To perform the mercy. — The verse has been thought, and with apparent reason, to contain a reference, after the manner of the ancient prophets (comp. Isaiah 8:3; Micah 1:10-15), to the name of the speaker, of his wife, and of his child. In “performing mercy,” we find an allusion to John or Jochanan (= “The Lord be merciful”); in “remembering His holy covenant,” to the name Zacharias (= “Whom Jehovah remembers”); in the “oath” of Luke 1:73, to that of Elizabeth or Elisheba (= “The oath of my God”). The play upon the words would, of course, be obvious in the original Hebrew (i.e., Aramaic) of the hymn, which we have only in its Greek version.
His holy covenant. — The covenant is clearly that made with Abraham in Genesis 15:18. In thus going back to that as the starting-point of the New Covenant which was to be made in Christ, Zacharias anticipates the teaching of St. Paul in Galatians 3:15-19.