tensively the object of actual desire and expectation. The preparations, in the providential government of God, for his reign, were to be such as would indicate it to be of the greatest importance; and its spiritual glory, in effecting the true happiness of mankind, was to be infinitely superior to all earthly splendor. But the passage does not appear to afford, either directly or inferentially, any definite information on the specific object of our inquiry, the nature and person of that great Deliverer.

with another, often agrees with the number of the latter instead of the former. E. g. 2 Sam. x. 9. Job xv. 20. Is. xxv. 3.” Dathé Note Critice in Haggaum. The LXX. perhaps read mom as they translate it τὰ εκλεκτά,

SECT. XXIX.

PIERCED BY THE PEOPLE OF JERUSALEM.

Zech. xii. 8-10.

1. In that day, Jehovah will be the protector, Around the inhabitants of Jerusalem :

And the infirm among them shall be in that day as David, And the house of David as God,

5. As the angel of Jehovah before their face.

And it shall be, in that day,

That I will pursue to destruction all the nations that shall assault Jerusalem.

And I will pour out upon the house of David

And upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

10. A spirit of grace and supplications:

And they shall look unto me whom they have pierced;

And they shall mourn on account of it,

As a mourner for an only son;

And bitterness shall be on account of it,

15. As one in bitterness for a first-born.*

THE Jews, converted to the faith of Jesus as the real and only Messiah, are here depicted as de

*L. 11. Many copies in the collations of Kennicott and de Rossi read unto him; but, as the majority of manuscripts and those of the highest antiquity, and all the Ancient Versions, consent in the common reading, critical integrity requires it to be

votionally looking to him with hope and trust, and as bitterly deploring their former disbelief and opposition to him. But Jehovah declares HIMSELF to be the person thus treated. That God can be corporally "pierced," no thinking person will assert. The real sufferer was "the man Christ Jesus." If, then, we are willing to do justice to the whole testimony of scripture, must it not follow that there is such unity between the suffering man and the eternal God as, without confusing the properties of each nature, renders for the Divine Being to use this personal

it proper

preferred. In John xix. 37. it is cited, ὄψονται εἰς ὃν εξεκέντησαν but this does not determine certainly whether 'εμè or 'avròv be the ellipsis. That in the two next clauses by occurs, is not a proof against the received reading: for if it be rendered on account of him, it is referrible to the enallage of persons which Kimchi and Abrabenel lay down as a rule of the language, and of which instances occur in Ps. lxxxi. 16. Is. xxxiii. 2. xlii. 24. Ezech. xxxi. 10. See Glassii Philol. Sacr. Lib. iv. Tract. ii. Obs. 16. Frischmuthi Diss. de Messia Confixo, cap. 3. § 9. Grotius also (Annot. in loc.) observes that this idiom is frequent in Zechariah. But both Jewish and Christian critics have observed that the term is, in this place, more applicable to the fact than to the person. The suffix is significant of a thing or event, as well as of a living object; as in Job xxxvi. 33. (also xiv. 22. according to Schultens), Amos i. 3. "The phrase constantly denotes affection and confidence, or the hope of obtaining benefits from the person regarded.—The lamentation is not properly for him whom they behold alive and crowned with glory and honour,—but for the fact, the awful sin of having crucified the Lord of glory." Alb. Schultens, Anim. Philol. et Crit. in V. T. p. 547. Dathé strenuously supports this interpretation in his Note Crit. His version is, "Intuebuntur me, quem transfixerunt, atque eâ de re lugebunt."

הביטו אלי

style;-" they shall look unto ME whom they have pierced?"-The language of inspiration must be just and true: and therefore the Messiah must be a Divine, as well as a human being.

SECT. XXX.

Zech. xiii. 7.

Sword! Awake against my shepherd,
And against the man near to me;

Saith Jehovah of hosts.

Smite the shepherd, and the flock shall be scattered,
And I will exercise my care over the little ones.

MANY interpreters have considered the adjunct here rendered "near to me," as implying equality of rank and identity of nature. I cannot, however, from either the etymology or the usage of the term, satisfy myself to give it a higher meaning than is here expressed. The passage describes the Messiah as the faithful servant of God, intimate and beloved; and yet as smitten by the terrible stroke of divine vengeance. Upon what principle of rectitude the spotless Saviour, so perfectly the beloved of God, could be thus devoted to extreme suffering; belongs to another and most important department of Christian doctrine.

In all the other places in which it occurs it denotes a neighbour or fellow-citizen. Lev. xix. 11, 15, 17. xxiv. 19. xxv. 14, 15, 17.