and we shall be turned" " Cause Thy face to shine, and we shall be saved" (Lam. v. 2 I; Ps. Ixxx. 3).
We now come to the last two verses of Zechariah's preparatory address, which may be summarised as a warning against disobedience, illustrated and enforced by the sad experiences of their fathers. " Your fathers, where are they? " " They did not hear nor hearken "; they dis believed and disobeyed My word; but what was the con sequence? What good did they gain? what success did they experience in resisting Me? " Where are they?"
Did they not for that very reason spend their days in wretchedness, and pine away in captivity? " And the prophets, do they live for ever? "
Probably we have here the record of a dialogue between the prophet, speaking in the Name of God, and the people; at least so some of the leading Jewish commentators understand it namely, that when the prophet pointed them to their fathers, saying, " Where are they? " the people impudently answered, "And the prophets, do they live for ever? "- have they, too, not shared in the sorrows of the nation and passed away like our fathers?[1] And then the prophet replies, " Yes; the prophets, though God's mouth piece, were but men, and are gone, but My words and My statutes, which I commanded My servants the prophets, did they not overtake your fathers, so that they had to return and say, that as Jehovah of hosts hath thought (or " determined ") to
- ↑ Kimchi, in his commentary on Zeckariah, says, " Our Rabbis, of blessed memory, have interpreted the words, The prophets, where are they? as the answer of the people. They say that the congregation of Israel gave a controversial reply to the prophet. He said to them: Return in true repentance, for your fathers sinned; and where are they? The people answered him: And the prophets who did not sin, where are they? But they afterwards repented and made confession to him." The place in the Talmud to which he refers is Bab. Sanhedrin, 105.Among Christian interpreters, we are glad to see Keil adopting this view. In Lowe's Hebrew Student's Commentary mi Zechariah, there is the following note:"Another interpretation is that Zechariah's words are equivalent to this: The light of prophecy is dying out; while ye have the light, walk as children of the light. But to us it appears that to put the words, Do (or "did ") the prophets live for ever? into the mouth of Zechariah, is to destroy utterly his argument."
