530 VISIONS AND PROPHECIES OF ZECHARIAH
emphasises the fact that, notwithstanding Egypt s apparent independence of rain, it would suffer the consequences that follow the withholding of rain, as much as the other nations that are dependent on it. It may be also, as Pusey sug gests, that the words are left undefined "with a purposed abruptness " (the word rain not being mentioned in the Hebrew in the I 8th verse), " there shall not be upon them" namely, " whatever they need." x
The thought that Egypt if disobedient will be overtaken in the same judgment is solemnly repeated in the 19th verse : " This shall be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that go not up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles." The word used here for punishment is nxipn, hattath, which primarily means " sin " ; but it signifies also sin in its effects, as bringing punishment in its train. The word stands also sometimes for " sin-offering," which reminds us of the intimate relation that exists in God s moral government of the world between sin and its punishment, and helps us to understand such a statement as that Christ, who knew no sin, was made sin for us namely, a sin-offering, enduring and bearing the conse quence of sin on our behalf.
In the last two verses we reach the glorious goal and climax of vision and prophecy. God s original purpose in the calling and election of Israel " Ye shall be unto Me a Kingdom of priests, an holy nation " shall at last be realised ; the aim and purpose of the whole law, namely, that His people might learn the meaning of holiness and become holy because Jehovah their God is holy ; but to which, so long as they were in bondage to the law, they could not attain, shall at last be fulfilled when they are brought into a condition of grace, and when God shall put His law into their inward parts and write it on their hearts
1 Kiel, Breclenkamp, and others contend, however, that the prophet mentions Egypt especially, not because of the fact in natural history that this land owes its fertility not to rain, but to the overflowing of the Nile but as the nation which showed the greatest hostility to Jehovah and His people in the olden time, and for the purpose of showing that this nation was also to attain a full participation in the blessings of salvation bestowed upon Israel (comp. Isa. xix. 19-25).
