Upon the four and twentieth day of the eleventh month, which [is] the month Sebat, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the LORD unto Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet, saying,
Ver. 7. Upon the four and twentieth day of the eleventh month] The third month after the former prophecy, when the Jews probably had practised the doctrine of repentance, so earnestly pressed upon them; and had humbled themselves under the mighty hand of God, who was now ready to lift them up by this and the seven following most comfortable visions touching the restoration and reformation of the Church and State. The devil and his imps love to bring men into the briars, and there to leave them, as familiars forsake their witches when they have brought them once into fetters; as the priests left Judas the traitor, to look to himself, Matthew 27:4; and as the Papists cast off Cranmer, after that, by subscribing their articles, he had cast himself into such a wretched condition, that there was neither hope of a better nor place for a worse; ut iam nec honeste mori nec vivere inhoneste liceret (Melch. Ad. in Vita). But such is not God's manner of dealing with those that tremble at his word, and humble at his feet. Deiecit ut relevet, premit ut solatia praestet. He comforteth those that are cast down, 2 Corinthians 7:6, commandeth others to comfort the feebleminded, 1 Thessalonians 5:14, and noteth those that do not with a black-coal, Job 6:14, Nigro carbone notari. See the workings of his bowels, the rollings of his compassions, kindled into repentance toward his penitentiaries, Jer 31:20 Hosea 11:8 Isaiah 40:1,2. See how he comforts them with cordials according to the time wherein he had afflicted them, Psalms 90:15, and in the very thing wherein he had abased them; as he once dealt with their head, Philippians 2:7,8 .