298 VISIONS AND PROPHECIES OF ZECHARIAH
go a step further, and say that the fulfilment has not yet reached its end, and will not, until the kingdom of Christ shall attain that complete victory over the heathen world " which is foretold in the following verses of this chapter. Then, as has already been stated, when God s judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world shall learn righteousness, and after Israel as a nation is converted, all the tribes and families of the earth shall be blessed with and through them.
But while Israel s enemies in the north and south have occasion to tremble at the approach of the hostile army, God Himself would be the shield and protector of His people and His special dwelling-place in their midst. "And I will camp about My house, WE? iT:ro vechanithi lebhethi (or for i.e., on account, or for the protection of My house) because of the army " (which is most probably the correct reading, though some, by a slight alteration of the first vowel, would read nzisro {matsabhak\ instead of nayo (mitsabhaK), and translate : " I will encamp about, or for, My house, as a garrison, or guard "), " because (or on account ) of him who passeth through or returneth ; x and no oppressor shall pass through them any more, for now have I seen with Mine eyes"
" My house " stands not for the congregation of Israel, as some suppose, but for the Temple ; but the protection of the house carries with it also the protection of the people, which it is supposed will henceforth be under God s favour, so that in the next, or parallel line, the plural is used in the expression, " no oppressor shall pass through them any more."
The word tMis (noges), translated " oppressor," primarily means " taskmaster " one who compels slaves to perform their appointed tasks (Ex. iii. 7, v. 6 10). It is used
1 The phrase 3?p? laiyo (me obher umishabh), "because of him that passeth by and because of him that returneth " ; or, " because of him that passeth to and fro," occurs altogether only four times in the Hebrew Scriptures, and as it is found in Zech. vii. 14 and here in chap. ix. 8, it has rightly been taken (as the expres sion is so unusual) as an indication of the common authorship of the first and second halves of this book, as is pointed out in the Introduction to the second part of this book.
