Attributed commentary excerpt
Barnes' Notes on Zechariah 13:7
A historical reference excerpt for this verse. Read it alongside the biblical text and other available sources.
Notes on the Whole Bible
Albert Barnes (1798–1870) · 19th-century historical commentary
Source: BibleWord.ai's local reference edition of this named work.
Awake, O sword - So Jeremiah apostrophises the sword, “O thou sword of the Lord, when wilt thou be quiet?” Jeremiah 47:6. The prophets express what “will be,” by a command that it should be; “Make the heart of this people heavy” Isaiah 6:10. But by this command he signifies that human malice, acting freely, could do no more than His “Hand and” His “counsel determined before to be done” Acts 4:28. The envy and hatred of Satan, the blind fury of the chief priests, the contempt of Herod, the guilty cowardice of Pilate, freely accomplished that Death, which God had before decreed for the salvation of the world. The meaning then is, (Ribera), “the sword shall be aroused against My Shepherd, that is, I will allow Him to be smitten by the Jews. But by ‘the sword’ he designates death, persecution, wounding etc. as above, the ‘sword upon his right arm’ Zechariah 11:17, and, where the passion of Christ is spoken of, ‘Deliver my soul from the sword’ Psalms 22:20. So also, ‘All the sinners of the people shall die by the sword’ Amos 9:10,” (Jerome), “which cannot be taken literally; for many sinners perish by shipwreck, poison, drowning, fire.” Amos then “so spake, because many died by war, yet not all by the sword, but others by pestilence and famine, all which he includes under ‘the sword’ Amos 9:10. This smiting began, when the Lord was taken, and His sheep began to be scattered; but the prophecy which, before, was being gradually fulfilled, was fully fulfilled in His death, and the apostles were dispersed till the day of the Resurrection at eventide.” Against the Man, My Fellow - that is, One united by community of nature. A little before, God had spoken of Himself as priced at “the thirty pieces of silver,” yet as breaking the covenant which He had made with all nations for His people; as “pierced through, yet as pouring the spirit of grace and supplication” on those who pierced Him, that they should mourn their deed, and as, thereon, ever cleansing them from sin. As Man, God was sold, was pierced. : “God, in flesh, not working with aught intervening as in the prophets, but having taken to Him a Manhood connatural with Himself and made one, and through His flesh akin to us, drawing up to Him all humanity. What was the manner of the Godhead in flesh? As fire in iron, not transitively but by communication. For the fire does not dart into the iron, but remains there and communicates to it of its own virtue, not impaired by the communication, yet filling wholly its recipient.” The bold language of the Fathers only expressed the actuality of the Incarnation. Since the Manhood was taken into God, and in Him dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and God and Man were one Christ. then was it all true language. His Body was “the Body of God” ; His flesh “the flesh of the Word” ; and it was lawful to speak of “the flesh of the Deity” , of “the Passion of the Word” , “the Passion of Christ, my God” , “the Passion of God” , “God dead and buried” , “God suffered” , “murderers of God” , “the Godhead dwelt in the flesh bodily, which is all one with saying that, being God, He had a proper body, and using this as an instrument, He became Man for our sakes, and, because of this, things proper to the flesh are said to be His, since He was in it, as hunger, thirst, suffering, fatigue and the like, of which the flesh is capable, while the works proper to the Word Himself as raising the dead and restoring the blind, He did through His own Body,” is but a c…
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