Zechariah 1:9
The Interpretation of the First Vision
1:9 Then I asked one nearby, “What are these, sir?” The angelic messenger 1 who replied to me said, “I will show you what these are.”
Zechariah 4:3
4:3 There are also two olive trees beside it, one on the right of the receptacle and the other on the left.” 2
Zechariah 8:16-17
8:16 These are the things you must do: Speak the truth, each of you, to one another. Practice true and righteous judgment in your courts. 3
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 11:8
11:8 Next I eradicated the three shepherds in one month, 4 for I ran out of patience with them and, indeed, they detested me as well.
Zechariah 14:7
14:7 It will happen in one day (a day known to the Lord); not in the day or the night, but in the evening there will be light. 5
Zechariah 14:9
14:9 The Lord will then be king over all the earth. In that day the Lord will be seen as one with a single name. 6
Zechariah 14:13
14:13 On that day there will be great confusion from the Lord among them; they will seize each other and attack one another violently.
1 tn Heb “messenger” or “angel” (מַלְאָךְ, mal’akh). This being appears to serve as an interpreter to the prophet (cf. vv. 13, 14).
2 sn The vision apparently describes two olive trees providing olive oil by pipes to a large basin atop the menorah. From this basin two pipes extend to each of the seven lamps of the menorah, for a total of fourteen pipes in all. See vv. 11-12.
3 sn For a similar reference to true and righteous judgment see Mic 6:8.
4 sn Zechariah is only dramatizing what God had done historically (see the note on the word “cedars” in 11:1). The “one month” probably means just any short period of time in which three kings ruled in succession. Likely candidates are Elah, Zimri, Tibni (1 Kgs 16:8-20); Zechariah, Shallum, Menahem (2 Kgs 15:8-16); or Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, Zedekiah (2 Kgs 24:1–25:7).
5 sn In the evening there will be light. The normal pattern is that light breaks through in the morning (Gen 1:3) but in the day of the Lord in judgment it would do so in the evening. In a sense the universe will be “de-created” in order to be “recreated.”
6 sn The expression the Lord will be seen as one with a single name is an unmistakable reference to the so-called Shema, the crystallized statement of faith in the Lord as the covenant God of Israel (cf. Deut 6:4-5). Zechariah, however, universalizes the extent of the Lord’s dominion – he will be “king over all the earth.”