CHAPTER 1
This ties Hosea for the longest book of Minor Prophets: 14
chapters. This is also widely believed
to be a collection of more than one prophet.
There are too many differences in tone/style throughout. Also, the section part (Chapters 9 to 14) comes
a ways after the first eight chapters.
The first part comes from after the Babylonian Captivity, and the second
part is possibly the very last prophet of them all.
When this starts, Zechariah is aware of other prophets. He refers to the previous books. (He’s an heir to their tradition; a man who
has read their books).
For his own contribution, Zechariah has a series of
visions. He’s a latter day, low cost,
knock-off version of Ezekiel. Oh great –
I never cared much for that weird visionary Ezekiel.
His first vision if of horses. They are patrolling the earth for God. I guess God likes horses. I don’t get the meaning (if any) behind it.
CHAPTER 2
We get two more visions here. One is of four horns and four smiths. The number four, again. That was big in the visions in the second
half of Daniel. The next vision is of a
man with a measuring chord (essentially, an ancient version of measuring tape). He is looking to measure Jerusalem.
What does it all mean?
There are some words at the end trying to make sense of it. If I’m reading it right, God is coming to
dwell in their midst. Oh. (Bad news: God isn’t coming to dwell in their
midst. Even if you’re a Christian,
Christ is still quite a few centuries away).
CHAPTER 3
This is a vision of the high priest Joshua. No, not the stone killer who succeeded Moses
as leader. He’s the high priest when
everyone comes back from exile. Well,
that helps date this Biblical prophet.
There is one interesting bit to me: the chapter mentions that
people wear turbans. Huh. The ancient
Jews wore turbans. I know that
ethnically that Jews and Arabs are linked – they are both Semitic peoples – and
little details like this can remind you of that fact. Some parts of the Bible also say that the
Hebrew women wore veils, so there is that parallel as well.
CHAPTER 4
Zechariah’s next vision is of lamps and trees. There are seven lamps with seven sprouts on
each lamp. Sure, why not? An angel asks him if he knows what they
are. He doesn’t. Good – glad I’m not the only one. So the angel explains: they are the seven
eyes of the Lord. (Why seven eyes? Eh, just roll with it). There are two trees and they stand for two
anointed ones? Wait – two anointed
ones? I don’t get that. I wonder how Christianity tries to handle
that one. A single anointed one is great
– that’s Christ. What’s the second? The Holy Ghost?
CHAPTER 5
Zechariah has two more visions. The first is the weirdest one yet. It’s a
flying scroll. Huh. Flying parchment. Even stranger – the scroll is a curse. What’s especially weird about that is the
religion has so far been very pro-literacy, pro-writings. It is, after all, a Holy Book. But now a scroll is a curse.
We get a sixth vision – a basket of wickedness. He takes everyday objects and associates them
with bad things – a scroll as curse, a basket of wickedness. I wonder what he’d do in modern day
life. An easy chair of damnation? A waffle iron of doom?
CHAPTER 6
We get the last vision – as this ends the sequence associated
with the Original Zechariah. He sees
four chariots pulled by four horses, and finds out that God wants these horses
to patrol the earth. Again, Zechariah
has a thing for horses unlike anything previously encountered in the
Bible.
CHAPTER 7
After a series of wild visions dominate the first half of
this Bible book, the second half is very different. The visions are gone. That’s a large part of the reason why many
scholars think that this was written by another prophet and later put
together.
This is just some ethical discussion. In short, people should treat each other
well. The Hebrew will be punished
because they’ve gone back on God’s words. Most notably, they treat each other
poorly – they abuse the orphan, the widow, and the resident alien. That’s a nice call back – while the prophets
are given a lot of attention for advancing the religion from just a tribal
religion based on loyalty to God – there was always a strong ethical component
going back to the Torah’s continual interest with looking after aliens, widows,
and orphans.
CHAPTER 8
This one has a weird sentence. God says, “I am intensely jealous for
Zion.” Why would God be jealous? It’s not really clear. Based on how the chapter goes on, I wonder
if that’s even the right word being used.
God says he’s returned to Jerusalem and will dwell in the city of
Jerusalem. Instead of sounding jealous,
he sounds welcoming.
This chapter is about making things right. Hey, the Jews have had a rough go of it as of
late, but now it’ll be made fine. God
says, “I am going to rescue my people from the land of the rising sun, and the
from the land of the setting sun.”
That’s a nicely expressed sentiment, but its appeal has been lessened by
circumstances beyond the Bible’s control.
The land of the rising sun?
That’s the nickname for Japan!
Now, the ancient Jews had no knowledge of Japan, let alone it’s
nickname, but I get this interesting image of God promising to save Jews from
the Japanese.
In that case, what’s the land of the setting sun? Portugal is the end of continental Europe,
but then again Japan isn’t part of the continent. So how about Ireland? Sure, we’ll call Ireland land of the setting
sun.
CHAPTER 9
This is more happy talk.
The land of Israel will be restored.
The king will enter into Jerusalem. The people will be restored. This prophet must be living around the time
of Ezra, or shortly before. Actually, I
guess he could be later. He doesn’t talk
about restoring a temple after all.
Sounds more like he wants an independent kingdom. If so, that explains why this guy was
collapsed into Zechariah. His statements
could get him in hot water with the authorities, so he was anonymous. And later, his sayings were combined with one
of the last named prophets, Zechariah.
That’s my theory anyway.
CHAPTER 10
It’s time for more happy talk about how the Lord will help
out the Children of Israel. This is a
rather triumphalist prophet, not at all like the weird visionary from the first
six chapters.
CHAPTER 11
The Second Zechariah shifts gears here. Instead of just saying wonderful things about
how God loves the Jews, Zechariah starts denouncing some Jews. In particular, he has a grudge against the rich
who think they have it all because they are rich and powerful. Duly noted – but we’ve read this from others
who made the point better.
CHAPTER 12
It’s back to the happy talk once again, as God says he’ll
destroy Judah’s neighbors. It’s just
more of the same.
CHAPTER 13
God talks about the coming apocalyptic day of the Lord, the
day of his grand reckoning. But don’t
worry – it’ll be all good for the believers in Jerusalem.
There is one interesting tidbit here. The prophet tells us that on that day, all
the false prophets will be done away with.
So clearly, there is discord in prophet-land. That’s nothing new. Odds are, this guy doesn’t get along with the
official priestly/prophet class. That’s
been the case frequently in the Old Testament.
CHAPTER 14
This has an unexpected beginning. The last several chapters have almost all
been about how great God will be to the Jews when the time comes. This chapter, however, begins with the
destruction of Jerusalem. Huh? What’s going on? Well, the downfall is just temporary. It’s just a purification process. It’s something we’ve seen in many prophets,
going all the way back to Isaiah.
Jerusalem will be restored and the Jews will be saved. Their enemies? So screwed; so very, very screwed.
CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
Meh. It’s a weird
book, and I can see why most scholars assume there are multiple prophets
involved. The second half is pretty
generic with nothing that original. The
first guy is distinctive with all of his visions, but that weird visionary type
of prophet doesn’t do much for me.
Meh.
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