Reference: Zechariah, Prophecy Of
Morish
Nothing personal is revealed concerning the prophet except that he was the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet. The dates mentioned are the eighth and eleventh months of the second year, and the ninth month of the fourth year of Darius, answering to 519 and 517 B.C., Zec 1:1,7; 7:1. Haggai's prophecy was in the second year of the same Persian king, so the two prophets were contemporary, and, according to Ezr 5:1; 6:14, they both roused and encouraged the Jews to go on with the building of the temple. Zechariah's prophecy is much occupied with the great Gentile kingdoms under which the Jews were placed: there is also much respecting Jerusalem, and it reaches on to the time of the Messiah and His rejection, and to the last days when Israel and Judah shall be blessed in the land.
Zech. 1. The introduction calls upon the people to turn to the Lord: not to be like their fathers who refused to hearken to the warnings, but who when God's punishments had fallen upon them, had been forced to acknowledge the truth of the prophet's words. The point of the chapter is that Jehovah had returned to Jerusalem with mercies, and God's providential ordering of the nations would favour the building of the city. The first vision is in Zec 1:7-17. A man, the angel of Jehovah, on a red horse (the horse is a symbol of the energy of God's providential government in the earth) stands in the shade among the myrtle trees, and there were other horses, red, speckled, and white, as symbols of God's agency in the government of the earth: cf. Zec 6:5. "The powers that be are ordained of God" and were used by Him. If the 'red' horse signifies Persia (having the same colour as the horse of the angel, possibly because Persia was at that time ruling and was favouring God's people), doubtless the 'speckled' and the 'white' point to the two nations that were to succeed
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A curse on their passion for it was bitter; and on their wrath for it was cruel. I will let their heritage in Jacob be broken up, driving them from their places in Israel.
The rod of authority will not be taken from Judah, and he will not be without a law-giver, till he comes who has the right to it, and the peoples will put themselves under his rule.
He came to him in the waste land, in the unpeopled waste of sand: putting his arms round him and caring for him, he kept him as the light of his eye.
Now in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the armed men, a servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem;
However, Josiah would not go back; but keeping to his purpose of fighting against him, and giving no attention to the words of Neco, which came from God, he went forward to the fight in the valley of Megiddo. And the bowmen sent their arrows at King Josiah, and the king said to his servants, Take me away, for I am badly wounded. read more. So his servants took him out of the line of war-carriages, and put him in his second carriage and took him to Jerusalem, where he came to his end, and they put his body in the resting-place of his fathers. And in all Judah and Jerusalem there was great weeping for Josiah. And Jeremiah made a song of grief for Josiah; and to this day Josiah is named by all the makers of melody, men and women, in their songs of grief; they made it a rule in Israel; and the songs are recorded among the songs of grief.
Now the prophets Haggai and Zechariah, the son of Iddo, were preaching to the Jews in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel.
And the responsible men of the Jews went on with their building, and did well, helped by the teaching of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah, the son of Iddo. They went on building till it was complete, in keeping with the word of the God of Israel, and the orders given by Cyrus, and Darius, and Artaxerxes, king of Persia.
And there will come a rod out of the broken tree of Jesse, and a branch out of his roots will give fruit.
For though the waste places of your land have been given to destruction, now you will not be wide enough for your people, and those who made you waste will be far away. The children to whom you gave birth in other lands will say in your ears, The place is not wide enough for me: make room for me to have a resting-place.
And you will be a fair crown in the hand of the Lord, and a king's head-dress in the hand of your God.
Now it came about in the seventh month that Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the king's seed, having with him ten men, came to Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, in Mizpah; and they had a meal together in Mizpah. Then Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, and the ten men who were with him, got up, and attacking Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, with the sword, put to death him whom the king of Babylon had made ruler over the land.
And in the ninth year of his rule, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, came against Jerusalem with all his army and took up his position before it, building earthworks all round it.
In the fourth month, on the ninth day of the month, the store of food in the town was almost gone, so that there was no food for the people of the land.
And I will take you out from the peoples and get you together out of the countries where you are wandering, with a strong hand and with an outstretched arm and with burning wrath let loose: And I will take you into the waste land of the peoples, and there I will take up the cause with you face to face. read more. As I took up the cause with your fathers in the waste land of the land of Egypt, so will I take up the cause with you says the Lord. And I will make you go under the rod and will make you small in number: Clearing out from among you all those who are uncontrolled and who are sinning against me; I will take them out of the land where they are living, but they will not come into the land of Israel: and you will be certain that I am the Lord.
And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, And you, son of man, take one stick, writing on it, For Judah and for the children of Israel who are in his company: then take another stick, writing on it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and all the children of Israel who are in his company: read more. Then, joining them one to another, make them one stick, so that they may be one in your hand. And when the children of your people say to you, Will you not make clear to us what these things have to do with us? Then say to them, This is what the Lord has said: See, I am taking the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel who are in his company; and I will put it on the stick of Judah and make them one stick, and they will be one in my hand. And the sticks with your writing on them will be in your hand before their eyes. And say to them, These are the words of the Lord: See, I am taking the children of Israel from among the nations where they have gone, and will get them together on every side, and take them into their land: And I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and one king will be king over them all: and they will no longer be two nations, and will no longer be parted into two kingdoms: And they will no longer make themselves unclean with their images or with their hated things or with any of their sins: but I will give them salvation from all their turning away in which they have done evil, and will make them clean; and they will be to me a people, and I will be to them a God. And my servant David will be king over them; and they will all have one keeper: and they will be guided by my orders and will keep my rules and do them. And they will be living in the land which I gave to Jacob, my servant, in which your fathers were living; and they will go on living there, they and their children and their children's children, for ever: and David, my servant, will be their ruler for ever. And I will make an agreement of peace with them: it will be an eternal agreement with them: and I will have mercy on them and make their numbers great, and will put my holy place among them for ever. And my House will be over them; and I will be to them a God, and they will be to me a people. And the nations will be certain that I who make Israel holy am the Lord, when my holy place is among them for ever.
Because you saw that a stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that by it the iron and the brass and the earth and the silver and the gold were broken to bits, a great God has given the king knowledge of what is to take place in the future: the dream is fixed, and its sense is certain.
In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet, saying, The Lord has been very angry with your fathers: read more. And you are to say to them, These are the words of the Lord of armies: Come back to me, says the Lord of armies, and I will come back to you. Be not like your fathers, to whom the voice of the earlier prophets came, saying, Be turned now from your evil ways and from your evil doings: but they did not give ear to me or take note, says the Lord. Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they go on living for ever? But my words and my orders, which I gave to my servants the prophets, have they not overtaken your fathers? and turning back they said, As it was the purpose of the Lord of armies to do to us, in reward for our ways and our doings, so has he done. On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, the month Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet, saying,
On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, the month Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet, saying, I saw in the night a man on a red horse, between the mountains in the valley, and at his back were horses, red, black, white, and of mixed colours.
I saw in the night a man on a red horse, between the mountains in the valley, and at his back were horses, red, black, white, and of mixed colours. Then I said, O my lord, what are these? And the angel who was talking to me said to me, I will make clear to you what they are. read more. And the man who was between the mountains, answering me, said, These are those whom the Lord has sent to go up and down through the earth. And the man who was between the mountains, answering, said to the angel of the Lord, We have gone up and down through the earth, and all the earth is quiet and at rest. Then the angel of the Lord, answering, said, O Lord of armies, how long will it be before you have mercy on Jerusalem and on the towns of Judah against which your wrath has been burning for seventy years? And the Lord gave an answer in good and comforting words to the angel who was talking to me. And the angel who was talking to me said to me, Let your voice be loud and say, These are the words of the Lord of armies: I am greatly moved about the fate of Jerusalem and of Zion. And I am very angry with the nations who are living untroubled: for when I was only a little angry, they made the evil worse. So this is what the Lord has said: I have come back to Jerusalem with mercies; my house is to be put up in her, says the Lord of armies, and a line is to be stretched out over Jerusalem. And again let your voice be loud and say, This is what the Lord of armies has said: My towns will again be overflowing with good things, and again the Lord will give comfort to Zion and take Jerusalem for himself. And lifting up my eyes I saw four horns. And I said to the angel who was talking to me, What are these? And he said to me, These are the horns which have sent Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem in flight.
And I said to the angel who was talking to me, What are these? And he said to me, These are the horns which have sent Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem in flight. And the Lord gave me a vision of four metal-workers. read more. Then I said, What have these come to do? And he said, These are the horns which sent Judah in flight, and kept him from lifting up his head: but these men have come to send fear on them and to put down the nations who are lifting up their horns against the land of Judah to send it in flight.
For this is what the Lord of armies has said: In the way of glory he has sent me to the nations which have taken your goods: for anyone touching you is touching what is most dear to him.
Give ear now, O Joshua, the high priest, you and your friends who are seated before you; for these are men who are a sign: for see, I will let my servant the Branch be seen. For see, the stone which I have put before Joshua; on one stone are seven eyes: see, the design cut on it will be my work, says the Lord of armies, and I will take away the sin of that land in one day.
And the angel who was talking to me came again, awaking me as a man out of his sleep. And he said to me, What do you see? And I said, I see a light-support, made all of gold, with its cup on the top of it and seven lights on it; and there are seven pipes to every one of the lights which are on the top of it; read more. And two olive-trees by it, one on the right side of the cup and one on the left.
This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel, saying, Not by force or by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord of armies. Who are you, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel you will become level: and he will let all see the headstone, with cries of Grace, grace, to it.
Who are you, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel you will become level: and he will let all see the headstone, with cries of Grace, grace, to it. Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, read more. The hands of Zerubbabel have put the base of this house in place, and his hands will make it complete; and it will be clear to you that the Lord of armies has sent me to you. For who has had a poor opinion of the day of small things? for they will be glad when they see the weighted measuring-line in the hand of Zerubbabel. Then he said in answer to me, These seven lights are the eyes of the Lord which go quickly up and down through all the earth.
For who has had a poor opinion of the day of small things? for they will be glad when they see the weighted measuring-line in the hand of Zerubbabel. Then he said in answer to me, These seven lights are the eyes of the Lord which go quickly up and down through all the earth. And I made answer and said to him, What are these two olive-trees on the right side of the light-support and on the left? read more. And answering a second time, I said to him, What are these two olive branches, through whose gold pipes the oil is drained out? And he said in answer to me, Have you no knowledge what these are? And I said, No, my lord. And he said, These are the two sons of oil, whose place is by the Lord of all the earth.
Then again lifting up my eyes I saw a roll in flight through the air. And he said to me, What do you see? And I said, A roll going through the air; it is twenty cubits long and ten cubits wide. read more. Then he said to me, This is the curse which goes out over the face of all the land: for long enough has every thief gone without punishment, and long enough has every taker of false oaths gone without punishment. And I will send it out, says the Lord of armies, and it will go into the house of the thief and into the house of him who takes a false oath by my name: and it will be in his house, causing its complete destruction, with its woodwork and its stones. And the angel who was talking to me went out and said to me, Let your eyes be lifted up now, and see the ephah which is going out. And I said, What is it? And he said, This is an ephah which is going out. And he said further, This is their evil-doing in all the land. And I saw a round cover of lead lifted up; and a woman was seated in the middle of the ephah. And he said, This is Sin; and pushing her down into the ephah, he put the weight of lead on the mouth of it. And lifting up my eyes I saw two women coming out, and the wind was in their wings; and they had wings like the wings of a stork: and they took the ephah, lifting it up between earth and heaven. And I said to the angel who was talking to me, Where are they taking the ephah? And he said to me, To make a house for her in the land of Shinar: and they will make a place ready, and put her there in the place which is hers.
And again lifting up my eyes I saw four war-carriages coming out from between the two mountains; and the mountains were mountains of brass. In the first war-carriage were red horses; and in the second, black horses; read more. And in the third, white horses; and in the fourth, horses of mixed colour.
And in the third, white horses; and in the fourth, horses of mixed colour. And I made answer and said to the angel who was talking to me, What are these, my lord? read more. And the angel, answering, said to me, These go out to the four winds of heaven from their place before the Lord of all the earth.
And the angel, answering, said to me, These go out to the four winds of heaven from their place before the Lord of all the earth.
And the angel, answering, said to me, These go out to the four winds of heaven from their place before the Lord of all the earth. The carriage in which are the black horses goes in the direction of the north country; the white go to the west; and those of mixed colour go in the direction of the south country.
The carriage in which are the black horses goes in the direction of the north country; the white go to the west; and those of mixed colour go in the direction of the south country. And the red ones go to the east; and they made request that they might go up and down through the earth: and he said, Go up and down through the earth. So they went up and down through the earth.
And the red ones go to the east; and they made request that they might go up and down through the earth: and he said, Go up and down through the earth. So they went up and down through the earth. Then crying out to me, he said, See, those who are going to the north country have given rest to the spirit of the Lord in the north country.
Then crying out to me, he said, See, those who are going to the north country have given rest to the spirit of the Lord in the north country. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, read more. Take the offerings of those who went away as prisoners, from Heldai, Tobijah, and Jedaiah, and from the family of Josiah, the son of Zephaniah, who have come from Babylon;
Take the offerings of those who went away as prisoners, from Heldai, Tobijah, and Jedaiah, and from the family of Josiah, the son of Zephaniah, who have come from Babylon; And take silver and gold and make a crown and put it on the head of Zerubbabel; read more. And say to him, These are the words of the Lord of armies: See, the man whose name is the Branch, under whom there will be fertile growth.
And say to him, These are the words of the Lord of armies: See, the man whose name is the Branch, under whom there will be fertile growth. And he will be the builder of the Temple of the Lord; and the glory will be his, and he will take his place as ruler on the seat of power; and Joshua will be a priest at his right hand, and between them there will be a design of peace. read more. And the crown will be for grace to Heldai and Tobijah and Jedaiah and the son of Zephaniah, to keep their memory living in the house of the Lord. And those who are far away will come and be builders in the Temple of the Lord, and it will be clear to you that the Lord of armies has sent me to you.
And it came about in the fourth year of King Darius, that the word of the Lord came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, the month Chislev.
Say to all the people of the land and to the priests, When you went without food and gave yourselves to grief in the fifth and the seventh months for these seventy years, did you ever do it because of me?
And it will come about that, as you were a curse among the nations, O children of Judah and children of Israel, so I will give you salvation and you will be a blessing: have no fear and let your hands be strong.
And Tyre made for herself a strong place, and got together silver like dust and the best gold like the earth of the streets. See, the Lord will take away her heritage, overturning her power in the sea; and she will be burned up with fire. read more. Ashkelon will see it with fear, and Gaza, bent with pain; and Ekron, for her hope will be shamed: and the king will be cut off from Gaza, and Ashkelon will be unpeopled. And a mixed people will be living in Ashdod, and I will have the pride of the Philistines cut off. And I will take away his blood from his mouth, and his disgusting things from between his teeth; and some of his people will be kept for our God: and he will be as a family in Judah, and Ekron as one living in Jerusalem. And I will put my forces in position round my house, so that there may be no coming and going: and no cruel master will again go through them: for now I have seen his trouble.
And I took my rod Beautiful, cutting it in two, so that the Lord's agreement, which he had made with all the peoples, might be broken.
And the Lord said to me, Take again the instruments of a foolish keeper of sheep. For see, I will put a sheep-keeper over the land, who will have no care for that which is cut off, and will not go in search of the wanderers, or make well what is broken, and he will not give food to that which is ill, but he will take for his food the flesh of the fat, and let their feet be broken. read more. A curse on the foolish keeper who goes away from the flock! the sword will be on his arm and on his right eye: his arm will become quite dry and his eye will be made completely dark.
In that day there will be a great weeping in Jerusalem, like the weeping of Hadad-rimmon in the valley of Megiddon.
In that day there will be a fountain open to the family of David and to the people of Jerusalem, for sin and for that which is unclean. And it will come about on that day, says the Lord of armies, that I will have the names of the images cut off out of the land, and there will be no more memory of them: and I will send all the prophets and the unclean spirit away from the land. read more. And if anyone goes on acting as a prophet, then his father and his mother who gave him life will say to him, You may not go on living, for you are saying what is false in the name of the Lord; and his father and his mother will put a sword through him when he does so. And it will come about in that day that the prophets will be shamed, every man on account of his vision, when he is talking as a prophet; and they will not put on a robe of hair for purposes of deceit: But he will say, I am no prophet, but a worker on the land; for I have been an owner of land from the time when I was young. And if anyone says to him, What are these wounds between your hands? then he will say, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends. Awake! O sword, against the keeper of my flock, and against him who is with me, says the Lord of armies: put to death the keeper of the sheep, and the sheep will go in flight: and my hand will be turned against the little ones. And it will come about that in all the land, says the Lord, two parts of it will be cut off and come to an end; but the third will be still living there. And I will make the third part go through the fire, cleaning them as silver is made clean, and testing them as gold is tested: and they will make their prayer to me and I will give them an answer: I will say, It is my people; and they will say, The Lord is my God.
And the valley will be stopped ... and you will go in flight as you went in flight from the earth-shock in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah: and the Lord my God will come, and all his holy ones with him. And in that day there will be no heat or cold or ice;
Then the Pharisees went and had a meeting to see how they might make use of his words to take him. And they sent to him their disciples, with the Herodians, saying, Master, we see that you are true, and that you are teaching the true way of God, and have no fear of anyone, because you have no respect for a man's position. read more. Give us, then, your opinion of this: Is it right to give tax to Caesar, or not? But Jesus saw their trick and said, Oh false ones, why are you attempting to put me in the wrong? Let me see the tax money. And they gave him a penny. And he said to them, Whose is this image and name on it? They say to him, Caesar's. Then he said to them, Give to Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and to God the things which are God's. And hearing it, they were full of wonder, and went away from him. On the same day there came to him the Sadducees, who say that there is no coming back from the dead: and they put a question to him, saying, Master, Moses said, If a man, at the time of his death, has no children, let his brother take his wife, and get a family for his brother; Now there were among us seven brothers; and the first was married and at his death, having no seed, gave his wife to his brother; In the same way the second and the third, up to the seventh. And last of all the woman came to her end. When they come back from the dead, then, whose wife will she be of the seven? because they all had her. But Jesus said to them in answer, You are in error, not having knowledge of the Writings, or of the power of God. For when they come back from the dead there are no husbands and wives, but they are as the angels in heaven. But about the dead coming back to life, have you no knowledge of what was said to you by God in the Writings: I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead but of the living. And the people hearing it were surprised at his teaching. But the Pharisees, hearing how the mouths of the Sadducees had been stopped, came together; And one of them, a teacher of the law, put a question to him, testing him, and saying, Master, which is the chief rule in the law? And he said to him, Have love for the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest rule. And a second like it is this, Have love for your neighbour as for yourself. On these two rules all the law and the prophets are based. Now while the Pharisees were together, Jesus put a question to them, saying, What is your opinion of the Christ? whose son is he? They say to him, The Son of David. He says to them, How then does David in the Spirit give him the name of Lord, saying, The Lord said to my Lord, Be seated at my right hand, till I put under your feet all those who are against you? If David then gives him the name of Lord, how is he his son? And no one was able to give him an answer, and so great was their fear of him, that from that day no one put any more questions to him.
Then said Jesus to them, All of you will be turned away from me this night: for it is said in the Writings, I will put to death the keeper of the sheep, and the sheep of the flock will be put to flight.
I have come in my Father's name, and your hearts are not open to me. If another comes with no other authority but himself, you will give him your approval.
Now there were some Greeks among the people who had come up to give worship at the feast: They came to Philip, who was of Beth-saida in Galilee, and made a request, saying, Sir, we have a desire to see Jesus. read more. Philip went and gave word of it to Andrew; and Andrew went with Philip to Jesus. And Jesus said to them in answer, The hour of the glory of the Son of man has come. Truly I say to you, If a seed of grain does not go into the earth and come to an end, it is still a seed and no more; but through its death it gives much fruit.
And I saw in the middle of the high seat and of the four beasts, and in the middle of the rulers, a Lamb in his place, which seemed as if it had been put to death, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God, sent out into all the earth.
These are the two olive-trees and the two lights, which are before the Lord of the earth.
And another voice from heaven came to my ears, saying, Come out of her, my people, so that you may have no part in her sins and in her punishments. For her sins have gone up even to heaven, and God has taken note of her evil-doing.