Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man [that is] my fellow, saith the LORD of hosts: smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered: and I will turn mine hand upon the little ones.
Ver. 7. Awake, O sword, against my shepherd] A powerful expression, containing a commission given out to the sword by way of apostrophe.
Awake] Or, up, as the Septuagint; up and about, thou that hast long lain locked up in the scabbard. Thus the sword is of God's sending; it is "bathed in heaven," Isa 34:5 Eze 14:17 Jeremiah 47:6,7. It is he that awakes it and sets it on work; he commands it, Amos 9:4, and ordereth it, Jeremiah 50:25. Let this patient us under it, as it did Job, Job 1:15; Job 1:17; Job 1:21. Among philosophies the most noted sect for patience was that of the Stoics, who ascribed all to destiny.
O sword] Framea, which seems to come of ρομφαια (the Septuagint's word here), by putting φ before ρ; or Gladie, which comes a clade, from destruction; like as the Hebrew word Chereb, from desolating and laying waste. Hence the sword is said to "contemn the rod," Ezekiel 21:10; Ezekiel 21:13, that is, all lighter and lesser judgments, which are but its forerunners, and whereof it seems to say, What does this silly rod do here? Will not men stoop? Let me come: I will make them either bend or break; either yield, or I will have their blood.
Against my shepherd] i.e. Saith Calvin, against magistrates and ministers, God's under shepherds and associates in feeding the flock, labourers together with him, 1 Corinthians 3:9. But because Christ is the great Shepherd, Hebrews 13:20, and "the good Shepherd," John 10:11, Optimus maximus, that is, God's fellow companion, and yet, suspending his glory, became a man, to seek him out a flock in the wilderness; and afterwards laid down his life for his sheep, John 10:11, underwent the deadly dint of God's devouring sword put into the hands of those men of God's hand, Psalms 17:13, who put him to many a little death all his life long, and at length to that cursed and cruel death of the cross: at which time the Shepherd was smitten and the sheep scattered, as this text is most fitly applied, Matthew 26:31; therefore I understand it chiefly of Christ, the chief Shepherd and Bishop of our souls, who "was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities," &c., Isaiah 53:5. And this not by chance, or malice of his enemies only (though they laid upon him without mercy, nailing him to the tree in the hands and feet, which in all men are the most sensitive parts of the body, as being fullest of nerves and sinews, but in him much more as being of the finest temperature and most exquisite sense), but by the determinate counsel of God, as St Peter shows those kill-Christs, Acts 2:28, and according to the Scriptures, that went before of him, and foretold all his passion, even to the casting of the dice upon his clothes, Psa 22:1-31 Isaiah 53:1,12, by the reading of which lively description of Christ's sufferings in that chapter, Johannes Isaac, a Jew, confesseth that he was converted to the faith of Christ, Hoc ego ingenue confiteor, ait ille, caput illud ad fidem Christi me adduxisse. He is called God's Shepherd, because God anointed and appointed him to that office, putting a charge into his hands, John 10:1,18; John 17:13,21, that he might tend them and tender them, and at length return them up again to his heavenly Father, without loss of any one. He is also called the Man by an excellence, that matchless man the chief of ten thousand; as his mother is called hagnalma, that famous virgin, whom all generations are bound to call blessed. He is Man God, both in one; and is therefore also called God's fellow, or mate, as being consubstantial to the Father according to the Godhead, and very near akin to him according to the manhood, by reason of the hypostatical union of both natures into one person; the man Christ Jesus.
Smite the shepherd] That that blessed fountain of his blood mentioned Zec 13:1 may be opened, and the flock of God washed and healed and satiated, as the people were at the time when the rock was smitten and so set abroach; and as when God clave a hollow place in the jaw bone of the ass, so that there came water thereout, Samson drank and was revived, Judges 15:19; and as when the alabaster box of ointment was broken all the house was filled with a sweet savour.
And the sheep shall be scattered] Scattered and scattered; shifting for themselves, and leaving Christ to the mercy of his enemies, who seized upon him, as so many carrion kites a upon a silly dove. Thomas (who once said, Come, lest us go die with him) disappears and is lost; Peter follows aloof off, but better he had been further off; John (if at least it were he) flees away stark naked for haste; Judas comes nearer to him, but to betray him with a kiss. But is this thy kindness to thy friend? Christ had indented with the enemy beforehand for their security, John 18:8, so that they needed not have retreated so disorderly, and scattered as they did. But "the fear of man bringeth a snare," Proverbs 29:25. Howbeit, man's badness cannot break off the course of Christ's goodness. For though they thus unworthily forsake him, and leave him at the worst (as they say), yet I will turn my hand, saith he, upon the little ones, i.e. I will recollect my dispersed flock (how little soever either for number, or respect in the world) and bring back my banished. So soon doth it repent the good Lord concerning his servants. He remembereth not iniquity for ever, saith the prophet, because mercy pleaseth him; and again, "He remembereth us in our low estates; for his mercy endureth for ever," Mic 7:18 Psalms 136:23. He looked back upon Peter when his mouth was now big swollen with oaths and execrations, and set him a weeping bitterly. He called for Thomas after his resurrection, and confirmed his weak faith by a wonderful condescension. He sealed up his love to them all again, restoring them to their ministerial employment; and not so much as once upbraiding them with their base dereliction but only with their unbelief. Lyra and other sense the text thus: I will turn my hand upon the little ones, that is, I will so smite the Shepherd Christ, that not only the sheep shall be scattered, but the little lambs also, even the least and lowest Christians, shall have their share of sufferings, shall feel the weight of my hand, shall pledge the Lord Christ in that cup of afflictions that I have put into his hand shall be conformed to the linage of God's Son as his co-sufferers, that he may be the firstborn among many brethren, Romans 8:29. And this was fulfilled in the persecutions that followed soon after our Saviour's death. Eccle sia haeres crucis, saith Luther; and Persecution est Evangelii genius, saith Calvin. Persecution is the black angel that dogs the Church, the red horse that follows the white at the heels. And the comfort is, that God's holy hand hath special stroke in all those afflictions, that are laid upon his faithful people, "I will turn mine hand."
a A bird of prey of the family Falconidae and subfamily Milvinae, having long wings, tail usually forked, and no tooth in the bill. ŒD