HarperCollins Study Bible
Page 340
ZECHARIAH 1
Israel Urged to Repent
1In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Zechariah son of Berechiah son of Iddo, saying: 2The LORD was very angry with your ancestors. 3Therefore say to them, Thus says the LORD of hosts: Return to me, says the LORD of hosts, and I will return to you, says the LORD of hosts. 4Do not be like your ancestors, to whom the former prophets proclaimed, “Thus says the LORD of hosts, Return from your evil ways and from your evil deeds.” But they did not hear or heed me, says the LORD. 5Your ancestors, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever? 6But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not overtake your ancestors? So they repented and said, “The LORD of hosts has dealt with us according to our ways and deeds, just as he planned to do.”
First Vision: The Horsemen
7On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, the month of Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Zechariah son of Berechiah son of Iddo; and Zechariaha said, 8In the night I saw a man riding on a red horse! He was standing among the myrtle trees in the glen; and behind him were red, sorrel, and white horses. 9Then I said, “What are these, my lord?” The angel who talked with me said to me, “I will show you what they are.” 10So the man who was standing among the myrtle trees answered, “They are those whom the LORD has sent to patrol the earth.” 11Then they spoke to the angel of the LORD who was standing among the myrtle trees, “We have patrolled the earth, and lo, the whole earth remains at peace.” 12Then the angel of the LORD said, “O LORD of hosts, how long will you withhold mercy from Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, with which you have been angry these seventy years?” 13Then the LORD replied with gracious and comforting words to the angel who talked with me. 14So the angel who talked with me said to me, Proclaim this message: Thus says the LORD of hosts; I am very jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion. 15And I am extremely angry with the nations that are at ease; for while I was only a little angry, they made the disaster worse. 16Therefore, thus says the LORD, I have returned to Jerusalem with compassion; my house shall be built in it, says the LORD of hosts, and the measuring line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem. 17Proclaim further: Thus says the LORD of hosts: My cities shall again overflow with prosperity; the LORD will again comfort Zion and again choose Jerusalem.
Second Vision: The Horns and the Smiths
18b And I looked up and saw four horns. 19I asked the angel who talked with me, “What are these?” And he answered me, “These are the horns that have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.” 20Then the LORD showed me four blacksmiths. 21And I asked, “What are they coming to do?” He answered, “These are the horns that scattered Judah, so that no head could be raised; but these have come to terrify them, to strike down the horns of the nations that lifted up their horns against the land of Judah to scatter its people.”c
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a Heb and he
b Ch 2.1 in Heb
c Heb it
1.1–8.23 First Zechariah.
1.1–6 Prologue.
1.1 Eighth month…second year, October/November 520 BCE. Zechariah son of Berechiah son of Iddo. Neh 12.16 establishes that Zechariah was of a priestly family. According to Ezra 5.1; 6.14, he was the son and not the grandson of Iddo.
1.6 So they repented, lit. “they returned.” “Return” is the theme of this opening oracle (vv. 3, 4, 6). Though the prophets often called for return or repentance (e.g., Jer 18.11; 25.5; 35.15; Ezek 14.6; Am 5.14–15), it is not often reported that repentance occurred.
1.7–13 First vision.
1.7 Twenty-fourth day…eleventh month, February 15, 519 BCE. Shebat here and Chislev in 7.1 are the earliest uses in the Hebrew Bible of the Babylonian names of the months. Eventually these names were accepted in the Hebrew calendar.
1.8 In the night. The uninterrupted sequence of vision reports in vv. 8–13 suggests that they all came to Zechariah in a single night, perhaps in the form of dreams. Visions and dreams are, of course, media of divine revelation for Hebrew seers. A man, one of the angelic host (v. 11). Angelic interpreters provide vital explanations for several of the prophet’s visions, so that the weird, symbolic sights become conveyors of deeper understanding, i.e., word (v. 7). In Second Isaiah, myrtle is a feature of the restored Israel (see Isa 41.19; 55.13). The red, sorrel, and white colors of the horses might have symbolic values; however, they probably simply reflect the colors of horses known in the ancient Near East.
1.10–11 The horses have been sent out from the heavenly court on reconnaissance of the earth (see 6.1–8).
1.12 The angel’s cry, O LORD of hosts, how long? draws on the language of the psalms of lament (e.g., Pss 6.3; 13.2; 79.5) to press God about the duration of human suffering. Seventy years, a conventional figure applied to various spans of time. In Jer 25.11; 29.10 it refers to the seventy-plus years in which the Neo-Babylonian Empire flourished (612–539 BCE); here it refers to the period of the devastation and exile of Jerusalem and Judah (587, the year of the destruction of the temple, to the approximate time of this oracle, 519 BCE).
1.14–17 Angelic oracle of interpretation. In gracious and comforting words (v. 13), the Lord speaks through the angel to announce the end of Zion’s woes.
1.14 Jealous. See note on 8.2.
1.16 Measuring line, an image drawn from carpentry (Isa 44.13), can refer to judgment (see Isa 34.11; Lam 2.8) or, as in this case, restoration (see also Jer 31.38–39).
1.17 The LORD will…choose Jerusalem. No other prophet ever claims that God “chose” Jerusalem (see also 2.12; 3.2), but the theme is sounded in Deut 12.1–28; 1 Kings 8.44–48; 11.13.
1.18–21 Second vision.
1.19 Horns, the foreign nations that had oppressed Israel since the days of the Divided Monarchy (cf. Dan 7.19–27). They are not identified; the number four may simply represent totality (cf. 2.6), i.e., all of Israel’s historic enemies.
1.20–21 Four blacksmiths, all the divine agents who will destroy the oppressive foreign powers (see Isa 54.16–17).
ZECHARIAH 2a
Third Vision: The Man with a Measuring Line
1I looked up and saw a man with a measuring line in his hand. 2Then I asked, “Where are you going?” He answered me, “To measure Jerusalem, to see what is its width and what is its length.” 3Then the angel who talked with me came forward, and another angel came forward to meet him, 4and said to him, “Run, say to that young man: Jerusalem shall be inhabited like villages without walls, because of the multitude of people and animals in it. 5For I will be a wall of fire all around it, says the LORD, and I will be the glory within it.”
Interlude: An Appeal to the Exiles
6Up, up! Flee from the land of the north, says the LORD; for I have spread you abroad like the four winds of heaven, says the LORD. 7Up! Escape to Zion, you that live with daughter Babylon. 8For thus said the LORD of hosts (after his gloryb sent me) regarding the nations that plundered you: Truly, one who touches you touches the apple of my eye.c 9See now, I am going to raised my hand against them, and they shall become plunder for their own slaves. Then you will know that the LORD of hosts has sent me. 10Sing and rejoice, O daughter Zion! For lo, I will come and dwell in your midst, says the LORD. 11Many nations shall join themselves to the LORD on that day, and shall be my people; and I will dwell in your midst. And you shall know that the LORD of hosts has sent me to you. 12The LORD will inherit Judah as his portion in the holy land, and will again choose Jerusalem.
13Be silent, all people, before the LORD; for he has roused himself from his holy dwelling.
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a Ch 2.5 in Heb
b Cn: Heb after glory he
c Heb his eye
d Or wave
2.1–5 Third vision.
2.1 Measuring line, used here to find the limits of the extant Jerusalem (cf. Am 7.17; Mic 2.4–5), producing dimensions that a
re immediately pronounced obsolete.
2.4 The restored city will have a multitude of human and animal inhabitants. Second Isaiah (chs. 40–55) also envisions restored Israel as “too crowded for your inhabitants” (Isa 49.19; see 54.3; Zech 14.11). The resulting ecological crisis is addressed in 11.1–3.
2.5 The priestly theme of the return of God’s glory to the rebuilt temple is set forth in Ezek 43.1–5. In Zechariah’s vision, God’s presence is manifested even more dramatically as a wall of fire all around Jerusalem.
2.6–13 An oracle of the Lord.
2.6 North, the generic location of the enemies of Israel and the place of its exile (see Jer 6.22; 10.22). The return of exiles from the Diaspora to Zion is a frequent feature of OT renditions of the culmination of history (e.g., Jer 31.10–17).
2.9 The prophet imagines that the returning exiles will plunder their captors (see Ex 12.35–36). Such a reversal of fortunes leads to a formula suitable for the recognition of God’s work in history: you will know…sent me (see also v. 11; 4.9; 6.15; see also Ezek 33.33, where the prophet is validated by historical events). This slogan and its variations are thematic in Ezekiel, where they are used more than seventy times.
2.10 Daughter Zion often receives good news of her rescue (see 9.9; also Isa 12.6; 52.2; 62.11; Mic 4.8; Zeph 3.14–15). The familial term is one of endearment.
2.11 The notion that on the “day of the LORD” the gentile nations shall be God’s people has many precedents in prophetic literature (e.g., Isa 19.24–25; 56.6–8; 60.3).
2.12 Holy land, used nowhere else in the OT, though it can be found in Wis 12.3; 2 Macc 1.7.
2.13 Awed silence is appropriate for all peoples as God prepares to act. Cf. Hab 2.20.
ZECHARIAH 3
Fourth Vision: Joshua and Satan
1Then he showed me the high priest Joshua standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satana standing at his right hand to accuse him. 2And the LORD said to Satan,b “The LORD rebuke you, O Satan!c The LORD who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this man a brand plucked from the fire?” 3Now Joshua was dressed with filthy clothes as he stood before the angel. 4The angel said to those who were standing before him, “Take off his filthy clothes.” And to him he said, “See, I have taken your guilt away from you, and I will clothe you with festal apparel.” 5And I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with the apparel; and the angel of the LORD was standing by.
6Then the angel of the LORD assured Joshua, saying 7“Thus says the LORD of hosts: If you will walk in my ways and keep my requirements, then you shall rule my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you the right of access among those who are standing here. 8Now listen, Joshua, high priest, you and your colleagues who sit before you! For they are an omen of things to come: I am going to bring my servant the Branch. 9For on the stone that I have set before Joshua, on a single stone with seven facets, I will engrave its inscription, says the LORD of hosts, and I will remove the guilt of this land in a single day. 10On that day, says the LORD of hosts, you shall invite each other to come under your vine and fig tree.”
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a Or the Accuser; Heb the Adversary
b Or the Accuser; Heb the Adversary
c Or the Accuser; Heb the Adversary
3.1–5 Fourth vision. The cleansing and reconsecration of the high priest is accomplished in the divine council.
3.1 The high priest Joshua. See note on Hag 1.1. Satan. The use of the article before satan in Hebrew makes clear that this is a title or a function, not a personal name—“the satan,” not “Satan”(see text note a). The satan is a member of the divine council whose task it is to discover and indict malefactors (see Job 1.6–12). The OT treats satan as a proper name only in 1 Chr 21.1, where “Satan” assumes the function of testing that the Lord plays in the parallel text in 2 Sam 24.1. The picture of the divine council given in 1 Kings 22.19–23 shows spirits performing various functions in God’s court, including that of testing and provoking sinners.
3.2–3 In Isa 4.3–4, the filthiness of Jerusalem is purged by burning. Here Joshua has already emerged as a brand plucked from the fire, and his filthiness derives not from his sin but from his fiery ordeal.
3.4–5 These verses anticipate the consecration of the high priest in festal apparel and clean turban to his function of taking upon himself the guilt of the people, so that they may be acceptable before the Lord (see Ex 28.31–38).
3.6–10 Oracular responses to the vision.
3.7 Right of access. Formerly, prophets were the only human beings to have enjoyed observer status at meetings of the divine court (1 Kings 22; Isa 6; Jer 23.18). In postexilic times, as prophecy recedes, the priesthood achieves higher standing.
3.8 My servant the Branch. In Isa 11.1, the coming Davidic ruler is described as a “branch” (see also Jer 23.5; 33.15). In this verse, the Branch is someone other than Joshua and his colleagues, since Joshua was not of the royal dynasty of David. Most likely to be this messianic figure is Zerubbabel, who, as Hag 2.20–23 indicates, embodied the hopes for a political future for Judah under a descendant of David. See also note on 6.12.
3.9 A single stone with seven facets may refer to the engraved “rosette of pure gold” (Ex 28.36–38), which was fastened to the front of the turban of the high priest. The mysterious engraving on the seven sides of the stone might be the Hebrew words for “Holy to the LORD” (Ex 28.36), which could be written in seven letters. In this verse, the ornament is not fabricated by any human hand but is given to Joshua by the Lord. For Zechariah, divine intervention alone could solve the problems of contamination and deconsecration that confounded efforts at worship in the temple in the early postexilic Judean community. When the priestly mediator is purified, the system of atonement can function and the entire community can be cleansed in a single day.
ZECHARIAH 4
Fifth Vision: The Lampstand and Olive Trees
1The angel who talked with me came again, and wakened me, as one is wakened from sleep. 2He said to me, “What do you see?” And I said, “I see a lampstand all of gold, with a bowl on the top of it; there are seven lamps on it, with seven lips on each of the lamps that are on the top of it. 3And by it there are two olive trees, one on the right of the bowl and the other on its left.” 4I said to the angel who talked with me, “What are these, my lord?” 5Then the angel who talked with me answered me, “Do you not know what these are?” I said, “No, my lord.” 6He said to me, “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, says the LORD of hosts. 7What are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain; and he shall bring out the top stone amid shouts of ‘Grace, grace to it!’”
8Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 9“The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also complete it. Then you will know that the LORD of hosts has sent me to you. 10For whoever has despised the day of small things shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel.
“These seven are the eyes of the LORD, which range through the whole earth.” 11Then I said to him, “What are these two olive trees on the right and the left of the lampstand?” 12And a second time I said to him, “What are these two branches of the olive trees, which pour out the oila through the two golden pipes?” 13He said to me, “Do you not know what these are?” I said, “No, my lord.” 14Then he said, “These are the two anointed ones who stand by the Lord of the whole earth.”
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a Cn: Heb gold
4.1–14 Fifth vision. This apparently complex vision is made much clearer when the two oracles to Zerubbabel embedded within it (vv. 6–7, 8–10a) are treated separately.
4.2 Lampstand, not the familiar seven-branched candelabrum of Ex 25.31–40; 37.17–24. Archaeological evidence now confirms that the object envisioned here could be a bowl-shaped oil reserv
oir surmounting a golden base and fitted around the rim with seven (not forty-nine!) protruding spouts to serve as lamps.
4.5 Angelic question. If vv. 6–7, 8–10a are construed as a pair of embedded oracles, v. 10b flows perfectly as the angel’s response to this question.
4.6 Zerubbabel. See note on Hag 1.1.
4.7 O great mountain, possibly the Temple Mount, cluttered with ruins that would need to be removed. Perhaps the top stone should be understood as a stone from the former temple incorporated into the foundation deposit of the new structure. Mesopotamian sources attest to similar efforts to ensure sacral continuity.
4.9 You will know…sent me. See note on 2.9.
4.10a Day of small things. This assurance seems to be addressed to those who have found the pace of restoration too feeble. The leadership of Zerubbabel promises renewed action. Now he is pictured at the end of the temple reconstruction process with plummet in hand. Recent commentators understand this object to be not a builders’ tool but rather an inscribed metallic tablet to be deposited in the finished structure. Such a practice is well attested in Babylonian and Persian texts.