430 VISIONS AND PROPHECIES OF ZECHARIAH
men, let all the men of war draw near, let them come up ; beat your ploughshares into swords and your pruning-hooks into spears ; let the weak say, I am strong. Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye Gentiles, and gather yourselves together round about" (Joel iii. 9-12).
But the extremity of Israel s need, as already stated, will be God s opportunity for the display of His power in the destruction of their enemies, and His grace in their deliverance, It is to " that day " that the prophetic words in Ps. cxviii. refer :
" Out of my distress l I called upon Jehovah : Jehovah answered me and set me in a large place. Jehovah is on my side ; I will not fear : What can man do unto me ?
All nations compassed me about :
In the Name of the Lord I will cut them off.
- -4/
They compassed me about ; yea, they compassed me about :
In the Name of the Lord I will cut them off.
They compassed me about like bees ; they are quenched
as the fire of thorns : In the Name of the Lord I will cut them off"
The manner of God s interposition on Israel s behalf is described in the verses which follow : " In that day, saith Jehovah, will I smite every horse with astonishment (lit., with bewilderment or stupefaction ), and his rider with madness : and upon the house of Judah will I open Mine eyes, and every horse of the peoples (i.e., of their attacking cavalry] will I smite with blindness"
It is interesting to note that the three nouns timmahon, " astonishment " or " bewilderment " ; shigga on, " mad ness " ; and ivvaron, " blindness," which here describe God s judgment on the confederated armies of the anti- Christian world-powers which will be gathered against Jerusalem, are used elsewhere only of the judgment which
1 i$sn [p. The word also means " straitness," " siege," and is the same as is used in Zech. xii. 2 of the "siege."
