
Text -- Zechariah 11:14 (NET)




Names, People and Places, Dictionary Themes and Topics



collapse allCommentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per phrase)
So soon as I saw what value they put upon me.

Christ did it really, the prophet did it in the type.

hood - That friendship which had been among them.

The two tribes, and the remnant of the ten tribes.
JFB -> Zec 11:14
JFB: Zec 11:14 - -- The breaking of the bond of union between Judah and Israel's ten tribes under Rehoboam is here the image used to represent the fratricidal discord of ...
The breaking of the bond of union between Judah and Israel's ten tribes under Rehoboam is here the image used to represent the fratricidal discord of factions which raged within Jerusalem on the eve of its fall, while the Romans were thundering at its gates without. See JOSEPHUS [Wars of the Jews]. Also the continued severance of the tribes till their coming reunion (Rom 11:15).
Clarke -> Zec 11:14
Clarke: Zec 11:14 - -- That I might break the brotherhood - I cannot, says Newcome, explain this passage, without supposing that the kingdom of Israel subsisted when the p...
That I might break the brotherhood - I cannot, says Newcome, explain this passage, without supposing that the kingdom of Israel subsisted when the prophet wrote it; and that either the wars between Judah and Israel are referred to, (see 2Ki 16:5), or the captivity of the ten tribes, when the brotherly connection between these kingdoms ceased.
Calvin -> Zec 11:14
Calvin: Zec 11:14 - -- There is here set before us the extreme vengeance of God in scattering his people, so that there would be no longer any union between the children of...
There is here set before us the extreme vengeance of God in scattering his people, so that there would be no longer any union between the children of Abraham. We have seen that the Prophet took two staves or crooks to execute the office of a shepherd in ruling the people. The first staff he said was Beauty, because God had omitted nothing necessary to produce the best order of things. Now when this blessed mode of ruling was trodden under foot, then soon after followed the scattering of the people: and this is the reason why the Prophet says, that he broke the other rod, or his crook. We then see that this people by their ingratitude at length justly deserved to be left without any regular form of government, and also without any union.
As to the word
I will come now to the passage in Matthew; for after having told us that the thirty pieces of silver were cast away by Judah, and that by them the Potter’s Field was bought, he adds, that this prediction of the Prophet was fulfilled. He does not indeed repeat the same words, but it is quite clear, that this passage was quoted,
“They gave,” he says, “the thirty silvering, the price of the valued, whom they of the children of Israel have valued.”
(Mat 27:9.)
In substance then there is no doubt an agreement between the words of Matthew and those of the Prophet. But we must hold this principle, — that Christ was the true Jehovah from the beginning. As then the Son of God is the same in essence with the Father, and is with him the only true God, it is no wonder that what the Prophet figuratively expressed as having been done under the law by the ancient people, has been done to him literally in his own person: for as they had given to God thirty pieces of silver, a sordid price, as his just reward, so he complained that the labor he undertook in ruling them, was unjustly valued; and when Christ was sold for thirty pieces of silver, it was a visible specimen of this prophecy exhibited in his own person.
When Matthew says, that Christ was valued by the children of Israel, he charges the chosen people with impiety. The article
Then Matthew adds,
“They gave it for the Potter’s Field,
as the Lord had commanded me.” Mat 27:7.
This part also well agrees with the prophecy. It is indeed certain that this money was not designedly given to buy a field, that the Jews might obey God; but we know that God executes his purposes by means of the wicked, though they neither think nor wish to do such a thing. But what does Zechariah say? Cast it, he says, to the potter; he does not say “To the field of the potter.” But we have explained for what purpose God commanded the thirty silvering to be cast to the potter; it was, that he might get bricks or tiles to repair the temple; and this was said in contempt, or by way of ridicule. Such also was the visible symbol of this as to the purchase of the field; for the potter, the seller of the field, knew not what he was doing; the Scribes and Pharisees thought nothing of fulfilling what had been predicted. But that it might be made evident that Christ was the true God who had from the beginning spoken by the Prophet, God, by setting the thing before their eyes, intended that there should be a visible fact or transaction, that he might as it were draw the attention of the Jews to what is here said. The Prophet proceeds, -
TSK -> Zec 11:14
TSK: Zec 11:14 - -- I cut : Zec 11:9; Isa 9:21, Isa 11:13; Eze 37:16-20; Mat 24:10; Act 23:7-10; Gal 5:15; Jam 3:14, Jam 3:16, Jam 4:1-3
Bands : or, Binders, Zec 11:7

collapse allCommentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per Verse)
Barnes -> Zec 11:14
Barnes: Zec 11:14 - -- And I cut asunder mine other staff, Bands, to dissolve the brotherhood between Judah and Israel - Hitherto prophecy had spoken of the healing o...
And I cut asunder mine other staff, Bands, to dissolve the brotherhood between Judah and Israel - Hitherto prophecy had spoken of the healing of the great breach between Israel and Judah, in Christ. "The Lord,"Isaiah said, "shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. The envy of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim"Isa 11:12-13; and Hosea, "Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together and shall appoint themselves one Head"Hos 1:11; and Jeremiah, "In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel."Jer 3:18. And Ezekiel, in the midst of the captivity, in a symbolic action the counterpart of this, is bidden, "Take thee one stick, and write upon it, For Judah, and for the children of Israel his companions; then take another stick, and write upon it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and all the house of Israel his companions, and join them one to another into one stick, and they shall become one in thy hand"Eze 37:16-17; and, when asked the meaning of this act, he was to say, "Thus saith the Lord God, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and will make them one stick, and they shall be one in Mine hand"Eze 37:19.
And dropping the symbol; "Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the pagan, whither they be gone - and I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel: and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all - I will cleanse them, and they shall be My people and I will be their God, and David My servant shall be king over them, and they all shall have one Shepherd"Eze 37:21-24. Such should be the unity of those who would be gathered under the One Shepherd. And so it was, "The multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul"Act 4:32; and long afterward it was a proverb among the pagan, o , "See how these Christians love one another."Zechariah is here speaking of those who had rejected the Good Shepherd, the Israel and Judah after the flesh, who shut themselves out from the promises of God. This had its first fulfillment in the terrible dissolution of every band of "brotherhood"and of our common nature, which made the siege of Jerusalem a proverb for horror, and precipitated its destruction. o "Having thus separated the believing from the unbelieving, He bared the rest of His care. And what we now see bears witness to the prophecy. For the Jews, being deprived, of prophets and priests and kings and temple and ark and altar and mercy-seat and candlestick and table and the rest, through which the legal worship was performed, have come to be deprived also of the guardianship from above; and, scattered, exiled, removed, serve against their will those who preach Christ: denying Him as Lord, they yield service to His servants. The prophet having foretold these things of Christ, our God and Saviour, and reproved the obstinacy of the Jews, naturally turns his prophecy straight to the God-opposed christ whom they expect, as they say. So said the Lord in the holy Gospels to them, "I am come in My Father’ s name, and ye receive Me not; another will come in his own name, and him ye will receive"Joh 5:43. This the blessed Paul also prophesied of them, "Because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved, God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie, that all might be damned, who believe not the truth, but have pleasure in unrighteousness"2Th 2:10-12. The like does the blessed Zechariah prophesy, having received the power of the Holy Spirit."
Poole -> Zec 11:14
Poole: Zec 11:14 - -- Then so soon as I saw what value they put upon me, or presently after the casting them off from the covenant, and unchurching them.
I Christ did it...
Then so soon as I saw what value they put upon me, or presently after the casting them off from the covenant, and unchurching them.
I Christ did it really, the prophet did it in the type.
Cut asunder mine other staff, even Bands took no further care to keep them in civil peace among themselves, but left them to their seditious humours and inhuman animosities. Religion, which is true, is the best bond of peace, friendship, and love; when the Jews cast off religion, and murdered their Lord, next they fall to murdering one another.
That I might break declare it broken, leave them to show it was broken.
The brotherhood that friendship which had been among them.
Between Judah the two tribes, and Israel, the remnant of the ten tribes, which fell into most unnatural seditions after the death of Christ, till the taking of Jerusalem by the Romans.
Haydock -> Zec 11:14
Haydock: Zec 11:14 - -- Israel. The latter remained obstinate, (Calmet) while Juda, the real "confessor," (Haydock) embraced the gospel. After the destruction of the templ...
Israel. The latter remained obstinate, (Calmet) while Juda, the real "confessor," (Haydock) embraced the gospel. After the destruction of the temple, the Jewish ceremonies were no longer (Calmet) observed or tolerated in the Church, as they had been, in order that the synagogue might be buried with honour. (St. Augustine) (Haydock) ---
The Jews are rejected. (Worthington)
Gill -> Zec 11:14
Gill: Zec 11:14 - -- Then I cut asunder mine other staff, even Bands,.... By which is meant, either the removal of the form of civil government from the Jews; or the abro...
Then I cut asunder mine other staff, even Bands,.... By which is meant, either the removal of the form of civil government from the Jews; or the abrogation of the Mosaic law, and the carnal ordinances of the Jews, in which judaizing Christians joined them, until the destruction of Jerusalem; or rather the ordinances of the Gospel, which, upon taking that away, ceased:
that l might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel; the Gospel and Gospel ordinances being removed from the Jews, there was no more work of conversion among them; their church state came to nothing, and an entire disagreement between them and the Gentiles ensued: and so it is when God takes away his word and ordinances from a people, they are unchurched and their brotherhood is broken, those being the bands which keep them together; and therefore, when loosed, their unity and society cease. There seems to be an allusion to the case of the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, and of the ten tribes; the former are often signified by Judah only; and the latter by Israel or Ephraim: the division between them was made in the times of Rehoboam, which continued unto their respective captivities; after the Jews' return from the Babylonish captivity, there was some show of an union between them; some of the ten tribes returning with the Jews, and coalescing in one state; and moreover, at their certain stated feasts, they came from different parts of the world, and joined together in religious service; see Act 2:1 but, upon the dissolution of their civil and church state, this friendly correspondence was broken off, and their communion with each other ceased: and as for the Jews, after the Christians were called out from among them at Jerusalem, and removed to Pella, they fell into internal divisions and quarrels among themselves, which lasted during the siege of that city; and when it was taken and destroyed, their brotherhood and union among themselves were broken to such a degree, that they were scattered one from another; and now know not of what kingdom and tribe they are, whether of Judah or Israel, or of what tribe in either.

expand allCommentary -- Verse Range Notes
TSK Synopsis -> Zec 11:1-17
TSK Synopsis: Zec 11:1-17 - --1 The destruction of Jerusalem.3 The elect being cared for, the rest are rejected.10 The staves of Beauty and Bands broken by the rejection of Christ....
MHCC -> Zec 11:4-14
MHCC: Zec 11:4-14 - --Christ came into this world for judgment to the Jewish church and nation, which were wretchedly corrupt and degenerate. Those have their minds wofully...
Matthew Henry -> Zec 11:4-14
Matthew Henry: Zec 11:4-14 - -- The prophet here is made a type of Christ, as the prophet Isaiah sometimes was; and the scope of these verses is to show that for judgment Christ c...
Keil-Delitzsch -> Zec 11:14
Keil-Delitzsch: Zec 11:14 - --
In consequence of this shameful payment for his service, the shepherd of the Lord breaks his second staff, as a sign that he will no longer feed the...
Constable: Zec 9:1--14:21 - --V. Oracles about the Messiah and Israel's future chs. 9--14
This part of Zechariah contains two undated oracles ...

Constable: Zec 9:1--11:17 - --A. The burden concerning the nations: the advent and rejection of Messiah chs. 9-11
In this first oracle...

Constable: Zec 11:1-17 - --3. The rejection of the true king ch. 11
Chapters 9 and 10 present pictures of blessing and pros...
