Idols. — Better, as in margin, teraphim. (See on Judges 17:5.) Against the post-exilian origin of this passage, and of 13:2, it has been objected that idols and false prophets harmonise only with a time prior to the exile. It is true that after the captivity idolatry was not the sin to which the people were especially inclined, as they were in former times. Still, even if the prophet was not speaking of sins of the past, rather than those of his own day, it must be remembered that the marriage with heathen women, which is so often spoken of after the captivity, must have been, as was the case with Solomon, a continual source of danger in that respect. Moreover, idolatry, soothsaying, &c., were actually practised up to the time of the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus. Thus we read of false prophets who opposed Nehemiah (Nehemiah 6:10-14), and of “sorcerers” in Malachi 3:5, and so, too, of false prophets in Acts 5:36-37; Acts 13:6, &c., and at the destruction of Jerusalem (Josephus, Bel. Jud. vi. 5, §§ 2, 3). And in the wars of the Maccabees we read (2Ma. 12:40), “under the coats of every one that was slain they found things consecrated to the idols of the Jannites, which is forbidden the Jews by their law.”
And have told false dreams. — Better, and dreams tell that which is vain. The prophet had, doubtless, in mind the words of Jeremiah 14:22 : “Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain? or can the heavens give showers? Art not thou He, O Lord our God? therefore, we wait upon thee; for thou hast made all these things.” Zechariah refers here chiefly to those sins which had in former times caused their captivity. But such passages as Ezra 9; Nehemiah 13:23; Nehemiah 6:10; Nehemiah 6:12; Nehemiah 6:14, show that even after the restoration the people were in danger of falling into idolatry, and of being deceived by false prophets. (Comp. also Zechariah 13:2, and Note on Malachi 3:5.)
Went their way. — Better, migrated — viz., into captivity.
Troubled. — Or, humbled.
No shepherd. — i.e., none to guide and lead them aright. This is the interpretation which the context seems to require, and is in accordance with the use of the expression in Ezekiel 34:5; Ezekiel 34:8, as it is also our Lord’s application of the idea (Matthew 9:36; Mark 6:34); but some take “shepherd” here to mean native king. The paraphrase of the LXX., “because they had no healer” (meaning probably “because the True Shepherd of Israel had ceased to guide and protect them”) might possibly be defended.