Zechariah 1:12

1:12 The angel of the Lord then asked, “Lord who rules over all, ¹  how long before you have compassion on Jerusalem ²  and the other cities of Judah which you have been so angry with for these seventy years?” ³ 

Zechariah 1:19

1:19 So I asked the angelic messenger ⁴  who spoke with me, “What are these?” He replied, “These are the horns ⁵  that have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.” ⁶ 

Zechariah 8:17

8:17 Do not plan evil in your hearts against one another. Do not favor a false oath – these are all things that I hate,’ says the Lord.”

Zechariah 8:21

8:21 The inhabitants of one will go to another and say, “Let’s go up at once to ask the favor of the Lord, to seek the Lord who rules over all. Indeed, I’ll go with you.”’

Zechariah 10:6

10:6 “I (says the Lord) will strengthen the kingdom ⁷  of Judah and deliver the people of Joseph ⁸  and will bring them back ⁹  because of my compassion for them. They will be as though I had never rejected them, for I am the Lord their God and therefore I will hear them.

Zechariah 11:6-7

11:6 Indeed, I will no longer have compassion on the people of the land,” says the Lord, “but instead I will turn every last person over to his neighbor and his king. They will devastate the land, and I will not deliver it from them.”

11:7 So I ¹⁰  began to shepherd the flock destined for slaughter, the most afflicted ¹¹  of all the flock. Then I took two staffs, ¹²  calling one “Pleasantness” ¹³  and the other “Binders,” ¹⁴  and I tended the flock.

Zechariah 12:6

12:6 On that day ¹⁵  I will make the leaders of Judah like an igniter ¹⁶  among sticks and a burning torch among sheaves, and they will burn up all the surrounding nations right and left. Then the people of Jerusalem will settle once more in their place, the city of Jerusalem.

Zechariah 14:18

14:18 If the Egyptians will not do so, they will get no rain – instead there will be the kind of plague which the Lord inflicts on any nations that do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles.

[1:12]  ¹ sn Note that here the angel of the Lord is clearly distinct from the Lord who rules over all himself.

[1:12]  ² map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[1:12]  ³ sn The seventy years refers to the predicted period of Babylonian exile, a period with flexible beginning and ending points depending on the particular circumstances in view (cf. Jer 25:1; 28:1; 29:10; Dan 9:2). Here the end of the seventy years appears to be marked by the completion of the temple in 516 b.c., exactly seventy years after its destruction in 586.

[1:19]  ⁴ tn See the note on the expression “angelic messenger” in v. 9.

[1:19]  ⁵ sn An animal’s horn is a common OT metaphor for military power (Pss 18:2; 75:10; Jer 48:25; Mic 4:13). The fact that there are four horns here (as well as four blacksmiths, v. 20) shows a correspondence to the four horses of v. 8 which go to four parts of the world, i.e., the whole world.

[1:19]  ⁶ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[10:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “the house.”

[10:6]  ⁸ tn Or “the kingdom of Israel”; Heb “the house of Joseph.”

[10:6]  ⁹ tc The anomalous MT reading וְחוֹשְׁבוֹתִים (vÿkhoshÿvotim) should probably be וַהֲשִׁי בוֹתִם (vahashi votim), the Hiphil perfect consecutive of שׁוּב (shuv), “return” (cf. Jer 12:15).

[11:7]  ¹⁰ sn The first person pronoun refers to Zechariah himself who, however, is a “stand-in” for the Lord as the actions of vv. 8-14 make clear. The prophet, like others before him, probably performed actions dramatizing the account of God’s past dealings with Israel and Judah (cf. Hos 1-3; Isa 20:2-4; Jer 19:1-15; 27:2-11; Ezek 4:1-3).

[11:7]  ¹¹ tc For the MT reading לָכֵן עֲנִיֵּי (lakhen ’aniyyey, “therefore the [most] afflicted of”) the LXX presupposes לִכְנַעֲנֵיּי (“to the merchants of”). The line would then read “So I began to shepherd the flock destined for slaughter for the sheep merchants” (cf. NAB). This helps to explain the difficult לָכֵן (lakhen) here but otherwise has no attestation or justification, so the MT is followed by most modern English versions.

[11:7]  ¹² sn The two staffs represent the two kingdoms, Israel and Judah. For other examples of staffs representing tribes or nations see Num 17:1-11; Ezek 37:15-23.

[11:7]  ¹³ tn The Hebrew term נֹעַם (no’am) is frequently translated “Favor” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT); cf. KJV “Beauty”; CEV “Mercy.”

[11:7]  ¹⁴ tn The Hebrew term חֹבְלִים (khovlim) is often translated “Union” (so NASB, NIV, NLT); cf. KJV, ASV “Bands”; NAB “Bonds”; NRSV, TEV, CEV “Unity”).

[12:6]  ¹³ sn On that day (referring to the day of the Lord) the Davidic monarchy will be restored and the Lord’s people will recognize once more the legitimacy and divine sanction of David’s dynasty. But there will also be a democratizing that will not give Jerusalem and its rulers undue priority over the people of the countryside (v. 7).

[12:6]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “a firepot” (so NASB, NIV); NRSV “a blazing pot”; NLT “a brazier.”