ZECHARIAH

Michael Rydelnik

Author. The book of Zechariah contains the prophetic messages of Zechariah (lit., "The Lord Remembers"), the son of Berechiah, grandson of Iddo (concerning the alleged contradiction with Ezr 5:1; 6:14, see comments on Zch 1:1). Zechariah was not only a prophet but also a priest (Neh 12:4, 16). Since he was called young man (Zch 2:4), it is possible that he had just attained adulthood when he began his prophetic ministry.

Modern biblical criticism challenges the unity of Zechariah. Initially, this was an attempt to defend the accuracy of Mt 27:9, which gives a loose rendering of Zch 11:12–13 and attributes the quotation to Jeremiah. Hence, some scholars, without any substantiation, believed that Jeremiah wrote Zch 9–14 in the preexilic period. (Regarding Matthew’s citation of Jeremiah, see comments on 11:12–14.) Later critics also disputed the unity of Zechariah but rather saw chaps. 9–14 as an addition, compiled several hundred years after Zechariah’s ministry in the third century BC.

Two primary arguments are raised against Zechariah being the author of the entire book: (1) alleged differences in wording and style between chaps. 1–8 and 9–14; and (2) alleged anachronistic references to historical events that occurred many years after Zechariah’s ministry.

As to the first argument, George L. Robinson responded that there is "no mode of reasoning so treacherous as that from language and style" (George L. Robinson, "The Book of Zechariah" in ISBE, ed. James Orr, John L. Nuelson, and Edgar Young Mullins [Peabody, MA: Hendrickson], V:3139). Even so, possible variations in style between the two major parts of Zechariah could result from being written at different periods in the prophet’s life and also from differences in genre.

Beyond the alleged differences, there are substantial similarities in language and style. For example, Barker suggests the following words and expressions found in both sections of the book: (1) the same Hebrew phrase appears in 7:14 (translated as "that no one went back and forth") and 9:8 (translated as "him who passes by and returns") but is found nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible; (2) the phrase "declares the Lord" appears 13 times in the first part of the book (1:3, 4, 16; 2:5, 6a, 6b, 10; 3:9, 10; 5:4; 8:6, 11, 17) and seven times in the second part (10:12; 11:6; 12:1, 4; 13:2, 7, 8); (3) the name "the Lord of hosts" is repeatedly used in both sections of Zechariah (1:3, 4, 6, 12, 14, 16, 17; 2:8, 9, 11; 3:7, 9, 10; 4:6, 9; 5:4; 6:12, 15; 7:3, 4, 9, 12, 13; 8:1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 11, 14, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23; 9:15; 10:3; 12:5; 13:2, 7; 14:16, 17, 21); (4) the Hebrew verb yshv (to dwell, inhabit) is used in both sections (2:4; 7:7; 12:6; 14:10) (cf. Kenneth L. Barker. "Zechariah," EBC, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein [Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1985], 7:596).

Brevard C. Childs defended the canonical unity of the book and argued that both sections rely heavily on themes from the Major Prophets. The congruent elements between chaps. 1–8 and 9–14 include: (1) a new Jerusalem protected by the Lord (2:5 / 9:8; 11:14); (2) return of the land to Eden-like fertility (8:12 / 14:8); (3) restoration of the relationship between Israel and the Lord (using covenant terminology, 8:8 / 13:9); (4) the prediction of the pouring out of a curse on the land (5:3) and the prediction of the removal of the curse (14:11); (5) God’s judgment on the nations (1:18–21 / 14:12–15); (6) the conversion of the nations and their worship of the Lord (2:11; 8:20, 22 / 14:6, 16); (7) the regathering of the exiles of Israel (8:7–8 / 10:9–11); (8) changes in worship rites at the coming of the new age (8:18–19 / 14:20); (9) the outpouring of God’s Spirit at the end of the age (4:6 / 12:10); (10) the purging of the land of those who swear falsely (5:3–4 / 13:3); (10) the Messiah who triumphs by humility, not power (3:8; 4:6 / 9:10) (Brevard C. Childs, Introduction to the Old Testament as Scripture [Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1979], 482–830). Additional congruent elements are: (11) joy at the coming of the King (2:10 / 9:9); (12) the need for repentance and cleansing from sin (1:4; 3:4, 9; 9:7 / 12:10; 13:1, 9); (13) Jerusalem’s ultimate exaltation (1:21; 2:11 / 12:3–9; 14:12–19); and (14) the Messiah presented as the coming King of Israel (6:12–13 / 9:9).

The second argument against Zechariah’s authorship (that the prophet refers to events yet in the future) is only problematic to those who deny supernatural revelation and future prediction. Thus, for example, the prediction of Greece in 9:13 is reasonable if the omniscient Lord could reveal this to Zechariah even as He revealed the coming of the Messiah to him (3:8–10; 6:9–15; 9:9; 11:4–14; 12:10; 13:7–9). Therefore, there is substantial evidence that Zechariah is indeed the author of the entire book attributed to him.

Date. The messages in chaps. 1–8 have dates ranging from 520–518 BC and were generally simultaneous with Haggai’s prophetic ministry. Chapters 9–14 are undated and were likely written much later in the prophet’s ministry. Bullock suggests that since Zechariah was a young man in the first eight chapters, it is likely that he was still alive when Greece began to be dominant over Persia after the battles of Marathon (490 BC, on the coast northeast of Athens) and Salamis (480 BC, between Athens and Corinth). Transitions in the times of the Gentiles (cf. Introduction to Daniel) called for prophetic insight to comfort the people of Israel. So he suggests that the oracles in chaps. 9–14 are to be dated "in the early decades of the fifth century B.C." (C. Hassell Bullock, An Introduction to the Old Testament Prophets [Chicago: Moody, 1986], 316–17).

Nevertheless, dating the visions and oracles of Zechariah do not date the book. It is not as if the prophet kept a daily journal that was ultimately published as one volume. Rather, near the end of his prophetic ministry, the prophet composed a book using selected visions and oracles from both his early and later messages. The unified work, using many themes of the earlier prophets, is likely dated in the early fifth century BC, not long after the prophet’s final oracles.

Theme and Purpose. Robinson describes Zechariah as "the most Messianic, the most truly apocalyptic and eschatological, of all the writings of the OT" (Robinson, "The Book of Zechariah," V:3136). Thus, the theme of the book is the redemption and restoration of Israel and the world through the messianic King. The book’s purpose was to encourage spiritual renewal in Israel and confidence in the faithful remnant by revealing the messianic hope and God’s ultimate plan for the future.

Perhaps the best description of the book’s genre is George Eldon Ladd’s term, "prophetic apocalyptic" (George Eldon Ladd, "Why Not Prophetic-Apocalyptic?" Journal of Biblical Literature 76 [1957]: 192–200). Clearly Zechariah uses the distinctive elements of classical prophecy, including both an emphasis on ethical behavior and the expectation of the kingdom of God to be established on earth as part of the day of the Lord. Additionally, Zechariah includes apocalyptic revelation by God given through visions and symbols with a message of eschatological (end-time) triumph.

Meredith G. Kline has proposed a bifold framework for the book of Zechariah ("The Structure of the Book of Zechariah," Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 34/2 [June 1991], 179–93) as follows: The book of Zechariah divides into two major panels with 6:9–15 forming a primary hinge between them. Each panel also is divided by a secondary hinge. The first panel, focusing on the night visions, extends from 1:1 to 6:8, with a hinge at 3:1–10, and the second panel, emphasizing prophetic burdens (or oracles), extends from 7:1 to 14:21 with a hinge at 11:1–17.

Zechariah’s purpose in using this structure was to draw attention to the hinges as the central message of the book. Significantly, the major hinge (6:9–15) is a prediction of the Messiah uniting the offices of King and Priest. The first minor hinge (3:1–10) is a prediction of the Messiah bringing cleansing from sin to Israel, emphasizing His work as Priest. The second minor hinge (11:1–17) is a prediction of Israel’s rejection of the true shepherd, a term used of kings, emphasizing the Messiah’s royal office. Significantly, each hinge uses a role-play to teach about the Messiah’s offices: (1) the cleansing of Joshua as a picture of the Priestly Messiah’s cleansing of Israel at the end of days (3:1–10); (2) the crowning of Joshua as Priest and King as a symbol of Messiah uniting the offices of Priest and King (6:9–15); and (3) the rejection of Zechariah as a symbol of Israel’s rejection of the Messiah, the true King (11:1–17). The hinges are designed to draw the reader to the main point of the book, the revelation of the Messiah, who will both cleanse and deliver Israel. The chart below depicts the bifold structure of Zechariah.

Contribution. The book of Zechariah makes several significant contributions to the Bible, foremost being the revelation of the Messiah. David Baron says of the messianic theme, "Indeed it seems to be the special aim and mission of Zechariah to condense and concentrate in small compass, and in his own peculiar terse style, almost all that has been revealed to the ‘former prophets’ about the person and mission of Messiah—about His Divine and yet truly human character, and of His sufferings and of the glory that should follow" (David Baron, Commentary on Zechariah: His Visions and Prophecies [London: Morgan and Scott, 1918], 5–6). Thus, Zechariah reveals that Messiah will cleanse Israel at the end of days (3:8–10; 13:1); Messiah will unite the offices of Priest and King (6:12–13); Messiah, although a king, will arrive humbly, riding a donkey (9:9–10); Messiah will be rejected by His own people (11:4–14); Messiah will be recognized as the rejected shepherd and ultimately welcomed by Israel (12:10); and Messiah will be pierced prior to the scattering of His people (13:7–9).

Additionally, the book of Zechariah provides details concerning the end of days. This includes: the final siege of Jerusalem (12:1–3; 14:1–2); the Lord’s deliverance of His city and people (14:3–4); the judgment of the nations (1:21; 12:9; 14:3); the repentance and restoration of Israel (12:10; 13:8–9); the leadership of Israel among the nations in the messianic kingdom (8:23); and the redemption of Gentile nations and their worship of Israel’s Messiah in the messianic kingdom (8:20–23; 14:16–19).

Ultimately, the book reveals much about the nature of the living God. He is omniscient, knowing the future regarding the nations (9:13) and the coming of the Messiah. The Lord is faithful, remembering His covenant promises to Israel (8:8; 13:9). Finally, the book reveals God to be the sovereign Lord of history, bringing to pass all that He decreed and establishing a righteous kingdom over Israel and the world.

Background. The prophecies of the book of Zechariah are from the postexilic period, beginning approximately 16 years after the restoration from the Babylonian captivity. (For background on the captivity, see Introduction to Daniel. For background on the postexilic period, see Introductions to Ezra and Haggai.)

At the opening of Zechariah’s book, Judah was experiencing political peace (1:11) but national despair. The temple was still not built (Hg 1:2–4), the walls of Jerusalem were in ruins (Neh 2:17), and the people were facing adversity, including both poverty (Hg 1:6) and drought (Hg 1:11). By the time the book was compiled (early fifth century BC, cf. comments on Date), the Persian Empire was fading and the Greek Empire was ascendant, causing uneasiness among the returned captives. Therefore, Zechariah was called to give the returned Judahites hope for the present in light of the Lord’s promises to them for the future.

The first major panel records the night visions of Zechariah. The first paragraph (1:1–6) is an introduction to the panel followed by the night visions (1:7–6:8). In the middle of the six night visions, Joshua the high priest is cleansed of filthy garments (3:1–10), a role-play that functions as a hinge in this section and represents the future priestly work of the Messiah. The message of the night visions, God’s comfort of Israel, places its central idea in the hinge—that comfort finds its source in the priestly work of the Messiah, cleansing Israel from sin. The hinge (3:1–10) also links the promises of deliverance and restoration (1:7–2:13) with the promises of empowerment and enablement (4:1–6:8), demonstrating that ultimate deliverance will come only with cleansing from sin and that empowerment will follow that cleansing.

1:1. Zechariah’s first message, received in the eighth month of the second year of Darius Hystaspes (521–486 BC, cf. Ezr 4:5, 24; 5:5–7; 6:1, 12, 15) or October/November, 520 BC, some 2–3 months after Haggai’s first message (cf. commentary on Hg 1:1) functions as the introduction to night visions. Dating it by the reign of a Gentile king indicates that Israel was still in the times of the Gentiles (Dn 2:7; Lk 21:24). Called the word of the Lord, the technical term for prophetic revelation, the message came to Zechariah the prophet. When using this phrase in the rest of the book, the author uses the first person (to me, Zch 4:8, 6:9, 7:4, 8:18) but here the name of the prophet since it stands at the head of the book. Called the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, this identification is alleged to contradict Ezr 5:1 and 6:14, where he is simply called the son of Iddo. Rather than a contradiction, it is more likely that the book of Zechariah names both father and grandfather, while Ezra names only the more famous grandfather, who was head of a priestly family (Neh 12:12–16). This is plausible, as the Hebrew word "son" can mean son, grandson, or descendant (e.g., 2Ch 22:9).

1:2–3. God is said to be very angry with Israel’s ancestors (1:2). Zechariah used an intense word (qatsuph) for angry (used in Dt 1:34; 2Kg 5:11; Is 57:16–17; 64:5; Est 1:12; 2:21) and places it in an emphatic position with a redoubling (lit., "angry with anger"), making it better translated "furious" or "wrathful." In light of this, the Lord invites the returned exiles to return to Him. This is the Hebrew word for "repent" and literally means "to turn around." If they repent of the sins of their fathers, the Lord would return to them, restoring His favor.

1:4–6. Having invited them to repent, the Lord warned the Jewish people not to resist His offer as their fathers did (1:4). The former prophets, a reference to the preexilic prophets, had called Israel to repent of their evil ways … but they did not listen. The quotation from the prophets is not direct but rather a summary (cf. Mt 2:23) of their messages (cf. Is 55:6–7; Jr 3:12; Hs 7:10; Jl 2:12–13; Am 5:4–6). Although their fathers and the former prophets had died (Zch 1:5), God’s words of warning ultimately did overtake the Jewish people, and they were sent into exile (1:6). As a result, some of the returned exiles repented (lit., "turned," as used in 1:3), recognizing God’s justice in disciplining Israel. This introductory warning establishes the context for the entire book: God would bring the blessings of the messianic kingdom when Israel would turn to Him in obedience and righteousness (cf. 3:7; 6:15; 7:9–14; 8:14–17).

Having introduced the first panel, Zechariah began to reveal the night visions he had received. This major panel contains six night visions, three visions on either side of a hinge describing the cleansing of Joshua the High Priest, a messianic prediction of the priestly Messiah’s cleansing of Israel (for the significance of this hinge, see Introduction).

1:7. All six visions were received on the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month … in the second year of Darius, or on February 15, 519 BC, some three months after Zechariah’s first message and two months after Haggai’s last messages (Hg 2:10, 20). Although the visions were received on that date, the book of Zechariah was written many years later. Zechariah included this record of the visions to give hope and comfort to the exiles who had returned.

1:8–11. All the visions came on one night, this first one depicting a rider on a red horse in the midst of a grove of myrtle trees in front of other riders on red, sorrel and white horses. The rider on the red horse is the angel of the Lord (1:9, 11), a phrase found over 50 times in the OT. In some cases, it appears to refer to the Lord spatially present in a particular time and place (cf. Gn 18:1–15, where the leader of the three angelic visitors is identified as the Lord while the other two are merely angels; Gn 48:15–16, where the angel that led Jacob is used synonymously with God; and Ex 3:1–22, where the angel of the Lord appeared to Moses in Ex 3:2 but is identified as the Lord who is present in the burning bush throughout the chapter, also see Ex 23:2–23; 32:34; 33:14; Jdg 13:1–25; Is 63:9).

Since those who saw the angel of the Lord actually saw God (cf. Jdg 13:22), many interpreters have correctly recognized that these were preincarnate appearances of the Messiah Jesus. Here, the angel of the Lord is to be distinguished from the interpreting angel (Zch 1:9, 13–14, 19; 2:3; 4:1, 4–5; 5:5, 10; 6:4–5). The other riders were angelic beings, returned from patrolling the earth (1:10). The horses’ colors may be significant: red, perhaps representing blood and judgment (cf. Is 63:1–6 where red represents the blood of the nations under judgment by the Messiah); white, triumph and glory (cf. Rv 19:11–14 where the white horse represents the glorious and triumphant return of Jesus); and sorrel, although not identified elsewhere in Scripture, since it is better translated as "variegated," this horse might represent a combination of judgment and triumph.

The identification of the myrtle trees is not explicit in the text. Since the myrtle is one of the special shrubs depicting the redeemed land of Israel in the future kingdom (Is 41:19; 55:13) some have proposed correctly that here they represent the nation Israel (Charles L. Feinberg, God Remembers: A Study of the Book of Zechariah [New York: ABMJ, 1965], 27; H. C. Leupold, Exposition of Zechariah [Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1971], 33; Merrill F. Unger, Zechariah: Prophet of Messiah’s Glory [Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1963], 27–28). Positioned in a ravine, they would represent Israel in a lowly, oppressed place. The riders reported that they patrolled the earth and found it peaceful and quiet, a negative quality because Israel had hoped that the Lord would soon shake the earth (Hg 2:21–22), overthrow kingdoms, and deliver them from the oppression of the nations.

1:12–17. The following paragraph presents the meaning of the vision and reflects God’s compassion for oppressed Israel. When the angel of the Lord prayed for compassion after seventy years of captivity (1:12; cf. 7:5; Jr 25:11–12; 29:10; 2Ch 36:21; Ezr 1:1; Dn 9:2), the Lord responded with gracious (lit., "good") and comforting words (Zch 1:13). These included that He was jealous for … Zion (1:14). God’s jealousy is part of the biblical idiom of love and generally refers to God’s exclusive covenant relationship with Israel. God demands Israel’s absolute love and devotion as a result of His jealousy.

As comfort, God promised ultimately to deliver His nation from oppression (2Kg 19:31; Is 26:11; Ezk 39:25), to express His great anger at the nations for doing far worse to Judah than He wanted (Zch 1:15), and to offer eschatological promises. These include that He would return to Jerusalem (1:16a), rebuild His house, and grow (the measuring line, like a tape measure, indicating increase in size, 1:16b) and prosper Israel, when the Lord will again … choose Jerusalem (1:17).

Although some see this fulfilled in the postexilic period with the building of the second temple, since the glory and presence of God did not return to the rebuilt temple (as predicted in Ezk 43:4) and since the description depicts the composite eschatological description of Jerusalem from the Prophets, it is more likely an eschatological prediction. Thus the return to Jerusalem more likely refers to the literal coming of the Messiah (even as Zch 12:10 indicates; cf. Mt 23:37–39) when He will be literally present in the city (Ezk 48:35; Is 2:1–4; 4:2–6; 9:7; 11:9–10); the rebuilt house finds its fulfillment in the future millennial temple (Zch 1:16b; cf. 6:13; Ezk 40–48); the expansion of Jerusalem points to its end-of-days rebuilding and expansion (Jr 31:38–40; Is 60:4–9; Zch 9:17); and the comfort of Jerusalem predicts the messianic future (Is 14:1).

1:18–19. The second vision describes four horns (1:18) and four craftsmen (1:20). The word horn generally refers to strength and power, but may refer to a king or kingdom (Ps 132:17; Dn 7:7; Rv 13:1; 17:12). Here it represents four kingdoms that have scattered Judah, Israel and Jerusalem (Zch 1:19). Since these visions all have an eschatological framework, they refer to the same four empires Daniel predicted (for evidence supporting the following interpretation, cf. comments in Dn 2 and 7): Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome (with Rome either being revived at the end of days or represented as continuing through Western civilization until the end of days).

1:20–21. The four craftsmen represent those empires that God used to judge those who scattered Judah. In turn, therefore, they are, Medo-Persia that defeated Babylon, Greece that conquered Persia, Rome that overcame Greece, and finally, the kingdom of Messiah that will overcome the end-of-days Rome (cf. Dn 2:34, 44–45 and comments there).

2:1–5. The third night vision depicts a man with a measuring line (2:1) going out to measure Jerusalem (2:2). The tape measure (cf. 1:16) represents Jerusalem’s increase in size. As the interpreting angel was leaving, another rushed to meet him (2:3) with a message for the young man, namely Zechariah (2:4), who would in turn give it to the people. Jerusalem would one day have so many people and cattle living beyond its boundaries that it would be like a city without walls. There is no historical record of this occurring in the past, so it has either been fulfilled figuratively in the expansion of the Church, or it will yet be fulfilled literally in the eschatological kingdom.

Charles Feinberg fervently responds to the figurative interpretation: "What baseless and unfounded hermeneutical alchemy is this which will take all the prophecies of judgment upon Israel at their face value, to be understood literally, but will transmute into indistinctness any blessing or promise of future glory for the same people?" (Feinberg, God Remembers, 45). It is best, then, to see the future restoration of Jerusalem in the literal messianic kingdom. At that time, the Lord will protect Jerusalem, like a wall of fire around the city and will restore the glory of Jerusalem by being in her midst (Ezk 43:1–7). In support of this understanding, other prophets also link the eschatological expansion and prosperity of Jerusalem to the future literal reign of Messiah in that city (Is 9:7; 11:1–10).

2:6–9. The next section gives a further expansion of the meaning of the vision. The glory of the future is seen in three addresses. The first exhortation is to the dispersed of Israel (2:6–9), here called Zion. They are to flee from the land of the north (2:6), specifically named as Babylon (2:7). Since the exile was already completed and this dispersion is presented as worldwide (four winds of the heavens), this is an eschatological call to flee dispersion. As Merrill says, the prophets "knew of a dispersion far more serious and widespread than anything known in biblical times, a dispersion nonetheless couched in terms of a Babylonian exile (cf. Deut. 28:64; 30:1–4; Isa. 40–55; Ezek. 12:15–16; Mic. 4:10)." (See Eugene H. Merrill, An Exegetical Commentary: Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi [Chicago: Moody, 1994], 119–20.) God declares that after glory He has sent me (Zch 2:8a).

This surprising construction can be taken in two ways. First, some have viewed the pronoun "me" as referring to the prophet Zechariah himself saying that God had sent him to pursue God’s glory. The problem is that the prophet is not identified as the speaker here. Second, since the text does identify the speaker as the Lord Himself, others have viewed the pronoun "me" as a reference "to the messianic Servant-Messenger, the Angel of the Lord" (Barker, "Zechariah," 618). This is similar to the first-person construction in 12:10, where the Lord is speaking but plainly is referring to the Messiah. Therefore, the Messiah will be sent to pursue God’s glory in judging the nations (2:9) for their wicked treatment of Israel, the apple of God’s eye (2:8b; Dt 32:10). As Feinberg states, "God’s cause and glory are inseparably linked with the fortunes of His people. The humiliation and subjugation of Israel by the nations must be avenged by the One who is dishonored in their dejected condition" (Feinberg, God Remembers, 49).

2:10–12. The second address is to Jerusalem, here called daughter of Zion. The city will be glorified in the messianic kingdom by the presence of the Lord, in the person of the Messiah, dwelling in the midst of it (Zch 2:10). Jerusalem’s divine glory will be evident in the millennium, when Gentile nations will join themselves to the Lord and Israel as whole will believe that the Lord of hosts sent the Messiah Jesus to them (2:11). Some interpreters hold that the inclusion of the Gentile nations here indicates that the Church will be prominent in the kingdom with all people being one in Christ. This eliminates Israel’s future place of prominence as described in this passage. Yet the prophets in general (Is 2:4; 19:23–25) and Zechariah in particular (Zch 8:23; 14:16–19) foresaw that people from the Gentile nations would also become believers in the days prior to the return of the Messiah and then share in the messianic kingdom. Nevertheless, this passage as well as others (8:23; 14:16–19) indicates that regenerated Israel will be central in God’s kingdom plan. Then God will make the land of Israel into a holy land (this is the only passage in which this title is used in Scripture for Israel; Ps 78:54 is translated "holy land" by the NASB, but it is literally "holy border"), choosing Jerusalem again as His city even as He did in the past (Dt 12:11; 2Sm 5:6–7; Ps 48:1–3, 8).

2:13. The third address is to all flesh. When Israel believes in Messiah Jesus and He returns, all humanity will be silent before the Lord. They will submit because He has been aroused (awakened, incited to activity) leaving His holy habitation (the heavenly realms) to descend to His holy land (2:12), His earthly dwelling place. This is not merely a "spiritual" descent of God to vindicate and help His people. The context places the event described in the messianic era at the end of days. When the Lord comes to deliver His people, other prophets recognize that He will do so with the literal return of the Messiah (cf. Is 59:20; Rm 11:26–27; Mc 2:12–13; 5:4).

The panel with the night visions has a literary hinge in its midst, with three visions on either side of it. This hinge, linked to the primary hinge depicting Messiah as King and Priest, here pictures the cleansing of Joshua the high priest and reveals the Messiah’s priestly role, cleansing Israel at the end of days. Thus, immediately after the night visions that promise the messianic deliverance of Israel, the hinge focuses on the essential need for that deliverance to begin—Israel must turn in faith to the Messiah and experience His purification from sin.

3:1–3. Zechariah was shown a vision of Joshua ("Jeshua" in Ezr 2:2; Neh 7:7) the high priest performing his priestly duties (Dt 10:8; Jdg 20:28; 2Ch 29:11; Ezk 44:15) before the divine angel of the Lord. Suddenly, Satan (lit., the Accuser; Jb 1:6–12; 2:1–7; Rv 12:10) appeared at his right hand, the place of accusation in a courtroom (Ps 109:6) to accuse him (Zch 3:1). The Lord rebuked Satan (two times for emphasis), calling Joshua a brand plucked from the fire, meaning one who is still useful and not to be consumed or destroyed (3:2). As background, Zechariah explained that Joshua was wearing filthy garments, the Hebrew literally referring to excrement-covered clothing (3:3). In this vision, Joshua represents the people of Israel (cf. 3:8–9) in all their sinfulness.

3:4–5. The angel of the Lord directed the angels around Joshua to remove the filthy garments, indicating that God had cleansed him from iniquity (3:4), and to replace them with festive clothing and a clean turban (3:5), showing that God had made him fit to serve as high priest once again (Ex 28:36).

3:6–7. With the vision described, what follows explains its significance (3:6–10). To begin with, the angel of the Lord exhorts Joshua to keep His requirement—he is personally to walk faithfully in God’s ways and professionally to serve as priest. Then he would be granted leadership as high priest (govern My house) and have free access to God, even as the angels (these who are standing here) do.

3:8–9. Besides the significance to Joshua personally, there is prophetic significance to Israel as well. Joshua and his fellow priests functioned as a symbol, the Hebrew word signifying "a sign with prophetic significance; a prophetic portent" (1Kg 13:3, 5; 2Ch 32:24, 31; Is 8:18; 20:3; Ezk 12:6, 11; 24:24, 27). These priests point forward to the day when God’s servant the Branch, a linking of two messianic titles (Is 11:1; 42:1; 49:6; 50:10; 52:13; Ps 132:17; Jr 23:5–6; 33:15; cf. comments on Zch 6:12–13), brings deliverance to Israel (3:8). He is also called by the messianic title stone (v. 9; cf. Ps 118:22; Is 28:16), described as having seven eyes, indicating omniscience, and coming to remove the iniquity of that land in one day. Although some wrongly identify this day as Good Friday, the prophecy is actually pointing to the eschatological day (note the use in that day, Zch 3:10) at the return of Jesus when Israel finally recognizes Him as their Messiah (12:10) and a fount for cleansing the nation is opened (13:1; cf. comments on Mt 23:37–39; Rm 11:25–27). Thus, Joshua, cleansed of filthy rags and restored to service as a priest, symbolizes the future cleansing of Israel from their sin by Messiah and their restoration by Him to their status as a nation of priests.

3:10. Israel, cleansed from sin, will enter the messianic kingdom, where sitting under his vine and under his fig tree represents divine favor, prosperity, and peace. At that time, paradise lost will become paradise regained.

Having introduced the night visions (1:1–6), the prophet has also revealed the first three visions about the comfort and deliverance of Israel (1:7–2:13), placed a hinge about the priestly work of the future Messiah (3:1–10), and will now complete the revelation of the remaining three night visions describing the empowering and enablement of Israel (4:1–6:8). Both the comfort and the empowering of Israel are possible through the spiritually cleansing work of Messiah.

4:1–5. The next night vision is described in vv. 1–5 and then explained in vv. 6–14. In the vision, Zechariah saw a lampstand all of gold, a seven-branched menorah, similar but not identical to the one in the tabernacle (Ex 25:31–37). Above it was a bowl serving as a reservoir for oil with seven pipes (a better translation than spouts) leading to each one of the lamps on the menorah (Zch 4:2). Additionally, there were two olive trees on either side of the menorah (4:3) with golden pipes conducting golden oil directly from the trees to the reservoir (4:12). While this depiction seems impossible, it is a vision, not an actually engineered menorah, that the angel needed to explain (4:4–5).

4:6–10. The angel gave Zechariah a message for Zerubbabel, a descendant of King David, the head of the Davidic house and the governor, explaining the essential meaning of the vision in summary form: God’s work would be done not by might (strong or firm, used of all kinds of human resources including wealth or physical strength (Gn 34:29; Ps 84:7; Ec 10:10) nor by power (human strength, Jdg 16:5; Is 44:12), but by God’s Spirit (Zch 4:6). His point was that Zerubbabel would overcome the great mountain, or obstacle before him and turn it into a plain (4:7), referring to the completion of the construction of the temple (4:9). Despite the small beginnings of the temple (4:10), there would ultimately be shouts of Grace, grace to it, meaning, "Lovely, how lovely it is!" (4:7). Also, God, in His omniscience (seven … eyes), will see the temple and approve (4:10). Although the message to Zerubbabel, as an event in space and time, was given in 520 BC, the book of Zechariah was written many years later, after the completion of the second temple. Thus, Zechariah’s prediction had come true already, and readers of the text would have been aware of the near-term fulfillment of this prediction, giving them confidence in the eschatological fulfillment to which the rest of the prophecy points.

4:11–14. Zechariah still did not understand the significance of the two olive trees, so he inquired of their meaning (4:11). They represented two anointed ones (lit., "sons of oil"), meaning the high priestly office (then represented by Joshua) and the royal office (then represented by Zerubbabel). By ministering before the Lord of the whole earth (4:14), they were empowered by Him and transmitted that spiritual power to the menorah (lampstand). Since the seven-branched menorah was and remains the symbol of Israel, and since Israel was to be the light to all the peoples (Is 58:8–10), it is likely that the menorah represents Israel at the end of days, when it has come to faith in Messiah. Thus, the believing community of Israel would rebuild the temple and fulfill their function as the light to the nations.

Although this vision gave encouragement to the people of the sixth century BC, Zechariah’s use of the title the Lord of the whole earth links this vision to an ultimate eschatological fulfillment in the messianic kingdom. Citing its use in Mc 4:13 (see also the context of Mc 4:1–12), Unger correctly states that the title "describes Messiah as King-Priest, putting down His enemies and reigning over the entire world during the kingdom age" (Unger, Zechariah: Prophet of Messiah’s Glory, 81). The major hinge of the book will reveal that these two offices will be united by the future messianic King-Priest, who will build the messianic temple (Zch 6:12–13). Thus, the vision of the lampstand gave encouragement to the original readers about recently fulfilled predictions and simultaneously pointed to the future, when Messiah would unite the offices of king and priest, build the eschatological temple, and make Israel the light to the nations.

The book of Revelation speaks of the two witnesses of the tribulation period, using terms from Zch 4, calling them "two olive trees" and "two lampstands" (Rv 11:4). It is unlikely that John intended to identify the two witnesses as the fulfillment of Zch 4, since there is only one lampstand in Zch 4 and two in Rv 11. Rather, he was alluding to the message of Zch 4, that these two witnesses would also have a Spirit-empowered ministry at the end of days.

Although most interpreters see two separate visions in this chapter, the consistent introductory patterns of the visions argue against this. In each of the visions, except for the one that allegedly begins in 5:5, there is the introductory formula, "I saw and behold" (1:8; 1:18; 2:1; 4:2; 5:1; 6:1). Since this is lacking in 5:5, it indicates that chap. 5 is "a compound vision of a flying scroll and a flying ephah" (Kline, "The Structure of the Book of Zechariah," 186). Just as the previous vision revealed that God’s Spirit will empower redeemed Israel in the future, this vision shows that at that time, God will also forcefully and finally deal with sin.

5:1–4. This vision depicts the Lord’s promise to deal with sin at the end of days. To begin, it identifies sin as disobedience to the law. The flying scroll is huge, 30 by 15 feet (twenty cubits by ten cubits) and represents the Torah, or the law of Moses (5:2). The symbolism is plain since the law was always written on a scroll, and this one in particular has allusions to two of the Ten Commandments written on it. It reminds readers of the curse for disobedience that is going forth over the whole land of Israel (cf. Lv 26; Dt 28:15–68). As with the tablets of the law, there is writing on both sides (Zch 5:3), promising the purging of everyone who steals (5:3) and everyone who swears falsely by God’s name (5:4). These two sins represent disobedience of the two sides of the tablets of the law—stealing, (an offense against other people and breaking the eighth commandment), and swearing (a sin against God and breaking the third commandment). No one who commits these sins, or other violations of the law, will escape this judgment (enter the house … spend the night … and consume it, v. 4).

5:5–11. With the evil in the land identified, the second part of the vision identifies how God will ultimately punish it. Zechariah next saw an ephah, or a bushel basket (5:5–6), with a woman sitting inside (5:7) representing Wickedness (5:8). Two other women, angelic beings with wings, fly off (5:9), carrying her to the land of Shinar or Babylon, the center of all wickedness. The use of the old word Shinar for Babylon is an allusion to the rebellious behavior surrounding the original building of the city and tower of Babel (lit., "Babylon") (Gn 11:1–9). Also, Judah was sent into exile in Shinar (Babylon) for disobedience to the law (see Dn 1:2 and comments there). This vision depicts the end of days when God will purge Israel of rebels (Ezk 20:34–38) and destroy Babylon, the capital of all wickedness (Jr 50–51; Rv 17–18, especially 18:2–3).

While some interpreters understand the vision as depicting the past exile to Babylon, it is better viewed as an eschatological prediction. All the other night visions look forward, not backwards. Moreover, the woman, representing wickedness, is not being brought to a temple nor is she being placed on her own pedestal (as the NASB translates it). Rather, she is being brought to a "residence" or a dwelling place for sin, and she is being put "in her own place." It is extremely unlikely that God’s angels would establish a temple of wickedness and honor "wickedness" by placing it on a pedestal. Thus, the NIV more accurately translates this as the angels taking the basket with wickedness "to the country of Babylonia to build a house for it. When it is ready, the basket will be set there in its place."

Hence the passage foretells that Israel’s wickedness will be sent to its ultimate abode in Babylon. Other prophets had already foretold that Babylon, with all its wickedness, would be destroyed (cf. Jr 50–51 and comments there). As Feinberg notes, the placing of the woman in her own place (Zch 5:11) indicates "a permanent settling of sin" (Feinberg, God Remembers, 92). Joyce Baldwin also recognizes that "the removal of Wickedness to Babylon is in preparation for the final onslaught between good and evil" (Joyce Baldwin, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi: An Introduction and Commentary, TOTC, ed. D. J. Wiseman [Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1972], 130). With sin removed, the land of Israel will live up to its previous description as the holy land (2:12).

The last of the night visions pertains to the Lord’s final judgment of the nations. It is similar to the first night vision, in which riders on horses patrolled the earth, providing reconnaissance. In this vision, chariots with horses now patrol the earth to carry out judgment. This vision fits with the two that preceded it by detailing events at the end of days: redeemed Israel will be empowered (4:1–14), her sin will be removed (5:1–11), and the nations that had oppressed her will be judged (6:1–8). In later passages, the book will also deal with the ultimate judgment of the nations (cf. 12:1–2; 14:3–4).

6:1–3. At the outset, Zechariah described the vision he saw. Four chariots proceeded from between two bronze mountains (6:1), which some have identified as Mount Zion and the Mount of Olives. This is unlikely for three reasons: first, this is merely a vision; second, the mountains are made of bronze; and third, the chariots go forth from the Lord of all the earth (6:5). It is more likely that they are symbolic, functioning as mountain gateposts outside the divine throne room, similar to the bronze pillars outside the Solomonic temple (1Kg 7:15–22). The four chariots had different colored horses (Zch 6:2–3), each with possible, but not certain, symbolic significance. The red horses may represent war (cf. 1:8; Is 63:1–6; Rv 6:4), the black, famine and death (Rv 6:5–6), and the white, triumph (Zch 1:8; Rv 19:11–14). The significance of the dappled horse is unclear, but Unger has proposed plague and judgment (cf. Rv 6:8; Unger, Zechariah: Prophet of Messiah’s Glory, 103). This last one is uncertain since the color described in Zechariah is dappled but the color of the horse in Rv 6:8 is pale.

6:4–6. The interpreting angel explained that the chariots represent the four spirits of heaven, or angelic beings, sent forth after standing before the throne of God (6:4–5). Clearly, the black horses proceed to the north while the dappled proceed to the south. The white horses are said to follow the black ones, but with a slight emendation (’aharehem, after them, to ’ahare hayyam, "after the sea") the phrase would be an idiom for "to the west," a far more likely scenario. The direction of the red horses is not mentioned. This could be because they were held back in reserve or perhaps, in light of the directions of the other three, it can be assumed that the red horses went to the east. Another possibility may be, as Baldwin suggests, that the syntactic awkwardness of the Hebrew text in v. 6 (lit., "which in it") indicates that a phrase about the red horses moving east has been accidentally lost in the transmission of the text (Baldwin, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, 131).

6:7–8. Although only the dappled horses were called strong (6:3), the description of the strong ones going out to patrol the earth (6:7) likely refers to all four chariots. Those going to the north have, in the literal translation, "caused My (God’s) Spirit to be at rest" in the land of the north, meaning that God’s wrath has been appeased. This refers to the eschatological judgment that will be brought to Babylon (cf. 5:5–11), at which time all the other horses will have judged the earth as well.

Having completed the first panel of the book emphasizing the night visions, Zechariah presents the primary hinge of the book. It involves a role-play by Joshua the High Priest, emphasizing the unification of the offices of priest and king in the future Messiah. The significance of the location of this symbolic ceremony is that the role-play follows the eschatological judgment of the Gentile nations (6:1–8), indicating that the symbolism will be fulfilled only after the end-time judgment of the world. This central hinge links the night visions (1:1–6:8), emphasizing the comfort of Israel, and the burdens (7:1–14:21), emphasizing the coming of the King Messiah. Thus this hinge reminds readers that Israel’s comfort is only found in the Priest-King Messiah, and when Israel trusts in Him, He will come to their eschatological deliverance.

The two secondary hinges in the midst of the two panels also use symbolic role-plays to present the Messiah, the first highlighting His priestly role (3:1–10) and the second, His royal role as the rejected king of Israel (11:4–14). These two depictions are then united in the major hinge of the book (6:9–15), presenting the Messiah as the one who unifies the offices of king and priest. The significance of this unification is that the law made it clear that there was a distinction between Israel’s three theocratic offices, king, prophet, and priest (Dt 17:14–18:22). Moreover, there was serious divine discipline when Uzziah usurped the office of priest by offering incense in the temple (2Ch 26:16–21). Nevertheless, the psalmist had already predicted that when the Messiah came he would be a king/priest "according to the order of Melchizedek" (Ps 110:4). Joshua’s role-play in this central hinge clearly points to the Messiah, who alone would unite these offices.

6:9–10. The crowning of Joshua is a ceremony designed to symbolize the future work of the Messiah. At the outset, Zechariah was to receive an offering from a delegation of men from the exile (6:9–10).

6:11. Afterwards, Zechariah was to use the silver and gold of the offering to make a crown. The word for crown is plural, leading to three possible interpretations. (1) Some have speculated that Zechariah was to make two crowns, one for the head of Joshua and the other for Zerubbabel. The difficulty is that Zerubbabel is not found in this passage and the prophet is directed to place the crowns only on the head of Joshua. (2) Some interpreters translate the word crown as a plural of majesty (NASB, an ornate crown). While possible, the context does not seem to emphasize a magnificent crown. (3) The best possibility is that it refers to a composite crown of two parts, one representing the royal office and the second, the priestly office. This fits the context since the ceremony was to symbolize the unification of the offices of priest and king in one person, the Messiah (6:13).

6:12–13. Having crowned Joshua with the composite crown in a symbolic ceremony, the prophet declared the meaning of this action. The designation a man whose name is Branch (6:12), a messianic title, indicates that the passage is not about Joshua but his symbolic representation of the Messiah. The term "Branch" is from the root word meaning "sprout," "growth," or "branch." A Phoenician inscription (third century BC) uses the phrase "righteous branch" for the rightful heir to the throne. When used this way it refers to a son or scion of a king (Walter Kaiser, "Branch," Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, edited by R. Laird Harris, Gleason Archer, Bruce Waltke [Chicago: Moody, 1980], 769). It was previously used in Zechariah of the Messiah (3:8) and is used explicitly of the Messiah in Jeremiah, where God promises to "raise up for David a righteous Branch" who "will reign as king" (Jr 23:5) and "execute justice and righteousness on the earth" (Jr 33:15). The future Messiah would both build the temple of the Lord and also sit and rule on His throne (6:13), indicating his unification of the previously separate offices of priest and king. The Messiah, as King-Priest (Ps 110:4), will make peace … between the two offices (Zch 6:13). This does not suggest that antagonism existed previously between these two offices. Rather, as mentioned above, these two offices were clearly distinct and separate. Hence, this verse is using the word "peace" in its most basic Hebrew idea, that of wholeness or completion: The Messiah will unite priesthood and kingship, making the separate offices whole. The temple He will build refers to the millennial temple (cf. Is 2:2–4; 56:6–7; Ezk 40–48 and comments there).

6:14–15. The composite crown was to be placed in the temple as a reminder of the future Messiah (6:14). The son of Zephaniah, host of the delegation of exiles, previously called Josiah (6:10), is now given the honor of a new name, Hen ("grace," v. 14). It also reminded Israel of the need to completely obey the Lord (6:15) by faith, just as the new covenant promised they would at the end of days (Dt 4:30; 30:6–8; Jr 31:31–34; Ezk 36:26–28). At that time, those who are far off (meaning the Gentile nations, cf. Zch 2:11; 8:22; Is 2:2–4; 56:6–7) will come and build the temple of the Lord by contributing their wealth to the project (Is 60:1–7).

Having completed the primary hinge between the two major panels, Zechariah opens the second panel of his book as he did the first panel—with an introduction (7:1–8:23). Afterward he will present two sets of burdens (9:1–10:12 and 12:1–14:21), divided by a hinge emphasizing the Messianic King (11:1–17). The hinge is essential to linking these two major panels. The first panel emphasizes the comfort that the Lord will grant Israel at the end of days, while the second one presents the details of the events at the end of days. Both the comfort of Israel and the contents of the last events find their focus in the central person of the hinge—the messianic King-Priest who will restore Israel at the end of days.

Having returned from captivity, postexilic Jewish people might have considered their restoration to the land as the final fulfillment of God’s promises. Therefore, this section is designed to correct that misunderstanding. As John Sailhamer states, the point of this introductory section "is that those who returned to Jerusalem in Zechariah’s day and their leaders (e.g., Zerubbabel and Joshua) were not to be understood as the final fulfillment of God’s promises. A future fulfillment yet awaited them" (John H. Sailhamer, NIV Compact Bible Commentary [Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1994], 434). Introducing this idea prepares the way for the main point of the burdens that follow—that Israel will experience God’s blessings in the eschatological, messianic era.

7:1. This message is dated in the fourth year of King Darius … on the fourth day of the ninth month, corresponding to December 7, 518 BC. Since the book was written some thirty years later, Zechariah included this to remind them that the promises had not yet been fulfilled.

7:2–3. A delegation came to Zechariah and the other priests, seeking divine guidance. They asked if they were to continue to fast and mourn in the fifth month, a reference to the Ninth of Av, the fast day held on the anniversary of the temple’s destruction. The return to Zion (536 BC) and the rebuilding of the temple (begun 520 BC), had led them to wonder whether the prophets’ promises were now fulfilled.

The prophet’s answers were designed to show that those who had returned from exile were just as sinful as those who had gone into exile. Thus, the time of full spiritual and geographical restoration had not yet truly begun but would still come at the end of days. This section with the answer to the delegation is divided into four messages, each beginning with the phrase, "Then the word of the Lord came" (7:4, 8; 8:1, 18).

7:4–6. God’s first response through Zechariah (7:4), offered in a series of rhetorical questions, was that God wanted repentance, not ritual. Those who fasted, on the fifth month, (to mourn the temple’s destruction), and the seventh month, (to mourn the assassination of Gedaliah, cf. comments on 8:18–19), were acting selfishly, merely showing their religiosity. Their mourning was not penitent but only benefitted themselves (7:5), even as they would eat and drink for themselves (7:6).

7:7. The returned exiles were fasting not out of a heart of sincere repentance but merely external religious rites. Their ritualized fasts were as problematic as the ones prior to the exile, when Jerusalem and Judah had been inhabited and prosperous. The former prophets had previously addressed this problem (cf. Is 1:11–17; 58:3–8; Hs 6:6; Jr 14:10–12). By ignoring the exhortations of the former prophets, those who returned proved they were just as sinful as their ancestors who had gone into exile.

In the second message, God also demanded true righteousness and not merely outward religion. The prophet’s words in this section, while referring to the preexilic community, were also implicitly relevant for those of the postexilic era who had already returned.

7:8–10. Both before and after the exile, God expected His people not merely to practice religion (i.e., observing fasts) but also to exhibit righteous behavior: They were to dispense true justice (a judge’s obligation to decide cases with equity and fairness) and practice kindness (treating others with consideration and mercy where no obligation exists to do so) and compassion (feelings of mercy for the helpless) (7:9). God demanded that they treat the weakest segments of society, the widow (the word refers not merely to a woman who has lost her husband but has also been left with no means of financial support) or the orphan, the stranger or the poor (those lacking standing or legal rights), with fairness and kindness—not oppress[ing] them (abusing power, taking advantage) or devis[ing] evil (unjust injuring) against them (7:10).

7:11–14. Before the exile, the people of Judah refused to pay attention to the Lord’s demands through the former prophets for righteous behavior (7:11–12; cf. Is 1:17; 56:1; Jr 7:6; 22:3; Mc 6:8; Am 5:21–24). Since they hardened their hearts like flint (Zch 7:12) and would not listen (7:13) in fulfillment of the law’s warnings, God sent Judah into exile (Dt 28:64–65). They were scattered … among all the nations so that the pleasant land of Israel became desolate (Zch 7:14; cf. Lv 26:32–33). Zechariah’s aim was not merely to point backwards to the previous generation’s sin and discipline, but to warn the new generation that had returned from exile. If they also ignored the words of the prophets, God would also be deaf to their prayers (Zch 7:13), scatter them (7:14a), and once again, make the land of Israel desolate (7:14b).

The third message in response to the delegation points to the future fulfillment of God’s promises to Israel. The return from captivity was not the fulfillment of the promises. Rather, the restoration of Israel would take place in the distant future when God would restore, rather than reject, them.

8:1–8. Reiterating God’s words from 1:14, the Lord once again declared His love for Israel and His determination to judge the nations with wrath (8:2; cf. comments on 1:14). Although some see God’s promise of restoration as having been fulfilled historically at the return from captivity, for several reasons it is better to see these predictions fulfilled in the eschatological messianic kingdom.

First, as in 1:12–17, the depiction of Jerusalem fits more with the depiction of the millennial kingdom in prophetic literature (see comments on 1:12–17). Second, the terminology used in 8:3 (the Lord promised to return to Zion and to dwell in the midst of Jerusalem) points to an eschatological fulfillment. The term "Zion" is generally used eschatologically in prophetic literature, and the Hebrew word for "dwell" (sakan) connotes permanent residence (Merrill, An Exegetical Commentary: Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, 221). Obviously the Lord did not take up permanent residence in Jerusalem at the return from captivity nor has He yet done so. Third, it would require a serious dilution of the promises to consider them fulfilled at the return from captivity. One would be hard pressed to see Jerusalem as having already become a City of Truth, a Holy Mountain (8:3), or a place of complete security (8:4–5). The regathering described in 8:7–8 is universal and not merely from Babylon. Moreover, although idolatry did cease with the return from Babylon, Israel did not become a complete people of truth and righteousness at that time or ever since.

The depiction of the messianic kingdom is glorious. Then, the Lord will be present in the midst of Jerusalem (8:3a), which other biblical passages associate with the Messiah reigning there (Ps 2:6; Is 9:7; Zch 9:9–10). He will also purify Jerusalem, as seen in the new names that the city and temple mount will be given, the City of Truth and the Holy Mountain (8:3b). Old men and old women as well as boys and girls, the most defenseless elements of society, will be safe on the streets of Jerusalem, demonstrating God’s future protection of His people (8:4–5). Finally, God’s people will be restored. From a human perspective, a future eschatological restoration of the Jewish people from a worldwide dispersion might seem too difficult for God to effect (8:6). Nevertheless, God will bring the Jewish people back from the east and the west (8:7), indicating a worldwide restoration, from far more places than Babylon. In that day, not only will they be physically restored to the land of Israel, but they will also be spiritually transformed. Israel will become God’s people in the fullest sense—He will be their God in truth and righteousness (8:8).

8:9–17. The prophet moved from the vision of the future to an exhortation for his own day. The promise of restoration was to affect the behavior of the returned Jewish people at that time. Described as those who listened to these words from the mouth of the prophets Haggai and Zechariah, the people were to be encouraged (lit., be strong) in the work of rebuilding the temple (8:9). As a motivation to finish their task, Zechariah reminded them of their previous poverty (no wage) and distress (no peace) when they had failed to complete the temple prior to 520 BC (8:10; cf. Hg 1:6–11 and comments there). God promised that if they would now be faithful in building in their own day, the land would again be fruitful, there would be adequate rain, and the remnant would inherit all these blessings (Zch 8:12). Instead of being an example of God’s curse among the nations, Israel would become an example of God’s blessing (8:13).

Using the exhortation, do not fear, two more times (8:13, 15), the prophet exhorts Israel to persist. Not only were they to complete the temple but to practice righteous behavior. Since God had purposed … to do good to Jerusalem at that time (8:15), they were to become honest men and women. Since God is truth, He hates all forms of dishonesty (8:17). Therefore, the returned remnant was to speak the truth and judge with truth (8:16), to forego evil plans and reject perjury (lit., false oaths).

8:18–19. The prophet’s fourth message in response to the delegation returned to the question of fasting and also again pointed to the ultimate future kingdom fulfillment of God’s promises to Israel, as indicated by 8:20–23. God promised that the sorrow of Israel’s captivity would be turned to joy at the end of days. At that time, Israel would experience three great reversals. First, God promised that Israel’s fast days would become feast days in the messianic kingdom. The fast of the fourth month, commemorating the breaching of the walls of Jerusalem (Jr 39:2; 52:6–7), the fast of the fifth month, mourning the destruction of the temple (Jr 52:12–13; 2Kg 25:8–9), the fast of the seventh month, remembering the assassination of Gedaliah (Jr 41:1; 2Kg 25:25–26), and the fast of the tenth month, recalling the beginning of the siege of Jerusalem (Jr 39:1; 2Ki 25:1), will all become … cheerful feasts in the future (Zch 8:19).

The prophet views this future transformation as one that will come about for Israel. The prophets only understood God’s promises to Israel as referring to literal ethnic Israel and never expected those promises to be fulfilled figuratively in the Church. Obviously, Israel’s fast days did not come to an end with the return to Zion, and they continue to be observed even at present. The prophet Isaiah likewise envisioned the messianic era when the Lord would transform sorrow and mourning to joy and gladness (Is 61:2–3; 65:18–19). Zechariah therefore likely foresaw the same period of time as Isaiah, when fasting will be replaced with feasting in the days of Messiah’s millennial reign.

8:20–23. The second reversal will be that instead of Israel being dispersed among the nations, in the kingdom the peoples will come to Jerusalem to seek the Lord of Hosts (8:21). The third reversal will be the most remarkable—instead of Israel’s sin leading people away from the God of Israel (Rm 3:24), their faith in Messiah and spiritual transformation will lead the nations to Him. Thus, the Gentile nations will seek God’s favor in Jerusalem (Zch 8:22). Zechariah foresees that ten men from all the nations will grasp the garment of a Jew saying, "Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you." The phrase ten men is not to be taken literally but indicates a large number (Gn 31:7; Lv 26:26; Nm 14:22; 1Sm 1:8; Neh 4:12). The word garment literally means "corner" or "wing" and likely refers to the fringes worn by Jewish men on the corners of their garments (cf. Nm 15:38; Dt 22:12). In the millennial kingdom, when all Israel will know the Lord completely (Zch 12:10; 13:1; Rm 11:26–27), the nations will follow Jewish people to the Lord because they will realize that God is with Israel. The Scriptures indicate that Israel will know the Lord in this way in the last days, when they trust in Jesus as the Messiah (Jr 30:9; Ezk 34:23–24; 37:24–25; Hs 3:5). Thus, the nations will recognize God’s presence in Israel in the person of the Messiah of Israel, Jesus.

The introduction to the burdens (7:1–8:23) served to tell the Jewish people of Zechariah’s day that the return from Babylon did not fulfill the prophetic promises of Israel’s restoration. Rather, Israel was to continue to look to the end of days for those promises to be fulfilled. Having established an end-of-days perspective, the prophet turned to the declaration of two separate oracles (9:1–10:12 and 12:1–14:21) concerning the events that will take place at that time, with an emphasis on the Messiah’s central role in the future. These two oracles of Israel’s future Messianic King are divided by a hinge passage (11:1–17), describing Israel’s unexpected rejection of the Messianic King.

9:1a. The prophet declares his first burden (9:1; cf. 12:1), a term used for a prophet’s message (2Kg 9:25; Is 13:1; Hab 1:1). The noun is derived from the verb, "to lift up" or "to bear a burden" and indicates a weight on the prophet. It emphasizes the prophet’s constraint or compulsion in needing to give this message (see Baldwin, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, 162–63). The burden can contain both judgment and blessing, as do these two found in Zechariah. Significantly, this first burden includes a description of two future kings, Alexander the Great (Zch 9:1–8) and the Messianic King (9:9–10).

9:1b–7. The burden begins by describing the future judgment of the nations north and west of Judah finding fulfillment at the hands of Alexander the Great (333–332 BC). Although God uses human instruments, He is the real judge, thus, the eyes of men … are toward the Lord (9:1), recognizing His actions. The judgment will begin at the land of Hadrach, a region of Syria extending from Aleppo in the north to Damascus in the south. Damascus, the capital of Syria, is the focal point (or resting place) of the message of judgment (9:1; Alexander subdued these regions in 333 BC). Alexander’s conquests moved from Hamath, north of Damascus, southwest to Tyre and Sidon in Lebanon (9:2–3). The prophet predicted the destruction of Tyre, describing how the Lord would cast her wealth into the sea, a prophecy realized when Alexander constructed a causeway built to reach the seemingly impregnable island city (9:4; cf. Ezk 26:3–14; 28:20–24). Alexander’s conquests in fulfillment of this prophecy moved southward to the Philistine cities of Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and Ashdod (accomplished in 332 BC). The few Philistines who remained would not maintain a distinct ethnic identity but would intermarry, becoming a mongrel (lit., bastard) people, so that God will cut off the pride of the Philistines (Zch 9:6). Afterwards, the prophet foresees the distant future, that these mongrel Philistines will also come to know the true God. At that time, they will be a remnant for our God and also be absorbed among the faithful of Israel, so that they will become like a clan in Judah (9:7). Although they will know the God of Israel, they will not become part of Israel. They will be like a Jebusite, a people that David conquered but whom he allowed to keep their distinct identity—much like Araunah who knew the God of Israel but remained known as a Jebusite (2Sm 24:18–24).

9:8. Although the Lord warned that He would judge the nations, He also promised to camp around [His] house "as a guard" (ESV), indicating that He would protect Jerusalem and its temple from Alexander. Both the Jewish historian Josephus and rabbinic literature relate a story, with fantastic elements, of Alexander bowing to the high priest and deciding not to destroy Jerusalem, having previously seen the priest in a dream (Josephus, Ant. 11.8 [304–305, 313–339]; Lev. Rab. 13:5; b. Yoma 69a). According to the legend, when Alexander turned his attention to Jerusalem, the city, in sheer terror, prepared to offer him a warm welcome in hopes of avoiding destruction at the Macedonian’s hand. The high priest Jaddus went out to meet him, showed him Dn 8:21, and claimed that Alexander was the one about whom Daniel spoke and that Alexander would succeed in subduing the Persians as Dn 8 said. Although the legendary aspects are certainly questionable, there is no denying that Alexander spared Jerusalem and established a good relationship with the Jewish people of Judah. God’s deliverance in the days of Alexander foreshadows His protection of Israel in the end of days, when no oppressor will pass over them anymore. What was true then remains true today—God will use human agents to judge this world and to protect His people.

In contrast to Alexander the Great, who would function as an agent of judgment, the prophet also foretold another king who would come afterward as an agent of salvation.

9:9. Here is a direct prediction of the future Messiah. The prophecy begins with an exhortation directed at the daughter of Zion and the daughter of Jerusalem, both poetic terms describing God’s fatherhood over Zion and Jerusalem. The names "Zion" and "Jerusalem" are used as a synecdoche, the capital city representing the entire Jewish nation. The word rejoice literally means "to twirl," and the word shout is used of war cries (Jos 6:10) or loud shouting (Mc 4:9). All the Jewish people are exhorted to rejoice in the most exuberant way or "to whoop it up." The reason for this great joy is the coming of the Messianic King. He is righteous (just) and brings deliverance (endowed with salvation). As opposed to Alexander’s arrogance, this King is humble and comes in peace, riding a donkey rather than a warhorse. This verse was literally fulfilled on Palm Sunday when Jesus of Nazareth entered Jerusalem on a foal of a donkey (Mt 21:1–11; Mk 11:1–10; Lk 19:29–38; Jn 12:12–19). Ancient rabbis used this verse to explain the seemingly different pictures of the Messiah. Rather than seeing one Messiah with two comings, they saw two possible scenarios of Messiah’s arrival: if Israel was unworthy, Messiah would come on a donkey; if worthy, then on a white horse (b. San 98b). Furthermore, they used this verse to show that Israel’s messianic expectations were not fulfilled by Hezekiah, a view held by some ancient rabbis, since Zechariah still expected the Messiah after Hezekiah’s days (San 99a).

9:10. This is a classic example of a telescoped prophecy, with the previous verse finding its fulfillment in the first coming of the Messiah, and this verse, after a large gap in time, awaiting future fulfillment with the return of the Messiah Jesus and the establishment of His earthly kingdom. When He returns, the Messiah Jesus will destroy the implements of war and speak peace to the nations. Moreover, He will establish His just rule from the River to the ends of the earth, a merism for the whole world.

Having set forth God’s judgment of the nations surrounding Israel at the hands of Alexander the Great, the prophet follows with an extended description of God’s eschatological deliverance of Israel at the second advent of Jesus the Messiah, offering five specific promises from God to Israel.

9:11–13. To begin, the Lord promised to preserve Israel because of the blood of My covenant with you (9:11a), a reference to the unconditional covenant God ratified with Abraham (and his descendants) by blood (Gn 15:9–12, 18–21). God will set Israel free from the waterless pit of dispersion (Zch 9:11b) so they could return to the stronghold (9:12), likely a reference to the land of Israel. He promised to restore to Israel double of what the nation had lost (9:12) and foretold a military victory against Greece (9:13). Although some see this as a prediction of the victory of the Maccabees over Antiochus and the Seleucid Greek empire (164 BC) it more likely predicts the great end-times victories the Lord will grant Israel over the nations. Merrill argues for this eschatological understanding by citing the holy war language used in the paragraph and the phrase "in that day" (9:16), used in Zechariah (2:11; 3:10; 12:3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 11; 13:1, 2, 4; 14:4, 6, 8, 9, 13, 20, 21) and the other prophets (Is 10:20; 19:24–25; 52:6; Jr 49:26; Hs 2:16; Am 9:11) to indicate eschatological events (Merrill, An Exegetical Commentary: Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, 261–64).

9:14–17. The Lord also promised to protect Israel in battle. He is seen as hovering over His people while they fight. This same imagery appears on ancient Assyrian bas-reliefs of the Assyrian god Assur hovering protectively over his armies (Unger, Zechariah: Prophet of Messiah’s Glory, 168). Although some believe that God alone fighting for His people will accomplish Israel’s deliverance, these verses (and 12:6–8) indicate that Israel will participate with God in the last battle, with actual warfare carried out by Israel, empowered by the Lord. Here God is also anthropomorphized as a warrior, shooting arrows like lightning, blowing a trumpet in battle, and marching to war (9:14). As a result of God’s defense, Israel is depicted as achieving a great military victory—they will devour and trample their enemies, producing so much blood as to fill a sacrificial basin drenching the corners of the altar (9:15; cf. Lv 4:7). God will deliver His people in that day (Zch 9:16a), a phrase that emphasizes eschatological fulfillment. At the end of days, God will make Israel sparkle like jewels in a crown (9:16b). The outcome of the battle makes the prophet exclaim of God, "how great is His goodness, and how great is His beauty" (9:17, ESV) [the third person pronouns in Hebrew are singular and refer to God (as in the ESV) not Israel (as in the NASB)]. In His goodness the Lord will give grain and new wine, indicating prosperity.

10:1. Further, the Lord promised to provide for Israel in the messianic kingdom. God would send the spring rain in response to Israel’s prayer, bringing agricultural blessing to the people.

10:2–5. Additionally, the Lord promised to purify Israel. At the outset, the prophet described Israel’s need for purification—their dependence on false household idols, called teraphim, (cf. Gn 31:19) and trust in diviners (cf. Dt 18:10–12) who offer lying visions and false dreams (Zch 10:2a). God holds the leaders of Israel responsible for the people’s spiritual wanderings with no shepherd (10:2b), a metaphor used for leaders but specifically of kings (cf. Is 44:28; Jr 23:2–4). Therefore, God will punish Israel’s kings (here called male goats) while making the lost sheep like a majestic horse in battle (Zch 10:3).

Using the third-person singular (him) pronoun in v. 4, its antecedent is Judah in v. 3. Since him in v. 4 refers to an entire Jewish tribe, the singular him is a collective pronoun and the NASB appropriately translates it them. The prophet foretold that the cornerstone, the tent peg, and the battle bow would come from them, the tribe of Judah. The ancient rabbinic Targum correctly understood these to be figures for the King Messiah, coming from Judah. As cornerstone, He would be the foundation upon which Israel would find stability (Is 28:16); as tent peg, He would secure Israel to Himself; and as the battle bow, He would bring the strength of military victory. Some see the fourth figure, every ruler, as yet another reference to the Messiah. This is unlikely for two reasons. First, the term for ruler is not the word for king, but rather "dictator" or "oppressor" (cf. Ex 3:7; Zch 9:8). Second, the words "every oppressor together" indicate that more than one dictator is in view. Feinberg understands, "the cornerstone, the nail, and the battle bow of the Messiah, while the second clause, presents the result of His activities. Because the Messiah intervenes in the manner to be noted, every oppressor will depart from Judah. Cause and effect are clearly stated" (Feinberg, God Remembers, 185).

The point in this verse is that as a result of Messiah’s coming, every ruler (v. 4; or better, "every oppressor") will depart from Judah, leaving the nation with the godly leadership of King Messiah (10:4). He will transform the nation into mighty men, granting them great military victories because the Lord will be with them (10:5). Israel will fight under the banner of the Messiah Jesus. He will lead them in battle, and He will grant their victory (see comments on 9:14–17).

10:6–12. Finally, the Lord promised to regather Israel. In response to those who see this as merely predicting a restoration from Babylon, Walter Kaiser has made three arguments to support an end-time restoration of the Jewish people to the land of Israel. First, Zechariah made this prediction of regathering after the return from Babylon, and hence was not referring to that but to restoration of the Jewish people to the land in the future. Second, those returning to the land will comprise both the house of Judah and the house of Joseph. Since the northern ten tribes contained Ephraim and Manasseh, sometimes the kingdom of Israel was called Ephraim (cf. Is 7:1–17). Here Zechariah calls that land by the name of Ephraim and Manasseh’s father, Joseph, referring to the northern kingdom. The unification of the land is not what happened with the return from Babylon when just the southern kingdom of Judah returned. Rather, it indicates a return of both the southern and northern kingdoms, an eschatological reunification of both Judah and Israel (Zch 10:6–7). Third, God promised to restore His people, not from Babylon, but from far countries, naming Egypt and Assyria, the southern and northern empires, as representative of the worldwide dispersion of the Jewish people (10:9–10; Walter C. Kaiser, Jr. "The Land of Israel and the Future Return [Zechariah 10:6–12]" in Israel: The Land and the People [Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel, 1998], 213–18). Zechariah’s point in this paragraph is that the Lord promised that, at the end of days, when the Jewish people remember the Lord and trust in the Messiah (10:9a), God will whistle for them (10:8) and bring them back to their land (10:9–10). Not only will God physically restore the Jewish people to the land but He will also spiritually restore them (and in His name they will walk; 10:12).

Zechariah 11 functions as a hinge within the second major panel of the book (see comments on 3:1–10 and 6:9–15; cf. "Introduction: Structure"). Chapter 10 contains extraordinary promises of blessings when Messiah comes to deliver the people. The hinge (11:1–17) explains why those promised blessings had not yet begun: Israel rejected their Messianic King. Chapter 11 has a twofold structure: (1) the prophet’s role-play depicting Israel’s rejection of the true Shepherd (11:1–14); and (2) the prophet’s role-play depicting God’s rejection of a future false shepherd (11:15–17).

This section about the true shepherd has two paragraphs. The first predicts the future judgment of Israel (11:1–3) and the second describes the reason for that judgment: Israel’s rejection of the Messiah (11:4–14).

11:1–3. In poetic form, the prophet predicted the coming judgment of Israel using the image of a forest fire destroying the land. Beginning with the destruction of Lebanon in the northwest (11:1), followed by the devastation of Bashan in the northeast (11:2), and moving to the south along the Jordan (11:3), the entire land, and by implication, its people, is pictured in ruined condition. This judgment is a consequence of the event described in the next paragraph—Israel’s rejection of the true Shepherd, the messianic King (cf. Lk 19:41–44). The prediction was fulfilled when the Roman generals Vespasian and Titus destroyed the land of Israel during the first Jewish revolt (AD 68–73; see description of events of AD 70 in introductory comments on Mt 24).

The Lord directed Zechariah to "pasture the flock," leading some to conclude that these verses describe Israel’s rejection of the prophet Zechariah and his ministry. However, that this is about the rejection of the Messiah and not the prophet is evident in the following: (1) Zechariah is merely role-playing as the true shepherd just as he also plays the role of the false shepherd in 11:15–17. It is plain that he cannot be both the true and the false shepherd. (2) Role-plays are common in the book of Zechariah. Previously, in hinge passages, Joshua and his fellow priests represented Israel (3:1–10), and Joshua played the role of the Priestly Messiah (6:9–15). (3) Only the Lord’s Messiah is represented as the Good Shepherd (Ezk 34:22–24). (4) The actions taken by the true shepherd (annihilating the three shepherds, Zch 11:8; breaking the staff of Favor, 11:10) require more authority than Zechariah would take to himself—he is representing someone with far more sovereignty than he possessed.

11:4–7. The work of the True Shepherd was to pasture the flock doomed to slaughter (11:4). Israel will experience sorrowful judgment because of the rejection of the True Shepherd. Thus, the Gentile nations, those who buy them and slay them (11:5) will take advantage of them. At the same time, Israel’s own rulers, their own shepherds, will abandon them and have no pity on them (11:5). Israel’s ultimate doom is that God Himself will no longer have pity on them, allowing the land to fall, either by internecine conflict or by the Roman king (11:6). Nevertheless, the True Shepherd pastured the doomed flock, particularly the afflicted of the flock, graciously. This refers to the Messiah Jesus’ earthly ministry and the gentle care He provided for the poor and downcast of Israel (cf. Mt 9:35–38; Jn 10:11–18). He did so with two staffs, one representing God’s Favor for Israel and the other representing God’s provision of Union (Zch 11:7), keeping Israel distinct and intact as a people, from the time of their rejection of the Messiah Jesus, throughout the nation’s dispersion after AD 70, and until the national Jewish recognition of Him as the true Messiah (12:10).

11:8. From 11:8–14, the text’s focus becomes Israel’s rejection of the True Shepherd. Here, Zechariah, in his Messianic role-play, gives his first response to this rejection—he cut off three shepherds. There are some forty different interpretations suggested for this phrase, none completely satisfying. Perhaps the best is as a reference to the end of the three leadership offices in Israel, prophet, priest and king/civil magistrate, at the time of the Roman destruction of Jerusalem. Likely, one month indicates that this would happen over a brief time span.

11:9–11. A further response to rejecting the Messiah would be His withdrawal of favor from Israel, allowing what is to die to die by famine or pestilence, "what is to be cut off" to die by violence, and some even to die by civil strife (11:9; civil unrest did erupt at the start of the revolt against Rome in AD 66; cf. Josephus, War, 2.17.4–6 [321–429]). He would break the staff of Favor as a sign of the breaking of a covenant, not the Abrahamic covenant made with the Jewish people but the covenant God providentially made with all the peoples of the world to restrain them from oppressing Israel (11:10). He would no longer restrain the nations, and they would painfully persecute Israel. Thus, with the staff of Favor broken, God would temporarily change Israel’s most favored status, and Rome would devastate the land in AD 70. Only the afflicted of the flock, the faithful remnant, would understand that these sorrowful events were under God’s sovereign authority (11:11).

11:12–14. In climactic fashion, Zechariah describes the reason for Israel’s loss of favor. The role-playing prophet, as Messiah, asks Israel to evaluate His ministry to them. They respond by valuing Him with thirty shekels of silver (11:12), the compensation paid for a gored slave (Ex 21:32). That price was to be cast to the potter (Zch 11:13), one of the lowest of the laboring classes. All this describes Israel’s despising and rejecting the Messiah sent to them (cf. Is 53:3). These events were literally fulfilled and recorded in Matthew’s gospel (Mt 26:14–16; 27:3–10).

According to Mt 27:9, Judas’ betrayal fulfilled the words of Jeremiah, not Zechariah. Solutions to this problem have included the following: (1) Matthew had a memory lapse and cited the wrong prophet. (2) A later copyist changed the citation from Zechariah to Jeremiah by mistake. (3) Matthew was citing a passage in Jeremiah that was deleted from later versions of Jeremiah. (4) Matthew was making a composite citation of Old Testament texts from Jr 19:6, 11; 32:6–8 and Zch 11:4–14, identifying it as coming from Jeremiah because he was the more significant prophet. (5) Matthew’s citation is to the Prophets in general while specifically quoting from Zch 11. This is the most likely solution since the Talmud states that, in the past, Jeremiah stood at the head of the Prophets section of the Hebrew Bible (Baba Bathra 14b; for another approach, however, see comments on Mt 27:3–10). As such, the entire section could be named for him, even as Jesus cites the Psalms, the first book of the Writings, as standing for the whole section (Lk 24:44).

As a consequence of Israel’s rejection, the Messiah breaks the second staff, Union, destroying the unity of the Jewish people (Zch 11:14). In Israel’s devastating defeat by Rome in AD 70, factionalism and party strife were major factors.

11:15–17. In contrast to Israel’s rejection of the True Shepherd, the following paragraph describes God’s rejection of the false shepherd. Just as Zechariah played the role of the True Shepherd, now he is to play the role of a foolish shepherd. This one will be wicked, not car[ing] for the perishing and taking advantage of the flock. The chapter begins and ends with a poem of judgment, thereby forming an inclusio. This poem describes the judgment of the foolish shepherd. His arm, representing strength, and his right eye, representing intelligence, will be destroyed. The foolish shepherd has been wrongly identified with Herod the Great, Simon Bar Kokhba (a messianic claimant and the leader of the second Jewish revolt against Rome, AD 132–135), or false religious leaders and others. Since he is completely antithetical to the True Shepherd he is probably the depiction of a future false Messiah, also known as the little horn (cf. Dn 7:8–12; 24–26), the man of lawlessness (2Th 2:3), the Antichrist (1Jn 2:18), and the Beast (Rv 13:1–10), whom God will ultimately destroy.

The second and final prophetic burden (see comments on 9:1) predicts the events at the end of days, when Messiah returns to deliver Israel and establish His kingdom on earth. The eschatological emphasis is evident in two ways: first, in the identification of the subject, concerning Israel (12:1), not Judah, and looking forward to restoration of the entire nation, not merely the Judahites who returned from Babylon; second, in the repeated use of the eschatological phrase "in that day" (12:3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11; 13:1; 14:2, 4, 8, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, 17, 21), indicating that these events point to the distant future, not Zechariah’s own day.

The burden has three sections: (1) a prophetic oracle emphasizing God’s eschatological deliverance of Israel; (2) a poetic survey of Israel’s destiny (13:7–9); and (3) a prophetic oracle of God’s end-days deliverance of Israel, emphasizing the renovation of Jerusalem (14:1–21).

12:1. The burden begins with a poetic introduction describing the Lord as the omnipotent creator of the heavens, the earth, and man. This is to establish the credibility of the message in two ways. First, God’s omnipotence validates His ability to foretell the future. Second, God’s creation confirms God’s ability to remake the world as predicted in chap. 14.

After the introductory poem (12:1), the burden describes the events of the last days, particularly the campaign of Armageddon (Rv 16:13–16). The nations will muster in the Jezreel Valley in front of Mt. Megiddo and make their way to Jerusalem.

12:2–3. The prophet provides several characteristics of the last battle. First, it will be a time of deliverance for Israel (12:2–9). At the outset, the nations will besiege Jerusalem. Their attempt to destroy Jerusalem will cause them to be destroyed as the Lord makes Jerusalem a cup that causes reeling (12:2) and a heavy stone for them (12:3). The imagery is Jerusalem as a cup of wine that will make the nations stagger in drunkenness (cf. Ps 60:5 [Hb.]; 60:3 [Eng.]) and a rock so heavy that it will cause injury to the nations that try to lift it.

12:4–9. In response to the siege of the nations, the Lord will liberate Jerusalem through divine sabotage of the nations (12:4). God will strike every horse and rider with madness and blindness. These military descriptions do not require that the last-days battle include cavalry as opposed to modern military hardware. Rather, the prophet uses military imagery from his own days, as he understood it. That is not to say that these depictions are not real, rather, that the prophet likely could not comprehend or reveal a depiction of a modern military. Therefore, the oracle is depicting real warfare, and all the events described throughout are indeed real and literal.

The Lord will also liberate Jerusalem through divine enablement of the Jewish people (12:5–9). Thus God will cause the leaders (so HCSB, not clans as in the NASB) of Judah to draw encouragement from God’s support of the Jerusalemites in battle. God will enable Israel by giving divine success to the leaders of Judah as they defend themselves from an attempted genocide (12:6–7), devastating their foes as a firepot does to a woodpile and a torch among sheaves (12:6). As a result, they will be as successful as the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem (12:7). God’s enablement of Israel will also include His divine strengthening of the inhabitants of Jerusalem (12:8), making even those who stumble from weakness to fight like King David and making the house of David as powerful as the angel of the Lord. Finally, God’s enablement of Israel will result in a divine slaughter of all the armies of the nations that came against Jerusalem (12:9). The emphasis of this description is that Israel will fight powerfully, but its strength and success will actually come from the Lord of armies.

A second characteristic found in this general description of the last battle is that it will be a time of repentance for Israel (12:10–14). At the climax of the campaign of Armageddon, Israel will turn to the Messiah Jesus in mourning, calling for His deliverance. The text moves from physical (12:1–9) to spiritual deliverance (12:10–14).

12:10–14. God’s Spirit will be poured out, conveying grace to Israel’s leadership (the house of David) and populace (the inhabitants of Jerusalem) and thereby enabling them to offer supplication. The support for seeing this as referring to God’s Spirit rather than a mere disposition (i.e., "spirit") is found in the many parallel passages that identify Israel’s end-times repentance as a work of God’s Spirit (Is 44:1–5; 59:20–21; Jr 31:31–34; Ezk 36:24–29; 39:25–29).

As a result of this divine enablement, Israel will respond with faith. The words look on are the same as used in Nm 21:9, when Israel looked upon the bronze serpent in faith to receive healing.

The object of their look of faith is the Lord (YHWH) Himself (Me)—the One they have pierced. Some take this piercing figuratively since it seems impossible for God to be physically pierced. Nevertheless, since all other uses of the verb "pierce" refer to literal piercing (Nm 25:8; Jdg 9:54; 1Sm 31:4; Is 13:15; Jr 37:10; 51:4; Zch 13:3), it is better to take this verse literally as well. As such it refers to the piercing of a representative of God, namely, the incarnate Messiah. The Talmud also interprets this as "the slaying of the Messiah" (b. Sukkah 52a, cf. j. Sukkah 52a) as does the New Testament (Jn 19:37). Moshe Alshech, a 16^th-century Jewish biblical commentator provides this remarkable comment:

About the human responsibility for piercing the Messiah, Kaiser wisely warns: "This is not to add fuel to the fires of those who have castigated our Jewish neighbors by the stigma of being ‘Christ killers.’ That slur is as unfair as it is untrue! In fact, the Messiah was put to death by the Jews and the Romans [italics his]. It is also true that He was put to death for the sins of all the world. So caution must be exercised in this area when describing the roles that were carried out by the first-century participants in the death of Christ" (Walter C. Kaiser Jr., The Messiah in the Old Testament [Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1994], 223). These verses do indicate that at their end-time repentance, Jewish people will recognize that their ancestors were participants in the conspiracy against the Messiah, not that they acted alone or were perpetually guilty (cf. Ac 4:27–28 and comments there).

Along with exercising faith, Israel will mourn for Him and weep bitterly over Him in repentance. The shift from Me to Him is striking. However, this does not indicate a new person being brought into the picture. Rather, Hebrew poetry and prophecy sometimes transitions from one person to another (Wilhelm Gesenius, E. Kautzsch, and A. E. Cowley, Gesenius’ Hebrew Grammar, edited by E. Kautzsch, 2nd English ed., Revised in Accordance with the Twenty-Eighth German Edition [1909] by A. E. Crowley [Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1910, 16th impression, 1982], 462) for emphasis (Jb 33:28; Is 22:19; Lm 3:1). Moreover, it reflects differing points of view. From God’s perspective, Israel looks to Me; From Israel’s, they mourn for Him.

There are four components to Israel’s repentance. First, Israel’s repentance will be intense, mourning as for the loss of an only son (Gn 22:2). Israel’s intense sorrow is also compared to the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the plain of Megiddo (Zch 12:11), a reference to the great grief at the untimely death of good King Josiah (2Ch 35:20–27).

Second, Israel’s repentance will be for their past rejection of Jesus. Recognizing their millennia of rejecting Jesus as the Messiah, virtually all the Jewish people around the world will repent of this sin. The lament in Is 53:1–9, expressing sorrow for failing to recognize Messiah, articulates a fitting expression for Israel’s mourning at the end of days.

Third, Israel’s repentance will be national. This is not to say that their mourning will be collective, since every family will mourn by itself, indicating personal repentance. Yet it also begins with the royal house (the house of David, 12:12a), and includes the prophetic order (the house of Nathan, the prophet from the time of David, 12:12b), and the order of priests (the house of Levi, 12:13a) and Levites (the Shimeites, 12:13b; Ex 6:16–17; Nm 3:17–18; 1Ch 6:1–3). This literary expression indicates that the leadership of Israel will all repent. This will spread to all the families (Zch 12:14), to all the Jewish people, in Israel and around the world, who will finally turn to their Messiah.

Finally, Israel’s repentance will be in the future. It is possible for Jewish people to recognize Jesus as the Messiah now. However, this ethnic repentance is eschatological. Drawing from other biblical passages, it is possible to locate Israel’s turn to the Messiah in a sequence of end-time events. God foretold that there would be a future tribulation, a time of Jacob’s distress (Jr 30:7) when Israel will experience God’s rod of discipline (Ezk 20:34–38). As a result, Israel will repent, and call for the Messiah Jesus to return to save them (Zch 12:10–12) in fulfillment of Jesus’ words that He would not return until Israel welcomed Him back as Messiah (see comments on Mt 23:37–39). Having turned to Him in faith, "all Israel will be saved" (see comments on Rm 11:26), followed by the second coming of the Messiah Jesus and His establishment of the earthly millennial kingdom.

Besides being a time of deliverance (Zch 12:1–9) and repentance (12:10–14), the third characteristic found in this general description of the last battle is that it will be a time of cleansing for Israel (13:1–6).

13:1. Now that Israel has looked upon the Messiah with faith and repented of the years of rejection, the Lord will open a fountain to cleanse the nation of sin and … impurity (cf. Ezk 36:25–28; Jr 31:34). The word sin means "to miss the mark" (Jdg 20:16) of God’s righteous standard and refers to personal wrongdoing. The word impurity is rooted in the ritual defilement that comes from menstruation (Lv 12:5; 15:19–20, 26). The metaphorical sense, when describing sin, means "filthiness" or "that which is abhorred," and is applied to Israel’s most wicked sins (Ezr 9:11; 2Ch 29:5). Zechariah wrote of this earlier (Zch 3:1–10), when Joshua the High Priest was cleansed of filthy robes as a symbol of Messiah’s end-time cleansing of Israel (see comments there).

13:2–6. While the people are forgiven of their sin, the land will be purged of wrongdoing. The Lord will remove both idolatry (13:2a) and false prophets (13:2b–6). In obedience to the Torah (cf. Dt 13:6–9), parents will even pierce their own children for having been false prophets (Zch 13:3). The false prophets will be so ashamed of themselves that they will deny that they had claimed to be prophets (13:4–6).

In the middle of the burden, there is a brief poetic interlude, describing the major events of Israel’s future. The poem is not chronological with the events described in the previous paragraph. Rather, it takes up a discussion of the rejected True Shepherd, last seen in 11:4–14. This poem follows here in order to contrast the previously described false prophets and their self piercing (13:6) with the future true Prophet, the shepherd of Israel, who would also experience piercing. However, His piercing would be redemptive and not self-inflicted.

13:7a. As the prophet looks into Israel’s future, he begins by describing the death of the Messiah. Using a personified sword as a metonymy of cause (sword) for effect (piercing), it predicts the death of the rejected True Shepherd (cf. 11:4–14). This is a literal piercing because it is contrasted with the literal self-inflicted piercings of the false prophets (13:6). Moreover, it is a description of the same person recognized as the Pierced One (12:10). The masculine imperative strike indicates that God is the sovereign agent in the death of the Messiah (cf. Is 53:10). The Lord also calls the Shepherd My Associate, a term Baldwin defines as one "who stands next to me" (Baldwin, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, 197–98). It is used to describe a relative, friend, or neighbor—essentially an equal (Lv 5:19; 18:20; 19:11, 15, 17; 24:19; 25:14, 17), giving an OT hint of the Messiah’s deity (see comments on Mt 26:30–35).

13:7b. The prophet also foresees the dispersion of Israel. The striking of the True Shepherd will cause the sheep to be scattered. This is a prediction of the dispersion of the Jewish people around the world for nearly two thousand years. The gospels view the scattering of the disciples on the night of Jesus’ betrayal as the inauguration of the dispersion (Mt 26:31–32; Mk 14:27–28).

13:8–9. Since this poem is about Israel’s destiny, there is no mention of the Church. Rather, the prophet looks forward to the distant future, describing the tribulation or time of Jacob’s trouble. Israel will have three distinct experiences at that time: (1) Israel will experience persecution, so that two parts or 2/3 of the population in all the land of Israel will be cut off (13:8). As tragic as this is, it is limited in number because God will have previously sent much of the Jewish population of the land of Israel into the wilderness (cf. Ezk 20:35–36; Rv 12:13–16). (2) Israel will experience purification. The persecution they undergo will refine them as silver is refined, causing them to call on the Lord’s name in faith and repentance (Zch 13:9a), trusting in Jesus as their Messiah, even as the oracle previously described (12:10). As a result, (3) Israel will experience restoration. When they call on the Lord, He will answer them, calling them My people, and they will say, The Lord is my God (13:9b). At that time, Israel will know the Lord and receive all the kingdom benefits God had promised in the Abrahamic covenant. This verse indicates that Israel’s repentance takes place during the tribulation period and precedes the second coming of Christ (see comments on Mt 23:37–39).

The final burden resumes, taking up further predictions of the end of days, as was described in 12:1–13:6. Since Hebrew prophecy is frequently cyclical, these are not to be viewed as following the previous predictions chronologically. Rather, this part of the oracle takes up what was previously described from another perspective, emphasizing the renovation of Jerusalem in the day of the Lord.

14:1–2. What follows is a description of the day of the Lord, the eschatological period of time of God’s judgment and restoration (See Jl 3:1–21 and comments there). Just as the Scriptures depict a "day" with two parts, evening and morning (Gn 1:5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31), so the day of the Lord has two parts: evening, which is the time of judgment or the tribulation period, followed by day, which is the one-thousand-year reign of Messiah Jesus on this earth. This chapter begins with a snapshot of the "evening" portion of the day of the Lord (Zch 14:1–2), depicting the future devastation of Jerusalem. At that time, all the nations will gather against Jerusalem (see comments on 12:2–9), capture the city, plunder the homes, rape the women, and exile half of the survivors (14:2). God declares His own sovereignty over these terrible events, stating I will gather all the nations. Israel is to remember that as devastating as these events will be, God is directing them for an ultimately good purpose. This is a good reminder for any believer enduring difficulties today.

14:3–5. Having described the city’s future devastation, the prophet next predicts the future deliverance of Jerusalem (14:3–21), including seven distinct promises. First, God promised to rescue the Jewish people in Jerusalem (14:3–5). In response to the repentance of the nation and their turn in faith to Jesus the Messiah (cf. 12:10–14), the Lord declares that He will fight against those nations (14:3). He will break the siege by descending physically, in the person of the Messiah Jesus, so that His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives (14:4; cf. Rv 19:11–16). For several reasons, this is not merely a figurative description of the Lord providentially coming to Israel’s defense but rather the literal return of the Lord Jesus, the Messiah. The term "feet" seems to indicate the Lord will be literally present in Jerusalem, so much so that the Mount of Olives is literally split in two. Other prophetic passages seem to indicate the Lord’s literal presence with Israel at the end of days, leading the people in battle (cf. Is 63:1–6 with Rv 14:14–19 and 19:11–16; Mc 2:12–13). Also, the apostles were promised that the Lord Jesus Himself would descend upon the Mount of Olives when He returns to restore the kingdom to Israel (Ac 1:11).

The mountain will split and provide a way of escape for the trapped Jerusalemites (Zch 14:5a). Then the incarnate Messiah will come to do battle, along with an army of holy ones (14:5b). This could refer to angels or perhaps to previously raptured believers, returning with their Lord to defend Israel. At Jesus’ ascension from the Mount of Olives, the angels promised He would return "in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven" (Ac 1:11), likely referring to this passage.

14:6–8. Second, God promised to remake the areas around Jerusalem. There will be cosmic changes (14:6–7), as other Scriptures also foretell (Is 13:9–10; Jl 2:31; 3:15; Am 5:18; Mt 24:29–30; Rv 6:12–14; 8:8–12; 9:1–18; 14:4–20; 16:4, 8–9). The water sources will also be transformed (Zch 14:8), with a river of living waters flowing out of Jerusalem to the eastern sea (the Dead Sea) and the western sea (the Mediterranean Sea), thereby irrigating the land year round and ending all droughts (14:8). Ezekiel also predicted the revitalization of the Dead Sea in the messianic kingdom (Ezk 47:8–12).

14:9. Third, God promised to reign over the world from Jerusalem. He will be king over all the earth, not just the land of Israel, for all the nations will have to come to Jerusalem to worship Him (14:16–18). This will finally end all idolatry, since He will be the only God and His name the only one worshipped.

14:10–11. Fourth, God promised to renovate the topography of Jerusalem. The land around Jerusalem, both north (Geba) and south (Rimmon) will be flattened while Jerusalem, including all its landmarks, will be elevated, indicating its greater prominence. Once and for all, political issues that vex contemporary society will be resolved. Jerusalem will be recognized as the capital of Israel, and the people who live there will dwell in security.

14:12–15. Fifth, God promised to repay the oppressors of Jerusalem. The nations that came against Jerusalem will be judged with both plague (14:12, 15) and panic (14:13). They will also surrender their wealth to Judah (14:14). These things will occur at the culmination of the battle of Armageddon (Is 11:4; 63:1–6; Rv 14:19–20; 19:15, 21) when the Lord finally devastates and defeats those nations.

14:16–19. Sixth, God promised to require universal worship in Jerusalem. Many Gentiles from other nations of the world will embrace Messiah Jesus during the tribulation and will not be destroyed by Him when He returns. The nations that are spared this judgment (cf. Mt 25:34–40 and comments there) will be made to show their continued allegiance to the Lord by going up from year to year to worship the King, the Messiah Jesus. They will also be expected to celebrate the Feast of Booths (Zch 14:16; Lv 23:40; Dt 16:14–15), a feast of ingathering and dwelling in booths. It will be the required festival of the messianic kingdom because "it will celebrate the gathering of the nations to the Lord and especially His tabernacling among them" (Feinberg, God Remembers, 261).

As the millennial kingdom progresses, however, many will not embrace King Messiah by faith (see Rv 20:7–10 and comments there), and will not obey Him. Failure to worship the King at the Feast of Booths will make God withhold rain (Zch 14:17). Zechariah described this act of judgment as a plague (14:18), so that once more Egypt will come under God’s judgment should they fail to obey God (14:19). That there will exist nations that could potentially rebel and thus face judgment, and that they will also need rain, demonstrates that Zechariah is describing the messianic kingdom (or millennium), not the eternal state (compare with the conditions described in Rv 21–22).

14:20–21. Finally, God promised to realize total holiness in Jerusalem. The word HOLY means "set apart" or "separate" and refers to what is distinct from what is common or profane. This is a description of the messianic millennial kingdom, in which there will be some rebellion in the end (Rv 20:7ff.), not the new heavens and the new earth in which there will no longer be any rebellion against the Lord (Rv 21:27). Nevertheless, in the messianic kingdom, the fear of God will be so pervasive and ordinary that even the bells on the horses will be inscribed with HOLY TO THE Lord, words previously found only on the mitre of the High Priest (Ex 28:36). Then even the cooking pots will be considered holy, or set apart for God’s service (Zch 14:20). There will no longer be a division between the sacred and the profane—everything will be sacred. Even the holy sacrifices will be cooked in ordinary cooking pots, as they will be holy too (for discussion of sacrifices in the millennial temple, see comments on Ezk 40:38–43). Most important, all people who worship the King will be holy—there will no longer be a Canaanite, or unclean people, in the house of the Lord "for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea" (Is 11:9; Hab 2:14).

As Israel looked at their circumstances with despair, frustrated by their failure to rebuild the temple, distraught at their own disobedience to the Torah, and despondent with their grinding poverty and drought, the book of Zechariah brought hope that God would once more renew His people and remake Jerusalem. Thus, it would motivate them to trust and obey God until that day should come. The same is true for contemporary readers—frustrated by failure, distraught at disobedience, despondent with difficulties—the book brings hope for the future and motivates trust and obedience today. Especially in the last climactic burden (12:1–14:21), but throughout, the book reminds readers that the Messianic King, the Lord Jesus, will come again and establish a righteous kingdom for all the earth, with Jerusalem at its center. Then "the kingdom of the world [will] become the kingdom of our Lord and His Messiah; and He will reign forever and ever" (Rv 11:15).