Psa 130:4, Eze 16:61, 63, Zec 12:10 | JFB | e4.org | 4. Pardon produces filial fear and love. Judgment without the hope of pardon creates fear and dislike. The sense of forgiveness, so far from producing licentiousness, produces holiness ( ). "There is forgiveness with thee, not that thou mayest be presumed upon, but feared."

‏ Psalms 130:4

4. Pardon produces filial fear and love. Judgment without the hope of pardon creates fear and dislike. The sense of forgiveness, so far from producing licentiousness, produces holiness (Jer 33:9; Eze 16:62, 63; 1Pe 2:16). "There is forgiveness with thee, not that thou mayest be presumed upon, but feared."

‏ Ezekiel 16:61

61. thou shalt remember—It is God who first remembers her before she remembers Him and her own ways before Him (Eze 16:60; Eze 20:43; 36:31).

ashamed—the fruit of repentance (2Co 7:10, 11). None please God unless those who displease themselves; a foretaste of the Gospel (Lu 18:9-14).

I will give them unto thee for daughters— (Isa 54:1; 60:3, 4; Ga 4:26, &c.). All the heathen nations, not merely Sodom and Samaria, are meant by "thy sisters, elder and younger." In Jerusalem first, individual believers were gathered into the elect Church. From Jerusalem the Gospel went forth to gather in individuals of the Gentiles; and Judah with Jerusalem shall also be the first nation which, as such, shall be converted to Christ; and to her the other nations shall attach themselves as believers in Messiah, Jerusalem's King (Ps 110:2; Isa 2:2, 3). "The king's daughter" in Ps 45:12-14 is Judah; her "companions," as "the daughter of Tyre," are the nations given to her as converts, here called "daughters."

not by thy covenant—This does not set aside the Old Testament in its spirit, but in its mere letter on which the Jews had rested, while they broke it: the latter ("thy covenant") was to give place to God's covenant of grace and promise in Christ who "fulfilled" the law. God means, "not that thou on thy part hast stood to the covenant, but that 'I am the Lord, I change not' (Mal 3:6) from My original love to thee in thy youth" (see Ro 3:3).

‏ Ezekiel 16:63

63. never open thy mouth—in vindication, or even palliation, of thyself, or expostulation with God for His dealings (Ro 3:19), when thou seest thine own exceeding unworthiness, and My superabounding grace which has so wonderfully overcome with love thy sin (Ro 5:20). "If we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged" (1Co 11:31).

all that thou hast done—enhancing the grace of God which has pardoned so many and so great sins. Nothing so melts into love and humility as the sense of the riches of God's pardoning grace (Lu 7:47).

‏ Zechariah 12:10

10. Future conversion of the Jews is to flow from an extraordinary outpouring of the Holy Spirit (Jer 31:9, 31-34; Eze 39:29).

spirit of grace . . . supplications—"spirit" is here not the spirit produced, but THE HOLY SPIRIT producing a "gracious" disposition, and inclination for "supplications." CALVIN explains "spirit of grace" as the grace of God itself (whereby He "pours" out His bowels of mercy), "conjoined with the sense of it in man's heart." The "spirit of supplications" is the mercury whose rise or fall is an unerring test of the state of the Church [MOORE]. In Hebrew, "grace" and "supplications" are kindred terms; translate, therefore, "gracious supplications." The plural implies suppliant prayers "without ceasing." Herein not merely external help against the foe, as before, but internal grace is promised subsequently.

look upon me—with profoundly earnest regard, as the Messiah whom they so long denied.

pierced—implying Messiah's humanity: as "I will pour . . . spirit" implies His divinity.

look . . . mourn—True repentance arises from the sight by faith of the crucified Saviour. It is the tear that drops from the eye of faith looking on Him. Terror only produces remorse. The true penitent weeps over his sins in love to Him who in love has suffered for them.

me . . . him—The change of person is due to Jehovah-Messiah speaking in His own person first, then the prophet speaking of Him. The Jews, to avoid the conclusion that He whom they have "pierced" is Jehovah-Messiah, who says, "I will pour out . . . spirit," altered "me" into "him," and represent the "pierced" one to be Messiah Ben (son of) Joseph, who was to suffer in the battle with Cog, before Messiah Ben David should come to reign. But Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic oppose this; and the ancient Jews interpreted it of Messiah. Ps 22:16 also refers to His being "pierced." So Joh 19:37; Re 1:7. The actual piercing of His side was the culminating point of all their insulting treatment of Him. The act of the Roman soldier who pierced Him was their act (Mt 27:25), and is so accounted here in Zechariah. The Hebrew word is always used of a literal piercing (so Zec 13:3); not of a metaphorical piercing, "insulted," as MAURER and other Rationalists (from the Septuagint) represent.

as one mourneth for . . . son— (Jer 6:26; Am 8:10). A proverbial phrase peculiarly forcible among the Jews, who felt childlessness as a curse and dishonor. Applied with peculiar propriety to mourning for Messiah, "the first-born among many brethren" (Ro 8:29).