6 7 8 With boys and with girls playing in the streets thereof. Thus saith Jehovah God of hosts: Thus saith Jehovah God of hosts: Behold, I will save my people From the east-country, and from the country of And I will bring them, and they shall dwell || in * And they shall be my people, And I will be † their God In truth and in righteousness. Thus saith Jehovah God of hosts: 9 Let your hands be strong, Ye that hear, in these days, These words from the mouth of the prophets Even the temple, that it may be built. There was no recompence to men, 10 For before those days Or, difficult. § Or, difficult. Hebr. in the midst of. *to me for a people: + to them for a God. 8. And I will bring them] Arab. and ó. MS. Pachom. add into their lands, which the place seems to require: And I will bring them into their land, And they shall dwell in Jerusalem. -my people] Comp. Jer. xxxi. 33. In truth and in righteousness] With faithfulness as to my promises; and with favour and kindness towards those who obey me. 9. Who live in the time] "6. Syr. Vulg. quasi legissent י: nec male :ביום אשר Secker. Even the temple] "Omittit Syr." Secker. 10. —no recompence] No fruit of their labours, from my 11 Neither was there any recompence to beasts: For I set all men, every one against his neighbour. To the residue of this people, Saith Jehovah God of hosts. 13 14 15 prosperous; The vine shall yield its fruit, And the ground shall yield its encrease, And I will cause the residue of this people to All these things. And it shall come to pass that, as ye have been a O house of Judah, and O house of Israel, For thus saith Jehovah God of hosts: When your fathers provoked me to anger, And I repented not; So have I again thought, in these days, Hebr. peace, or, of peace. § I have returned I have thought, curse on the produce of their ground, See Hagg. 1. 6, 9, 10, .איננה for איננו We should read .11 -distress] Ezra iv. 1-4. 11. former days] When I was displeased with my people. 12. the seed] We may render, For the seed-time shall be a time of peace. See Gen. viii. 22. Syr. reads hwa, in, or with, peace; as Houbigant observes. ó. Ar. read, I will shew peace, ❝ó, quasi legissent, sic enim ter vertunt Secker. δεικνυμιο 13. of Israel] Many of the ten tribes may be supposed to have returned from captivity in consequence of Cyrus's decree, 15. again thought] o. Ar. Syr. read noon. But see Dan, ix. 25. 16 17 18 19 20 And unto the house of Judah. Fear ye not. Speak ye every man the truth to his neighbour: in your gates. Neither imagine in your heart Every man evil against his neighbour: For all these are things Which I hate, saith Jehovah. And the word of Jehovah God of hosts came unto me, saying; Thus saith Jehovah God of hosts: The fast of the fourth month, and the fast of the fifth month, And the fast of the seventh month, and the fast of the tenth month, Shall be unto the house of Judah for joy and for gladness, And for chearful seasons. But love ye the truth and peace. Thus saith Jehovah God of hosts: || Hebr. judge, * an oath of falsehood. 16. Determine-] Pronounce true, or righteous, judgment; and such as tends to produce peace among men, by deterring the litigious and punishing the evil doer. Syr. and three MSS. read: Determine truth, and judgment, and peace &c. See v. 19. But Ar. and 6. MS. Pachom. omit nes the truth. "And determine the judgment of peace in your gates." 17. Neither-] The order in the Hebrew is, And every man evil against his neighbour Imagine not in your heart. See c vii. 10. Mr. Lowth has an important remark on these two verses; that the promises made to the Jews after the captivity were conditional. 19. fourth month] In which Jerusalem was taken. Jer, lii. 6. tenth month] In which the siege of Jerusalem was begun. Jer. lii. 4. For the two other months, see on c. vii. 3, 5. But love] "Therefore love ye truth and peace." Blaney. 21 22 23 It shall yet come to pass that [many] † people shall come, And the inhabitants of many cities: And the inhabitants of one city shall go Unto another, saying; Let us surely go to entreat the face of Jehovah, I will go also. And many people and mighty nations shall come Thus saith Jehovah God of hosts: That in those days ten men shall take hold, From among all the languages of the nations, They shall even 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. + Hebr. peoples. † peoples 20. It shall yet-] Nine MSS. and three ed. read Ty: and Noldius agrees with the versions and Chald. in rendering weny adhuc. But if we read Ty until, we must supply at the beginning of the verse, Do this, until &c. -many people] Many of the gentiles. 6. Ar. and one MS. add many. See v. 22. 21. to intreat the face] to supplicate the favour." Blaney. Idem ver. 22. And to seek] "And to seek Jehovah God of hosts will I go also." Blaney. 23. ten men] That is, many men. See on Micah v. 5. -take hold of the skirt] See Isai. iii. 6; iv. 1; 1 Sam. xv. 27; Bishop Lowth's note on the first passage, and Harmer ii. 32. It is a gesture naturally used to entreat assistance and protection. This and the three foregoing verses refer to the great accession of converts which the Jewish church received between the captivity and the coming of Christ, to the number of Christian disciples which the Jewish preachers made, and to the future conversions of which the restoration of the Jews will be an eminent cause. -go with you] 6. Ar. Syr. read y with thee. 1 CHAP. IX. THE prophecy of the word of Jehovah: 1. The prophecy-] J. Mede, in his remarks on Matth. xxvii. 9, 10. Epist. xxxi, says: "It may seem the Evangelist would inform us that those latter chapters ascribed to Zachary (namely the 9, 10, 11, &c.) are indeed the prophecies of Jeremy; and that the Jews had not rightly attributed them. Certainly, if a man weigh the contents of some of them, they should in likelihood be of an elder date than the time of Zacha ry; namely, before the captivity: for the subjects of some of them were scarce in being after that time. And the chapter out of which St. Matthew quotes [c. xi.] may seem to have somewhat much unsuitable with Zachary's time; as, a prophecy of the destruction of the temple, then when he was to encourage them to build it. And how doth the sixth verse of that chapter suit with his time? There is no scripture saith they are Zachary's; but there is scripture saith they are Jeremy's, as this of the Evangelist. As for their being joined to the prophecies of Zachary, that proves no more they are his, than the like adjoining of Agur's proverbs to Solomon's proves they are therefore Solomon's; or that all the psalms are David's, because joined in one volume with David's Psalms." See more Epist. Ixi, "As for the titles in the tops of every page, it matters not: it is a later device. The Jews wrote in rolls or volumes, and the title was but once. If ought were added to the roll, ob similitudinem argumenti, or for some other reason, it had a new title, as that of Agur; or perhaps none, but was vμov." "It is certain that Jeremy's prophecies are digested in no order, but only as it seems they came to light in the scribe's hands. Hence sometimes all is ended with Zedekiah; then we are brought back to Jehoiakim, then to Zedekiah again &c. Whereby it seems they came not to light to be enrolled secundum ordinem temporis, nor all together, but as it happened in so distracted a tiine. And why might not some not be found till the return from captivity, and be approved by Zachary, and so put to his volume according to the time of their finding and approbation by him, and after that some other prophecies yet added of his?" See Wolf. cur. phil. Matth. xxvii. 8: Hammond on Hebr. viii. 9. Kidder. dem. Mess. part ii. c. iii. p. 75. 2d. ed. fol. Dr. Owen on the Septuagint Version: p. 57. Randolph's texts cited in the N. T. n. 28. Kidder's words are "This is certain, that such things. are contained in these chapters as agree well with the time of وو |