400 VISIONS AND PROPHECIES OF ZECHARIAH
sheep of slaughter do we find in this prophecy, if the cutting off of the shepherds is not to be regarded as an effort on His part for the deliverance of the flock, my answer is, that a full, though compressed, summary of the beneficent character of the activities of the Good Shepherd is given in the 8th verse. There we see the Shepherd fully equipped with the two staves of Beauty (or " Favour "), and "Bands" (or "Binders"), feeding the flock. "So I fed the flock" \ and in that blessed shepherding everything was included protection and deliverance from without, and safety, guidance, and provision within. Oh ! that my people had hearkened unto His voice, and that Israel had walked in His ways ! Then would it, indeed, have been well with them. Not only would He soon have subdued their enemies and turned His hand in judgment against their adversaries, but their peace should have been as a river, and their righteousness as the waves of the sea.
But the frequent complaint of God of the attitude of His stiff-necked people in the time of the prophets, culminated in their spirit of opposition and hostility to Him, Who was the last and greatest of the prophets, and the very image of God. " My people hearkened not to My voice ; Israel would none of Me. So I let them go (or sent them forth ) after the stubbornness of their heart, that they might walk in their own counsels." l
This, in brief, is the meaning of vers. 8 and 9: "And my soul was wearied (lit., was shortened i.e., became impatient) 2 with them." Oh ! how much stubborn dis obedience on the part of the flock is presupposed in this complaint on the part of the shepherd, " And their soul also loathed fas, bachal a word expressive of intense disgust) me " : sad and solemn words which in their fulness were \fulfilled in the intense loathing which the leaders of the Jewish nation manifested to Jesus of Nazareth.
-The terrible consequence was, that even the long- \
i p s . lipcxi. 12-16 ; Isa. xlviii. 18.
11 The expression v$i rnxiJ is the same as in Num. xxi. 4, where it is rendered in the A.V., sThe soul of the people was much discouraged."
