REJECTION OF THE TRUE SHEPHERD 395
last trace of Syrian supremacy was removed by the ex pulsion of the Syrian garrison from its fortress in Jerusalem."
But this is in accord with his general interpretation of the chapter (as is the case also with all the others who seek to identify the shepherds with Gentile rulers or kingdoms); by which also the "shepherds" in the 5th verse, and the solemn words of judgment in the 6th verse, are made to apply, not to the Jews, but to their Gentile oppressors a view which seems to me untenable ; for first, there is no mention or reference to the Gentiles in the announcement of the devastating judgment in the first three verses of the chapter, which I regard as the prelude to the whole prophecy, but only to the borders of the promised land from the north to the south.
Secondly, the awful condition of things depicted in the 6th verse is just that which, according to vers. g and 1 1, is to happen to " the sheep of slaughter " after their rejection of the Good Shepherd ; and thirdly, the very usage of the term " shepherds " precludes, it seems to me, the inter pretation which makes it to mean Gentile tyrants, or oppressors its almost exclusive application, when used in the Hebrew Bible in its figurative sense in relation to a flock of men, being to native Israelitish rulers or leaders, whether civil or religious, 1 most of whom, alas ! proved themselves to be only false shepherds without any heart for the sheep.
(2) Maurer, Hitzig, Ewald, Bleek, Bunsen, S. Davidson, and other writers have fastened upon this passage as con taining, according to them, " one of the clearest proofs " of the pre-exilic authorship of the second part of Zechariah, inasmuch as the " three shepherds " are supposed to refer to three kings of the northern or ten-tribed kingdom of Israel who were " cut off in one month " (which they take
1 The only exception is Isa. xliv. 28, where God says of Cyrus, " He is My shepherd " ; but there he is so called because he is raised up to play the r&le, not of an oppressor of Israel, but as performing God s pleasure, even saying to Jerusalem she shall be built, and to the Temple, "Thy foundations shall be laid."
