CHAPTER XVIII
THE first six verses of the I3th chapter stand in closest connection with the great prophecy in the i 2th chapter.
There the prophet depicts in the last verses the great national repentance and sorrow of Israel over Him " whom they have pierced," as the result of the pouring out upon them of the spirit of grace and supplication. Here we see how that same blessed Spirit, who shall have wrought in them this godly penitential sorrow on account of their great national sin, shall also bring them into the experi ence of forgiveness, and open their eyes to the provision God has made for their justification and cleansing.
" In that day " the goal of prophetic vision in relation to the nation, the great " day " of Israel s national atone ment when " the iniquity of that land shall be removed in one day," l and when a whole nation shall, as it were, " be born at once," z " sJtall a fountain be opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness."
The word employed here for " fountain " is ">ipc>, maqor, which, according to its etymological meaning, describes a place " dug " out, 3 and perhaps originally standing for " well," or artificially made " cistern," came to mean spring or fountain. It is the substantive used in Ps. xxxvi. 9 : " For with Tltee is the fountain of life " ; and in Jer. ii. I 3 and xvii. 13 it is used as the figure of Jehovah Himself, " tfie Fountain of living ivaters"
Here in Zech. xiii., however, it is not primarily as the
1 Zech. iii. 9. * Isa. Ixvi. 8.
8 From the verb "flp, qur, "to bore," "dig," or "scoop out."
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