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Zec_1:7 to Zec_6:15
VISION I. THE MAN AMONG THE MYRTLES
Zec_1:7-17
7On the four and twentieth day of the eleventh month which is the month Sebat, in the second year of Darius, came the word of Jehovah to Zechariah, the son of 8 Iddo the prophet, saying: I saw that night, and behold a man riding upon a red horse, and he stood among the myrtles that were in the valley, and behind him were red, bay and white horses. 9 And I said, what are these, my lord? And the angel that talked with me said to me, I will show thee what they are. 10And the man who stood among the myrtles answered, and said, These are they whom Jehovah has sent to walk through the earth. 11And they answered the angel of Jehovah who stood among the myrtles, and said, We have gone through the earth, and behold, all the earth sits still and is at rest. 12Then the angel of the Lord answered and said, Jehovah of Hosts! how long wilt thou not pity Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, against which thou hast been angry these seventy years? 13 And Jehovah answered the angel that talked with me, good words, comforting words. 14 And the angel that talked with me, said to me, Cry, saying:
Thus saith Jehovah of Hosts,
I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with great jealousy,
15 And I burn with great anger against the nations at ease.
For I was angry for a little, but they helped forward the affliction.
16 Therefore thus saith Jehovah,
I have returned to Jerusalem in mercy,
My house shall be built in her, saith Jehovah of Hosts,
And a measuring line shall be stretched over Jerusalem.
17 Cry also, saying, Thus saith Jehovah of Hosts,
My cities shall yet overflow with prosperity,
And Jehovah shall yet comfort Zion,
And shall yet choose Jerusalem.
Zec_1:8. I saw that night. The disclosure was made to the Prophet, not in a dream (Ewald, Hitzig), but in a vision. His senses were not locked in sleep, but like Peter at Joppa (Act_10:10; Act_11:4) he was ἐí ἐêóôÜóåé . This trance-like condition, according to Zec_4:1, bears the same relation to ordinary human consciousness which that docs to the condition of sleep. A man’s usual state when under the control of the senses and able to see only what his own faculties discover, is one of spiritual sleep; but an ecstatic condition, in which the senses and the entire lower life are quiescent, and only pictures of divine objects are reflected in the soul as in a pure and bright mirror, is one of spiritual waking. The Prophet received his visions at night, because then his susceptibility for divine communications was most lively, in consequence of the stillness, the suspension of worldly cares and the freedom from outward impressions. In the space of one night the whole series of stately symbolic scenes passed before his spiritual eye, for the title in Zec_1:7 extends to the end of chap. 6 after which a new title first occurs, and besides, the narrative itself shows (Zec_2:1; Zec_4:1, etc.) that as soon as one vision ended another began. Behold, a man riding upon a red horse, etc. A man, i. e., one in the shape or appearance of a man, for manifestly an angel and not a human being is intended. He is seated upon a red horse, the meaning of which is seen in the fact that red is the color of blood. In Rev_6:4, it is a rider on a red horse who receives a great sword and has power to take peace from the earth and cause men to kill one another. The color of the horse then is a symbol of the purpose of its rider, namely, wrath and bloodshed. He stood among the myrtles that were in îְòֻìָּä . The meaning of this word is much contested. The Vulgate gives it in profundo, which supposes that the text is only another form of îְöåּìָä , which ordinarily means the depths of the sea. Hengstenberg and Baumgarten adopt this, and explain it as a symbolical designation of the abyss-like power of the world, in which the Church stands like a feeble, lowly shrub. Others (Gesenius, Henderson), following the LXX., derive the word from öָìַì , in the sense of shade (so Dr. Van Dyck in the New Arabic Version), but in this case we should expect a different middle vowel, and besides, as Pressel says, it would be a pleonasm to speak of trees in a shady place. Others (Hitzig, Fürst, Bunsen), following an Arabic analogy, render it tent, by which they suppose heaven is intended, but this is extremely artificial. There seems no reason to depart from the Vulgate and Targum, or to make it other than=deep place, i. e., a low valley or bottom. It will then stand in vivid contrast with the corresponding point in the eighth vision, which is the complement of the first. There, the chariots start from between two mountains of brass=the theocracy under the mighty protection of Jehovah; here, the horsemen issue from amid myrtles in an open bottom=the Church in a condition of feebleness and exposure. Behind the first rider are other horses of different colors. They have riders (see Zec_1:11), but this fact is allowed to be understood, because the emphasis is laid upon the color of the horses. They are like their leader red (explained above), or bay, or white. The last like the first is easily understood from Scripture usage—white being the reflection of heavenly glory (Mat_17:2), and therefore the symbol of victory (Rev_6:2), But the second epithet is difficult ùָׂøֹ÷ is rendered by the LXX.: øáñïὶ êáὶ ðïéêßëïé , Vulg., varii, Peshito versicolores, after whom Maurer, Umbreit, Keil, etc., render it as in text of A. V., speckled. But Gesenius and Fürst derive it from an Arabic root, signifying dark red, and Hengstenberg renders this brown, but Köhler bay or flame-colored. The latter gives the better sense. The colors do not signify the three kingdoms against whom the riders were sent (Cyril, Jerome, et al.), for all appear to go in company, nor the quarters of the heavens (Maurer, Hitzig, et al.), for the fourth quarter is wanting; but the nature of the mission which they had to perform, namely, to take an active part in the agitation of the nations, those upon red horses by war and bloodshed, those upon bay horses by burning and destroying, and those upon white horses by victory over the world.
Zec_1:9. The Prophet asks. What are these, i. e., what do they signify? The question is addressed to one whom he calls my lord, but who is this? Manifestly, the one who gives the answer, the angelus interpres. It is no objection to this that he has not been mentioned before, for in prophecies, and especially in visions, from their dramatic character, persons are frequently introduced in such a way that only from what they say or do, can we learn who they are. This angelus interpres, or collocutor, had for his sole function to open the spiritual eyes and ears of the Prophet and cause him to understand the meaning of the visions. The preposition in the phrase äֵãֹּáֵø áé is not to be understood, with Ewald, Keil, etc., as denoting the internal, character of the communications made, for this would not distinguish him from the other angels of the vision, but the phrase is simply an official designation of the angel’s character.
Zec_1:10. And the man who stood among, etc. The rider on the red horse states the object of the horsemen’s mission. He is said to have answered, because, although not referring to any definite question, his words were a reply to the Prophet’s desire for an explanation.
Zec_1:11. The riders themselves state the result of their mission. This is called an answer to the Angel of the Lord, because it replies to a question implied in the circumstances. It is given to the Angel of the Lord. But is this a created or an uncreated angel? The latter view is maintained by McCaul, Lange, Hengstenberg, Philippi, and Kahnis, the former by Hoffman, Delitzsch, Kurtz, Köhler, Pressel. That the angel of Jehovah is distinguished from the other angels, and in many places identified with Jehovah, is undeniable (Gen_16:7-10; Gen_31:11-13; Gen_32:25-31 comp. with Hos_12:4; Exo_3:2-4; Jdg_6:11-22; Zec_3:1-2). On the other hand, there are passages, where he seems to be discriminated from Jehovah (Exo_23:20-22; Exo_32:34). The simplest way of reconciling these two classes is to adopt the old view that this angel is the Second person of the Godhead, even at that early period appearing as the revealer of the Father. The mingled clearness and obscurity of the representation is quite analogous to the same features in the delineation of the Messiah in Psalms 2, 45, 72, 110, and in various prophecies before and after David’s time. In this vision he appears first as a man upon a red horse, then as the leader of the troop standing behind him, and when these have made their report, as the angel of Jehovah who presents the prayer of the pious before God. The answer which he receives from the troop is that all the earth sits still and is at rest,—a phrase upon which Wordsworth comments as denoting proud and licentious ease, because, as he says, the word for “at rest” is shaanân. This is a strange mistake, for it is another word, ùֹׁñָèֶú , which rarely, if ever, has any moral significance, and means merely quiet, peaceful security, without reference to the way in which that state has been attained or is employed. Here the sense is that the nations at large were dwelling in a calm, serene repose, undisturbed by any foe. The reference seems to be to Haggai 2, where the Lord promised that in a little while He would shake the heavens and the earth and all nations, and in consequence his house would be filled with glory. The riders now report that having gone through the earth they find it not at all shaken but quiet and serene. This statement, furnishing such a vivid contrast to the prostrate and suffering condition of the people of God, gave occasion to the intercession recounted in the next verse.
Zec_1:12. How long wilt thou not pity Jerusalem, etc.? The language is that of intercessory expostulation. The reference to these seventy years does not imply that that period predicted by Jeremiah (Jer_25:12) was just drawing to a close, for it had already expired in the first year of Cyrus (Ezr_1:1). But although the people had been restored, they were still in a sad state,—the capital for the most part in ruins, its walls broken down, its gates burnt (Neh_1:3), the population small, the greater part of the land still a waste, and the rebuilding of the Temple embarrassed with difficulties. It might well seem as if the troubles of the exile would never end, and the more so, since there was no sign of that violent agitation of the heathen world which was to be the precursor of Israel’s exaltation. The intercession was effectual.
Zec_1:13. And Jehovah answered, etc. Here the answer is given to another person than the questioner. The best explanation is that of Hengstenberg, that “the angel of the Lord had asked the question not for his own sake, but simply in order that consolation and hope might be communicated through the angelus interpres to the Prophet, and through him to the nation at large.” Good words are words that promise good. Cf Jos_23:14 (Heb.); Jer_29:10. The contents of these good and comforting words follow in Zec_1:14-17, the first two of which assert Jehovah’s active affection for his people, and the latter two, his purpose to manifest that love in the restoration and enlargement of Jerusalem.
Zec_1:14. I am jealous, etc. ÷ִéֵּà , lit., to burn, to glow, indicates a vehement emotion which may have its motive in jealousy (Num_5:14), or in envy (Gen_26:14), or in hatred (Gen_37:11), or in love (Num_25:11). The last expresses its force here, which is greatly strengthened by the addition of the cognate noun. Jehovah is inspired with a burning zeal for Jerusalem and for Zion, the holy hill which He has chosen for his habitation. He had already displayed this in part, and would soon develop it to the full.
Zec_1:15. Toward the heathen, on the contrary, Jehovah burned with great anger. This was partly because they were “at ease,” i. e., not merely tranquil, but in a state of carnal security, proudly confident in their power and prosperity, but mainly because, while He had been angry for a little, i. e., time (cf. Job_10:20), they, on the contrary, had helped forward the affliction, lit., had helped for evil, i. e., so that evil was the result. The Lord contemplated a moderate, limited chastisement in love, with a view to the purification and restoration of his people. The heathen, on the contrary, rioted in the sufferings of helpless Israel, and would willingly prolong them.
Zec_1:16. I have returned … Jerusalem. The emphatic therefore indicates the consequence of God’s love for Jerusalem. He has actually returned with purposes of mercy, and these shall be fully executed. All hindrances shall be removed, the Temple completed, and instead of scattered houses here and there, the whole city shall pass under the surveyor’s measuring line. But the blessing is not to be confined to the capital, as appears from what follows.
Zec_1:17. Cry also, i. e., in addition to the foregoing. The other cities of Judah shall overflow with prosperity, lit., be scattered, yet not by an invading foe, but by the inward pressure of abundant growth requiring them to diffuse themselves over a larger surface (cf. Zec_2:4, Zec_8:4, Zec_9:17, Zec_10:7). This overflow of blessing will assure the covenant people that Jehovah is still comforting Zion, and has by no means renounced the purpose in pursuance of which he had originally choseh Jerusalem. The same cheering reference to God’s electing love is found in Zec_2:12; Zec_3:2.
The object of this first vision was to satisfy the dispirited colony that although there was no present appearance of an approaching fulfillment of promised blessings, yet these blessings were sure. Jehovah had appointed the instruments of his righteous judgments, and by these would accomplish his purposes upon the ungodly nations, and thus secure the salvation of Zion. The fulfillment then is easily pointed out. The completion of the Temple, the restoration of the city under Ezra and Nehemiah, the increase of the population, all declared Jehovah’s fidelity to his engagements. But this was only the beginning. Zechariah, like his predecessors in office, looks down the whole vista of the future, and utters germinant predictions, as Bacon calls them, which do not exhaust themselves in any one period, but wrap up in pregnant sentences long cycles of historical development. The first vision presents the general theme of the whole series, each of which stands closely related to the others, so that there is an evident advance from the beginning to the end, as will appear in the course of the exposition.
“They for us fight, they watch and duly ward,
And their bright squadrons round about us plant,
And all for love and nothing for reward;
Oh! why should heavenly God to man have such regard?”
2. The extraordinary position assigned to the angel of Jehovah in this vision and also in the one recorded in the third chapter, continues and completes the long chain of ancient testimonies beginning in Genesis, to the existence of self-distinctions in the Godhead. (See the summary of the argument in Lange’s Genesis, p. 386, or Keil On Pant., i. 184, and Hengstenberg’s Christology, i. 107 ff., iv. 285.) The view that this exalted personage was only a created angel through whom God issues and executes his commands, and who speaks and acts in God’s name, was favored by Origen, defended by Augustine, adopted by Jerome and, Gregory the Great, and has been maintained in our own day by some eminent critics; but it cannot displace what has been the almost universal doctrine of the early Church and of the great body of believers in all ages, namely, that this angel was the Old Testament form of the Logos of John, a being connected with the supreme God by unity of nature, but personally distinct from Him. The most frequent and plausible objection to the old view affirms that it unreasonably transfers the revelations of the later dispensation to the older, and introduces notions entirely foreign to Hebrew habits of thought. But the contrary is the case. The Old Testament records one stage in the progressive development of religious truth, and the New Testament another, and both correspond in the most striking manner to each other. Indeed, they present what is not found, is not claimed in any other book in the world,—a complete system of typical and antitypical institutions, events, and persons. This feature has been sometimes pressed to an extravagant extent, and applied where it has no real bearing. But its general correctness is admitted by all sober interpreters. This being so, if the triunity of the divine nature is plainly set forth in the New Testament, especially if the great revealer of the Father (Joh_1:18) is emphasized by evangelists and apostles, is it not to be expected that a foreshadowing of so important a truth will be found in the elder Scriptures? Guided by such an analogy, it was neither uncritical nor rash for the Church to conclude that the being called the Angel of Jehovah, the Angel of his Presence, the Angel of the Covenant, in whom Jehovah puts his name, who is identified with Jehovah, who performs the peculiar works of Jehovah, and yet is in some sense distinct from Him, is the same divine person who is represented in the New Testament as the brightness of the Father’s glory and the express type of his essence, the image of the invisible God; in whose face the glory of God shines, and in whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
3. The intercession ascribed to our Lord in the Christian Scriptures was not only typified by a remarkable function of the high-priest on the great day of atonement, but was actually performed by the second person of the Godhead long before his incarnation. He was “the lamb slain before the foundation of the world,” and the merits of his priceless explation could as well be availed of antecedently as subsequently, and they were. In all the affliction of his people, he was afflicted, and his potential voice was habitually uttered for their relief. The returned exiles, who were laying again the groundwork of Judah’s prosperity, were discouraged, not only by their scanty numbers and impoverished resources, but by the consciousness of their own and their fathers’ sins. What claim had such as they upon the Holy One of Israel? The prophet draws aside the veil and discloses an Intercessor who had nothing to hinder Him from immediate access to the Most High, and the surest prospect of success. How long, O Lord, was the anxious refrain of many a distressed believer in former years; and ages afterward John heard the same importunate cry from the souls under the altar (Rev_6:10). Many a time since, solitary sufferers, unable to penetrate the dark mysteries of Providence, waiting and watching for relief from sore burdens, have had the same exclamation wrung from their lips. What with them is a burst of impatience or the utterance of exhausted nature, on the lips of the uncreated angel is the calm reminder of Jahovah’s gracious promise and eternal purpose. And his intercession being always “according to the will of God,” is therefore always successful. “Good words, comforting words,” soothe and cheer the tried believer, until those words are translated into deeds, and the weary length of the night is forgotten in the brightness of the dawn.
4. Forbearance is not forgiveness. To the outward observer in Zechariah’s day it looked as if prosperity was all on the side of the heathen world. Quiet reigned in all quarters, and divine justice seemed asleep. But it was only the calm before the storm. God is eternal, and therefore never in haste, and never slack as men count slackness. He can afford to wait. Kings and rulers take counsel together against Him and his Anointed; with malice and rage they help forward the affliction of Zion; but He that sitteth in the heavens laughs (Psa_2:4). “Who thought,” said Luther, “when Christ suffered and the Jews triumphed, that God was laughing all the time?” Since He knows that his enemies cannot escape He suffers them to proceed long with impunity. Often He uses them as instruments to chastise his own people, but when the chastisement has been inflicted, He breaks the rod and casts it into the fire. The quiet of the old Persian world was soon broken by a succession of strokes which scattered and destroyed all the persecutors of the Church. But Zion lived and grew and extended, until she became the most potent factor in all human society; and to-day is lengthening her cords and strengthening her stakes to fill the whole earth.
Moore: The hour of darkest desolation to the Church, and of haughtiest triumph to her enemies, is often the very hour when God begins his work of judgment on the one, and returning mercy on the other.
Calvin: When the servant of Elisha saw not the chariots in the air, he became almost lost in despair; but his despair was instantly removed when he saw so many angels ready at hand for help (2Ki_6:17); so whenever God declares that angels are ministers for our safety, He means to animate our faith. At the same time He does not send us to angels, but this one thing is enough, that when God is propitious all the angels have a care for our salvation.
Footnotes:
Zec_1:7.— ùְׁáָè , the month which extended from the new moon of February to the next new moon. The name is Chaldee, but of uncertain etymology.
Zec_1:8.— äַìּéְìָä is not accusative of duration=by night, for which there is no other example, but the or that night, namely, that of the day mentioned in the preceding verse.
Zec_1:8.—The myrtles. Ewald, following the LXX., supposes the true reading of äֲãַñִּéí to be äֶäָéִéí , as in Zec_6:1, and renders mountains; but there is no reason for departing from the Masoretic text, and the relation of the last vision to the first is one not of resemblance but contrast.
Zec_1:9.— áּé has been translated in me, to me, through me, and with me. The last is more accordant with usage (Num_12:8) and the connection.
Zec_1:10.—Henderson says that òָðָä signifies to commence or proceed to speak, as well as to answer, and cites ἀðïêñßíïìáé in the New Testament as used in the same way. But his remark is true neither of the one nor the other. The reference always is to a question preceding, either expressed or implied, or to the resumption of discourse by the same speaker after an interval, as Isa_21:9. Of. Vitringa’s remark quoted under Zec_3:4, infra.
Zec_1:11.—Sits still is a far better rendering of éùֶׁáֶú than the bald and prosaic derived sense adopted by the LXX. and the Vulgate, êáôïéêåῖôáé , habitatur.
Zec_1:12.— æֶä ùִׁáּòִéí ùָׁáָä might be rendered now seventy years (cf. Zec_7:3). A similar combination of noun and pronoun in the singular with numeral adjective in the plural, is not rare. See Deu_8:2-4; Jos_14:10; Est_4:11. Nordheimer (§ 890) explains it as referring to the abstract idea of time; but it seems to me to be due rather to the conception of the various years as a single period or cycle, which like a collective noun would of course admit of a singular pronoun.
Zec_1:13.— áִçֻîִּéí . The Keri omits the dagesh in î , but some codd. in Kennicott have the form áִçåּîִéí , which grammatically is the more correct. It is not an adjective, but a noun in apposition.
Zec_1:14.—This verse and the one before it exemplify one of the infelicities of the E. V., which renders the same original word, in Zec_1:13 talked, and in Zec_1:14 communed.
Zec_1:14.— ÷ִëּàֵúִé . The pret. means not merely, “I have become jealous,” but “I have been and am.” God’s jealousy had already begun to manifest itself.
Zec_1:15.—Fürst, sub voce, with great plausibility, renders òָæְøåּ intransitively, “they exerted their power” with a view to destruction.
Zec_1:16.— øַçֲîִéí occurs only in the plural. To translate it so, therefore, as in A. V., while apparently more literal, is in reality less so.
Zec_1:16.—The Kethib ÷åä , to be read ÷ָéֶä , is an old form, found elsewhere only in 1Ki_7:23 and Jer_31:39, for which was substituted the contracted form ÷ַå .
Zec_1:17.— òåֹã , also here seems to express the sense better than the customary yet. The Prophet was to cry something more besides what he was told in Zec_1:14.
Zec_1:17.— çְôåּöֶáָּä is simply a variant orthography of úְôåּöֶéðֶä (Green H. G., § 158, 3).