442 VISIONS AND PROPHECIES OF ZECHARIAH
which, barring the mention of Messiah ben Joseph, might almost be accepted as a statement of the Christian view of this scripture.
" I will do yet a third thing, and that is, that they shall look unto Me, for they shall lift up their eyes unto Me in perfect repentance, when they see Him whom they pierced, that is, Messiah, the Son of Joseph ; for our Rabbis, of blessed memory, have said that He will take upon Himself all the guilt of Israel, and shall then be slain in the war to make an atonement in such manner that it shall be accounted as if Israel had pierced Him, for on account of their sin He has died ; and, therefore, in order that it may be reckoned to them as a perfect atonement, they will repent and look to the blessed One, saying that there is none beside Him to forgive those that mourn on account of Him who died for their sin : this is the meaning of They shall look upon Me. "
There is another critical point on which I must very briefly touch before proceeding with the exposition. The reading of the Massoretic text, ^N ^arn, vhibitu elai (" they shall look unto Me "), has been much disputed by Jews and modern writers, but it is supported by all the ancient versions and extant MSS with very few ex ceptions, and is the reading which is accepted in all the Rabbinic quotations made above. In a few MSS, how ever, the marginal correction vta, alav " unto Him," instead of ^K, elai " unto Me," was made by Jewish hands ; and in several instances this " Keri," or marginal reading, has, as is sometimes apt to be the case, crept into the text itself.
letter, and which stands for the King our Righteousness, the King our Righteousness, Jesus the Messiah. To this Metatron is again applied in the Talmud (Sanked. p. 256), the passage Ex. xxiii. 20, and it is added that His name is the name of His Master. And in the liturgy of the Feast of Tabernacles reference is made to the glorious and dread Metatron, who was transformed from flesh to fire.
" Who cannot see in these mysterious hints a purposely covered belief in the Messiahship of Jesus, and that in a most orthodox manner?" (From Rays of Messiahs Glory. )
