In that day, saith the LORD of hosts, will I take thee, O Zerubbabel, my servant, the son of Shealtiel, saith the LORD, and will make thee as a signet: for I have chosen thee, saith the LORD of hosts.
Ver. 23. I will take thee, O Zerubbabel] That is, O Christ, of whom Zerubbabel was both a father and a figure, Luk 3:27 Zechariah 4:10 "I will take thee," that is, I will advance and exalt thee. See this expounded and applied by that great apostle, Philippians 2:5,12 .
And will make thee as a signet] That is, I will highly esteem thee, inviolably keep thee, and entirely love thee, Son 8:6 Jeremiah 22:24, and all my people in thee, and for thee, Isaiah 49:16 .
For I have chosen thee] As Isaiah 42:1. Quoniam in te mihi complacui, saith the Chaldee. For in thee I am well pleased, as Matthew 3:17. See the note there.
Saith the Lord of hosts] This is three different times set down in this one verse, for our greater assurance and confirmation of our faith. I shall close up all with that observation of divines, that all the prophets (except Jonah and Nahum) expressly end in some prophecy concerning Christ. He being their mark at which all of them chiefly aimed. Indeed, he is both mark and matter of both Old and New Testament. And therefore if we profit in teaching, hearing, reading, we must have the eye of our mind turned toward Christ, as the faces of the cherubims were toward the mercy-seat. Do this, if ever you will do well.