That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.
Ver. 35. From the blood of righteous Abel] God reckons of men by their righteousness, Rom 10:4-6 The righteous (let him dwell where he will and by whom) is better than his neighbour, saith Solomon. This was Cain's grief, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother; and wherefore slew he him, but because his own works were evil and his brother's righteous? So Alphonsus Diazius, that Cain the second, slew his brother John, because he could not win him to Popery, 1 John 3:12. And I would this patriarch of the devil (as one calls Cain) did not still live in his sons and successors, who carry about his club that is red with Abel's blood, Imo ut rem sacram odorant et venerantur, think they do a goodly act in killing up the poor lambs of Christ. Caesar is said to have slain Grecinus Julius, for this reason alone, for that he was a better man than that it was for the tyrant's behoof to suffer him to live, Quod melior vir erat quam esse quenquam tyranno expediret. (Senec. 2, de Benefic.)
Unto the blood of Zacharias] Most unworthily slain by his pupil Joas (as Linus likewise was by his scholar Hercules for a few sharp words that he gave him as he was teaching him). a Our Saviour instanceth in this Zechariah as the last prophet mentioned in the Scripture to have been slain by them, 2 Chronicles 24:20,22, though they slew many more, not elsewhere mentioned, unless it be in that little Book of Martyrs, as one fitly calleth the eleventh to the Hebrews.
a Cum ille Herculem verbulo asperiore inter erudiendum affatus esset, &c. Bucholcer.