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ZECHARIAH
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ZECHARIAH , son of Berechiah, son of Iddo (or by contraction, son of Iddo), a See also:prophet of the Old Testament. He appeared in See also:Jerusalem along with See also:Haggai (q.v.), in the second See also:year of See also:Darius Hystaspis (520 B.C.), to warn and encourage the ' A connexion with a divine name (cf. See also:Baal-Zebul) is not improbable; see H. W. See also:Hogg, Ency. Bib., See also:art. " See also:Zebulun." See also:Jews to address themselves at length to the restoration of the See also:Temple.' Supported by the prophets, Zerubbabel and See also:Joshua set about the See also:work, and the elders of See also:Judah built and the work went forward (See also:Ezra v. r seq., vi. 14). The first eight chapters of the See also:book of Zechariah exactly See also:fit into this See also:historical setting. They are divided by precise See also:chronological headings into three sections—(a) See also:chap. i. 1-6, in the eighth See also:month of the second year of Darius; (b) chap. i. 7--vi. 15, on the twenty-See also:fourth See also:day of the See also:eleventh month of the same year; (c) chap. vii.-viii., on the fourth day of the ninth month of the fourth year of Darius. The first See also:section is a See also:preface containing exhortation in See also:general terms. The See also:main section is the second, containing a See also:series of See also:night visions, the significant features of which are pointed out by an See also:angel who stands by the prophet and answers his questions. i. 7-17. The divine chariots and horses that make the See also:round of the See also:world by Yahweh's orders return to the heavenly See also:palace and See also:report that there is still no See also:movement among the nations, no sign of the Messianic crisis. Seventy years have passed, and See also:Zion and the cities of Judah still mourn. Sad See also:news! but Yahweh gives a comfortable assurance of His gracious return to Jerusalem and the rebuilding of His temple. i. 18-21 (Heb. ii. 1-4). Four horns, representing the hostile world-See also:power that oppresses See also:Israel and Jerusalem, are See also:cast down by four smiths. ii. 1-13 (I-Ieb. ii. 5-17). The new Jerusalem is laid out with the measuring See also:line. It is to have no walls, that its See also:population may not be limited, and it needs none, for Yahweh is its See also:protection. The See also:catastrophe of " the See also:land of the See also:north " is near to come; then the exiles of Zion shall stream back from all quarters, the converted See also:heathen shall join them, Yahweh Himself will dwell in the midst of them, and even now He stirs Himself from His See also:holy habitation. iii. I-1o. The high See also:priest Joshua is accused before Yahweh by Satan, but is acquitted and given See also:rule in Yahweh's See also:house and courts, with the right of See also:access to Yahweh in priestly intercession. The restoration of the temple and its service is a See also:pledge of still higher things. The promised " See also:branch " (or " shoot," .yema ), the See also:Messiah, will come; the See also:national See also:kingdom is restored in its old splendour; and a See also:time of general felicity dawns, when every See also:man shall sit happy under his See also:vine and under his fig See also:tree. As by rights the Messianic kingdom should follow immediately on the See also:exile, it is probable that the prophet designs to hint in a guarded way that Zerubbabel, who in all other places is mentioned along with Joshua, is on the point of ascending the See also:throne of his ancestor See also:David. The See also:jewel with seven facets is already there, the inscription only has still to be engraved on it (iii. 9). The charges brought against the high priest consist simply in the obstacles that have hitherto impeded the restoration of the temple and its service; and in like manner the See also:guilt of the land (iii. 9) is simply the still continuing domination of foreigners. iv. 1-14. Beside a lighted See also:golden See also:candlestick of seven branches stand two See also:olive trees—Zerubbabel and Joshua, the two anointed ones—specially watched over by Him whose seven eyes run through the whole See also:earth. This explanation of the See also:vision is separated from the description by an animated See also:dialogue, not quite clear in its expression, in which it is said that the See also:mountain of obstacles shall disappear before Zerubbabel, and that, having begun the See also:building of the temple, he shall also bring it to an end in spite of those who now See also:mock at the day of small beginnings. v. 1-4. A written See also:roll flies over the Holy Land ; this is a See also:concrete See also:representation of the curse which in future will fall of itself on all See also:crime, so that, e.g., no man who has suffered See also:theft will have occasion himself to pronounce a curse against the thief (cf. See also:Judges xvii. 2). v. 5-11. Guilt, personified as a woman, is cast into an ephahmeasure with a heavy lid and carried from Judah to See also:Chaldaea, where it is to have its See also:home for the future. vi. 1-8. The divine teams, four in number, again See also:traverse the world toward the four winds, to execute Yahweh's commands. That which goes northward is charged to wreak His anger on the north See also:country. The series of visions has now reached its See also:close, returning to its starting-point in i. 7 sqq. ' The alleged See also:foundation of the second temple in 536 (Ezra iii. 8-13; cf. iv. 1-5, 24) is open to doubt, because (a) the statements of the compiler of Ezra are not contemporary See also:evidence, (b) the contemporary Haggai and Zechariah seem to imply that this work first began in 52o (See also:Hag. ii. 18; Zech. viii. 9; cf. Ezra v. 2). If, on the ground of Ezra v. 16, we accept the truth of an See also:original foundation in 536 (so See also:Driver, See also:Minor Prophets, p. 148), that event was admittedly formal only and without success, so that the real beginning was made in 520. See also:Wellhausen (Isr. and Jiid. Gesch., 3rd ed., p. 16o) rejects the earlier foundation; on the other See also:hand, he insists, with the See also:majority of scholars and against Kosters, on the actual return of exiles in 537 to See also:form the See also:nucleus of the See also:post-exilic community (loc. cit., p. 157 n.). An appendix follows (vi. 9-15). Jews from See also:Babylon have brought See also:gold and See also:silver to Jerusalem; of these the prophet See also:mast make a See also:crown designed for the " branch " who is to build Yahweh's house and sit See also: Passing from chaps. i.-viii. to chaps. ix. seq., we at once feel ourselves transported into a different world. (I) Yahweh's word is accomplished on See also:Syria-See also:Phoenicia and Philistia; and then the Messianic kingdom begins in Zion, and the Israelites detained among the heathen, Judah and See also:Ephraim combined, receive a part in it. The might of the sons of Javan is broken in See also:battle against this kingdom (ch. ix.). After an inter-mezzo of three verses (x. 1-3: " Ask See also:rain of Yahweh, not of the diviners ") a second and quite analogous Messianic prophecy follows. The See also:foreign tyrants fall; the lordship of See also:Assyria and See also:Egypt has an end; the See also:autonomy and See also:martial power of the nation are restored. The scattered exiles return as citizens of the new See also:theocracy, all obstacles in their way parting asunder as when the waves of the Red See also:Sea gave passage to Israel at the See also:founding of the old theocracy (x. 3-12). Again there is an interlude of three verses (xi. 1-3) : See also:fire seizes the cedars of See also:Lebanon and the oaks of See also:Bashan.' (2) The difficult passage about the shepherds follows. The shepherds (rulers) of the nation make their See also:flock an See also:article of See also:trade and treat the See also:sheep as sheep for the See also:shambles. Therefore the inhabited world shall fall a See also:sacrifice to the tyranny of its See also:kings, while Israel is delivered to a shepherd who feeds the sheep for those who make a trade of the flock (jiffs ';w,;, xi. 7, i1= " they that sell them," ver. 5) and enters on his See also:office with two staves, " Favour " and " See also:Union." He destroys " the three shepherds °' in one month, but is soon weary of his flock and the flock of hint He breaks the See also:staff " Favour," i.e. the See also:covenant of See also:peace with the nations, and asks the traders for his hire. Receiving See also:thirty pieces of silver, he casts it into the temple See also:treasury and breaks the staff " Union," i.e. the brotherhood between Judah and Israel. He is succeeded by a foolish shepherd, who neglects his flock and lets it go to ruin. At length Yahweh intervenes; the foolish shepherd falls by the See also:sword; two-thirds of the See also:people perish with him In the Messianic crisis, but the remnant of one-third forms the See also:seed of the new theocracy (xi. 4-17 taken with xiii. 7-9, according to the necessary transposition proposed by See also:Ewald). All this must be an See also:allegory of past events, the time See also:present to the author and his hopes for the future beginning only at xi. 17, xiii. 7-9. (3) Chap. xii. presents a third variation on the Messianic promise. All heathendom is gathered together against Jerusalem and perishes there. Yahweh first gives victory to the countryfolk of Judah and then they See also:rescue the See also:capital. After this See also:triumph the noblest houses of Jerusalem hold, each by itself, a great lamentation over a See also:martyr " whom they have pierced " (or " whom men have
2 The historical occasion of the emergence of Haggai and Zechariah was supplied by the series of revolts following the See also:succession of Darius in 522 (cf. Driver, op. cit., p. 150). His reconquest of Babylon in 520 may, in particular, have seemed the prelude to the Messianic See also:age (Wellhausen, Gesch.., p. 161 n.).
" The cedars of Lebanon, the oaks of Bashan, the See also:forest of See also:Jordan represent the national might of the heathen kingdoms " (Wellh., See also:Die Kl. Proph., 3rd ed., p. 192).
pierced "). It is taken for granted that the readers will know who the martyr is, and the exegesis of the See also: 1-6 is a continuation of chap. xii. ; the See also:dawn of the day of salvation is accompanied by a general purging away of See also:idolatry and the See also:enthusiasm of false prophets. (4) Yet a fourth variation of the picture of the incoming of the Messianic deliverance is given in chap. xiv. The heathen gather against Jerusalem and take the See also:city, but do not utterly destroy the inhabitants. The Yahweh, at a time known only to Himself, shall appear with all His See also:saints on See also:Mount Olivet and destroy the heathen in battle, while the men of Jerusalem take See also:refuge in their terror in the great cleft, that opens where Yahweh sets His See also:foot. Now the new era begins, and even the heathen do See also:homage to Yahweh by bringing due See also:tribute to the See also:annual feast of See also:tabernacles. All in Jerusalem is holy down to the bells on the horses and the cooking-pots. There is a striking contrast between chaps. i.--viii. and chaps. ix.-xiv. The former prophecy is closely linked to the situation and wants of the community of Jerusalem in the second year of Darius I., and relates to the restoration of the temple and, perhaps, the See also:elevation of Zerubbabel to the throne of David. In chaps. ix.-xiv., however, " there is nothing about the restoration of the temple, or about Joshua and Zerubbabel; but we read of the evil rulers, foreign and native alike, who maltreat their subjects, and enrich themselves at their expense.' There are corresponding See also:differences in See also:style and speech, and it is particularly to be noted that, while the superscriptions in the first part name the author and give the date of each See also:oracle with precision, those in the second part (ix. i., xii. 1) are with-out name or date. That both parts do not belong to the same author is now generally admitted, as is also the fact that chaps. ix.-xiv. are of much later date.' The predictions of these chapters have no affinity either with the prophecy of See also:Amos, See also:Hosea and See also:Isaiah, or with that of See also:Jeremiah. The See also:kind of See also:eschatology which we find in Zech. ix.--xiv. was first introduced by See also:Ezekiel, who in particular is the author of the conception that the time of deliverance is to be preceded by a See also:joint attack of all nations on Jerusalem, in which they come to final overthrow (Ezek. xxxviii. seq.; Isa. lxvi. 18-24; See also:Joel). The importance attached to the temple service, even in Messianic times (Zech. xiv.), implies an author who lived in the ideas of the religious See also:commonwealth of post-exile times. A future king is hoped for; but in the present there is no Davidic king, only a Davidic See also:family See also:standing on the same level with other See also:noble families in Jerusalem (xii. 7, 12). The " See also:bastard " (mixed See also:race) of Ashdod reminds us of Neh. xiii. 23 sqq.; and the words of 1x. 12 (" to-day, also, do I declare that I will render See also:double unto thee ") have no sense unless they refer back to the deliverance from Babylonian exile. But the decisive See also:argument is that in ix. 13 the sons of Javan, i.e. the Greeks, appear as the representatives of the heathen world-power. This part of the prophecy, therefore, is later than See also: By reference to the See also:analysis given above, it will be seen that there are four sections in Zech. ix.-xiv., viz. (r) ix., x. (xi. 1-3); (2) xi. 4-17, xiii. 7-9; (3) xii., xiii. 1-6; (4) xiv., which are more or less See also:independent of each other. Of these (3) and (4) are of marked eschatological See also:character, and show little contact with definite historical events ' Driver, op. cit., p. 229, who also refers to the differences of Messianic outlook, and the substitution of an See also:atmosphere of See also:war for one of peace. ' Earlier critics made the second part the older. Chaps. ix.-xi. were ascribed to a contemporary of Amos and Hosea, about the See also:middle of the 8th See also:century B.C., because Ephraim is mentioned as well as Judah, and Assyria along with Egypt (x. ro), while the neighbours of Israel appear in ix. 1 sq. in the same way as in Amos i.-ii. That chaps. xii.-xiv. also were pre-exilic was held to appear especially in the attack on idolatry and lying prophecy (xiii. 1-6) ; but, as this prophecy speaks only of Judah and Jerusalem, it was dated after the fall of See also:Samaria, and assigned to the last days of the Judaean kingdom on the strength of xii. ii, where an allusion is seen by some to the See also:mourning for King See also:Josiah, slain in battle at Megiddo. ' What follows is summarized from Wellhausen, Die Kleinen Propheten, pp. 190, 192, 195-197.(except xii. 7, which suggests the Maccabean age). On the other hand (I) implies a See also:period when the Jews were governed by the Seleucids, since it is against these that the anger of Yahweh is first directed (ix. 1, 2).4 This section, therefore, belongs to the first third of the and century n.c., when the Jews were first held in the power of the Seleucids.5 The same date may be assigned to (2), where the traffickers in the sheep may be regarded as the Seleucid rulers, and the shepherds as the Jewish high priests and ethnarchs; the prelude to the Maccabean revolt largely consisted of the rapid and violent changes here figured. In particular, the evil shepherd of xi. 15 f. may be See also:Menelaus; whilst the disinterested See also:speaker may be See also:Hyrcanus See also:ben Tobias (cf. xi. 13 and II. See also:Mace. iii. I I ).
See also:Recent See also:criticism (for further details see G. A. See also: Smith (here also following Stade) accepts the earlier part of the Greek period (306-278). With this Driver provisionally agrees, whilst Nowack thinks no more can be said than that (I) belongs to the Greek and (2)-(4) to the post-exilic period in general. On the other hand, Marti assigns the whole to 16o B.C. (Maccabean period; a little later than Wellhausen) and See also:sees a number of references to historical personages of that age. The chief arguments to be urged against this See also:late date are the character of the See also:Hebrew style (Driver, op. cit., p. 233) and the alleged close of the prophetic See also:canon by 200; but perhaps neither of these can be regarded as very convincing. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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