12 "For the seed of peace and the vine will yield its fruit, and the ground will give its increase, and the heavens will give their dew; and I will cause the remnant of this people to inherit all these things.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
Here Zechariah promises the continuance of God's favor, which the Jews had now begun to taste. God then had in part openly showed that he was a Father to the Jews, by dealing liberally with them: but in order more fully to strengthen them in their perseverance, Zechariah says that this favor would be continued. And he says first, that there would be the seed of peace. Some think that it is called the seed of peace because the cultivation of the fields, while the assaults of enemies were dreaded, was deserted; no one dared to bring out his oxen or his horses, and then even when the husbandmen sowed their fields, it was not done as in seasons of quietness and security. As then the fields, when badly cultivated in times of war, do not produce a full crop, so they think that it is called the seed of peace, when husbandmen are permitted to employ necessary labor, when they are free from every fear, and devote securely their toils on the cultivation and the sowing of their fields. Others explain the seed of peace to be this -- that it is so when neither storms, nor tempests, nor mildew, nor any other evils do any harm to the corn and fruit. But as slvm, shelum, means often in Hebrew prosperity, we may so take it here, that it would be the seed of peace, that is, that the seed would be prosperous; and this interpretation seems to me less strained. It shall then be the seed of peace, that is, it shall prosper according to your labor; what is sown shall produce its proper fruit. [1] There is added an explanation -- The vine shall yield its fruit, and the earth shall yield its increase, and the heaven shall yield its dew. We hence conclude that it was called the seed of peace, because the husbandmen gained their object when the earth, irrigated by the dew of heaven, was not sterile, and when the produce was abundant, when there was plenty of corn and wine, and of other things. There is then peace or prosperity as to the seed, when the corn grows according to our wishes, and comes to maturity, and when heaven responds to the earth, and withholds not its dew, as we have seen in another place. In short, God testifies that the remnant of his people should abound in all good things, for the heaven would not withhold from them its rain, nor the earth shut up its bowels. But God ever recalls his people to himself, that they may depend on his blessing; for it would be a cold doctrine were we not persuaded of this -- that the earth is not otherwise fruitful than as God gives it the power of generating and of bringing forth. We ought therefore ever to regard the blessing of God, and to ask of him to supply us with food, and to pray him every day, as we are taught, to give us our daily bread. But few do this from the heart, and hardly one in a hundred so turns his thoughts to God's hand as firmly to believe that he daily receives from him his daily food. We now understand what the Prophet means in these words. It now follows --
1 - It is not easy to know the precise meaning of this phrase, capable as it is of various explanations. Jerome, Grotius, and Marckius consider "the remnant," mentioned in the preceding verse, as meant by the seed, "For the seed shall be peace," or peacable, instead of being rebellious as before. The verse, as stated by Marckius, may be thus rendered, -- For to the seed of peace Shall the vine yield its fruit, etc. But what seems most consonant with the whole passage, is to regard [zr] as meaning seed-time or sowing, (Genesis 8:22,) and to consider [slvm] to be, in its ordinary sense, as signifying peace or peacable. It was said before, in verse 10, that there was no peace to goers and comers, such as went forth to labor in the field: but now there was to be a different state of things. Then the version would be, -- 12. For the sowing-time will be peacable; The vine shall give its fruit, And the land shall give its increase, And the heavens shall give their dew: Yea, I will cause the remnant of this people To inherit all these things. But most follow Calvin's view: so do Newcome and Henderson. Blayney considers [zr] a participle, and construes the words in connection with the former verse, "I will not be to the residue of this people such as I was in former days," (that is, a sower of discord, as verse 10,) "but a sower of peace." This certainly makes the construction easier. -- Ed.
For the seed shall be peace - o"Your seed shall be peace and a blessing, so that they will call it 'a seed of peace.'" The unusual construction is perhaps adopted, in order to suggest a further meaning. It is a reversal of the condition, just spoken of, when there was "no peace to him that went, or to him that returned."
The vine shall give her fruit and the ground shall give her increase - The old promise in the law on obedience Leviticus 26:4, as the exact contrary was threatened on disobedience Leviticus 26:20. It had been revived in the midst of promise of spiritual blessing and of the coming of Christ, in Ezekiel Ezekiel 34:27. Ribera: "By the metaphor of sensible things he explains (as the prophets often do) the abundance of spiritual good in the time of the new law, as did Hosea Hosea 2:21-22, Joel Joel 2:23-25; Joel 3:18, Amos Amos 9:13, and many others." "And I will cause the remnant of the people to inherit." Ribera: "As if he said, I promised these things not to you who live now, but to the future remnant of your people, that is, those who shall believe in Christ and shall be saved, while the rest perish. These shall possess these spiritual goods, which I promise now, under the image of temporal." As our Lord said, "He that overcometh shall inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he shall be My son" Revelation 21:7.
For the seed shall be prosperous - Ye shall be a holy and peaceable people; and God will pour down his blessing on yourselves, your fields, and your vineyards.
For the seed shall be prosperous,.... Being cast into the earth, it shall spring up again, and produce a large increase; whereas before, though they sowed much, it came to little, Haggai 1:6,
the vine shall give her fruit; be loaded with clusters, and produce large quantities of wine; whereas before there was a drought upon the new wine; and where there were wont to be had fifty vessels out of the press, there were but twenty, Haggai 1:11,
and the ground shall give her increase; as usual, meaning of wheat and barley; whereas before there was a drought upon the corn, and where there used to be a heap of twenty measures, there were but ten, Haggai 1:11,
and the heavens shall give their dew; which makes the earth fruitful; whereas before the heaven over them was stayed from dew, and instead of it were blasting, mildew, and hail, Haggai 1:10,
and I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all these things; as a symbol of better things inherited by the remnant according to the election of grace; and who have the promise both of this life and that to come; and who, seeking in the first place spiritual things, have all others added to them, convenient for them.
seed . . . prosperous--that is, shall not fair to yield abundantly (Hosea 2:21-22; Haggai 2:19). Contrast with this verse Haggai 1:6, Haggai 1:9-11; Haggai 2:16.
dew--especially beneficial in hot countries where rain is rare.
*More commentary available at chapter level.