Zechariah Chapter 1

From The Open Bible Project

1:1 In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of [1] Yahweh [See Zechariah Footnotes 1] came to Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, the prophet, saying,

• The Argument - Two months after Haggai had begun to prophesy, Zechariah was also sent of the Lord to help him in the labour, and to confirm the same doctrine. First therefore, he puts them in remembrance for what reason God had so severely punished their fathers: and yet comforts them if they will truly repent, and not abuse this great benefit of God in their deliverance which was a figure of that true deliverance, that all the faithful should have from death and sin, by Christ. But because they remained still in their wickedness, and lack of desire to set forth God’s glory, and were not yet made better by their long banishment, he rebukes them most sharply: yet for the comfort of the repentant, he ever mixes the promise of grace, that they might by this means be prepared to receive Christ, in whom all should be sanctified to the Lord.
• (a) Who was the son of Histaspis.
• (b) This was not the Zechariah, of which mention is made in (2 Chronicles 24:20), but he had the same name, and is called the son of Berechiah, as he was, because he came of those progenitors, as of Joiada or Berechiah, and Iddo.

1:2 "Yahweh was very displeased with your fathers.

• (c) He speaks this to make them afraid of God’s judgments, so that they should not provoke him as their fathers had done, whom he so grievously punished.

1:3 Therefore tell them: Thus says Yahweh of Armies: 'Return to me,' says Yahweh of Armies, 'and I will return to you,' says Yahweh of Armies.

• (d) Let your fruits declare that you are God’s people, and that he has wrought in you by his Spirit, and mortified you: for otherwise man has no power to return to God, but God must convert him; (Jeremiah 31:18; Lamentations 5:21) See Isaiah 31:6

1:4 Don't you be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets proclaimed, saying: Thus says Yahweh of Armies, 'Return now from your evil ways, and from your evil doings;' but they did not hear, nor listen to me, says Yahweh.

1:5 Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever?

• (e) Though your fathers are dead, yet God’s judgments in punishing them ought still to be before your eyes: and though the prophets are dead, yet their doctrine remains for ever; (2 Peter 1:15).

1:6 But my words and my decrees, which I commanded my servants the prophets, didn't they overtake your fathers? "Then they repented and said, 'Just as Yahweh of Armies determined to do to us, according to our ways, and according to our practices, so he has dealt with us.'"

• (f) Seeing you saw the force of my doctrine in punishing your fathers, why do you not fear the threatenings contained in the same, and declared by my Prophets?
• (g) As men astonished with my judgments, and not that they were touched with true repentance.

1:7 On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, which is the month Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of Yahweh came to Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, the prophet, saying,

• (h) Which includes part of January and part of February.

1:8 "I had a vision in the night, and behold, a man riding on a red horse, and he stood among the myrtle trees that were in a ravine; and behind him there were red, brown, and white horses.

• (i) This vision signifies the restoration of the Church: but as yet it would not appear to man’s eyes, which is here meant by the night, by the bottom, and by the myrtle trees, which are black, and give a dark shadow. Yet he compares God to a King who has his posts and messengers abroad, by whom he still works his purpose and brings his matters to pass.
• (k) Who was the chief among the rest of the horsemen.
• (l) These signify the various offices of God’s angels, by whom God sometimes punishes, and sometimes comforts, and brings forth his works in various ways.

1:9 Then I asked, 'My lord, what are these?'" The angel who talked with me said to me, "I will show you what these are."

1:10 The man who stood among the myrtle trees answered, "They are the ones Yahweh has sent to go back and forth through the earth."

1:11 They reported to the angel of Yahweh who stood among the myrtle trees, and said, "We have walked back and forth through the earth, and behold, all the earth is at rest and in peace."

1:12 Then the angel of Yahweh replied, "O Yahweh of Armies, how long will you not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which you have had indignation these seventy years?"

• (m) That is, Christ the mediator prayed for the salvation of his Church, which was now troubled, when all the countries about them were at rest.

1:13 Yahweh answered the angel who talked with me with kind and comforting words.

1:14 So the angel who talked with me said to me, "Proclaim, saying, 'Thus says Yahweh of Armies: "I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy.

• (n) Though for a time God defers his help and comfort from his Church, yet this declares that he still loves them most dearly, as a most merciful father his children, or a husband his wife, and when it is expedient for them, his help is ever ready.

1:15 I am very angry with the nations that are at ease; for I was but a little displeased, but they added to the calamity."

• (o) In destroying the reprobate, I showed myself but a little angry toward my Church, but the enemy would have destroyed them also, and did not consider the goal of my chastisements.

1:16 Therefore thus says Yahweh: "I have returned to Jerusalem with mercy. My house shall be built in it," says Yahweh of Armies, "and a line shall be stretched forth over Jerusalem."'

• (p) To measure out the buildings.

1:17 "Proclaim further, saying, 'Thus says Yahweh of Armies: "My cities will again overflow with prosperity, and Yahweh will again comfort Zion, and will again choose Jerusalem."'"

• (q) The abundance will be so great, that the places of storage will not be able to contain these blessings that God will send, but will even break because of fullness.

1:18 I lifted up my eyes, and saw, and behold, four horns.

• (r) Which signifies all the enemies of the Church: east, west, north, and south.

1:19 I asked the angel who talked with me, "What are these?" He answered me, "These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem."

1:20 Yahweh showed me four craftsmen.

• (s) These craftsmen or smiths are God’s instruments, who with their mallets and hammers break these hard and strong horns which would overthrow the Church, and declare that no enemies’ horn is so strong, but God has a hammer to break it in pieces.

1:21 Then I asked, "What are these coming to do?" He said, "These are the horns which scattered Judah, so that no man lifted up his head; but these have come to terrify them, to cast down the horns of the nations, which lifted up their horn against the land of Judah to scatter it."