blood (as that which when shed causes death) of man or… · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
covenant
בְּרִיתֵ֗ךְbe.ri.Tekh
H1285
a compact (because made by passing between pieces of fl… · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person feminine singular
forth
שִׁלַּ֤חְתִּיshi.Lach.ti
H7971
to send away · verb, piel perfect, 1st person common singular
prisoners
אֲסִירַ֙יִךְ֙'a.si.Ra.yikh
H615
bound · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person feminine singular
pit
מִבּ֔וֹרmi.Bor
H953
a pit hole (especially one used as a cistern or a priso… · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
water
מַ֖יִםMa.yim
H4325
water · noun, common masculine plural absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Isaiah 51:14 The captive exile hasteneth that he may be loosed, and that he should not die in the pit, nor that his bread should fail.
Exodus 24:8 And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the LORD hath made with you conc…
Psalms 102:19-21 For he hath looked down from the height of his sanctuary; from heaven did the LORD behold the earth;
Isaiah 42:7 To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.
Matthew 26:28 For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.
Psalms 40:2 He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.
Isaiah 49:9 That thou mayest say to the prisoners, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Shew yourselves. They shall feed in the ways, and their pastu…
1 Corinthians 11:25 After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Zechariah 9:9-11
That here begins a prophecy of the Messiah and his kingdom is plain from the literal accomplishment of the ninth verse in, and its express application to, Christ's riding in triumph into Jerusalem, Mat 21:5; Joh 12:15.
I. Here is notice given of the approach of the Messiah promised, as matter of great joy to the Old Testament church: Behold, thy king cometh unto thee. Christ is a king, invested with regal powers and prerogatives, a sovereign prince, an absolute monarch, having all power both in heaven and on earth. He is Zion's king. God has set him upon his holy hill of Zion, Psa 2:6. In Zion his glory as a king shines; thence his law went forth, even the word of the Lord. In the gospel-chu…
As for thee also--that is, the daughter of Zion," or "Jerusalem" (Zac 9:9): the theocracy. The "thee also," in contradistinction to Messiah spoken of in Zac 9:10, implies that besides cutting off the battle-bow and extending MESSIAH'S "dominion to the ends of the earth," God would also deliver for her her exiled people from their foreign captivity.
by the blood of thy covenant--that is, according to the covenant vouchsafed to thee on Sinai, and ratified by the blood of sacrifices (Exo 24:8; Heb 9:18-20).
pit wherein . . . no water--Dungeons were often pits without water, miry at the bottom, such as Jeremiah sank in when confined (Gen 37:24; Jer 38:6). An image of the misery of the Jewish…
As for thee also (Jerusalem) by the blood of thy covenant - The covenant made with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the Israelites in general, and ratified by the blood of many victims; until the time should come in which the Messiah should shed his blood, as typified by the ancient sacrifices.
I have sent forth thy prisoners - Those who were under the arrest of God's judgments; the human race, fast bound in sin and misery, and who by the pitifulness of his tender mercy were loosed, he dying in their stead.
The Church Fathers
The sun was darkened because of the Sun of justice. The rocks were rent because of "the spiritual rock." Tombs were opened, and the dead arose, because of him who was "free among the dead." He "sent forth his prisoners out of the pit, wherein there is no water." Do not be ashamed, then, of the Crucified, but say with confidence, "He bears our sins and carries our sorrows, and by his bruises we are healed." Let us not be ungrateful to our Benefactor. Again, "For the wickedness of my people was he led to death; and I shall give the ungodly for his burial, and the rich for his death." And Paul says clearly "that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day, according to the Scriptures."
It was fitting that the herald of his resurrection is reported to have been sitting, so that by sitting he might prefigure him who, having triumphed over the author of death, would ascend to his seat in the everlasting kingdom. Concerning this he said a little later, as he appeared to his disciples, "All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me"; and the evangelist Mark says, "The Lord, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at God's right hand." [The angel] was sitting upon the stone with which the tomb was closed, but which had been rolled away, to teach that [Christ] had cast down and triumphed over the closed places of the lower world by his power, so that he might lift up to the light and the rest of paradise all of his own whom he found there, according to the prophet's [statement], "You also because of the blood of your covenant, have led your prisoners back from the pit, in which there is no water."
(Verse 11, 12.) You also, in the blood of your covenant, have sent forth your prisoners from the pit in which there is no water. Return to the stronghold, you prisoners of hope. Even today I declare that I will restore double to you. LXX: And you, by the blood of your covenant, have sent forth your prisoners from the pit that has no water. You shall sit in the stronghold, prisoners of the assembly, and for one day of your journey I will restore double to you. After the prophet's message, or rather God the Almighty Father Himself, has announced to Zion and Jerusalem that her king will come to them, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey, and his dominion will be from sea to sea and from the rivers to the ends of the earth, he addresses Christ Himself, of whom the prophecy is, and speaks: You also, in the blood of your covenant or pact, have sent forth your prisoners from the pit, in which there is no water. It is understood in this way: In the blood of your passion, you freed those who were held captive in the prison of hell, where there is no mercy, through your mercy. Finally, after the Lord rose, those who were held captive by the sins of Adam, or, as some would have it, the stains of error, and the chains of death, rose with him and appeared in the holy city. Concerning this blood of the covenant, he himself, indicating his coming passion, said to the disciples: Take and drink from this all of you: for this is the chalice of the new testament in my blood (Matthew 26:27-28). In this prefiguration, a lake that does not have water, Joseph was sent by his brothers into the lake (Gen. XXXVII): and Daniel (Dan. VI) and Jeremiah by the Chaldeans and the people of Judah: Benaiah also went down into the lake in the time of snow and cold, to kill a lion there (II Sam. XXIII, 20). But Jeremiah was not thrown into the water of the lake; rather, he was thrown into the mire and mud of the lake, which could suffocate him more than refresh one who was thirsty (Jerem. XXXVII and XXXVIII). Where it is written in the psalm: I am stuck in the mire of the deep, and there is no substance (Ps. LXVIII). In this lake of hell, that once rich man with a purple robe dwelled, whose boastful tongue was consumed by the fires of punishment, and he had no refreshment of any waters to such an extent that he begged for the cooling of water from the tip of the poor…
Dictionary and topics
Cave — There are numerous natural caves among the limestone rocks of Syria, many of which have been artificially enlarged for various purposes. The first notice of a cave occurs in the history of Lot (Gen.…
Prisons · Dungeons attached to — Dungeons attached to
Punishments · Secondary kinds of: Confinement in a dungeon — Secondary kinds of: Confinement in a dungeon
Water · Necessary to the comfort and happiness of man — Necessary to the comfort and happiness of man
Wells · Often afforded no water — Often afforded no water
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
John Gill on Zechariah 9:11
As for thee also,.... These words are not spoken to Christ, for "thee", is of the feminine gender; but the congregation of Israel, as Kimchi observes; or the church of God: nor are they the words of Christ to her; he is the person before spoken of; but of God the Father, who, having given out prophecies concerning the coming of Christ, and the peaceableness and extensiveness of his kingdom, declares to the church the benefits that she and those that belonged to her should receive by the incarnation, sufferings, and death of Christ:
by the blood of thy covenant; not of the covenant of works, nor of circumcision, nor of that that was made at Sinai, as the Jewish writers interpret it; all whi…
Zechariah 9:11
11. As for thee also, by the blood of thy covenant I have sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water.
11. Etiam tu, in sanguine foederis, tui emisi vinctos tuos e puteo, in quo non erat aqua.
Here he applies his former doctrine to its right use, so that the faithful might emerge from their sorrow, and come to that joy which he had before encouraged them to entertain. He then addresses Jerusalem, as though he had said, "There is no reason for thee to torment thyself with perplexed and anxious thoughts, for I will accomplish what I have promised -- that I would become a deliverer to my people." For this doubt might have occurred to them -- "Why does he exhort…
Israel's Redemption from Captivity, and Victory over the Heathen. - Zac 9:11. "Thou also, for the sake of thy covenant blood, I release thy captives out of the pit wherein there is no water. Zac 9:12. Return to the fortress, ye prisoners of hope. Even to-day I proclaim: Double will I repay to thee." This is addressed to the daughter Zion, i.e., to all Israel, consisting of Ephraim and Judah. We not only learn this from the context, since both of them are spoken of before (Zac 9:10) and afterwards (Zac 9:13); but it is also obvious from the expression bedam berı̄thēkh, since the covenant blood belonged to all Israel of the twelve tribes (Exo 24:8). גּם־אתּ stands at the head absolutely, on a…
The covenant . . . sealed with blood probably refers to the blood sacrifice that sealed the Mosaic covenant (Exod 24:8). • The prisoners were Jews still living as exiles in Mesopotamia after the Babylonian exile. The Jews who remained in Persia and Babylon were spiritual exiles because they lived outside the Promised Land of spiritual blessing and rest (see Deut 12:10). One of the Messiah’s defining activities would be to free prisoners (Isa 61:1; Luke 4:17-22; Rom 7:6; Eph 4:8).
Rashi on Zechariah 9:11
You, too shall be saved with him, as he is just and victorious. For with the blood of your covenant, I prophesied for you for the future; and for now, too, from the Babylonian exile in which you are now found.
with the blood of your covenant With the merit of the blood of the covenant that was sprinkled upon you at Sinai, as it is written (Exod. 24:8): “Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made.”
I have freed your prisoners from the exile.
