396 VISIONS AND PROPHECIES OF ZECHARIAH
in its literal significance), and, therefore, contend that this prophecy must have been written before the destruction of that kingdom by the Assyrians in 721 B.C., and not, as is generally accepted, before the restoration from Babylon.
The historical event, or events, to which our passage is made by these writers to refer, is 2 Kings xv. 814, where we read of the assassination of Zechariah, son of Jeroboam II., by Shallum, who very shortly was himself smitten by Menahem. But we need only look into this passage in 2 Kings to see the baselessness of this interpretation and of the theory based upon it. Shallum, who murdered Zechariah, himself reigned " a full month " before he was in turn murdered by Menahem, who was not killed at all, but reigned ten years, and was succeeded by his son Pekahiah. Maurer, Ewald, Bunsen, and S. Davidson, in support of this theory, have invented " a third unknown usurper," who succeeded Zechariah for a very brief period before Shallum actually reigned, or " possibly on the other side of the Jordan," and who also met with a violent end ; but such inventions, of which history knows nothing, and for which there is no place in the historical narrative in the Scriptures, are not worthy to be refuted. 1
(3) There remains one other explanation which, though not altogether free from difficulties, seems to me the correct one, namely, that the prophet is speaking, not of three individuals, but of three orders, or classes, of shepherds. But even among those holding this view there have been
1 I may mention a few other interpretations, or rather guesses and conjectures, respecting the three shepherds. Abarbanel explains them to mean the three Maccabees Judas, Jonathan, and Simon ; Kimchi refers them to Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, and Zedekiah ; Jerome (following the Talmud), to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam ; Grotius, to David, Adonijah, and Joab ; Burger, to Eli and his two sons, or to Samuel and his two sons ; and Kalmet explains them of the three Roman emperors Galba, Otho, and Vitellius. Another theory contended for is that the three shepherds are John, Simon, and Eleazer, the three desperate leaders of the Jewish factions in the last struggle against Rome ; but, as a matter of fact, John of Gischala and Simon Bar Giora were taken alive to Rome, and Simon was slain in Rome during the triumphal procession of Vespasian and Titus about three years after the destruction of the Temple ; so that they certainly could not be the three shepherds who were to be "cut off in one month."
