Zechariah 1:1-6. Introductory call to Repentance 1. The Author and date of his first Prophecy _the eighth month, in the second year of Darius_ The Jews after the Captivity substituted for the years of the reigns of their own kings, by which they had been accustomed to date their history, those of t... [ Continue Reading ]
_sore displeased_ Lit. DISPLEASED WITH DISPLEASURE. The addition of the noun serves to give emphasis to the verb. Comp. Luke 22:15. What a commentary on this "sore displeasure" was the scene on which the prophet and his hearers gazed, in its contrast with the past: the House, which had once been "ex... [ Continue Reading ]
The call to Repentance. Zechariah's first message is one of warning, by the example of their fathers and the earlier prophets. On their fathers, as they well knew, the displeasure of Almighty God had fallen heavily (Zechariah 1:2). Now, for the first time in this new era of their history, God is sen... [ Continue Reading ]
_saith the Lord of hosts_ See note on Haggai 2:6. In this verse the phrase occurs three times. The first and third times it is literally, "saith Jehovah of hosts." But the second time there is a variation in the Hebrew and it is properly "(it is the) utterance, or oracle of Jehovah of hosts." The sa... [ Continue Reading ]
_the former prophets have cried_ Rather, CRIED, as R.V. The reference is not to any one particular prophet or prophets, in whose writings words similar to these may be found; but to the whole body of prophets, who had preceded Zechariah and Haggai, and of whose message in the discharge of the didact... [ Continue Reading ]
The lesson conveyed by these two verses, which must be taken together, is the same as that contained in the words of Isaiah (Isaiah 40:6; Isaiah 40:8), "All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field … The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the word of our God... [ Continue Reading ]
_my statutes_ or DECREES. The word may be used here, as it is in Zephaniah 2:2; Psalms 2:7 (in both which places it is rendered _decree_in A. V.), of some punishment, which God had purposed or decreed, and threatened by His prophets to send upon them unless they repented. But it may also be taken to... [ Continue Reading ]
_the month Sebat_ or _Shebat_, R.V. i.e. January, or February. The identification of the Jewish months with our own cannot be effected with precision, on account of the variations that must inevitably exist between the lunar and the solar months. See Gen. Introd., Chap. II. p. 18. _the word of the L... [ Continue Reading ]
_by night_ or, _in the night_, R. V. As the Jewish day began at sunset, this would be the night preceding the twenty-fourth day of the month. If so, Zechariah may have recited these visions to the people for their encouragement, on the very day on which, five months before, they had re-commenced the... [ Continue Reading ]
_O my lord_ This question is addressed to the interpreting angel, of whose presence we are for the first time made aware by the fact that he replies to it. _the angel that talked with me_ This is the title by which this angel is distinguished throughout the visions: Zechariah 1:13-14 (where the A. V... [ Continue Reading ]
_the man_ i.e. the rider on the red horse of Zechariah 1:8, who, in answer it may be to a look or sign from the interpreting angel, takes upon himself to "shew" the prophet "what these be.... [ Continue Reading ]
_the angel of the Lord_ The man on the red horse, who as it now appears is an angel of Jehovah in human form, having told Zechariah, in Zechariah 1:10, what the other riders were, now turns to them and elicits from them, probably by sign or look, the fact for the prophet's information, that they had... [ Continue Reading ]
_answered_ The word does not necessarily mean replied to a question, but has here, as elsewhere, the more general signification of speaking in a manner corresponding, or "answering" to the circumstances described and the feelings called forth by them (comp. Job 3:2 (margin); Daniel 2:26; Acts 5:8).... [ Continue Reading ]
_the Lord_ i.e. Jehovah. This may either mean, that Almighty God answered from heaven the intercession of the Angel of the Lord (Zechariah 1:12), not to himself directly, but to the interpreting angel, by words which, whether he heard them himself or gathered their import from the angel's address to... [ Continue Reading ]
_I am jealous_ "I have been, not now only, but in time past even when I did not shew it, and am jealous, with the tender love which allows not what it loves to be injured." Pusey. Comp. chap. Zechariah 8:2.... [ Continue Reading ]
_heathen_ or, _nations_, R.V. _at ease_ as described in Zechariah 1:11. The word in this verse is the same as in Isaiah 32:9; Isaiah 32:11, and Psalms 123:4. _helped forward_ Comp. Isaiah 47:6.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Therefore_ because I am thus jealous for my people and angry with their enemies. _a line_ i.e. a measuring line, to mark out the city with a view to its being rebuilt. Comp. Job 38:5. It had been measured before for destruction, 2 Kings 21:13; Lamentations 2:8.... [ Continue Reading ]
_be spread abroad_ Some would render "overflow," comparing Proverbs 5:16. But the more usual sense of the word, "spread abroad, or "disperse," gives a good meaning. Not only shall the Temple be rebuilt, and the metropolis restored, but cities, owned and blessed by God ("my cities"), shall be scatter... [ Continue Reading ]
_four horns_ The horn is a symbol of honour (1 Samuel 2:1; Job 16:15), and of power (Jeremiah 48:25; Amos 6:13). Here the latter idea is prominent. By the _four_horns some understand four definite powers or kingdoms, either, Babylonians, Medes and Persians, Macedonians, and Romans, in accordance wit... [ Continue Reading ]
_Judah, Israel and Jerusalem_ The two tribes, the ten tribes, and the capital of the whole nation. So inclusive a description must be held to refer to the whole Jewish people, so that the vision predicts the overthrow of the oppressors of Israel as well as of Judah.... [ Continue Reading ]
_the Lord_ Jehovah, from whom the whole series of visions proceeded, Zechariah 1:7. _four carpenters_ Rather, ARTIFICERS, or WORKMEN; (_smiths_, R. V.). The word is used of working in wood, but also in metals and in stone. Isaiah 44:12-13; 2 Samuel 5:11. There is no ground for the idea that these ar... [ Continue Reading ]
_he spake_ i.e. the interpreting angel. _have scattered_ Rather, SCATTERED, R.V. _to fray them_ Either the wild animals bearing the horns, or more probably the nations symbolised by them, are here spoken of as being "frayed," or "panic-stricken." In the following word, "to cast out," the figure of... [ Continue Reading ]