Zechariah 12:3

And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people,.... The Targum renders it "a stone of offence"; at which they shall stumble and fall; but it seems to design the immovableness

And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.

In that day; in the times of the heathens afflicting the church, from the repair of Jerusalem till Christ’ s coming in the flesh, and in succeeding times since; but the day of the full accomplishment of this prophecy is a day known to the Lord. A burdensome stone; too heavy for them, though many join together to remove it. For all people; though all people of this known world should burden themselves with her. Shall be cut in pieces: they would be crushed to pieces, as a man that falls under a weighty and massy stone. Though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it: many nations have been confederate, now if you would suppose all through the whole world in league against Jerusalem, yet they could not stand under the weight of his displeasure, who is provoked by such attempts, he would grind them to powder.

Zechariah 12:3 And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.Ver. 3. I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone] Such a stone as that wherewith the woman brake Abimelech’ s brain pan, at the tower of Thebez, Judges 9:53. He had slain all his brethren upon one stone, Judges 9:5, he receives, therefore, his death’ s wound by a stone; and that by the hand of a woman, which was his greatest grief. The like death befell Pyrrhus, King of Epirotes, slain at the siege of Argos, with a tile thrown by a woman from the wall. So was Earl Simon Mountfort, that bloody persecutor of the Albigenses in France. A woman discharged an engine at him from the walls of Toulouse, and by a stone parted his head from his shoulders. The virgin daughter of Zion shall do as much as all this comes to for her besiegers, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against her. For what reason? she hath a strong champion; that, in maintaining her quarrel, will dash them to pieces, and grind them to powder, Luke 20:18. They are no more able to stand before him than a glass bottle before a cannon shot. Hence her confidence, her laughing and shaking her head by way of derision at her stoutest enemies, Isaiah 37:22. She knows that all that burden themselves with her shall be cut in pieces. Haman’ s wife could tell so much. If Mordecai, said she, be of the seed of the Jews, before whom thou hast begun to fall, thou shalt not prevail against him, but shalt surely fall before him, Esther 6:13. A Jew may fall before a Persian, and get up and prevail; but if a Persian, or whosoever of the Gentiles, begin to fall before a Jew, he can neither stay nor rise. There is an invisible hand of omnipotence that strikes in for his own, and confounds their opposites. That little stone, cut out without hands (Christ’ s human nature is called a tabernacle not made with hands, not of this building, Hebrews 9:11, that is, not by an ordinary course of generation), smiteth the four mighty monarchies, and crumbleth them to crattle, Daniel 2:34. Jerome upon this text (and after him other interpreters, both ancient and modern) tell us that the Holy Ghost here alludeth to a certain exercise or game used much among the Jews, namely, to take up a great round stone for the trial of a man’ s strength; lifting it up from the ground, sometimes to the knees, sometimes to their navels, sometimes to their breasts, and sometimes as high as their heads, or above their heads. At which sport many times they did grievously hurt themselves, or, at least, make cuts and scars in their flesh. See Leviticus 21:5, where the same word is used.

(3) A burdensome stone.—In lifting which the builders might lacerate themselves: meaning that those who should endeavour to build Jerusalem into the fabric of their own dominion should injure themselves in the attempt. But some (as Jerome) suppose the figure to be borrowed from some such athletic sport as “lifting the weight;” while others take the expression in a more general sense, as referring merely to a weight which is too heavy to be borne.

Verse 3. A burdensome stone] Probably referring to that stone which was thrown on the breast of a culprit adjudged to lose his life by stoning, by which the whole region of the thorax, heart, lungs, liver, &c., was broken to pieces.

3. a burdensome stone] because, as it immediately follows, it proves too heavy for every one who attempts to lift it, and slipping from his grasp wounds and lacerates him. There may possibly be a reference to the custom, if indeed it existed so early as the time of Zechariah, which Jerome describes as prevailing in Palestine in his days. “It is the custom,” he says, “in the cities of Palestine, and to the present day throughout all Judæa the ancient practice is observed, that in villages, towns and forts round stones of very great weight are placed, at which the youth are wont to exercise themselves, and according to their differing strength to lift them, some to the knees, others to the navel, others to the shoulders and head; some exhibiting the greatness of their strength, raise the weight above their head with both their hands straight up.” cut in pieces] sore wounded, R. V.

I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone to all nations - What is “a stone to all nations?” It is not a rock or anything in its own nature immovable, but a “stone,” a thing rolled up and down, moved,

Zechariah 12:3 reiterates in a different figure the thought of Zec 12:2, that Jerusalem will prove the destruction of the nations that attack it.