440 VISIONS AND PROPHECIES OF ZECHARIAH
parties were in the prophet s mind, and that " they " who " shall look " are the Jews, and " they " who " have pierced " are the Gentile nations.
Another "Jewish" rendering of the passage, equally unfair and even less tenable, but contradictory of the above, is that found in the bulky " Jewish Family Bible," which has also a kind of " official " air about it, inasmuch as it was " printed with the sanction of (the late) Rev. Dr. Adler, the chief Rabbi." l The critical passage in question is translated thus : " But I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication, and they whom the nations are piercing shall look upon Me, and shall mourn over it," etc. But a translation which does not scruple to interpolate words and expressions is not worth noticing, except to point out that it can claim, at best, to be only a polemical Targum, or commentary, the chief aim of which is the elimination of all references to a suffering, atoning Messiah from the pages of the Old Testament. It is not necessary to point out to any one who can read the original that the words, " whom the nations were piercing," are not found in the Hebrew text, and are an unjustifiable gloss of the " reviser."
But there is a more ancient Jewish interpretation of this prophecy than those to which I referred, which were invented by Jews for controversial reasons ; it is that, namely, which applies the passage to Messiah ben Joseph. Thus Aben Ezra, 2 who wrote after Rashi, says : " All the heathen shall look to me to see what I shall do to those who pierced Messiah, the son of Joseph " ; and Abarbanel, 3 after noticing the interpretation of Rashi and Kimchi, says :
1 It claims to be the Authorised or "Anglican" version, revised by Dr. M. Friedlander, Principal of the Jews College, published in 1881. Its honesty as a translation, or " revision," may be judged from its rendering of this and other Messianic passages.
2 Aben Ezra Rabbi Abraham ben Ezra one of the greatest of Jewish com mentators and grammarians: born, 1088 ; died, 1176.
8 Abarbanel (or Abravanel), Rabbi Dan Isaac ben Jehudah, the celebrated Jewish statesman and philosopher, theologian and commentator : born, 1437 ; died, 1508.
