476 VISIONS AND PROPHECIES OF ZECHARIAH
The unique and peculiar relationship between this " Shepherd " and Jehovah is fully brought out in the words which follow : "JVOJ? I?} f>y ( #/ gebher amithz) " the man that is my Fellow." The word JVOJ? (amit/i) is found else where in the Hebrew Bible only in Leviticus. It seems to be a substantive, and denotes " fellowship," " neighbour ship," in the abstract. But the only other place in the Hebrew Bible where this word is found, namely, in Leviti cus, it is used only as the synonym of HN (" brother "), in the concrete sense of the nearest one. 1 The two words gebher (" man ") and " amithi " (" my Fellow ") must there fore be regarded as apposites, and have been properly so rendered in the English Bible.
Some rationalistic writers have sought to identify the smitten Shepherd in this passage with " the foolish shepherd" in chap. xi. 1517, who is permitted to destroy the flock in punishment for their rejection of the Good Shepherd, and who is himself in the end smitten with a sword on his right arm and his right eye. 2 If the expression, " My Shepherd," stood alone, there might be some slight plausibility for this view, for the " foolish," or evil shepherd is, in a sense, also raised up of God as a scourge on the " sheep of slaughter " after their rejection of the Good Shepherd ; but the further description of the Shepherd in this passage as gebher amithi " the man who is my Fellow," or " my nearest one " implies much more than mere appointment to this office by Jehovah. More also than mere "unity or community of vocation," or that he is so styled because he had to feed the flock like Jehovah, and as His representative.
" No owner of a flock, or lord of a flock, would call a hired or purchased shepherd his amitk. And so God would not apply this epithet to any godly or ungodly man whom He might have appointed shepherd over a nation.
1 Comp. Lev. xxv. 15. It occurs altogether eleven times in Leviticus. Pusey observes : "It stands alone in the dialects, having probably been formed by Moses to express more than " neighbour " " our common nature," as we speak.
2 See the exposition of that passage, page 414 ff.
