Zechariah 12:1

The Repentance of Judah

12:1 The revelation of the word of the Lord concerning Israel: The Lord – he who stretches out the heavens and lays the foundations of the earth, who forms the human spirit within a person ¹  – says,

Zechariah 9:1

The Coming of the True King

9:1 An oracle of the word of the Lord concerning the land of Hadrach, ²  with its focus on Damascus: ³ 

The eyes of all humanity, ⁴  especially of the tribes of Israel, are toward the Lord,

Zechariah 2:13

2:13 Be silent in the Lord’s presence, all people everywhere, ⁵  for he is being moved to action in his holy dwelling place. ⁶ 

Zechariah 7:10

7:10 You must not oppress the widow, the orphan, the foreigner, or the poor, nor should anyone secretly plot evil against his fellow human being.’

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.”

[12:1]  ¹ tn Heb “who forms the spirit of man within him” (so NIV).

[9:1]  ² sn The land of Hadrach was a northern region stretching from Aleppo in the north to Damascus in the south (cf. NLT “Aram”).

[9:1]  ³ tn Heb “Damascus its resting place.” The 3rd person masculine singular suffix on “resting place” (מְנֻחָתוֹ, mÿnukhato), however, precludes “land” or even “Hadrach,” both of which are feminine, from being the antecedent. Most likely “word” (masculine) is the antecedent, i.e., the “word of the Lord” is finding its resting place, that is, its focus in or on Damascus.

[9:1]  ⁴ tc Though without manuscript and version support, many scholars suggest emendation here to clarify what, to them, is an unintelligible reading. Thus some propose עָדֵי אָרָם (’ade ’aram, “cities of Aram”; cf. NAB, NRSV) for עֵין אָדָם (’en ’adam, “eye of man”) or אֲדָמָה (’adamah, “ground”) for אָדָם (’adam, “man”), “(surface of) the earth.” It seems best, however, to see “eye” as collective and to understand the passage as saying that the attention of the whole earth will be upon the Lord (cf. NIV, NLT).

[2:13]  ³ tn Heb “all flesh”; NAB, NIV “all mankind.”

[2:13]  ⁴ sn The sense here is that God in heaven is about to undertake an occupation of his earthly realm (v. 12) by restoring his people to the promised land.

[4:7]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ tn The word “temple” has been supplied in the translation to clarify the referent (cf. NLT “final stone of the Temple”).

[4:7]  ⁶ 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).