426 VISIONS AND PROPHECIES OF ZECHARIAH
Jerusalem a goblet (or basin ) of reeling (or giddiness ) unto all the peoples round about"
The cup of reeling, or giddiness, is frequently used in Scripture as a symbol of the judgment of God which brings man into a condition of helplessness and misery like unto that of the staggering, intoxicated man who is unable to stand, or walk. " For in the hand of Jehovah" we read in the Psalms, " is a cup, and the wine is red (or foametk ) / it is full of mixture, and He poureth out of the same ; surely the dregs thereof, the wicked of the earth shall wring them out, and drink them" *
In Isa. li. 2123 the figure is used of the judgments which Israel itself first experiences : " Therefore hear now this, thou afflicted, and drunken, but not with wine : thus saith thy Lord the Lord, and thy God that pleadeth the cause of His people, Behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of staggering (or reeling ), even the bowl of the cup of My fury ; thou shalt no more drink it again : and I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee ; which have said to thy soul, Bow down, that we may go over : and thou hast laid thy back as the ground, and as the street to them that go over"
In those passages, however, it is the D13, kos (cup), that is spoken of, but here in Zech. xii. it is the *!?, saph? the bowl, or " basin of reeling " ; the thought expressed in this instance is that of a vessel large enough for all nations to drink out of it, " either together, or one after another in succession." And they shall all drink of this intoxicating cup of God s judgment and stagger and fall, not to rise again.
The structure of the second half of the verse presents some difficulty, and has been variously rendered and interpreted by commentators. Literally, the clause in Hebrew reads, "And also upon Judah shall be in the siege against Jerusalem?
The question is, What subject must be supplied to the
1 Ps. Ixxv. 8.
2 ID, saph, has also the signification of threshold, and the LXX, Vulgate, Calvin, etc., have translated it in that sense ; but the rendering basin is the only suitable one here. It is used of the vessel containing the blood of the Paschal Lamb ; also in 2 Sam. xvii. 28 and I Kings vii. 50, etc.
