332 VISIONS AND PROPHECIES OF ZECHARIAH
and " His own " people Israel are restored, "Jehovah shall inherit Judah, His portion in the Holy Land, and shall choose Jerusalem again *
The prophet ends this section of the prophecy with the exclamation : " For how great is His goodness, and how great is His beauty! ^ no* iaro np ^3, Ki mah tubho umah yaphyo corn shall make the young men to flourish and new wine the maids"
There is difference of opinion among commentators to whom the first half of this verse is to be applied. On strict grammatical grounds it must be applied to God, to whom the suffixes " His land," " His people," refer in the verse immediately preceding ; but it is argued by Koehler and others that since beauty is never attributed to Jehovah Himself in the Old Testament, it is better to understand the words as applying to the people. And this is the view taken by most modern scholars. With this contention, however, I cannot concur ; for, first, though it be true that the term ""S), yaphi (beauty), was not used before of God, it is used of the Messiah in such scriptures as, " Thou art fairer " (or more beautiful) " than the sons of men," and " Thine eyes shall see the King in His beauty." And it is in the face of their Messiah-King that Israel shall behold, even as we do already, the glory and beauty of the invisible God.
" Goodness " is very frequently attributed to God in the Old Testament, as, for instance, in Ps. xxxi. 19:" Oh how great is Thy goodness, which Thou hast laid up for them that fear Thee. Which Thou hast wrought for them that put their trust in Thee, before the sons of men " ; and Ps. cxlv. 7 : " They shall utter the memory of Thy great goodness"
I take the words then, with Hengstenberg and others, as referring to God, " whose great doings had been the prophet s theme throughout."
Let me, in closing the exposition of this chapter, echo this exclamation of the prophet, " How great is His goodness ! " " Goodness is that attribute of God whereby
1 Chap. ii. 12.
