over thee with joy, in his delight over the renewal of the marriage covenant between himself and his Church; he will rest in his love, in quiet satisfaction; he will joy over thee, after his meditation has proved so satisfactory, with singing. Moreover, the Lord will let all humble and afflicted partake of his joy.

¹⁸ “I will gather them that are sorrowful for the solemn assembly, who are of thee, to whom the reproach of it was a burden.

— the Lord of host will gather them that are sorrowful for the solemn assembly, mourning far from the festive gathering when the Lord would make his salvation known, who are of thee, they were of the same family and descent, but were now far removed from the visible congregation of the Lord, to whom the reproach of it was a burden, who felt the weight of their captivity among the heathen nations.

¹⁹ Behold, at that time I will undo all that afflict thee; and I will save her that is halt, and gather her that was driven out; and I will get them praise and fame in every land where they have been put to shame.

— behold, at that time, in the Millennium, the Lord of host will undo all that afflict thee, dealing with the oppressors according to his justice; and he will save her that halteth, heal the limping, and gather her that was driven out, those who were dispersed;

— and he will get them praise and fame in every land where they have been put to shame, so that the name of the Lord’s people would be celebrated everywhere.

²⁰ At that time will I bring you back, even in the time that I gather you; for I will make you a name and a praise among all people of the earth, when I bring back your captives before your eyes,” saith the Lord.

— at that time will the Lord of host bring you again, the calling of the Lord to join his Kingdom being an act of his mercy, even in the time that I gather you, in his Kingdom;

— for he will make you a name and a praise among all people of the earth, when he turn back your captivity before your eyes, saith the Lord. The fulfillment of this prophecy is clearly found in the gathering of the Kingdom, its members being called from the various nations of the earth, and the consummation and climax will be reached in the eventual complete deliverance from this present evil world as the Kingdom of God opens its portals.

~~~

Facing the East, worship the host of heaven (Zephaniah 1:5; Ezekiel 8:16); worshipping the Sun:

— the worship of heavenly bodies was against God’s will which Moses had warned the people (Deuteronomy 4:19, 17:3, whose penalty “and shalt stone them with stones” is to be stoned to death, Deuteronomy 17:5 ’till they die).

— those 25 men in Ezekiel 8:16 corrupted themselves by worshipping the sun; and so the Targum renders it, “and, lo, they corrupted themselves, worshipping facing the east the sun; their backs toward the temple of the Lord” — they turned their backs against the most holy place; which is an aggravation of their impiety; casting the utmost contempt for God:

Moses’ warnings in Deuteronomy 17

³ And [if you] hath gone and served other gods and worshipped them, either the sun or moon or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded, ⁴ and it be told thee, and thou hast heard of it and inquired diligently, and behold, it be true and the thing certain that such abomination is wrought in Israel, ⁵ then shalt thou bring forth that man or that woman who has committed that wicked thing unto thy gates, even that man or that woman, and shalt stone them with stones till they die. Deuteronomy 17:3-5

The following quotation show that the first Christians understood the Sabbath but were made forbidden and gathered for worship on Sunday: “Christians should not Judaize and should not be idle on the Sabbath, but should work on that day; they should, however, particularly reverence the Lord’s day and, if possible, not work on it, because they were Christians” (Canon 29 AD 360);

— also, Days of the Week Names: “Sunday” is the Sun’s day and “Monday” is the Moon’s day. “Tuesday” is Tiw’s day; Tiw is an Anglo-Saxon god of war. “Wednesday” comes from Woden, the Anglo-Saxon king of the gods; in Saxon the name is Wodnesdaeg. “Thursday” is Thursdaeg, Thor’s day; Thor is a Norse god of thunder, lightning and storms. “Friday” is Frigedaeg, Frigga’s day; Frigg is a Norse goddess of home, marriage and fertility. “Saturday” is Saeterndaeg, Saturn’s day; Saturn is an ancient Roman god of fun and feasting;

— Months of the Year Names: January (derived from the Latin Januarius) is to honor their Roman gods Janus; and March, named for Mars, is the Roman mighty god of war; February is derived from the Februa festival or its eponymous februa (“purifications, expiatory offerings”); April relates to what the Romans called the month Aprilis; from a word meaning “to open” and further back from Aphrodite, the Greek name for the goddess of love. May – named for Maia, is the Roman goddess of spring and growth;

— June is a name attributed to Juno, the female mighty wife of Jupiter in Roman mythology. She is also called the “Queen of Heaven” and “Queen of Mighty Ones.” July is to honor Julius Caesar; the Roman Senate named it “Julius” in honor of Roman emperor Julius Caesar. August honor Julius Caesar’s successor, the emperor Augustus; and the months September, October, November, and December are archaic adjectives derived from the ordinal numbers 7 to 10;

— do you think we can get away from God’s wrath and judgement by repudiating his Word and his Calendar; adopping paganisation and get away with impunity?

— today, more than 98.5 percent of Christians are honouring the Sun by observing Sunday worship. They have “their backs toward the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the SUN toward the east; whose Godly penalty is to be stoned to death – ’till they die.

— also, following the SUN-worshipping Samaritans, most Church of God Communities are showing their contempt for God by having their “wavesheaf offering” and Pentecost on a Sunday; always on a Sunday. And these are supposedly in God’s Sanctuary, but God says he is a jealous God, so these pretentious Christians could be spewed out of his mouth! A death penalty – ’till they die!

Posted in Minor Prophets

The last of the prophets, Malachi begins with a prophecy of a forerunner of the coming of the Messiah; and the effects and consequences of his coming, and the prophecy of uniting the messages of the Father of the Old Testament and the Son in the New.

Malachi 3

¹ “Behold, I will send My messenger, and he shall prepare the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, shall suddenly come to His temple, even the Messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in. Behold, He shall come,” saith the Lord of hosts.

— behold, the Lord of hosts will send his messenger, the special prophet spoken of Isaiah 40:3, who was John the Baptist, the passage upon which the present statement is evidently founded, and he shall prepare the way before me, Mark 1:3; and the Lord whom ye seek, the Son of God, and promised Messiah, for whose who were so anxiously waiting;

— shall suddenly come to his Temple; and here Simeon, Anna and others were waiting for him, Luke 2:22; appeared suddenly to dwell in the midst of his people, of his Church, even the Messenger of the Covenant, the Son of God Himself, whom ye delight in, namely, all those who still desire the covenant of the Lord with his people to he fulfilled;

— behold, so the announcement is once more made with impressive solemnity, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. This is the preaching of the Kingdom of God in order to prepare the hearts for the great coming of Yehovah.

² “But who may abide the day of His coming? And who shall stand when He appeareth? For He is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap. — but who may abide the day of his coming? be able to endure that Day of Judgement upon the disobedient and secure? Cf Matthew 3:8-12; Luke 3:9. And who shall stand when he appeareth? Cf Joel 2:11.

— for he is like a refiner’s fire, separating pure doctrines from ones of dross compared to fire, Jeremiah 23:29; false ones shall be burned like chaff, or which separates the dross from the pure metal, and like fullers’ soap, thoroughly to cleanse the garment of His Church from all impurities;

— the Syriac version says, “as sulphur that makes white.”

³ And He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; and He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.

— and he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, the entire Messianic era being a time of testing and of judgement, John 9:39, culminating in the final day of Judgement;

— and he shall purify the sons of Levi, for the judgement begins at the house of God, and purge them as gold and silver that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness, so that all the members of the Millenium priesthood, in fact, might serve him in holiness and righteousness;

— the “refiner’s fire” shall purify the sons of Levi; both the Boethusians, who hailed from the Egyptian paganism and the Hellenised Sadducees, who played harlotry with Greek gods, couldn’t escape the consuming inferno in AD 70. The Boethusians and the Sadducees were members of two Jewish sects that kept a heretic passover, and that flourished for a century or so before their destruction in the prophesied refiner’s purification of the Levites;

— but the inferno in AD 70 could also be a microcosm of the end-time Captivity!

For more into another Captivity: see Ezekiel Timeline – 190/40 Years
For more about a prophecy of Esau or Edom, see Obadiah
For more on the enemy from the South, see A Sword from the South!

⁴ Then shall the offering of Judah and of Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord, as in the days of old and as in former years.

— after the “refiner’s fire” then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord, the entire Church worshiping him in spirit and in truth, as in the days of Moses, when the children of Israel were still in truth as His chosen.

⁵ “And I will come near to you in judgement; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers and against the adulterers, and against those who swear falsely, and against those who oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, and those who turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not Me,” saith the Lord of hosts.

— and I will come near to you to judgement, namely, the judgement of wrath upon the wicked; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, the transgressors of the First and Second Commandments; the Targum says, “my Word shall be among you for a swift witness,”

— and against the adulterers, those disregarding the Sixth Commandment, and against false swearers, with reference both to the Second and the Eighth Commandments, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, by withholding them altogether or by underpaying him;

— for more, see: Who is Ephraim, a Chronic Liar?

— the widow, and the fatherless, as being without a natural protector, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, Cf Deuteronomy 27:19, and fear not me, saith the Lord of hosts, this last point indicating the source of all iniquity lack of the fear of the Lord.

⁶ “For I am the Lord, I change not. Therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. — for I am Yehovah, I change not, I’m also the Everlasting, the Eternal indicating that He is the same from everlasting to everlasting;

— the Targum says, “for I the Lord have not changed my covenant.”

— therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed, literally, “and ye, the Sons of Jacob, ye are not yet consumed,” that is, the Lord will keep the true spiritual Israel safe while he sends his judgement upon the wicked in their midst. Even so the Church of God may also go into Captivity in the midst of hypocrisy and deceit, while the wicked will finally be destroyed;

— but some sects escaped death during the inferno of AD 70; were not consumed:

(1) the Christians, known as Nazarenes in Acts 24:5. They escaped to a northern town called Pella, west of the Jordan River; these were those that acknowledged Yeshua as the Messiah and keeping God’s laws, statutes and ordinances;

(2) the Hillel branch of Pharisees, those of the House of Hillel. They were headed by a Pharisaic rabbi, Johanan ben Zakkai, the head of the Sanhedrin, he was smuggled out of besieged Jerusalem in a coffin. They escaped to Yavne, and later to Tiberias; his followers re-emerged as Rabbinic Jews, who established the Hillel Calendar, which was revealed by Hillel II in about AD 359 concerning the rules of the calendar.

— the Shammites branch of Pharisees, together with the wicked Boethusians and Sadducees, all were deemed as chaff and were consumed during the inferno of AD 70. Take heed! This is God’s judgement!

⁷ “Even from the days of your fathers, ye have gone away from Mine ordinances and have not kept them. Return unto Me, and I will return unto you,” saith the Lord of hosts. “But ye said, ‘In what manner shall we return?’

— even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances and have not kept them, this being the reason why he has withheld the fullness of his blessing and salvation from them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts, his appeal being made in all sincerity, since he wants all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth;

— but ye said, still blind toward their transgressions, Where shall we return? They did not realize that the real service of Yehovah must be a growth from within, from a heart which lives in his fear, keeping his laws, statutes and ordinances. Therefore the prophet asks, in turn, in order to arouse them to a consciousness of the true meaning of worship,

⁸ Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed Me! But ye say, ‘Wherein have we robbed Thee?’ In tithes and offerings. — will a man rob God, defraud him? Is not the very idea preposterous and revolting? Yet ye have robbed me, actually trying to defraud Yehovah of the service which he rightly expected;

— but ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? And the answer is, in tithes and offerings, keeping back from the priests and Levites their dues, for these the people had deliberately withheld, thus making a mockery of their worship of Yehovah.

⁹ Ye are cursed with a curse; for ye have robbed Me, even this whole nation. — ye are cursed with a curse, as a consequence of such behavior; for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation,

— for the practice rebuked was general among the people; the first-fruits of their ground and cattle and other offerings which were allotted to the priests, Deuteronomy 18:4, out of which revenue they were to provide the daily sacrifices and also to maintain the Levites, who attended upon the service in the Temple; therefore he admonishes them with great solemnity:

¹⁰ Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in Mine house, and put Me to the proof now herewith,” saith the Lord of hosts, “if I will not open to you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.

— bring ye all the tithes, the entire tithes, not only a part, into the storehouse, not keeping back a part, as heretofore, that there may be meat in mine house, provision for the daily sacrifices, and for the maintenance of the priests and Levites, as food for his servants, Numbers 18:24;

— and prove me now herewith, to find out whether he is not still the same righteous and holy God as of old, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing, in plentiful harvests, that there shall not be room enough to receive it, your prosperity being practically limitless.

¹¹ And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground, neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field,” saith the Lord of hosts.

— and God will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, not permitting the locusts or caterpillar or any such devouring creature that eats up the herbage, corn and fruits of trees; to devour the crops, to ravage the land; and these creatures shall not destroy the fruits of your ground, all the ordinary field-crops;

— neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts, that is, that these devourers or locusts, that they should not cause the vine to be abortive; the grapes would not fall before they had matured.

¹² “And all nations shall call you blessed, for ye shall be a delightsome land,” saith the Lord of hosts. — and when they shall see the land freed from the devouring locusts,

— all nations shall call you blessed, praising them for the obvious blessings which they enjoyed as a gift of Yehovah; for ye shall be a delightsome land, as seen by your neighbouring nations, an object of pleasure, saith the Lord of hosts.

¹³ “Your words have been defiant against Me,” saith the Lord. “Yet ye say, ‘What have we spoken so much against Thee?’

— you have spoken arrogantly against me, saith the Lord, namely, in the murmuring which he has rebuked above. Yet ye say, What have we spoken against thee? The Lord’s answer through his prophet is;

¹⁴ Ye have said: ‘It is vain to serve God; and what profit is it that we have kept His ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts?

— when you said, ‘it doesn’t pay to serve God; what do we ever get out of it? It is vain to serve God, it does not pay; and what profit is it that we have kept his laws, statutes and ordinances, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts? with all indications of deep sorrow and mourning over their sins. Their complaint was that it was poor business, that it did not pay.

¹⁵ So now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered.’”

— and now we call the proud and arrogant, they had actually reached the stage when they praised the wicked, with their apparent happiness in matters of this world; yea, they that work wickedness are set up, they abound in riches and honours; they are set in high places; they are the lucky ones, in their presumptuous opinion;

— yea, they that tempt God are even delivered, as if they tried to provoke him, even these men escape those dangers and calamities; they have no misfortune, they have everything that their heart desires; they seem to escape judgement and go on with impunity.

¹⁶ Then those who feared the Lord spoke often one to another, and the Lord hearkened and heard it. And a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who feared the Lord and who thought upon His name.

— then, namely, when the scoffers were making these blasphemous remarks, they that feared the Lord spoke often one to another, they made it a practise to encourage one another over against such blasphemous talk;

— and the Lord hearkened and heard it, by the omniscience of God, who hearkens and hears everything; he paid attention to their remarks, and a book of remembrance, records, annals and chronicles was written before him for them that feared the Lord and that thought upon his name, the subject of their conversations being things which pertained to his glory.

¹⁷ “And they shall be Mine,” saith the Lord of hosts, “in that day when I make up My jewels; and I will spare them as a man spareth his own son who serveth him.

— and they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, the precious people of his inheritance, 1 Peter 2:9, in that day when God make up his jewels, when he would impart to them the fullness of his glory;

— and God will spare them, in manifesting his tender mercies upon them and as a man spareth his own son that serveth him, ready to show his love and goodness in such an instance.

¹⁸ Then shall ye return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth Him not.

— then shall ye, those who were now grumbling, return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, noting the difference between the two classes, the difference between such who are really and truly righteous, who are here meant, even such who believe in Christ and keeping his laws, statutes and ordinances;

— those that are justified by his righteousness; and those that are wicked, also in the manner in which God dealt with them, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not. The time of judgement is still at hand, but infidels and scoffers and by their characters and judgement that will be issued to them by the Judge; and the different sentences passed and executed on them;

— doing his commandments is the final reward, that is, fulfilling the laws, statutes and ordinances:

I am Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.”

Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the Tree of Life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. Revelation 22:13-14

Malachi 4

¹ “For behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly shall be stubble. And the day that cometh shall burn them up,” saith the Lord of hosts, “that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.

— for, behold, the day cometh, the day before Christ’s return, reaching to a global destruction, is compared to a burning oven; the wicked to stubble, whose ruin would be utter and complete being considered a day of sifting;

— because it culminates in the Day of Judgement, that shall burn as an oven, one which holds the refiner’s fire; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble, under the fire of His wrath, Cf Matthew 3:10-12;

— and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, Cf Isaiah 5:24; Zephaniah 1:18, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch, which signifies complete destruction; the final, eternal destruction of the wicked being coincidental with the last Judgement. Such is the terrible fate of those who do not avail themselves of the Lord’s mercy.

² But unto you that fear My name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in His wings; and ye shall go forth and grow up as calves from the stall.

— but unto you that fear God’s name, Malachi 3:16, whose names were written in the book of remembrance; who loved the laws of their God, and kept them, shall the Sun of Righteousness, the Messiah, with the fullness of his power;

— arise with healing in His wings, by which are meant its rays and beams of his righteousness sent out through his Word; and ye shall go forth, with joyfully uplifted heads, and grow up as calves of the stall, in strength, vigour and spiritual stature, nourished by the Word of God. Cf John 1:14.

³ And ye shall tread down the wicked, for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this,” saith the Lord of hosts.

— and ye shall tread down the wicked, whose final overthrow is consistently prophesied in Scripture; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet, the ashes of the wicked, powerless and worthless; like the ashes of the Boethusians and the Sadducees, were destroyed in the inferno of Jerusalem, and many of them burned to ashes in the flames in the latter day by which it will similarly be consumed.

— in the day that God shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts. All believers are happy in their faith, in the enjoyment of God’s mercy; they enjoy true liberty and will finally celebrate an eternal victory over all their enemies. The prophet therefore, in concluding his message, adds an admonition:

⁴ “Remember ye the Law of Moses, My servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgements. — remember ye the Laws (statutes and ordinances) of Moses, God’s servant; they were apt to forget: hence this exhortation is given now,

— because no other prophet after Malachi would be sent unto them, which God had commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgements, the Word which contained His solemn covenant; to be observed by the children of Israel, and which were shadows of things to come;

⁵ “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. — behold, God will send you Elijah, the prophet, a prophet like him,

— namely, John the Baptist, the forerunner of the Messiah, Matthew 11:10-14; Matthew 17:10-13; Luke 1:17, before the coming of the great and dreadful Day of the Lord, Joel 2:31, namely, before the Lord himself would begin his administration, which ushered in the Millennium, just after the Final Judgement;

⁶ And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.” — and “Elijah the prophet” shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children and the heart of the children to their fathers,

— this shows in what John’s office would consist: in the turning of men to God, and uniting the father and children in one act of reconciliation: so that the father will turn to the religion of his son who is converted to Christ, and the son will embrace the faith of their true fathers: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob;

— in having them both realize the love of the Father in sending his Son, the Messiah and in the subsequent salvation wrought for all men, Luke 1:17, or uniting the Chosens of the Old Testament who are their fathers in the faith to Elects of the New who are their children; or a link between the testaments;

— lest the Lord of hosts will come and smite the earth with a curse, namely, in the event that men will not heed the preaching of repentance and the forgiveness of sins. The Jews as a nation rejected the Messiah and have come under the curse as in AD 70 and AD 132. But this did not result in the overthrow of the Kingdom of God and the Church. The Elect, rather, has heeded and is heeding the Word of God and would enjoy the fullness of the blessings promised throughout the Old and New Testament; thus uniting the messages of both the Father and Son. Selah!

And finally, after the Final Judgement, these are the true elect—all have the common traits of keeping God’s Commandments—that shall be saved:

“And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and he went to make war with the remnant of her seed, who keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ” Revelation 12:17

“Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus” Revelation 14:12

“Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the Tree of Life, and may enter in through the gates into the city” Revelation 22:14

Posted in Minor Prophets

Malachi spoke to the Jewish exiles some 100 years after their initial return, after the days of Zechariah and Haggai; he served God either at the time of Nehemiah or immediately after his time. So although Zechariah was the last of the prophets, the more commonly accepted opinion is that Malachi was the last; hence he was regarded “the end of the prophets.”

Malachi 1

¹ The burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by the hand of Malachi. — the burden of the word of the Lord to Israel; by which is meant the prophecy of this book, so called because it is heavy, burdensome and distressful, either for the prophet to carry or the people to bear;

² “I have loved you,” saith the Lord. “Yet ye say, ‘Wherein hast Thou loved us?’ Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” saith the Lord. “Yet I loved Jacob,

— God reminds them that the Idumeans, were descended from Abraham as well as they, and from a progenitor who was their own brother to their progenitor Jacob: the message was that the birthright may not have been given to Jacob but more importantly it was God’s love to the house of Israel;

— who is Esau today? The answer lies in the book of Obadiah; and Jonathan Targum identifies Esau (Sepharad of the Southland identified) as Spain! Obadiah 1:20; the Targums identified Sepharad with Spain, hence, Spanish Jews are called Sephardim;

— Wikipedia: Sepharad (/sɛfəræd/or səˈfɛərəd/ Hebrew: סְפָרַד Sp̄āraḏ; also Sefarad, Sephared, Sfard) is the Hebrew name for Spain. A place called Sepharad, probably referring to Sardis in Lydia (‘Sfard’ in Lydian), in the Book of Obadiah (Obadiah 1:20, 6th century BC) of the Hebrew Bible. The name was later applied to Spain. (Later version of wikipedia, as above, changed it to “Iberian peninsula.”

³ and I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness.” —and God hated Esau, or “rejected” him as the Targum says;

— God did not love him as Jacob: even though both were equally descended from Abraham, had an equal claim to his blessing; they lay in the same womb together; they were twins; and if any could be thought to have the advantage by birth, Esau had it, being born first; Genesis 25:23; Esau is Edom Genesis 36:8);

— for the dragons of the wilderness; so called to distinguish them from sea dragons and these land dragons are no other than serpents of an enormous size; were found in the mountains; such as were bred in caves or in the flat country; and such as were found in fens and marshes;

— Genesis 27:39; “Your dwelling will be away from the richness of the earth and away from the dew from the sky above” so the Targum renders it, “into the wasteness of the desert” or into a waste desert where none but such sort of animals inhabit;

— one Report by McKinsey says of the 60 millions Latinos in US, they often live in ‘deserts’ where adequate housing, groceries are hard to find. “Nearly 9 in 10 of the Latino residents in such communities lived in five states: California, Florida, New Jersey, New York and Texas.”

McKinsey: Latinos are projected to make up 22.4 percent of the US labor force by 2030 and more than 30 percent by 2060 (Latinos population to 111.2 million by ’60).

⁴ Whereas Edom saith, “We are impoverished, but we will return and rebuild the desolate places;” but thus saith the Lord of Hosts: “They shall build, but I will throw down; and they shall call them the Border of Wickedness and the people against whom the Lord hath indignation forever.

— whereas Edom saith, We, or the Idumeans, are impoverished; the posterity of Esau, who live South of the children of Jacob, acknowledging themselves being greatly reduced by the desolations made in their country, cities, towns and houses, being plundered of all their valuable things; as if the Edomites should know they are poor and impoverished and their land is laid waste:

— they shall build, but the Lord will throw down; they attempted to rebuild their cities and towns, but could not succeed, God was against them; the Spanish Empire at its height in the mid-18th century governed 13% of the world’s land – 7.5 million square miles; but since then they could never reclaim that status.

— and the people against whom the Lord hath indignation forever; not for seventy years only, as against the Jews, Zechariah 1:12, but those from the posterity of Edom are to be poor, impoverished and despised forever;

— a parallel description of the Edomites in an earlier study of the Prophecy of Obadiah

“Behold, I have made thee small among the nations; thou art greatly despised. Obadiah 1:2 — thou art greatly despised; another parallel in Jeremiah 49:15 “For lo, I will make thee small among the nations and despised among men,” as the term beaners (Latinx or Latinos?) could allude to. The southern wall in the United States is “the Border of Wickedness.”

Rashi: Behold I have made you small: In contrast with what his father called him, his big son, and his mother called him her big son, the Holy One, blessed be He, says: In My eyes, he is small. And our Sages expounded: small for they have neither script nor language.

⁵ And your eyes shall see, and ye shall say, ‘The Lord will be magnified from the border of Israel.’ — and your eyes from the house of Jacob shall see… the destruction of the Edomites,

— and their fruitless attempts to rebuild their desolate places; and the difference between them and the Israelites, who were returned to their own land and inherited it, when they could not; and the love of God to the one, and his hatred of the other:

— and ye shall say, the Lord will be magnified from the border of Israel; following the Mexican-American War that ended in 1848, the United States magnified their border by more than 500,000 square miles (1,300,000 square km) of land from Mexico, expanding US territory by about one-third. Mexico ceded nearly all the territory now included in the US states of New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, California, Texas, and western Colorado for $15 million and US assumption of its citizens’ claims against Mexico; (Cf  Habakkuk 2:8)

— and so the Targum says, “let the glory of the Lord be multiplied, because he hath enlarged the border of Israel’ – all to show that God had loved them more than others and therefore they ought to have honoured, obeyed and loved him, in which they were deficient and ungrateful.

⁶ “A son honoreth his father, and a servant his master. If then I be a father, where is Mine honor? And if I be a master, where is the fear of Me? saith the Lord of hosts unto you, O priests, who despise My name. And ye say, ‘Wherein have we despised Thy name?’

— a son honoreth his father and a servant his master, in agreement with the commandment of God; If, then, I be a Father, where is mine honor? Why were they persisting in their unnatural behavior and denying him the obedience which he had a right to expect? and so the Targum says, “lo concerning a son it is said (or commanded) that be should honour his father; and of a servant, that he should fear (or show reverence) before his master;”

— and if I be a Master, where is my fear? fear and reverence are due to the Lord from his people, considered in such a relation to them; both a fear of wrath and punishment; and also a Godly filial fear, Why did they not give him the reverence and respect which were his due? asked the Lord of hosts unto you, O priests, that despise my name, who ought to have honoured and feared the Lord; and yet they despised his name, or made it contemptible; by not paying that regard to his authority, as a Father and master:

— and ye say, as if honestly resenting the charge against them or pretending to be innocent and guiltless, Wherein have we despised thy name? the priest were very ones who should have been leaders in such worship in keeping and the teaching of the Law and ordinances.

⁷ Ye offer polluted bread upon Mine altar; and ye say, ‘Wherein have we polluted Thee?’ In that ye say: ‘The table of the Lord is contemptible.’

— ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar, in connection with some of the offerings brought to the Lord; not made of fine wheat flour, nor of pure frankincense put upon or by each row, as the law required, Leviticus 24:5;

— and ye say, wherein have we polluted thee? In that ye say, The table of the Lord is contemptible, their practise of offering sacrifices which were expressly forbidden by God and their manner in the entire administration of their work being an insult to the holiness of the God Almighty. Cf Leviticus 22:21-22.

⁸ And if ye offer blind animals for sacrifice, is that not evil? And if ye offer the lame and sick, is that not evil? Offer it now unto thy governor! Will he be pleased with thee or accept thy person?” saith the Lord of hosts.

— and if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? or “there is no evil” that is, in their opinion. And if ye offer the lame and the sick, is it not evil? this of the daily meat offering, which went along with the daily sacrifice of the lambs, and part of which was burnt on the altar, Exodus 29:40 or rather this designs sacrifice in general, sometimes called “bread” Leviticus 3:11;

— and so the Targum says, “ye offer upon my altar an abominable offering” such as having blemishes in them, were blind or lame; and thus not the requisites of a sacrifice in them; or were offered not in a right manner, or by bad men or those with a wicked mind;

— offer it now unto thy governor, so the Lord ironically bids them do; will he be pleased with thee or accept thy person? asked the Lord of hosts; will he thank thee for it? or on the contrary, will he not resent it as an affront to him? and if so it would be with an earthly prince, how can it be thought that to offer the blind, lame and sick should be acceptable to the King of kings and Lord of lords?

⁹ “And now, I pray you, beseech God that He will be gracious unto us. This has been by your hand: Will He regard your persons?” saith the Lord of hosts.

— and now, Malachi prays unto them, beseech God that he will be gracious unto you: these are the words of the prophet to the priests; and are spoken either seriously, exhorting them to that part of their office which lay in interceding for the people that God would be gracious to them, and forgive their sins;

— this hath been by your means, that is, this their hand had done; that such sacrifices were offered up; they indulged the people in such practices and encouraged them; the fault was theirs; or this curse, as from Malachi 1:14:

— now try asking God to be kind to you; will he welcome you? Can you ever imagine that God will have any respect to your prayers, when you have acted so vile a part, and been the cause of so much sin and evil? no, he will not, as is asserted in the next verse:

¹⁰ “Who is there even among you who would shut the doors for nought? Neither do ye kindle fire on Mine altar for nought. I have no pleasure in you,” saith the Lord of hosts, “neither will I accept an offering from your hand.

— there were four and twenty porters to open and shut the doors, four on each side; yet the Lord asked, is there any among you who would shut the doors to the Temple at even for me?

— so that you could not light fires on my altar for no reason. If one would but lock the doors leading to the altar of burnt offering, in order to keep anyone from bringing any vain oblations! I have no pleasure in you, saith the Lord of hosts, being thoroughly disgusted at the lack of care with their custodianship, neither will God accept an offering at your hand, no matter of what kind it was.

¹¹ For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same, My name shall be great among the Gentiles. And in every place incense shall be offered unto My name, and a pure offering; for My name shall be great among the heathen,” saith the Lord of hosts.

— for from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same, as far as the world extends, God’s name shall be great among the Gentiles, including those recruits gained for the Church of the New Testament from the heathen world;

— and in every place incense, namely, that of the prayers of the faithful, shall be offered unto God’s name and a pure offering, on the part of those who had accepted the God of the covenant as their God; for my name Yehovah shall be great among the nations, saith the Lord of hosts, for the kingdom of God was started by the Jews (through the Messiah Yeshua and his twelve apostles), then to be expanded to the other tribes and then to all the nations;

— Rashi: My Name is great among the nations: Our Sages stated (Men. 110a): For they call Him the God of the gods. Even one who has an idol knows that He is the God Who is over all of them. Our Sages, explained: these are the scholars who are engaged in the laws of the Temple service everywhere, and likewise, every prayer of Israel that they pray anywhere is to Me as a pure oblation and My great Name is sanctified through you, and your prayer is like a pure offering before Me. This is the explanation of the verse: Now why do you profane My Name? Is it [that I am] not great among the nations?

— God’s name is the four-letter Hebrew word יהוה‎ YHVH Yehovah (not Jehovah since the letter J wasn’t around but only after the sixteenth century; (more on this at the end)

¹² “But ye have profaned it in that ye say, ‘The table of the Lord is polluted; and the fruit thereof, even His meat, is contemptible.’

— but ye have profaned it, that is, the name of the Lord, which they are said to despise, Malachi 1:6 and pollute, Malachi 1:7 and is a reason why they and their offerings were rejected: in that ye say, The table of the Lord Is polluted, Cf v. 7, and the fruit thereof, even his meat is contemptible; the word for fruit as sometimes use as figure of speech, the fruit of the lips, Isaiah 57:19.

¹³ Ye said also, ‘Behold, what a weariness is it!’ And ye have sniffed it,” saith the Lord of hosts. “And ye brought that which was torn and the lame and the sick; thus ye brought an offering! Should I accept this from your hand?” saith the Lord.

— ye said also, Behold, what a weariness is it! these are either the words of the priests, saying what a wearisome and fatiguing duty the temple service was to them, for which they thought they were poorly appreciated; such as slaying the sacrifices; removing the ashes from the altar; putting the wood in order; kindling the fire, and laying the sacrifice on it: or of the people that brought the sacrifice, who, when they brought a lamb upon their shoulders, and laid it down, said, how weary are they in bringing it, suggesting it was so heavy, fat and fleshy;

— and ye have snuffed at it, saith the Lord of hosts; ye have puffed and panted and blown as persons weary with bringing such a heavy lamb, when it was so light that, if it was blown at, it would fall to the ground; or publicly showing other contempt for the work of their Temple;

— and the whole should render, “and ye have grieved me” that is, the Lord, by bringing such sacrifices, and complaining of weariness and by your hypocrisy and deceitfulness;

— and ye brought that which was torn and the lame and the sick, in a contemptuous disregard for the Lord; thus ye brought an offering: should I accept this at your hand? asked the Lord.

¹⁴ “But cursed be the deceiver who hath in his flock a male, and vow and sacrifice unto the Lord a corrupt thing. For I am a great King,” saith the Lord of hosts, “and My name is dreadful among the heathen.

— but cursed be the deceiver; a cunning, crafty, subtle man who thinks and contrives, speaks and acts in a very artful and deceiving manner; which hath in his flock a male, without spot and blemish as the law requires for sacrifice;

— and vow and sacrifice to the Lord a corrupt thing; that was a female or had blemishes in it; for the law required what was perfect and without a blemish for a vow; what was superfluous or deficient in its parts might do for a freewill offering, but not for a vow,

— for I am a great King, saith the Lord of hosts; the King of the whole world, the King of kings and Lord of lords; and therefore to be honoured and reverenced suitable to his dignity and greatness;

— and my name is to be feared among the nations; because of God’s judgements executed to the house of Israel for 190 years and the house of Judah for 40 years; for details, see Ezekiel 4 – 390/40 Years;

— God’s name is the four-letter Hebrew word יהוה‎ YHVH Yehovah (not Jehovah since the letter J wasn’t around but only after the sixteenth century; (more on this at the end)

Malachi 2

¹ “And now, O ye priests, this commandment is for you. — and now, O ye priests, those that even dare to despise and profane the name of the Lord;

— that suffered such corrupt and illegal sacrifices to be brought and offered up: these commandment and judgement are for them, they must be aware of the seriousness of the situation and accept the Lord’s rebuke and threat accordingly.

² If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart to give glory unto My name,” saith the Lord of hosts, “I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings. Yea, I have cursed them already, because ye do not lay it to heart.

— if ye will not hear and if ye will not lay it to heart, if they persisted in your callousness over against God’s commands, to give glory unto my name, saith the Lord of hosts, by a worship in agreement with His commands;

— I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings, both upon priests and people; those that bring the bad offerings, such as their corn, wine and oil; yea, God have cursed you already because you do not lay it to heart, presenting an indifferent front to the Lord’s admonitions.

³ Behold, I will corrupt your seed and spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts; and one shall take you away with it.

— behold, God will corrupt your seed, rebuking that which had been sowed in the fields, thus reducing also the amounts which the priests received as tithes and spread dung upon your faces as an expression of His extreme contempt;

— even the dung of your solemn feasts, that of the excesses of such pagan feasts (1) Astarte, the queen of heaven; from whom Easter is derived; Jeremiah 7 and Jeremiah 44; (2) the palm tree, Mithra, the sun-god, now proliferates during Christmas; with decorated with lights, tinsel, red and green ribbon, poinsettias and other crowning glory; Jeremiah 10:3-5;

— (3) heavenly bodies, especially the Sun, hence professing Christians have shifted the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday by outlawing the keeping of the Sabbath. — thus saith the Lord: “Learn not the way of the heathens. . .”  Jeremiah 10:2; his wrath and subsequent judgement of throwing dungs onto our faces is the central theme of Jeremiah’s message against idolatrous worship!

— and one shall take you away with it, treating them as though they were themselves dung, to be thrown out in disgraceful heaps; with the dung spread upon them; they looking like a heap of dung, being covered with it, and had in no more account than that;

— the Targum says, “I will make manifest the shame of your sins upon your faces; and will cause to cease the magnificence of your feasts.”

Remember: the Targum is another source of the Bible. Started by Ezra for those returning from Babylon and for these returnees they could only understand in Aramaic; hence the Targum is as if Ezra is speaking to them in ancient times and to us from the verses quoted.

⁴ And ye shall know that I have sent this commandment unto you, that My covenant might be with Levi,” saith the Lord of hosts.

— and ye shall know, by the token of this punishment, that I have sent this commandment unto you, this decree of covenant and punishment which they thought they might so calmly disregard, that my covenant might be with Levi, who were the Levites, including the priests;

— especially in Leviticus 23 regarding all of God’s feast days, involving all the priests and Levites, saith the Lord of hosts. The Lord’s sentence of punishment upon all those who despised his worship was included in the original covenant through the tribe of Levi to be teachers and light to others: first to the house of Jacob then to rest of the world.

⁵ “My covenant was with him of life and peace, and I gave them to him for the fear with which he feared Me and was afraid before My name. — my covenant was with the priests and Levites of life and peace, with the promise of life and peace attached; and God gave them, namely, life, deliverance and salvation;

— to the priests and levites for the fear wherewith they feared me, as an example to the rest of the world as a reward for leadership with this attitude, and was afraid before my name, Cf Numbers 25:12;

— the Targum says, “I gave him the perfect doctrine of the law, or the doctrine of the perfect law that he might fear before me.”

— God’s name is the four-letter Hebrew word יהוה‎ YHVH Yehovah (not Jehovah since the letter J wasn’t around but only after the sixteenth century; (more on this at the end)

⁶ The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found on his lips. He walked with Me in peace and equity, and turned many away from iniquity.

— the Truth of the Law was with the tribe of Levi, so that everything which they did and taught was in agreement with divine truth, and iniquity should not be found in their lips;

— they walked with me in peace and equity, in an ideal situation of peace, integrity and righteousness and did turn many away from iniquity, this being the praise which the Lord bestowed upon true members of the tribe of Levi in setting an example.

⁷ For the priest’s lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth; for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts.

— as teachers of the covenant the priest’s lips should keep and teach knowledge, preserving the right understanding of Yehovah worship among the people as a precious treasure, and they, the people, should seek the Law at the mouth of the priests, to be instructed by them; for they are messengers of the Lord of hosts. That is what the Lord found praiseworthy in members of the tribe of Levi in the early days of Moses; that it should continue as it should he.

⁸ But ye have departed from the way; ye have caused many to stumble at the law; ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi,” saith the Lord of hosts.

— but ye, the present members of the tribe are departed out of the way, leaving the path shown them by the Law of the Lord; ye have caused many to stumble at the Law, you have either perverted the sense of the law, or encouraged others to break it by your bad example; so that they became guilty of transgressing the Law;

— ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi by your evil practices you have broken or rendered void that covenant: by your not performing that part of the covenant which the tribe of Levi was bound to perform; or you have disengaged God from performing his part, or fulfilling those promises which God had engaged to make good to them on the performance of certain conditions on their side, saith the Lord of hosts.

⁹ “Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people, according as ye have not kept My ways but have been partial in the law.”

— therefore have God also made you contemptible and base, an object of contempt and loathing when your city and temple were destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD, and they were carried away again as captives and slaves and became a taunt and a proverb in all places where they went to:

— before all the nations of the world among whom you were scattered: according as ye have not kept my ways, in the same degree as they had transgressed, but have been partial in the Law, in applying the Law to the conduct of the people; in the observance of it, attending to the lesser and taking no notice of the weightier matters when required.

¹⁰ Have we not all one Father? Hath not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother by profaning the covenant of our fathers?

— have we not all one Father? Hath not one God created us? These questions, the sense of these words, that there ought to be no partiality used in the law, or any respect had to persons, in that the rich and the poor have all one Father and one Creator;

— why do we deal treacherously, faithlessly, by perverting justice, having respect to persons, favouring one to the prejudice of another, every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers? the covenant made with them at Sinai, the law that was then enjoined them, particularly such as forbid respect of persons, Leviticus 19:15; which should govern all their lives.

¹¹ Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah hath profaned the holiness of the Lord which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange god.

— Judah hath dealt treacherously, with a disregard of the covenant of impartiality, not only every man against his brother, by being partial in the law; and an abomination is committed in Israel, throughout the nation, in Judah and in Jerusalem, the capital, which should have led in the observance of the Law;

— for Judah hath profaned the holiness of the Lord which He loved, namely, the people as a body, whom the Lord had chosen as his holy people, as the Targum says of Judah, who was holiness to the Lord; and others of the holy place, the sanctuary and all holy things belonging thereto;

— and hath married the daughter of a strange god, by the fact that numerous members of the nation had entered into the marriage relationship with women addicted to idolatry, an act which was distinctly prohibited in the Law of God, Exodus 34:11; Deuteronomy 7:1-4; as the Targum paraphrases thus, “and they were pleased to take to them wives, the daughters of the people” the Gentiles;

— King Herod took the daughter, Mariamne, of Boethus (of Egypt of the high-priestly family of Boethus: Simon, son of Boethus from Alexandria) to wife and made her father the high priest of Jerusalem; they lived in luxurious splendor, using silver and golden vessels all their lives; hence the birth of profanity serving in the Temple of Jerusalem.

¹² The Lord will cut off the man who doeth this — the master and the scholar — out of the tabernacles of Jacob, and him that offereth an offering unto the Lord of hosts.

— the Lord will cut off the man that doeth this, he is guilty of such treachery and idolatry: or “to the man that doeth this” all that belong to him, his children and substance: it denotes the utter destruction, not of a single man and his family only, but of the whole Jewish nation and its polity, civil and ecclesiastical;

— since it was a profanation of the sacred position of the people, the master and the scholar, or “the watcher and the answerer,” out of the tabernacles of Jacob, and him that offereth an offering unto the Lord of hosts, so that there would be a complete exile, expulsion and captivity of all those who had transgressed;

— they shall “be cut off” – the Boethusians and the Sadducees, members of two Jewish sects that kept a heretic passover, and that flourished for a century or so before their destruction with Jerusalem in AD 70 inferno. (The Hellenised Sadducees who played harlotry with the Greeks couldn’t escape the same fate)

¹³ And this have ye done again, covering the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping, and with crying out insomuch that He regardeth not the offering anymore, nor receiveth it with good will from thy hand.

— and this have ye done again, as another transgression which the Lord found it necessary to rebuke their prayers, covering the altar of the Lord with hypocritical tears with weeping and crying aloud, to come to the Sanctuary and there register their lament over the injustice received; pretending great humiliation for their sins:

— insomuch that he, the God of the covenant, regardeth not the offering any more or receiveth it with goodwill at their hand, he wanted nothing of their worship and expresses an utter rejection and abrogation of their sacrifices.

¹⁴ Yet ye say, “Why?” Because the Lord hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously; yet she is thy companion and the wife of thy covenant.

— yet ye asked, apparently surprised that the Lord should repudiate their prayers, Wherefore? Because the Lord hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, every true marriage being entered into with his sanction and the Lord therefore being the witness for the rights of the wife;

— against whom thou hast dealt treacherously, in breaking the promised faith, the troth which had been plighted; yet is she thy companion, the partner of her husband’s joys and sorrows, and the wife of thy covenant, she with whom the husband had entered into the relation controlled by a mutual promise.

¹⁵ And did not He make one? Yet had He the residue of the spirit. And why one? That He might seek a godly seed! Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.

— and did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit, literally, “And not one acted so who still had a particle of reason,” that is, this manner of acting was unknown among men of reason. Of course, the people might raise the objection, And wherefore one? What did Abraham do when he repudiated Hagar?

— that he might seek a godly seed. The object of Abraham in going in to Hagar was not to gratify the lust of the flesh, but he honestly thought that he might thus get the son whom God had promised him. Therefore, Malachi concludes, take heed to your spirit, watching over themselves with the greatest care, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth, namely, by lightly dismissing her.

¹⁶ “For the Lord, the God of Israel, saith that He hateth putting away; for one covereth violence with his garment,” saith the Lord of hosts. “Therefore take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously.”

— for the Lord, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away, Cf Deuteronomy 24:1; for one covereth violence with his garment, or “iniquity covers his garment,” saith the Lord of hosts so that it would cling to him forever;

— therefore take heed to your spirit that ye deal not treacherously. The same thought is found in the New Testament, not only in various sayings of Jesus concerning the sanctity of the marriage covenant, but also in the words of Peter regarding the living together of a man with his wife according to reason. Cf 1 Peter 3:7.

¹⁷ Ye have wearied the Lord with your words. Yet ye say, “Wherein have we wearied Him?” When ye say: “Every one who doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and He delighteth in them,” or “Where is the God of judgement?”

— ye have wearied the Lord with your words, with their dissatisfied grumbling over recent events. Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him? the same disobedient people again standing out in opposition to God, in resenting the rebuke of Malachi, His prophet;

— when ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delighteth in them, such as homosexuality and the LGBTqia or LGBTQ+ movement which is sinful because it goes against God’s nature and revelation in Scripture; this being the statement of godless insolence in direct opposition to the rebuke of the prophet Malachi, or

— Where is the God of judgement? Since you see that the way of the wicked prospers, and the righteous are afflicted and stumble; hence the great mass of the people boldly declared that there was no foundation for the prophet’s threat, that the talk of the coming Judgement was unfounded. Cf II Peter 3:4. Over against this question of doubt and unbelief the Lord places a very definite statement.

“Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind: it is abomination” Leviticus 18:22

Grace and mercy come with keeping of His laws, statutes and ordinances; otherwise,

“The anger of the Lord shall not return, until He has executed and till He has performed the thoughts of His heart; in the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly” Jeremiah 23:20.

~~~

More on God’s name, Yehovah.

God’s name is the four-letter Hebrew word יהוה‎ YHVH Yehovah, which are embedded in the Masoretic text over 6000 times, yet when translated into our English language most had been translated as Lord, or LORD, which are titles, but not his name. His name is יהוה‎ Yehovah, or YEHOVAH (but there are no capital letters in Hebrew).

It wasn’t until 1524 that Gian Giorgio Trissino, an Italian Renaissance grammarian, invented the letter J that this new letter started to take a hold in the writings of western Europe. Even in 1611 when the English Bible the King James has our subject of study by the prophet Jeremiah, he was known as Ieremiah. So Jehovah is a very late comer.

The following verses with the LORD erred in translation. His name Yehovah should be used:

I am the LORD; that is My name. And My glory will I not give to another, neither My praise to graven images. Isaiah 42:8

And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered; for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call. Joel 2:32

“I am sought of them that asked not for Me; I am found of them that sought Me not. I said, ‘Behold Me, behold Me,’ unto a nation that was not called by My name. Isaiah 65:1

When we call our God, the LORD, we err, because his name is not the LORD, which is a title. His name is YEHOVAH! May We all ask for his forgiveness, and may Our merciful God forgive us all.

Posted in Minor Prophets

The Prophecy of Hosea is primarily to the house of Ephraim (mentioned 32 times in this book, Hosea, and more than in any other books of the Bible). Often, as Ephraim being the chief tribe of the ten tribes, the name is used in place of Israel (used 41 times) when it is referring to the northern kingdom.

Elsewhere on this site Ephraim has been established as the United States. So although Hosea may refer to situation in his time, the encrypted message of Ephraim and Israel is specially meant primarily for the United States or the “Anglosphere” and secondarily its European allies.

Chapter 1

— the word of the Lord that came unto Hosea
— “Go, take unto thee a wife, Gomer, of whoredoms
— and bore him a son: “Call his name Jezreel; the scattered ones
— and bore a daughter: “Call her name Loruhamah; not having mercy
— for I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel
— and bore a son :“Call his name Loammi, not My people
— for ye are not My people, and I will not be your God
— yet the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea

~ Chapter 2

— now were “Ammi,” the Lord’s people; and who had not
— but now have, “Ruhamah,” obtained mercy
— for their mother hath played the harlot; conceived shamefully
— and I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days,
— her new moons, and her sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts
— (a) Christmas, which honors Mithraism
— (b) Easters, a celebration of Ishtar
— (c) her Sunday sabbaths, the original keepers were Samaritans

A Study of Chapters 1 and 2 HERE ~ —— ~

Chapter 3

— “Go yet, love a woman, a different woman, yet an adulteress
— according to the love of the Lord toward the children of Israel
— who look to other gods and love flagons of wine”
— So I bought her for myself for fifteen pieces of silver
— For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king
— and without a prince, and without a sacrifice
— “in the latter days,” the house of Israel will end their abandonment

~ Chapter 4

— Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel
— “By swearing and lying, and killing and stealing
— and committing adultery, they break out and blood toucheth blood
— therefore shall the land mourn, and thou shalt fall in the day
— and the prophet shall also fall with thee in the night
— Because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee
— therefore will I change their glory into shame

A Study of Chapters 3 and 4 HERE ~ —— ~

Chapter 5

— O priests! And hearken, ye house of Israel! And give ye ear
— O house of the king! For judgement is against you
— O Ephraim, thou committest whoredom and Israel is defiled
— for the spirit of whoredoms is in the midst of them
— Ephraim shall be desolate in the day of rebuke
— For I will be unto Ephraim as a lion
— and as a young lion to the house of Judah

~ Chapter 6

— After two days will He revive us
— on the third day He will raise us up and we shall live in His sight
— “O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee?
— O Judah, what shall I do unto thee?
— I have seen a horrible thing in the house of Israel
— there is the whoredom of Ephraim, Israel is defiled

A Study of Chapters 5 and 6 HERE ~ —— ~

Chapter 7

— the iniquity of Ephraim was uncovered
— and the wickedness of Samaria; like hand in glove
— they make the king glad with their wickedness
— and the princes with their lies
— “Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people
— Ephraim is a cake not turned
— Woe unto them, for they will try to flee from their Destruction
— because they have transgressed against Me!

~ Chapter 8

— “Set the trumpet to thy mouth!
— He shall come as an eagle against the house of the Lord
— because they have transgressed My covenant and My law
— they sacrifice flesh for the sacrifices of Mine offerings
— and eat it; but the Lord accepteth them not
— For Israel hath forgotten his Maker, yet buildeth temples
— and Judah hath multiplied fortified cities
— but I will send a fire upon his cities and devour their palaces

A Study of Chapters 7 and 8 HERE ~ —— ~

Chapter 9

— Rejoice not, O Israel, for thou hast gone whoring in Egypt
— and they shall eat unclean things in Assyria
— The watchman of Ephraim was with my God
— but, now, the prophet is a snare of a fowler in all his ways
— and a hatred in the house of his God
— Ephraim, as I saw Tyre, is planted in a pleasant place
— but Ephraim shall bring forth his children to be slaughtered
— Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts

~ Chapter 10

— Israel’s hearts are divided; between God and their idols
— they have spoken words, swearing falsely in making covenant
— thus judgement springeth up as the golden calves at Dan and Bethel
— their thorn and the thistle shall come up on their altars
— Ye have plowed wickedness, ye have reaped iniquity
— ye have eaten the fruit of lies
— therefore shall a tumult arise among thy people
— So shall Bethel and the king of Israel be utterly cut off

A Study of Chapters 9 and 10 HERE ~ —— ~

Chapter 11

— “When Israel was a child, then I loved him
— and called My son out of Egypt
— I taught Ephraim by their arms but they knew Me not
— for My people are bent on backsliding from Me
— “How shall I give thee up, Ephraim?
— How shall I deliver thee, Israel? How shall I make thee as Admah?
— When He shall roar then the children shall tremble from the west
— and as a bird out of Egypt and as a dove out of the land of Assyria

~ Chapter 12

— Ephraim feedeth on wind and followeth after the east wind
— he daily increaseth lies and desolation
— The Lord will punish Jacob according to his ways
— I, the Lord thy God; as in the land of Egypt
— will make them dwell in tabernacles and keep the solemn feasts

A Study of Chapters 11 and 12 HERE ~ —— ~

Chapter 13

— When Ephraim spoke, trembling, he exalted himself in Israel
— but now they sin more and more
— and have made for themselves molten images of their silver
— and idols according to their own understanding
— Therefore I will be unto them as a lion
— as a leopard by the way will I observe them
— I will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps
— and I will devour them like a lion; and shall tear them

~ Chapter 14

— O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God
— for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity
— “I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely
— for Mine anger is turned away from him
— I will be as the dew unto Israel
— he shall grow as the lily and cast forth his roots as Lebanon
— His branches shall spread
— his beauty shall be as the olive tree and his smell as Lebanon

A Study of Chapters 13 and 14 HERE ~ —— ~

Posted in Minor Prophets

Among the last of the Prophets, Zechariah’s writing is a prophecy of the coming Messiah, yet Jews pray everyday at the Wailing Wall for the coming of the Messiah. “Oh blind Guides!” Would God have any obligation to hear such prayers? Or, would he prefer to kindle a fire in the midst of them?

Chapter 1

— Thus saith the Lord of hosts: ‘Turn ye unto Me,
—‘and I will turn unto you,’ saith the Lord of hosts
— ‘Turn ye now from your evil ways and from your evil doings’
— but they did not hear, nor hearken unto Me, saith the Lord
— I saw by night, and behold, a man riding upon a red horse
— and behind him were there red horses, speckled, and white
— Then I lifted up mine eyes and saw, and behold, four horns
— “These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel and Jerusalem”

~ Chapter 2

— And he said unto me, “To measure Jerusalem to see what is the breadth thereof
— and what is the length thereof”
— “Run, speak to this young man, saying,
— ‘Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls’
— Come forth, and flee from the land of the north,” saith the Lord
— for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of His eye
— “Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion; for lo, I come
— and I will dwell in the midst of thee,” saith the Lord

A Study of Chapters 1 and 2 HERE ~ —— ~

Chapter 3

— Joshua was clothed with filthy garments
— “Take away the filthy garments from him”
— “Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee”
— For behold the stone that I have laid before Joshua
— upon one stone shall be seven eyes

~ Chapter 4

— “What seest thou?” And I said, “I have looked and behold, a candlestick
— all of gold with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon
— and seven pipes to the seven lamps which are upon the top thereof
— and two olive trees, one the right side of the bowl, the other upon the left
— “This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel
— saying, ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ saith the Lord of hosts
— Who art thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain
— “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house;
— his hands shall also finish it
— the Targum testifies that Zerubbabel is one sent the Father
— testifies that Zerubbabel is the Son of God, the Messiah

A Study of Chapters 3 and 4 HERE ~ —— ~

Chapter 5

— a flying roll, the curse that goeth forth over the face of the earth
— one side for one who steals, the other side for one who swears
— two categories of curses
— similar to what Ezekiel saw: of lamentations, mourning and woe
— the ephah was the measure of unrighteousness and of deceits
— a woman who sitteth in the midst of the ephah
— and behold, there came out two women
— to build it a house in the land of Shinar

~ Chapter 6

— there came four chariots out from between two mountains
— in the first chariot were red horses; of wars and bloodshed
— and in the second chariot black horses; north; of mourning and death
— and in the third chariot white horses; north; implying joy and victory
— and in the fourth chariot grizzled and bay horses; south
— these are the four spirits of the heavens

A Study of Chapters 5 and 6 HERE ~ —— ~

Chapter 7

— ‘the Unspoken Will of God
— When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month
— even those seventy years, did ye fast at all unto Me, even to Me?
— execute true judgement, and show mercy and compassions
— and oppress not the widow nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor
— and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart
— “Therefore it has come to pass that as He cried and they would not hear,
— so they cried and I would not hear,” saith the Lord of hosts

~ Chapter 8

— “Thus saith the Lord of hosts: ‘I was jealous for Zion with great jealousy
— and I was jealous for her with great fury’
— “Thus saith the Lord: ‘I am returned unto Zion
— that the foundation of the house of the Lord of hosts was laid
— that the [Ezekiel] Temple might be built
— “Thus saith the Lord of hosts: ‘The fast of the fourth month, the fast of the fifth
— the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth
— shall be to the house of Judah joy and gladness and cheerful feasts

A Study of Chapters 7 and 8 HERE ~ —— ~

Chapter 9

— the burden of the word of the Lord in the land of Syria and Damascus
— together with Damascus, Tyre and Sidon; cities of Phenicia
— Ashkelon and Gaza shall see Tyre’s destruction and fear; and be very sorrowful
— and the Lord will encamp about His house, His Temple
— and I will cause My glorious Shekinah to dwell in My Sanctuary
— O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, thy King cometh unto thee!
— He is just and lowly, and riding upon an ass and upon a colt, the foal of an ass
— O Zion, against thy sons, O Greece; and shall go with whirlwinds of the South

~ Chapter 10

— there would be early spring and the latter autumn rain
— for the idol shepherd have spoken vanity, lies and false dreams
— the Targum says about His people, “they are scattered as sheep are scattered”
— “And I will strengthen the house of Judah and the house of Joseph”
— “And I will strengthen them in the Lord
— and they shall walk up and down in His name,” saith the Lord

A Study of Chapters 9 and 10 HERE ~ —— ~

Chapter 11

— Open thy doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour thy cedars
— saith the Lord my God: “Feed the flock for the slaughter
— give the flock the reasons why they would soon be suffering with captivity
— a shepherd with two staves (a) Pleasantness, like “Josiah, the anointed”
— and (b) Destroyers, like “Nebuchadnezzar, my servant” both are the Lord’s staves
— Three shepherds also I cut off in one month
— and my soul loathed them and their soul also abhorred me
— Could these three be Fred Coulter, Frank Nelte and John Ritenbaugh?

~ Chapter 12

— The burden of the word of the Lord for Israel
— I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about
— when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem.
— And I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem
— And I will pour upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplication
— and they shall look upon Me whom they have pierced
— and they shall mourn for Him as one mourneth for his only son
— and shall be in bitterness for Him as one who is in bitterness for his firstborn

A Study of Chapters 11 and 12 HERE ~ —— ~

Chapter 13

— “In that day there shall be a fountain opened
— to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem
— and God will cause the prophets and the unclean spirit
— who speaks through the false prophets to pass out of the land
— “Awake, O sword, Smite the Shepherd
— and the sheep shall be scattered
— and I will turn Mine hand upon the little ones.
— “two parts therein shall be cut off and die
— And I will bring the third part through the fire
— and will refine them as silver is refined

~ Chapter 14

— Behold, the day of the Lord cometh
— For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle
— Then shall the Lord go forth and fight against those nations
— And His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives
— every one who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem
— shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts
— and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles

A Study of Chapters 13 and 14 HERE ~ —— ~

Posted in Minor Prophets

During the Millennium the Feast of Tabernacle is prophesied to be reinstated, but sacrifices, the foremost of which is the Passover, is also hinted at. The differentiations of nationalities are reduced in importance and so are the sexes—there wouldn’t be Gentiles nor Jews; or a Court for the Women and another for the Gentiles in the Ezekiel Temple in Jerusalem, but only designated as Inner Court or Outer Court.

Zechariah 13

¹ “In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness.

— the Lord declares, “On that day a fountain will be opened for David’s family and for those who live in Jerusalem to wash away their sin and stain.

² And it shall come to pass in that day,” saith the Lord of hosts, “that I will cut off the names of the idols out of the land, and they shall no more be remembered; and also I will cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to pass out of the land.

— and it shall come to pass that God will cut off the names of the idols out of the land, so that the very names which had formerly been in the mouths of men everywhere were no longer mentioned, and they shall no more be remembered;

— and God will cause the prophets and the unclean spirit who speaks through the false prophets, to pass out of the land. This is one of the results of the preaching of the Truth, as we see also in the case of the people of Ephesus when Paul proclaimed the true God to them. Cf Acts 19:19.

³ And it shall come to pass that when any shall yet prophesy, then his father and his mother who begot him shall say unto him, ‘Thou shalt not live, for thou speakest lies in the name of the Lord’; and his father and his mother who begot him shall thrust him through when he prophesieth.

— if a man still prophesies presumptuously, his father and his mother, who gave birth to him, will say, ‘You don’t deserve to live because you speak lies in the name of the Lord.’ Then his father and his mother, who gave birth to him, will stab him when he still prophesies; this is in line with the command of the Lord in the Old Testament. Cf Deuteronomy 18:20.

⁴ And it shall come to pass in that day, that the prophets shall be ashamed every one of his vision when he hath prophesied; neither shall they wear a garment of hair to deceive.

— and if those prophets still assert presumptuously that they possess the power to prophesy, they shall be ashamed every one of his vision when he hath prophesied; neither shall they wear a rough garment, after the manner of Elijah to deceive, to impress men with their status as prophets, just as men nowadays affect the dress, speech and manners of certain professions in order to make an impression;

⁵ But he shall say, ‘I am no prophet; I am a husbandman, for man taught me to keep cattle from my youth.’ — but he shall say, ‘I am no prophet, I am an husbandman,’ vehemently disclaiming any connection with the prophetic profession; for man taught me to keep cattle from my youth, rather, “a man has purchased me from my youth.”

⁶ And one shall say unto him, ‘What are these wounds in thine hands?’ Then he shall answer, ‘Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.’

— and one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? the scars which he bore as a result of his wounding himself in the service of idols, 1 Kings 18:28. Then he shall answer, in trying to evade the issue and to place the blame elsewhere;

— those with which he was wounded in the house of his friends, possibly when lie was chastised in his capacity as slaves; and may be taken as a warning in our days when men are turning to deceivers for counsel and guidance.

⁷ “Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, and against the Man that is My fellow,” saith the Lord of hosts. “Smite the Shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered; and I will turn Mine hand upon the little ones.

— awake, O Sword, against my Shepherd, concerning his Son, whom he calls “my Shepherd” the same one who addressed the people in Zechariah 11:12 (thirty pieces of silver),;

— and against the Man that is My Fellow, him who is also God, together with the Father, for the Messiah is the Son of God, who was in the bosom of the Father and by him begotten in the great scheme of things, who here summons the Sword for the Messiah’s Sacrifice, to carry out the infliction of suffering by which the redemption of mankind is to be carried out;

— smite the Shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered, to smite the Messiah even unto death; a word which Jesus applied to himself on the evening before his death, Matthew 26:31; and I will turn mine hand upon the little ones, literally, “I will bring back my hand upon the little ones” for he intended to redeem the wretched, the poor and lowly, for of these were to make up his Elect.

⁸ And it shall come to pass that in all the land,” saith the Lord, “two parts therein shall be cut off and die, but the third shall be left therein.

— and it shall come to pass that in all the land, saith the Lord, two thirds therein, the great majority of the people, shall be cut off and die, being offended in him and therefore rejected from his herd; but the third, only a small part, shall be left therein;

— “in all the land” Q, is this all Israel or all the earth? the context seems to indicate the later as this chapter and the next is concerning God dealing with all the nations. Just a thought, this would be something like 4 to 5 billion people dead! Could a soon new and vibrant Covid-2X (or a hybrid variant) do this job of killing thousands falling by the wayside? — as in Psalms 91 which prophesied what a Godsend pandemic could do

Nor of the pestilence that walk in darkness, nor of the destruction that lay waste at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand, but it shall not come nigh thee. Psalms 91:6-7

⁹ And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried. They shall call on My name, and I will hear them. I will say, ‘It is My people’; and they shall say, ‘The Lord is my God.’”

— and God will bring the third part through the fire, the test of affliction and persecution as it soon came to the first congregation, and will refine them as silver is refined and will try them as gold is tried, Cf 1 Peter 1:6-7;

— they shall call on my name, and I will hear them, graciously giving them the attention which assured them of his certain assistance; God will say, ‘It is my people, and they shall say, Yehovah is my God.’ This has ever been the relationship obtaining between the God of the covenant and His Elect on earth, and this intimate communion is one of the miracles of the Chosen till the end of time. Cf John 14:23;

— they shall call on my name; my name is Yehovah (YHVH); God’s name is the four-letter Hebrew word יהוה‎ YHVH Yehovah (not Jehovah since the letter J wasn’t around but only after the sixteenth century; (more on this at the end)

Zechariah 14

¹ Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. — behold, the day of the Lord cometh, the Day of Judgement or the Lord’s Day; there is a parallel in Revelation “the Lord’s Day” of Revelation 1:10;

— and thy spoil that gained by the enemies in overcoming Jerusalem, that shall be divided in the midst of thee, the enemies then being at leisure and secure in the conquered city;

— further on “the Lord’s Day” is actually “the day of Judgement” (Encyclopedia Biblica, article “Lord’s Day”); in later years, when the Roman Catholic Church were getting so powerful this was reinterpreted to mean the day of Christ’s resurrection, Sunday; hence today, “the Lord’s Day” has presumptuously being transformed into a day of worship on Sundays.

² For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished. And half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.

— on the Day of Judgement, God will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle, the enemies being recruited from all countries of the world; and the city shall be taken and the houses rifled and the women ravished, a picture of an apparent complete overthrow of the Judah such as she experienced before the Chaldean captivity;

— and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, yielding to the power inspired by a Destroyer, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city, some at least would remain faithful to the true God despite the ravaging of the enemies.

³ Then shall the Lord go forth and fight against those nations, as when He fought in the day of battle. — then the Lord shall go forth and battle against those nations as he fought like “at the Red Sea” which the Targum adds and on the many occasions when he went forth to fight with them and for them as King David and many others did.

⁴ And His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley, and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north and half of it toward the south.

— and on that day, God’s feet shall stand upon the Mount of Olives, this location being considered the center of the earth and the throne of the Lord as he makes ready for judgement, which is before Jerusalem on the east;

— and the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, an earthquake having this effect as the earth trembled under the footsteps of the Almighty;

— and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north and half of it toward the south, thus opening a road from Jerusalem straight toward the east.

⁵ And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains, for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal. Yea, ye shall flee as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah; and the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with Thee.

— and ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains for safe hiding-places; see, Isaiah 2:19; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal, a small town east of Mount Olivet;

— yea, ye ‘shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah; and the Lord, my God, shall come; his advent being looked for by his elect ‘with joyful expectation, and all the saints, the holy angels, with thee.

⁶ And it shall come to pass in that day that the light shall not be clear nor dark. — on that day there shall be no light nor dark, cold nor frost, literally, “the glorious things will withdraw themselves,” evidently said of the lights of heaven, the sun, moon and stars;

⁷ But it shall be one day which shall be known to the Lord — neither day nor night; but it shall come to pass that at evening (‘e·reḇ) time it shall be light.

— and it will be a day unlike any other, for it will be one continuous day, known only to the Lord, and there will be no more day nor night for there will be light even during the evening; that is, from 6 pm to midnight.

⁸ And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem, half of them toward the eastern sea and half of them toward the hinder sea; in summer and in winter shall it be.

— in both summer and winter, life-giving streams will flow from Jerusalem, half of them to the Dead Sea (but the Targum differs, saying it is the Persian Sea) in the east and half to the Mediterranean Sea in the west.

⁹ And the Lord shall be king over all the earth; in that day shall there be one Lord, and His name one.

— and the Lord will be the King of kings over all the earth. On that day there will be one Lord—his name alone will be worshiped; the Lord to be glorified wherever his Word is proclaimed.

¹⁰ All the land shall be turned as a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem; and it shall be lifted up and inhabited in her place, from Benjamin’s Gate unto the place of the First Gate unto the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananeel unto the king’s wine presses.

— the land will stretch out spaciously around Jerusalem—from Geba in the north to Rimmon in the south, with Jerusalem towering at the center and the commanding city gates—Gate of Benjamin to First Gate to Corner Gate to Hananel Tower to the Royal Winery—ringing the city full of people;

¹¹ And men shall dwell in it, and there shall be no more utter destruction; but Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited.

— and men shall dwell in Jerusalem and there shall be no more danger nor any destruction, but Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited; never again will Jerusalem be destroyed; but will be a safe city.

¹² And this shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite all the people who have fought against Jerusalem: their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.

— and when the vials are poured out there shall be more plagues, whereby the Lord will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem, those who oppose the Kingdom and its work;

— their flesh shall rot away while they stand upon their feet, so that they would rot away in a living death, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth, all these punishments making them unfit for further attacks upon the city of God.

¹³ And it shall come to pass in that day that a great tumult from the Lord shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbor, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbor.

— and on that day there will be a great tumult, a confusion and panic; there will be a revolution from the Lord; and everyone shall lay hold of his neighbor, and every hand fighting against another. Mass hysteria when that happens. Panic! fellow citizens became soldiers fighting and killing each other—total terror!

¹⁴ And Judah also shall fight at Jerusalem, and the wealth of all the heathen round about shall be gathered together: gold and silver and apparel in great abundance.

— and Judah also shall fight at Jerusalem, its citizens taking part in the warfare against the enemies threatening their lives; and the wealth of all the nations round about shall be gathered together, the treasures of the enemy, their most precious possessions, gold and silver and apparel, in great abundance.

— other translations say, even Judah shall fight against Jerusalem; this could only be possible if (a) there is a civil war; or (b) Jerusalem is composed of descending heavenly saints, of whom the Jews of Judea couldn’t even recognize the returning Messiah with his multitudes of Revelation 19; so they fight each other.

¹⁵ And so shall be the plague on the horse, on the mule, on the camel and on the ass, and on all the beasts that shall be in these tents, as this plague.

— and so shall be the plagues of the horse, of the mule, of the camel, and of the ass and all the livestock and beasts that shall be in their camps, as this plague so that the defeat of the enemy would be complete in every way; that is, all the enemies of the Kingdom of God who persist in their enmity will inevitably be destroyed.

¹⁶ And it shall come to pass that every one who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem, shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.

— and everyone that survives of all the nations which came against Jerusalem, shall even go up from year to year to worship the King of kings, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles, to join with the Kingdom in its worship of the one true God.

¹⁷ And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain.

— and it shall be that whoever refuses to go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain and all the other physical and spiritual blessings of the Lord being withheld from them.

¹⁸ And if the family of Egypt go not up and come not, upon whom there is no rain, there shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite the heathen who come not up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.

— and if the family of Egypt, representative of anyone who still refuses to go up to Jerusalem to keep the Feast of Tabernacles, there should have no rain, or the lack of rain would be its plague or infliction; there shall be the plague whereby the Lord will smite the nations that refuse to be received into the Kingdom and take part in its worship.

¹⁹ This shall be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.

— this shall be the punishment of Egypt all nations that refuse to come and keep the Feast of Tabernacles; in opposing his Kingdom and refusing to accept his Word, entrench themselves behind a wall of their own foolishness and shut themselves out from the highest physical and spiritual blessings, but to keep the Feast of Tabernacles;

— and not Easter, which is a form of worshipping Astarte, one of the titles of the Chaldean goddess, the queen of heaven, the ancient Mesopotamian goddess of war, fertility and sex. She is featured in the Epic of Gilgamesh, and the “Ishtar Gate” was part of Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon;

— nor Mithra or Mitra (the Sun-God whose birthday many drunks honor and celebrate on December 25th which they christianised as Christmas); Zeus and others; called “gods of the earth” in distinction from the God of heaven; and men shall worship these earthly gods, acknowledging their supremacy, everyone from his place today, Protestants or Catholics alike;

— those who rebel and continue to resist will be horsewhipped! Nar, those who resist would suffer judgement by the sword, by famine, by pestilence and spending years in captivity to repent there (for more see Ezekiel 4 – 390/40 Years and A Sword from the South!).

²⁰ In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses: “Holiness Unto The Lord.” And the pots in the Lord’S house shall be like the bowls before the altar;

— on that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, or “upon the trappings of the horses” as the Targum renders it; and this intends either the horses slain in war, whose bells or trappings should be devoted and applied to holy uses; or the horses that carried the people up to Jerusalem to worship there, or horses in common;

— holiness unto the Lord; and the “pots” in which they cooked the sacrifices shall be like “the bowls before the altar” which held the blood of the sacrifices to be sprinkled at the altar; yea, all festivals in Leviticus 23 will be reinstated as prophesied in Ezekiel 46;

— every pot that were used to remove the ashes, they too will be like gold and of silver, like the sprinkling basins that are before the altar; either like them for number; they shall be many because of the numerous nations coming to offer sacrifices like the Jews did, like them as the Targum paraphrases it, shall be many;

— Rashi: there will be upon the bells of the horses: On the bells that are hung on the horse for beauty between its eyes (Pesachim 50a). Those, too, will be consecrated to make service vessels: sprinkling basins for the blood and pots to cook the flesh of the many sacrifices.

²¹ yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto the Lord of hosts, and all those who sacrifice shall come and take of them and boil therein. And in that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts.

— yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto the Lord of hosts, all the ceremonies of the Law for which the foremost is the Passover, which would still be kept as a memorial, not just by Jews but by all nations;

— and all they that sacrifice shall come and participate in the Jerusalem Temple, preparing for the sacrificial feasts demands extra utensils, hence pots would be used as bowl to collect blood for the altar and both would be deemed holy;

— and on that day there shall be no more differentiation of being Canaanite nor Jews in the house of the Lord of hosts, no godless people being permitted as members of the Kingdom of God, but are all Godly;

— the nearer the Kingdom approaches its perfection, the clearer is shown there is no cleavage between those who are in truth the servants of the Lord and those not, because all will bear the name of his people after the day of redemption; and those who were against the Lord Almighty would have collapsed long before the Last Day but during the Day of Judgement. Selah!

~~~

More on God’s name, Yehovah.

God’s name is the four-letter Hebrew word יהוה‎ YHVH Yehovah, which are embedded in the Masoretic text over 6000 times, yet when translated into our English language most had been translated as Lord, or LORD, which are titles, but not his name. His name is יהוה‎ Yehovah, or YEHOVAH (but there are no capital letters in Hebrew).

It wasn’t until 1524 that Gian Giorgio Trissino, an Italian Renaissance grammarian, invented the letter J that this new letter started to take a hold in the writings of western Europe. Even in 1611 when the English Bible the King James has our subject of study by the prophet Jeremiah, he was known as Ieremiah. So Jehovah is a very late comer.

The following verses with the LORD erred in translation. His name Yehovah should be used:

I am the LORD; that is My name. And My glory will I not give to another, neither My praise to graven images. Isaiah 42:8

And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered; for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call. Joel 2:32

“I am sought of them that asked not for Me; I am found of them that sought Me not. I said, ‘Behold Me, behold Me,’ unto a nation that was not called by My name. Isaiah 65:1

When we call our God, the LORD, we err, because his name is not the LORD, which is a title. His name is YEHOVAH! May We all ask for his forgiveness, and may Our merciful God forgive us all.

Posted in Minor Prophets

Chapter 11 contains a prophecy of the siege and destruction of Jerusalem and which took place just before our Lord’s return to glory and its redemption.

Under the symbol a shepherd with two staves (a) Pleasantness, like “Josiah, the anointed” and (b) Destroyers, like “Nebuchadnezzar, my servant” both are the Lord’s staves to deal with his People.

Zechariah 11

¹ Open thy doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour thy cedars. — Open thy doors, O Lebanon, the region on the northernmost border of the Holy Land that the fire may devour thy cedars;

— instead of describing the destruction of the land outright, the prophet calls upon Lebanon for judgement, its border to open its doors; its people are found wanting, for which is the consuming fire;

— Jonathan renders: O peoples, open your gates; the Targum paraphrases this judgement, “and the fire shall consume your fortresses.”

² Howl, fir tree, for the cedar is fallen, because the mighty are despoiled; howl, O ye oaks of Bashan, for the forest of the vintage is come down.

— howl, fir-tree; the fir-tree seems to denote the lower people, the uninitiated; who are bid to howl because even their superiors, signified by the cedar, could not withstand the storm;

— for the cedar is fallen, because the mighty are spoiled; even the cedars (the highest in the state) are not spared, by which are designed the princes, nobles and magistrates of the land: so the Targum interprets them of kings and princes;

— howl, O ye oaks of Bashan; governors of provinces and men of power and authority, for the forest of the vintage is come down; or rather “the fortified forest” could also mean the city of Jerusalem which was a fortified place and like a forest full of trees but now cut down and destroyed;

— see a parallel Scripture in Isaiah 10:16, “Therefore shall the Lord, the Lord of hosts, send among His fat ones leanness; and under His glory He shall kindle a burning like the burning of a fire.”

³ There is a voice of the howling of the shepherds, for their glory is despoiled; a voice of the roaring of young lions, for the pride of Jordan is despoiled.

— there is a voice of the howling of the shepherds, their shepherds; their religious and civil rulers; shepherds are governors, magistrates, and civil officers, together with priests and prophets, who are over the people as shepherds over the flocks;

— their glory, the fine pasture on which they depended is spoiled; a voice of the roaring of young lions for the pride of Jordan, young lions; their princes, so described on account of their cruel rapacity; the thickets along the river which offered excellent opportunities for dens is spoiled;

— the description is short and bold but comprehensive enough to indicate that the Lord is speaking of another desolation of the Holy Land by which everything that was great and mighty in the country would be overthrown and the Holy Land once more become a wilderness.

⁴ Thus saith the Lord my God: “Feed the flock for the slaughter, — thus saith the Lord of Zechariah to their chief priests, princes, and rulers, with regard to the congregation of Israel, ‘Feed the flock for the slaughter,’

— that is, give the flock the reasons why they would soon be suffering with captivity, oppression or death at a latter time, so that mentally they are well prepared for a coming slaughter; why they have to go through suffering with captivity,

⁵ whose possessors slay them and hold themselves not guilty; and those who sell them say, ‘Blessed be the Lord, for I am rich’; and their own shepherds pity them not.

— whose possessors, or captors, slay them and hold themselves not guilty, the buyers and masters of the covenant people dealing with them as they pleased, without incurring blame; and because, in multiple places (Jeremiah 25:9, Jeremiah 27:6, Jeremiah 43:10), God describes the one with his sword, Nebuchadnezzar, as “the king of Babylon, My servant,” three times actually;

— and they that sell them say, ‘Blessed be the Lord, for I am rich,’ the expression fitly describing the self-satisfaction felt by the hard-hearted masters in enriching themselves at the expense of the flock; and their own shepherds pity them not.

⁶ For I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land,” saith the Lord. “But lo, I will deliver the men every one into his neighbor’s hand, and into the hand of his king; and they shall smite the land, and out of their hand I will not deliver them.”

— for God will have no more pity upon the inhabitants of the land, no longer spare them after a last effort to save them; but, lo, God will deliver the men everyone into his neighbor’s hand, so that internal strife and dissension would ruin the country;

— and into the hand of his king as God’s servants, the foreign emperor or governor; and they shall smite the land, the house of Judah for 40 years and the house of Israel for 190 years (Ezekiel 4) oppressing it in various ways; and out of their hand, out of the power of such oppressors, God will not deliver them.

For more into another Captivity: see Ezekiel Timeline – 190/40 Years

For more about a prophecy of Esau or Edom, see Obadiah

For more on the enemy from the South, see A Sword from the South!

⁷ And I will feed the flock for slaughter, even you, O poor of the flock. And I took unto me two staves: the one I called Beauty, and the other I called Bands; and I fed the flock.

— and God will feed the flock of the slaughter, rather, “I fed the flock,” for the prophet here describes how he undertook the commission which the Lord gave him, even you, O poor of the flock, those in his charge being in a very sad condition, lacking in spiritual knowledge;

— and God took unto for himself two staves, or rods (Psalms 23:4), such as shepherds used in their work; the one I called Pleasantness (H5278 – nōʿam נֹעַם kindness, pleasantness, delightfulness, beauty, favour), or “loveliness, favor” or delight, like “Josiah, the anointed” such as the Lord intended to show His people through the work of his servants, the prophets: Isaiah, Hosea, Jeremiah, Micah, Ezekiel, Habakkuk, Amos, etc;

— and the other God called Destroyers, (H2254 – ḥāḇal חָבַל; to destroy, spoil, deal corruptly, offend, to pervert) like the second Personage in the Garden of Eden; or like “Nebuchadnezzar, my servant” or like wolves and foxes, allowing them to roam around as often the Lord’s people are stiffed-necked and needed a longer way (like taking an extra 40 years to reach the Promised Land);

— and harder (like spending 70 years in captivity in Babylon) to learn before they genuinely wanted to be his people and to feel the blessings over the oppression by all their enemies; and God fed the flock, performing his work as a true shepherd according to the intend of the first staff.

— Rashi: and one I called Destroyers: Rehoboam told his kingdom that his father hath chastised you with whips, but he would flog them with scorpions (I Kings 12:11). [Zechariah] calls their rulers staffs because it is customary to lead flocks with staffs.

⁸ Three shepherds also I cut off in one month; and my soul loathed them and their soul also abhorred me. — three shepherds also God cut off in one month; my soul loathed them; hated their treachery; these are wicked shepherds and the scribes of the nation being probably meant;

— who were removed from power in a very short time; for God loathed them, since he, the type of the one Good Shepherd and Ruler of his Kingdom, became impatient with their perverse impenitence, and their soul also abhorred God, the sheep foolishly refusing to follow the kind leadership of their shepherd;

— Zechariah 11:8 is one of the most intriguing verse in the Scriptures. Who are these three shepherds? Could one series of these three be Fred Coulter, Frank Nelte and John Ritenbaugh? (JR died May 28, 2023; ”Pentecost,” Sunday) All three have accused Ezra, a man of God, of forging the Scriptures, especially Deuteronomy 16. Forging God’s Word are serious charges, whose penalty is death (Revelation 22:18-19).

“For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book: If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book.

“And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the Book of Life and out of the Holy City, and from the things which are written in this book,” Revelation 22:18-19.

But on the other hand, if Ezra isn’t guilty of forging, then these three accusers are wolves in shepherd clothings that are also destroyers at the beginning of verse eight above.

⁹ Then said I, “I will not feed you: that which dieth, let it die, and that which is to be cut off, let it be cut off; and let the rest eat every one the flesh of another.”

— because of the continual sins of Israel and Judah, said the Lord, ‘I will not feed you,’ declaring that he would no longer be their shepherd; that if the sheep die, let them die, he would let them rush to their own ruin since they refused to be guided by the good staff;

— and that that is to be cut off, let it be cut off, to be destroyed, let it be destroyed by the power of their oppressors; and let the rest eat everyone the flesh of another, that is, in a typical civil war, such as preceded the final destruction of Jerusalem; and as now, more and more intense talks of a second civil war looming over the United States.

¹⁰ And I took my staff, even Beauty, and cut it asunder, that I might break my covenant which I had made with all the people.

— and God took his staff, even Beauty, one of a gentle approach, one favoured, one of Pleasantness, and cut it asunder, to indicate the withdrawal of God’s favor from His people, ‘that I might break my covenant which I had made with all the people.’

¹¹ And it was broken on that day, and so the poor of the flock who waited upon me knew that it was the word of the Lord. — and it was broken in that day, the covenant being annulled by Israel’s disobedience;

— and so the poor of the flock, sheep that were not fed, that waited upon the Lord, the lowly among the people, but knew that it was the word of the Lord. It was from among the poor and lowly, the uninitiated, that the Lord, the righteous among them who kept his statute understood; even in those latter days, they’ll understand.

¹² And I said unto them, “If ye think it be good, give me my price; and if not, forbear.” So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver. — and God said unto them, to those destroyers of Israel, those not recognizing the things of peace, ‘If ye think it be good, if ye think good, give me my price;’

— give me my price; and if not, forbear, see Ezekiel 2:5, “And they, whether they will hear or whether they will forbear (for they are a rebellious house), yet shall know that there hath been a prophet among them.” So they weighed the value of a slave that had been killed, Exodus 21:32, the ordinary price of a female slave, Hosea 3:2. Cf Matthew 26:15.

¹³ And the Lord said unto me, “Cast it unto the potter” — a goodly price that I was prized at by them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the Lord.

— and the Lord said unto Zechariah, Cast it unto the potter, thereby rejecting the insult which they offered. A goodly price that Zechariah was prized at of them! this being said in impressive irony;

— and Zechariah took the thirty pieces of silver and cast them to the potter in the house of the Lord. This statement has no meaning in this connection, but it receives a meaning through its fulfillment, for the thirty pieces of silver which the rulers of the Jews weighed to Judas for his betrayal of the Lord were by him cast into the Temple, the money later being used for the purchase of a potter’s field. Cf Matthew 27:1-10 and Jeremiah 32:6-15.

¹⁴ Then I cut asunder mine other staff, even Bands, that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel. — then God cut asunder his other staff, even Bands, the Destroyer, that God might break the gentle approach he used to shepherd the children of Israel,

— so that, by the punishment of God, which, in the latter days of the people, contributed much toward the numerous tribulations of each nation. Sin is a reproach to any people, but the height of folly is the denial and rejection of God, the staff called Beauty, then later the Bands, the one Shepherd using both a pationate Shepherd as well as a Destroyer that come with the Lord’s judgement for destruction and corrections.

¹⁵ And the Lord said unto me, “Take unto thee yet the instruments of a foolish shepherd. — and the Lord said unto Zechariah, Take unto thee yet the instruments of a foolish shepherd, of a wicked Destroyer, who bears the insignia of a true shepherd, wolves in sheep skin, but cares nothing for the sheep;

— the punishment of rejecting the Good Shepherd was to be not only the loss of him, but the substitution of an evil shepherd in his place; but who is he? a man like the Pope, or an anti-Christ?

¹⁶ For lo, I will raise up a shepherd in the land who shall not visit those that are cut off, neither shall seek the young one, nor heal that which is broken, nor feed that which standeth still; but he shall eat the flesh of the fat and tear their claws in pieces.

— for, lo, God will raise up a shepherd in the land, in the singular number, one pretending to function like that of a true shepherd, which shall not visit those that be cut off, paying no attention to those who perish;

— neither shall seek the young one, those that have gone astray, nor heal that that is broken, suffering with broken limbs, nor feed those that could stand still, those who are still strong, but in need of food; but he shall eat the flesh of the fat and tear their claws in pieces, in order to get even the last vestige of meat from the bones.

¹⁷ “Woe to the sham shepherd that leaveth the flock! The sword shall be upon his arm and upon his right eye; his arm shall be clean dried up, and his right eye shall be utterly darkened.”

— woe to the idol shepherd, or of no value, or the Destroyer, who calls himself the shepherd, ruler, or teacher of the people, but is in reality nothing less; those worthless shepherding that leaveth the flock, neglecting his chief duty toward its members;

— the Sword shall be upon the arm of the wicked shepherd, and upon his right eye, so that he’s blind; his arm shall be clean dried up; his secular power shall be taken away from him; and his right eye shall be utterly darkened, so he couldn’t see; his knowledge of the Scriptures, judgement in errors, and even the infallibility pretended by these shepherds will cease;

— it will hardly do to limit this prophecy to an earthly, temporal power. It seems rather that the Spirit of the Lord, looking forward in the history of Israel, outlined in a few strokes by the Destroyer, which originated in the Garden of Eden, in the midst of those who are willing to reject the Truth of God, indicating at the same time that this same power would still be promoted by the power of the same Destroyer, as it is evidenced in the “Churches” today.

Zechariah 12

¹ The burden of the word of the Lord for Israel, saith the Lord who stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him:

— this is the Lord’s oracle about Israel; it is a prophetic revelation from the Lord—who spread out from the heavens;

— and layeth the foundation of the earth, which if it were not upheld by his power would wander from its orbit and fall into ruins; and formeth the spirit of man within him, controlling the thoughts and purposes of men so as to accomplish his own plans through them.

² “Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem.

— behold, God will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling, a vessel filled with the intoxicating beverage of his wrath, unto all the people round about, the neighboring nations, reeling and falling in hopeless weakness and misery;

— when the nations around shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem, literally, “and also upon Judah shall it be in the siege of Jerusalem,” the entire country and its capital being involved in the severe trial which would come from among its neighbors.

³ And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people. All who burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.

— on that day God will make Jerusalem a stone too heavy for all the nations to lift; all who try to lift it will be severely injured. All the nations in the world will gather to fight against Jerusalem; all the powers of evil being united in an effort to overthrow the city of the Lord.

⁴ In that day,” saith the Lord, “I will smite every horse with astonishment and his rider with madness. And I will open Mine eyes upon the house of Judah, and will smite every horse of the people with blindness;

— on that day, God will smite every horse with panic and every rider with madness, all the warlike forces finding themselves at a loss to effect their evil purposes;

— and God will keep his watch upon the house of Judah with his protecting care and will smite every horse of the nations with blindness so that the hostile forces would not be able to find their way;

— the Targum paraphrases it, “and upon those of the house of Judah, I will reveal my power to do them good.”

⁵ and the governors of Judah shall say in their heart, ‘The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength in the Lord of hosts, their God.’

— and the leaders and princes of Judah shall say in their heart, the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall have God’s strength, a reliable source of confidence, in the Lord of hosts, our God, because the Lord has chosen this city, his Kingdom, and by virtue of this choice is bound to redeem his people.

⁶ “In that day will I make the governors of Judah like a hearth of fire among the wood, and like a torch of fire in a sheaf, and they shall devour all the people round about on the right hand and on the left; and Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place, even in Jerusalem.

— on that day will God make the leaders and princes of Judah like an hearth of fire among the wood, so that they would consume their enemies like a basin of fire devouring wood; the Targum renders it, “as a garment of fire among wood;”

— and like a torch of fire in a sheaf, burning up the dry straw; and they shall devour all the people round about, on the right hand and on the left, so that none of the adversaries can hold out against them; and Judah shall be inhabited again in her own place, even in Jerusalem, so that the renewed people could fitly become the nucleus of the Kingdom of God in Jerusalem.

⁷ The Lord also shall save the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem do not magnify themselves against Judah.

— the Lord also shall save the dwellings of the country outside of the capital of Judah first, with its stone palaces, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem do not magnify themselves against Judah, the house of David being the royal family.

⁸ “In that day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David, and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the Lord before them.

— as with a shield against their enemies on that day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem, by a special strengthening against the foe; and he that is feeble among them, literally, “the stumbler,” one who can hardly hold himself up, being very weak;

— on that day shall be as David, to the Jew the highest type of strength and courage; and the house of David shall be as God, like a supernatural being, as the Angel of the Lord before them, like the Son of God in his Old Testament form, whose power lived in all his believers.

⁹ And it shall come to pass in that day that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. — on that day and using the second staff, God will seek to destroy all the nations who attack Jerusalem;

— even while Jerusalem was exalted to a degree of strength and glory far transcending anything in its past experience, God will destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.

¹⁰ And I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplication; and they shall look upon Me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for Him as one who is in bitterness for his firstborn.

— and God will pour upon the house of David, the entire royal family, the royal priesthood of the Kingdom of God, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the members of his congregation in general, the spirit of grace and of supplications, him who works in the heart of man the certainty of the divine grace and urges him to seek forgiveness of sins by fervent prayers and fastings;

— and the house of Judah shall look upon me whom they have pierced (H1856 – dāqar דָּקַר to pierce, piercing through), as they nailed their Messiah to the cross, John 19:34; Revelation 1:7, or by piercing His side with a spear; and they shall mourn for him as one mourn for his only son, acknowledging their transgression in killing the Prince of Life, Acts 3:15, and shall be in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn, almost the greatest grief and sorrow known to the Jews;

— Rashi: as one mourns over an only son: As a man mourns over his only son. And our Sages expounded this in tractate Sukkah (52a) as referring to the Messiah, son of Joseph, who was slain;

— Rashi rightly quoted the Targum Sukkah (52a) about the Messiah to come from one Yeshua, a son of Joseph, of the house of David, yet they are blindsided to him as the Son of God and as the fulfilment of the Messiah’s first coming; (reference to this “piercing” disappeared in the Masoretic Text, an example of the lying pen of the scribes: Jeremiah 8:8; or perhaps the lying tongues of their Sages).

¹¹ “In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the Valley of Megiddo.

— on that day, when the greatness of their crime in putting their own Messiah to death, would be brought home to some of the people, shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem as is ever the case when men realize that their sins were the cause of Christ’s death;

— as the mourning of Hadadrimmon, when the men of Judah mourned so bitterly over the death of their King Josiah, who was mortally wounded near that place in the Plain of Esdraelon, II Chronicles 35:22 ff. in the Valley of Megiddon.

¹² And the land shall mourn, every family apart: the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart;

— and the land shall mourn, each family by itself: the family of David by itself, and the wives by themselves; the family of Nathan by itself, and the wives by themselves;

¹³ the family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of Shimei apart, and their wives apart; — the family of Levi by itself, and the wives by themselves; the family of Shimei by itself, and the wives by themselves;

¹⁴ all the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart. — all the families that remain, that is, the whole nation shall be born; every family apart and their wives separately. Nor would this sorrow of true repentance be in vain. Zechariah 13:1

— on that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to the entire nation, as representative of the Kingdom of God in the Millennium, in whose members the blood of the Messiah, shed for the sins of the world, has prepared a water which thoroughly cleanses sinners from their uncleanness. Cf 1 John 1:7. It is the washing of regeneration and renewing of the spirits of God which is shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ, or Yeshua the Messiah, Titus 3:5-6.

Posted in Minor Prophets

And the Lord God shall blow the trumpet, summoning his people to the attack, and shall go with whirlwinds of the South, which were always the most violent of all — Q, Could this “whirlwinds of the South” be referring to a parable in Ezekiel 20:45-40 and 21:1-5?

Zechariah 9

¹ The burden of the word of the Lord in the land of Hadrach and Damascus, shall be the rest thereof, when the eyes of man, as of all the tribes of Israel, shall be toward the Lord.

— the words of burden to “all the tribes of Israel” the sentence of a heavy judgement of the Lord in the land of Hadrach, a term which seems to apply to the entire Medo-Persian empire as the world-power opposed to the people of God;

— and Damascus shall be the rest thereof, the Syrian capital being the place on which the burden of the Lord’s wrath rests, the Targum paraphrases it, “and Damascus shall be converted;” and closeby is Antioch where the Gospel was preached, and many converted, and a church, consisting of Jews and Gentiles, was formed; and here the disciples were first called Christians, Acts 11:26;

— when the eyes of man as of all the tribes of Israel, shall be drawn toward the Lord, both the house of Israel and the house of Judah being directed to the Lord at this evidence of his anger when he goes about to establish a more equitable proportion between peoples of the nations.

² And Hamath also shall border thereby; Tyre and Sidon, though it be very wise. — and Hamath also shall border thereby, or “Hamath” the district bounding Palestine on the north, “which borders thereon,”

— this, together with Damascus, representing Syria; Tyre and Sidon, the cities of Phenicia, though it be very wise, or “because their inhabitants were wise in their own conceit,” multiplying wealth and power and trusting in them.

³ And Tyre did build herself a stronghold, and heaped up silver as the dust, and fine gold as the mire of the streets.

— and Tyre did build herself a stronghold, the city proper being on an island surrounded by a double sea-wall, which made it practically impregnable in those days, and heaped up silver as the dust and fine gold as the mire of the streets for the commerce of Tyre had made her immensely wealthy.

⁴ Behold, the Lord will cast her out, and He will smite her power in the sea; and she shall be devoured with fire.

— behold, the Lord will seize her through the agency of some earthly conqueror; in this case Alexander and God will smite her power in the sea as represented by her army and her navy; and she shall be devoured with fire so that everything on which her inhabitants depended was consumed and exterminated.

⁵ Ashkelon shall see it and fear; Gaza also shall see it and be very sorrowful, and Ekron for her expectation shall be ashamed; and the king shall perish from Gaza, and Ashkelon shall not be inhabited.

— Ashkelon shall see God’s judgement, they shall be “ashamed because of their iniquities” namely, the punishment descending upon them; and fear, Gaza also shall see God’s judgement and be very sorrowful, and be exceedingly troubled;

— and the king shall perish from Gaza, the ruler being removed entirely, and Ashkelon shall not be inhabited, its citizens being killed or dragged into captivity.

⁶ And a bastard shall dwell in Ashdod, and I will cut off the pride of the Philistines.

— and a bastard or mongrel, one of blemished birth shall dwell in Ashdod and God will cut off the pride of the Philistines, four of whose city-states are mentioned here as representative of the entire country.

— Rashi: And the strangers shall dwell in Ashdod: And a strange people shall dwell in Ashdod. Those are the Israelites, who were strange in it.

⁷ And I will take away his blood out of his mouth, and his abominations from between his teeth; but he that remaineth, even he shall be for our God, and he shall be as a governor in Judah, and Ekron as a Jebusite.

— and the Lord will take away his blood out of his mouth; the Targum says, “I will destroy them that eat blood” or against those, [like Esau], who breathe out threats of slaughtering his elect or persecute the people of God;

— Rashi: And I will remove his blood from his mouth: From the mouth of Esau; this is their house of Bamia [one of Edom’s principal deities, where they would sprinkle the blood of their sacrifices. . . . some interpret this to mean the bloodshed, that the [Edomites] would shed the blood of Israel.

— and his abominations from between his teeth, striking him down while he is engaged in such criminal behavior; but he that remaineth, even he, shall be for our God; the Targum paraphrases it, “and the proselytes that remain among them, they also shall be added to the people of our God;”

— and he shall be as a governor in Judah, like the prince of one of the tribes, the Targum says, “they [the Gentiles mentioned above, especially the Jebusites] shall be as the princes of the house of Judah” and Ekron, a Jebusite, for as the Jebusites were amalgamated with the children of Judah so these heathen nations and others, would be joined to the true people of God; the Targum says, “and Ekron shall be filled with the house of Israel, as Jerusalem.”

Remember that the Targum is another source of the Bible. Started by Ezra for those returning exiles from Babylon and for these returnees they could only understand in Aramaic; hence the Targum is as if Ezra is speaking to us from the verses quoted.

⁸ And I will encamp about Mine house because of the army, because of him that passeth by, and because of him that returneth; and no oppressor shall pass through them any more, for now have I seen with Mine eyes.

— and the Lord will encamp about his house; the Targum says, “and I will cause my glorious Shekinah to dwell in the house of my sanctuary, and the strength of the arm of my power shall be as a wall of fire round about it,”

— because of the army, because of him that passed by, and because of him that returned, enemies marching to and fro, looking for an opportunity to attack; in the times of the Ptolemies and Seleucidae, the kings of Egypt and Syria during whose commotions, their passing to and fro against each other and against them, were still continuing through numerous years;

— and no oppressor shall pass through them any more, no enemy daring to disturb the Lord’s people, his holy Kingdom; for now have I seen with my eyes, he was exercising his providential control and the power of his mercy.

⁹ Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, thy King cometh unto thee! He is just and having salvation, lowly, and riding upon an ass and upon a colt, the foal of an ass.

— rejoice greatly, 0 daughter of Zion! the members of the Lord’s people; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! with a shout of gladness. Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, the Messiah himself appearing in her midst;

— he is just, possessing righteousness as the first requisite of a true ruler, and having salvation, bearing the salvation which the Lord had planned, lowly, and riding upon an ass and upon a colt, the foal of an ass; this passage is quoted by Matthew 21:4, and John 12:15, as having been fulfilled when the Lord entered Jerusalem on the tenth of Nisan before Passover;

¹⁰ And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow shall be cut off; and He shall speak peace unto the heathen, and His dominion shall be from sea even to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth.

— and the Lord will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem; and the battle-bow shall be cut off; the Targum paraphrases it, “I will break the strength of those that make war, the armies of the people,” for the Lord does not build his kingdom with might of arms, but of peace;

— and he shall speak peace unto the nations, this being the gist of his Kingdom; and his dominion shall be from sea even to sea and from the river, the Euphrates, as the extreme eastern boundary of the then known world even to the ends of the earth, that is, the Kingdom of God would be established throughout the earth; it would be a universal kingdom.

¹¹ As for thee also, by the blood of thy covenant, I have sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water. — as for thee also so the Lord addresses the entire nation of his people which afterward in the ideal sense merged into his Kingdom by the blood of thy covenant on account of the blood of the covenant, Exodus 24:8,

— by which Israel was separated from the rest of the nations and accepted into the most intimate fellowship with the Lord, for he has sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit where there is no water, delivering them from the oppression of the world-power from all the hostile forces of the earth.

¹² Turn you to the stronghold, ye prisoners of hope; even today do I declare that I will render double unto thee, — turn you, or “return,” to the stronghold, the fortified city in opposition to the pit which had just been mentioned;

— ye prisoners of hope, that is, who in spite of afflictions, maintain hope in God; “that hope for redemption” as the Targum paraphrases it; even today do God declare that he will render double unto thee, namely, a double measure of glory instead of the tribulations endured.

¹³ when I have bent Judah for Me, filled the bow with Ephraim, and raised up thy sons, O Zion, against thy sons, O Greece, and made thee as the sword of a mighty man.

— when the Lord has bent Judah as a bow in his hand, filled the bow with Ephraim, as the arrows in his hand, and raised up thy sons, O Zion, stirring them up for war,

— against thy sons, O Greece, for here was another world-power with its hostility against the people of the Lord, and made thee as the sword of a mighty man, so that the Lord’s people are able to wage the Lord’s wars.

¹⁴ And the Lord shall be seen over them, and his arrow shall go forth as the lightning; and the Lord God shall blow the trumpet, and shall go with whirlwinds of the south.

— and the Lord shall be seen over them, appearing above them or at their head, as he who fights from heaven on their behalf, and his arrow shall go forth as the lightning, bringing instantaneous destruction to his foes;

— and the Lord God shall blow the trumpet, summoning his people to the attack, and shall go with whirlwinds of the South, which were always the most violent of all;

— Q, Could this “whirlwinds of the South” be referring to a parable in Ezekiel 20:45-40 and 21:1-5?

Ezekiel 20:45 Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
⁴⁶ “Son of man, set thy face toward the South, and drop thy word toward the South, and prophesy against the forest of the Southland.
⁴⁷ And say to the forest of the South: ‘Hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee and every dry tree. The flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the South to the North shall be burned therein.
⁴⁸ And all flesh shall see that I, the Lord, have kindled it; it shall not be quenched.’”
⁴⁹ Then said I, “Ah, Lord God! They say of me, ‘Doth he not speak parables?’”
Ezekiel 21:1 And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
² “Son of man, set thy face toward Jerusalem, and drop thy word toward the holy places, and prophesy against the land of Israel;
³ and say to the land of Israel, ‘Thus saith the Lord: Behold, I am against thee, and will draw forth My Sword out of his sheath and will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked.
⁴ Seeing then that I will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked, therefore shall My Sword go forth out of his sheath against all flesh from the South to the North,
⁵ that all flesh may know that I, the Lord, have drawn forth My Sword out of his sheath. It shall not return any more.’

The Scriptures above are shrouded in coded language or hidden in a parable, and so the Q is: how would such scenarios be played out?

For more about a prophecy of Esau or Edom, see Obadiah

For more on the enemy from the South, see A Sword from the South!

¹⁵ The Lord of hosts shall defend them, and they shall devour and subdue with slingstones; and they shall drink and make a noise as through wine, and they shall be filled like bowls, and as the corners of the altar.

— the Lord of hosts shall be acting as their Shield against the weapons of the enemy; and they shall devour and subdue with sling-stones, treading down the enemy like pebbles of the brook, Cf Numbers 23:24;

— and they shall drink, consuming the blood of the enemies, and make a noise as through wine, noisy as though under the influence of wine; and they shall be filled like bowls, the vessels in which the priests caught the blood of the sacrifices, and as the corners of the altar.

¹⁶ And the Lord their God shall save them in that day, as the flock of His people; for they shall be as the stones of a crown, lifted up as an ensign upon His land.

— and the Lord, their God, shall save them in that day as the flock of his sheep, with the deliverance of the Messiah’s redemption; for they shall be as the stones of a crown, lifted up as an ensign upon his land, Zion’s sons and daughters being like jewels of a crown which sparkles over the Lord’s land as he proudly marches through the territory belonging to him.

¹⁷ For how great is their goodness, and how great is their beauty! Corn shall make the young men cheerful, and new wine the maids.

— for how great is their goodness, and how great is their beauty! Cf Psalms 45:3. Corn shall make the young men cheerful and new wine the maids, the reference being to the blessings of God as bestowed upon his people through the Word.

Zechariah 10

¹ Ask ye of the Lord rain in the time of the latter rain; so the Lord shall make bright clouds, and give them showers of rain, to every one grass in the field. — ask ye of the Lord rain in the time of the latter rain, that is, the latter rain in its due time,

— there was the former spring and the latter autumn rain, of which see Hosea 6:3. making their appeal to him in all confidence as they were in need of his blessings;

— so the Lord shall make bright clouds, create lightnings and give them showers of rain, in a refreshing thunder-shower to every one grass in the field, all the crops of the field.

² For the idols have spoken vanity, and the diviners have seen a lie and have told false dreams. They comfort in vain; therefore they went their way as a flock; they were troubled, because there were no shepherd.

— for the idols, to whom the children of Israel had formerly applied for help, have spoken vanity, their household oracles not being dependable, and the diviners have seen a lie, they have announced deceitful oracles;

— and have told false dreams, proclaiming their own inventions as revelations from above; they comfort in vain because their words are a hollow mockery; therefore they, the people who relied upon their words went their way as a flock, wandering astray, they were troubled because there were no shepherd, no reliable leader and guide; the Targum says, “they are scattered as sheep are scattered.”

³ “Mine anger was kindled against the shepherds, and I punished the goats; for the Lord of hosts hath visited His flock, the house of Judah, and hath made them as His goodly horse in the battle. — my anger was kindled against the shepherds, the rulers of Israel to whom he had entrusted the leadership;

— and the Lord punished the goats, visiting them with a severe punishment; they were not the Seleucidae, nor the successors of Alexander, signified by the he goat in Daniel 8:5 but rather the monks and friars, comparable to these for their filthiness and uncleanness; and because they pretend to be guides of the people, and yet use them ill and push them with their horns of power; wherefore God will punish them, and kill those children of Jezebel with death, Revelation 2:22;

— for the Lord of hosts hath visited his flock, the house of Judah, this denotes that the Jews, when converted, looking after them with tender care, and hath made them as his horse in the battle, like the glorious charger on which the general leads his troops to battle.

⁴ Out of him came forth the corner, out of him the nail, out of him the battle bow, out of him every oppressor together. — out of him, namely, Yehovah, came forth the corner,

— that is, “cornerstone” by which is meant a king or ruler, the corner-stone on which the entire building of the new Kingdom rests; out of him the nail; the Targum says, “out of him his Messiah” the pegs of the wall, from which the household utensils were suspended, types of the dependable men in a state;

— out of him the battle-bow, the means for carrying on the Lord’s wars; Christ makes war in righteousness; the armies of heaven follow him; out of him every oppressor together, every mighty ruler whom Judah would need in its wars against the enemies.

⁵ And they shall be as mighty men, who tread down their enemies in the mire of the streets in the battle; and they shall fight because the Lord is with them, and the riders on horses shall be confounded.

— and they, the Lord’s people, shall be as mighty men, which tread down their enemies in the mire of the streets, Cf Zechariah 9:15, in the battle; and they shall fight because the Lord is with them, always in the majority because of his help, and the riders on horses shall be confounded, cavalry being mentioned as the chief part of the enemy’s army.

⁶ “And I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph, and I will bring them back to place them, for I have mercy upon them. And they shall be as though I had not cast them off, for I am the Lord their God and will hear them.

— and the Lord will strengthen the house of Judah, and he will save the house of Joseph, the southern and the northern kingdom together being typical of the Kingdom of God;

— and the Lord will bring them again to place them; there is but one word in the original text; it is composed of two words, of שוב, “to return,” and ישב “to sit” or “dwell” quietly, constantly and at ease; and the meaning is that these people, the full house of Jacob, should be returned from the state and condition and from each of the places they are in and be settled either in their own land, letting them dwell in safety;

— for the Lord has mercy upon them, his mercy is the one reason for his kindness toward them; and they shall be as though he had not cast them off, as in the time before the captivity; for he is the Lord, their God, and will hear them, they could be sure of his gracious attention to all their needs; the Targum says, “and I will receive their prayer.”

⁷ And they of Ephraim shall be like a mighty man, and their heart shall rejoice as through wine; yea, their children shall see it and be glad; their heart shall rejoice in the Lord.

— and they of Ephraim, the descendants of Joseph, the spiritual children of him who was given the right of the first-born in the house of Jacob, shall be like a mighty man, like a hero;

— and their heart shall rejoice as through wine, with a fierce exultation; yea, their children shall see it and be glad, a fact which indicates that the joy would be lasting; their heart shall rejoice in the Lord, giving all honor to Him who granted them such a glorious victory; the Targum says, “their heart shall rejoice in the word of the Lord.”

⁸ “I will whistle for them and gather them, for I have redeemed them; and they shall increase as they have increased. — the Lord will hiss for them, or “whistle for them” as a signal for them to assemble and gather them,

— for the Lord has redeemed them, both by entering into a covenant with them and by promising them the Redeemer; and they shall increase as they have increased, that is, the growth of the people of God in the Millennium would be like that of Israel when it first came to the Promised Land.

⁹ And I will sow them among the people, and they shall remember Me in far countries; and they shall live with their children and turn again.

— and the Lord will sow them among the people, as a token of their quick increase; and they shall remember me in in their scattered countries around the globe, wherever the children of Israel could be found;

— and they shall live with their children, enjoying the blessing of the Lord in a permanent flow of blessings, and turn again, returning to the fellowship of the Lord in His Kingdom.

¹⁰ I will bring them back also out of the land of Egypt, and gather them out of Assyria; and I will bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon, and a place shall not be found for them.

— the Lord will bring them again also out of the land of Egypt and gather them out of Assyria, the two world-powers being named as representative of two empires that have held the house of Israel in captivity as their enemies and oppressors;

— and the Lord will bring them into the land of Gilead, a land of green pastures, beside the still waters and Lebanon, a land of goodly mountain and hill of frankincense, and where cedars grew, to occupy the land on both sides of Jordan once more; and place shall not be found for them, there will not be sufficient room for them to expand, the number of the spiritual children of Israel being so great.

¹¹ And He shall pass through the sea with affliction, and shall smite the waves in the sea, and all the deeps of the river shall dry up; and the pride of Assyria shall be brought down, and the scepter of Egypt shall depart away.

— and he shall pass through the sea with affliction, rather, “of distress,” in allusion to the affliction felt by the children of Israel when they passed through the Red Sea, and shall smite the waves in the sea, keeping them under control by His powerful word;

— and all the deeps of the river shall dry up, both the Nile (see also Isaiah 19:5 and Ezekiel 30:12), and the river Euphrates: Revelation 16:12 the drying up of which signifies the destruction of both the Egyptian and the Persian empires; and the Targum paraphrases it, “all the kings of the people shall be confounded.”

— and the pride of Assyria shall be brought down; the pride of the Ottoman empire, of which the old Assyria is a part, and which has been large and powerful, that shall be destroyed; and the scepter of Egypt shall depart away so that none of the former oppressors would remain.

¹² And I will strengthen them in the Lord; and they shall walk up and down in His name,” saith the Lord.

— and the Lord will strengthen them in their faith in the Lord, their covenant and commitment with him, and they shall walk up and down in his name, so that they would live under his protection and in accordance with his will:

— those that are written, those that are spoken and even those that are unspoken. The entire connection brings out the characteristics of the Kingdom of God in the Millennium, whose members form a royal priesthood and find delight in walking in the ways of the Lord.

Posted in Minor Prophets

Surprisingly, there are unspoken Will of God existing today! Like parents, God have their secret wishes for their children. So God sometimes has human characteristics.

But how do we know God’s unspoken Will if they were unspoken? To be unspoken would also mean unwritten, so what are they? Do they really exist?

Zechariah 7

¹ And it came to pass in the fourth year of King Darius that the word of the Lord came unto Zechariah, in the fourth day of the ninth month, even in Chisleu,

— and it came to pass in the fourth year of King Darius, in the year 518 BC that the word of the Lord, by special inspiration, came unto Zechariah in the fourth day of the ninth month, in Chisleu, the ninth month of the Jewish ecclesiastical year;

— the year 518 BC is two years after the foundation of the Temple was laid, Haggai 2:10 and nearly 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;

² when they had sent Sherezer and Regemmelech and their men unto the house of God to pray before the Lord,

— when they send righteous Jews with Chaldean names Sherezer and Regemmelech and other men to pray before the Lord, they prayed in their half completed Temple, that is, by the returning exiles of Judea, these are first ones evidently having been born in exile and still bearing their strange names, to entreat Yehovah, literally, “to conciliate by caresses,”

³ and to speak unto the priests who were in the house of the Lord of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, “Should I weep (mourn and fast) in the fifth month, separating myself as I have done these so many years?”

— and to speak unto the priests who ministered the sanctuary as the Targum explains it, who offered sacrifices and who were still to be consulted in matters of religion, Malachi 2:7;

— and to the prophets, also servants of the true God in the more specific sense, saying, Should I mourn and fast in the fifth month, the month Ab: II Kings 25:8, the Temple was burnt by the Chaldeans; and according to Jeremiah 3:12, it was on the tenth of this month which day was kept by the Jews as a day of fasting and humiliation in commemoration of it;

— as I have done these so many years? for this fast had become a custom since the Babylonian captivity; and now that the Jews were once more living in Palestine, this question was asked because of its importance for all the Jews, both at home and abroad.

⁴ Then came the word of the Lord of hosts unto me, saying,

⁵ “Speak unto all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, ‘When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month even those seventy years, did ye fast at all unto Me, even to Me?

— speak unto all the people of the land and to the priests; his message concerning them all, saying, When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month, the latter observation being in memory of the murder of Gedaliah, Cf Jeremiah 41;

— fifth month: 9th of Av, the destruction of the Temple, God’s dwelling place on earth; Exodus 25:8; God does want to be just the God who exists in the heavens, he is the God who wants to come down to dwell among men, in his Sanctuary; he wants to be with us but his dwelling place was destroyed;

— seventh month: 3rd of Tishri; when Gedaliah was assassinated; although Gedaliah was appointed by Nebuchadnezzar, this Babylon king was just an instrument in God’s hand; Jerusalem being his holy city and Judae being his holy land; allowing a Jewish Governor to rule over the land despite the majority of the people going into captivity;

— even those seventy years, during the entire captivity, did ye at all fast unto me, even to me? Had it really been done in God’s honor, for the purpose of serving him: Feeling the same pain as he has? Sympathy with him for not having a home with us on earth? Or an feeling that his holy land was in ruin and under the control of the heathens? (for more on this, see the Unspoken Will of God)

⁶ And when ye ate and when ye drank, did not ye eat for yourselves and drink for yourselves? — did not ye eat for yourselves and drink for yourselves? asked the Lord;

— is it merely for your 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.

⁷ Should ye not hear the words which the Lord hath cried by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity, and the cities thereof round about her, when men inhabited the south and the plain?’”

— should ye not hear the words who 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 earlier prophets, which would have prevented their captivity; and so would have had no occasion of fasting and mourning;

— when men inhabited the south when Jerusalem and the cities about it were full of people and enjoyed all the blessings of life in great plenty; and similarily with the plain, the land of Judea;

⁸ And the word of the Lord came unto Zechariah, saying, — and the word of the Lord saying; giving him orders to repeat what the former prophets had said;

⁹ “Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, ‘Execute true judgement, and show mercy and compassions every man to his brother.

— thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, rather, “Thus spoke Yehovah,” in addressing the children of Judah in former days, before the exile, saying, Execute true judgement, literally, “judge the judgement of truth,”

— execute true judgement and check that the rich and mighty won’t escape judgement: see the on-going of today’s stories of Jeffrey Epstein, Virginia Giuffre, Ghislaine Maxwell, UK royal Prince Andrew with protection from Royalty; and those hovering around in Epstein’s private airplane: ex presidents Clinton and Trump; how are they going to face judgement from God?

— and show mercy and compassions every man his brother, those in poverty, the homeless, those in want of food, raiment or in whatsoever distress, whether of body or mind; so that kindness, mercy and compassion should be practiced at all times, Isaiah 58:6-7; Jeremiah 7:28;

¹⁰ And oppress not the widow nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor; and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart.’ — and oppress not the widow nor the fatherless, the orphans, the stranger nor the poor, these four classes ever being in the care of the Lord, Isaiah 1:17; Jeremiah 5:28;

— and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart; thoughts of evil are sinful, and forbidden by the law of God, as well as actions, which agrees with our Lord’s sense of the law,

¹¹ But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear.

— but they refused to hearken, they were consistently rebellious, and pulled away the shoulder, like an ox who refuses to accept the yoke on his neck, and stopped their ears, Cf Isaiah 6:10, that they should not hear, like a backsliding heifer or a deaf adder.

¹² Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law and the words which the Lord of hosts hath sent in His Spirit by the former prophets. Therefore came a great wrath from the Lord of hosts.

— yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, like the hardest stone, impervious to every impression from without;

— lest they should hear the Law, the books of Moses, and the words which the Lord of hosts hath sent in his spirit, inspired by his spirit, by the former prophets, who were the instruments of God in making known his will; therefore came a great wrath from the Lord of hosts as shown in the captivity of Judah.

¹³ “Therefore it has come to pass that as He cried and they would not hear, so they cried and I would not hear,” saith the Lord of hosts.

— therefore it is come to pass, the Lord by the former prophets called them to repentance and obedience: that as God cried, in the exhortations of his prophets, and they would not hear, so when they called and cried when in trouble, now it was God’s turn not to hear, saith the Lord of hosts;

¹⁴ “But I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations whom they knew not. Thus the land was desolate after them, that no man passed through nor returned; for they laid the pleasant land desolate.”

— so I scattered them with a whirlwind, denoting the fierceness of his wrath, and the strength of his fury, among all the nations whom they knew not, strange to them in language, customs and religion;

— thus the land was desolate after them that no man passed through nor returned, all of Judea practically being a wilderness; especially after the Jews were carried captive into Babylon; for the rest, after the death of Gedaliah, fled into Egypt: for they laid the pleasant land desolate,

— the children of Judah themselves being to blame for the desolation which came upon the land, a land flowing with milk and honey; but later they received the just punishment of their sins, their land became desolate: they have but themselves to blame for their afflictions, though their pride would attempt to deny it;

— “scattered them . . . among all the nations” Judah was scattered only to Babylon, but this captivity together with Israel, is going to be like a whirlwind among all the nations “whom they knew not,” hence this is prophetic for the endtime, in our time.

Zechariah 8

¹ Again the word of the Lord of hosts came to me, saying, — the phrase, “to me” is not in the Hebrew text; but is implied there as the Masora observes; and undoubtedly it is to be understood; as it is by the Targum, “with me.”

² “Thus saith the Lord of hosts: ‘I was jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I was jealous for her with great fury.’

— thus saith the Lord of hosts, I was jealous for Zion with great jealousy “for Jerusalem and for Zion” as in Zechariah 1:14; I am jealous in a most vehement affection toward Jerusalem as in Zion.

Flashing Forward

³ “Thus saith the Lord: ‘I am returned unto Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem; and Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth, and the mountain of the Lord of hosts, the Holy Mountain.’

— thus saith the Lord, I am returned unto Zion or as the Targum renders it, “I will return to Zion” once more occupying the dwelling-place of his honor in the midst of his people, which he had forsaken because of the wickedness of the idolatrous nation;

— and Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth, where the Lord’s truth is, the truth of his eternal Word, would once more be found; where his Temple stood, the holy mountain because it is the center of the true worship of God;

— the mountain of the Lord of hosts; which will be established upon the top of the mountains, Isaiah 2:2; and where the Lord will be seen and exalted in his glory, even the Lamb, with the hundred and forty four thousand with him.

⁴ “Thus saith the Lord of hosts: ‘There shall yet old men and old women dwell in the streets of Jerusalem, and every man with his staff in his hand because of great age.

— thus saith the Lord of hosts, there shall yet old men and old women dwell in the streets of Jerusalem, since they would not be torn away in the fullness of their strength by war and pestilence, and every man with his staff in his hand for very age, literally, “because of the multitude of his days.”

⁵ And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof.’ — without any fear of any enemy, the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof;

— it is a beautiful picture representing the extremes of life dwelling in all security and happiness in the midst of the Holy City, the blessings of the Messianic Age.

⁶ “Thus saith the Lord of hosts: ‘If it be marvelous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in these days, should it also be marvelous in Mine eyes?’ saith the Lord of hosts.

— thus saith the Lord of hosts, If it be marvelous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in these days, in the eyes of those who had returned from captivity, should it also be marvelous in the eyes of the Lord.

⁷ “Thus saith the Lord of hosts: ‘Behold, I will save My people from the east country and from the west country;

— thus saith the Lord of hosts, Behold, I will save my people from the East country, from the rising of the sun, and from the West country, from the setting of the sun, so that Yehovah would rescue his people from all lands, as far as the sun shines;

After the Babylonian captivity, the Return was only from the East, but this includes the West, thus the Return must be prophetic for the endtime;

⁸ and I will bring them, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. And they shall be My people and I will be their God, in truth and in righteousness.’

— and I will bring them and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem; and they shall be my people and I will be their God, in truth and in righteousness. This is truly the glory of the Millennium when as John writes, we saw his glory, the glory as of the begotten Son and the Father.

⁹ “Thus saith the Lord of hosts: ‘Let your hands be strong, ye that hear in these days these words by the mouth of the prophets, who were in the day that the foundation of the house of the Lord of hosts was laid, that the temple might be built.

— thus saith the Lord of hosts, Let your hands be strong, full of good courage for doing the work of the Lord ye that hear in these days these words by the mouth of the prophets, namely, Haggai and Zechariah;

— which were in the day that the foundation of the house of the Lord of hosts was laid, that the Temple might be built. These prophets had begun their activity at the time when the foundation of the second Temple had already been built, hence this could be referenced the Ezekiel Temple among the returning exiles.

¹⁰ For before these days there was no hire for man nor any hire for beast, neither was there any peace for him that went out or came in because of the affliction; for I set all men, every one, against his neighbor.

— for before these days there was no hire for man nor any hire for beast, for the yield of the land at that time was so small as hardly to be called fair wages, Haggai 1:6-11;

— neither was there any peace to him that went out or came in because of the affliction, there was so much envy and hostility among the people themselves, and on account of jealousy stirred up by the Samaritans, that the ordinary life were continually being interfered with; for I set all men every one against his neighbor, as the account of Nehemiah shows.

¹¹ But now I will not be unto the residue of this people as in the former days,’ saith the Lord of hosts. — but now, since their relationship was restored,

— the Lord will not be unto the residue of this people, to the small congregation which had returned from Babylon as in the former days, saith the Lord of hosts, being ready once more to gladden them with the rich blessings of His goodness and mercy.

¹² ‘For the seed shall be prosperous; the vine shall give her fruit, and the ground shall give her increase, and the heavens shall give their dew; and I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all these things.

— for the seed shall be prosperous, or “there shall be a seed of peace” the vine shall give her fruit, and the ground shall give her increase, all crops showing great productivity;

— and the heavens shall give their dew, affording the necessary moisture to secure growth; and I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all these things, these being evidences of His goodness.

¹³ And it shall come to pass that as ye were a curse among the heathen, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so will I save you, and ye shall be a blessing. Fear not, but let your hands be strong.’ — note; the house of Israel included;

— and it shall come to pass that as ye were a curse among the nations, 0 house of Judah and house of Israel, Jeremiah 42:18, so will I save you and ye shall be a blessing, an example of God’s blessings of mercy. Fear not, but let your hands be strong.

¹⁴ “For thus saith the Lord of hosts: ‘As I thought to punish you when your fathers provoked Me to wrath,’ saith the Lord of hosts, ‘and I repented not,

— for thus saith the Lord of hosts, As I thought to punish you when your fathers provoked me to wrath, Jeremiah 31:28, and he could not, in point of fact, without denying his own holiness, fail to execute his judgement,

¹⁵ so again have I thought in these days to do well unto Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. Fear ye not.

— so again have I thought in these days, now that the covenant relation was once more established with Jerusalem and the house of Judah. Fear ye not, since God is gracious for the sake of the Messiah, therefore the men of Judah have no reason to fear as long as they put their trust in him.

¹⁶ These are the things that ye shall do: Speak ye every man the truth to his neighbor; execute the judgement of truth and peace in your gates;

— these are the things that ye shall do, as an evidence of the new relation which obtained between them and the God of the covenant, Speak ye every man the truth to his neighbor. In your gates so that all their dealings, particularly those pertaining to their courts of law, would be in agreement with God’s laws and principles,

¹⁷ and let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his neighbor; and love no false oath. For all these are things that I hate,’ saith the Lord.”

— and let none of you imagine evil In your hearts against his neighbor, deliberately planning harm and love no false oath, for perjury makes the administration of justice impossible;

— for all these are things that the Lord hates. It is a most emphatic declaration, spoken with great solemnity and it holds true for all time. God hates and despises wickedness in every form and he wants those who are his children to wage continual warfare against every transgression of his Laws and Judgements.

¹⁸ And the word of the Lord of hosts came unto me, saying,

¹⁹ “Thus saith the Lord of hosts: ‘The fast of the fourth month, and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth, shall be to the house of Judah joy and gladness and cheerful feasts. Therefore love the truth and peace.’

— thus saith the Lord of hosts, The fast of the fourth month and the fast of the fifth and the fast of the seventh and the fast of the tenth, special days of fasting and affliction which the Jews had observed during their captivity in memory of certain dark days in the history of their nation, Cf Zechariah 7:3;

— shall be to the house of Judah joy and gladness and cheerful feasts, of highest happiness, but why? They are not commended fasts? Why would they burst out with joy and gladness?

(1) the fast of the fourth month: 17th of Tammuz; Jeremiah 52:6-30 the breaching of the walls of Jerusalem before its fall in 587 BC and in 70 AD (July 6, 2023)

(2) the fast of the fifth month: 9th of Av; II Kings 25:2-10 the destruction of the First Temple in 586 BC; the Second Temple in 70 AD on the same dates (July 27, 2023)

(3) the fast of the seventh month: 3rd of Tishri; Jeremiah 41 when Gedaliah was assassinated in 582/1 BC (September 18, 2023)

(4) the fast of the tenth month: 10th of Teveth; II Kings 25:1 the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon in 586 BC (December 22, 2023)

— those who keep those fasts above will burst out with “joy and gladness and cheerful feasts!”

— as to a hint of why these fasts are instituted, the Lord of Hosts asks,

“Speak unto all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, ‘When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month even those seventy years, did ye fast at all unto Me, even to Me?” Zechariah 7:5

For more on understanding such joy and blessings, and those who love the truth and peaces, see the Unspoken Will of God

²⁰ Thus saith the Lord of hosts: ‘It shall yet come to pass that there shall come people and the inhabitants of many cities.

— thus saith the Lord of hosts, It shall yet come to pass that there shall come people, representatives of all nations and the inhabitants of many cities, of the foremost centers of the world;

²¹ And the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, “Let us go speedily to pray before the Lord, and to seek the Lord of hosts. I will go also.”

— and the inhabitants of one city shall go to another in mutually encouraging and admonishing one another, saying, Let us go speedily, literally, “Going let us go, with speed and earnestness,”

— all nations to pray before the Lord and to seek the Lord of hosts in an invitation and exhortation to worship the one true God; I will go also, the vivid form of speech showing the alacrity with which men would respond.

²² Yea, many people and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray before the Lord.’

— yea, many people and strong nations, the foremost countries of the world shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem to become members of his holy congregation and to pray before the Lord, to worship Yehovah.

²³ “Thus saith the Lord of hosts: ‘In those days it shall come to pass that ten men out of all the languages of the nations shall take hold, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, “We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.”’”

— thus saith the Lord of hosts, In those days it shall come to pass that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, that is, men of all different nations, speaking so numerous tongues, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, in great eagerness;

— saying, We will go with you, casting their lot with the people of the Lord in every way, for we have heard that God is with you. This has been fortasted during the New Testament era, when people from various nations have actually come and begged Christian missionaries to come to them and preach the Kingdom of God. The glorious conversion of all nations in the age of the Millennium is here clearly foretold, and in a most graphic manner.

For more about the Calendar, see Is there a Calendar Omen?

For more details, see An Autopsy of JERUSALEM in the AD 70 INFERNO

Posted in Minor Prophets

Zechariah Chapter 5 concerns two visions regarding the cleansing of God’s people; and the message conveyed is cryptic. The first is of a flying scroll, which signifies the curse of God; the other is the vision of an ephah, and a woman sitting in it, and a talent of lead cast upon the mouth of it, which signified wickedness. What do all these symbols mean?

Second; on reading the passage with its literal meanings, the chapter doesn’t make much sense, but by stretching the meanings slightly, as the flying scroll signifies the curse of God, a warning is being conveyed; perhaps the woman signifies on fire; our modern missiles; the chapter makes more sense: that is, those missiles are loaded with an ephah: or nuclear weapons; and all about our modern warfare with the potential of nuclear bombs devastating the whole world, a coded and hidden warning of a world reaping a curse from God from its own wickedness. Such a new perspective makes more sense.

Zechariah 5: Could the symbolism in Zechariah 5 indicate that there would be nuclear war at the endtime?

Zechariah 5

¹ Then I turned, and lifted up mine eyes and looked, and behold, a flying scroll. — after a time interval, Zechariah turned and lifted up his eyes and looked: behold a flying scroll, a book-scroll or parchment of great size or consisting of many large leaves fastened together;

— a parallel scene of a book-scroll of what Ezekiel saw, in Ezekiel 2, “and in it was written lamentations and mourning and woe.”

And I saw, and behold, a hand stretched out to me, and behold, in it was a scroll of a book.
And he spread it out before me, and it was inscribed before and behind, and there was written upon it lamentations and murmuring and woe. Ezekiel 2:9-10

² And he said unto me, “What seest thou?” And I answered, “I see a flying scroll. The length thereof is twenty cubits and the breadth thereof ten cubits.”

— and the angel said unto Zechariah, What seest thou? And Zechariah answered, I see a flying scroll, a parchment loose or unrolled moving through the air; the length thereof is twenty cubits and the breadth thereof ten cubits, the dimensions approximately ten yards by five yards.

³ Then said he unto me, “This is the curse that goeth forth over the face of the whole earth; for every one who stealeth shall be cut off as on this side according to it, and every one who sweareth shall be cut off as on that side according to it.

— without waiting for a question on the part of the prophet, the angel then said unto Zechariah, This is the curse that goeth forth over the face of the whole earth, as written on the scroll;

— the two sins of theft and false swearing; for whosoever that steal shall be cut off as on this side according to it, and anyone who swears, especially modern politicians, White House officials that had taken a false oath to tell the truth shall be cut off as on that side according to it, that is, the sinners who refuse to repent, who persist in their wickedness, must be cut off and removed;

— the one being against the second, as two categories of curses; show that the curses of the law reaches all sorts of sins and sinners; pretty much similar to what Ezekiel saw: “of written lamentations and mourning and woe.” The message of Ezekiel is primarily a warning to the house of Israel (mentions 169 times); to Ephraim, the chief tribe.

For more, see ‘the US is the true ’empire of lies’ or, Who is Ephraim, a Chronic Liar?

⁴ ‘I will bring it forth,’ saith the Lord of hosts,‘ and it shall enter into the house of the thief and into the house of him that sweareth falsely by My name. And it shall remain in the midst of his house and shall consume it, with the timber thereof and the stones thereof.’”

— the Lord will bring it forth, namely, the curse and the judgement with it, saith the Lord of hosts, and it shall enter into the house of the thief and into the house of him that sweareth falsely by my name, these two classes of sinners being named as representatives of all unrepentant transgressors;

— and it shall remain in the midst of his house, lodging there, dwelling there permanently, and shall consume it with the timber thereof and the stones thereof, not leaving a vestige of it. These words are properly expressive of the curse and of the punishment of God upon these form of deliberate transgression; which would be like a consuming fire upon anyone and everyone who steal and swear falsely;

— Rashi: I have brought it forth: to walk to and fro in the land and to wreak vengeance upon the thieves and the swearers of falsehoods from now on; and it shall come into the house of the thief, etc;

— and a saying goes: “a man that swears much shall be full of iniquity, and the plague shall not depart from his house,” and “if a man swears in vain, he shall not be innocent or justified, for his house shall be full of calamities.”

⁵ Then the angel who talked with me went forth and said unto me, “Lift up now thine eyes and see what is this that goeth forth.”

— then the angel that talked with Zechariah, and said unto Zechariah, ‘Lift up now thine eyes and see what is this that goeth forth,’ appearing before his eyes, something that Zechariah should observe very closely.

⁶ And I said, “What is it?” And he said, “This is an ephah that goeth forth.” He said moreover, “This is their resemblance through all the earth.”

— ‘This is an ephah that goeth forth,’ the ephah being a dry measure corresponding roughly to our peck; the object in the vision was evidently a receptacle having the shape of an ephah, and the ephah was chosen because it was often called the measure of unrighteousness and of deceits;

— the angel said, ‘This is their resemblance through all the earth,’ literally, ‘this their eye in all the land,” that is, this is the object of their gaze, all eyes are centered upon it.

⁷ And behold, there was lifted up a weighty piece of lead, and this is a woman who sitteth in the midst of the ephah. — first appearance of a woman, perhaps a church, one of wickedness, the Roman Church? Or a fire, the afterburner of a missile? the missile being covered by a layer of lead;

— and behold there was lifted up a talent of lead, a great round piece, weighing about a hundred pounds; and this is a woman that sitteth in the midst of the ephah, the female personification of wickedness held within the ephah by the great weight;

— is God trying to convey to the people of the endtime, that there would be nuclear weapons carried by missiles caused by cheatings and false swearings that result in “great wickedness”?

⁸ And he said, “This is wickedness.” And he cast it into the midst of the ephah, and he cast the weight of lead upon the mouth thereof.

— and the angel said, ‘This is wickedness,’ Israel being imbued with false doctrines, and godlessness personified. And the angel cast it into the midst of the ephah, thus preventing her escape; and he cast the weight of lead upon the mouth thereof, this acting as a cover keeping her shut up within the measure.

⁹ Then I lifted up mine eyes and looked, and behold, there came out two women, and the wind was in their wings (for they had wings like the wings of a stork), and they lifted up the ephah between the earth and the heaven.

— fascinated by a further wonderful thing that happened, then lifted Zechariah up his eyes and behold, there came out two women, and the wind was in their wings, aiding them in their movement forward as they carried the ephah;

— two women appear; perhaps two entities: church and state? Or two missiles?

— for they had wings (missiles) like the wings of a bird; and they lifted up the ephah (with nuclear payload) between the earth and the heaven, carrying missiles or drones flying along quickly, all over the world, between the earth and the first heaven.

¹⁰ Then said I to the angel who talked with me, “Whither do these bear the ephah?” — then asked Zechariah the angel who talked with him, “Where do these bear the ephah?”

¹¹ And he said unto me, “To build it a house in the land of Shinar; and it shall be established, and set there upon her own base.” — and the angel said unto Zechariah, ‘To build an house in the land of Shinar,’ typical from olden times as the land of rebellion against the Lord;

— that is, in the province of Babylon, as the Targum paraphrases it; for Babel, or Babylon, was in the land of Shinar; Genesis 11:1-9; and it shall be established and set there upon her own base; representative of the ungodly world, a mystery of iniquity, Revelation 17:5; wickedness was to have its place; a place of wickedness;

— to-day, from a spiritual point of view, Washington DC and New York city could be considered the greatest and most perverted cities in the world, politically (one side of the scroll a warning for those who swears falsely under oath before the Bible upon taking office) and economically (the other side of the scroll meant for those who steals through Wall Street tradings: insider tradings, share manipulations and more);

— and perhaps this reference to Babylon could be meant for these end-time godless cities; that is, either one, or both, of these modern Babylonian metropolises could be destined to be blown up by a nuclear conflagration; verse 3 above indicate both cities destroyed;

— and second, the United States is so far the only country that has used two nuclear weapons against another, perhaps this verse “as you have done, it shall be done to you;” of a prophetic boomerang effect could shed some light that could flared up not just the United States but would even engulf the whole world:

“For the day of the Lord is near upon all the nations. As you have done, it shall be done to you; your dealings will return upon your own head” Obadiah 1:15

— and then appear the four chariots of horses in the next chapter!

Zechariah 6

¹ And I turned, and lifted up mine eyes and looked, and behold, there came four chariots out from between two mountains, and the mountains were mountains of brass.

— Zechariah lifted up his eyes and looked, there came four chariots out from between two mountains in the mountainous country near Jerusalem, very likely between Mount Zion and the Mount of Olives; and the mountains were mountains of brass, firm and immovable.

² In the first chariot were red horses, and in the second chariot black horses, — in the first chariot, harnessed to it were red horses; and we would assigned them as signifying war and bloodshed; but the angel never elaborate further what the red horses are;

— Gill says: by these “red horses” must be designed the Babylonians and Chaldeans, so called because their soldiers were clothed in red, and their chariots were like flaming torches;

— red horses may signify bloody times, and for the endtime, a fiery execution of wrath, Revelation 6:4; and in Isaiah 63:1-4: “Who is this that cometh from Edom?”

¹ Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments (with his garments stained crimson in other translations) from Bozrah, this that is glorious in His apparel, traveling in the greatness of his strength? “I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save.”

² Why art thou red in Thine apparel, and Thy garments like him that treadeth in the wine vat?

³ “I have trodden the wine press alone; and of the people there was none with Me. For I will tread them in Mine anger and trample them in My fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon My garments, and I will stain all My raiment.

⁴ For the day of vengeance is in Mine heart, and the year of My redeemed is come. Isaiah 63:1-4

For more about a prophecy of Esau or Edom, see Obadiah

For more on the enemy from the South, see A Sword from the South!

— and in the second chariot black horses, the color of misfortune, of mourning, and of death;

³ and in the third chariot white horses, and in the fourth chariot grizzled and bay horses. — and in the third chariot white horses, implying Death and Hades; and in the fourth chariot grizzled and bay horses Cf Revelation 6:8;

— a black horses symbolizes famine and carries the scales; and the third white horses ride along with Death, accompanied by Hades;

— a chariot grizzled and bay horses? pestilences, like Covid-19 epidemics of coronal virus which we’re experiencing today; famines, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth;

Compare with Matthew 24:

⁶ And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that ye be not troubled, for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

⁷ For nation shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be famines and pestilences and earthquakes in divers places.

⁴ Then I answered and said unto the angel who talked with me, “What are these, my lord?” — then Zechariah answered and said unto the angel, What are these?

— my lord (‘āḏôn not Yehovah יְהֹוָה) so the angel appeared as an ordinary angel to Zechariah.

⁵ And the angel answered and said unto me, “These are the four spirits of the heavens, which go forth from standing before the Lord of all the earth.

— and the angel answered Zechariah, ‘These are the four spirits of the heavens,’ the four winds as the instruments of the Lord’s will, which go forth from standing before the Lord of all the earth. Cf Psalms 104:4; Psalms 148:8. The agency of the winds in the work of destructive judgement is mentioned also elsewhere in the Bible Cf Revelation 7:1.

⁶ The black horses which are therein go forth into the north country, and the white go forth after them, and the grizzled go forth toward the south country.

— the black chariot horses (mourning, and of death) which are therein, that is, the chariot drawn by these horses, go into the North country, where the great world-powers, Assyria and Babylon; now represented bythe lost-10 tribes at the endtime, were situated;

— and the white chariot horses (Death and Hades) go forth after the North, too, victory following death and destruction; but the grizzled go toward the South country, where Idumea, Edom and Egypt were situated;

— a chariot grizzled horses? pestilences, like Covid-19 epidemics of coronal virus; famines with hunger and death?

⁷ And the bay went forth and sought to go, that they might walk to and fro through the earth.” And he said, “Get you hence, walk to and fro through the earth.” So they walked to and fro through the earth.

— and from the South the bay spread forth and sought to go that they might walk to and fro throughout the earth, visiting all the countries of the world with terrible wars and bloodshed, with death and destruction; and he said, Get you hence, walk to and fro through the earth. So they walked to and fro through the earth, carrying out the Lord’s command upon the various nations.

⁸ Then cried he unto me, and spoke unto me, saying, “Behold, these who go toward the north country have quieted my spirit in the north country.”

— then cried the angel in great excitement to Zechariah and spoke unto him, Behold, these that go toward the North, and after executing God’s judgement on them, have quieted my Spirit in the North and was satisfied with the extent of the punishment inflicted upon them.

⁹ And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,

¹⁰ “Take from them of the captivity — even from Heldai, from Tobijah, and from Jedaiah, who have come from Babylon — and come thou the same day and go into the house of Josiah the son of Zephaniah.

— take the exiles living in Babylon, who had come up to Jerusalem at that time, from Heldai, Tobijah, and of Jedaiah, who have come from Babylon, as a committee of the Jews residing at Babylon.

¹¹ Then take silver and gold and make crowns, and set them upon the head of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest,

— then take silver and gold, evidently of the precious metals sent by the Jews of Babylon, and make crowns, a double crown or one of several bands, and set them upon the head of Joshua, the son of Josedech, the high priest, as a type of the combined priesthood and kingdom which shall be conferred upon the Messiah;

¹² and speak unto him, saying, ‘Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, “Behold the Man whose name is The Branch! And He shall grow up out of His place, and He shall build the temple of the Lord.

— and speak unto Zechariah, saying, Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, Behold, the man whose name is The BRANCH, and he shall grow up out of his place, Jeremiah 33:15, as a root out of a dry ground, Isaiah 53:2, and he shall build the Temple of the Lord, the real Sanctuary, the Kingdom of the New World;

— the Targum paraphrases the words, “behold the man Messiah is his name;” the Jews interprets this passage of a divine Person; who could only be the Son of God by whom no other than the Messiah could have meant;

¹³ Even He shall build the temple of the Lord; and He shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon His throne. And He shall be a priest upon His throne; and the counsel of peace shall be between them both.”’

— even the Branch shall build the Temple of the Lord, accomplishing his great work in spite of the lowliness of his earthly origin; and he shall bear the glory, being adorned with kingly glory and honor, and shall sit and rule upon his throne as the true King of kings;

— and he shall be a Priest upon his throne, uniting in his person the offices of King and of Priest; and the counsel of peace shall be between them both, the two offices being united in one person. Psalms 110.

¹⁴ “And the crowns shall be for Helem and for Tobijah and for Jedaiah, and for Hen the son of Zephaniah, for a memorial in the temple of the Lord.

— and the crowns shall be for a memorial in the Temple of the Lord so that future generations would be reminded of the example of others before them.

¹⁵ And those who are far off shall come and build the temple of the Lord, and ye shall know that the Lord of hosts hath sent Me unto you. And this shall come to pass if ye will diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God.”

— and they that are far off, like the men who had in this case brought their offerings, shall come and build the Temple of the Lord, representatives of various nations joining in the upbuilding of the Lord’s great spiritual Temple, his holy Kingdom,

— and ye shall know that the Lord of hosts hath sent him unto Zechariah, as the Messiah himself says, John 3:16. And this shall come to pass, if ye will diligently obey the voice of the Lord, your God, this being added by way of admonition lest anyone deliberately lose the blessings which are offered in and by the coming of the Messiah. Thus the establishment and growth of the Kingdom of God.

For more about the South, a prophecy of Esau or Edom, see Obadiah

For more on the enemy from the South, see A Sword from the South!

For more into another Captivity: see Ezekiel Timeline – 190/40 Years

Posted in Minor Prophets

The vision of Zechariah is in the form of a judicial process: Joshua is the person accused, and is described standing before the Angel of the Lord; and by the filthy garments he had on, which were the ground of the charge against him. The accuser is Satan who stood at his right hand; and his Judge is the Angel of the Lord, before whom he was the Branch.

Also, the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven eyes of the Lord sent forth “to and fro” into all the earth; only a Divine Being could have seven eyes of the Lord “which run to and fro through the whole earth,” thus testifying that Zerubbabel is prophetically the Son of God, the Messiah.

Zechariah 3

¹ And he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him. — the high priest Joshua is to be considered typically representing the condition of the priesthood in which office he was;

— and which was very low and mean, under the second Temple; which the high priest, were representatives of; and now, standing before the Angel of the Lord pictured as the Judge in a court of law, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him;

— to accuse him: to accuse him because Joshua’s sons were married to heathen women, as it is written in Ezra 10:18, “And it was found of the sons of the priests who had taken foreign wives, of the sons of Joshua the son of Jozadak …”

² And the Lord said unto Satan, “The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan; even the Lord who hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee! Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?”

— and the Lord, (יְהֹוָה Yehovah), for he is also the Angel of the Lord, the Son, said unto Satan, The Lord (יְהֹוָה) rebuke thee, O Satan, the adversary and accuser being condemned instead of him whom he wanted to condemn,

— even the Lord (יְהֹוָה the Father) that hath chosen Jerusalem, rebuke thee; he has accepted the believers as his people and will not permit Satan with his choice.

— is not this a brand plucked out of the fire? A brand is a burnt, burning, or smoldering piece of wood. His people had been at the very brink of destruction, but the Lord had interfered before it was too late; therefore Joshua also, standing before the Lord as the representative of the sinful people, is shielded from condemnation.

³ Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the Angel. — was wearing filthy garments: this is also explained according to the Targum: he had sons who had married women who were unfit to marry into the priesthood, and Joshua was accused because he did not interfere with his sons’ marriages.

⁴ And He answered and spoke unto those who stood before Him, saying, “Take away the filthy garments from him.” And unto him He said, “Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment.”

— and he, the presiding Angel of God, the Son answered and spoke unto those that stood before him, some of his ministering angels; or as the Targum paraphrases it, “and he said to them who ministered before him;”

The Targum is another source of the Bible. Started by Ezra for those returning from Babylon and for these returnees they could only understand in Aramaic; hence the Targum is as if Ezra is speaking to us from the verses quoted;

— saying, Take away the filthy garments from him, this signifying the removal of the people’s guilt; and unto him He said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, that is, by an act of complete forgiveness, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment, with the festival garments of a perfect righteousness.

⁵ And I said, “Let them set a clean miter upon his head.” So they set a clean miter upon his head, and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the Lord stood by.

— and Zechariah said, the prophet here suddenly interposing in his eagerness to have, the work of cleansing completed, Let them set a fair miter upon his head, to give him the crowning assurance that the priesthood was restored, that the name of Yehovah was once more borne on the turban of the high priest;

— so they set a fair miter upon his head and clothed Joshua with garments; and the Angel of the Lord stood by, thus Joshua, the representative of the people, particularly of its priestly character, was restored to the full dignity of the olden days, and thereby the people were likewise restored to their position as the Lord’s people.

⁶ And the angel of the Lord protested unto Joshua, saying,

⁷ “Thus saith the Lord of hosts: ‘If thou wilt walk in My ways, and if thou wilt keep My ordinance, then thou shalt also judge My house, and shalt also keep My courts, and I will give thee places to walk among these who stand by.

— thus saith the Lord of hosts, If thou wilt walk in my ways, as a true witness of God, and if thou wilt keep my charge, performing every part of the law with due faithfulness,

— then thou shalt also judge my house (the Father’s house), have charge of the Lord’s Temple, and shalt also keep my courts, in observing every provision of all the Law concerning worship, and I will give thee places to walk among these that stand by, that is, he would have open and unhindered access between the holy angels to the very throne of God; so that every believer may draw nigh to the Throne of God without hesitation;

— the Targum very agreeably paraphrases the words thus, “and in the resurrection or quickening of the dead, I will raise or quicken thee; and I will give thee feet walking among these seraphim.”

⁸ Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, thou and thy fellows who sit before thee; for they are men wondered at. For behold, I will bring forth My Servant the Branch.

— hear now, O Joshua the high priest, thou and thy fellows that sit before thee, his fellow-priests; for they are men wondered at, literally, “men of wonder are they,” that is, men about whom one might marvel;

— for, behold, I the Father, will bring forth my Servant, the branch, the Son, Cf Jeremiah 23:5-6; Isaiah 11:1. This Branch, of whom the priests of the Old Testament were but types, is the Servant of God in a most singular sense, who was to carry out the will of God concerning the redemption of the world. Cf Isaiah 53.

⁹ For behold the stone that I have laid before Joshua: upon one stone shall be seven eyes. Behold, I will engrave the engraving thereof,’ saith the Lord of hosts, ‘and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day.

— for behold the stone that the Father have laid before Joshua; upon one stone shall be seven eyes, that is, omnipresent seven eyes, the number of perfection, would be directed upon him, the loving care of Yehovah being indicated, as he observes his people, the believers in him;

— behold, the Father will engrave the graving thereof, with beautiful ornamental sculpture, saith the Lord of hosts, and he will remove the iniquity of that land in one day, both the transgressions and their punishment. This great day is the day of Calvary, for it was then that God, in one day, took away the sins of the whole world; also the Church, now still clothed with a filthy garment;

— the seven eyes parallels the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars of Revelation 5:6 “And I beheld, and lo, in the midst of the throne and the four living beings, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God, sent forth into all the earth.”

¹⁰ In that day,’ saith the Lord of hosts, ‘shall ye call every man his neighbor under the vine and under the fig tree.’” — in that day, saith the Lord of hosts, shall ye call every man his neighbor under the vine and under the fig-tree,

— inviting him in Godly fellowship, doing Godly-work in calling others to enjoy the blessings of the kingdom of God. We thus have the entire plan of God in his seven thousand years plan outline in this one vision, a Godly message which might well be heeded by all men in our days.

Zechariah 4

¹ And the angel who talked with me came again and waked me, as a man who is wakened out of his sleep, — and the Angel that talked with me (identified earlier as the Son in chapter 1);

— he who intercedes between the Father and man in making known the message concerning the future, came again and waked me, as a man that is wakened out of his sleep, out of his state of exhaustion. The Angel had evidently left the prophet Zechariah for a short while and now returned for the purpose of interceding further visions.

² and said unto me, “What seest thou?” And I said, “I have looked and behold, a candlestick all of gold with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps which are upon the top thereof;

— and said unto Zechariah, What seest thou? thus calling the prophet’s attention to a new vision, whereas in the other instances Zechariah had asked for information. And Zechariah said, he have looked, he was even then observing very closely;

— and behold a candlestick all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, a round vessel, or reservoir, for oil, and his seven lamps thereon and seven pipes to the seven lamps, or seven feed-pipes to each of the seven lamps, to insure a plentiful supply of fuel, which are upon the top thereof, the candlestick in general being formed after that in the Tabernacle, Exodus 25:31-37;

³ and two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof.” — and two olive-trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl and the other upon the left side thereof, this being a new feature, indicating the source of the oil for the lamps.

⁴ So I answered and spoke to the angel who talked with me, saying, “What are these, my lord?” — so Zechariah answered, and spoke to the angel that talked with Zechariah, saying,

— What are these, my lord (‘āḏôn)? He, Zechariah, could not quite grasp the significance of it all, as if he thought as one who has just wakened out of his sleep, not realizing he was speaking to the Son, but just an angel;

— second, a further possibility is that the emphasis of the Son is to be shifted away from that of an interceder to that of Zerubbabel, the governor, the builder and the finisher for the building of the Temple of God; of the physical to that of the spiritual.

⁵ Then the angel who talked with me answered and said unto me, “Knowest thou not what these be?” And I said, “No, my lord.”

— then the angel that talked with Zechariah answered and said unto him, Knowest thou not what these be? He was surprised that a man of Judah, a Zechariah of priestly descent, should not find some meaning in the vision of such a candlestick. But Zechariah said, No, my lord (‘āḏôn not Yehovah יְהֹוָה so he appeared as an ordinary angel to Zechariah).

⁶ Then he answered and spoke unto me, saying, “This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ saith the Lord of hosts.

— then the angel answered and spake unto Zechariah, saying, This is the word of the Lord (יְהֹוָה) unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, that is, the force of armies, nor by power, namely, that of any earthly agency, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts;

— the candlestick of the Tabernacle was a type of the congregation of Israel, which was supposed to be a light shining in the darkness of the world. Its oil was a type of the holy spirits, and the high priests of the Covenant received the strength for the performance of the duties of their office from the Spirit symbolized in the light of the great candlestick;

— moreover, Zerubbabel, the governor of the people, was to be informed that the great work which he was to perform could be carried on only through the spirit of the Lord.

⁷ Who art thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain; and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, ‘Grace, grace unto it!’” — this phase “0 great mountain” only used once in the Bible;

— who art thou, 0 great mountain? the building of the Temple being thus represented. Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain, he would easily overcome all the difficulties connected with the completion of this momentous work;

— and the angel shall bring forth the headstone thereof, the uppermost stone of its walls, the headstone in the building up of his church, fulfilled only by Christ;

— with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it! that is, May God grant grace to this stone and to the building which it represents, so that it may stand forever!

The Targum indeed paraphrases the words thus,

“and he shall reveal his Messiah [or Christ], whose name is said from eternity, and he shall rule over all kingdoms;”

— thus the Targum testifies that Zerubbabel is prophetically the Messiah (Ezra, the one who inspires the translationof the Sacred Text into the Targum, also knows about Zerubbabel being the Messiah!).

⁸ Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,

⁹ “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also finish it. And thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me unto you.

— the hands of Zerubbabel, the Messiah, have laid the foundation of this house, the elect, his hands shall also finish it, and thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me unto you, whence it follows that the entire situation has a deeper significance than that of a mere earthly Temple, namely, that the Lord Yehovah, in the Word that was made flesh, was coming to complete the Temple of the kingdom of God;

— the Targum paraphrases them to this sense, “and ye shall know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me to prophesy unto you;” thus the Targum testifies that Zerubbabel is one sent from God, the Father; hence Zerubbabel is the Son of God, the Messiah;

Remember, laying side by side along with the Masoretic Text, the Targum is another source of the Bible. Started by Ezra for those returning from Babylon and Persia, these returnees they could only understand in Aramaic; hence the Targum is as if Ezra is speaking to them in ancient times and to us today from the Hebrew Text quoted.

¹⁰ For who hath despised the day of small things? For they shall rejoice and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven. They are the eyes of the Lord, which run to and fro through the whole earth.”

— for who hath despised the day of small things? It seemed indeed that the days in which Judah was then living were days of insignificant things, when the entire nation was living in deepest poverty and contempt; yet these days were the forerunners of the most momentous period in the history of the world;

— for they, the people concerned, shall rejoice and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel, as the chief builder of the spiritual Temple, with those seven, they are the eyes of the Lord, which run to and fro through the whole earth, Cf Zechariah 3:9. But if the eyes of God’s majesty rest upon this building with such evident joy and satisfaction, it surely must be a Temple of the greatest importance;

— “the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven” and these seven are “the seven eyes of the Lord” which are also the seven spirits of God, sent forth “to and fro” into all the earth; Revelations 5:6;

— only a Divine Being could have seven eyes or seven spirits of the Lord “which run to and fro through the whole earth,” thus the Targum testifies that Zerubbabel is the Son of God, the Messiah.

¹¹ Then answered I and said unto him, “What are these two olive trees upon the right side of the candlestick and upon the left side thereof?”

— then answered Zechariah and said unto the angel, What are these two olive-trees upon the right side of the candlestick and upon the left side thereof? The candlestick was in the center with its arms extended on either side, and next to these arms stood the two olive-trees which were puzzling the prophet Zechariah.

¹² And I answered again and said unto him, “What be these two olive branches, which through the two golden pipes empty the golden oil out of themselves?”

— and Zechariah answered again and said unto the angel, What be these two olive-branches, literally, “ears,” because they were bunched to resemble ears of grain, which through the two golden pipes, special spouts, or funnels, placed under them, empty the golden oil out of themselves? so that the oil was fed directly from the trees into the pipes connecting with the reservoir of the candlestick.

¹³ And he answered me and said, “Knowest thou not what these be?” And I said, “No, my lord.”

¹⁴ Then said he, “These are the two anointed ones, who stand by the Lord of the whole earth.”

— then said the angel, these are the two anointed ones that stand by the Lord of the whole earth as his servants; they are the two witnesses of Revelation 11:

3 And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.”

4 These are the two olive trees and the two candlesticks, standing before the God of the earth.

— anointed by God for the performance of witnessing to the whole world for the work of perfecting the Kingdom of God;

— the meaning for our day is clear; the saints with the spirits of God are the Lord’s candlesticks, Matthew 5:14, and therefore has a great and important duty to fulfil in this world. This duty may not be performed by the power and might of mere men, but solely through the spirits of the Lord to his two specially anointed.

Posted in Minor Prophets

Attributed to the prophet Zechariah, the Book of Zechariah is included in the Twelve Minor Prophets in the Hebrew Bible. Zechariah is specific about dating his writing (520–518 BC); after Ezekiel and Jeremiah who wrote before the fall of Jerusalem while continuing to prophesy in the early exile period.

Freedom eventually did come to many Jews when Cyrus the Great conquered the Babylonians in 539 BC; and a year later, the famous Edict of Cyrus was released, and the first return took place under Sheshbazzar. After the death of Cyrus in 530 BC, Darius consolidated power and took office in 522 BC; and Zechariah’s prophetic career began during Darius’ reign where he wrote the book that bears his name.

Zechariah 1

¹ In the eighth month in the second year of Darius, came the word of the Lord unto Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet, saying, — in the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, that is, in the year 520 BC;

— in the second year of Darius I: king of Persia; not Darius, son of Ahasuerus, the Mede, who conquered the Babylonian empire in 539 BC at 62 of age; but this is Darius the son of Hystaspes:

— came the word of the Lord unto Zechariah; that is, “the word of prophecy from before the Lord” as the Targum paraphrases it; which came to him, either in a dream or in a vision;

The Targum is another source of the Bible. Started by Ezra for those returning from Babylon and for these returnees they could only understand in Aramaic; hence the Targum is as if Ezra is speaking to them in ancient times and to us from the verses quoted.

² “The Lord hath been sorely displeased with your fathers. — displeased with your fathers, who lived before and during the destruction of the city of Jerusalem and which was manifest by their captivity;

— all of which were occasioned by their sins, which they provoked the Lord to anger; and this is mentioned as a caution to their children that they may not follow their example and incur similar wraths and displeasure.

³ Therefore say thou unto them: Thus saith the Lord of hosts: ‘Turn ye unto Me,’ saith the Lord of hosts, ‘and I will turn unto you,’ saith the Lord of hosts. — “saith the Lord of hosts” repeated three times;

— therefore say thou unto them, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the almighty Sovereign of the universe, Turn ye unto Me, saith the Lord, a most impressive call to the children of the former trespassers to repent. and I will turn unto you.

⁴ Be ye not as your fathers, unto whom the former prophets have cried, saying: Thus saith the Lord of hosts: ‘Turn ye now from your evil ways and from your evil doings.’ But they did not hear, nor hearken unto Me, saith the Lord.

— be ye not as your fathers, those before the exile, unto whom the former prophets have cried, saying, Thus saith the Lord, Turn ye now from your evil ways and from your evil doings, this being the gist of many admonitions in the earlier prophets, Cf Isaiah 31:6; Jeremiah 3:12; Jeremiah 18:11; Ezekiel 18:30; Hosea 14:1; but they did not hear nor hearken unto Me, saith the Lord. Cf II Kings 17.

⁵ Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live for ever? — your fathers and the prophets, where are they? do they live forever? The former members of Israel and Judah had perished, as God had said;

— and if the people should say that the prophets also were dead, the Lord would remind them of the fact that His words, as spoken through these prophets are not dead, but had been abundantly fulfilled.

⁶ But My words and My statutes, which I commanded My servants the prophets, did they not overtake your fathers? And they returned and said, ‘As the Lord of hosts thought to do unto us, according to our ways and according to our doings, so hath He dealt with us.’”

— but my words and my statutes which I commanded my servants, the prophets, namely, that they should proclaim them, threatening of punishment in case of disobedience, did they not take hold of your fathers?

— the prophesied punishments having overtaken them like swift messengers. And they, the fathers before the exile, returned and said, in acknowledging their afflictions as the result of their wickedness, ‘Like as the Lord of hosts thought to do unto us, according to our ways and according to our doings, just as they had deserved it, so hath he dealt with us.’

⁷ Upon the four and twentieth day of the eleventh month, which is the month of Shebat, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the Lord unto Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet, saying:

— upon the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, which is the month Sebat, five months after the building of the Temple had been resumed, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the Lord unto Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, the prophet, saying,

⁸ I saw by night, and behold, a man riding upon a red horse, and he stood among the myrtle trees that were in the bottom; and behind him were there red horses, speckled, and white.

— Zechariah saw by night in a night vision, and behold a man riding upon a red horse, the color of war and bloodshed;

— and he stood among the myrtle trees that were in the bottom, most likely by the “myrtle trees” may mean the Israelites; or by a valley in the neighborhood of Jerusalem; and behind him were red horses, speckled, or patches of bay and ohers, the color of fire and flames and burning, and white, in this connection the color of victory;

— after released from captivity, the Jews were now in a very low estate, like a grove of myrtle trees in a bottom, so a man riding upon a red horse is still on top of the Jews; but who is he?

⁹ Then said I, “O my lord, what are these?” And the angel that talked with me said unto me, “I will show thee what these be.”

— then Zechariah asked, O my lord (H113 ‘āḏôn), what are these? And the angel that talked with him said unto him, ‘I will show thee what these be,’ for the Lord wanted Zechariah to know the meaning of the vision in order that he might reveal it to others;

— my lord (H113 ‘āḏôn); this angel “that talked with me” a messenger for God; could he be revealed as the Son of God if verses 19 and 20 below be linked together? It should be linked together because v19 is a question and v20 is a continuation of the the angel’s answer by showing him four carpenters, who is revealed as the Lord (H3068 יְהוָה)!

¹⁰ And the man that stood among the myrtle trees answered and said, “These are they whom the Lord hath sent to walk to and fro throughout the earth.”

— and the man that stood among the myrtle trees, the first angel answered and said, ‘These are they whom the Lord (H3068 יְהוָה) hath sent to walk to and fro through the earth,’ to find out how matters stood everywhere.

¹¹ And they answered the angel of the Lord who stood among the myrtle trees, and said, “We have walked to and fro throughout the earth, and behold, all the earth sitteth still and is at rest.”

— and they, the host of angels answered the angel that stood among the myrtle trees (probably Michael the archangel, since he is the chief of the angels), and said, ‘We have walked to and fro through the earth, and, behold, all the earth sitteth still and is at rest,’

— the great commotion among the nations, of which the prophet Haggai had spoken, 2:7-8, had not yet begun, that is, the time for the Messiah to appear in the flesh had not yet come, a statement which naturally had a most depressing effect upon the Jews. But the Lord has a word of comfort ready for them.

Haggai 2:7-8

⁷ And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come; and I will fill this house with glory,’ saith the Lord of hosts.

⁸ ‘The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine,’ saith the Lord of hosts.

¹² Then the angel of the Lord answered and said, “O Lord of hosts, how long wilt Thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which Thou hast had indignation these threescore and ten years?”

— as the seventy years of the exile seemed extended, as though the affliction of the captivity would never end; then the angel (mal’āḵ; probably Michael) of the Lord asked the second person of the Godhead, the Son, who is One who talked with the prophet Zechariah;

— “O Lord of hosts, how long wilt Thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah?” the archangel Michael asked the Son (also call the Lord) who normally intercedes between Jerusalem/Judah and the Father; He, the Son, identified later as the Messiah, was already doing the job of a High Priest, interceding between the Father and man.

¹³ And the Lord answered the angel who talked with me, with good words and comforting words. — and the Lord the Father answered the Son that talked with Zechariah with good and comfortable words, words of prophecy and foresight, which was to pass immediately on to the congregation of Israel.

¹⁴ So the angel who communed with me said unto me, “Cry thou, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts: ‘I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy.

— so the Angel (mal’āḵ; probablythe Son) that communed with Zechariah, He who had first been given an understanding of the Father’s intentions as expressed in the vision, said unto Zechariah, “Cry thou, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, ‘I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy.’

¹⁵ And I am very sorely displeased with the heathen [nations] who are at ease; for I was but a little displeased, and they helped forward the affliction.’

— and the Lord the Father was very sore displeased with the nations that are at ease, believing that they had been permanently victorious over the Jews; for the Father was but a little displeased, as his punishment went out upon his people for seventy years, and they helped forward the affliction, they rioted in the sufferings of helpless Israel and were anxious to prolong them.

¹⁶ Therefore thus saith the Lord: ‘I have returned to Jerusalem with mercies. My house shall be built in it,’ saith the Lord of hosts, ‘and a line shall be stretched forth upon Jerusalem.’

— therefore, thus saith the Father, ‘I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies,’ for he had withheld them from his people for a time in order to punish them, but now he was once more ready to accept his repentant children;

— ‘my house shall be built in it,’ namely, the Temple, the Father’s house as the seat of the Lord’s merciful presence in the midst of his congregation, saith the Lord of hosts, and a line shall be stretched forth upon Jerusalem, in this case the builder’s line signifying the rebuilding of the city.

— throughout the Scriptures the Son has never lay claim that the Temple is his house; it is “My Father’s house” John 2:16.

¹⁷ Cry yet, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts: ‘My cities through prosperity shall yet be spread abroad; and the Lord shall yet comfort Zion, and shall yet choose Jerusalem.’”

— cry yet, saying, ‘Thus saith the Lord of hosts, my cities through prosperity shall yet be spread abroad, overflowing with abundant growth as a stream overflows its banks; and the Lord shall yet comfort Zion,’ and shall yet choose Jerusalem.

¹⁸ Then I lifted up mine eyes and saw, and behold, four horns. — then, after the first vision had fully come to an end, Zechariah lifted his eyes and saw, in a second distinct vision, four horns, the common Scriptural symbol of strength.

¹⁹ And I said unto the angel who talked with me, “What are these?” And he answered me, “These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.”

— and Zechariah said unto the Son (maybe Michael or one of the lesser angels; but the next verse indentifies him as the Son) that talked with him, What be these? And the Son answered Zechariah, These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Jerusalem and Israel; the four horns are the nations that scattered the twelve tribes!

²⁰ And the Lord (יְהוָה) showed me four carpenters. — and the Lord (H3068 יְהוָה; finally this ‘Angel’ is no ordinary angel but revealed himself as יְהוָה YHVH, the Son (he is the second Yehovah);

— the Son of God also carries the name יְהוָה Yehovah; he showed Zechariah four carpenters, rather, four craftsmen in iron, four smiths; or four craftsmen;

— the Son of God also moves around the heavens carrying messages for God the Father;

Exodus 23:20 “Behold, I (the Father) send an Angel (the Son) before you to keep you in the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. 21 Beware of Him (the Son) and obey His voice; do not provoke Him (the Son, Yeshua), for He will not pardon your transgressions; for My name יְהוָה is in Him (hence Yehovah’s name, יְהוָה, is also in the Son;

Peshitta 23:21 “Be on your guard before him and obey his voice; do not be rebellious toward him, for he will not pardon your transgression, since My name is in him). ²² But if you indeed obey His voice and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.

²³ For My Angel (the Son) will go before you and bring you in to the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites and the Hivites and the Jebusites; and I will cut them off. ²⁴ You shall not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do according to their works; but you shall utterly overthrow them and completely break down their sacred pillars. Peshitta 23:21-24

— the Son of God, who later came to earth as Yeshua (or more commonly known as Jesus, is also Yehovah “for My name (that is, יְהוָה), is in Him.”

²¹ Then said I, “What come these to do?” And he spoke, saying, “These are the horns which have scattered Judah, so that no man lifted up his head; but these [the four craftsmen] have come to frighten them, to cast out the horns of the Gentiles who lifted up their horn over the land of Judah to scatter it.”

— then said Zechariah, ‘What come these to do? What was the object in introducing them into the picture?’ And He (the Son, יְהוָה) spoke, saying, ‘These are the horns which have scattered Judah, so that no man did lift up his head,’ being altogether discouraged; but these are come to fray them, to terrify the great powers of evil;

— the “four horns” = these are, first the Babylonians; second, the Greeks; third, the Romans and the fourth? Perhaps the Turks and Muslims; or perhaps the Russians and Chinese, or even the Latinos? or the number four may just point to Judah’s enemies coming from the four directions of the earth;

— the four craftsmen (perhaps these may be the Russians and Chinese, and the Spanish/Latinos?) to cast out the horns of the nations, which lifted up their horn over the land of Judah and Israel to scatter them. It has always been a nature of the Lord to use one nation; as an instruments, to punish another.

Zechariah 2

¹ I lifted up mine eyes again and looked, and behold, a man with a measuring line in his hand. — in a state of vision, Zechariah lifted up his eyes again and behold, a man with a measuring-line in his hand, evidently a messenger or angel sent for a special purpose.

² Then said I, “Whither goest thou?” And he said unto me, “To measure Jerusalem to see what is the breadth thereof and what is the length thereof.”

— then said Zechariah, addressing the angel, Whither goest thou? And he replied, To measure Jerusalem, the city of God, to see what is the breadth thereof, and what is the length thereof, to get the dimensions of the city even then in existence;

³ And behold, the angel who talked with me went forth; and another angel went out to meet him — and, behold, the angel that talked with Zechariah went forth, he was removed from the scene;

— and another angel went out to meet Zechariah, the second angel in this chapter; thus meeting him who acted as interpreter,

— this Angel that talked with Zechariah was identified in this Study as the Son in the previous chapter, but the question is, is He the same as the man with a measuring line in his hand? (verse 1 above)

⁴ and said unto him, “Run, speak to this young man, saying, ‘Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls, because of the multitude of men and cattle therein.

— and said unto him, Run, speak to this young man, namely, Zechariah the prophet, saying, Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls for the multitude of men and cattle therein. It is clearly not the old city to which the angel refers, but a wonderful revived city with an enlarged dimensions, the new Jerusalem with the Ezekiel’s Temple built within.

⁵ For I,’ saith the Lord, ‘will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory in the midst of her.’”

— thus saith the Lord (יְהוָה), for I will be unto Jerusalem a wall of fire round about, so that the city of God would be secure under the sheltering wings of his power;

— and יְהוָה will be the glory in the midst of Jerusalem, so that his blessings would rest upon the Holy City and his name be praised within her. So much being established, Zechariah the prophet is given a summary of what he should proclaim to his people of the Lord.

⁶ “Ho! Ho! Come forth, and flee from the land of the north,” saith the Lord; “for I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the heaven,” saith the Lord.

— ho, ho, come forth; the Targum paraphrases it, “proclaim to the dispersed:” so the Lord יְהוָה addresses his people through his servant the prophet Zechariah to flee from the land of the North, out of “Babylon” as typical of all powers of evil banded together against his people Israel;

— for I the Lord; have spread you abroad as the four winds of the heaven, namely, in his people Israel which extends to the most remote ends of the world;

— these are spread by the “four horns” in the previous chapter = first the Babylonians; second the Greeks; third the Romans and the fourth? Perhaps the Turks and Muslims; or perhaps the Russians and Chinese, or even the Latinos?

“For I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the heaven,” saith the Lord: two Parallel passages extracted from Ezekiel 6 and 36 worth a closer examination here:

— “the mountain of Israel” this prophecy is concerning the desolations of the United States, United Kingdom and France;

— “and to the hills, to the rivers and to the valleys” these are the hills: Ireland, Switzerland and the Scandinavian countries: Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, Finland, and Iceland; and the valleys, the low countries: Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg;

— and to the rivers; where during the nineteenth century, the British Royal Navy were known to “Rule the Waves;” and the United States having been plowing up and down the five oceans with her Seven Fleets since the British left the scene;

— ye shall shoot forth your branches; that is, the trees that grew upon them should; the vines, and the olive trees, planted on hills and mountains; these could be their colonies: Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa; American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands (US); Anguilla, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Virgin Islands (UK); Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana, Mayotte, Réunion (France).

⁷ “Deliver thyself, O Zion, ye that dwellest with the daughter of Babylon.”

— deliver thyself, O Zion, that dwellest with the daughter of Babylon, or “Ho, Zion, save thyself!” the separation between the children of God and the children of the world being absolute, even if not local. Cf II Corinthians 6:17.

⁸ For thus saith the Lord of hosts: “After the glory hath He sent me unto the nations which despoiled you, for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of His eye. — the “me “could be the Son;

— for thus saith the Lord of hosts, ‘After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you,’ the angel of the Lord (could be the Son in this instant) being sent to the nations to get back the glory which they, by their hostile treatment of his people, had taken from him;

— for he that toucheth me toucheth the apple of his eye, so dear are the believers, the members of his elect, in the eyes of the Lord. Every adversary who dares to touch the kingdom of God and its members thereby becomes guilty of a wicked act, which grieves the Lord most deeply and he will punish them.

⁹ For behold, I will shake Mine hand upon them, and they shall be a spoil to their servants. And ye shall know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me.

— for thus saith the Lord of hosts: behold, I will shake mine hand upon them, swinging it back and forth over them in order to deliver a heavy blow, and they shall be a spoil to their servants, so that the latter become the lords of their former masters;

— and ye shall know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me, yes the Son again, the Anointed, given great power and authority that through him the great Sovereign of the heavens could be carrying out his punishment upon the enemies of his saints. For this reason the people of the Lord are exhorted to sing praises to the Son; the returning Messiah.

¹⁰ “Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion; for lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee,” saith the Lord. — sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion, or the “congregation of Zion” as the Targum paraphrases it;

— the people of Yehovah; for, lo, I come, the Messiah himself addressing those who were longing for his coming, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the Lord. This was so wonderfully fulfilled when the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.

¹¹ “And many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day, and shall be My people; and I will dwell in the midst of thee. And thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me unto thee.

— and many nations, representatives of the various races and countries of the world, shall be joined to the Lord in that day, to be added to his elect;

— and shall be my people; and the Messiah will dwell in the midst of thee, in the city of God, and thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts hath sent the Messiah unto thee; the great God of the heavens sending his only-begotten Son for the salvation of his people.

¹² And the Lord shall inherit Judah as His portion in the holy land, and shall choose Jerusalem again.” — and the Lord shall inherit Judah his portion in the Holy Land, so that He would possess His people, and shall choose Jerusalem again, as the place of his dwelling and of his blessing.

¹³ Be silent, O all flesh, before the Lord, for He is raised up out of His holy habitation. — be silent, O all flesh, in a spirit of awe and reverence, before the Lord;

— for he is raised up out of his holy habitation, he is preparing to rise from his throne in heaven to visit the enemies with his righteous punishment and to lead his children to glory.

Posted in Minor Prophets

The book of Habakkuk is a dialogue between what the Prophet Habakkuk saw and Questions he had for God and how God responded to him. That is, it is a dialogue between Habakkuk and God about the difficult scene he saw, at a latter day, and why was it the way it was.

The time seems to have been about 610 BC, when the Chaldeans attacked Jerusalem in the ninth month of the fifth year of Jehoiakim, 605 BC. And Habakkuk, a contemporary of the Prophet Jeremiah, spoke of the Chaldeans as about to invade Judah (Habakkuk 1:6), and he seemed to have seen the people’s desperations of their attack that followed; hence he asked many questions. And although the oracle was relevant for his time, it was also prophetic; that is, it is for the endtime.

“For I will work a work in your days” (verse 1:5 below) means that the message of Habakkuk is really for us in the latter days, today. And this is reinforced in Habakkuk 2:3 “For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak and not lie. Though it tarry, wait for it, because it will surely come; it will not tarry.”

“The anger of the Lord shall not return, until He has executed and till He has performed the thoughts of His heart; in the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly” Jeremiah 23:20. The crtical statement is “In latter days you will understand it fully,” that is, it means, “you wouldn’t fully understand these prophecies until you are living in the latter days after God had executed his judgement in anger and pertformed the thoughts of his heart!”

Habakkuk 1

Habakkuk made his observations and started them with a series of three Questions:

“The vision is yet for an appointed time.” Habakkuk 2:3 makes clear that this vision was not just for his time, but also for the end-time, and although it had a narrow vision for the house of Judah, its wider implication for the latter days is for the latter days house of Israel; the time shortly before the second coming of the Messiah.

¹ The burden which Habakkuk the prophet saw. — the prophet Habakkuk saw, did see, that is, foresee: a burden, the oracle, a grievous calamity or heavy judgment;

— not only in the sense of a message from God, but also in the sense of a heavy weight. It was heavy in its content, because Habakkuk announced the coming judgement on the house of Judah. It was also heavy in its source, because Habakkuk deals with tough questions he brings to God and God’s answer to those questions;

— “for I will work a work in your days” (verse 5 below) means that the message of Habakkuk is meant for us in the latter days, today at the endtime. And this is reinforced in Habakkuk 2:3 “For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak and not lie.”

² O Lord, how long shall I cry, and Thou wilt not hear? Even cry out unto Thee of violence, and Thou wilt not save? — Q (1): O Lord, how long shall I cry, and you will not hear? Q (2): Or cry to you, “Violence!” and you will not come to the rescue?

— Rashi (Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki 1040–1105, France): O Lord! How long: Habakkuk foresaw that Nebuchadnezzar was destined to be the ruler of the world and to cause trouble for Israel, as the matter is stated in his prophecy (1:6): “For behold, I raise up the Chaldeans, etc.”

— Habakkuk was asking a series of questions we all have today: when we ask and it seems God is not hearing; and when there is violence, it seems God is not saving! Or cry out to you, “Violence!” and you do not intervene?

³ Why dost Thou show me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance? For despoiling and violence are before me, and there are those that raise up strife and contention. — Q (3): Why do you make me see wickedness, and cause me to see trouble? Plundering and violence; strife and contention everywhere.

— iniquity, plunder and violence are all before me; you look upon these mischieves, but you do not help; why He seems to see these and leave them unpunished?

⁴ Therefore the law is slacked, and judgement doth never go forth. For the wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgement proceedeth. —“Judgment” (that is, redress of evils); the law is “slacked” it means the law is powerless; it loses its force and vigour;

— so the first point is that the law is lacking in physical and moral strength! The law is applied weakly to evildoers; those who are guilty are hardly charged for their crimes. Judgement seldom has its enforcement; that there is little justice in the land;

— “the wicked compass about the righteous” means that the wicked surround the righteous, frequently in the form of rioting, to pressure the law-abiding population into accepting their criminal activities. “Therefore wrong judgement proceeds” means that justice is perverted;

— so the Targum says, “the law languishes;” loses its force and vigour.

Remember, the Targum, whose origin was in the Aramaic language, could be traced to Ezra speaking to the returning exiles who couldn’t understand Hebrew, but was expounded to them in a language they could understand.

The Lord’s Answer to Habakkuk’s first series of Questions:

⁵ “Behold ye among the nations and regard, and wonder marvelously; for I will work a work in your days which ye will not believe, though it be told you. — look among the nations and watch, God said; wonder and be amazed! “For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe, though it were told you.”

— “ye among the nations” the Jews during Habakkuk’s time were not among the nations (plural); hence this could only referenced the Jews, or the wider Israelites, as being of a different timeframe, they are to be amazed, or terrified, as one being yet-to-be scattered amongst the nations;

— the expression “in your days” tells us that this is a reference to the end-times when they are, again, to be scattered “among the nations” ~ the period preceding the return of the Messiah;

— this Scripture is speaking about very different type of work where people will not accept what is done as being “the work of God” something very extraordinary which the people will not believe, but only “wonder marvelously;”

— a parallel in Isaiah 29:14, “therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder; for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hidden” which means in the context of those in leadership positions lack wisdom and understanding today; perhaps drunk and incoherent;

— and bear in mind that only then, in the latter days, could we understand fully: “The anger of the Lord shall not return, until He has executed and till He has performed the thoughts of His heart; in the latter days ye shall understand it perfectly” Jeremiah 23:20;

⁶ For lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land to possess the dwelling places that are not theirs. — God is going to send “the Chaldeans” or the Babylonians, that fierce and reckless nation; they will march throughout the earth to take possession of lands that don’t belong to them;

— to possess the dwellingplaces that are not theirs; the cities of Judea, and houses in them, as well as the palaces and dwelling places in Jerusalem, which they had no right unto, but what they got by the sword; or it could be interpreted another way:

— the land that the Jews dwelled in Judea and Jerusalem were actually their given land; already alloted and given during Joshua’s time; but this is talking of “dwelling places that are not theirs;” hence this could only refered to when they are in exile, in captivity.

— Q. Since this is speaking of the endtime, who would these new Chaldeans be?

⁷ They are terrible and dreadful; their judgement and their dignity shall proceed from themselves. — they “the Chaldeans” will be terrifying and fearsome with they assault, and cruelty with which they use their captives; they will carry out their own kind of justice and honor.

⁸ Their horses also are swifter than the leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves. And their horsemen shall spread themselves, and their horsemen shall come from afar; they shall fly as the vulture that hasten to eat. — they “the Chaldeans” fly like an eagle swooping down to devour;

— their horses will be faster than leopards and quicker than wolves in the evening; or are swifter than the eagles of the heavens. Their riders will gallop along proudly; their riders will come from far away; they will fly like a vulture that swoops down for carcases or its food; or they fly like an eagle swooping down to devour;

— taken historically, these verses can be seen as applying only to the Babylonians who took Judah into captivity; but prophecy are meant to be dual, so when we consider the context that follows, it should be clear that God is using the Babylonian captivity as a type of the yet future great tribulation on all Israel; and particularly on Ephraim, the head of Israel;

— a parallel scene in Ezekiel 20-21 (more details at the end)

⁹ They shall come all for violence; their faces shall consume as the east wind, and they shall gather the captives as the sand. — they, the “Chaldeans” will all come for violence; every face will be directed forward; they will gather prisoners as innumerable as the sand of the sea; remember, this prophecy is for the latter days;

¹⁰ And they shall scoff at the kings, and the princes shall be a scorn unto them. They shall deride every stronghold, for they shall heap up dirt and take it. — the Babylonian soldiers laugh at kings; Jehoiakim as a tributary sovereign; then Zedekiah;

— they make fun of their rulers; they laugh at all their strong walled cities. They build dirt roads up to the top of their walls, then they capture the cities.

¹¹ Then shall his mind change; and he shall pass over, and offend, imputing this his power unto his god.” — imputing this his power; rather, that his might becometh his god; they will move quickly and pass through like the wind. So they will be guilty, because their own strength is their god; made only of stones and wood.

Habakkuk’s Second Series of Questions

Habakkuk wonders why God would use a wicked nation to bring judgement on Judah.

¹² Art Thou not from everlasting, O Lord my God, mine Holy One? We shall not die. O Lord, Thou hast ordained them for judgement; and, O mighty God, Thou hast established them for correction. — O Lord God, you’re from eternity, aren’t you?

Q (1) If thou art from everlasting, we are not going to die, are we? O Lord, you have appointed them, a nation more wicked than Judah, for judgement; and you, O Rock, have established them for correction.

— three times Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, described as God’s servant: Jeremiah 25:9, 27:6, 43:10; and thou hast appointed the Chaldeans to execute thy judgments on sinners;

¹³ Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity. Why lookest Thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest Thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he? — the Lord with his eyes of omniscience beholds all things, good and evil, yet your eyes are too pure to look on evil, and you cannot look on wickedness.

Q (2) Why do you look on those who deal treacherously, and hold your tongue when the wicked devours the one who is more righteous than he?

¹⁴ And makest men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things that have no ruler over them? — you make men like fish of the sea, that is, sufferest them to be used as the fishes of the sea, which are easily taken in the net, like crawling things that have no dignity; to be killed and devoured for food;

¹⁵ They take up all of them with the hook; they catch them in their net, and gather them in their drag; therefore they rejoice and are glad. — some they take up as with the angle, one by one; others they catch in shoals, as in their net, and gather them in their drag, their enclosing net;

— the Chaldeans bring all of them up with a hook, they catch them in their net; they gather them in their lootings; therefore they rejoice and are laughing.

¹⁶ Therefore they sacrifice unto their net, and burn incense unto their drag, because by them their portion is fat and their meat plenteous. — therefore they sacrifice with their choicest booty and burn incense to their idols which they set in the heart; for by them their portion is extravagant, and their food plentiful;

— there have not indeed been lacking of savage nations, who indeed worshiped their arms; those of old worshiped spears as immortal gods; others designate their bow and arrow as the only beneficent deities whom they worship.

¹⁷ Shall they therefore empty their net, and not spare continually to slay the nations? — should these Chaldeans, when they have conquered one nation, and so filled their net with the spoil, carry it to Babylon, and there lay it up, and then proceed to fight against another kingdom and nation and plunder it in like manner?

Q (3) shall they continue to empty their net, and continually kill the nations while not sparing anyone? The Targum asks, “shall he send his armies continually to consume nations, and that without mercy?”

~~~

A Description of the Chaldeans, one from the East an anti-type of one similar coming from the South in the latter days:

“Their horses are swifter than leopards, more fierce than evening wolves. Their horsemen charge on; their horsemen come from afar; they fly like the eagle that hastens to eat,” Habakkuk 1:8

Ezekiel 20:45 Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
⁴⁶ “Son of man, set thy face toward the South, and drop thy word toward the South, and prophesy against the forest of the Southland.
⁴⁷ And say to the forest of the South: ‘Hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee and every dry tree. The flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the South to the North shall be burned therein.
⁴⁸ And all flesh shall see that I, the Lord, have kindled it; it shall not be quenched.’”
⁴⁹ Then said I, “Ah, Lord God! They say of me, ‘Doth he not speak parables?’”
Ezekiel 21:1 And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
² “Son of man, set thy face toward Jerusalem, and drop thy word toward the holy places, and prophesy against the land of Israel;
³ and say to the land of Israel, ‘Thus saith the Lord: Behold, I am against thee, and will draw forth My Sword out of his sheath and will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked.
⁴ Seeing then that I will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked, therefore shall My Sword go forth out of his sheath against all flesh from the South to the North,
⁵ that all flesh may know that I, the Lord, have drawn forth My Sword out of his sheath. It shall not return any more.’

The Scriptures above are shrouded in cryptic language, and so the Q is: how would such scenarios be played out?

For more about the South, a prophecy of Esau or Edom, see Obadiah

For more on the enemy from the South, see A Sword from the South!

For more into another Captivity: see Ezekiel Timeline – 190/40 Years

Habakkuk 2

¹ I will stand upon my watch and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what He will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved. — the way Habakkuk says has a sense of arrogance, he was yet to be humbled;

— reproved: that is, how he will respond to my complaint: Habakkuk will stand at his watchtower and station himself; and he will wait and keep watch to see what God will say to him, and what he will answer when he expect himself to be reprimanded.

The Lord’s Answer to Habakkuk’s second series of Questions:

² And the Lord answered me and said: “Write the vision and make it plain upon tablets, that he may run that readeth it. — here Habakkuk is expecting some message or some instructions from God; and sure enough, God gave him specific instructions, which is: write this message down in big block letters, engraving it, for people to read it;

— it says “that he may run who reads it,” that none would need to make a stop while reading the message, but hold on his course in great haste of fleeing from those terrible times to come who take warning.

³ For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak and not lie. Though it tarry, wait for it, because it will surely come; it will not tarry. — for an appointed time; determined and fixed with God, though unknown to men; but where else but the present time;

— a witness for the appointed time, a testimony to the endtime; a prophecy for the latter days at the end; if it seems slow in coming; wait, it’s on its way; it will come right on time. If it delays, wait for it; it will not be delayed;

— a parallel Scripture in Jeremiah:

“The anger of the Lord shall not return, until He has executed and till He has performed the thoughts of His heart; in the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly” Jeremiah 23:20

“In latter days you will understand it fully,” that is, it means as a whole, “you wouldn’t fully understand these prophecies until you’re are living in the latter days after God had executed his judgement in anger and pertformed the thoughts of his heart!”

⁴ Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him; but the just shall live by his faith. — look, his soul, the soul of the Chaldæan invader, is lifted up; or be puffed up or arrogant; it is not upright in him; but the just shall live by his faith; yes, not just the NT, but the OT talks of mercy (Ezekiel 39:25) and faith!

⁵ “Yea also, because he transgresseth by wine, he is a proud man, neither keepeth at home, who enlargeth his desire as hell, and is as death and cannot be satisfied, but gathereth unto him all nations, and heapeth unto him all people. — note well: wine and money deceives; the arrogant rich wouldn’t last;

— God sees the proud man and how the proud man cannot be satisfied; indeed, wine betrays the proud man, who does not stay at home. He enlarges his appetite and like death he is never satisfied;

— they are like cemeteries filled with dead bones; like graveyards filled with corpses. Don’t give people like this a second thought. Woe to the Wicked, soon the whole world will be taunting them.

⁶ Shall not all these take up a parable against him, and a taunting proverb against him, and say, ‘Woe to him that increaseth that which is not his (how long?) and to him that ladeth himself with thick clay’?

— shall not all these take up a taunt against him, with satire and riddles, and say, “Woe to him who increases what is not his—how long? And to him who loads himself with heavy debts!”

— to him that ladeth himself; woe to him that increaseth that which is not his, substance or goods, not his own, while he burdens himself with amassed treasures gathered by extortion and grievous, unjust gains!

⁷ Shall they not rise up suddenly that shall bite thee, and awake, that shall vex thee? And shalt thou be for booty unto them? — shall not your debtors rise up suddenly, or shall exact usury from thee? Then you will be their plunder; and those awake shall suddenly oppress you;

— would the Latinos in the United States rise up suddenly and reclaim their land and properties? Wouldn’t the Indians in Britain suddenly rise up and reloot back their lost $45 trillions?

⁸ Because thou hast despoiled many nations, all the remnant of the people shall despoil thee, because of men’s blood, and for the violence of the land, of the city, and of all that dwell therein. — this threat applies to the Chaldaeans, as well as to Israel; because you Israel have plundered many nations, all the remnant of these nations will plunder you;

— and for the violence of the land, and of the city, and of all that dwell therein: because you did it through warfares, bloodsheds, deceits and violence; of the cities and all of the land where you live in them; it shall return like a boomarang;

— when you visit any museum of the house of modern Israel (London, Paris, New York), you’ll witness lots of plunderings of other nations over the centuries; thus one day “all the remnant of these people will plunder you.”

— and this from the Message Bible: Habakkuk 2:6-8

“‘Who do you think you are—
getting rich by stealing and extortion?
How long do you think
you can get away with this?’
Indeed, how long before your victims wake up,
stand up and make you the victim?
You’ve plundered nation after nation.
Now you’ll get a taste of your own medicine.
All the survivors are out to plunder you,
a payback for all your murders and massacres.

Here is one example of an article by Jason Hickel’s How Britain stole $45 trillion from India (from economist Utsa Patnaik – published by Columbia University Press) and thus funded the industrialisation of Britain. And during the entire 200-year history of British rule, income in India collapsed and millions died needlessly of policy-induced famine. India’s share of world’s GDP went from over 20 percent to less than 2 percent when India won her independence in 1947.

But the plundering of India wasn’t alone; after the British had conquered India, they then went to war with China (the First and Second Opium Wars: 1839–42; 1856–60), “trading opiums” for tea, porcelain and silk, promoting opium smoking as fashionable and resulting a quarter of China’s population hooked on opium. Not satisfied, they, together with the French, went to war again, burnt down Beijing’s Summer Palace after looting its arts and treasures. These plundered treasure are still hidden today by the rich and famous in their lofty homes, a few in their national museums.

Following Christopher Columbus’ voyage in 1492, the Spanish conquistadors arrived in the 15th and 16th century with steel weapons and armor, they plundered the Aztecs and Incas of their gold and silver, as native weapons could not pierce Spanish armor nor could native armor defend against steel swords.

Later they came with rifles, firearms and cannons. In Mexico, conquistadors found great golden treasures, including great discs of gold, masks, jewelry, and even gold dust and bars. In Peru, Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro demanded that the Incan Emperor Atahualpa fill up a large room once with gold and twice with silver in exchange for his freedom. The emperor complied, but the Spanish killed him anyway. All in all, Atahualpa’s ransom came to 13,000 pounds of gold and twice that much silver. This did not even count the vast treasures taken later when the Inca capital city of Cuzco was looted.

And following the Mexican-American War that ended in 1848, the United States plundered more than 500,000 square miles (1,300,000 square km) of land from Mexico, expanding US territory by about one-third. Mexico ceded nearly all the territory now included in the US states of New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, California, Texas, and western Colorado for $15 million and US assumption of its citizens’ claims against Mexico.

More recently, the Americans “assisted” American museums in acquiring vast quantities of Persian antiquities and archaeological finds; this was the looting of Persia’s mosques and shrines, the transfer of these religious artifacts first, to London, and the subsequent acquisition of some of the objects by such museums as the Metropolitan of New York.

God says He saw all these; and how these Godly Judgements will play out, we’ll have to wait and see; but there is a parallel from the Prophet Ezekiel; and this mystery is an “enemy” coming from the SOUTH:

Ezekiel 20:45 Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
⁴⁶ “Son of man, set thy face toward the South, and drop thy word toward the South, and prophesy against the forest of the Southland.
⁴⁷ And say to the forest of the South: ‘Hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee and every dry tree. The flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the South to the North shall be burned therein.
⁴⁸ And all flesh shall see that I, the Lord, have kindled it; it shall not be quenched.’”
⁴⁹ Then said I, “Ah, Lord God! They say of me, ‘Doth he not speak parables?’”
Ezekiel 21: And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
² “Son of man, set thy face toward Jerusalem, and drop thy word toward the holy places, and prophesy against the land of Israel;
³ and say to the land of Israel, ‘Thus saith the Lord: Behold, I am against thee, and will draw forth My Sword out of his sheath and will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked.
⁴ Seeing then that I will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked, therefore shall My Sword go forth out of his sheath against all flesh from the South to the North,
⁵ that all flesh may know that I, the Lord, have drawn forth My Sword out of his sheath. It shall not return any more.’

Q: Who is this enemy from the SOUTH, and how would such scenarios be played out? But God says He will kindle a fire and “all the remnant of the people shall despoil thee.”

⁹ “Woe to him that coveteth an evil covetousness for his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the power of evil! — woe to him who gets evil gain for his house, that is, greedily seizing enormous wealth, not merely for himself, but for his family, to set his nest on high, an image is from an eagle (Job 39:27); the royal family or dynasty is meant.

¹⁰ Thou hast devised shame to thy house by cutting off many people, and hast sinned against thy soul. — instead of bringing honour and glory to their nation, you have given shameful counsel to your house by cutting off many peoples and forfeiting their lives.

¹¹ For the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it. — for the stone will cry out from the wall, from wall of cruelty and oppression, and the beam of the woodwork will answer it.

— from the Message Bible: Habakkuk 2:9-11

“Who do you think you are—
recklessly grabbing and looting,
Living it up, acting like king of the mountain,
acting above it all, above trials and troubles?
You’ve engineered the ruin of your own house.
In ruining others you’ve ruined yourself.
You’ve undermined your foundations,
rotted out your own soul.
The bricks of your house will speak up and accuse you.
The woodwork will step forward with evidence.

¹² “Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood, and establisheth a city by iniquity! — “Woe to him who builds a town with blood and sweat of the subjugated nations and establishes a city by cruelty and wickedness!”

¹³ Behold, is it not of the Lord of hosts that the people shall labor in the very fire, and the people shall weary themselves for very vanity? — is it not the Lord’s will that people labor to fan the flames, and the nations exhaust themselves for vanity?

¹⁴ For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. — for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the seas.

¹⁵ “Woe unto him that giveth his neighbor drink, that puttest thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken also, that thou mayest look on his nakedness! — “Woe to him who makes his neighbor drink, pouring out your poison until they are drunk, that you may look on their nakedness with the utmost pleasure and delight!”

¹⁶ Thou art filled with the shame for glory; drink thou also, and let thy foreskin be uncovered. The cup of the Lord’S right hand shall be turned unto thee, and shameful spewing shall be on thy glory. — you will be filled with shame instead of glory; you yourself—drink and show your own uncircumcision!

— let thy foreskin be uncovered; in retaliation for uncovering the nakedness of others, now let thy own shame of sinning, like king David did with murder of Urioah after adultery with Bathsheba, be laid open before all nations of the world;

— the judgement of the Lord’s right hand will be turned against you; the drunk and those who promote drunkenness loved their own cup full of drink; now a cup of shame after judgement shall be a cup of glory for them;

¹⁷ For the violence of Lebanon shall cover thee, and the spoil of beasts which made them afraid, because of men’s blood and for the violence of the land, of the city, and of all that dwell therein.

— since Lebanon was a mountain on the borders of the land of Israel, from whence cedar wood was brought, of which the Temple was built, so the Targum interprets it, “the violence of the house of the sanctuary shall cover thee;”

— the exploitation done to the forest of Lebanon for the house of the sanctuary, this a a type of Christ (and to a certain extent, Israel), will cover you; who because of his blood shed for all men and violence of the land, the desolation of the land of Judea and city of Jerusalem and all who live in them “shall cover thee.”

— and this from the Message Bible: Habakkuk 2:15-17

“Who do you think you are—
inviting your neighbors to your drunken parties,
Giving them too much to drink,
roping them into your sexual orgies?
You thought you were having the time of your life.
Wrong! It’s a time of disgrace.
All the time you were drinking,
you were drinking from the cup of God’s wrath.
You’ll wake up holding your throbbing head, hung over—
hung over from Lebanon violence,
Hung over from animal massacres,
hung over from murder and mayhem,
From multiple violations
of place and people.

¹⁸ “What profiteth the graven image that the maker thereof hath graven it, the molten image and a teacher of lies, that the maker of his work trusteth therein to make dumb idols?

— what profit is a carved image when its maker has carved it, their man-make dumb idols, a cast image, and a teacher of lies, that its maker trusts in what he has shaped when he makes graven and molten images?

¹⁹ Woe unto him that saith to the wood, ‘Awake!’ To the dumb stone, ‘Arise, it shall teach!’ Behold, it is laid over with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in the midst of it.

— woe to him who says to the wood, “Awake!” To the silent stone, “Arise!” Can it teach? It is overlaid with gold and silver, but there is no breath at all in any of them;

— and this from the Message Bible: Habakkuk 2:18-19

“What’s the use of a carved god
so skillfully carved by its sculptor?
What good is a fancy cast god
when all it tells is lies?
What sense does it make to be a pious god-maker
who makes gods that can’t even talk?
Who do you think you are—
saying to a stick of wood, ‘Wake up,’
Or to a dumb stone, ‘Get up’?
Can they teach you anything about anything?

²⁰ “But the Lord is in His holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before Him.” — but the Lord is in His holy Temple; He is on His Throne; not in graven and molten images; not in idols of wood and stone, covered with gold and silver;

— or, as the Septuagint renders it, stand in awe, or stand in fear before him; let all the earth keep silence before Him;

— therefore the whole earth, that is, all the population of the earth, of every tribe and tongue, is to be still before Him: to submit silently to Him, and wait for His judgement;

— the point of this verse is that even though terrible times lie around, God is always in full control; the ultimate outcome will be exactly what God predicted; that is, that all question has a full and adequate answer before a God of Omniscience, Omnipresence and Omnipotence.

Habakkuk 3

A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet: The first two chapters of Habakkuk presented the prophet’s question and answer time with God. Now that the Lord had answered Habakkuk, the prophet offered a prayer of praise and thanksgiving to God “in wrath remember mercy” before keeping silence before Him and close the book.

¹ A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet upon “Shigionoth.” — this may be interpreted (by Ezra) according to the Targum: a prayer of Habakkuk because of his ignorance; concerning his errors of judgement:

— however, according to the apparent meaning, Habakkuk is begging for mercy for himself because he spoke rebelliously: (1: 4) “Therefore Torah is slackened,” and (verse 14) “You have made man like the fish of the sea.” Habakkuk also criticized the Divine standard of justice.

— Job, too, repented of his sin for questioning God; earlier, Job had stated that he had lived righteously before God and was undeserving of God’s punishment, as if God was unjust in his treatment of him:

“Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not. Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me. I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” Job 42:3-6.

² O Lord, I have heard Thy speech and was afraid; O Lord, revive Thy work in the midst of the years. In the midst of the years make it known; in wrath remember mercy. — O Lord, revive Your work in the midst of the years: Habakkuk simply prayed for revival, knowing how God once worked and how His people once responded, and he wanted to see that again;

— this prayer of Habakkuk shows us that repentence is a work of God, not the achievement of man; there is something man can and must do for repentence; simply crying out to God and pleading for his mercy;

— notice the prayer: “revive thy work” – often, our prayers are really “revive my or our work,” but we must have a heart and mind for God’s work, far bigger than our portion of it;

— in wrath remember mercy: Habakkuk prayed, knowing well that they didn’t deserve revival, so he prayed for mercy. The idea is, “Lord, I know that we deserve your wrath, but in the midst of your wrath remember mercy.”

³ God came from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran [with everlasting might, Chabad Bible]. Selah. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of His praise.

— Teman: Esau; Paran: Ishmael, as Scripture states (Genesis 21:21): “And he (Ishmael) dwelt in the desert of Paran.”

— having rejected Ismael and Esau, he came to the house of Jacob; or God’s might and wrath could possibly come from Teman (Esau) and Mount Paran (Ismael)?

— Selah; “stop and think.” Oh ye house of Jacob; stop and ponder: his glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise: All creatures bow down to him!

⁴ And His brightness was as the light; He had horns coming out of His hand, and there was the hiding of His power. — Oh house of Jacob; stop and ponder:

— God appeared in unparalleled splendour which shined from him, was as the light; pure, clear as the sun, but much more dazzling and overcoming.

⁵ Before Him went the pestilence, and burning coals went forth at His feet. — Covid-19 has been spreading around the globe; first the Delta variant, then the Omicron; and who knows what’s next? Could Covid-19, or another bioweapon, destroys a third of mankind eventually?

— and sparks went out at his feet: fiery angels came with him to witness the affairs of the heavens and earth. Could “burning coals” went forth at his feet be civil wars within nations? Witness the numerous civil strives within many western nations because of the various issues of how to manage Covid.

⁶ He stood and measured the earth; He beheld and drove asunder the nations; and the everlasting mountains were scattered, the perpetual hills did bow. His ways are everlasting.

— He stood and judged the earth; he looked and shook the nations; as he did at Mount Sinai, now the whole world is experiencing it; the everlasting mountains were scattered: Ephraim and the other twelve, the heavenly princes of the nations; all are either scattered or bow low.

⁷ I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction; and the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble. — the curtains… quaked: all is to be understood according to the Targum.

⁸ Was the Lord displeased against the rivers? Was Thine anger against the rivers? Was Thy wrath against the sea, that Thou didst ride upon Thine horses and Thy chariots of salvation? — Habakkuk was asking another series of Questions: asking the question thrice, Was the Lord displeased against the rivers?

— was thy wrath kindled against the rivers? in the Nile, the Red Sea and the Jordan? God meant more by these acts; he showed his supremacy over all creation, and these rivers are no problem in the execution of his great design (Psalm 106:9; Psalm 114:3);

~ a Parallel in Ezekiel 6:3 on mountains, hills and rivers ~

— this message to the “mountains of Israel;” these mountains refer to the United States, UK and France. . . . “and to the hills, to the rivers and to the valleys;” the hills: Ireland, Switzerland and the Scandinavian countries: Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, Finland, and Iceland; and the valleys, the low countries: Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg;

— and to the rivers; where during the nineteenth century, the British Royal Navy were known to “Rule the Waves;” and the United States having been plowing up and down the five oceans with her Seven Fleets since the British left the scene.

⁹ Thy bow was made quite naked according to the oaths of the tribes, even Thy word. Selah. Thou didst cleave the earth with rivers. — your bow revealed itself: your might being revealed; thy bow was made quite naked; that is, the sheath of the bow was laid aside to make it ready for use;

— Rashi: You split the earth into rivers: according to the Targum, “for thou didst break strong rocks, rivers came forth overflowing the earth.”

¹⁰ The mountains saw Thee and they trembled; the overflowing of the water passed by; the deep uttered his voice and lifted up his hands on high. — the mountains saw thee, and they trembled; literally, were in pain, Septuagint, the words point to the phenomena of an earthquake, as Sinai shook at the presence of the Lord (Exodus 19:18; Psalm 114:6);

— there is a similar scene at the end-time in Isaiah: where, not just the Israelites, every being will have a Mt Sinai experience: the earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard; the land utterly emptied! “The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again” Isaiah 24:20

¹¹ The sun and moon stood still in their habitation; at the light of thine arrows they went, and at the shining of Thy glittering spear. — as a similar scene in Isaiah 60:19‘: ‘the sun shall be no more for thy light by day, neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee, and the Lord shall be to thee an everlasting light.’”

¹² Thou didst march through the land in indignation; Thou didst thresh the heathen in anger. — Habakkuk says, in fury you walkest through the earth, in wrath you stampest down the nations, both Israelites and others.

¹³ Thou wentest forth for the salvation of Thy people, even for salvation with Thine Anointed. Thou wounded the head out of the house of the wicked, by uncovering the foundation unto the neck. Selah. — Habakkuk says you went forth for the salvation of your people, for salvation with your Anointed:

— Selah; “stop and think.” Oh house of Judah; stop and ponder; don’t be stiff-necked: as Habakkuk remembered how God had saved in the past; this made him full of faith for what God could do in the present and in the future.

— He also declared that salvation is brought with your Anointed – and the Lord’s Anointed is none other than the Messiah (Isaiah 52:13 Targum says God’s suffering servant is the Messiah), Jesus Christ; others call him Yeshua (for Christmas is rightly called “the Mother of all paganism”).

Remember, the Targum, whose origin was in the Aramaic language, could be traced to Ezra speaking to the returning exiles who couldn’t understand Hebrew, but was expounded to them in a language they could understand.

¹⁴ Thou didst strike through with his staves the head of his villages; they came out as a whirlwind to scatter me; their rejoicing was as to devour the poor secretly. — Thou, O God, didst strike through with his staves;

— others interpret of Pharaoh and his host, who were destroyed by the steps and methods which they themselves took, going into the sea of themselves, and so were struck through with their own staves:

¹⁵ Thou didst walk through the sea with Thine horses, through the heap of great waters. — the gists of this interpretation rests upon the fact of the destruction of Pharaoh and his horsemen in the Red Sea.

¹⁶ When I heard, my belly trembled; my lips quivered at the voice. Rottenness entered into my bones, and I trembled in myself, that I might rest in the day of trouble. When he cometh up unto the people, he will invade them with his troops.

— when Habakkuk heard God’s voice, his body trembled: he showed the righteous response of man under the sovereign power of God, recognizing his own weakness and low standing before this God of all majesty and power;

— the Babylon king Nebuchadnezzar will invade him with his troops: the prophet Habakkuk remembered that the Babylonians were coming, and that this God of sovereign power and majesty would direct their work against Judah.

¹⁷ Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines, the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat, the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls—

— the prophet Habakkuk depicts the effects of the hostile invasion, which are such as to make the natural heart despair; though the fig tree may not blossom, no fruit on the vines; nor fruit on the vines;

— though the labor of the olive may fail, and the fields yield no food; though the flock may be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls; yet Habakkuk will still rejoice in the Lord, whom he knows, has full control from His throne;

¹⁸ yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in the God of my salvation. — Habakkuk will rejoice in the God of his salvation: in a vision, he saw the Judean countryside desolate, perhaps from the invading Babylonian army or perhaps from natural calamity;

— sometimes when we see a day of trouble approach, we think, “If God is so great and powerful, how come we’re going through a hard time?” Habakkuk knew this was the wrong question and the wrong attitude; instead, he said: “I know you are strong and mighty, and if we are in desolate circumstances it is because we deserve it. I will praise You still, and even rejoice in You.”

— but in the midst of this almost complete loss, the cities and countryside desolate, Habakkuk could still rejoice in the Lord.

¹⁹ The Lord God is my strength; and He will make my feet like hinds’ feet, and He will make me to walk upon mine high places. To the chief singer on my stringed instruments.

— the Lord God is my strength: Habakkuk could only properly declare this after he prayed the prayer of faith in the previous verses. He rightly declared that his strength was not in fig trees or vines or fields or flocks, but only in the Lord God;

— Habakkuk’s prayer could also be adapted as a song of prayer and/or a prayer of reflection. Selah!

In summary, the theme of Habakkuk is “For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak and not lie. Though it tarry, wait for it, because it will surely come; it will not tarry,” Habakkuk 2:3.; and we wouldn’t fully understand until the anger and God’s judgement had passed in the latter day; then and only then will we be able to understand fully:

“The anger of the Lord shall not return, until He has executed and till He has performed the thoughts of His heart; in the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly” Jeremiah 23:20; “In latter days you will understand it fully,” that is, it means as a whole: “we wouldn’t fully understand these prophecies until we are living in the latter days after God had executed his judgement in anger and pertformed the thoughts of his heart!” Selah!

For more about the South, a prophecy of Esau or Edom, see Obadiah

For more on the enemy from the South, see A Sword from the South!

For more into another Captivity: see Ezekiel Timeline – 190/40 Years

Posted in Minor Prophets