Zechariah 9:7

And I will take away his blood out of his mouth,.... The Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions, read "their blood"; not the blood of the bastard, but of the Philistines.

And I will take away his blood out of his mouth, and his abominations from between his teeth: but he that remaineth, even he, shall be for our God, and he shall be as a governor in Judah, and Ekron as a Jebusite.

I will take away his blood out of his mouth; though proud and warlike nations have delighted to shed blood, nay, (if some judge aright,) to eat the blood of their slain enemies; yet now God will restrain, nay, overthrow their power, and take the prey out of their mouth, they shall neither breathe out slaughter, nor act it with their hands. And his abominations from between his teeth: this may possibly be explanatory of the former, but I think it rather is meant of their abominable sacrifices which they offered and feasted on: so the word in , with ,7 ; and by Hoses, . God will punish for these sins, idolatries, and by his destroying the people and cities of those abominations will remove them for ever. He that remaineth, even he; the remnant, even that (so it might be read): if so read, it points out that small select number who escape the sword, and are reserved to be for God, to worship, obey, honour, and love him; such a remnant as , or as , or . Shall be for our God; those few Jews whom God preserved from the rage and cruelty of these bloody idolaters shall be the Lord’ s peculiar ones. As a governor, for respect and honour which shall be given to them; it is not said they shall be governors, but they shall be as like governors. And Ekron as a Jebusite; the city for the people, and this one city and people for all the other: all the Philistines shall be as Jebusites, servants to the people of God, or slain.

Zechariah 9:7 And I will take away his blood out of his mouth, and his abominations from between his teeth: but he that remaineth, even he, [shall be] for our God, and he shall be as a governor in Judah, and Ekron as a Jebusite.Ver. 7. And I will take away his blood out of his mouth] That is, his bloody prey (for, saith Aben Ezra, these Philistines did, according to the savage custom of those times, eat of the flesh and drink of the blood of the slain enemies), and I will keep them from devouring my people any more. And his abomination] Hoc est, praedas abominabiles, saith Calvin, his abominable spoils, his bloody robberies and pillages. And he that remaineth] The small remnant of Jews not yet altogether devoured by these cruel cannibals, the Babylonians, Philistines, and other enemies. Even he shall be for our God] Though they be but a he, a small poor company of them; yet God will both own them and honour them. And he shall be as a governor in Judah] They shall all be Magnificos , little princes, of high rank and dignity; even as governors in Judah; God will honour them in the hearts of all men. See Zechariah 12:8. And Ekron as a Jebusite] i.e. Either slain or a slave and tributary. I know this text is otherwise expounded by Junius and others; but I now like this interpretation, as most proper.

(7) Blood . . . abominations.—viz., their idolatrous sacrifices.Jebusite.—Some take this word to mean Jerusalem (comp. Joshua 15:8, and especially Joshua 18:28). Others suppose it to be a designation of the remnant of the Canaanitish tribes, who were, like the Gibeonites, retained for servile duties about the Temple. But since the “Jebusite” seems to be parallel with the word alluph, “governor” or “prince,” rather than contrasted with it, it seems more probable that it refers to the Jebusite people, who “dwelt with the children of Judah in Jerusalem,” as equals, and not as a conquered race (Joshua 15:63). But for the fact that the place Eleph is distinctly mentioned (ibid.) as being in Benjamin, not Judah, one would be inclined to read the word alluph (which occurs in the singular in this passage only without the u distinctly written) as Eleph, and to understand Jebusi as meaning Jerusalem. Perhaps Eleph was on the borders of Benjamin and Judah, and so may have sometimes been spoken of as belonging to Judah. Nothing is known of any great conversion of Philistines to Judaism at this time; nay, indeed, in later times we still hear of them as hostile to the Jews (1Ma 3:41; 1Ma 10:83); but after this last reference they disappear from history as a separate nation, probably because they were no longer distinguishable from the Jews or the Greek settlers of those regions.

Verse 7. I will take away his blood out of his mouth] The Philistines, when incorporated with the Israelites, shall abstain from blood, and every thing that is abominable. And Ekron as a Jebusite.] As an inhabitant of Jerusalem. Many of the Philistines became proselytes to Judiasm; and particularly the cities of Gaza, and Ashdod. See Joseph. Antiq. lib. xlii., c. 15, s. 4.

7. his blood out of his mouth, &c.] Lit., bloods, i.e. blood as shed (comp. Genesis 4:10). According to Calvin the Philistine, the nation personified, is here compared to a wild beast from whose jaws the prey which he is devouring is torn. “Abominationes enim intelligit quicquid injusta violentia ad se traxerant. Et comparat eos feris bestiis, quζ non modum carnem devorant, sed etiam hauriunt sanguinem ipsum, et lacerant crudas carnes.” The objection to this interpretation is that the word rendered “abominations” can hardly refer to the victims or the spoils of the cruelty or rapacity of the Philistine. It is a word of frequent occurrence in the O. T. and is used almost always (Nahum 3:6, “abominable filth,” is an exception) of “idols in that they were abominations.” (Comp. 1 Kings 11:5; 1 Kings 11:7; 2 Kings 23:13; and Daniel 11:31 with Matthew 24:15, τὸβδέλυγματῆςἐρημώσεως). It is probably best therefore, with the majority of modern commentators, to understand the reference to be to idolatrous sacrifices eaten by the worshippers with the blood. From these pollutions the survivors of the Philistines should be cleansed and so prepared for that incorporation into the commonwealth of Israel, which the remainder of the verse predicts. but he that remaineth] Rather, and he too shall remain (or, be a remnant, R. V.) for our God. “Of the Philistines too, as of Israel” (but may it not be, as of the other nations mentioned in these verses?), “a remnant shall be saved. After this visitation their idolatry should cease; God speaks of the Philistine nation as one man; He would wring his idol-sacrifices and idol-enjoyments from him; he should exist as a nation, but as God’s.” Pusey. as a governor] Lit., the head over a thousand, a chiliarch. A chieftain, R. V. The tribes of Israel both during the Exodus (Numbers 1:16; Numbers 10:4), and after their settlement in Canaan (Joshua 22:21; Joshua 22:30; 1 Samuel 10:19; Micah 5:1) were divided into thousands. The word here used for the chief of such a division is used again for a Jewish chief in this Book (Zechariah 12:5-6). Elsewhere it is commonly used of the chiefs of Edom (Genesis 36:15 seq.; 1 Chronicles 1:51-54). The meaning is that the Philistine, the nation personified as before, shall take his place, ruler and people, as one of the divisions of the Jewish nation. Ekron as a Jebusite] The Jebusites had held their own in the midst of the chosen people, possessors of the stronghold of Sion up to the time of David (Joshua 15:63); but at last had been merged and lost in Israel. So should it be with the Philistines, who are here intended by Ekron. They too shall be absorbed into the Jewish church and nation, when the ultimate goal of the prophecy is reached.

And I will take away his blood out of his mouth - The “abominations” being idol-sacrifices , the “bloods” will also be, the blood mingled with the wine of sacrifices, of which David says, “Their

THE FINAL TRIUMPH OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD, Zechariah 9:1 to Zechariah 14:21.