And said unto him, Run, speak to this young man, saying, Jerusalem shall be inhabited [as] towns without walls for the multitude of men and cattle therein:
Ver. 4. Run, speak to this young man] Not go, but run; yea, fly swiftly, with weariness of flight, as Daniel 9:21. Christ thinks it long ere his praying people hear from him. Only he will be inquired of by them, Ezekiel 36:37. Zechariah seems to have been a young prophet, and Christ remembered the kindness of his youth, and became a wonderful counsellor to him; he gave to this young man (or greenbeaded stripling) knowledge and discretion, Proverbs 1:4. Epiphanius saith he was an old man; and that he is called a young man because a client and disciple of the angel that communed with him. Where angels are called men it was no disparagement to Zechariah to call himself a lad, or servant, considering his distance. Thus Abraham's servant, though old, is called his boy, Genesis 24:52, by a catachresis. That is a good note that Mr Potable gives here, that the angel tells the prophet, but the prophet must tell the people; God using not the ministry of angels, but men earthen vessels, to bear his name to his people, Acts 8:27; Acts 9:6; Acts 16:9 .
Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls] Or shall dwell in towns without walls viz. in the suburbs or villages, there being not room enough within the walls to receive them. This seemed an incredible thing to this poor remnant now returned from Babylon. But it is the property and duty of believers to trust God upon his bare word; and that against sense in things visible, and against reason in things improbable.
For the multitude of men and cattle therein] That is, saith Augustine, of spiritual and carnal persons in the Church Catholic.