HarperCollins Study Bible

by Harold W. Attridge

  12.1 An oracle. See note on 9.1. The introduction of the Lord as the creator of the cosmos suggests that God can also effect the new creation that is coming.

  12.2 A cup of reeling. See Ps 75.8; Isa 51.17, 22. Nations that drink it are doomed (Jer 25.15–29).

  12.3 Like the stone not cut by human hands of Dan 2.34–45, God’s elect city becomes a heavy stone for all the peoples on the “day of the LORD.” The older motifs of the election of Jerusalem (3.2; cf. Isa 31.4–5) and of the house of David (2 Sam 7.16; Ps 132.11–18; Isa 9.1–7; 11.1–10) recur in the thinking of Second Zechariah.

  12.8–9 The motif of the great battle against the nations gathered before Jerusalem is a favorite one in late prophetic eschatology (Isa 63.1–6; Ezek 38.14–23) and is taken up again in apocalyptic texts (see Joel 3.11–14; Rev 14.14–20). As he envisions the future status of Jerusalem and Judah, the prophet’s enthusiasm peaks: the house of David shall be like God (v. 8). Presumably this reflects the leading role to be played by the Jews in God’s victory over all the nations (v. 9).

  12.10 The one…pierced. The Hebrew text (see text note c) suggests that the prophet himself (see 13.6) might be this “suffering servant” (see Isa 52.13–53.12; Mt 23.37; Jn 19.34–37). Other ancient versions point to an unknown victim of intracommunity strife.

  12.11 The martyrdom of the prophetic/messianic figure leads to a day of mourning in Jerusalem. If Hadad-rimmon is taken as the name of a place in the region of Megiddo, and not that of a Canaanite fertility god as some commentators prefer, it should probably be identified with the Rimmon of Josh 19.13 (not that of Zech 14.10). The mourning alluded to in that case might be that for the Judean king Josiah, killed on the plain of Megiddo in 609 BCE, which was made customary by the prophet Jeremiah and the singers (see 2 Chr 35.20–27).

  ZECHARIAH 13

  1On that day a fountain shall be opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity.

  Idolatry Cut Off

  2On that day, says the LORD of hosts, I will cut off the names of the idols from the land, so that they shall be remembered no more; and also I will remove from the land the prophets and the unclean spirit. 3And if any prophets appear again, their fathers and mothers who bore them will say to them, “You shall not live, for you speak lies in the name of the LORD” and their fathers and their mothers who bore them shall pierce them through when they prophesy. 4On that day the prophets will be ashamed, every one, of their visions when they prophesy; they will not put on a hairy mantle in order to deceive, 5but each of them will say, “I am no prophet, I am a tiller of the soil; for the land has been my possessiona since my youth.” 6And if anyone asks them, “What are these wounds on your chest?”b the answer will be “The wounds I received in the house of my friends.”

  The Shepherd Struck, the Flock Scattered

  7“Awake, O sword, against my shepherd,

  against the man who is my associate,”

  says the LORD of hosts.

  Strike the shepherd, that the sheep may be scattered;

  I will turn my hand against the little ones.

  8In the whole land, says the LORD,

  two-thirds shall be cut off and perish,

  and one-third shall be left alive.

  9And I will put this third into the fire,

  refine them as one refines silver,

  and test them as gold is tested.

  They will call on my name,

  and I will answer them.

  I will say, “They are my people”

  and they will say, “The LORD is our God.”

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  a Cn: Heb for humankind has caused me to possess

  b Heb wounds between your hands

  13.1 Fountain, the first of two references in Zechariah to the river of God that flows from the Jerusalem sanctuary for the cleansing of the people (14.8; see also Ps 46.4; Ezek 47.1–12; Joel 3.18; Rev 22.1–2; in Jn 4.14; 7.37–38, Jesus compares himself to this life-giving stream).

  13.2–3 The unclean spirit of the prophets condemned by Zechariah is a direct descendant of the “lying spirit” that possessed false prophets in the days of the kings (1 Kings 22.13–28). Zechariah goes so far as to foresee that parents will kill their own children if they prophesy.

  13.4 Hairy mantle. None of the usual tricks of the prophetic trade will find favor on the “day of the LORD.” Perhaps vv. 2–6 are intended to be a rejection of prophetic guilds associated with the temple; however, the denial by prophets that the wounds visible on their chests are evidences of ecstatic self-flagellation (v. 6) hints at a rejection of all forms of prophecy.

  13.5 I am no prophet. Here, near the end of the prophetic period, the words of Amos, the very first writing prophet, are echoed (Am 7.14). Evidently false prophets were a destructive element in Israel from start to finish of the prophetic era (see also 10.2).

  13.7–9 A resumption of the theme of 11.15–17. The purging of my shepherd…my associate, the dispersal and death of two-thirds of the people, and the fiery purification of the rest (cf. Isa 48.10; Mal 3.2–4) lead in the end to the mutual confessions of trust of v. 9b. Jesus perceives the same process of refining at work when he uses this text to predict that his disciples will abandon him during his Passion (Mk 14.27).

  ZECHARIAH 14

  Future Warfare and Final Victory

  1See, a day is coming for the LORD, when the plunder taken from you will be divided in your midst. 2For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be taken and the houses looted and the women raped; half the city shall go into exile, but the rest of the people shall not be cut off from the city. 3Then the LORD will go forth and fight against those nations as when he fights on a day of battle. 4On that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives, which lies before Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley; so that one half of the Mount shall withdraw northward, and the other half southward. 5And you shall flee by the valley of the LORD’s mountain,a for the valley between the mountains shall reach to Azal;b and you shall flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of King Uzziah of Judah. Then the LORD my God will come, and all the holy ones with him.

  6On that day there shall not bec either cold or frost.d 7And there shall be continuous day (it is known to the LORD), not day and not night, for at evening time there shall be light.

  8On that day living waters shall flow out from Jerusalem, half of them to the eastern sea and half of them to the western sea; it shall continue in summer as in winter.

  9And the LORD will become king over all the earth; on that day the LORD will be one and his name one.

  10The whole land shall be turned into a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem. But Jerusalem shall remain aloft on its site from the Gate of Benjamin to the place of the former gate, to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the king’s wine presses. 11And it shall be inhabited, for never again shall it be doomed to destruction; Jerusalem shall abide in security.

  12This shall be the plague with which the LORD will strike all the peoples that wage war against Jerusalem: their flesh shall rot while they are still on their feet; their eyes shall rot in their sockets, and their tongues shall rot in their mouths. 13On that day a great panic from the LORD shall fall on them, so that each will seize the hand of a neighbor, and the hand of the one will be raised against the hand of the other; 14even Judah will fight at Jerusalem. And the wealth of all the surrounding nations shall be collected—gold, silver, and garments in great abundance. 15And a plague like this plague shall fall on the horses, the mules, the camels, the donkeys, and whatever animals may be in those camps.

  16Then all who survive of the nations that have come against Jerusalem shall go up year after year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the festival of booths.e 17If any of the families of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of
hosts, there will be no rain upon them. 18And if the family of Egypt do not go up and present themselves, then on them shallf come the plague that the LORD inflicts on the nations that do not go up to keep the festival of booths.g 19Such shall be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not go up to keep the festival of booths.h

  20On that day there shall be inscribed on the bells of the horses, “Holy to the LORD.” And the cooking pots in the house of the LORD shall be as holy asi the bowls in front of the altar; 21and every cooking pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be sacred to the LORD of hosts, so that all who sacrifice may come and use them to boil the flesh of the sacrifice. And there shall no longer be tradersj in the house of the LORD of hosts on that day.

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  a Heb my mountains

  b Meaning of Heb uncertain

  c Cn: Heb there shall not be light

  d Compare Gk Syr Vg Tg: Meaning of Heb uncertain

  e Or tabernacles; Heb succoth

  f Gk Syr: Heb shall not

  g Or tabernacles; Heb succoth

  h Or tabernacles; Heb succoth

  i Heb shall be like

  j Or Canaanites

  14.1–21 Because this chapter achieves the most radical, even cosmic, vision of change on the “day of the LORD,” it is thought to be the latest in the ongoing series of oracles and visions in Second Zechariah. It may be as late as 420 BCE.

  14.1 On the “day of the LORD,” plunder will be taken and divided. This is not the motif of the despoiling of the oppressor nations by Israel (see 2.9; Ex 12.36; Ezek 38–39; Nah 2.9; Hag 2.7–8), but rather one of the details of the terror to be experienced by those Judeans who will have to endure the purge that precedes God’s victory (13.7–9).

  14.3 See note on 12.8–9. Now the Divine Warrior turns the terror against Israel’s enemies.

  14.4 Mount of Olives…in two. The cosmic dimension of this last vision of Zechariah implies changes in the very structure of the earth itself. Perhaps by their hugeness and weight, the divine feet are sufficient to alter the landscape around Jerusalem (cf. Mic 1.2–4).

  14.5 All the holy ones with him. The Lord engages in divine warfare with a full complement of angelic forces (cf. Dan 7.22).

  14.6–7 The displacement of the sun by the glory of God is a motif used by the nearly contemporary “Isaiah Apocalypse” (Isa 24–27; see also Isa 60.19–20; Rev 22.5). Light was the first of God’s creations (Gen 1.3). With that light came night and day, i.e., time. In the new creation, time ceases because the divine glory is perpetual.

  14.8 Living waters. See note on 13.1.

  14.9 The LORD will be one and his name one suggests the achievement of that utter undividedness of loyalty anticipated in the Shema (Deut 6.4).

  14.10 Aloft on its site. The altered topography of the new age leaves Jerusalem standing high and alone. The image has roots in Near Eastern mythology, which would understand the holy city and the Temple Mount as the cosmic mountain where earth and heaven meet and where God dwells.

  14.11 Shall be inhabited. See 2.4; Joel 3.20. The lifting of the curse pronounced in 11.6 leads to the blessing of progeny promised to a people obedient to the covenant in Deut 28.11.

  14.14 A motif in the prophetic vision of the future is the flow of the wealth of…nations to preeminent Jerusalem (e.g., Isa 60.5–7; 61.6; 66.12).

  14.15 Those who fight against Jerusalem will experience disease and death like those who oppose the covenant of God (Deut 28.20–22).

  14.16–19 In the new age that lies beyond the “day of the LORD” the now Judaized remnants of the other nations are obliged to observe the annual pilgrimage festival of booths (v. 16; see Lev 23.39–43) on pain of drought or the plague (v. 18).

  14.20–21 Bells, cooking pots, and bowls will all achieve ritual purity through the direct activity of God rather than through priestly consecration (cf. Lev 27.30–33). Holiness spreads everywhere! In contrast to Joel 3.17, this vision anticipates the gathering of all nations to Jerusalem with the exception that there shall no longer be traders (Hebrew, “Canaanites”) in the house of the LORD (see Mk 11.15–17 and parallels; Jn 2.13–17). Thus did the visionaries who gave us Second Zechariah imagine that the temple, the restoration of which was a major concern of Zechariah son of Berechiah, will in the new age finally become fit to serve as the worship center for the whole world.

  MALACHI

  1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |

  Date and Historical Context

  THE BOOK OF MALACHI must have been written after Haggai and Zech 1–8, and after the temple was rededicated in 516/5 BCE (see Ezra 6.15). The fact that the sacrificial worship of the temple had had time to fall into disorder (1.6–14; 2.11) coupled with the writer’s deep concern about intermarriage with foreign women (2.10–17), which this book shares with Ezra and Nehemiah, both suggest that it was written shortly before Nehemiah’s first return in 445/4 BCE during the reign of the Persian king Artaxerxes I (465–424 BCE).

  Name, Authorship, and Message

  LIKE THE BOOK OF HAGGAI, Malachi gives us no personal information about its author. Even the name Malachi may not be a personal name at all, but simply a title, “My messenger.” The name is appropriate, however, for it is the task of this late prophetic book to bring two messages: God is displeased with the lack of piety in the community gathered around the temple (1.6–2.16; 3.6–12); and God is about to send a messenger who will reunite and purify all of Israel prior to the “great and terrible day of the LORD” (4.5). The book ends on that eschatological note; in the Protestant canon it is followed immediately by the Gospel announcement of the birth of Jesus. The earliest Gospel, Mark, even opens with the preaching of the “messenger,” John the Baptist, whom Jesus called “Elijah who is to come” (Mt 11.14; see also Mk 9.13). This juxtaposition suggests that in early Christian eyes the advent of the Christ was the first of the culminating events of history promised by the prophet “Malachi.”

  Social Location

  UNLIKE SUCH EARLY PROPHETS as Amos and Hosea, the late prophetic book of Malachi is not simply the voice of one of the observant believers raised against a corrupt priesthood, though it resoundingly indicts the priesthood for its failures (1.6–2.9). In fact, the writer may actually have been a priest himself who put on the prophetic mantle of the Lord’s messenger. The book identifies itself with levitical priestly circles (2.4–6) and believes deeply in the temple, true worship, and the payment of tithes as the means for obtaining the blessing of the land (3.10–12). Like Haggai and Zech 1–8 in the previous century, it may be the work of a “temple” prophet who worked among the ruling circles of Judah rather than at the periphery. [W. SIBLEY TOWNER]

  MALACHI 1

  1An oracle. The word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi.a

  Israel Preferred to Edom

  2I have loved you, says the LORD. But you say, “How have you loved us?” Is not Esau Jacob’s brother? says the LORD. Yet I have loved Jacob 3but I have hated Esau; I have made his hill country a desolation and his heritage a desert for jackals. 4If Edom says, “We are shattered but we will rebuild the ruins,” the LORD of hosts says: They may build, but I will tear down, until they are called the wicked country, the people with whom the LORD is angry forever. 5Your own eyes shall see this, and you shall say, “Great is the LORD beyond the borders of Israel!”

  Corruption of the Priesthood

  6A son honors his father, and servants their master. If then I am a father, where is the honor due me? And if I am a master, where is the respect due me? says the LORD of hosts to you, O priests, who despise my name. You say, “How have we despised your name?” 7By offering polluted food on my altar. And you say, “How have we polluted it?”b By thinking that the LORD’s table may be despised. 8When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not wrong? And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not wrong? Try presenting that to your governor; will he be pleased with you or show you favor? says the LORD of hosts. 9And now implore the favor of God, that he may be gracious t
o us. The fault is yours. Will he show favor to any of you? says the LORD of hosts. 10Oh, that someone among you would shut the templec doors, so that you would not kindle fire on my altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you, says the LORD of hosts, and I will not accept an offering from your hands. 11For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name is great among the nations, and in every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure offering; for my name is great among the nations, says the LORD of hosts. 12But you profane it when you say that the Lord’s table is polluted, and the food for itd may be despised. 13“What a weariness this is,” you say, and you sniff at me,e says the LORD of hosts. You bring what has been taken by violence or is lame or sick, and this you bring as your offering! Shall I accept that from your hand? says the LORD. 14Cursed be the cheat who has a male in the flock and vows to give it, and yet sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished; for I am a great King, says the LORD of hosts, and my name is reverenced among the nations.

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  a Or by my messenger

  b Gk: Heb you

  c Heb lacks temple

  d Compare Syr Tg: Heb its fruit, its food

  e Another reading is at it

  1.1 Superscription. Oracle, lit. “burden.” See note on Zech 9.1.

  1.2–5 First oracle. This section introduces the question-and-answer style of Malachi, a form of disputation also found quite prominently in Haggai (Hag 1.4–6, 7–11; 2.3–5, 15–16). The opening affirmation of the Lord’s love of Jacob/Israel underlies all that follows.

  1.2 Esau Jacob’s brother. See Gen 25.24–34. Esau is identified as the ancestor of the Edomites in Gen 36.1. For other prophetic oracles against Edom, see Isa 34; 63.1–6; Jer 49.7–22; Ezek 25.12–14; and most of the book of Obadiah. In Rom 9.13 Paul cites this verse as evidence that God’s preference for Jacob/Israel over Esau/Edom is unrelated to any special merit on Israel’s part, but derives solely from God’s mercy. By the time of Malachi, the ancient enemy was apparently a desolation (v. 3).