Zechariah 6:1

Vision Eight: The Chariots

6:1 Once more I looked, and this time I saw four chariots emerging from between two mountains of bronze. ¹ 

Zechariah 8:3

8:3 The Lord says, ‘I have returned to Zion and will live within Jerusalem. ²  Now Jerusalem will be called “truthful city,” “mountain of the Lord who rules over all,” “holy mountain.”’

Zechariah 14:4-5

14:4 On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives which lies to the east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in half from east to west, leaving a great valley. Half the mountain will move northward and the other half southward. ³  14:5 Then you will escape ⁴  through my mountain valley, for the mountains will extend to Azal. ⁵  Indeed, you will flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of King Uzziah ⁶  of Judah. Then the Lord my God will come with all his holy ones with him.

Zechariah 4:7

Oracle of Response

4:7 “What are you, you great mountain? ⁷  Because of Zerubbabel you will become a level plain! And he will bring forth the temple ⁸  capstone with shoutings of ‘Grace! Grace!’ ⁹  because of this.”

¹ tn Heb “two mountains, and the mountains [were] mountains of bronze.” This has been simplified in the translation for stylistic reasons.

² map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

³ sn This seismic activity provides a means of escape from Jerusalem so that the Messiah (the Lord), whose feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, may destroy the wicked nations in the Kidron Valley (the v. of Jehoshaphat, or of “judgment of the Lord”) without harming the inhabitants of the city.

⁴ tc For the MT reading נַסְתֶּם (nastem, “you will escape”) the LXX presupposes נִסְתַּם (nistam, “will be stopped up”; this reading is followed by NAB). This appears to derive from a perceived need to eliminate the unexpected “you” as subject. This not only is unnecessary to Hebrew discourse (see “you” in the next clause), but it contradicts the statement in the previous verse that the mountain will be split open, not stopped up.

⁵ sn Azal is a place otherwise unknown.

⁶ sn The earthquake in the days of King Uzziah, also mentioned in Amos 1:1, is apparently the one attested to at Hazor in 760 b.c.

⁵ sn In context, the great mountain here must be viewed as a metaphor for the enormous task of rebuilding the temple and establishing the messianic kingdom (cf. TEV “Obstacles as great as mountains”).

⁶ tn The word “temple” has been supplied in the translation to clarify the referent (cf. NLT “final stone of the Temple”).

⁷ sn Grace is a fitting response to the idea that it was “not by strength and not by power” but by God’s gracious Spirit that the work could be done (cf. v. 6).