Zechariah 14:21
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Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness
unto the Lord of hosts
Such will be the number of sacrifices and sacrificers, that the pots in the Lord's house will not be sufficient; wherefore every pot, in city or country, shall be sanctified and devoted to holy uses: and all they that sacrifice shall come and take of them, and seethe
therein;
this denotes, as before, the general holiness of the professors of religion in those times; and that there will be no difference in the vessels of the Lord's house, or any distinction of Jew and Gentile; but they will be all spiritual worshippers, and offer up the spiritual sacrifices of prayer and praise to the Lord: and in that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house
of the Lord of hosts;
the Targum paraphrases it,
``there shall be no more a merchant in the house of the sanctuary of the Lord;''in the temple, where were buyers and sellers of sheep, oxen, and doves, for sacrifice, such as our Lord drove out; but now there shall be no more of them, all legal sacrifices being at an end. The word here used does signify a merchant, and is so rendered in ( Hosea 12:7 ) ( Isaiah 23:8 ) and by some here F13; and the Jews F14 have a saying, that
``there are no Canaanites but merchants;''or the word always so signifies, referring to the above places, and having quoted ( Job 41:6 ) but it is to be applied to another sort of merchants; to false teachers, that make merchandise of the souls of men; to all merit mongers and Papists; and particularly to the great merchant of all, the pope of Rome, and to all inferior merchants under him, who sell pardons, indulgences and are called the merchants of the earth, ( Revelation 18:3 Revelation 18:11-13 ) these are the Heathen that shall perish out of the land, and the sinners that shall be no more; antichrist shall no longer sit in the temple of God, showing himself to be God; nor will there be any, in the spiritual reign of Christ, that will buy Rome's merchandise any more. Moreover, a Canaanite may design an impure person, a hypocrite; and though there have been many such in the church of God in all ages, yet at this time there will be few or none, comparatively speaking; and in the personal reign of Christ there will be no wicked men at all: in the new heavens and new earth will dwell righteousness, or only righteous persons; all the wicked of the earth will be destroyed before this state takes place; only raised ones, the saints that partake of the first resurrection, will be there; they will be all holy and righteous persons; nothing shall enter into it that defiles or makes an abomination or a lie, only those that do the commandments of God; nor will there be any manner of sin or wickedness there: sin, like the Canaanites of old, continues in the saints as long as they are in the present state; and though it has not the dominion over them, yet is as grievous pricks and thorns unto them, and is left in them to prove them; but in this happy state there will be no more sin, no more this pricking brier and grieving thorn. That the word Canaanite is here to be taken in a figurative sense is certain; for, literally understood, there is no such person in the world now, nor has been for many hundreds of years, even an inhabitant of Canaan, or one so called.
F13 (ynenk) "mercator", V. L. Montanus, Vatablus, Grotius, Burkius.
F14 T. Bab. Bava Bathra, fol. 75. 1.