HarperCollins Study Bible

by Harold W. Attridge

4.10b These seven…eyes of the LORD returns us to the angelic question of v. 5. If the lamps are the eyes of the Lord, then the lampstand must represent the Lord’s person. The image of the all-seeing eyes of the Lord is common in biblical tradition (see 2 Chr 16.9; Job 34.21; Pss 14.2; 66.7; Prov 15.3).

  4.14 At last the two olive trees are identified as the two anointed ones (lit. “sons of the oil”) and no doubt represent Joshua and Zerubbabel, the two heroes of the temple reconstruction effort in both Zech 1–8 and Haggai. In Zechariah’s vision for the polity of the emerging Judean community, royal and priestly “messiahs” (anointed ones) stand on either side of God, sharing leadership. The “oil” referred to here is not that used for consecration of priest or king but rather that used for food and lamp fuel. If the lamp burns this very oil, then there is an exquisite interrelationship between the human and divine worlds, since human abundance would help feed the divine light.

  ZECHARIAH 5

  Sixth Vision: The Flying Scroll

  1Again I looked up and saw a flying scroll. 2And he said to me, “What do you see?” I answered, “I see a flying scroll; its length is twenty cubits, and its width ten cubits.” 3Then he said to me, “This is the curse that goes out over the face of the whole land; for everyone who steals shall be cut off according to the writing on one side, and everyone who swears falselya shall be cut off according to the writing on the other side. 4I have sent it out, says the LORD of hosts, and it shall enter the house of the thief, and the house of anyone who swears falsely by my name; and it shall abide in that house and consume it, both timber and stones.”

  Seventh Vision: The Woman in a Basket

  5Then the angel who talked with me came forward and said to me, “Look up and see what this is that is coming out.” 6I said, “What is it?” He said, “This is a basketb coming out.” And he said, “This is their iniquityc in all the land.” 7Then a leaden cover was lifted, and there was a woman sitting in the basket!d 8And he said, “This is Wickedness.” So he thrust her back into the basket,e and pressed the leaden weight down on its mouth. 9Then I looked up and saw two women coming forward. The wind was in their wings; they had wings like the wings of a stork, and they lifted up the basketf between earth and sky. 10Then I said to the angel who talked with me, “Where are they taking the basket?”g 11He said to me, “To the land of Shinar, to build a house for it; and when this is prepared, they will set the basketh down there on its base.”

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  a The word falsely added from verse 4

  b Heb ephah

  c Gk Compare Syr: Heb their eye

  d Heb ephah

  e Heb ephah

  f Heb ephah

  g Heb ephah

  h Heb ephah

  5.1–4 Sixth vision. For the first time the prophet envisions curse and judgment rather than blessing.

  5.2 Since a cubit is about 18 inches in length, this visionary scroll was 30 by 15 feet. Such a scroll would be impossible to unroll or handle, but this is a flying scroll (v. 1), not held by human hands.

  5.3 The scroll flies about directing the curse against violators of the eighth and ninth commandments, which forbid theft and false oaths (see Ex 20.15–16; Deut 5.19–20). Zechariah demonstrates that life and blessing depend on obedience to the ancient covenant requirements.

  5.5–11 Seventh vision.

  5.6 A basket, in Hebrew an ephah, a container of about two-thirds of a bushel in dry measure, typically used for such commodities as flour (Lev 5.11) and barley (Ruth 2.17).

  5.8–9 This is Wickedness. Israel’s sin is personified as a woman who could somehow fit into a basket. The female imagery for evil is somewhat offset in this vision by the cleansing power of the two women with wind…in their wings who carry the basket away.

  5.11 The land of Shinar, Babylon, the place of Israel’s exile (see Isa 11.11; Dan 1.2). Shinar was also the place of the primeval sin of the Tower of Babel (Gen 11.2). Placing the basket in the house (temple) built for it suggests that the cleansing of Judah through the reconstruction of the temple causes a corresponding desecration of worship in the land of the oppressor.

  ZECHARIAH 6

  Eighth Vision: Four Chariots

  1And again I looked up and saw four chariots coming out from between two mountains—mountains of bronze. 2The first chariot had red horses, the second chariot black horses, 3the third chariot white horses, and the fourth chariot dappled graya horses. 4Then I said to the angel who talked with me, “What are these, my lord?” 5The angel answered me, “These are the four windsb of heaven going out, after presenting themselves before the Lord of all the earth. 6The chariot with the black horses goes toward the north country, the white ones go toward the west country,c and the dappled ones go toward the south country.” 7When the steeds came out, they were impatient to get off and patrol the earth. And he said, “Go, patrol the earth.” So they patrolled the earth. 8Then he cried out to me, “Lo, those who go toward the north country have set my spirit at rest in the north country.”

  The Coronation of the Branch

  9The word of the LORD came to me: 10Collect silver and goldd from the exiles—from Heldai, Tobijah, and Jedaiah—who have arrived from Babylon; and go the same day to the house of Josiah son of Zephaniah. 11Take the silver and gold and make a crown,e and set it on the head of the high priest Joshua son of Jehozadak; 12say to him: Thus says the LORD of hosts: Here is a man whose name is Branch: for he shall branch out in his place, and he shall build the temple of the LORD. 13It is he that shall build the temple of the LORD; he shall bear royal honor, and shall sit upon his throne and rule. There shall be a priest by his throne, with peaceful understanding between the two of them. 14And the crownf shall be in the care of Heldai,g Tobijah, Jedaiah, and Josiahh son of Zephaniah, as a memorial in the temple of the LORD.

  15Those who are far off shall come and help to build the temple of the LORD; and you shall know that the LORD of hosts has sent me to you. This will happen if you diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God.

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  a Compare Gk: Meaning of Heb uncertain

  b Or spirits

  c Cn: Heb go after them

  d Cn Compare verse 11: Heb lacks silver and gold

  e Gk Mss Syr Tg: Heb crowns

  f Gk Syr: Heb crowns

  g Syr Compare verse 10: Heb Helem

  h Syr Compare verse 10: Heb Hen

  6.1–8 Eighth vision.

  6.1 The patrol sent forth from divine headquarters is equipped with chariots drawn in all directions by teams of various colored horses (see notes on 1.8; 1.10–11). The first vision (1.7–13), with which this last vision forms a kind of bookend, also pictured an angelic horse patrol, but without chariots.

  6.6 Presumably the red team heads eastward.

  6.8 My spirit…in the north country. God has extended right order throughout the world, even in the north, the traditional land of the enemy (see note on 2.6).

  6.9–15 A political oracle. From this point through ch. 8, the prophet of First Zechariah ceases to function as a visionary and assumes the more typical role of an intermediary for divine instructions for the right ordering of the restored Judean community.

  6.12–13 A man whose name is Branch. See note on 3.8. Even though the oracles of 4.6–7, 8–10a hail Zerubbabel as the rebuilder of the temple, the crown of silver and gold is placed on the head of the priestly figure, Joshua son of Jehozadak, and not on the head of the royal figure (v. 11). Perhaps this text was edited toward a more priestly bias after the final disappearance of any vestige of the house of David.

  6.13 A priest by his throne, however, still suggests the kind of bicameral polity in the postexilic community described in Hag 1.1–15, in which priest and civil governor worked side by side. The shared leadership foreseen in 4.14 is now further elaborated: it is carried out in peaceful understanding. The Branch now seems to be someone other than Joshua.

  6.15 You shall know…sent me. See note on 2.
9.

  ZECHARIAH 7

  Hypocritical Fasting Condemned

  1In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, which is Chislev. 2Now the people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-melech and their men, to entreat the favor of the LORD, 3and to ask the priests of the house of the LORD of hosts and the prophets, “Should I mourn and practice abstinence in the fifth month, as I have done for so many years?” 4Then the word of the LORD of hosts came to me: 5Say to all the people of the land and the priests: When you fasted and lamented in the fifth month and in the seventh, for these seventy years, was it for me that you fasted? 6And when you eat and when you drink, do you not eat and drink only for yourselves? 7Were not these the words that the LORD proclaimed by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity, along with the towns around it, and when the Negeb and the Shephelah were inhabited?

  Punishment for Rejecting God’s Demands

  8The word of the LORD came to Zechariah, saying: 9Thus says the LORD of hosts: Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another; 10do not oppress the widow, the orphan, the alien, or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another. 11But they refused to listen, and turned a stubborn shoulder, and stopped their ears in order not to hear. 12They made their hearts adamant in order not to hear the law and the words that the LORD of hosts had sent by his spirit through the former prophets. Therefore great wrath came from the LORD of hosts. 13Just as, when Ia called, they would not hear, so, when they called, I would not hear, says the LORD of hosts, 14and I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations that they had not known. Thus the land they left was desolate, so that no one went to and fro, and a pleasant land was made desolate.

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  a Heb he

  7.1–14 Question and answer on the utility of fasting.

  7.1 Fourth year…ninth month, December 7, 518 BCE. Chislev. See note on 1.7. Nearly two years have passed since the prophet’s night of eight visions.

  7.3 Mention of the priests of the house of the LORD suggests that the temple staff was back in action after the temple was reconsecrated, even though it was not yet fully reconstructed (see Hag 2.10–19). The number of years during which the people of Bethel have maintained their discipline of fasting and mourning is said by the prophet to be seventy (v. 5), the traditional length of the exile (e.g., Jer 25.11–12; 29.10; Zech 1.12). The fast of the fifth month may have been established in memory of the destruction of the First Temple (2 Kings 25.8–9; Jer 52.12–13). The Bethel question has significance for religious practice, then: Do we continue to mourn for the temple when it has been rebuilt?

  7.7 The words…by the former prophets. The preexilic prophets criticized Israel’s public piety as hypocritical (e.g., Isa 1.16–17; Am 5.14–15; fasting itself is mentioned only in Jer 14.12). Their criticism came at a time when Jerusalem was inhabited, namely, when no evidence of the Lord’s displeasure at the shallowness of such practice had as yet been manifested in destruction and dispersal.

  7.9–10 The true acts of piety before God are true judgments…kindness and mercy and the other righteous acts enumerated here. The covenant tradition stands front and center (cf. Deut 14.29; 24.19–21). The words are reminiscent of the great teaching of Mic 6.8 and also of the social ethics of the former prophets (v. 12; e.g., Isa 1.16–17; Am 5.14–15; 21–24).

  ZECHARIAH 8

  God’s Promises to Zion

  1The word of the LORD of hosts came to me, saying: 2Thus says the LORD of hosts: I am jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I am jealous for her with great wrath. 3Thus says the LORD: I will return to Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem; Jerusalem shall be called the faithful city, and the mountain of the LORD of hosts shall be called the holy mountain. 4Thus says the LORD of hosts: Old men and old women shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each with staff in hand because of their great age. 5And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets. 6Thus says the LORD of hosts: Even though it seems impossible to the remnant of this people in these days, should it also seem impossible to me, says the LORD of hosts? 7Thus says the LORD of hosts: I will save my people from the east country and from the west country; 8and I will bring them to live in Jerusalem. They shall be my people and I will be their God, in faithfulness and in righteousness.

  9Thus says the LORD of hosts: Let your hands be strong—you that have recently been hearing these words from the mouths of the prophets who were present when the foundation was laid for the rebuilding of the temple, the house of the LORD of hosts. 10For before those days there were no wages for people or for animals, nor was there any safety from the foe for those who went out or came in, and I set them all against one another. 11But now I will not deal with the remnant of this people as in the former days, says the LORD of hosts. 12For there shall be a sowing of peace; the vine shall yield its fruit, the ground shall give its produce, and the skies shall give their dew; and I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all these things. 13Just as you have been a cursing among the nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so I will save you and you shall be a blessing. Do not be afraid, but let your hands be strong.

  14For thus says the LORD of hosts: Just as I purposed to bring disaster upon you, when your ancestors provoked me to wrath, and I did not relent, says the LORD of hosts, 15so again I have purposed in these days to do good to Jerusalem and to the house of Judah; do not be afraid. 16These are the things that you shall do: Speak the truth to one another, render in your gates judgments that are true and make for peace, 17do not devise evil in your hearts against one another, and love no false oath; for all these are things that I hate, says the LORD.

  Joyful Fasting

  18The word of the LORD of hosts came to me, saying: 19Thus says the LORD of hosts: The fast of the fourth month, and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth, shall be seasons of joy and gladness, and cheerful festivals for the house of Judah: therefore love truth and peace.

  Many Peoples Drawn to Jerusalem

  20Thus says the LORD of hosts: Peoples shall yet come, the inhabitants of many cities; 21the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, “Come, let us go to entreat the favor of the LORD, and to seek the LORD of hosts; I myself am going.” 22Many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem, and to entreat the favor of the LORD. 23Thus says the LORD of hosts: In those days ten men from nations of every language shall take hold of a Jew, grasping his garment and saying, “Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.”

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  8.1–17 Oracles and exhortations on the restoration of Zion.

  8.2 God’s jealousy is zeal for achieving justice for Zion (see also 1.14).

  8.3 See 1.16; also Isa 11.9;65.25; Jer 31.23.

  8.4–5 The delightful vision of streets full of boys and girls as well as old men and women echoes the blessing for age and youth alike in the coming new Jerusalem envisioned in Isa 65.20. Significantly, the prophet uses language not of power and glory, but of rest and play, to capture the ethos of the city of the future.

  8.6 In Isaiah too the restored community of Judah is typically referred to as the remnant (Isa 10.22–23; 11.11; 37.31–32).

  8.7–8 I will bring them. Again, a hallmark of the new age is the gathering of the exiles to Jerusalem (see note on 2.6; also 6.15). They shall…their God, a refrain heard frequently in Jeremiah (24.7; 31.33; 32.38) and Ezekiel (11.20; 14.11;37.23, 27). The covenant stipulated that this right relationship would come into existence when Israel was faithful.

  8.9–13 Words from…the prophets, e.g., Hag 1.6–11; 2.4–9, 15–19.

  8.13 The exiled and dispersed Judah and Israel have been objects of hissing and cursing (see Jer 25.18; 29.18; Mic 6.16), but all that is to be reversed in a restoration era characterized by agr
icultural productivity and peace.

  8.14–17 The prophet continues to think in terms of the covenant tradition, stressing truth and justice as the basis for a new community (see 7.9–10; Mic 6.12; Eph 4.25).

  8.18–23 Three oracles on the future joy of Judah.

  8.19 To the fasts mentioned in 7.5 are now added fasts of the fourth and tenth months. This verse answers the question raised by the elders of Bethel in 7.2–3: no, in the days to come fasts shall become cheerful festivals. No wonder! The new community is founded on the values of truth and peace.

  8.20–22 Many peoples and strong nations are among the throngs envisioned as coming to the soon to be reconstructed temple to entreat the favor of the LORD. The universal scope of God’s future work of blessing answers to the promise to Abram in Gen 12.3; it is also used to describe the work of God in Christ in such texts as Jn 12.32.

  8.23 Jew, a term that comes into use only late in the OT period. It is common in Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther, and used in Dan 3.8, 12. This is its only use in the prophetic canon, and it may be the earliest use of the term in the Bible. The vision of universal human harmony with Zion at the center responds fully to the earlier prophetic vision of the peaceable kingdom (Isa 11.6–9), the beating of swords into plowshares (Isa 2.4; Mic 4.3), the love of God for other nations mediated through the faithful prophets of Israel (Isa 19.23–25; Jonah), and the work of the servant of the Lord (Isa 42.4; 49.1–6).

  ZECHARIAH 9

  Judgment on Israel’s Enemies

  1An Oracle.

  The word of the LORD is against the land of Hadrach

  and will rest upon Damascus.