Zechariah 1:15

And I am very sore displeased with the heathen [that are] at ease,.... The Chaldeans and Persians, and other nations, enemies of the Jews, who were now free from war, and enjoyed great prosperity,

And I am very sore displeased with the heathen that are at ease: for I was but a little displeased, and they helped forward the affliction.

And I; the Lord of hosts, God of Israel, am very sore displeased with the heathen; exceedingly angry, and will show it, that they may see and feel it, my displeasure is grown up to the highest against them. At ease; secure in their strength, sing a requiem to themselves and trouble to Israel. See . I was but a little displeased with mine own people, i.e. in comparison with the anger I bear against the heathen it was little, Psalms 137 And they, the heathen, Babylonians, helped forward; attempted to destroy whom I would but correct, Isaiah 10 Isaiah 14. I whipped to smart, you wounded to blood; I did wound to bind up, you did wound to kill, &c. It is an anthropopatheia. The affliction: it was more than they could do to provoke me here against them than their own sins did; but what I permitted for a while they did, and added to the affliction of Israel. I would prune, but they struck at the root.

Zechariah 1:15 And I am very sore displeased with the heathen [that are] at ease: for I was but a little displeased, and they helped forward the affliction.Ver. 15. And I am very sore displeased with the heathen that are at ease] Heb. I am in such a heat as causeth fuming and foaming. I am boiling hot, and even ready to burst out upon them to destroy them; for the word here used hath great affinity with another word that signifieth to cut down and to destroy, 2 Kings 6:6, and importeth a higher degree of displeasure, a greater height of heat, than either anger or wrath, as may be seen in that signal gradation, Deuteronomy 29:28 "The Lord rooted them out of their land in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation." The last of these three is this word in the text, Fervore maximo ferveo, I am as hot as may be against those heathens that are at ease, at heart’ s ease, that come not in trouble, like other men, neither are they plagued as better men, Psalms 73:5, and are therefore secure and insolent above measure, Job 21:23, haughty and haunty, so that the Church cannot rest for them; they thrust with the shoulder and push with the horn (as afterwards, Zechariah 1:18-19 cf. Daniel 8:4), yea, they push the diseased, Ezekiel 34:21, which is a singular cruelty. They help forward the addiction] They fall like dogs upon the wounded deer. This David complains of as an unsufferable grievance, Psalms 69:26. For they persecute him whom thou hast smitten: and they talk to the grief of those whom thou bast wounded. God smiteth his in mercy and in measure, in the branches only, Isaiah 27:10, and not at the root, neque ad exitium sed ad exercitium neither for destruction but for training. (Aug.). Displeased he may be with his own, and make bloody wales upon their backs, if need be; but then he looks that others should pity them, and not lay on more load, and seek to bring them to utmost extremity. God puts his people sometimes into the hands of his enemies for correction sake.

(15) But a little.—(Comp. 2 Kings 20:18.) Or, for a little while. (Comp. Job 24:24.) Helped forward the affliction.—Better, helped for evil—i.e., they not only acted as God’s instruments to chastise Israel, but even wished to annihilate them. (Comp. Isaiah 47:6 : “I was wroth with my people . . . thou [Babylon] didst shew them no mercy.”) LXX., for “that are at ease,” τὰσυνεπιτιθέμενα, “which combine to set upon [Israel],” and for “helped,” συνεπέθεντο “combined to set upon.”

Verse 15. I was but a little displeased] I was justly displeased with my people, and I gave their enemies a commission against them; but they carried this far beyond my design by oppression and cruelty; and now they shall suffer in their turn.

15. heathen] or, nations, R.V. at ease] as described in Zechariah 1:11. The word in this verse is the same as in Isaiah 32:9; Isaiah 32:11, and Psalms 123:4. helped forward] Comp. Isaiah 47:6.

I am sore displeased - literally “with great anger am I angered against the nations which are at ease.” The form of the words shows that the greatness of the displeasure of God against those who

15. An inevitable concomitant of Jehovah’s jealousy for Jerusalem is his wrath against the nations that have ill-treated the former.