Zechariah 10:2

For the idols have spoken vanity,.... The vanities of the Gentiles cannot give rain; if they promise it, they speak vain things; God only can give it, and therefore it must, be asked of him, Jeremiah 14:22.

For the idols have spoken vanity, and the diviners have seen a lie, and have told false dreams; they comfort in vain: therefore they went their way as a flock, they were troubled, because there was no shepherd.

The idols; images which before the captivity they venerated, and at them consulted their idols about plenty er barrenness, and concerning future events, . Have spoken vanity; their predictions were vain, nothing of certainty in them. The diviners, soothsayers, and consulters with familiar spirits, have seen a lie; foretold good, when all issued in evil, no good came. And have told false dreams; they pretended a revelation from heaven, but it was a dream of their own head, or a cheat put on them by the father of lies. They comfort in vain; their lies for the present comfort the deceived, but the vanity of these comforts soon appears in the disappointment which followeth. Therefore they; either they that consulted, or those who sent them, indeed almost all the Jews were thus foolish in consulting and believing these liars, and so, confounded at last, fell into all the misery, they thought to escape. Went their way; they went int captivity into Babylon. They were troubled, miserably oppressed and afflicted, because there was no shepherd; without guide or protection; without ecclesiastical or civil governors, that would faithfully do their duty; and this was one reason that they were so afflicted and captivated.

Zechariah 10:2 For the idols have spoken vanity, and the diviners have seen a lie, and have told false dreams; they comfort in vain: therefore they went their way as a flock, they were troubled, because [there was] no shepherd.Ver. 2. For the idols have spoken vanity] q.d. Therefore ask good things at God’ s hands, as rain, food, and all necessary provision; because idols and soothsayers cannot help you to these things. If they promise you (as they will), believe them not; for they lie as fast as once Rabshakeh did for his master, when he promised the people a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, Isaiah 36:17. And they will finally serve you as Absalom’ s mule served her master; whom she left at his greatest need, to hang between heaven and earth, as rejected of both. Lo such are all creaturecomforts, golden delusions, lying vanities, apples of Sodom, nec vera, nec vestra, neither true nor yours, the fashion of this world, saith Paul, 1 Corinthians 7:31; the fantasies of men’ s brain, saith Luke, Acts 25:23, the semblances and empty shows of good, without any reality or solid consistency, saith Solomon often. They are, saith our prophet here, a wicked deceit and fraudulence. An arrant lie, a false dream, a vain or empty comfort, that utterly deceiveth a man’ s confidence, and maketh him, in the fulness of his conceited sufficience, to be in straits. These here for instance; viz. the Jews that had been carried captives as a flock without a guide, sheep without a shepherd, and yet had not (till after some while at least) renounced their idols, Jeremiah 44:22 Ezekiel 8:10 Therefore they went their way as a flock] Driven by the butcher to the slaughter house. Idolatry is a land desolating sin; as besides these Jews (the more ingenuous of them at this day confess that in all their punishments there is still an ounce of the golden calf made by them in the wilderness) the Greek Church was undone by it. The worshipping of images they defended with tooth and nail (as they say), and established it in the second Council of Nice; not long before the Turk took Nice, and made it the seat of his empire, in opposition to Constantinople, which at length he took also; and brought in Mahometanism, that foul impiety, which quickly overspread the whole East and South, like as Popish idolatry did the West and North. But this iniquity will be their ruin. Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen (επεσεν, επεσεν). She hath fallen culpably, she shall therefore fall penally. And why? She is become the habitation of devils, that is, of idols. See Revelation 9:20 1 Corinthians 10:20.

(2) Idols.—Better, as in margin, teraphim. (See on Judges 17:5.) Against the post-exilian origin of this passage, and of 13:2, it has been objected that idols and false prophets harmonise only with a time prior to the exile. It is true that after the captivity idolatry was not the sin to which the people were especially inclined, as they were in former times. Still, even if the prophet was not speaking of sins of the past, rather than those of his own day, it must be remembered that the marriage with heathen women, which is so often spoken of after the captivity, must have been, as was the case with Solomon, a continual source of danger in that respect. Moreover, idolatry, soothsaying, &c., were actually practised up to the time of the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus. Thus we read of false prophets who opposed Nehemiah (Nehemiah 6:10-14), and of “sorcerers” in Malachi 3:5, and so, too, of false prophets in Acts 5:36-37; Acts 13:6, &c., and at the destruction of Jerusalem (Josephus, Bel. Jud. vi. 5, §§ 2, 3). And in the wars of the Maccabees we read (2Ma 12:40), “under the coats of every one that was slain they found things consecrated to the idols of the Jannites, which is forbidden the Jews by their law.” And have told false dreams.—Better, and dreams tell that which is vain. The prophet had, doubtless, in mind the words of Jer 14:22 : “Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain? or can the heavens give showers? Art not thou He, O Lord our God? therefore, we wait upon thee; for thou hast made all these things.” Zechariah refers here chiefly to those sins which had in former times caused their captivity. But such passages as Ezra 9; Nehemiah 13:23; Nehemiah 6:10; Nehemiah 6:12; Nehemiah 6:14, show that even after the restoration the people were in danger of falling into idolatry, and of being deceived by false prophets. (Comp. also Zechariah 13:2, and Note on Malachi 3:5.) Went their way.—Better, migrated—viz., into captivity. Troubled.—Or, humbled.No shepherd.—i.e., none to guide and lead them aright. This is the interpretation which the context seems to require, and is in accordance with the use of the expression in Ezekiel 34:5; Ezekiel 34:8, as it is also our Lord’s application of the idea (Matthew 9:36; Mark 6:34); but some take “shepherd” here to mean native king. The paraphrase of the LXX., “because they had no healer” (meaning probably “because the True Shepherd of Israel had ceased to guide and protect them”) might possibly be defended.

Verse 2. The idols have spoken vanity] This is spoken of the Jews, and must refer to their idolatry practised before the captivity, for there were no idols after. Therefore they went their way] They were like a flock that had no shepherd, shifting from place to place, and wandering about in the wilderness, seeking for pasture, wherever they might find it. Some think that the idols and diviners were those of the Seleucidae Greeks, who excited their masters with promises of success against the Maccabees. Others think that the Babylonish captivity is foretold; for a determined future event is frequently spoken of by the prophets as past.

2. idols] Lit. teraphim. They were of human form, whether busts or full-length figures, and were apparently sometimes (1 Samuel 19:13), if not always (Genesis 31:19), of life size. Compare, for the use of them in divination, as here, Ezekiel 21:21. they comfort in vain] when they promise rain and fruitful seasons. Comp. Jeremiah 14:22. therefore they went their way] therefore (because they have had recourse to idols and diviners) they (the Israelites) wander and stray about to their hurt, like sheep without a shepherd.

For the teraphim have spoken vanity - Rather, “spake vanity.” He appeals to their former experience. Their father had sought of idols, not of God; therefore they went into captivity.

2. The exhortation to appeal to Jehovah is supported by a reference to the inability of the idols to help those who put their trust in them (compare Hosea 2:5 ff.; Amos 2:4). Idols — Better, R.V., “teraphim.” See on Hosea 3:4.