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I. THE SUBJECTS. Jews, not Gentiles. The Jewish people had often been reduced to this state of sorrow. When in Babylonian exile, they wept when they remembered "Zion."

II. The CAUSE of this penitential sorrow. "I will pour." The prophet Joel (Joel 2:28) refers to this outpouring of Divine influence.

III. The OCCASION of this penitential sorrow. A believing sight of Christ produces this penitential sorrow.

IV. The POIGNANCY of this penitential sorrow. "And they shall mourn for Him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for Him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born." "There are few states of deeper and acuter sorrow than this — that which is felt by affectionate parents when bereft of those objects of their fondest affections." As to the poignancy of this grief, it is further said, "In that day there shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon," etc. Perhaps me greatest sorrow ever known amongst the Jews was the sorrow in the valley of Megiddon, occasioned by the death of King Josiah (2 Chronicles 35:24). Jeremiah composed a funeral dirge on the occasion; and other odes and lamentations were composed, and were sung by males and females. But true penitential sorrow is far more poignant than that occasioned by the death of an only son or a noble king. It is tinctured with moral remorse.

V. THE UNIVERSALITY OF THIS POIGNANT SORROW. "The land shall mourn," etc. All the families of the land shall mourn, and mourn "apart." Deep sorrow craves loneliness.

(Homilist.)

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KJV: And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.

WEB: It will happen in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.