Zechariah 1:9

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. has "communedwith me"), 19, Zechariah 2:3; Zechariah 4:1; Zechariah 4:4-5; Zechariah 5:10; Zechariah 6:4. The phrase has been variously interpreted. Some would render "inme," "in that that angel formed in the spirit and imaginative power of Zechariah phantasms or images of things which were foreshown him, and gave him to understand what those images signified." Others take it to mean "byme," "the prophet being the channel through whom the divine revelations were made." But there is no reason to depart from the rendering of the A. V., which accurately describes the office of the angel as actually discharged by him in explaining the visions, and which is supported by Hebrew usage. Comp. Numbers 12:8, where it is difficult to understand how God should speak "face to face," either "in," or "by," a man.