CHAPTER XVII
IN commencing my notes on the last section of Zechariah (chaps, xii. xiv.), I take the liberty of repeating a brief paragraph from my introductory remarks to the 9th chapter to which I would again draw the attention of the reader.
The overthrow of world-power, and the establishment of Messiah s Kingdom, may be given as the epitome of the last six chapters of Zechariah. The two oracles which make up the whole of the second half of the book (chaps. ix.-xi. and xii.-xiv.) show by their headings, as well as by their contents, and even by their formal arrangement, that they are corresponding portions of a greater whole. Both sections treat of war between the heathen world and Israel, though in different ways.
In the first (chaps, ix.-xi.), the judgment through which Gentile world-power over Israel is finally destroyed, and Israel is endowed with strength to overcome all their enemies, forms the fundamental thought and centre of gravity of the prophetic description. In the second (chaps, xii.-xiv.), the judgment through which Israel itself is sifted and purged in the final great conflict with the nations, and transformed into the holy nation of Jehovah, forms the leading topic.
The foreground, or more immediate future of the first main section of the second half of the book (chaps, ix.-xi.), were, as shown in my notes on those chapters, the victories of Alexander the Great, the overthrow of the Persian Empire, the advent of the Messiah, and His rejection by Israel though even there, as we had occasion to observe more particularly in connection with chap. ix. 9, 10, and chap. x. 4 12, the foreground of the more immediate or
