For who hath despised the day of small things? The "small things" are the weak and poor beginning of the temple (Haggai 2:3); as the Targum glosses, "on account of the edifice, because it was small."
Small as the present work was, it was a pledge of the full completion, and was therefore not to be despised. So the question is equivalent to, "Can any one, after these promises and prophecies, presume to be doubtful about the future?"
For they shall rejoice, etc. The subject of the verbs is that which comes last in position, the seven eyes of Jehovah; and the verse is best translated thus: "For (i.e. seeing that) these seven eyes of Jehovah, which run through all the earth, behold with joy the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel."
The work is not contemptible, since the Lord regards it with favour, watches, and directs it. The LXX. and Vulgate (followed nearly by the Authorized Version) make the despisers the subject of the verbs, and lamely dissociate the final clause entirely from the preceding.
The version given above is in accordance with the Masoretic accentuation. The plummet; literally, the stone, the tin; τὸν λίθον τὸν κασσιτέρινον; lapidem stanneum, "the stone of tin" (Vulgate). Tin is not found in Palestine; it was imported by the Phoenicians in great abundance, and from them the Jews obtained it.
The supply must have come from Spain or Britain. With those seven. The preposition is an interpolation of the Authorized Version. It should be, "even these seven," explaining who are "they" at the head of the clause.
The eyes of the Lord. The "seven eyes" have been already mentioned (Zechariah 3:9, where see note). They are expressive of God's watchful providence and care. Which run to and fro. This clause further enforces the previous image (2 Chronicles 16:9; Proverbs 15:3).