Zechariah
Night visions for a rebuilding city, and a king who arrives on a donkey.
Who wrote it: Zechariah son of Berechiah, a priest-prophet who began in late 520 BC alongside Haggai. Chapters 1 to 8 are dated; chapters 9 to 14 are not, and many scholars think they're later, possibly by others.
What it is
Two months after Haggai started, Zechariah joined him with the same goal, the temple, and a very different method. Chapters 1 to 6 are eight visions in one night: horsemen patrolling the earth, four horns and four craftsmen, a man measuring Jerusalem for walls it won't need because the LORD will be a wall of fire around it, the high priest Joshua in filthy clothes with Satan accusing him and the LORD saying 'take them off him', a golden lampstand fed by two olive trees, a flying scroll, a woman in a basket carried off to Babylon, four chariots. Each vision says a version of the same thing: God is back in Jerusalem, the opposition is small, the leaders are chosen, and the work will be finished 'not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit'.
What Zechariah is hopeful about, and impatient with, is in chapter 4: who despises the day of small things? The rebuild looks like nothing. He says God is glad about it. Chapters 7 and 8 answer a question about whether to keep fasting for the old temple: God says he never wanted the fasts, he wanted true judgment, kindness, no oppression of widows, orphans, foreigners or the poor, and he promises a city where old people sit in the streets and children play in them, and the fasts turn into feasts.
Chapters 9 to 14 change register. A king comes to Zion, righteous and saved, humble, riding a donkey (Matthew and John quote it for Palm Sunday). A shepherd is paid thirty pieces of silver and the money is thrown to the potter. Jerusalem's people look on 'me whom they have pierced' and mourn as for an only son. A fountain is opened for sin. The shepherd is struck and the sheep scatter. The last chapter is the day of the LORD: the Mount of Olives split, living water flowing from Jerusalem, and the LORD king over the whole earth, his name the only name. In the passion story the gospels quote Zechariah more than any prophet except Isaiah.
It's a difficult book, and nobody should feel bad about finding chapters 9 to 14 hard. Read them for the images, and notice how many of them the gospel writers reached for when they tried to describe what happened to Jesus.
Verses worth keeping
Then he answered and spoke to me, saying, “This is the LORD’s word to Zerubbabel, saying, ‘Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD of Armies.
Gen Zsame meaning, your wordsThen he answered me: 'This is the LORD's word to Zerubbabel: not by strength, and not by force, but by my Spirit,' says the LORD of Armies.
Said about a building project with no money and no army. The verse has been applied to everything since, and the original context is the most convincing case for it.
Indeed, who despises the day of small things? For these seven shall rejoice, and shall see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel. These are the LORD’s eyes, which run back and forth through the whole earth.”
Gen Zsame meaning, your wordsWho looks down on the day of small beginnings? These seven will be glad when they see the plumb line in Zerubbabel's hand. They're the LORD's eyes, ranging back and forth across the whole earth.
A plumb line is a builder's string with a weight. God's eyes, which see the whole earth, are watching a man check a wall. Small things count.
9“Thus has the LORD of Armies spoken, saying, ‘Execute true judgment, and show kindness and compassion every man to his brother. 10Don’t oppress the widow, the fatherless, the foreigner, nor the poor; and let none of you devise evil against his brother in your heart.’
Gen Zsame meaning, your wordsThe LORD of Armies said this: 'Judge truly, and show kindness and compassion to each other. Don't oppress the widow, the orphan, the foreigner or the poor, and don't let any of you plan harm against your brother in your heart.'
The answer to 'should we keep fasting?' It's the same list Amos, Isaiah and Micah gave. The prophets never changed the list.
Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion! Shout, daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King comes to you! He is righteous, and having salvation; lowly, and riding on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
Gen Zsame meaning, your wordsCelebrate, daughter of Zion! Shout, daughter of Jerusalem! Look, your King is coming to you. He's righteous and victorious, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, a donkey's foal.
Kings rode horses to war and donkeys in peace. When Jesus chose a donkey for Jerusalem, this verse was the reason, and the crowd knew it.
Therefore tell them, the LORD of Armies says: ‘Return to me,’ says the LORD of Armies, ‘and I will return to you,’ says the LORD of Armies.
Gen Zsame meaning, your wordsSo tell them, this is what the LORD of Armies says: 'Come back to me,' says the LORD of Armies, 'and I'll come back to you,' says the LORD of Armies.
The book's opening offer, before any visions. Malachi ends the Old Testament with the same sentence.
Read Zechariah
The full text, every chapter, from the World English Bible, a modern public-domain translation. Pick a chapter below. The highlighted verses are the place to start if you have never read it.
Zechariah 4
1The angel who talked with me came again and wakened me, as a man who is wakened out of his sleep. 2He said to me, “What do you see?” I said, “I have seen, and behold, a lamp stand all of gold, with its bowl on the top of it, and its seven lamps on it; there are seven pipes to each of the lamps which are on the top of it;
3and two olive trees by it, one on the right side of the bowl, and the other on the left side of it.”
4I answered and spoke to the angel who talked with me, saying, “What are these, my lord?”
5Then the angel who talked with me answered me, “Don’t you know what these are?” I said, “No, my lord.”
6Then he answered and spoke to me, saying, “This is the LORD’s word to Zerubbabel, saying, ‘Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD of Armies. 7Who are you, great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you are a plain; and he will bring out the capstone with shouts of ‘Grace, grace, to it!’”
8Moreover the LORD’s word came to me, saying, 9“The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house. His hands shall also finish it; and you will know that the LORD of Armies has sent me to you. 10Indeed, who despises the day of small things? For these seven shall rejoice, and shall see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel. These are the LORD’s eyes, which run back and forth through the whole earth.”
11Then I asked him, “What are these two olive trees on the right side of the lamp stand and on the left side of it?”
12I asked him the second time, “What are these two olive branches, which are beside the two golden spouts that pour the golden oil out of themselves?”
13He answered me, “Don’t you know what these are?” I said, “No, my lord.”
14Then he said, “These are the two anointed ones who stand by the Lord of the whole earth.”
Questions about Zechariah
Why is Satan in Zechariah 3?
The high priest Joshua stands in filthy clothes with 'the satan', the accuser, at his right hand to accuse him. The LORD rebukes the accuser, calls Joshua a burning stick pulled from the fire, and has the filthy clothes replaced with clean ones. It's one of only three Old Testament scenes with this figure (Job and 1 Chronicles 21 are the others). The point of the vision is that the accusations may be true and God is still the one who decides, and he chooses to clean Joshua up.
Did one person write Zechariah?
Chapters 1 to 8 are dated, name Zechariah, and fit the temple rebuild of 520 to 518 BC. Chapters 9 to 14 have no dates, don't mention him, use different style, and seem to know later events (Greece appears in 9:13). Many scholars think they were added by later prophets in his tradition; the traditional view holds it's all his. The book was handed down as one, and the New Testament quotes both halves as Zechariah.
Are the donkey and the thirty pieces of silver about Jesus?
The gospel writers thought so. Matthew and John quote 9:9 for Palm Sunday, Matthew connects the thirty pieces to Judas, John quotes 'they will look on the one they pierced' at the cross, and Jesus himself quotes 'strike the shepherd' before his arrest. In Zechariah's own setting these are images of Israel's coming king, a rejected shepherd, and a nation's grief. Christians read them as fulfilled in one week in Jerusalem. What's not in dispute is that the gospel writers had Zechariah open on the desk.