which I have laid " carries our minds back to Isa. xxviii. 1 6: " Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner-stone, a sure foundation; he that believeth shall not make haste"; and to Ps. cxviii. 22:
"The stone which the builders refused (or despised ) is become the head-stone of the corner."
There may have been some allusion to the foundationstone of the Second Temple the eben shetiyah, as it was afterwards called " the very foundation as well as the centre of the world," about which there are many traditions, true and false, absurd and beautiful, in the Talmud and in later Jewish Midrashim; but if so, it is because the literal foundation was a type of Him who is the " precious corner stone " and unshakable foundation of the spiritual temple, into which believers also are built as living stones, and which through eternity shall be for the habitation of God through the Spirit.
Upon this one stone " are seven eyes."
If, according to Jewish commentators, we are to under stand the words that the eyes are directed toward this stone, then they are " the seven eyes of Jehovah " (chap, vi. 10), which have rested from before the foundation of the world upon this precious corner-stone; and the figure would in that case express, not only the assurance of His watchful care and protection over it, but the Father's com placency and delight in His only-begotten Son. Or the sacred and covenant number " seven " may be taken in a
Keil says: "The stone is the symbol of the Kingdom of God." Hengstenberg explains it as "the Kingdom or people of God, outwardly insignificant when compared with the great mountain (chap. iv. 7) which symbolises the power of the world "; and Kohler regards the stone as signifying Israel, "which nation was entrusted to the care of the high priest Joshua, that, by the due discharge of his high priestly office, the purity and freedom from iniquity required by God should be attained by the people."
Many interpret it simply of the foundation of the Temple, while Von Hoffmann and others say that " the stone here represents the entire collection of materials required for the erection of the (second) Temple." All of which interpretations are more or less fanciful and beside the mark, since (as shown above) "the Stone" which Joshua was to behold, like "the Servant, the Branch," ii) the previous verse, are well-known titles of Messiah carried over in these visions of Zechariah from " the former prophets."