mmotions and overturnings God will destroy the power of the heathen
nations, and make Zerubbabel as a signet.

The reference is to a seal-ring, and the promise is that God
will preserve Zerubbabel from all the assaults of the wicked.
Zerubbabel was one of the Messiah's ancestors (Matt. 1:12; Luke
3:27), and since the prophecy reached far beyond his day, the
promise made to him extends to all faithful rulers whom God sets
over his church but can have its perfect fulfilment only in the
Messiah himself, of whom Zerubbabel was a type.

XI. ZECHARIAH.

20. Zechariah, the second and greatest prophet of the Restoration, calls
himself the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo (1:1). But in Ezra the
name of the father is omitted, perhaps as being less known, and he is
called simply the son of Iddo (chaps. 5:1; 6:14), the word son being
used in the general sense of descendant. There is no reason to doubt the
identity of this Iddo with the priest of that name who went up from
Babylon with Zerubbabel and Jeshua (Neh. 12:4); so that Zechariah, like
Jeremiah and Ezekiel, was of priestly descent. He began to prophesy two
months after Haggai (chap. 1:1 compared with Hag. 1:1), and the two
prophets were contemporary, at least for a short time.

21. The book of Zechariah may be naturally divided, according to its
contents, into three parts. The first six chapters constitute the
_first_ of these parts. After a short introductory message (1:1-6) there
follows a very remarkable series of visions relating to the
reestablishment of the Jews in their own land, and the future
dispensations of God towards them; the whole being closed by a symbolic
prophecy of Christ as both priest and king upon the throne of David. To
the _second_ part belong the prophecies contained in the seventh and
eighth chapters. The occasion of the first of these was a question
proposed to the prophet concerning the observance of a certain fast. He
first rebukes the people for their formality, and then proceeds to
encourage them in the way of duty, adding glorious promises respecting
the future prosperity of Judah and Jerusalem. The remaining six
chapters, constituting the _third_ part, appear to have been written at
a later time. They all relate to the future destinies of the covenant
people, and, through them, of the visible kingdom of God on earth. But
the first three of these chapters are mainly occupied with the nearer
future, yet with g