THE SMITTEN SHEPHERD 479
The immediate consequence of the smiting of the Shepherd is that " tJie sheep shall be scattered" or, as the Hebrew verb more accurately expresses it, " that the sheep may be scattered" For, although the slaying of the Messiah is (as stated above) overruled of God to the eventual gathering and blessing, not only of the Jewish nation, but of those many millions of " other sheep " from among the Gentiles, who are, as the result of Messiah s death, brought into the one fold yet the fact of the removal by a violent death, as the direct consequence of national sin and rebellion against God, of Him who was appointed to be their Shepherd, could not but bring calamity on the flock. And this the consequent disaster which it would bring on the people is the primary thought associated with the slaying of the Messiah in this particular passage. It announces the fact that Jehovah will scatter the flock by smiting the shepherd : " That is to say, He will give it up to the misery and destruction to which a flock without a shepherd is exposed."
The flock which is to be thus " scattered " is neither the human race nor the Christian Church, as some commentators would have us think, but the Jewish nation, or those which the Good Shepherd was appointed to feed, according to chap. xi. 1-14, but who, because of their wilful obduracy, are designated " sheep of slaughter"
It was primarily fulfilled when, after the crucifixion of our Lord, " the people of the prince that shall come " x that is, the Romans destroyed the city and the sanctuary,
Izaak of Troki, in the Chizzuk Etnunah, interprets the whole of the King of Ishmael, "called also the King of Turkey," who in his pride and greatness of his heart "accounts himself like God." This is a modification and enlargement of the interpretation given by Abrabanel, who explains the words " My Shepherd " of Mohammed, and the words " the man my Fellow " of our Lord Jesus, in a bitter controversial spirit, thus: The words, "the Man my Fellow," are spoken of Jesus the Nazarene, for, according to the sentiment of the children of Edom (i.e., the Christians) and their faith, He was the Son of God, and of the same substance, and therefore He is called, according to their words, " the Man my Fellow," overlooking the fact pointed out above that it is not man but Jehovah Himself who calls Him " My Shepherd " and " My Fellow." 1 Dan. ix. 26.
