Eze 34:5-6, Zec 10:2, 6 | JFB | STEP | 5. scattered, because . . . no shepherd —that is, none worthy of the name, though there were some called shepherds ( ). Compare , where the sheep were scattered when the true Shepherd was smitten. God calls them " My sheep"; for they were not, as the shepherds treated them, their patrimony whereby to "feed themselves." meat to all . . . beasts —They became a prey to the Syrians, Ammon, Moab, and Assyria.

Ezekiel 34:5-6

5. scattered, because . . . no shepherd—that is, none worthy of the name, though there were some called shepherds (1Ki 22:17; Mt 9:36). Compare Mt 26:31, where the sheep were scattered when the true Shepherd was smitten. God calls them "My sheep"; for they were not, as the shepherds treated them, their patrimony whereby to "feed themselves."

meat to all . . . beasts—They became a prey to the Syrians, Ammon, Moab, and Assyria.

6. every high hill—the scene of their idolatries sanctioned by the rulers.

search . . . seek—rather, "seek . . . search." The former is the part of the superior rulers to inquire after: to search out is the duty of the subordinate rulers [JUNIUS].

Zechariah 10:2

2. idols—literally, "the teraphim," the household gods, consulted in divination (see on Ho 3:4). Derived by GESENIUS from an Arabic root, "comfort," indicating them as the givers of comfort. Or an Ethiopian root, "relics." Herein Zechariah shows that the Jews by their own idolatry had stayed the grace of God heretofore, which otherwise would have given them all those blessings, temporal and spiritual, which they are now (Zec 10:1) urged to "ask" for.

diviners—who gave responses to consulters of the teraphim: opposed to Jehovah and His true prophets.

seen a lie—pretending to see what they saw not in giving responses.

comfort in vain—literally, "give vapor for comfort"; that is, give comforting promises to consulters which are sure to come to naught (Job 13:4; 16:2; 21:34).

therefore they went their way—that is, Israel and Judah were led away captive.

as a flock . . . no shepherd—As sheep wander and are a prey to every injury when without a shepherd, so the Jews had been while they were without Jehovah, the true shepherd; for the false prophets whom they trusted were no shepherds (Eze 34:5). So now they are scattered, while they know not Messiah their shepherd; typified in the state of the disciples, when they had forsaken Jesus and fled (Mt 26:56; compare Zec 13:7).

Zechariah 10:6

6. Judah . . . Joseph—that is, the ten tribes. The distinct mention of both Judah and Israel shows that there is yet a more complete restoration than that from Babylon, when Judah alone and a few Israelites from the other tribes returned. The Maccabean deliverance is here connected with it, just as the painter groups on the same canvas objects in the foreground and hills far distant; or as the comparatively near planet and the remote fixed star are seen together in the same firmament. Prophecy ever hastens to the glorious final consummation under Messiah.

bring them again to place them—namely, securely in their own land. The Hebrew verb is compounded of two, "I will bring again," and "I will place them" (Jer 32:37). MAURER, from a different form, translates, "I will make them to dwell."