Zechariah 10:7

And they of Ephraim shall be like a mighty man, and their heart shall rejoice as through wine: yea, their children shall see it, and be glad; their heart shall rejoice in 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

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. Yet not victory, but strength, gladness beyond natural g adness, as through wine, whereby the mind is exhilarated above itself; and that, lasting, transmitted to their children, large increase, holy life in God, are the outlines of the promise.

Their heart shall rejoice in the Lord - Psalm 44:3 : "As the principal object, the first, highest, most worthy Giver of all good, to whom is to be referred all gladness, which is conceived from created goods, that 'whose glorieth may glory in the Lord' 2 Corinthians 10:17, in whom alone the rational creature ought to take delight."

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

7. like a mighty man—in the battle with the foe (Zec 10:3, 5).

rejoice—at their victory over the foe.

children shall see it—who are not yet of age to serve. To teach patient waiting for God's promises. If ye do not at present see the fulfilment, your children shall, and their joy shall be complete.

rejoice in the Lord—the Giver of such a glorious victory.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Ephraim: see Zechariah 10:6. Shall be like a mighty man, see Zechariah 10:5.

Their heart shall rejoice as through wine; which warmeth the blood, cheereth the spirits, and adds life greatly, where a good and joyful success concurreth, as here it doth.

Their children shall see it, and be glad; either thus, in the days of your children this shall be; or rather, when the time comes for these things they shall continue through your generations to children that shall be born.

Their heart shall rejoice in the Lord; the goodness, power, wisdom, and faithfulness of God shall be the cause of this joy, and many of these people shall indeed rejoice in the Lord, and in the Messiah.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And they of Ephraim shall be like a mighty man,.... What remain, and shall be found of the ten tribes, shall be as is said of Judah, or the Jews of the two tribes, Zechariah 10:5,

and their heart shall rejoice as through wine: they shall be filled with inward and spiritual joy, through the love of God shed abroad in their heart; and through the Gospel of Christ having a place there; and through the blessings of divine grace, those streams of love, and which flow in the Gospel, and make glad the hearts of God's people; all which are comparable to wine:

yea, their children shall see it, and be glad; they shall see the strength, victory, and salvation of their fathers, and the joy they shall be possessed of, and join with them in it, having a share in the same blessings they are partakers of:

their heart shall rejoice in the Lord; in the person and offices of Christ, who will now be known by the spiritual seed and offspring of the church, and in the great salvation wrought out by him, and in all the blessings of grace that accompany it. The Targum is,

"their heart shall rejoice in the word of the Lord;''

the essential Word, the Son of God.

Geneva Study Bible

And they of Ephraim shall be like a mighty man, and their heart shall rejoice as through wine: yea, their children shall see it, and be glad; their heart shall rejoice in the LORD.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

7. as through wine] Comp. Zechariah 9:15.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 7. - They of Ephraim; i.e. as well as Judah, shall be heroes. Not many members of the northern kingdom returned at first from the Captivity; but the prophet gives the assurance that they shall come and prove themselves mighty warriors. As through wine. They shall hasten to the battle cheerfully and exultingly, like men refreshed and strengthened with wine (see Zechariah 9:15; Psalm 78:65, 66). Their children shall see it. Though unable to participate in the struggle, their children shall share the universal joy. Their heart shall rejoice in the Lord (Psalm 63:7; Isaiah 41:16; Joel 2:23; Habakkuk 3:18). Attempts have been made to find the fulfilment of these prophecies (ver. 3, etc.) in certain events of Maccabean times. Thus, according to Patritius, the sin for which the Hebrews surfeited such distress at the hands of the Seleucidae (ver. 2) was their imitation of heathen practices mentioned in 1 Macc. 1:13-15 and 2 Macc. 4:7-17, when the high priest purchased his office by a bribe, and the other priests followed Greek customs. The prophet is supposed to refer specially to this state of things when he says, "They were troubled because there was no shepherd. Mine auger was kindled against the shepherds." But we have shown above that Zechariah is here speaking of the past, not of the future. There is more verisimilitude in discerning the wars and victories of Judas, his brothers and successors, in the allusions of vers 4-7. The truth is that such descriptions suit many different events, and have various applications. Though their complete fulfilment may be expected only in Messianic times and circumstances, yet we may see many anticipatory and preparative transactions, which are meant to introduce the final accomplishment. The Jewish prophet is not always foretelling certain definite events. Oftentimes he is teaching, warning, and exhorting; and generally he is enunciating great principles, the truth of which shall be clear in the future, rather than predicting particular facts. Not unfrequently commentators have neglected this consideration, and sought too curiously to restrict the prophet's words to some one issue. It may be noted, further, that where the prophetic language concerning the destiny of the restored people seems to be exaggerated and not borne out by subsequent facts, the promises are always conditioned by the moral state of the recipients. If they answered fully and consistently to God's call, the result would be such as was predicted. That the event in all respects did not correspond with the high ideal previously announced must be attributed, not to the prophet's mistake, but to the people's waywardness and disobedience. Zechariah 10:7

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Thus equipped for battle, Judah will annihilate its foes. Zechariah 10:5. "And they will be like heroes, treading street-mire in the battle: and will fight, for Jehovah is with them, and the riders upon horses are put to shame. Zechariah 10:6. And I shall strengthen the house of Judah, and grant salvation to the house of Joseph, and shall make them dwell; for I have had compassion upon them: and they will be as if I had not rejected them: for I am Jehovah their God, and will hear them. Zechariah 10:7. And Ephraim will be like a hero, and their heart will rejoice as if with wine: and their children will see it, and rejoice; their heart shall rejoice in Jehovah." In Zechariah 10:5, bōsı̄m is a more precise definition of kegibbōrı̄m, and the house of Judah (Zechariah 10:3) is the subject of the sentence. They will be like heroes, namely, treading upon mire. Bōsı̄m is the kal participle used in an intransitive sense, since the form with o only occurs in verbs with an intransitive meaning, like bōsh, lōt, qōm; and būs in kal is construed in every other case with the accusative of the object: treading upon mire equals treading or treading down mire. Consequently the object which they tread down or trample in pieces is expressed by בּטיט חוּצות; and thus the arbitrary completion of the sentence by "everything that opposes them" (C. B. Mich. and Koehler) is set aside as untenable. Now, as "treading upon mire" cannot possibly express merely the firm tread of a courageous man (Hitzig), we must take the dirt of the streets as a figurative expression for the enemy, and the phrase "treading upon street-mire" as a bold figure denoting the trampling down of the enemy in the mire of the streets (Micah 7:10; 2 Samuel 22:43), analogous to their "treading down sling-stones," Zechariah 9:15. For such heroic conflict will they be fitted by the help of Jehovah, that the enemy will be put to shame before them. The riders of the horses are mentioned for the purpose of individualizing the enemy, because the principal strength of the Asiatic rulers consisted in cavalry (see Daniel 11:40). הובישׁ intransitive, as in Zechariah 9:5. This strength for a victorious conflict will not be confined to Judah, but Ephraim will also share it. The words, "and the house of Ephraim will I endow with salvation," have been taken by Koehler as signifying "that Jehovah will deliver the house of Ephraim by granting the victory to the house of Judah in conflict with its own foes and those of Ephraim also;" but there is no ground for this. We may see from Zechariah 10:7, according to which Ephraim will also fight as a hero, as Judah will according to Zechariah 10:5, that הושׁיע does not mean merely to help or deliver, but to grant salvation, as in Zechariah 9:16. The circumstance, however, "that in the course of the chapter, at any rate from Zechariah 10:7 onwards, it is only Ephraim whose deliverance and restoration are spoken of," proves nothing more than that Ephraim will receive the same salvation as Judah, but not that it will be delivered by the house of Judah. The abnormal form הושׁבותים is regarded by many, who follow Kimchi and Aben Ezra, as a forma composita from הושׁבתּים and השׁיבותי: "I make them dwell, and bring them back." But this is precluded by the fact that the bringing back would necessarily precede the making to dwell, to say nothing of the circumstance that there is no analogy whatever for such a composition (cf. Jeremiah 32:37). The form is rather to be explained from a confusion of the verbs עו and פי, and is the hiphil of ישׁב for הושׁבתּים (lxx, Maurer, Hengstenberg; comp. Olshausen, Grammat. p. 559), and not a hiphil of שׁוּב, in which a transition has taken place into the hiphil form of the verbs פו (Ewald, 196, b, Not. 1; Targ., Vulg., Hitzig, and Koehler). For "bringing back" affirms too little here. הושׁבתּים, "I make them dwell," corresponds rather to "they shall be as if they had not been cast off," without needing any further definition, since not only do we meet with ישׁב without anything else, in the sense of peaceful, happy dwelling (e.g., Micah 5:3), but here also the manner of dwelling is indicated in the appended clause כּאשׁר לא־זנחתּים, "as before they were cast off" (cf. Ezekiel 36:11). אענם is also not to be taken as referring to the answering of the prayers, which Ephraim addressed to Jehovah out of its distress, out of its imprisonment (Koehler), but is to be taken in a much more general sense, as in Zechariah 13:9; Isaiah 58:9, and Hosea 2:23. Ephraim, like Judah, will also become a hero, and rejoice as if with wine, i.e., fight joyfully like a hero strengthened with wine (cf. Psalm 78:65-66). This rejoicing in conflict the sons will see, and exult in consequence; so that it will be a lasting joy.