زكريا ١٢:١١

In Zac 12:11-14 the magnitude and universality of the mourning are still further depicted. Zac 12:11. "In that day the mourning in Jerusalem will be great, like the mourning of Hadad-rimmon in the valley of Megiddo. Zac 12:12. And the land will mourn, every family apart; the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart. Zac 12:13. The family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of the Shimeite apart, and their wives apart. Zac 12:14. All the rest of the families, every family apart, and their wives apart." In Zac 12:11, the depth and bitterness of the pain on account of the slain Messiah are depicted by comparing it to the mourning of Hadad-rimmon. Jerome says with regard to this: "Adad-remmon is a city near Jerusalem, which was formerly called by this name, but is now called Maximianopolis, in the field of Mageddon, where the good king Josiah was wounded by Pharaoh Necho." This statement of Jerome is confirmed by the fact that the ancient Canaanitish or Hebrew name of the city has been preserved in Rmuni, a small village three-quarters of an hour to the south of Lejun (Legio = Megiddo: see at Jos 12:21; and V. de Velde, Reise, i. p. 267). The mourning of Hadad-rimmon is therefore the mourning for the calamity which befel Israel at Hadad-rimmon in the death of the good king Josiah, who was mortally wounded in the valley Megiddo, according to Ch2 35:22., so that he very soon gave up the ghost. The death of this most pious of all the kings of Judah was bewailed by the people, especially the righteous members of the nation, so bitterly, that not only did the prophet Jeremiah compose an elegy on his death, but other singers, both male and female, bewailed him in dirges, whi…

The apostle (Gal 4:25, Gal 4:26) distinguishes between "Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children" - the remaining carcase of the Jewish church that rejected Christ, and "Jerusalem that is from above, that is free, and is the mother of us all" - the Christian church, the spiritual Jerusalem, which God has chosen to put his name there; in the foregoing chapter we read the doom of the former, and left that carcase to be a prey to the eagles that should be gathered to it. Now, in this chapter, we have the blessings of the latter, many precious promises made to the gospel-Jerusalem by him who (Zac 12:1) declares his power to make them good. It is promised, I. That the attempts of the church's enemies against her shall be to their own ruin, and they shall find that it is at their peril if they do her any hurt (Zac 12:2-4, Zac 12:6). II. That the endeavours of the church's friends and patrons for her good shall be pious, regular, and successful (Zac 12:5). III. That God will protect and strengthen the meanest and weakest that belong to his church, and work salvation for them (Zac 12:7, Zac 12:8). IV. That as a preparative for all this mercy, and a pledge of it, he will pour upon them a spirit of prayer and repentance, the effect of which shall be universal and very particular (Zac 12:9-14). These promises were of use then to the pious Jews that lived in the troublous times under Antiochus, and other persecutors and oppressors; and they are still to be improved in every age for the directing of our prayers and the encouraging of our hopes with reference to the gospel-church.

12:11 The name Hadad-rimmon combines the names of two Syrian deities, the storm-god Hadad and the thunder-god Rimmon. The great mourning for these gods may be similar to the weeping for Tammuz, one of the rituals practiced in the Mesopotamian fertility cults. • Joshua captured Megiddo (Josh 12:21), a major city on the southwest edge of the Jezreel Valley; it was allotted to the tribe of Manasseh (Josh 17:11). Megiddo controlled a key pass on the great highway from Egypt to Mesopotamia, and so was of great strategic importance. It was a district capital during Solomon’s reign (1 Kgs 4:12). King Josiah was mortally wounded in a battle against Pharaoh Neco and the Egyptians on the plain of Megiddo (2 Chr 35:22-23), and the mountain of Megiddo is the site of the great battle depicted in Rev 16:16.