Zechariah 10:11

And he shall pass through the sea with affliction, and shall smite the waves in the sea, and all the deeps of the river shall dry up: and the pride of Assyria shall be brought down, and the sceptre of Egypt shall depart away.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Benson Commentary

Zechariah 10:11-12. And he shall pass through the sea with affliction — The sense might be more properly expressed, And he [Israel] shall pass through the straits of the sea: so the LXX. and the Vulgate understand the word. And [God] shall smite the waves of the sea, &c. — The expressions allude to the miraculous passage of the Israelites through the Red sea, and the river Jordan; and to God’s destroying the Egyptians, and the Assyrian, or Babylonian empire, in order to the deliverance of his people. And the verse imports that God would, in a future time, do as great things for them as he had done formerly for their fathers. In this sense the Chaldee expounds the word. Egypt and Assyria, it must be observed, being two potent kingdoms, bordering upon Judea, and being by turns either allies to the Jews, or their conquerors; and the Jews frequently either going thither for refuge, or being carried thither as captives; therefore, when the prophets foretel the general restoration of the Jewish nation, they often express it by their returning from Egypt and Assyria. We may observe, likewise, that God’s bringing his people again from these countries, and especially from Egypt, was a proverbial expression to signify any deliverance, as great or greater than these. Thus, the next clause, And the pride of Assyria shall be brought down, and the sceptre of Egypt shall depart, signifies, the enemies of God and his truth shall all be subdued, and broken in pieces, when Christ shall come in his glorious power to set up his kingdom on the earth: see Daniel 2:33-34; Isaiah 60:12.

And I will strengthen them in the Lord — That is, I will strengthen them in myself, or I will be their helper, and give them all needful strength and protection. And they shall walk up and down in his name, saith the Lord — Their evils and actions shall be under the influence of his grace, and under the government of his laws, and he shall give them success answerable to their upright intentions.

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

And He - that is, Almighty God, shall pass through the sea, affliction As He says, "When thou walkest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not oveflow thee. And shall smite the waves in the sea" Isaiah 43:2, as in Isaiah, "The Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea" Isaiah 11:15. The image is from the deliverance of Egypt: yet it is said, that it should not be any exact repetition of the miracles of Egypt; it would be as the Red Sea Exodus 14:10, Exodus 14:12, which would as effectually shut them in, and in presence of which they might again think themselves lost, through which God would again bring them. But it would not be the Red sea itself; for "the sea" through which they should be brought, would be "affliction;" as our own poet speaks of "taking arms against a sea of troubles." Cyril: "The promise of succor to those who believe in Christ is under the likeness of the things given to those of old; for as Israel was conveyed across the Red sea, braving the waves in it; "for the waters stood upright as an heap" Exodus 15:8, God bringing this to pass marvelously; and as "they passed the Jordan on foot" Joshua 3:17; so he says, those who are called through Moses to the knowledge of Christ, and have been saved by the ministries of the holy Apostles, they shall pass the waves of this present life, like an angrily foaming sea, and, being removed from the tumult of this life, shall, undisturbed, worship the true God. And they shall pass through temptations, like sweeping rivers, saying with great joy, in like way, "Unless the Lord had been for us, may Israel now say, the waters had drowned us, the stream had gone over our souls" Psalm 124:1-5.

He shall smite the waves in the sea. There, where the strength of the powers of this world is put forth against His people, there He will bring it down. "All the deeps of the river," that is, of the Nile ,

"Shall be dried up." The Nile as a mighty river is substituted for the Jordan, symbolizing the greater putting forth of God's power in the times to come.

And the pride of Asshur shall be brought down - Ribera: "When the good receive their reward, then their enemies shall have no power over them, but shall be punished by Me, because they injured My elect. - By the Assyrians and Egyptians he understands all their enemies."

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

11. pass … sea with affliction—Personifying the "sea"; He shall afflict the sea, that is, cause it to cease to be an obstacle to Israel's return to Palestine (Isa 11:15, 16). Vulgate translates, "The strait of the sea." Maurer, "He shall cleave and smite." English Version is best (Ps 114:3). As Jehovah smote the Red Sea to make a passage for His people (Ex 14:16, 21), so hereafter shall He make a way through every obstacle which opposes Israel's restoration.

the river—the Nile (Am 8:8; 9:5), or the Euphrates. Thus the Red Sea and the Euphrates in the former part of the verse answer to "Assyria" and "Egypt" in the latter.

sceptre of Egypt … depart—(Eze 30:13).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The former part of this verse might be read in the preter-perfect tense, reporting what God hath done, and perhaps more agreeably with the context and design, which is no doubt to confirm the promise, and make it credible, though so many and great difficulties render it unlikely to reason: I will, saith God, Zechariah 10:10; I promise, who am he that hath passed through the sea, the Red Sea, and brought my people through: who hath clone this call do what he now promiseth. I am he that dried up the deeps of Jordan (when at deepest by the floods, which were then upon the river); I can remove obstacles were they as great as these, and as easily lay low the pride of enemies, or remove their sceptres, as I did to Assyria and Egypt. So the whole verse is an allusion to what God had done in the two famous deliverances of his people under the hand of Moses and Joshua, bringing them out of Egypt through the Red Sea, and through Jordan, and destroying the Egyptians; and delivering them out of Assyrian bondage, and in order thereto destroying that kingdom.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And he shall pass through the sea with affliction,.... Either the people of the Jews, as Israel of old did, when they came out of Egypt, to which the allusion is; or the wind shall pass through the sea, as Aben Ezra supplies it, and it shall become dry; that is, the river of Egypt: or "affliction" (r), as many supply it, shall pass through the sea; the nations, which are many as the sea, as Kimchi interprets it; and so may design that hour of temptation that shall come upon all the earth, Revelation 3:10 or with which the kingdom of the beast, who rose up out of the sea, and consists of many waters, people, tongues, and nations, will be afflicted, Revelation 13:1 which the Lord shall pass through and smite; or it may in general denote the sea of this world, and the afflictions of it, which the Lord causes his people to pass through, and brings them out of them:

and shall smite the waves in the sea: that is, the Lord shall smite them; repress afflictions, which are like the proud waves, not suffering them to proceed further than is for his glory and his people's good, and remove all obstacles in their way; see Isaiah 11:15 or destroy their enemies, which are like the proud waters, that otherwise would go over their souls, and overwhelm them; and particularly the antichristian states, at the pouring out of the vials, signified by the sea, and by fountains and rivers, Revelation 16:3. Kimchi explains it of the multitude of the people:

and all the deeps of the river shall dry up; not Nile, the river of Egypt, as Jarchi and Aben Ezra (s), but the river Euphrates; see Revelation 16:12 the drying up of which signifies the destruction of the Turkish empire; and the Targum paraphrases it,

"all the kings of the people shall be confounded:''

and the pride of Assyria shall be brought down; the pride of the Ottoman empire, of which the old Assyria is a part, and which has been large and powerful, that shall be destroyed; this will be at the passing away of the second woe; and then quickly comes the third, which is as follows, Revelation 11:14,

and the sceptre of Egypt shall depart away; all rule and government shall cease; see Genesis 49:10 meaning that the kingdom of the antichristian beast of Rome, called Egypt, Revelation 11:8 shall be at an end; which will be at the blowing of the seventh trumpet, and upon and through the pouring out of the seven vials. So the Targum, the dominion of the Egyptians shall be taken away; or its rod, with which it has smote, hurt, and greatly oppressed and afflicted the saints; persecution shall now cease; it will not be in the power of the Romish antichrist to persecute any more.

(r) Pagninus, Montanus, Munster, Vatablus, Calvin, Drusius, Cocceius. (s) So Stockius, p. 891.

Geneva Study Bible

And he {m} shall pass through the sea with affliction, and shall smite the waves in the sea, and all the deeps of the river shall dry up: and the pride of Assyria shall be brought down, and the sceptre of Egypt shall depart.

(m) He alludes to the deliverance of the people out of Egypt, when the angel smote the floods and rivers.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

11. he] i.e. Jehovah, as He did through the Red Sea, when He gave the first great deliverance to His people.

with affliction] i.e. to His enemies. Comp. Exodus 14:24-25; Exodus 14:27; Exodus 15:3-7. This is perhaps the best rendering of this difficult and much disputed clause. The sea of affliction, R. V.

smite the waves] Comp. Exodus 15:8. See also Isaiah 11:15-16, where a similar reference occurs to the passage of the Red Sea.

the river] i.e. the Nile, as the Heb. word used indicates.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 11. - He shall pass through the sea with affliction. In bringing his people back the Lord is ready to repeat the miracles of the Exodus. This is the general meaning of the passage; but the details present difficulties. For "he shall pass" the LXX. gives, "they shall pass through." But the reference is plainly to Jehovah, as the following clause shows. The next two words are in apposition, "the sea," "affliction." Revised Version, "the sea of affliction;" Septuagint,  ᾿ν θαλάσσῃ στενῇ, "in a strait sea;" or, as the Hebrew cannot be so translated, "in a sea, a strait;" Vulgate, in maris freto. It seems best to take the two words simply as, "the sea, which is affliction." The Red Sea, through which Jehovah led his people, was a figure of the sufferings which they had endured in Egypt, and brought destruction upon their enemies (comp. Exodus 14:16, 17, 24, etc.). Smite the waves (Exodus 15:8; Isaiah 11:15, 16; Isaiah 51:10). The river. The Nile. The drying up of the waters of the Nile is a figure of the humiliation of the nations which have been guilty of enslaving the chosen people. The Nile. the representative of Egypt, is mentioned because of the allusion to the bondage in Egypt running through the paragraph. The pride of Assyria. Pride is noted as the characteristic of Assyria (comp. Isaiah 10:7, etc.; Ezekiel 31:3, 10). The sceptre. This may refer to the decadence of the power of Egypt, and the transference of royal authority to strangers; but, regarding the immediate context, we had better translate, "the rod of Egypt," and see in it an allusion to the oppression of the taskmasters during the sojourn in that land. All such tyranny shall be at an end (comp. Isaiah 10:24). Zechariah 10:11

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Zechariah 10:11. "And he goes through the sea of affliction, and smites the waves in the sea, and all the depths of the river dry up; and the pride of Asshur will be cast down, and the staff of Egypt will depart. Zechariah 10:12. And I make them strong in Jehovah; and they will walk in His name, is the saying of Jehovah." The subject in Zechariah 10:11 is Jehovah. He goes, as once He went in the pillar of cloud as the angel of the Lord in the time of Moses, through the sea of affliction. צרה, which has been interpreted in very different ways, we take as in apposition to ים, though not as a permutative, "through the sea, viz., the affliction" (C. B. Mich., Hengst.); but in this sense, "the sea, which caused distress or confinement," so that the simple reason why צרה is not connected with ים in the construct state, but placed in apposition, is that the sea might not be described as a straitened sea, or sea of anxiety. This apposition points to the fact which floated before the prophet's mind, namely, that the Israelites under Moses were so confined by the Red Sea that they thought they were lost (Exodus 14:10.). The objection urged by Koehler against this view - namely, that צרה as a noun is not used in the sense of local strait or confinement - is proved to be unfounded by Jonah 2:3 and Zephaniah 1:15. All the other explanations of tsârâh are much more unnatural, being either unsuitable, like the suggestion of Koehler to take it as an exclamation, "O distress!" or grammatically untenable, like the rendering adopted by Maurer and Kliefoth, after the Chaldaeans usage, "he splits." The smiting of the waves in the sea does indeed play upon the division of the waves of the sea when the Israelites passed through the Red Sea (Exodus 14:16, Exodus 14:21; cf. Joshua 3:13; Psalm 77:17; Psalm 114:5); but it affirms still more, as the following clause shows, namely, a binding or constraining of the waves, by which they are annihilated, or a drying up of the floods, like החרים in Isaiah 11:15. Only the floods of the Nile (יאור) are mentioned, because the allusion to the slavery of Israel in Egypt predominates, and the redemption of the Israelites out of all the lands of the nations is represented as bringing out of the slave-house of Egypt. The drying up of the flood-depths of the Nile is therefore a figure denoting the casting down of the imperial power in all its historical forms; Asshur and Egypt being mentioned by name in the last clause answering to the declaration in Zechariah 10:10, and the tyranny of Asshur being characterized by גּאון, pride, haughtiness (cf. Isaiah 10:7.), and that of Egypt by the rod of its taskmasters. in Zechariah 10:12 the promise for Ephraim is brought to a close with the general thought that they will obtain strength in the Lord, and walk in the power of His name. With וגבּרתּים the address reverts to its starting-point in Zechariah 10:6. בּיהוה stands for בּי, to point emphatically to the Lord, in whom Israel as the people of God had its strength. Walking in the name of Jehovah is to be taken as in Micah 4:5, and to be understood not as relating to the attitude of Israel towards God, or to the "self-attestation of Israel" (Koehler), but to the result, viz., walking in the strength of the Lord.

If, in conclusion, we survey the whole promise from Zechariah 9:11 onwards, there are two leading thoughts developed in it: (a) That those members of the covenant nation who were still scattered among the heathen should be redeemed out of their misery, and gathered together in the kingdom of the King who was coming for Zion, i.e., of the Messiah; (b) That the Lord would endow all His people with power for the conquest of the heathen. They were both fulfilled, in weak commencements only, in the times immediately following and down to the coming of Christ, by the return of many Jews out of captivity and into the land of the fathers, particularly when Galilee was strongly peopled by Israelites; and also by the protection and care which God bestowed upon the people in the contests between the powers of the world for supremacy in Palestine. The principal fulfilment is of a spiritual kind, and was effected through the gathering of the Jews into the kingdom of Christ, which commenced in the times of the apostles, and will continue till the remnant of Israel is converted to Christ its Saviour.