7. And--rather, "Accordingly": implying the motive cause which led
Messiah to assume the office, namely, the will of the Father
(Zec 11:4, 5),
who pitied the sheep without any true shepherd.
I will feed--"I fed"
[CALVIN], which comes to the same thing, as the
past tense must in Zechariah's time have referred to the event of
Messiah's advent then future: the prophets often speaking of the future
in vision as already present. It was not My fault, Jehovah implies,
that these sheep were not fed; the fault rests solely with you, because
ye rejected the grace of God [CALVIN].
even you, O poor of the flock--rather, "in order that
(I might feed, that is, save)
the poor (humble; compare
Zec 11:11;
Zep 3:12;
Mt 5:3)
of the flock"; literally, not you, but, "therefore (I
will feed)" [MOORE]. See Margin,
"Verily the poor." It is for the sake of the believing remnant
that Messiah took charge of the flock, though He would have saved all,
if they would have come to Him. They would not come; therefore, as a
nation, they are "the flock of (that is, doomed to) slaughter."
I took . . . two staves--that is, shepherds' staves or rods
(Ps 23:4).
Symbolizing His assumption of the pastor's office.
Beauty--The Jews' peculiar excellency above other nations
(De 4:7),
God's special manifestation to them
(Ps 147:19, 20),
the glory of the temple ("the beauty of holiness,"
Ps 29:2;
compare
Ps 27:4; 90:17;
2Ch 20:21),
the "pleasantness" of their land
(Ge 49:15;
Da 8:9; 11:16),
"the glorious land."
Bands--implying the bond of "brotherhood" between Judah and Israel.
"Bands," in
Ps 119:61,
Margin, is used for confederate companies: The Easterns
in making a confederacy often tie a cord or band as a symbol of it, and
untie it when they dissolve the confederacy
[LUDOVICUS
DE
DIEU].
Messiah would have joined Judah and Israel in the bonds of a
common faith and common laws
(Zec 11:14),
but they would not; therefore in just retribution He broke "His
covenant which He had made with all the people." Alexander, Antiochus
Epiphanes, and Pompey were all kept from marring utterly the
distinctive "beauty" and "brotherhood" of Judah and Israel, which
subsisted more or less so long as the temple stood. But when Jehovah
brake the staves, not even Titus could save the temple from his own
Roman soldiery, nor was Jurian able to restore it.
JFB.
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