Zechariah 1:11

1:11 The riders then agreed with the angel of the Lord, ¹  who was standing among the myrtle trees, “We have been walking about on the earth, and now everything is at rest and quiet.”

Zechariah 2:2

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

Zechariah 2:6

2:6 “You there! ³  Flee from the northland!” says the Lord, “for like the four winds of heaven ⁴  I have scattered you,” says the Lord.

Zechariah 2:9

2:9 “I am about to punish them ⁵  in such a way,” he says, “that they will be looted by their own slaves.” Then you will know that the Lord who rules over all has sent me.

Zechariah 3:1

Vision Four: The Priest

3:1 Next I saw Joshua the high priest ⁶  standing before the angel of the Lord, with Satan ⁷  standing at his right hand to accuse him.

Zechariah 4:7

Oracle of Response

4:7 “What are you, you great mountain? ⁸  Because of Zerubbabel you will become a level plain! And he will bring forth the temple ⁹  capstone with shoutings of ‘Grace! Grace!’ ¹⁰  because of this.”

Zechariah 6:8

6:8 Then he cried out to me, “Look! The ones going to the northland have brought me ¹¹  peace about the northland.” ¹² 

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, ¹³  who will sprout up from his place and build the temple of the Lord.

Zechariah 7:7

7:7 Should you not have obeyed the words that the Lord cried out through the former prophets when Jerusalem ¹⁴  was peacefully inhabited and her surrounding cities, the Negev, and the Shephelah ¹⁵  were also populated?

Zechariah 8:7-8

8:7 “The Lord who rules over all asserts, ‘I am about to save my people from the lands of the east and the west. 8:8 And I will bring them to settle within Jerusalem. They will be my people, and I will be their God, ¹⁶  in truth and righteousness.’

Zechariah 8:13-14

8:13 And it will come about that just as you (both Judah and Israel) were a curse to the nations, so I will save you and you will be a blessing. Do not be afraid! Instead, be strong!’

8:14 “For the Lord who rules over all says, ‘As I had planned to hurt ¹⁷  you when your fathers made me angry,’ says the Lord who rules over all, ‘and I was not sorry,

Zechariah 11:8

11:8 Next I eradicated the three shepherds in one month, ¹⁸  for I ran out of patience with them and, indeed, they detested me as well.

Zechariah 11:11-12

11:11 So it was annulled that very day, and then the most afflicted of the flock who kept faith with me knew that that was the word of the Lord.

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 12:2

12:2 “I am about to make Jerusalem ²¹  a cup that brings dizziness ²²  to all the surrounding nations; indeed, Judah will also be included when Jerusalem is besieged.

Zechariah 12:7

12:7 The Lord also will deliver the homes ²³  of Judah first, so that the splendor of the kingship ²⁴  of David and of the people of Jerusalem may not exceed that of Judah.

Zechariah 14:17

14:17 But if any of the nations anywhere on earth refuse to go up to Jerusalem ²⁵  to worship the King, the Lord who rules over all, they will get no rain.

Zechariah 14:19

14:19 This will be the punishment of Egypt and of all nations that do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles.

[1:11]  ¹ sn The angel of the Lord is a special being who throughout the OT represents God himself and on occasion almost approaches divine hypostatization or incarnation (cf. Gen 18:2, 13, 17, 22; Exod 23:20-21; Josh 5:13-15; Judg 6:11-24; 13:2-20).

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

[2:6]  ³ sn These are the scattered Jews of eschatological times (as the expression four winds of heaven makes clear) and not those of Zechariah’s time who have, for the most part, already returned by 520 b.c. This theme continues and is reinforced in vv. 10-13.

[2:6]  ⁴ tn Or “of the sky.” The same Hebrew term, שָׁמַיִם (shamayim), may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.

[2:9]  ⁴ tn Heb “I will wave my hand over them” (so NASB); NIV, NRSV “raise my hand against them.”

[3:1]  ⁵ sn Joshua the high priest mentioned here is the son of the priest Jehozadak, mentioned also in Hag 1:1 (cf. Ezra 2:2; 3:2, 8; 4:3; 5:2; 10:18; Neh 7:7; 12:1, 7, 10, 26). He also appears to have been the grandfather of the high priest contemporary with Nehemiah ca. 445 b.c. (Neh 12:10).

[3:1]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew term הַשָּׂטָן (hassatan, “the satan”) suggests not so much a personal name (as in almost all English translations) but an epithet, namely, “the adversary.” This evil being is otherwise thus described in Job 1 and 2 and 1 Chr 21:1. In this last passage the article is dropped and “the satan” becomes “Satan,” a personal name.

[4:7]  ⁶ 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”).

[4:7]  ⁷ tn The word “temple” has been supplied in the translation to clarify the referent (cf. NLT “final stone of the Temple”).

[4:7]  ⁸ 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).

[6:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “my spirit.” The subject appears to be the Lord who exclaims here that the horsemen have accomplished their task of bringing peace.

[6:8]  ⁸ sn The immediate referent of peace about the northland is to the peace brought by Persia’s conquest of Babylonia, a peace that allowed the restoration of the Jewish people (cf. 2 Chr 36:22-23; Isa 44:28; 45:1-2). However, there is also an eschatological dimension, referring to a time when there will be perfect and universal peace.

[6:12]  ⁸ 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).

[7:7]  ⁹ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[7:7]  ¹⁰ sn The Shephelah is the geographical region between the Mediterranean coastal plain and the Judean hill country. The Hebrew term can be translated “lowlands” (cf. ASV), “foothills” (NAB, NASB, NLT), or “steppes.”

[8:8]  ¹⁰ sn The affirmation They will be my people, and I will be their God speaks of covenant renewal, a restoration of the unbroken fellowship the Lord desired to have with his people but which their disloyalty had shattered. In the eschaton God and Israel will be in covenant union once again (cf. Jer 31:33).

[8:14]  ¹¹ tn The verb זָמַם (zamam) usually means “to plot to do evil,” but with a divine subject (as here), and in light of v. 15 where it means to plan good, the meaning here has to be the implementation of discipline (cf. NCV, CEV “punish”). God may bring hurt but its purpose is redemptive and/or pedagogical.

[11:8]  ¹² sn Zechariah is only dramatizing what God had done historically (see the note on the word “cedars” in 11:1). The “one month” probably means just any short period of time in which three kings ruled in succession. Likely candidates are Elah, Zimri, Tibni (1 Kgs 16:8-20); Zechariah, Shallum, Menahem (2 Kgs 15:8-16); or Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, Zedekiah (2 Kgs 24:1–25:7).

[11:12]  ¹³ 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]  ¹⁴ 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).

[12:2]  ¹⁴ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[12:2]  ¹⁵ sn The image of a cup that brings dizziness is that of drunkenness. The Lord will force the nations to drink of his judgment and in doing so they will become so intoxicated by his wrath that they will stumble and become irrational.

[12:7]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “the tents” (so NAB, NRSV); NIV “the dwellings.”

[12:7]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “house,” referring here to the dynastic line. Cf. NLT “the royal line”; CEV “the kingdom.” The same expression is translated “dynasty” in the following verse.

[14:17]  ¹⁶ 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.