The Messiah is again meant by the ‘stone’ in verse 9.  Probably there was some great stone taken from the ruins, to which the symbol attaches itself.  The foundation of the second Temple had been laid years before the prophecy, but the stone may still have been visible.  The Rabbis have much to say about a great stone which had been in the first Temple, and there used for the support of the ark, but in the second was set in the empty place where the ark should have been.  Isaiah had prophesied of the ‘tried corner-stone’ laid in Zion, and Psalm cxviii. 22 had sung of the stone rejected and made the head of the corner.  We go in the track, then, of established usage, when we see in this stone the emblem of Messiah, and associate with it all thoughts of firmness, preciousness, support, foundation of the true Temple, basis of hope, ground of certitude, and whatever other substratum of fixity and immovableness men’s hearts or lives need.  In all possible aspects of the metaphor, Jesus is the Foundation.

And what are the ‘seven eyes on the stone’?  That may simply be a vivid way of saying that the fulness of divine Providence would watch over the Messiah, bringing Him when the time was ripe, and fitting Him for His work.  But if we remember the subsequent explanation (iv. 10) of the ‘seven,’ as ’the eyes of the Lord which run to and fro through the whole earth,’ and connect this with Revelation v. 6, we can scarcely rest content with that meaning, but find here the deeper thought that the fulness of the divine Spirit was given to Messiah, even as Isaiah (xi. 2) prophesies of the sevenfold Spirit.

‘I will engrave the graving thereof’ is somewhat obscure.  It seems to mean that the seven eyes will be cut on the stone, like masons’ marks.  If the seven eyes are the full energies of the Holy Spirit, God’s cutting of them on the stone is equivalent to His giving them to His Son; and the fulfilment of the promise was when He gave the Holy Spirit not ‘by measure unto Him.’

The blessed purpose of Messiah’s coming and endowment with the Spirit is gloriously stated in the last clause of verse 9:  ’I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day.’  Jesus Christ has ‘once for all’ made atonement, as the Epistle to the Hebrews so often says.  The better Joshua by one offering has taken away sin.  ’The breadth of Thy land, O Immanuel,’ stretched far beyond the narrow bounds which Zechariah knew for Israel’s territory.  It includes the whole world.  As has been beautifully said, ‘That one day is the day of Golgotha.’

The vision closes with a picture of the felicity of Messianic times, which recalls the description of the golden age of Solomon, when ’Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and under his fig-tree’ (1 Kings iv. 25).  In like manner the nation, cleansed, restored to its priestly privilege of free access to God by the Messiah who comes with the fulness of the Spirit, shall dwell in safety, and shall be knit together by friendship, and unenvyingly shall each share his good with all others, recognising in every man a neighbour, and gladly welcoming him to partake of all the blessings which the true Solomon has brought to his house and heart.