Zechariahchapter 10
12 verses · Zechariah · 520 to 518 BC · The Twelve
For idols speak deceit and diviners see illusions; they tell false dreams and offer empty comfort. Therefore the people wander like sheep, oppressed for lack of a shepherd.
Introduction
Zechariah, The Twelve, Zechariah Overview.
Zechariah gives this undated oracle to a people who farmed by the rain and whose relatives were still scattered across the lands of the old empires. Farmers in that land were tempted to turn to household idols and fortune tellers when the rains were late. The chapter speaks to the people and to the leaders who had failed them. Listen for the request it tells them to make in spring, and for the sound the LORD makes to call His scattered people. Listen also for the two lands named as the places of scattering.
Context
- Who
- Farmers who needed rain, and families whose relatives were still spread across two empires
- What
- A call to ask the LORD for spring rain, a rebuke of idols, diviners and false shepherds, and a promise to strengthen Judah and gather the scattered people of Ephraim home.
- Where
- Judah and the northern tribes of Ephraim, scattered to Egypt and Assyria and brought back to Gilead and Lebanon.
- When
- Undated, among the later oracles of chapters 9 to 14.
- Why
- To turn the people from idols to the LORD who gives rain, and to promise that He would bring back the scattered tribes.
Historical context
The chapter starts with weather, because in that country everything started with weather. "Ask ye of the LORD rain in the time of the latter rain." The latter rain fell in spring and filled out the grain before harvest; without it the crop failed in the last few weeks. Farmers under pressure went to whoever promised rain.
Show the rest of the historical context, 4 more paragraphs
That is why teraphim and diviners appear in the next breath. Teraphim were household idols, Rachel hid some under a camel saddle, and Michal put one in a bed, and divination was the standard way to get a forecast or a decision in the surrounding cultures. The verdict here is blunt: the idols have spoken vanity, the diviners have seen a lie, they comfort in vain.
Then the anger turns on the shepherds, the leaders, and God says He will punish the goats and visit His flock, and out of Judah will come the corner stone, the nail, and the battle bow. A nail here is the peg driven into a wall that a household hangs its weight on.
The rest of the chapter is about gathering people home. Ephraim, the northern tribes, deported by Assyria in 722 BC and never returned as a nation, is named. God says He will hiss for them (the sound a shepherd or beekeeper uses to call), gather them, and bring them out of Egypt and Assyria into Gilead and Lebanon, until there is no room for them.
Egypt and Assyria stand here for the two directions the scattering went, which is why they appear even though Assyria as a state was long gone by Zechariah's day.
Significance
For a community of returnees, this said the return was not finished. The people who came back under Cyrus were a fraction; the rest were still out there, and God intended to whistle for them.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
And the promise about rain grounded the whole thing. The God who gathers scattered tribes is the same one you ask for spring rain, and He is not to be swapped for a household idol when the sky stays clear.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
The site's own table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, probed for this lane, printed no weekly portion and no Haftarah from this chapter, and no festival reading for the book. That table carries the Haftarah of each of the fifty-four weekly portions and the books read whole at the feasts. It carries nothing for the special Sabbaths, the festival days or the fast days, so this card names no public reading of chapter 10 and leaves that question to a source that holds those readings.
How it is read
Rashi is the one commentator on this chapter whose English the corpus carries. He is quoted from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY, and every quotation is held to fifty words or fewer.
The chapter opens on rain. Rashi's note is brief, to ask it of the Lord "if you need it" (Rashi on Zechariah 10:1:1). He reads the teraphim and the diviners as the voices that misled the fathers, "saying “peace” - but there was no peace", and sets the prophet against them (Rashi on Zechariah 10:2:1 and 10:2:2).
The shepherds and the goats he reads as the kings and princes of Greece, citing Daniel 8:21 and the rendering of Jonathan. He names the other reading as well, that the word means princes in general (Rashi on Zechariah 10:3:1 and 10:3:2). Out of Judah come their own kings and princes and those who fight their wars (Rashi on Zechariah 10:4:1).
The two houses are read apart. Judah is strengthened "in the war against the Greeks", and Joseph is saved where it was exiled in the days of Sennacherib (Rashi on Zechariah 10:6:1 and 10:6:2). The gathering is "at the time of the end in the future" (Rashi on Zechariah 10:8:2). He reads Lebanon in the tenth verse as the Temple (Rashi on Zechariah 10:10:1).
The corpus carries 5 further notes on this chapter without an English text, each marked linked because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref. They stand cited and unquoted here. Ibn Ezra on Zechariah is cited at 10:4:1, 10:7:1 and 10:12:1. Radak on Zechariah is cited at 10:7:1 and 10:12:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries 40 rabbinic locators on this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here and none is quoted. The verse numbers are the corpus's own.
At 10:1 it holds Bereshit Rabbah 13:12, Ein Yaakov, Taanit 1:42 and Jerusalem Talmud Taanit 3:2:3. It also holds Jerusalem Talmud Taanit 3:3:5, Midrash Tannaim on Deuteronomy 11:11:18 and Otzar Midrashim, Chuppah of Eliyahu, Chuppat Eliyahu Rabbah 216 there. It also holds Sifrei Devarim 37:3 there. At 10:2 it holds Berakhot 55b:14, Ein Yaakov, Berakhot 9:12 and Midrash Lekach Tov, Genesis 31:34:1. It also holds Midrash Tanchuma, Vayetzei 12:1, Midrash Yelamdenu, Selections from Yalkut Talmud Torah 138:1 and Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 36:14 there.
At 10:3 it holds Pesikta Rabbati 42:1. At 10:4 it holds Chullin 56b:14, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Chullin 3:5 and Ein Yaakov, Khullin 3:8. It also holds Midrash Lekach Tov, Deuteronomy 32:6:1, Midrash Lekach Tov, Genesis 36:31:2 and Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 26:16:1 there. At 10:5 it holds Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 48:18. At 10:6 it holds Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Vayigash 3:1.
At 10:7 it holds Otzar Midrashim, Hashkem, Midrash Hashkem ('Arise Early') 9. At 10:8 it holds Bereshit Rabbah 44:22, Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayechi 19 and Chullin 63a:10. It also holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Chullin 3:12, Ein Yaakov, Khullin 3:21 and Otzar Midrashim, Midrash Vayosha ('And He Saved') 9:1 there. At 10:9 it holds Kohelet Rabbah 4:1:1 and Midrash Tehillim 70:1. At 10:10 it holds Bereshit Rabbah 16:4.
At 10:11 it holds Aggadat Bereshit 60:1, Avot DeRabbi Natan 34:1 and Bamidbar Rabbah 16:26. It also holds Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Pischa 14:20, Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Vayassa 1:5 and Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Vayehi Beshalach 4:23 there. At 10:12 it holds Midrash Tanchuma, Vayetzei 12:2. At 10:15 it holds Midrash Aggadah, Exodus 2:20:4.
What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Zechariah 10:1:1 to 10:10:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Zechariah 10:4:1, 10:7:1 and 10:12:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no text it may quote; Radak, Radak on Zechariah 10:7:1 and 10:12:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no text it may quote; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/zechariah/10.json, the 40 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, probed for this lane through haftarahUsesForChapter("zechariah", 10) and festivalReadingForBook("zechariah").
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Ask rain of the LORD, not of the teraphim
Zechariah 10:1-2
Ask the LORD for rain in springtime: The call to “Ask the LORD for rain in springtime” turns a farmer's need into a test of allegiance. Barnes notes that this spring rain fell before harvest. Idols and diviners offer “false dreams” and “empty comfort”, so “the people wander like sheep, oppressed for lack of a shepherd”.
Zechariah 10:1
“Ask ye of the Lord rain in the time of the latter rain,.... There was the former and the latter rain, of which see Hos 6:3. The former rain was in autumn, a little before or about seed time; the latter was in the spring, and a little before harvest, which is here referred to. So Hesiod (g) calls those rains the autumnal and vernal rains; and between these two rains there was seldom any more.”
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Zechariah 10:1
“Though God has begun to bless us, we are not to relax our prayers. The former rain of conversion may have been given, but we must also ask for the latter rain of ripened sanctification. Though at Pentecost there was a former rain on the Jewish Church, a latter rain is still to be looked for, when the full harvest of the nation's conversion shall be gathered in to God.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
For idols speak deceit: Clarke refers the idols to Judah before the exile. Others, he notes, took the diviners as those of the Seleucid Greeks, who promised success against the Maccabees. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown see the sheep that wander for lack of a shepherd again in the disciples who scattered at Matthew 26:56.
Zechariah 10:2
“The idols have spoken vanity - This is spoken of the Jews, and must refer to their idolatry practiced before the captivity, for there were no idols after. Therefore they went their way - They were like a flock that had no shepherd, shifting from place to place, and wandering about in the wilderness, seeking for pasture, wherever they might find it. Some think that the idols and diviners were those of the Seleucidae Greeks, who excited their masters with promises of success against the Maccabees.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Zechariah 10:2
“So now they are scattered, while they know not Messiah their shepherd; typified in the state of the disciples, when they had forsaken Jesus and fled (Mt 26:56; compare Zec 13:7).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
The LORD's anger burns “against the shepherds”, and He will “punish the leaders”, a Hebrew word for he-goats, the strong of the flock. In the same verse “the LORD of Hosts attends to His flock”, so He judges the failed leaders and takes up the care Himself.
Zechariah 10:3
“The he-goats head the flock. They who are first in crime will be first in punishment. visited--in mercy (Lu 1:68). as his goodly horse--In Zec 9:13 they were represented under the image of bows and arrows, here under that of their commander-in-chief, Jehovah's battle horse (So 1:9).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Zechariah 10:3
“Though the body of the nation suffered in the captivity, yet it was only the goats and the shepherds that God was angry with, and that he punished; the same affliction to others came from the love of God, and was but a fatherly chastisement, which to them came from his wrath, and was a judicial punishment.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The cornerstone will come from Judah: Four titles come from Judah in one verse: “The cornerstone”, “the tent peg”, “the battle bow” and “every ruler together”, images of stability and strength. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown set the cornerstone beside Psalm 118:22 and Isaiah 28:16, and the tent peg beside the peg Isaiah uses of Eliakim.
Zechariah 10:4
“Out of him came forth the corner - This is spoken of the tribe of Judah: all strength, counsel, and excellence came from that tribe. The corner stone, the ornament and completion of the building; the nail, by which the tents were fastened, and on which they hung their clothes, armor, etc., the battlebow, the choicest archers. Every oppressor together - Those heroes and generals, by whom, under God, their foes should be totally routed. Newcome translates, “Every ruler together.” Perhaps all this is spoken of the Messiah.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Zechariah 10:5-7
They will be like mighty men in battle: Judah's strength turns practical: they fight like “mighty men in battle” because “the LORD is with them”, and they “put the horsemen to shame”. The promise reaches both halves of the divided kingdom, for the LORD will “strengthen the house of Judah and save the house of Joseph”.
I will whistle for them and gather them in
I will strengthen the house of Judah: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note that the Hebrew behind I will restore them joins two verbs, to bring back and to settle. Clarke asked whether verses 6 to 9 speak of the Lord's future gathering of the Jews. The Lord who has compassion also promises to answer them.
Zechariah 10:6
“I will strengthen the house of Judah - I doubt whether the sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth verses are not to be understood of the future ingathering of the Jews in the times of the Gospel. See Jer 3:14; Jer 23:6; Hos 1:2; Hos 6:11.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Zechariah 10:6
“Prophecy ever hastens to the glorious final consummation under Messiah. bring them again to place them--namely, securely in their own land. The Hebrew verb is compounded of two, "I will bring again," and "I will place them" (Jer 32:37).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Ephraim will be like a mighty man: Barnes notes that the chapter turns to Ephraim, the house of Joseph, whose tribes had yet to return. When the Persian empire fell, many were free to return. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read hearts glad as with wine as the joy of battle won, the same image as Zechariah 9:15.
Zechariah 10:7
“And Ephraim, they shall be like a mighty man - Prophecy, through the rest of the chapter, turns to Ephraim, which had not yet been restored. With regard to them, human victory retires out of sight, though doubtless, when their wide prison was broken at the destruction of the Persian empire, many were free to return to their native country, as others spread over the West in Asia Minor, Greece, Rome, and so some may have taken part in the victories of the Maccabees.”
Zechariah 10:8-9
I will whistle for them to gather: The LORD will “whistle for them to gather”, because “I have redeemed them”. Verse 9 admits the scattering was real, “Though I sow them among the nations”, yet “they will remember Me in distant lands”. Clarke notes that the word sow pictures seed scattered in order to multiply.
Zechariah 10:8
“The preaching of the gospel was, as it were, God's hissing for souls to come to Jesus Christ, his calling in his scattered sheep to the green pastures. I will gather them, for I have redeemed them. Note, Those whom Christ has redeemed by his blood God will gather by his grace, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 more voices on this verse
Zechariah 10:8
“The multitudes mentioned by JOSEPHUS [Wars of the Jews, 3:2], as peopling Galilee two hundred years after this time, were a pledge of the future more perfect fulfilment of the prophecy. for I have redeemed them--namely, in My covenant purpose "redeemed" both temporally and spiritually. as they have increased--in former times.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Zechariah 10:8
“I will hiss for them - אשרקה eshrekah, “I will shriek for them;” call them with such a shrill strong voice, that they shall hear me, and find that it is the voice of their redemption.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Brought back from Egypt and out of Assyria
Though I sow them among the nations: Barnes and Henry hear the sowing of Hosea 2, where God sows his people as a prelude to mercy. Henry traced one harvest in the Jews from distant lands who came to Jerusalem to worship and carried the gospel home. Sown among the nations, they remember the Lord.
Zechariah 10:9
“And I will sow them among the nations - Such had been the prophecy of Hosea; “I will sow her unto Me in the earth,” as the prelude of spiritual mercies, “and I will have mercy on her that had not obtained mercy, and I will say to not-my-people, Thou art My people, and they shall say, my God” .”
1 more voice on this verse
Zechariah 10:9
“Now these were sown among the people, Hos. ii. And this contributed very much to the spreading of the gospel. The Jews that came from all parts to worship at Jerusalem fetched thence the gospel light and fire to their own countries, as those Acts ii. , and the eunuch, Acts viii.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Zechariah 10:10-11
I will bring them back from Egypt: The LORD will bring His people out of Egypt and Assyria to “Gilead and Lebanon until no more room is found for them”. Then the powers that held Israel lose their grip, as “The pride of Assyria will be brought down, and the scepter of Egypt will depart”.
Zechariah 10:10
“Out of the land of Egypt - I will bring them out of all the countries where they have been dispersed, and bring them back to their own land; and they shall be so numerous that they shall scarcely find there, in all its length and breadth, a sufficiency of room. If all the Jews that are now scattered over the face of the earth were gathered together, they would make a mighty nation. And God will gather them together.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Zechariah 10:10
“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.”
Zechariah 10:10
“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.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
They will pass through the sea of distress: The Berean makes the people the subject of the crossing. Barnes read the one who passes through the sea as Almighty God himself. He set the line beside Isaiah 43:2, God with his people in the waters, and Isaiah 11, the Egyptian sea destroyed.
I will strengthen them in the LORD: The chapter's promises of bow and victory end in one source: “I will strengthen them in the LORD”, and the people walk “in His name”. Gill notes that the verb's Hebrew form means to walk up and down, the coming and going of daily life.
Zechariah 10:12
“I will strengthen them in the Lord - I, the God of Israel, will strengthen them in the Lord-Jesus, the Messiah; and thus indeed the Chaldee: I will strengthen them, בימרא דיי bemeymre dayai, in or by the Word of Jehovah, the same personal Word which we so often meet with in the Chaldee paraphrases or Targum. They shall walk up and down in his name - In the name of the Messiah. Saith the Lord - God speaks here, not of himself, but concerning his Christ.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Keep studying
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Carl Friedrich Keil, The Twelve Minor Prophets; Edward Bouverie Pusey, The Minor Prophets: A Commentary; Jamieson Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Calvin, Commentaries on the Twelve Minor Prophets; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.