508 VISIONS AND PROPHECIES OF ZECHARIAH
real king among men has not appeared yet." The nearest approach to His rule was David s ; but what are the last words of the son of Jesse, the man who was raised up on high, the anointed of the God of Israel and the sweet Psalmist of Israel ? His last testimony was that the Spirit of the Lord had spoken by him, and that he had heard the Rock of Israel, and that the sum and substance of these Divine revelations was the coming of the perfect King : " One tJiat ruleth over men righteously, that ruletJi in the fear of God, He shall be as the light of the morning when the sun riseth, a morning without clouds, when the tender grass springeth out of the earth through clear shining after rain" 1
For this ideal King, for this glorious " Sun " to usher in " the morning without clouds " on this groaning earth, the nations have long waited ; but He shall come, and the world will experience the blessedness of His righteous and beneficent sway.
() The extent of His rule " over all the earth" As explained more than once in the course of these notes, p.K, eretz, translated " earth," means both " land " and " earth " ; and the primary reference in this prophecy is doubtless to " the holy land," 2 as the enlarged and purified Land of Promise shall then be called. The word is used in this more restricted sense in the very next verse of our chapter, where it is rightly translated " land." But while the holy hill of Zion shall be the seat of His throne, and Palestine, with restored and converted Israel, the centre of His blessed rule, " He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth " ; yea, all kings shall fall down before Him, all nations shall serve Him, 3 for all the kingdoms of this world shall then become the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign for ever and ever.
That the prophet s vision of the theocratic kingdom ranged beyond even the enlarged boundaries of the " land," and extended to the whole " earth" is seen also from the 1 6th verse, where he speaks of all the nations coming up
1 2 Sam. xxxiii. 1-4 (R.V.). - Chap. ii. 12. 3 Ps. Ixxii. 8-1 1.
