Zechariah 10:10

I will bring them again also out of the land of Egypt, and gather them out of Assyria; and I will bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon; and place shall not be found for them.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

10:6-12 Here are precious promises to the people of God, which look to the state of the Jews, and even to the latter days of the church. Preaching the gospel is God's call for souls to come to Jesus Christ. Those whom Christ redeemed by his blood, God will gather by his grace. Difficulties shall be got over easily, and effectually, as those in the way of the deliverance out of Egypt. God himself will be their strength, and their song. When we resist, and so overcome our spiritual enemies, then our hearts shall rejoice. If God strengthen us, we must bestir ourselves in all the duties of the Christian life, must be active in the work of God; and we must do all in the name of the Lord Jesus.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

I will bring them again also out of the land of Egypt - Individuals had fled to Egypt ; but here probably Egypt and Assyria stand, as of old, for the two great conflicting empires, between which Israel lay, at whose hands she had suffered, and who represent the countries which lay beyond them. Hosea unites (Hosea 11:10-11; Isaiah 11:15-16; add Isaiah 19:23-25; Isaiah 27:13; Isaiah 52:4; Micah 7:12. See ab. p. 96), "the West, Assyria, Egypt," the three then known divisions of the world, Europe, Asia, Africa (see at Hosea 11:11, vol. i., p. 115). Asshur, after Nineveh perished, stands clearly for the world-empire of the East at Babylon , and then in Persia Ezra 6:22. Balaam includes under Asshur, first Babylon, then the third world-empire (Numbers 24:22-24; coll. Daniel 11:30).

Babylon, which was first subject to Nineveh, then subjected it, was at a later period known to Greek writers (who probably had their information from Persian sources) as part of Assyria .

And I will bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon - Their old dwellings, east and west of Jordan. "And place shall not be found for them, as Isaiah says, "The children of thy bereaved estate shall yet say in thine ears, The place is too strait for me: give place, that I may dwell" Isaiah 49:20.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

10. Egypt … Assyria—the former the first, the latter among the last of Israel's oppressors (or representing the four great world kingdoms, of which it was the first): types of the present universal dispersion, Egypt being south, Assyria north, opposite ends of the compass. Maurer conjectures that many Israelites fled to "Egypt" on the invasion of Tiglath-pileser. But Isa 11:11 and this passage rather accord with the view of the future restoration.

Gilead … Lebanon—The whole of the Holy Land is described by two of its boundaries, the eastern ("Gilead" beyond Jordan) and the northern ("Lebanon").

place shall not be found for them—that is, there shall not be room enough for them through their numbers (Isa 49:20; 54:3).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

I will bring them again also out of the land of Egypt; into which doubtless some hasted by an early flight from the Babylonians before they wasted Canaan, and others fled though forbidden, Jeremiah 43; where also in after-days some Jews sought a repose, and where they wonderfully increased, if Josephus’s story be true, of one hundred and twenty thousand Jews set at liberty by Ptolemy Philadelphus, when he procured the seventy-two elders to translate the Hebrew Bible into Greek. These Egyptian Jews shall be brought back.

And gather them out of Assyria; in which many yet did linger, loth to depart, but when God hisseth for them they shall come.

I will bring them into the land of Gilead, which was the eastern frontier of the land of Canaan, and Lebanon; this was the north frontier of the land, and both fruitful and pleasant: they are here mentioned as part for the whole, as before, Zechariah 8:7.

And place shall not be found for them; the land should be too narrow for them, so Isaiah 49:20 54:2,3, which was in part fulfilled according to the historical and literal part, but fully in the spiritual part.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

I will bring them again also out of the land of Egypt,.... The Targum paraphrases it,

"and as I brought them out of the land of Egypt, so will gather their captivity out of Assyria;''

suggesting there would be a likeness between the one and the other. Egypt may denote the state of distance and bondage in which all men are by nature; and the Jews, at their conversion, will be brought out of it, into the glorious liberty of the children of God, by the mighty arm of the Lord, according to his purposes and promises. Moreover, as Cocceius observes, Egypt may signify Rome, or the Romish jurisdiction, which is spiritually called Egypt and Sodom, Revelation 11:8 for darkness, idolatry, tyranny, and cruelty; and out of which the Jews, as many of them as are there, will be brought at the time of their conversion:

and gather them out of Assyria; which may design the Turkish or Persian dominions, or both, as the above commentator suggests; from whence the Jews, as many as are in those parts, will be brought into their own land, as follows; see Isaiah 11:11,

and I will bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon; Gilead was a land of pasture, and signifies "a heap of testimonies"; and may mystically intend the Scriptures, which testify of Christ, and direct to green pastures, beside the still waters: and Lebanon, that goodly mountain, and hill of frankincense, and where cedars grew, may design the church, whither the converted Jews will be brought, and worship before it, Revelation 3:9 or both may literally be understood, which they shall return unto; Gilead being, as Kimchi observes, beyond Jordan eastward; and Lebanon, comprehending the whole land of Israel, on this side of it:

and place shall not be found for them; they will be so numerous; see Isaiah 49:20 the Targum is,

"and I will bring them to the land of Gilead and the sanctuary, and it shall not be sufficient for them;''

that is, to hold them. The Septuagint render it, "and not one of them shall be left": all Israel shall now be converted and saved, though their number will be as the sand of the sea, Hosea 1:10.

Geneva Study Bible

I will bring them again also out of the land of Egypt, and gather them out of Assyria; and I will bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon; and place shall not be found for them.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

10. Egypt … Assyria] It is of Ephraim, or the ten tribes, that the prophet is here speaking. In Zechariah 10:3-6 of this chapter the promise is to the house of Judah. In Zechariah 10:6 the house of Joseph is introduced as sharing in it. In Zechariah 10:7-12 this part of the promise is exclusively pursued. Hence, there is no mention here of the return of the two tribes from Babylon, not because, as has been alleged, this prophecy was written before their captivity, but because (not only was that return already open to them all and an accomplished fact to many of them, but) they are not contemplated here. In like manner Hosea speaks of Egypt and Assyria, as the countries from which Ephraim should return (Zechariah 11:11).

Gilead, Lebanon] the territory assigned to these tribes on the E. and on the W. of Jordan.

place shall not be found] Comp. Isaiah 49:20.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 10. - Egypt... Assyria. It is certain that there was a large body of Jews in Egypt at this time (Jeremiah 43:6, 7); and to Assyria the ten tribes, who are here specially mentioned under the name Ephraim, had been deported. Besides this, Assyria is often used loosely for Western Asia or Babylonia, of which, after its submission, it formed a most important feature (see 2 Kings 23:29; Ezra 6:22; and in the Apocrypha, 1 Esdr. 7:15; Judith 1:7 Judith 2:1). In the 'Oracula Sibyllina,' the Assyrians are continually confused with Persians, Babylonians, and other Eastern nations. Egypt and Assyria are here used as types of the countries to which Jews had been banished (comp. Hosea 11:11). Gilead and Lebanon. A designation of the northern district of Palestine, on both sides of the Jordan, in which these tribes had been originally settled. This region had been most exposed to hostile attacks, and was the first to be depopulated. Place shall not be found for them (Isaiah 49:20). Josephus testifies to the teeming population of Galilee in later times ('Bell. Jud.,' 2:03, 1; 3:3, 2; 4:1, 2; 7:5). Septuagint, "There shall not even one of them be left behind," i.e. in exile. Zechariah 10:10

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

In order to remove all doubt as to the realization of this promise, the deliverance of Ephraim is described still more minutely in Zechariah 10:8-12. Zechariah 10:8. "I will hiss to them, and gather them; for I have redeemed them: and they will multiply as they have multiplied. Zechariah 10:9. And I will sow them among the nations: and in the far-off lands will they remember me; and will live with their sons, and return. Zechariah 10:10. And I will bring them back out of the land of Egypt, and gather them out of Asshur, and bring them into the land of Gilead and of Lebanon; and room will not be found for them." That these verses do not treat of a fresh (second) dispersion of Ephraim, or represent the carrying away as still in the future (Hitzig), is evident from the words themselves, when correctly interpreted. Not only are the enticing and gathering together (Zechariah 10:8) mentioned before the sowing or dispersing (Zechariah 10:9), but they are both expressed by similar verbal forms (אשׁרקה and אזרעם); and the misinterpretation is thereby precluded, that events occurring at different times are referred to. We must also observe the voluntative form אשׁרקה, "I will (not I shall) hiss to them, i.e., entice them" (shâraq being used for alluring, as in Isaiah 5:26 and Isaiah 7:18), as well as the absence of a copula. They both show that the intention here is simply to explain with greater clearness what is announced in Zechariah 10:6, Zechariah 10:7. The perfect פּדיתים is prophetic, like רחמתּים in Zechariah 10:6. The further promise, "they will multiply," etc., cannot be taken as referring either merely to the multiplication of Israel in exile (Hengst., Koehler, etc.), or merely to the future multiplication after the gathering together. According to the position in which the words stand between אקבּצם and אזרעם, they must embrace both the multiplication during the dispersion, and the multiplication after the gathering together. The perfect כּמו רבוּ points to the increase which Israel experienced in the olden time under the oppression of Egypt (Exodus 1:7, Exodus 1:12). This increase, which is also promised in Ezekiel 36:10-11, is effected by God's sowing them broadcast among the nations. זרע does not mean to scatter, but to sow, to sow broadcast (see at Hosea 2:23). Consequently the reference cannot be to a dispersion of Israel inflicted as a punishment. The sowing denotes the multiplication (cf. Jeremiah 31:27), and is not to be interpreted, as Neumann and Kliefoth suppose, as signifying that the Ephraimites are to be scattered as seed-corn among the heathen, to spread the knowledge of Jehovah among the nations. This thought is quite foreign to the context; and even in the words, "in far-off lands will they remember me," it is neither expressed nor implied. These words are to be connected with what follows: Because they remember the Lord in far-off lands, they will live, and return with their children. In Zechariah 10:10 the gathering together and leading back of Israel are more minutely described, and indeed as taking place out of the land of Asshur and out of Egypt. The fact that these two lands are mentioned, upon which modern critics have principally founded their arguments in favour of the origin of this prophecy before the captivity, cannot be explained "from the circumstance that in the time of Tiglath-pileser and Shalmaneser many Ephraimites had fled to Egypt" (Koehler and others); for history knows nothing of this, and the supposition is merely a loophole for escaping from a difficulty. Such passages as Hosea 8:13; Hosea 9:3, Hosea 9:6; Hosea 11:11; Micah 7:12; Isaiah 11:11; Isaiah 27:13, furnish no historical evidence of such thing. Even if certain Ephraimites had fled to Egypt, these could not be explained as relating to a return or gathering together of the Ephraimites of Israelites out of Egypt and Assyria, because the announcement presupposes that the Ephraimites had been transported to Egypt in quite as large numbers as to Assyria, - a fact which cannot be established either in relation to the times before or to those after the captivity. Egypt, as we have already shown at Hosea 9:3 (cf. Zechariah 8:13), is rather introduced in all the passages mentioned simply as a type of the land of bondage, on account of its having been the land in which Israel lived in the olden time, under the oppression of the heathen world. And Asshur is introduced in the same way, as the land into which the ten tribes had been afterwards exiled. This typical significance is placed beyond all doubt by Zechariah 10:1, since the redemption of Israel out of the countries named is there exhibited under the type of the liberation of Israel out of the bondage of Egypt under the guidance of Moses. (Compare also Delitzsch on Isaiah 11:11.) The Ephraimites are to return into the land of Gilead and Lebanon; the former representing the territory of the ten tribes in the olden time to the east of the Jordan, the latter that to the west (cf. Micah 7:14). לא ימּצא, there is not found for them, sc. the necessary room: equivalent to, it will not be sufficient for them (as in Joshua 17:16).