Zechariah 1:1

Introduction

1:1 In the eighth month of Darius’ ¹  second year, ²  the word of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah, ³  son of Berechiah son of Iddo, as follows:

Zechariah 1:9

The Interpretation of the First Vision

1:9 Then I asked one nearby, “What are these, sir?” The angelic messenger ⁴  who replied to me said, “I will show you what these are.”

Zechariah 1:14

1:14 Turning to me, the messenger then said, “Cry out that the Lord who rules over all says, ‘I am very much moved ⁵  for Jerusalem and for Zion.

Zechariah 2:2

2:2 I asked, “Where are you going?” He replied, “To measure Jerusalem ⁶  in order to determine its width and its length.”

Zechariah 3:2

3:2 The Lord ⁷  said to Satan, “May the Lord rebuke you, Satan! May the Lord, who has chosen Jerusalem, ⁸  rebuke you! Isn’t this man like a burning stick snatched from the fire?”

Zechariah 4:5

4:5 He replied, “Don’t you know what these are?” So I responded, “No, sir.”

Zechariah 4:9

4:9 “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundations of this temple, ⁹  and his hands will complete it.” Then you will know that the Lord who rules over all has sent me to you.

Zechariah 4:12

4:12 Before he could reply I asked again, “What are these two extensions ¹⁰  of the olive trees, which are emptying out the golden oil through the two golden pipes?”

Zechariah 5:2

5:2 Someone asked me, “What do you see?” I replied, “I see a flying scroll thirty feet long and fifteen feet wide.” ¹¹ 

Zechariah 5:5

Vision Seven: The Ephah

5:5 After this the angelic messenger ¹²  who had been speaking to me went out and said, “Look, see what is leaving.”

Zechariah 6:5

6:5 The messenger replied, “These are the four spirits ¹³  of heaven that have been presenting themselves before the Lord of all the earth.

Zechariah 6:12

6:12 Then say to him, ‘The Lord who rules over all says, “Look – here is the man whose name is Branch, ¹⁴  who will sprout up from his place and build the temple of the Lord.

Zechariah 6:15--7:1

6:15 Then those who are far away ¹⁵  will come and build the temple of the Lord so that you may know that the Lord who rules over all has sent me to you. This will all come to pass if you completely obey the voice of the Lord your God.”’”

The Hypocrisy of False Fasting

7:1 In King Darius’ fourth year, on the fourth day of Kislev, the ninth month, ¹⁶  the word of the Lord came to Zechariah.

Zechariah 8:3

8:3 The Lord says, ‘I have returned to Zion and will live within Jerusalem. ¹⁷  Now Jerusalem will be called “truthful city,” “mountain of the Lord who rules over all,” “holy mountain.”’

Zechariah 10:10

10:10 I will bring them back from Egypt and gather them from Assyria. ¹⁸  I will bring them to the lands of Gilead and Lebanon, for there will not be enough room for them in their own land.

Zechariah 11:12

11:12 Then I ¹⁹  said to them, “If it seems good to you, pay me my wages, but if not, forget it.” So they weighed out my payment – thirty pieces of silver. ²⁰ 

Zechariah 14:17

14:17 But if any of the nations anywhere on earth refuse to go up to Jerusalem ²¹  to worship the King, the Lord who rules over all, they will get no rain.

[1:1]  ¹ sn Darius is Darius Hystaspes, king of Persia from 522-486 b.c.

[1:1]  ² sn The eighth month of Darius’ second year was late October – late November, 520 b.c., by the modern (Julian) calendar. This is two months later than the date of Haggai’s first message to the same community (cf. Hag 1:1).

[1:1]  ³ sn Both Ezra (5:1; 6:14) and Nehemiah (12:16) speak of Zechariah as a son of Iddo only. A probable explanation is that Zechariah’s actual father Berechiah had died and the prophet was raised by his grandfather Iddo. The “Zechariah son of Barachiah” of whom Jesus spoke (Matt 23:35; Luke 11:51) was probably the martyred prophet by that name who may have been a grandson of the priest Jehoiada (2 Chr 24:20-22).

[1:9]  ⁴ tn Heb “messenger” or “angel” (מַלְאָךְ, mal’akh). This being appears to serve as an interpreter to the prophet (cf. vv. 13, 14).

[1:14]  ⁷ tn Heb “jealous for” (so KJV, ASV); NIV, NRSV “very jealous for”; CEV “very protective of.” The meaning is that Jerusalem/Zion is the special object of God’s grace and purposes. This results in his unusual protection of his people, a protection not accorded others with whom he does not have such a close relationship.

[2:2]  ¹⁰ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[3:2]  ¹³ sn The juxtaposition of the messenger of the Lord in v. 1 and the Lord in v. 2 shows that here, at least, they are one and the same. See Zech 1:11, 12 where they are distinguished from each other.

[3:2]  ¹⁴ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[4:9]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “house” (so NAB, NRSV).

[4:12]  ¹⁹ tn The usual meaning of the Hebrew term שְׁבֹּלֶת (shÿbolet) is “ears” (as in ears of grain). Here it probably refers to the produce of the olive trees, i.e., olives. Many English versions render the term as “branches,” but cf. NAB “tufts.”

[5:2]  ²² tn Heb “twenty cubits…ten cubits” (so NAB, NRSV). These dimensions (“thirty feet long and fifteen feet wide”) can hardly be referring to the scroll when unrolled since that would be all out of proportion to the normal ratio, in which the scroll would be 10 to 15 times as long as it was wide. More likely, the scroll is 15 feet thick when rolled, a hyperbole expressing the enormous amount and the profound significance of the information it contains.

[5:5]  ²⁵ tn See the note on the expression “angelic messenger” in 1:9.

[6:5]  ²⁸ tn The Hebrew term translated “spirit” here may also be translated “wind” or “breath” depending on the context (cf. ASV, NRSV, CEV “the four winds of heaven”; NAB similar).

[6:12]  ³¹ tn The epithet “Branch” (צֶמַח, tsemakh) derives from the verb used here (יִצְמָח, yitsmakh, “will sprout up”) to describe the rise of the Messiah, already referred to in this manner in Zech 3:8 (cf. Isa 11:1; 53:2; Jer 33:15). In the immediate context this refers to Zerubbabel, but the ultimate referent is Jesus (cf. John 19:5).

[6:15]  ³⁴ sn Those who are far away is probably a reference to later groups of returning exiles under Ezra, Nehemiah, and others.

[7:1]  ³⁷ sn The fourth day of Kislev, the ninth month would be December 7, 518 b.c., 22 months after the previous eight visions.

[8:3]  ⁴⁰ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[10:10]  ⁴³ sn I will bring them back from Egypt…from Assyria. The gathering of God’s people to their land in eschatological times will be like a reenactment of the exodus, but this time they will come from all over the world (cf. Isa 40:3-5; 43:1-7, 14-21; 48:20-22; 51:9-11).

[11:12]  ⁴⁶ sn The speaker (Zechariah) represents the Lord, who here is asking what his service as faithful shepherd has been worth in the opinion of his people Israel.

[11:12]  ⁴⁷ sn If taken at face value, thirty pieces (shekels) of silver was worth about two and a half years’ wages for a common laborer. The Code of Hammurabi prescribes a monthly wage for a laborer of one shekel. If this were the case in Israel, 30 shekels would be the wages for 2 1/2 years (R. de Vaux, Ancient Israel, pp. 76, 204-5). For other examples of “thirty shekels” as a conventional payment, see K. Luke, “The Thirty Pieces of Silver (Zech. 11:12f.), Ind TS 19 (1982): 26-30. Luke, on the basis of Sumerian analogues, suggests that “thirty” came to be a term meaning anything of little or no value (p. 30). In this he follows Erica Reiner, “Thirty Pieces of Silver,” in Essays in Memory of E. A. Speiser, AOS 53, ed. William W. Hallo (New Haven, Conn.: American Oriental Society, 1968), 186-90. Though the 30 shekels elsewhere in the OT may well be taken literally, the context of Zech. 11:12 may indeed support Reiner and Luke in seeing it as a pittance here, not worth considering (cf. Exod 21:32; Lev 27:4; Matt 26:15).

[14:17]  ⁴⁹ sn The reference to any…who refuse to go up to Jerusalem makes clear the fact that the nations are by no means “converted” to the Lord but are under his compulsory domination.