עמיתי

acute adversaries are compelled to admit it; and can only escape from it by saying that the words are ironical. This concession is rendered doubly valuable by the consideration that they had before them another explanation, proposed by a rabbi of great renown, and that they rejected it. Rashi, as quoted by Kimchi in the Commentary, page 167, says that kings are called God's fellows, because they are associated with him in feeding his sheep, but R. Isaac and Abarbanel preferred expounding "My fellow," of a similarity in nature and substance; and, no doubt, their reason for this preference was the fact that, in all the other passages where it occurs, it can have no other meaning.* Except in this passage it only occurs in the Pentateuch as follows:-Levit. v. 20, (English, vi. 2), "If a soul sin, and commit a trespass against the Lord, and lie unto his neighbour or fellow in in that which was delivered to him to keep, or in fellowship, or in a thing taken away by violence, or hath deceived his neighbour in."-Lev. xviii. 20, “Moreover, thou shalt not lie carnally with thy neighbour's wife ."-xix. 11, "Ye shall not steal, neither deal falsely, neither lie one to another (a man with his neighbour) in ."-verse 15, "In righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbour."-verse 17, "Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart; thou shalt not in any wise rebuke thy neighbour ."-xxiv. 19, "And if a man cause a blemish in his neighbour ine; as he hath done so shall be done to him.”—xxv. 14, "And if thou sell ought unto thy neighbour, or buyest ought of thy neighbour's hand, ye shall not oppress a man his brother. According to the number of years after the jubilee, thou shalt buy of thy neighbour ṛny. Ye shall not, therefore, oppress a man his neighbour in; but thou shalt fear thy God," &c. These are the

* Hengstenberg Christologie, p. ii. p. 334.

only places where it occurs, and in all these it is synonymous with brother, or fellow. It expresses the relation of fellow-Israelite, or fellow-man, and points out an identity of nature, which is the very ground on which doing evil to our neighbour is forbidden. When, therefore, God calls any being "My fellow," it necessarily implies that that being stands in the same relation to God as one Israelite or man does to another; that is, that he is of the same nature or substance, that is, that he is very God. It cannot be urged that there is no being, who can be considered as God's fellow, for Zechariah himself, in ch. ii. and iii., speaks of a being who is sent, and is, therefore, the angel of the Lord, and yet who is the Lord, and we have shown, in the observations on ch. i, that this is the general representation of the Old Testament Scriptures. Neither can it be said that this divine character is inconsistent with the other representations of Messiah. Malachi says, "The LORD 17 whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple," (Mal. iii. 1.), where the divine title 7 with the article

הָאָדוֹן

, which is never given to any being but God, is applied to the Messiah, as the Jewish commentators acknowledge. R. Alshech, in his Commentary on the passage, even goes so far as to assert that the coming of the Messiah includes in it the coming of God. He says, "It is well known that in the coming of the Messiah is [included] the coming of the blessed God into the world to fulfil the verse, Arise, shine, for thy light is come,' and again, 'I will dwell in the midst of thee.'"* And again, Jere

miah says, "This is his name whereby he shall be called, The LORD our Righteousness," (xxiii. 6), both of which names imply a participation of the divine attributes, as the same Rabbi well expounds in his Commentary on

* וידוע כי בביאת המשיח היא ביאתו יתברך אל העולם לקיים מקרא הכתוב קומי אורי כי בא אורך ואומר ושכנתי בתוכך :

Jeremiah: "Messiah is called the Lord our Righteousness, that is to say, through the superabundance of his righteousness and purity, righteousness will be communicated to Israel from heaven. Messiah will be like a reservoir into which it is poured, and from whence it is spread amongst all the people; and this is the meaning of The Lord our Righteousness.' That is to say, that as the LORD sends forth righteousness to him that comes to be cleansed, and still more to the clean, so also the Messiah shall be like the blessed God, and his name shall be called 'The Lord our Righteousness,' for from Thee our righteousness shall be derived as from the Lord."* Many other similar passages might be adduced, but these are sufficient to remove the objection that the description of divinity is foreign from Messiah's character. The sum of all that has been said is, that the words, "Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and the man that is my fellow Smite the Shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered," are spoken of the Messiah-that, therefore, Messiah was to come before the scattering of the sheep, i. e., before the destruction of the temple; that he was to be smitten, and that then the Jews were to be dispersed. It is very easy to show that these particulars were fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth. He came at the time here predicted, he was smitten, and very soon after the Jews were dispersed, and remain dispersed to this day.

The only objection that can be made is, that he was not slain by the sword, whereas Zechariah says, " Awake, O sword," but this is easily answered, as Hengstenberg has shown: "Sword" is employed figuratively to express violent death by the hands of others, as Nathan says to David, "Thou hast killed Uriah, the Hittite, with the

ומשיח ה' צדקנו לומר ע"י שפע צדקו וכשרון יושפע לישראל מן השמים ויהי' המשיח כצנור שיורק בעצם בו וממנו יתפשט בכל העם וזהו ה' צדקנו לומר כאשר ה' משפיע צדקות לבא ליטהר ומה גם לטהור כך המשיח ידמה לו ית' ויקרא שמו ה' צדקנו כי ממך ימשך צדקנו כאשר מה':

sword," 2 Sam. xii. 9, whereas it appears, from xi. 24, that he had been shot with a missile weapon. A similar instance occurs in the words of the Israelites to Moses and Aaron, "Ye have made our savour to be abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of his servants, to put a sword into their hands to slay us." (Exod. v. 21).

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CHAPTER XIV.

1. "Behold the day cometh to the Lord."-That day shall be to the Lord, for his glory and his might shall be seen at that time, and that is the time when Gog and Magog shall come against the land of Israel, as the Prophet Ezekiel has prophesied.

"And thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee." -This is spoken of Jerusalem, for the heathen shall divide the spoil of the city in the midst of it, as it is said, "The houses shall be rifled." But Jonathan has interpreted, "Behold, the day that shall come from before the Lord, and the house of Israel shall divide the wealth of the nations in the midst of thee, Jerusalem."

2. "For I will gather;" that is to say, he will put it into their heart to come to Jerusalem to war, as it is said in the prophecy of Ezekiel, “And I will cause thee to come up from the north parts, and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel" (xxxix. 2.).

"And the city shall be taken.”—This affliction shall be for the purifying of the third which shall be left in it; and in reference to this, it is said in the prophecy of Isaiah, "Hide thyself, as it were, for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast" (xxvi. 20.). And it is said, in the prophecy of Daniel, "There shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation," &c. (xii. 1.).

And the houses rifled."- one of the reduplicating verbs, the root is DO, and so we find in

"who gave Jacob for a spoil" (Isaiah xlii. 24), the meaning is plundering or spoiling.

"And half of the city shall go forth into captivity ;