Zechariah 10:12

And I will strengthen them in the LORD; and they shall walk up and down in his name, saith the LORD.

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 strengthen them in the Lord - As our Lord said to Paul, "My strength is made perfect in weakness," and Paul said in turn, "When I am weak, then am I strong. And in His Name shall they walk up and down," have their whole conversation (Dionysius), "in Him according to His will, and diligent in all things to speak and act in ills grace and divine hope." Jerome: "Christians walk in the Name of Christ, and there is written on the new white stone given to them a "new name" Revelation 2:17, and under the dignity of a name so great, they walk with God, as "Enoch walked and pleased God and was translated" Genesis 5:24.

Saith the Lord - Dionysius: "Again the Lord God speaks of the Lord God, as of Another, hinting the plurality of Persons in the Godhead."

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

12. I … strengthen them in … Lord—(Ho 1:7). I, the Father, will strengthen them in the name, that is, the manifested power, of the Lord, Messiah, the Son of God.

walk … in his name—that is, live everywhere and continually under His protection, and according to His will (Ge 5:22; Ps 20:1, 7; Mic 4:5).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

I will strengthen them: see Zechariah 10:6.

In the Lord, their God, in Christ, say some; and it is true enough, whether these words so mean or no, God and Christ are the strength of the church, and of all believers.

They shall walk up and down, shall manage all their affairs, civil and military, secular and ecclesiastical, in his name; by authority derived from him, by power received of him, by wisdom given from above, to the glory of our God and our Redeemer. Thus far the great things promised to the Jewish church, and which were to be fulfilled in the time from the rebuilding the temple and city to the coming of Christ, through some four hundred and ninety years; in which times if aught fell short of-promise, it was because the sins of the people provoked God-to alter the course of his providence toward them.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And I will strengthen them in the Lord,.... Not the Egyptians and Assyrians, but the Jews, as in Zechariah 10:5, the Targum is,

"I will strengthen them in the word of the Lord;''

in the Messiah, by his power, and in the grace that is in him; and their faith and hope in him, and love to him: or "by" (t) him; so that, through him strengthening them, they will be able to do all things; to exercise grace; perform duty; withstand temptation; oppose indwelling sin; bear the cross of Christ; endure afflictions; engage with all their spiritual enemies, and conquer them: for the words may be rendered, "I will cause them to prevail", or "overcome in the Lord" (u); all their enemies, temporal and spiritual; and even to be more than conquerors through him that has loved them:

and they shall walk up and down in his name, saith the Lord; walk in him, the way to the Father, to heaven and happiness; walk by faith on him, in his strength, and in imitation of him; walk according to his Gospel, calling on his name, professing and worshipping him; and walk in his church and ordinances, agreeably to his will; see Micah 4:5. Kimchi owns that this whole chapter belongs to the times of the Messiah, as well as the former. The words may be considered as a testimony to the doctrine of the Trinity; that I, Jehovah the Father, will strengthen them in Jehovah the Son; and they shall walk up and down in the name of the Son of God, saith Jehovah the Spirit. Moreover, as a promise of the saints' final perseverance, very peremptorily expressed; I "will" strengthen them, and they "shall" walk, &c.

(t) "per Jehovam", Piscator. (u) "et faciam illos ut vincant", Cocceius.

Geneva Study Bible

And I will strengthen them in the LORD; and they shall walk up and down in his name, saith the LORD.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

12. walk up and down] i.e. pursue the course of their lives. Comp. Micah 4:5; Coloss. Zechariah 3:7.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 12. - I will strengthen them in the Lord. I will strengthen them with myself - with my grace and power. They shall walk up and down in his Name. They shall live in obedience to, and dependence upon, the Lord (Micah 4:5, where see note). The Septuagint reads, "They shall boast themselves." So God will work wonders to deliver his people from the captivity of the devil, destroying all enemies, visible and invisible, which array themselves against him. This is the final fulfilment of the prophecy. The complete restoration from the Captivity is the immediate subject of the prophet's words; and between these two we may see a reference to the conversion of the Jews in the time of Christ and the apostles, which shall go on until the end.



Zechariah 10:12

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.