Commentary on Zechariah 1 part 17/24

The wailing oaks do not happen to be soulless plants, but, being raised up by allegory, they are souls of men and opposing powers.

It must not be ignored that the perceptible oaks sometimes signify all trees, and sometimes a certain species of tree.

For when we call all trees 'oaks,' we call him who cuts them a 'wood-cutter' (druotomos), and the things made from them we say are 'oaken' (druina); from which meaning we name the bound lattices 'palisades' (druphaktoi), and the fruits of the trees 'tree-fruits' (akrodrua).

In addition to what is generically named, there is a certain species of tree that happens to be the oak, as another is the cypress, the fir, the box-tree.

The doors of Lebanon, which the divine word commands to be opened, being blameworthy, are the same as the doors of death, concerning which in the ninth Psalm the hymn-singer says of God:

'You who lift me up from the gates of death.' Concerning these, as being the gates of wickedness, it is commanded to the wise man in proverbial fashion:

'Do not draw near to the doors of her houses,' and further concerning all false opinion and impiety:

'A foolish and bold woman becomes in need of a morsel, she who knows no shame;

for she sat upon a seat at the doors of her own house, openly calling to the passers-by into the broad streets.' From these doors he who has withdrawn far knocks at the doors concerning which the Saviour said:

'Knock, and it shall be opened to you,' concerning which Wisdom says in the Proverbs:

'Blessed is the man who shall listen to me, and the man who shall keep my ways, watching daily at my doors, keeping the posts of my entrances.' He who watches daily at these doors does not draw near to the doors of the personified harlot and foolish woman, nor to those of Lebanon which it is fitting to open, when the security that seems to be is dissolved, so that the things laid up within may be shown—what kind of deformity they have—that they may be hated and forsaken, no sober person willing to look upon them.

That the things said concerning the various trees are not spoken of soulless things may be observed both from many Scriptures, and especially the prophetic ones, an exposition of which has already been made in part;

but it suffices to make mention of one, the prophet Ezekiel, since Pharaoh and Assur are, as it were, trees.

And these are wicked powers—the one the tyrant of Egypt, the other of Assyria—having roots and offshoots raised up from much water, which the trees of the paradise of the delight of God emulated in imitation, having large branches, imitating firs and pines.

For how is it possible, even to the point of plausibility, to take it that perceptible trees emulate and imitate such great tyrants, in whose offshoots and branches all the birds nest and the wild beasts bring forth their young? But in order that the prophecy may become easy to survey, let us set forth some part of it, which runs thus:

'and its beginning came into the midst of the clouds;

water nourished it, the abyss raised it up, it led its rivers round about its plants, and it sent forth its streams to all the trees of the plain.

For this reason its greatness was exalted above all the trees of the plain, and its branches were multiplied and its offshoots were raised up from much water.

When it stretched itself out in its offshoots, all the birds of heaven nested, and under its branches all the beasts of the plain brought forth their young, in its shade dwelt all the multitude of the nations.

And it became beautiful in its height because of the multitude of its branches, for its roots reached down to abundant water.

And there were many cypresses in the paradise of God, and pine trees not like its shoots, and firs were not made like its branches;

no tree in the paradise of God was made like to it in its beauty, because of the multitude of its branches, and the trees of the paradise of God's delight envied it. The same things, or things closely akin to those spoken concerning Assur, have also been said in this manner concerning Pharaoh.

It must not be overlooked that most of our brethren refer Pharaoh and Assur to the devil, so that according to different conceptions the devil is at one time allegorized as Pharaoh and at another as Assur.

Let those who bring forward this interpretation say what the trees of paradise are that envied the devil—clearly not soulless things, but living, rational beings.

And it is nothing to marvel at if the names of trees are applied to rational living beings, seeing that the very Wisdom of God is at one time called the true vine, and at another the tree of life.

'A voice of shepherds wailing, for their majesty has been laid waste;'

'a voice of lions roaring, for the pride of the Jordan has been laid waste.'

The leaders of the peoples who rule in a priestly and teacherly manner are their shepherds, as of sheep, while those who preside in a kingly, or rather tyrannical, manner are the lions.

And since those who rule in both ways are called shepherds and lions, it is altogether necessary that their subjects be styled sheep and other cattle—the sheep having reference to the pasturing herdsmen, and the cattle to the lions.

At any rate it is said in Proverbs:

'A lion is stronger than the cattle, which turns away from nothing and cowers before no beast.' When those under the teachers—or rather false teachers—and under those who lie upon them as tyrants fall into misfortune, the shepherds wail, not because they spare the flocks, but because they are deprived of shameful gains and reprehensible pleasures; so that they might serve, not the God who gives the law and who has granted them rule, but their own belly.

Concerning the heterodox, the inspired Apostle writes, correcting the peoples of the Church:

'Do not be carried about by strange and diverse teachings;

for it is good that the heart be established by grace,' and again:

'For such teachers serve their own belly, and not Christ, deceiving through fair speech and flattery the hearts of the innocent,' who through their simplicity turn out to be as grazing cattle.

These, therefore, when they come to be in want of the pleasures they long for, wail, since the majesty they deludedly supposed themselves to possess has been laid waste;

and likewise those who rule with fury roar, when the Jordan has been laid waste, where they used to lie in ambush and conceal themselves, thinking to have shelter and safety through their ferocity.

Many trees having already been cut down and pulled up, as was recently said, the thick-grown forest is torn down.

It is possible to find many passages from Scripture signifying that those who preside cruelly and with savage fury are justly styled lions.

For instance, in the prophet Jeremiah both the savage-tempered ruler of Babylon and the tyrant of Assyria are called lions:

'Israel is a straying sheep; lions have driven him out;

first the king of Assur devoured him, and afterward the king of Babylon devoured his bones.' In this same sense one must also take what is said in the fifty-seventh Psalm concerning men and evil powers, as follows:

'Their fury is according to the likeness of the serpent, like that of a deaf asp that stops its ears, which will not hear the voice of the charmer, nor of the enchantment charmed by the wise.'

'God has broken their teeth in their mouth; the Lord has shattered the jaws of the lions.' For we do not suppose anyone to be so foolish as to imagine that only the jaws of visible lions are broken by God, while their whole bodies remain unharmed.

Thus says the Lord Almighty:

'Feed the sheep of the slaughter, which their owners slew and were not sorry, and those who sold them said:

Blessed be the Lord, for we have grown rich; and their shepherds felt no pity at all over them.'

Of those appointed to instruct and shepherd the rational flock, some preside according to the will of God, but others impiously and in error.

Concerning both orders of herdsmen it is possible to gather testimonies from Scripture.

Concerning those who commendably fulfill the oversight entrusted to them, it is said by God:

'I will give them'—clearly to the flocks—'shepherds after my own heart, and they will shepherd them, tending them with knowledge.'

Concerning those who thus rule the flock with knowledge, the Christ-bearing Apostle makes mention of teachers and evangelists set in the Church along with apostles and prophets.

And perhaps the apostles and prophets, teachers and evangelists, are those who instruct the assembly of Christ with knowledge and understanding, while the shepherds are those who lead a practical life and preside over good works, rendering the faith and the convictions of Christians not loftily; whereas those who stand diametrically opposed to the knowing shepherds through their baseness are named impious;

God at any rate says concerning them and concerning those who work other kinds of wickedness:

'Where is the Lord? And those who held to my law knew me not, and the shepherds acted impiously against me,' and what follows.

Those who thus act impiously turn out to be fornicators as well, being perhaps also licentious, but not least also joining themselves to the demons who insinuate divergent and monstrous doctrines and to the wisdoms of the rulers of this age.

For instance, those who did not see fit to have God in their knowledge, being given over to a reprobate mind, do the things that are not fitting, madly inflamed licentiously against one another, males committing shameful acts with males; and their females too, having abandoned the natural use of the female, both suffer contrary to nature, and moreover women rage after women in fornicating fashion. In addition to their perceptibly licentious conduct, the shepherds who act impiously against God commit lewdness with evil powers as well, according to what is said in the Psalms to the Giver of piety:

'Behold, those who set themselves far from you shall perish; you have utterly destroyed everyone who fornicates away from you.'

'But as for me, to cleave to God is good.' Concerning the impious herdsmen it is set forth in Jeremiah, being proclaimed to the fornicating soul:

'And you got yourself many shepherds as a stumbling-block to yourself,' and further:

'You committed fornication with many shepherds;

and you turned back feignedly to me, says the Lord.' When the good herdsmen have been distinguished from the worst, a commandment is given to the knowing ones, running thus:

'Feed the sheep of the slaughter'—either those already slain, or those deserving to suffer this, or those unjustly plotted against—

saying to the beneficent God:

'For your sake we are put to death all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter,' and further:

'You have given us as sheep for food.' For they are slaughtered by those who preside lawlessly for no other reason than that they may be devoured by those concerning whom it is said:

'When men rose up against us, they would then have swallowed us alive'; but they failed in their murderous zeal, so that those who were delivered say in thanksgiving:

'Blessed be the Lord, who has not given us as prey to their teeth.' Those who seem to be owners and not shepherds of the flock entrusted to them, slaughtering the sheep with the sword—and this is their sophistical word that champions impious doctrines—were not sorry, not repenting of the things they did in robber-like and murderous fashion.

Indeed, selling as their own what is not theirs, they shamelessly boast in their audacity of having grown rich; whereas the herdsmen who are eager to please the All-Sovereign who entrusted them with the flock neither slaughter nor sell the rational sheep committed to them, that they might unjustly grow rich out of greed and shameful gains.

So that no such abominable thing might befall through carelessness those who preside over the Church, Peter, the chief of the apostles, exhorts, writing thus:

'I exhort the elders among you to shepherd the flock among you, not by constraint but willingly, not lording it over the allotted charges, that when the chief-priest shepherd Christ Jesus is manifested, you may receive the unfading crown of glory'—those who lord it over Christ's sheep being clearly negligent shepherds, selling the divine flocks for the sake of shameful gains, so that they cry out:

'We have grown rich,' devouring those whom they destroy through stumbling-blocks.

When the peoples—allegorically called sheep—were thus harmed and brought to ruin, their falsely named shepherds felt nothing over them, having no fellow-feeling with the flock, according to him who says:

'Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is caused to stumble, and I am not inflamed?' Into this love the divine instructors are led by the Savior, who became their pattern, so that the God-wise evangelist John addresses those who are devout according to Christ:

'Because that One'—and it is clear that it is Christ—'laid down his soul as a ransom for us, we too ought to lay down our souls for one another.' Those who are of such a mind toward those who embrace and hold the same things are brother-loving and full of fellow-feeling, and they stand opposed to those who slaughter the sheep entrusted to them, who say with audacity:

'We have grown rich; through shameful gain we have acquired sheep which, devouring, we suffer nothing at all over them.'

'Therefore I will no longer spare those who dwell in the land, says the Lord; and behold, I deliver up men, each into the hand of his neighbor and into the hand of his king, and they shall cut down the land, and I will by no means deliver out of their hand.

And I will feed the sheep of the slaughter in the land of Canaan.'

Since those who were entrusted with the care of the rational sheep despised them, so as neither to have fellow-feeling nor to take thought for their salvation, but rather to sell them to strangers for shameful gain, the Lord Almighty threatens no longer to spare the land—that is, those who dwell upon it—the weaker being handed over to those who tyrannize on account of the strength and cruelty they think they possess, so that all upon the land are cut down, men being each delivered into the hands of their neighbors and into the hands of their king, who no longer presides lawfully but tyrannically.

God holds these things forth by way of threat, so that through fear of what is expected, those against whom the threat is directed may cease from sinning.

For God will never fail to spare his own works, as the all-virtuous Wisdom of Solomon says:

'O lover of souls, abhorring nothing of what you have made, for neither did you make anything in hatred. For you created all things unto being, and the generations of the world are for salvation.' Having experience of this surpassing goodness of him who composed all things and provides for the whole, those who serve him offer intercession on behalf of the people, saying:

'Spare, O Lord, your people, and give not your inheritance to reproach, that the nations should rule over them, lest the nations say:

Where is their God?'

And to such a degree did the cause and guardian of all spare the human race, that on behalf of all he gave up his own Son unto death, that he might ransom those who had died, being subjected to the reign of death.

Being an initiator into this surpassing salvation, the Apostle writes concerning God:

'He who did not even spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him graciously give us all things?' Sparing us, he did not spare his Son;

for he is impassible and destructive of all harm, whereas we are mortal and subject to sufferings.

Wherefore, had he spared his Son, not delivering him up on behalf of all to taste death, we would have remained in the destruction that prevailed through the transgression of the divine commandment; but in order that we might be set free, the guardian delivered up his own Son, who was to suffer no harm from dying, being shown forth as the Savior of all when delivered up on their behalf.

This being so, when God says:

'I will no longer spare those who dwell upon the earth,' He admonishes by the fear of a threat, so that they may not fall under punishment, but may come to be outside the sin that has held sway over them, no longer subject to chastisement.

He makes plain the manner of His no longer sparing, declaring that He delivers men into the hands of their neighbours and into the hands of the wicked king whom they have chosen, so that the land is cut to pieces, since those who die as men rise up against one another.

These are they who walk according to the flesh in strife and envy.

Men who come to be in such a state are delivered into the hands of those demons whom they have had as neighbours, on account of their love of pleasure and their material disposition.

For then above all can they be admonished, when they have been delivered to those whom they considered friends and neighbours, having experienced their cruelty and savagery;

and they will also flee from the one who ruled over them tyrannically, having gained experience of his harshness.

Indeed, the people of the Hebrews at that time longed to be freed from the insolence of the Egyptians, having come to know the toilsomeness and the harshness of their oversight.

When the land is cut to pieces, that is, when those dwelling upon it accordingly rise up in revolt, God shepherds the sheep of the slaughter into the land of Canaan, the punishment that has been prepared.

It has been said before as well that the sheep of the slaughter are those who are ready to suffer and those already slaughtered, when we took up that which is proclaimed by the afflicted to the Benefactor of all:

'Thou hast given us as sheep for food,' and again:

'We were counted as sheep for the slaughter.' Consider whether the shepherding of the sheep of the slaughter into the land of Canaan — which is interpreted as 'prepared' — signifies something praiseworthy, since perhaps those who are governed through hardship are being led into a salvation not to be repented of, wrought by sufferings brought upon them for their instruction; concerning which the divinely-inspired Apostle Paul writes, inscribing these words:

'Godly sorrow works repentance unto a salvation not to be repented of, whereas the sorrow of the world brings forth death;'

wherefore the latter must be shunned, but the godly sorrow must be pursued, for it brings a salvation not to be repented of, according to God.

(11:7): 'And I will take for myself two rods — the one I called Beauty, and the other I called Line — and I will shepherd the sheep.'

'And I will cut off the three shepherds in one month, and my soul shall be grieved over them, for indeed their souls raged against me.'

He announces the matter of the two rods which He has taken for Himself.

Nothing else is signified in the passage before us by the rods than sceptres of rule, or rather of kingship, being their symbols.

Since, then, the whole race of men is divided into the people from the circumcision and into the Church called from among the nations, the God of Jews and of nations, being at once their Saviour and King, took for Himself the two sceptres, so that out of both He might make one kingdom.

The prophecy will be understood from an evangelical saying;

for just as one kingdom under one king was manifested from nations and Jews who believed, so also one flock under one Shepherd, the true one who laid down His life for the sheep.

The evangelical utterance, proclaimed by the Saviour, runs thus:

'And I have other sheep which are not of this fold;'

'those also I must gather, and they will hear my voice, so that there may be one flock and one shepherd' — saying that there are other sheep, not of the Jewish fold, but those from among the nations who believe in the gospel.

It is the same thing for the two flocks to come to be under one shepherd, as for the two sceptres to come under the same king.

And when will this be fulfilled, except when that saying attains its fulfilment:

'Rejoice, O nations, with His people'? The saying might also be expressed otherwise:

'And I have other sheep which are not of this fold' — the fold being called that of the sheep of the world about the earth, in which those who still bear the body abide, while the souls departed from it dwell for the time being in the subterranean place; whom the good Shepherd gathers, having come to them when He died on behalf of all, so that He might be Lord of both living and dead.

But if One is Lord of the dead and the living by royal power and shepherdly skill, then the two flocks and kingdoms have been shown to be one.

And what will follow, once this has been accomplished, except that the rule of many will pass away, when the true Shepherd has cut off the three shepherds who ruled wickedly in one month, that is, at one and the same time and in a single revolution?

But who are the three flock-leaders that are cut off must be examined.

The priestly order of the Jews, and those called by them the unjust prophets, and those who reigned from Jeroboam onward.

For all these proved to be causes of harm to those they ruled.

'Priests have hidden the way of the Lord, they have murdered at Shechem, they have wrought lawlessness in Israel;' and still, in the same prophet:

'Israel shall be afflicted like the prophet gone astray.' It is possible to find, concerning the lawless kingdom that split the people of God, many things written, among which is also that which runs thus:

'Hear this, O priests, and house of the king, give ear, for the judgement is against you, because you have become a snare to the watch-tower, and like a net spread out over Itabyrion.' Against those who thus wickedly ruled, holy Jeremiah too cries out most reprovingly, in the person of God the King of all:

'Where is the Lord? And those who held fast to the law did not know me, and the prophets prophesied unjust things, and the shepherds acted impiously against me, and they went after what is unprofitable.' Consider whether by the shepherds who act impiously against Him He means the kings of Israel, who are other than the priests and prophets.

Nor should one give up saying that the false teachers too are shepherds acting impiously against God.

The three shepherds thus understood are cut off in one month by the truly great High Priest Jesus, who has passed through the heavens, being a true prophet, concerning whom the divine foretelling was uttered:

'The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet from among your brethren.' Besides being High Priest and prophet, He is also King, as the Father says concerning Him:

'I raised Him up as king, and all His ways are straight;'

And He Himself, then, speaking concerning Himself as the one who builds the spiritual city of God and redeems the people, says:

'But I was established as king by Him upon Zion His holy mountain, proclaiming the decree of the Lord.' In addition to what has been contemplated concerning the three shepherds, one must note that there are three blameworthy shepherds cut off, namely those who act impiously against the Trinity.

For some of them have a strong inclination toward impiety against the Father, others against the Son, and yet others against the Holy Spirit.

And perhaps those who hold the notion of a Son-Father hold a false opinion against the Father, depriving the Father — as far as their impiety goes — of the Only-begotten Son, who is God the Word, both Wisdom and Truth; those who suppose Him to be from things non-existent and a creature holding, first and foremost, a false opinion concerning His own Offspring.

And there are also those who fight against the Spirit, glorifying Him as though He were one of the creatures.

And the three orders of those who are deceived hold godless opinions concerning the Trinity, except that each one, as has already been said, has a different impious inclination.

And these impious shepherds too will be cut off in one month;

for the false teaching holds its promise only up to the present temporal life, and it will be dissolved when the perfect illumination of the true light comes, after the present evil age and the transient life, upon which alone those who hope are of all men most to be pitied.

And the cutting off of the three wicked flock-leaders comes about because the soul of the King who threatens these things is grieved over them, since they do things hateful to Him.

But His soul is spoken of in several ways.

In one, the obvious sense, it is that which He has as a perfect man, which He lays down so that He may take it again.

He has, then, laid it down, having given it as a ransom for many, so that John, the initiator into the mysteries of the truth, writes concerning Him thus:

'That He laid down His life for us;'

'and we ought to lay down our lives for one another;'

and He took it up again, having risen from the dead, it not having been forsaken in Hades.

According to another contemplation, the soul of the Saviour who says these things is every man made His own so as to be styled a man in Christ, so that it makes no difference to say concerning this that a man is also a soul of God.

For Elijah, being styled a man of God, might also be called a soul of God;

likewise also Moses the hierophant, and any other who partakes of the same holiness and virtue.

But there is no need of many testimonies at present, since demonstration has already often been given;

for it suffices to take up the utterance of Paul and of Peter.

'Let every soul' — that is, man — 'be subject to the higher authorities;' and the other:

'That is, eight souls were saved' — calling the eight souls those saved in the ark during the flood: Noah and his three sons, and his wife and the three who lived with his sons.

The soul of God, so called, is grieved over the three shepherds who are done away with in one month, being indignant together with the Saviour who cuts them off.

But the cutting off of them comes about because, out of savagery, their souls raged like lions against the true Shepherd.

The cruelty of the shepherds having been circumscribed, the good flock-leader says to the sheep destroyed by the wicked shepherds, 'I will not shepherd you,' by way of threat — especially because they were still under the hurtful ones;

for they had not yet been done away with;

for the phrase 'I will cut off the three shepherds' shows that they were still, at that very moment, set over the flocks that had been led astray by them.

But in what manner and for what reason the one of the rods is called Beauty, and the other Line, may be made clear in what is very soon to be set forth.

But now it is necessary to say, with God's help:

(11:9): 'Let that which dies, die; and let that which fails, fail; and let the remnant devour, each one the flesh of his neighbour.'

When the good herdsman presides over the flock, each of the sheep is tended in the manner that it ought to be.

So then the Lord Jesus straightway says:

'My sheep hear my voice, and they follow me, and I give to them eternal life, and they shall never perish for ever'; so that each of those who complete the divine flock cries aloud concerning the chief of the flock:

'The Lord shepherds me, and nothing shall I lack.'

'In a place of green pasture, there he made me to dwell; beside the water of rest he nourished me; he restored my soul.'

'He guided me on the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.' Thus, when the rational flocks are so presided over, yet through their own slothfulness are abandoned by him who says:

'I will not shepherd you,' the very contrary has befallen the flocks, so that thereafter that which dies dies, being removed from the shepherd who says concerning his own sheep:

'I came that they might have life and might have it in abundance, since I lay down my soul on behalf of the sheep.' Besides that which dies dying, that which fails also shall fail, being made desolate of protection, so that each of those who have fallen away from the fitting pasture devours the flesh of his neighbour, having turned to savagery.

The Church of the Galatians having fallen under this same brutality, it is fittingly written to it by the apostle Paul:

'If you bite and devour one another, take heed lest you be consumed by one another.' Concerning those thus made bestial against him, the psalmist sings: