Matthew 23:35

35. That In order that. This word depends upon the verbs kill, crucify, scourge, and persecute. Ye shall persecute them as if with the purpose that all this wrath may come upon you. This may be considered, however, a case where the inevitable effect is spoken of as the intended effect. All the righteous blood shed upon the earth That is, righteous blood of the history and line of Israel. Our Lord is not speaking of righteous men, for instance, among pagan nations. This is shown by the fact that he speaks only of martyrs in the Old Testament pedigree, from Abel to Zacharias. From the blood of righteous Abel Who was the first martyr. Blood of Zacharias The last of the prophets whose martyrdom is, according to the arrangement of the Hebrew canon, recorded in the Old Testament.

There has been much discussion upon the true identity of this Zechariah, inasmuch as the martyr in 2 Chronicles 24:21, was the son of Jehoiada. But Jehoiada and Barachia are words of the same meaning. This Zechariah was the subject of Jewish legends, and it is not improbable, though there is no proof, that in our Lord’s day the one name was substituted for the other in ordinary discourse. The place where Zechariah the son of Jehoiada was slain accords with the words of Jesus; and his dying exclamation, “The Lord require it,” accords with the thought our Lord here expresses very strikingly. Jesus here couples the first and last of Old Testament martyrs.

Ye slew Our Lord here identifies them with the whole guilty line of the wicked party of Israel in all ages. A nation has its youth, its manhood, its age, its death. The vices and crimes of its earlier generations are often inherited by its later. Punishment is often delayed until the crimes of whole ages are temporarily expiated. And this is in no way unjust. Each man may repent, and be saved in the world to come. But the nation must be publicly made an example of divine justice upon national crimes, continued through a long series of years. And though the temporal punishment be commensurate with the guilt of their whole history, not a man really suffers more than his own sins deserve.

Between the temple and the altar Referring to our ground plan of the temple, the reader can designate the sacred locality between the great brazen altar of burnt offering and the temple edifice.