9:5. Ascalon shall see, and shall fear, and Gaza, and shall be very sorrowful: and Accaron, because her hope is confounded: and the king shall perish from Gaza, and Ascalon shall not be inhabited. 9:6. And the divider shall sit in Azotus, and I will destroy the pride of the Philistines. 9:7. And I will take away his blood out of his mouth, and his abominations from between his teeth: and even he shall be left to our God, and he shall be as a governor in Juda, and Accaron as a Jebusite. His blood... It is spoken of the Philistines, and particularly of Azotus, (where the temple of Dagon was,) and contains a prophecy of the conversion of that people from their bloody sacrifices and abominations to the worship of the true God. 9:8. And I will encompass my house with them that serve me in war, going and returning, and the oppressor shall no more pass through them: for now I have seen with my eyes. That serve me in war... Viz., the Machabees. 9:9. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Sion, shout for joy, O daughter of Jerusalem: BEHOLD THY KING will come to thee, the just and saviour: he is poor, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of an ass. 9:10. And I will destroy the chariot out of Ephraim, and the horse out of Jerusalem, and the bow for war shall be broken: and he shall speak peace to the Gentiles, and his power shall be from sea to sea, and from the rivers even to the end of the earth. 9:11. Thou also by the blood of thy testament hast sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit, wherein is no water. 9:12. Return to the strong hold, ye prisoners of hope, I will render thee double as I declare today. 9:13. Because I have bent Juda for me as a bow, I have filled Ephraim: and I will raise up thy sons, O Sion, above thy sons, O Greece, and I will make thee as the sword of the mighty. Thy sons, O Sion, etc... Viz., the apostles, who, in the spiritual way, conquered the Greeks, and subdued them to Christ. 9:14. And the Lord God shall be seen over them, and his dart shall go forth as lightning: and the Lord God will sound the trumpet, and go in the whirlwind of the south. 9:15. The Lord of hosts will protect them: and they shall devonr, and subdue with the stones of the sling: and drinking they shall be inebriated as it were with wine, and they shall be filled as bowls, and as the horns of the altar. 9:16. And the Lord their God will save them in that day, as the flock of his people: for holy stones shall be lifted up over his land. Holy stones... The apostles, who shall be as pillars and monuments in the church. 9:17. For what is the good thing of him, and what is his beautiful thing, but the corn of the elect, and wine springing forth virgins?