Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Zechariah 12:11

In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon.

11. Hadadrimmon ] This is generally supposed, on the authority of Jerome, to have been a city near Jezreel, called in his day Maximinianopolis, in the valley of Megiddo, and the place where Josiah was fatally wounded by Pharaoh-Necho, king of Egypt. Both accounts of Josiah’s death state that it was “at,” or “in the valley of” Megiddo, that his wound was received (2Ki 23:29; 2Ch 35:22), while the fuller account in the Book of Chronicles not only affirms the national character of the mourning for him at the time, “all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah,” but informs us that the prophet Jeremiah, probably in some dirge composed for the occasion, “lamented for him,” and that the anniversary of his death long continued to be observed as a day of national calamity. “All the singing men and the singing women spake of Josiah in their lamentations to this day, and (they) made them an ordinance in Israel; and behold they are written in the lamentations.” “The grief of the people at the fall of their brave and pious king at the age of thirty-nine years was extraordinarily deep. It seemed as though a gloomy foreboding would take possession of their minds that his fall really involved that of the realm itself, of which he had been the last great prop. Long years after, the elegies composed on him by Jeremiah, and sung among the people, were still preserved, and were repeated with a sad pleasure on the days set apart for the commemoration of the royal hero.” Ewald.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

As the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon – This was the greatest sorrow, which had fallen on Judah. Josiah was the last hope of its declining kingdom. His sons probably showed already their unlikeness to their father, whereby they precipitated their countrys fall. in Josiahs death the last gleam of the sunset of Judah faded into night. Of him it is recorded, that his pious acts, according to what was written in the law of the Lord, were written in his countrys history 2Ch 35:26, 2Ch 35:7; for him the prophet Jeremiah wrote a dirge 2Ch 35:25; all the minstrels of his country spake of him in their dirges 2Ch 35:25. The dirges were made an ordinance which survived the captivity; to this day 2Ch 35:25, it is said at the close of the Chronicles. Among the gathering sorrows of Israel, this lament over Josiah was written in the national collection of dirges 2Ch 35:25. Hadadrimmon, as being compounded of the name of two Syrian idols, is, in its name, a witness how Syrian idolatry penetrated into the kingdom, when it was detached from the worship of God. It was (Jerome) a city near Jezreel, now called Maximinianopolis in the plain of Megiddon, in which the righteous king Josiah was wounded by Pharaoh Necho. This was 17 miles from Caesarea, 10 from Esdraelon. Its name still survives in a small village, south of Megiddon , and so, on the way back to Jerusalem.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 11. A great mourning] A universal repentance.

As the mourning of Hadadrimmon] They shall mourn as deeply for the crucified Christ as their forefathers did for the death of Josiah, who was slain at Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon. See 2Ch 35:24-25.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

In that day, when the Jews shall know, own, and mourn for their sins and for that great sin in crucifying the Lord of glory, shall there be a great mourning; a very great mourning, which is expressed by the greatest the Jews ever were acquainted with. and which for its greatness grew up into a proverb:

The mourning of Hadadrimmon, or the mourning for Josiah slain at Hadadrimmon, a town in the valley of Megiddon. Of this mourning see 2Ch 35:24,25.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

11. As in Zec12:10 the bitterness of their mourning is illustrated by aprivate case of mourning, so in this verse by a public one, thegreatest recorded in Jewish history, that for the violent death inbattle with Pharaoh-necho of the good King Josiah, whose reign hadbeen the only gleam of brightness for the period from Hezekiah to thedownfall of the state; lamentations were written by Jeremiah for theoccasion (2Ki 23:29; 2Ki 23:30;2Ch 35:22-27).

Hadad-rimmona place orcity in the great plain of Esdraelon, the battlefield of many aconflict, near Megiddo; called so from the Syrian idol Rimmon. Hadadalso was the name of the sun, a chief god of the Syrians [MACROBIUS,Saturnalia, 1.23].

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem,…. Great numbers being awakened, convinced, and converted, and brought to true repentance:

as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon. Lightfoot i thinks the prophet alludes to the two great and general lamentations of Israel; the one about the rock Rimmon, where a whole tribe was come to four hundred (it should be six hundred) men, Jud 20:47 and may be rendered, “the sad shout of Rimmon”; and the other in the valley of Megiddo, for the death of Josiah. Some take Hadadrimmon to be the name of a man, as Aben Ezra; and the Targum and Jarchi say who he was, and also make two mournings to be alluded to k; paraphrasing the words thus,

“at that time mourning shall be multiplied in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Ahab the son of Omri, whom Hadadrimmon the son of Tabrimmon slew in Ramothgilead; and as the mourning of Josiah, the son of Amon, whom Pharaohnecho, or the lame, slew in the valley of Megiddo:”

and so the Syriac version renders it,

“as the mourning of the son of Amon in the valley of Megiddo.”

Of the first of these, see 1Ki 22:31 and of the latter,

2Ki 23:29 according to Jerom, it was the name of a place in the valley of Megiddo, near to Jezreel; and which, in his time, went by the name of Maximianopolis, called so in honour of the Emperor Maximian; it was seventeen miles from Caesarea in Palestine, and ten miles from Jezreel l; and mention is made by Jewish m writers of the valley of Rimmon, in which place the elders intercalated the year; though Jerom elsewhere n says, that Adadrimon was a king, the son of Tabrimmon, who reigned at Carchemish, whom Pharaohnecho slew at the same time he slew Josiah. Both words, Hadad, or Adad, and Rimmon, are names of idols with the Syrians.

i Works, vol. 1. p. 46. k Vid. T. Bab. Megillah, fol. 3. 1. & Gloss. in ib. & Moed Katon, fol. 28. 2. l Vid. Reland. Palestina Illustrata, tom. 2. p. 892. m T. Hieros. Chagigah, fol. 78. 4. n Trad. Heb. fol. 86. I.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

In Zec 12:11-14 the magnitude and universality of the mourning are still further depicted. Zec 12:11. “In that day the mourning in Jerusalem will be great, like the mourning of Hadad-rimmon in the valley of Megiddo. Zec 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. Zec 12:13. The family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of the Shimeite apart, and their wives apart. Zec 12:14. All the rest of the families, every family apart, and their wives apart.” In Zec 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 2Ch 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, which were placed in a collection of elegiac songs, and preserved in Israel till long after the captivity (2Ch 35:25). Zechariah compares the lamentation for the putting of the Messiah to death to this great national mourning. All the other explanations that have been given of these words are so arbitrary, as hardly to be worthy of notice. This applies, for example, to the idea mentioned by the Chald., that the reference is to the death of the wicked Ahab, and also to Hitzig’s hypothesis, that Hadad-rimmon was the one name of the god Adonis. For, apart from the fact that it is only from this passage that Movers has inferred that there ever was an idol of that name, a prophet of Jehovah could not possibly have compared the great lamentation of the Israelites over the death of the Messiah to the lamentation over the death of Ahab the ungodly king of Israel, or to the mourning for a Syrian idol. But the mourning will not be confined to Jerusalem; the land ( ha’arets ), i.e., the whole nation, will also mourn. This universality of the lamentation is individualized in Zec 12:12-14, and so depicted as to show that all the families and households of the nation mourn, and not the men only, but also the women. To this end the prophet mentions four distinct leading and secondary families, and then adds in conclusion, “all the rest of the families, with their wives.” Of the several families named, two can be determined with certainty, – namely, the family of the house of David, i.e., the posterity of king David, and the family of the house of Levi, i.e., the posterity of the patriarch Levi. But about the other two families there is a difference of opinion. The rabbinical writers suppose that Nathan is the well known prophet of that name, and the family of Shimei the tribe of Simeon, which is said, according to the rabbinical fiction, to have furnished teachers to the nation.

(Note: Jerome gives the Jewish view thus: “In David the regal tribe is included, i.e., Judah. In Nathan the prophetic order is described. Levi refers to the priests, from whom the priesthood sprang. In Simeon the teachers are included, as the companies of masters sprang from that tribe. He says nothing about the other tribes, as they had no special privilege of dignity.”)

But the latter opinion is overthrown, apart from any other reason, by the fact that the patronymic of Simeon is not written , but , in Jos 21:4; 1Ch 27:16. Still less can the Benjamite Shimei, who cursed David (2Sa 16:5.), be intended. is the name given in Num 3:21 to the family of the son of Gershon and the grandson of Levi (Num 3:17.). This is the family intended here, and in harmony with this Nathan is not the prophet of that name, but the son of David, from whom Zerubbabel was descended (Luk 3:27, Luk 3:31). Luther adopted this explanation: “Four families,” he says, “are enumerated, two from the royal line, under the names of David and Nathan, and two from the priestly line, as Levi and Shimei; after which he embraces all together.” Of two tribes he mentions one leading family and one subordinate branch, to show that not only are all the families of Israel in general seized with the same grief, but all the separate branches of those families. Thus the word mishpachah is used here, as in many other cases, in the wider and more restricted meaning of the leading and the subordinate families.

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

Repentance Of The Remnant

Verses 11-14:

Verse 11 declares that there will be great mourning in Jerusalem in that day, a public mourning illustrated by that bitter mourning in Israel when Josiah a good king in Israel had fallen in battle with Pharaoh-Necho, Act 2:37. Lamentations for the occasion were written by Jeremiah, 2Ki 23:29-30; 2Ch 35:22-27. It too is compared with that of Hadadrimmon, a city in the valley of Megiddon, 2Ch 35:22-24.

Verse 12 describes private mourning of families in all Israel: 1) The family of the house of David, the highest order of royalty shall mourn apart (in privacy), in repentance. 2) The family of the house of Nathan, not the prophet, but a younger son of David, 2Sa 5:14; Luk 3:31, shall mourn and their wives in privacy. 3) The family of the house of Levi and their wives, of the priestly tribe shall mourn, for even those who are ordained to lead in and preside over matters of religious service still have sin in them, and they too must confess their sins to be right with the Lord: Jewish female worshippers worship separately from the males, Exo 15:1; Exo 15:20.

Verse 13 adds that the family of Shimei shall mourn apart and their wives, as well. This includes both the highest and lowest of the order of the priests and their wives, Num 3:18; Num 3:21. Their example of repentance, mourning, and worship, together with that of the royal order, sets forth an example and motivation for all Israel to follow.

Verse 14 concludes that all the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives, are also called to mourn in repentance for their long and obstinate rejection of the Messiah; It shall be a universal mourning. For in this time of their tribulation ordeal two thirds of the population shall be cut off and die, Zec 13:8-9.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

The Prophet says nearly the same thing to the end of the chapter; but as the event was worthy of being commemorated, he embellishes it with many figurative terms. He then says, that the lamentation for the death of Christ would be like that after the death of Josiah; for they who would have Hadadrimmon to be a man’s name, have no reason for what they hold, and indulge themselves in mere conjecture. It is indeed agreed almost by all that Hadadrimmon was either a town connected with the plain of Megiddon, or a country near Jezreel. But as to what it was, it is a matter of no great consequence. I indeed believe that Hadadrimmon was a neighboring town, or a part of that country in which was situated the plain of Megiddon. (165)

We may now observe, that this comparison which the Prophet institutes is very apposite; for when Josiah was slain by the King of Egypt, it is said in 2Ch 35:25, that an yearly lamentation was appointed. The Jews then were wont every year to lament the death of Josiah; for from that time it was evident that God was so displeased with the people, that they had no longer any hope of deliverance; nay, Jeremiah in his mournful song had special reference to Josiah, as it appears from sacred history. And, among other things, he says, that Christ our Lord, in whose life lived our life, was slain for our sins. Jeremiah then acknowledges that it was a special proof of God’s vengeance, that that pious king was taken away, and that the Jews were thus as it were forsaken, and became afterwards like a dead body, inasmuch as they only breathed in the life of Josiah: and at the same time he reminds us, that the kingdom, which God had intended to be the type and image of the kingdom of Christ, had as it were ceased to exist; for the successor of Josiah was deprived of all royal honor, and at length not only the whole dignity, but also the safety of the people, were trampled under foot. Hence, most fitly does the Prophet apply this lamentation to the death of Christ; as though he had said, — That the Jews lamented yearly the death of Josiah, because it was an evidence of the dreadful vengeance of God that they were deprived of that pious ruler; and that now there would be a similar lamentation, when they perceived that their light of salvation was extinguished, because they had crucified the Son of God, unless they humbly acknowledged their great wickedness, and obtained pardon.

We now then see the true meaning of the Prophet, when he says, that the lamentation in Jerusalem would be like that in Megiddon.

Were any to object and say, that the death of Christ was not accompanied with tears and mourning; I answer, — that the penitence of believers only is here described; for we know that a few only of the whole people were converted to God: but it is not to be wondered that the Prophet speaks generally of the whole nation, though he referred only to the elect of God and a small remnant; for God regarded those few who repented as the whole race of Abraham. Some mention the women of whom Luke speaks; but this seems too confined and strained: and we find also that that lamentation was forbidden by Christ,

“

Weep,” he says, “for yourselves and for your children, not for me.” (Luk 23:28.)

Since then Christ shows that that weeping was vain and useless, we may surely say that what is here said by Zechariah was not then fulfilled. And we must bear in mind what I have said before, — that by lamentation and sorrow is described that repentance with which the Jews were favored, not indeed all, but such as had been ordained to salvation by the gratuitous adoption of God. It follows —

(165) “ Jerome says that this (Hadadrimmon) was a place near Jezreel, called in his time Maximaniopolis. De Lisle places it near Megiddo, where Josiah was slain, over whom great lamentation was made, 2Ch 35:22.” — Newcome.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(11) Hadadrimmon, says Jerome, is a city near Jezreel, now called Maximianopolis, in the field of Mageddon, where the good king Josiah was (mortally) wounded in battle with Pharaoh-necho. (Comp. 2Ch. 35:22-25). Assyriologists seem to be of opinion that the name should be pronounced Hadar-Ramman.

It has been urged as an objection to the post-exilic origin of this prophecy that the expression as the mourning of Hadad-rimmon in the valley of Megiddon is a note of time, which should fix the date of this prophecy to a time shortly after the death of Josiah. We reply that this mourning over Josiah was a typical instance, and became an ordinance for Israel (2Ch. 35:25), and so was naturally cited with reference to a similar occasion. Moreover, the fact that a place in the tribe of Issachar was, in the prophets time, known by an Assyrian name seems to us a proof, in itself almost conclusive, that the date of this prophecy is post-exilian.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

Zec 12:11-14 continue the description of the intensity and universality of the lamentation.

11. Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon This expression has received many different interpretations; even the ancient versions differ from one another. At present two views stand out most prominently: (1) The Plain of Megiddo was the scene of one of the most disastrous events in Hebrew history, the fatal wounding of King Josiah (2Ki 23:29-30; 2Ch 35:20 ff.). For many years a public lamentation was held in commemoration of the death of this king (2Ch 35:25; compare Jer 22:10); and it is with this mourning over the death of Josiah that the mourning mentioned here is connected by many. Hadadrimmon is then understood as the place where Josiah fell. To this interpretation it has been objected that the mourning for Josiah took place in Jerusalem, not at the place of his death. The force of this objection is recognized by many, hence they understand the reference not of the public mourning but of the lamentation which arose as soon as the news of Josiah’s fatal injury spread. Another difficulty is presented by the name Hadadrimmon, for no place bearing that name has yet been found, though it has been identified with the small village Rummaneh, near Megiddo. (2) Some commentators connect the phrase with the weeping for Tammuz (Eze 8:14), who is identical with the Phoenician deity Adonis. The name Hadadrimmon consists of two elements, both names of the storm god, who is thought to be the same as Tammuz-Adonis. That it was customary to hold mournings for the latter is proven by the passage in Ezekiel, but the identification of Hadadrimmon with Adonis is by no means certain; besides, it is exceedingly doubtful that a prophet or any other devout Israelite would illustrate the depth of repentance and sorrow by a reference to an abominable heathen practice. Targum identifies Hadadrimmon with the slayer of King Ahab (1Ki 22:34 ff.), but this identification also is improbable; therefore the most probable view is still that which connects the passage with the lamentation for Josiah upon the battlefield, immediately after his fatal wounding.

Zec 12:12-14 describe the universality of the lamentation. All parts of the community will participate, and all will weep as over the loss of a loved one.

Their wives apart The men were the moving spirits in the rejection of the representative of Jehovah, but the women will feel themselves involved in the guilt. For the separation of the sexes compare Exo 15:20.

Family Is used here not in the narrow sense in which we are accustomed to use the term, but in the wider sense of clan or tribe. The community is made up of a great number of such; of these four representative families are named; the others are included in “all the families that remain” (Zec 12:14).

David Nathan Levi Shimei The last is literally “the Shimeites.” Jerome reproduces the rabbinical interpretation of these names thus: “In David the regal tribe is included, that is, Judah; in Nathan the prophetic order is described. Levi refers to the priests, for from him sprang the priesthood. In Simeon the teachers are included, as the companies of masters sprang from that tribe. He says nothing about the other tribes, as they had no special privilege or dignity.” So far as Simeon is concerned, the explanation breaks down, for Shimeites has no connection with Simeon; it is rather the patronymic of Shimei. Only two of the groups named can be determined with certainty. House of David means the successors of David, that is, the civil rulers (see on Zec 12:7); house of Levi represents the priesthood, the ecclesiastical rulers. The two are mentioned to indicate that even the most prominent in the community will join in the mourning. Nathan might be the well-known prophet bearing that name (2Sa 7:2); if so, house of Nathan would denote the prophetic order. In view of Zec 13:2 ff., this interpretation is improbable; besides, the use of house implied in the interpretation would not be in accord with its use in the other expressions.

Perhaps it is better to see here a reference to Nathan, the son of David (2Sa 5:14; Luk 3:31); if so, house of Nathan denotes the descendants of this son of David. If this is the correct interpretation, then it becomes quite probable that the other name denotes a branch of the family of Levi, namely, Shimei, the grandson of Levi (Num 3:17 ff.); the Shimeites are the descendants of this Shimei. Why these two unimportant families should be singled out and placed alongside of the chief representatives we do not know; it may be simply to indicate that the families of prominence as well as those living in obscurity will participate in the mourning.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Zec 12:11 In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon.

Ver. 11. In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem ] Magnificabitur luctus (so the Hebrew hath it), their mourning shall be greatened, their heaviness heightened, they shall rise in their repentance above all that is ordinary. The casuists and schoolmen affirm sorrow for sin to be the greatest of all sorrows. 1. In conatu: in the effort, the whole soul seems to send springs into it, out of every faculty. 2. In extensione: in the strain, it is a spring which in this life more or less is continually dropping; neither would God have the wounds of godly sorrow to be so dosed up at all, as not to bleed afresh upon every good occasion. 3. In appreciatione: In understanding, the true penitentiary doth ever judge that a good God offended, a Saviour crucified, should be the primo cause of greatest grief. 4. In intensione: in aim, for intention of displicence in the will; there being no other things with which, or for which, the will is more displeased with itself than for sinning against God. There is more cause of grief, say they, for sinning than for the death of Christ; because therein was aliquid placens, pleasing anyone but sin is simpliciter displicens, simply displeasing. But is it not godly mourning, may some say, unless it be so great? I answer, that other mourning may make more noise, like a dashing shower of rain, or a land flood that by a small shallow channel comes down from a hill. When a man mourns for his only son, or the like, this comes from God as a judgment; it comes downhill, as it were, hath nature to work with it, and nothing to hinder it; but this mourning and melting over Christ is as a stream that goeth uphill, and through many reeds and flags, as Mr Cotton expresseth it.

As the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddo ] Where good Josiah was slain, and where the people saw, to their unspeakable grief and heart break, family, Church, and commonwealth plucked up by the roots in the loss of that one man, who was the very breath of all their nostrils, as Jeremiah sadly acknowledgeth in his Lamentations, composed on that very occasion, and when he died, all their prosperity here died with him; and themselves were no better than living ghosts, walking sepulchres of themselves; a being they had, but not a life; those that before seemed to touch heaven with their finger, fell down to the earth as if they had been planet-struck, as Budaeus speaketh of the French courtiers at the death of Louis XII – nunc humi derepente serpere sideratos esse diceres. When Augustus died, orbis ruinam timueramus, saith Paterculus, we thought all had been lost, and that the world would have fallen about our ears. When our Edward VI (that second Josiah) was taken away, Cardan sung this sorrowful Epicedion;

“ Flete nefas magnum, sed tote flebitis orbe

Mortales; vestrum corruit omnis honos. ”

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)