Anf-03 v.iv.v.xxxix Pg 13
Zech. ix. 15, 16 (Septuagint).
etc. And that you may not suppose that these predictions refer to such sufferings as await them from so many wars with strangers,5026 5026 Allophylis.
consider the nature (of the sufferings). In a prophecy of wars which were to be waged with legitimate arms, no one would think of enumerating stones as weapons, which are better known in popular crowds and unarmed tumults. Nobody measures the copious streams of blood which flow in war by bowlfuls, nor limits it to what is shed upon a single altar. No one gives the name of sheep to those who fall in battle with arms in hand, and while repelling force with force, but only to those who are slain, yielding themselves up in their own place of duty and with patience, rather than fighting in self-defence. In short, as he says, “they roll as sacred stones,” and not like soldiers fight. Stones are they, even foundation stones, upon which we are ourselves edified—“built,” as St. Paul says, “upon the foundation of the apostles,”5027 5027
Edersheim Bible History
Temple xxi Pg 7.12
Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge, Chapter 9
VERSE (16) - Ps 100:3 Isa 40:10 Jer 23:3 Eze 34:22-26,31 Mic 5:4; 7:14