AN EXAMINATION OF MODERN CRITICISM 277
political situation presupposed " in the scriptures with which they deal, but on misunderstandings and misinterpretations of the text.
This will appear more clearly when we come to the exposition of these chapters ; but an illustration of this fact is found in the summarised arguments against the unity of Zechariah given by Von Orelli under the last two headings of (d] and (e\ We will quote them one by one, and very briefly examine them. The italics in all cases are, of course, ours.
(i.) " As relates to the circumstances of Israel in chaps. ix.xi., chap. ix. is of the nation as found in foreign lands (ix. 1 1) ; but a more general exile is still to come (x. 29)."
We confess we cannot see how, supposing this is admitted, it would go to prove a pre-exilic origin of these two chapters, but we may quote words written by an English divine already before the end of the eighteenth century. " It is urged" says Benjamin Blayney, " that many things are mentioned in these chapters which by no means correspond with Zechariah s time, as when events are foretold which had actually taken place. But it may be questioned whether those subjects of prophecy have been rightly understood, and whether that which has been construed as having a reference to past transactions may not in reality terminate n others of a later period, and some perhaps which are yet o come."
Taking it for granted, as we do, that it is possible for an
nspired prophet, speaking by the Spirit of God, to utter
hings not only in reference to an immediate, but also of a
distant future, the references quoted from chaps, ix. and x.
as relates to the circumstances of Israel," answer exactly
to the facts as contemplated from the starting-point of
Zechariah s time ; for the actual conditions were these : A
remnant had returned after the seventy years Captivity, but
many of Zion s children indeed by far the majority were
" prisoners of hope " (ix. I 2) in the hands of the Gentiles.
In the end, all the dispersed, wherever they may be found
whether in the lands " of the rising of the sun," or in those
