For to the LORD belongs the capitala of Aram,b
as do all the tribes of Israel;
2Hamath also, which borders on it,
Tyre and Sidon, though they are very wise.
3Tyre has built itself a rampart,
and heaped up silver like dust,
and gold like the dirt of the streets.
4But now, the Lord will strip it of its possessions
and hurl its wealth into the sea,
and it shall be devoured by fire.
5Ashkelon shall see it and be afraid;
Gaza too, and shall writhe in anguish;
Ekron also, because its hopes are withered.
The king shall perish from Gaza;
Ashkelon shall be uninhabited;
6a mongrel people shall settle in Ashdod,
and I will make an end of the pride of Philistia.
7I will take away its blood from its mouth,
and its abominations from between its teeth;
it too shall be a remnant for our God;
it shall be like a clan in Judah,
and Ekron shall be like the Jebusites.
8Then I will encamp at my house as a guard,
so that no one shall march to and fro;
no oppressor shall again overrun them,
for now I have seen with my own eyes.
The Coming Ruler of God’s People
9Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion!
Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem!
Lo, your king comes to you;
triumphant and victorious is he,
humble and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
10Hec will cut off the chariot from Ephraim
and the war-horse from Jerusalem;
and the battle bow shall be cut off,
and he shall command peace to the nations;
his dominion shall be from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth.
11As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you,
I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.
12Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope;
today I declare that I will restore to you double.
13For I have bent Judah as my bow;
I have made Ephraim its arrow.
I will arouse your sons, O Zion,
against your sons, O Greece,
and wield you like a warrior’s sword.
14Then the LORD will appear over them,
and his arrow go forth like lightning;
the Lord GOD will sound the trumpet
and march forth in the whirlwinds of the south.
15The LORD of hosts will protect them,
and they shall devour and tread down the slingers;d
they shall drink their bloode like wine,
and be full like a bowl,
drenched like the corners of the altar.
16On that day the LORD their God will save them
for they are the flock of his people;
for like the jewels of a crown
they shall shine on his land.
17For what goodness and beauty are his!
Grain shall make the young men flourish,
and new wine the young women.
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a Heb eye
b Cn: Heb of Adam (or of humankind)
c Gk: Heb I
d Cn: Heb the slingstones
e Gk: Heb shall drink
9.1–14.21 Second (Deutero-) Zechariah.
9.1–11.17 The Divine Warrior and the restoration of scattered Israel.
9.1–8 These verses picture the Lord as Divine Warrior moving triumphantly toward Jerusalem prior to the “day of the LORD” (cf. Joel 2.11; Isa 63.1–6). The list of cities mentioned in this passage works its way systematically from north to south, pausing for a siege of Tyre (v. 3). These enemies of Israel also belong to the Lord (v. 1), and God is sovereign over them.
9.1 An Oracle, an introductory formula, repeated in 12.1, uniting the two parts of Second Zechariah (chs. 9–11, 12–14; see Introduction). The ensuing booklet of Malachi is introduced by the same formula and perhaps should be viewed as an appendix to Zechariah.
9.5–7 The threats against the Philistines may include resettlement of non-natives, a mongrel people, in Ashdod. The remnant of Philistia is not a favored group, like the “remnant” of Israel in Isa 1–39, but consists merely of the survivors of the Lord’s attack. Their separate identity will cease for they will be dedicated for our God.
9.9 Daughter Zion. See note on 2.10. The triumphant king arrives humble and riding on a…donkey, thereby demonstrating his peaceful intentions. Two Gospels (Mt 21.2–7; Jn 12.14–15) cite this text in their accounts of Palm Sunday, but the Matthean version fails to take into consideration the parallelism of the Hebrew poetry (donkey is equivalent to colt), so it has Jesus riding on two donkeys at once.
9.10 The Divine Warrior demilitarizes the nations within the vast sweep of his dominion from the River (the Euphrates) to the ends of the earth (see Ps 46.8–9).
9.11 Blood of my covenant, the conventional way of referring to the sacrificially sealed covenant relationship between the Lord and the people (see Ex 24.8; Mt 26.28; Heb 9.15–22).
9.13 God will rescue the long-vanished Northern Kingdom, Ephraim (Israel), along with Judah (see 10.7). Greece, probably the earliest reference in the Bible to that emerging western superpower, though the late prophet Joel also refers to “the Greeks” (Joel 3.6). By the time of the book of Daniel (early second century BCE), Hellenistic kingdoms are the only enemies of Israel.
9.14 In classic Divine Warrior guise, the LORD will appear over them, with the heavenly hosts. God does all the fighting on the “day of the LORD” God’s people simply reap the fruits of victory.
9.15 Devour…drink their blood suggests not only the triumph of the Lord’s human allies but also a sacral ceremony comparable to the sacrifice of an animal on an altar (Ex 24.8).
9.17 Grain shall…young women (see Jer 31.12–14; Am 9.13–14; Joel 3.18). In the aftermath of victory peace and plenitude are the hallmarks of the new age that lies beyond the terrible intervention of the “day of the LORD.”
ZECHARIAH 10
Restoration of Judah and Israel
1Ask rain from the LORD
in the season of the spring rain,
from the LORD who makes the storm clouds,
who gives showers of rain to you,a
the vegetation in the field to everyone.
2For the teraphimb utter nonsense,
and the diviners see lies;
the dreamers tell false dreams,
and give empty consolation.
Therefore the people wander like sheep;
they suffer for lack of a shepherd.
3My anger is hot against the shepherds,
and I will punish the leaders;c
for the LORD of hosts cares for his flock, the house of Judah,
and will make them like his proud war-horse.
4Out of them shall come the cornerstone,
out of them the tent peg,
out of them the battle bow,
out of them every commander.
5Together they shall be like warriors in battle,
trampling the foe in the mud of the streets;
they shall fight, for the LORD is with them,
and they shall put to shame the riders on horses.
6I will strengthen the house of Judah,
and I will save the house of Joseph.
I will bring them back because I have compassion on them,
and they shall be as though I had not rejected them;
for I am the LORD their God and I will answer them.
7Then the people of Ephraim shall become like warriors,
and their hearts shall be glad as with wine.
Their children shall see it and rejoice,
their
hearts shall exult in the LORD.
8I will signal for them and gather them in,
for I have redeemed them,
and they shall be as numerous as they were before.
9Though I scattered them among the nations,
yet in far countries they shall remember me,
and they shall rear their children and return.
10I will bring them home from the land of Egypt,
and gather them from Assyria;
I will bring them to the land of Gilead and to Lebanon,
until there is no room for them.
11Theyd shall pass through the sea of distress,
and the waves of the sea shall be struck down,
and all the depths of the Nile dried up.
The pride of Assyria shall be laid low,
and the scepter of Egypt shall depart.
12I will make them strong in the LORD,
and they shall walk in his name,
says the LORD.
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a Heb them
b Or household gods
c Or male goats
d Gk: Heb He
10.1 The bounty of agriculture is attributed to the Lord, the giver of rain. Yahweh need not be manipulated to send the rain: the people need only to ask.
10.2 Teraphim, part of the apparatus of prophetic prognosticators. They were evidently amulets, metallic images, or statues of gods (see Judg 18.14–20; Ezek 21.21; Hos 3.4). The great prophets of the previous century were particularly incensed about the perversion of the prophetic office by false prophets (see Jer 14.14; 23.23–32; Ezek 13.8–16;22.28). Zechariah agrees (cf. 13.2–6).
10.3 Because of the failure of Israel’s human leaders, the Lord will personally be the shepherd of the house of Judah, displacing the male goats (see text note e; cf. Ezek 34.11–24, where the leaders of the people are also called “goats”).
10.10–12 As it was in First Zechariah (2.4; 6.15; 8.7–8), the theme of the gathering in of the exiles is sounded. In a veritable new exodus, they will come from Egypt and Assyria until there is no room for them (see note on 2.4).
ZECHARIAH 11
1Open your doors, O Lebanon,
so that fire may devour your cedars!
2Wail, O cypress, for the cedar has fallen,
for the glorious trees are ruined!
Wail, oaks of Bashan,
for the thick forest has been felled!
3Listen, the wail of the shepherds,
for their glory is despoiled!
Listen, the roar of the lions,
for the thickets of the Jordan are destroyed!
Two Kinds of Shepherds
4Thus said the LORD my God: Be a shepherd of the flock doomed to slaughter. 5Those who buy them kill them and go unpunished; and those who sell them say, “Blessed be the LORD, for I have become rich” and their own shepherds have no pity on them. 6For I will no longer have pity on the inhabitants of the earth, says the LORD. I will cause them, every one, to fall each into the hand of a neighbor, and each into the hand of the king; and they shall devastate the earth, and I will deliver no one from their hand.
7So, on behalf of the sheep merchants, I became the shepherd of the flock doomed to slaughter. I took two staffs; one I named Favor, the other I named Unity, and I tended the sheep. 8In one month I disposed of the three shepherds, for I had become impatient with them, and they also detested me. 9So I said, “I will not be your shepherd. What is to die, let it die; what is to be destroyed, let it be destroyed; and let those that are left devour the flesh of one another!” 10I took my staff Favor and broke it, annulling the covenant that I had made with all the peoples. 11So it was annulled on that day, and the sheep merchants, who were watching me, knew that it was the word of the LORD. 12I then said to them, “If it seems right to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them.” So they weighed out as my wages thirty shekels of silver. 13Then the LORD said to me, “Throw it into the treasury”a—this lordly price at which I was valued by them. So I took the thirty shekels of silver and threw them into the treasuryb in the house of the LORD. 14Then I broke my second staff Unity, annulling the family ties between Judah and Israel.
15Then the LORD said to me: Take once more the implements of a worthless shepherd. 16For I am now raising up in the land a shepherd who does not care for the perishing, or seek the wandering,c or heal the maimed, or nourish the healthy,d but devours the flesh of the fat ones, tearing off even their hoofs.
17Oh, my worthless shepherd,
who deserts the flock!
May the sword strike his arm
and his right eye!
Let his arm be completely withered,
his right eye utterly blinded!
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a Syr: Heb it to the potter
b Syr: Heb it to the potter
c Syr Compare Gk Vg: Heb the youth
d Meaning of Heb uncertain
11.1–3 In an ironic way Lebanon is invited to lay itself open to destruction, in contrast to the invitation to Judah to make itself open to divine nurture (10.1). The deforestation lamented by trees, animals, and rural people themselves seems to be the negative result of the overpopulation resulting from the return of numberless exiles (2.4; 10.8–12).
11.4–17 This strange passage defies crisp explanation, though it seems to continue the polemic against the corrupt religious and political leadership (10.3) that existed in Judea prior to the Lord’s promised day of purging and renewal. Following the Lord’s indictment of the false shepherds (vv. 4–6), the prophet tells about his sign-acts of judgment (vv. 7–14). The text concludes with the Lord’s decision to raise up a worthless antishepherd (vv. 15–17).
11.7 So…I became the shepherd. An unknown individual, perhaps the prophet himself, undertakes to do acts symbolic of the recalcitrance of the Judean community. It is difficult to say who the sheep merchants for whom he is working are.
11.10 I took my staff Favor and broke it no doubt reflects the prophetic indictment of the leadership of the Judean community, perhaps in the years immediately following the reconstruction of the temple.
11.12–13 Thirty shekels of silver, the figure assigned in Ex 21.32 as indemnity for a slave who had been gored by an ox. This was the fee paid to the traitor Judas (Mt 26.15; 27.9–10). The Gospel writers surely allude to these verses in reporting that Judas threw down the silver coins in the temple and that the money was used to buy the Potter’s Field as a burial place (see text note b).
11.14 I broke my second staff Unity suggests despair for the restoration of both the Northern and Southern Kingdoms (cf. 9.13; 10.6–7).
11.15–17 An expansion of these verses is in 13.7–9.
11.17 God raises up a worthless shepherd so vicious that he is placed under the terrible curse of maiming and blinding. Presumably this figure is a ruler in Judea (cf. Ezek 34.1–10).
ZECHARIAH 12
Jerusalem’s Victory
1An Oracle.
The word of the LORD concerning Israel: Thus says the LORD, who stretched out the heavens and founded the earth and formed the human spirit within: 2See, I am about to make Jerusalem a cup of reeling for all the surrounding peoples; it will be against Judah also in the siege against Jerusalem. 3On that day I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples; all who lift it shall grievously hurt themselves. And all the nations of the earth shall come together against it. 4On that day, says the LORD, I will strike every horse with panic, and its rider with madness. But on the house of Judah I will keep a watchful eye, when I strike every horse of the peoples with blindness. 5Then the clans of Judah shall say to themselves, “The inhabitants of Jerusalem have strength through the LORD of hosts, their God.”
6On that day I will make the clans of Judah like a blazing pot on a pile of wood, like a flaming torch among sheaves; and they shall devour to the right and to the left all the surrounding peoples, while Jerusalem shall again be inhabited in its place, in Je
rusalem.
7And the LORD will give victory to the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem may not be exalted over that of Judah. 8On that day the LORD will shield the inhabitants of Jerusalem so that the feeblest among them on that day shall be like David, and the house of David shall be like God, like the angel of the LORD, at their head. 9And on that day I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
Mourning for the Pierced One
10And I will pour out a spirit of compassion and supplication on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that, when they look on the onea whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn. 11On that day the mourning in Jerusalem will be as great as the mourning for Hadad-rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. 12The land shall mourn, each family by itself; the family of the house of David by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Nathan by itself, and their wives by themselves; 13the family of the house of Levi by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the Shimeites by itself, and their wives by themselves; 14and all the families that are left, each by itself, and their wives by themselves.
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a Heb on me
12.1–14.21 The use of the formulas on that day and day of the LORD seventeen times in these three chapters provides them with a strong thematic unity. Now the focus will be on the culminating day of God’s victory as Divine Warrior and on the paradisiacal aftermath of that victory.
12.1–13.6 The purge of Jerusalem. This section may be datable to the middle of the fifth century BCE when tensions between early apocalyptic visionary circles and the Jerusalem priests were beginning to grow acute.
12.1–9 These verses presuppose Jerusalem’s conflict not only with the nations around it but with Judah itself.
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