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The Four: A Survey of the Gospels
Defending Constantine: The Twilight of an Empire and the Dawn of Christendom
From Behind the Veil: The Epistles of John
Deep Exegesis:The Mystery of Reading Scripture
1 & 2 Kings
Brazos Theological Commentary
The Promise Of His Appearing: An Exposition Of Second Peter
A Great Mystery: Fourteen Wedding Sermons
Deep Comedy: Trinity, Tragedy, And Hope In Western Literature
Miniatures & Morals: The Christian Novels of Jane Austen
The Priesthood of the Plebs: A Theology of Baptism
A Son To Me: An Exposition of 1 & 2 Samuel
From Silence to Song: The Davidic Liturgical Revolution
Ascent to Love: A Guide to Dante's Divine Comedy
Blessed Are the Hungry: Meditations on the Lord's Supper
A House For My Name: A Survey of the Old Testament
Heroes of the City of Man: A Christian Guide to Select Ancient Literature
Brightest Heaven of Invention: A Christian Guide To Six Shakespeare Plays
Wise Words: Family Stories That Bring the Proverbs to Life
The Kingdom and the Power: Rediscovering the Centrality of the Church
“I will return and dwell (shakan) in the midst of Jerusalem,” Yahweh promises (Zechariah 8:3).
Then: “I will being them back, and they will dwell (shakan) in the midst of Jerusalem” (Zechariah 8:8).
Israel, renewed in covenant with Yahweh, is His glory, as a bride is the glory of a man.
Did the Shekinah return to Jerusalem after the exile? Yes, because the people did.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Wednesday, May 5, 2010 at 9:39 am
Zechariah 8:19 answers the initial question about fasting posed in 7:3. Zechariah says:
Thus says Yahweh of hosts
The fast of the fourth,
And the fast of the fifth,
And the fast of the seventh,
And the fast of the ninth,
Will be to the house of Judah
Festivities
Gladness
Good assemblies
Truth and peace love!
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Tuesday, May 4, 2010 at 7:08 am
Zechariah 8:9-13 forms a single unit within the chapter, and is organized chiastically:
A. strong hands, v 9a
B. house of Yahweh, v 9b
C. no wages, v 10a
D. no peace, v 10b
E. Not according to former days, v 11
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Tuesday, May 4, 2010 at 5:25 am
Zechariah 7-8 form a unit, enclosed by references to fasting (7:4-7; 8:18-23) , within which Zechariah reviews the warnings of the early prophets about Israel’s social injustices (7:9-14; 8:14-17).
Chapter 8 includes two major speeches, marked by the phrase “the word of Yahweh of hosts” (8:1, 18), but within that large structure are a series of smaller speeches marked by “thus says Yahweh of hosts.”
There are ten short speeches in that section, Ten Words from the Lord who came with His myriad hosts to Sinai. Zechariah is announcing a new covenant, unlike the old covenant, a covenant of Ten Promises that will fulfill the Ten Commandments.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Tuesday, May 4, 2010 at 5:03 am
Some observations on Zechariah 6 that are dependent on the helpful insights of several grad students:
If we connect the chariots emerging from between the bronze mountains with the horses and chariots of fire mentioned in 2 Kings 2 and 6, and if the bronze mountains are the pillars of the temple, then what we have is a fiery host charging out from the temple. That puts me in mind of the fire that came out from Yahweh to ignite the tabernacle and temple altars. Here, however, the whole earth is being lit by the “four spirits” that ride from the temple. The whole earth has become a place of universal sacrifice.
My student Stephen Long suggested that the spirits coming from the temple are analogous to the departure of the glory in Ezekiel 8-11. That’s counterintuitive: Zechariah should be about the return of the glory not its departure. But I think Stephen’s onto something.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Tuesday, April 27, 2010 at 1:27 pm
Psalm 72:4 describes a king who does justice, delivers the poor, crushes the oppressor.
The imperatives of Zechariah 7:9-10 echo the Psalm, but in Zechariah the imperatives are plural.
Israel has become a nation of kings.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Tuesday, April 27, 2010 at 5:15 am
Moses built a tent, and then Yahweh sat on His throne, the glory above the cherubim.
Solomon built a house, and then the glory of Yahweh settled on His throne in the debir.
Zechariah predicts something novel: A man named “Branch” will build the house of Yahweh, and then the Branch will take a throne (Zechariah 6:12-13). When the temple is completed, Zechariah says, a “priest” will be on a throne, a priest who “bears glory” (on glory, hod, see Numbers 27:20; 1 Chronicles 16:27; 29:25; Psalm 8:1; 21:5; 45:3; 96:6; 104:1).
This may go some way to resolving the crux in verse 13: “peace between the two of them,” but who are “them”? If Zechariah’s oracle is a riff on the temple-building/enthronement episodes earlier in Scripture, then the reconciliation is between Yahweh’s throne and David’s. God’s throne and man’s will no longer be competitive, no longer a zero-sum game, ultimately, of course, because Yahweh and David have united in the single person of Jesus.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Tuesday, April 27, 2010 at 4:30 am
Michael Stead (The Intertextuality of Zechariah 1-8 (Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies)
This link is strengthened by the fact that the ephah that contains the wickedness that is removed to Shinar is a parody of the ark, borne by two parodic cherubim. In addition to the visual similarity, Stead finds a pun between the word for ark cover (kapporet) and the phrase for “cover-disk of the ephah” (kikkar ‘oferet, Zechariah 5:7).
All this seems just right to me, but it does raise some interesting questions.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Tuesday, April 20, 2010 at 7:50 am
Zechariah uses the word “lord” or “master” (adon) seven times in the first six chapters of his prophecy (1:9, 4:4, 5, 13, 14; 6:4-5). The word appears in the first, the fifth, and the eighth of Zechariah’s night visions, beginning, middle, end.
Five of the seven uses are in Zechariah’s conversations with the interpreting angel, the “angel who was speaking with me.” In two cases, however, the angel uses the word, and in both cases he refers to the “Lord of the whole earth.” Those two uses are neatly distributed in the night visions. The first is in 4:14, at the climax of the vision of the lampstands. The angel identifies the two olive trees as the “sons of oil” who “stand by the Master of the whole earth.” The second use of adon as a title for Yahweh comes in 6:5, again at the climax of a vision, in fact at the climax of the whole sequence of night visions. And the phrase where the word is used in 6:5 echoes the earlier phrase in 4:14. The chariots and horses that go out in the final vision are the spirits of heaven that “go forth after standing before the Master of the whole earth.”
One implication of this arrangement is that the “sons of oil” from chapter 4 are parallel to the “spirits of heaven.” Both stand in the presence of the Master of the whole earth, and are His agents in the world.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Tuesday, April 20, 2010 at 7:03 am
Zechariah’s scroll brings curses to those who “steal” and “swear falsely in My name” (5:3-4). Those same sins appear together in Leviticus 19, and also, significantly, in Jeremiah 7:9. There, Jeremiah lists thieves and false swearers among the “robbers” who have made the temple their den. Yahweh’s house is going to be destroyed as a result of their sins.
In Zechariah too there is a threat against houses. The curses will light on the houses of thieves and false swearers, will remain in the house and will “consume it with its timber and stones” (NASB). Zechariah does not have the temple in view, which is not yet completed. The houses that will be destroyed are the houses/families of those who violate the covenant. If Israel does not keep covenant, the repetition of Shiloh’s destruction that Jeremiah prophesied is going to be repeated yet again. Houses will be destroyed, with neither stone nor timber remaining.
Zechariah reinforces the connection of the corruption of the temple and the corruption of other houses by using the verb kalah, translated as “consume” in the NASB. The word also means “complete” or “finish,” and describes the completion of creation’s temple (Genesis 2:1), the tabernacle (Exodus 39:32), and the temple of Solomon (1 Kings 7:1). Instead of reaching completion, the houses of thieves and false swearers will be completely ruined.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Tuesday, April 20, 2010 at 5:35 am
Zechariah’s flying scroll is written with curses. Another place where curses are written down is Numbers 5, the jealousy test for a woman suspected of adultery. The verb “cut off” or “purged” (naqah) in Zechariah 5:3 is also used in Numbers 5, to describe the status of the woman who has passed the jealousy test: She is “free” of guilt (Numbers 5:19) and “free” to bear children (5:28).
Zechariah’s flying scroll is a jealousy test. It flies over the face of the land, enters the houses of thieves and those who swear falsely. It will expose their unfaithfulness, cause a swelling of the belly and a withering of the thing, and will bring curses to the house.
Recognizing that Numbers 5 is in the background helps to link the two visions of Zechariah 5. First, the scroll with curses enters houses, exposes infidelity; then the woman Wickedness, exposed by the jealousy test, is sent away.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Tuesday, April 20, 2010 at 5:18 am
The woman Wickedness is carried from the land in an ephah covered with a lead weight (Zechariah 5:6-7). It is a parodic ark of the covenant, containing a harlot instead of the tablets of the law.
Why an ephah? The Old testament regularly demands that Israel use accurate weights and measures, and often refers to an ephah in these contexts. Deuteronomy 25:13 says, ”You shall not have in your bag a stone and a stone, a large and a small. You shall not have in your house an ephah and an ephah [ie, different sized ephahs], a large and a small. You shall have a full and just measure.” Leviticus 19:36 says something similar: “You shall have just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin. Amos (8:5) condemns those who trample the needy and say, “When will the new moon be over, so that we may buy more grain, and the sabbath, that we may open the wheat market, to make the ephah smaller and the shekel bigger, and to cheat with dishonest scales.”
The vision of wickedness in an ephah is a vision of wicked commerce, the use of unfair and unjust weights and measures. And, since worship is sometimes depicted as commerce between God and Israel, the vision may also have liturgical import. An ephah full of wickedness symbolizes both unjust economic dealings, and also idolatrous worship.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Tuesday, April 20, 2010 at 4:50 am
In Zechariah 5:5-11, a woman named Wickedness is put into an ephah and removed to Shinar, where a temple is built for her. This is a complex parody of the exodus.
Yahweh brought Israel out of Egypt on eagles’ wings; here we have a picture of the wicked being born out of the land by women with stork wings. Wickedness goes through an exodus, but it is a reverse exodus, a movement out of the land rather than into the land. The temple is not in Jerusalem or even Shiloh, but Shinar, the location of the tower of Babel.
Zechariah is of course living in the time of a new exodus, when the Lord has again brought His people out of exile into the land. As the faithful return to the land, and devote themselves to the building of the temple, the false bride is driven out. There is a double exodus, the exodus of faithful Jews from Babylon to Israel, and the exodus of the unfaithful from Israel to Babylon.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Tuesday, April 20, 2010 at 4:43 am
In Zechariah 5, the prophet sees a scroll flying through the air and is told that it is the “curse that is going forth over the face of the whole land.” That vision conjures several other passages and scenes in the Bible.
The phrase “face of the land” is used repeatedly in the flood narrative. Men multiply on the face of the land (Genesis 6:1), but because of their wickedness the Lord determines to blot them out from the face of the land (6:7; 7:4), which He does (7:23). After the flood, Noah sends out a dove to see if the water has receded from the face of the land (8:8). A flying scroll full of curses carries the threat of another great flood that will blot out men from the face of the land.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Tuesday, April 20, 2010 at 4:34 am
In his comments on Zechariah 4:7, Stead notes that the adjective connected with stone is unique in the Hebrew Bible. It looks like a feminine of the common word ro’sh (head) but might also be linked to ri’shon (first, beginning). Stead opts for “topstone” as a translation, and says that the prophecy is about Zerubbabel’s completion of the temple.
He also notes the connection with Psalm 118:22, which describes a “stone” that becomes “head of the corner,” an event that is “marvelous” in the eyes of Israel. But he doesn’t fill out the consequences of this intertextual linkage. The stone in Psalm 118 is the rejected stone that becomes head; the last shall be first, the rejected becomes chosen and precious. With Psalm 118 in the background, and given the semantic ambiguity of the word in Zechariah 4:7, it seems best to let the ambiguity alone. Verse 7 is spelled out in the sequence of verse 9 – his hands establish, his hands complete. But in verse 7, we seem to have a stone which is both cornerstone and topstone, both alpha-stone and omega-stone.
This stone “comes forth” from Zerubbabel, and of course – again with Psalm 118 ringing in our ears – we know that this is the chief cornerstone of the new temple, the topstone too. For that stone, Jesus, also “comes forth” from Zerubbabel, hewn from the Davidic rock.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Tuesday, April 13, 2010 at 8:01 am
Bart Bruehler points out in an article from CBQ that the oracle to Zerubbabel in Zechariah 4:7 employs language (“might and power”) typically used to describe military prowess. Yet Zerubbabel doesn’t lead an army; he organizes a construction project.
He is a new Solomon. Moses said to Joshua, “Be strong and courageous” before Joshua conquered the land; David said to Solomon, “Be strong and courageous” because Solomon was going to need “might and power” to build the temple. The Davidic branch Zerubbabel needs similar might to build the second temple.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Tuesday, April 13, 2010 at 7:52 am
Stead again. He points out the intertextual connections between Zechariah 4:7 and Isaiah 40:4, 42:16. In all these passages, mountains are being brought low. One of the remarkable contrasts is that in Isaiah (especially 42:16), Yahweh Himself levels mountains; in Zechariah, Zerubbabel carries out the demolition.
What are the mountains? Stead points to passages that address various world powers as mountains (Isaiah 41:11-15; Jeremiah 51:25; one might add the mountain that fills the whole earth in Daniel 2), and concludes that “the ‘great mountain’ facing Zerubbabel is the world power which opposes the temple building,” which at least for a time is Persia. In the power of the Spirit, Zerubbabel lays low the mountains of the nations, while completing the house of the mountain of Yahweh, which becomes chief of the mountains.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Tuesday, April 13, 2010 at 7:37 am
Michael Stead (The Intertextuality of Zechariah 1-8 (Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies)
In verses 2-3, the prophet sees a lampstand, with seven lamps, and two olive trees beside it. In the interpretation, the angel says that Zerubbabel will complete the house (v. 9), explains the seven lamps as the eyes of Yahweh (v. 10), and the two trees as “sons of oil” (vv. 12-14). On this arrangement, the lampstand matches the house that Zerubbabel is going to complete.
Glowing with Yahweh’s glory, the temple might well be described as a lamp on a lampstand that cannot be hid, a shining city on a hill. This is not, of course, incompatible with the idea that the lamp is the people of God, since the temple is an architectural symbol of that people. I suspect too that the burning wood house might also be a burning bush, a perpetual promise of new exodus.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Tuesday, April 13, 2010 at 7:32 am
Zechariah 2 seems to divide between verse 5 and 6, as we move from a promise of Yahweh’s dwelling in Jerusalem to an exhortation to “flee from the land of the north.” While I have not been able to discern an overall structure in the passage, there are signs that it’s there.
The passage is enclosed by references to the Lord’s choice and inheritance of Jerusalem. In the opening verses (vv. 1-2), Zechariah sees a man with a measuring line in his hand going to measure Jerusalem, while in verse 12 Yahweh takes possession of Judah and chooses Jerusalem “again.” There is also, perhaps, an inclusio between verses 3-4 and verse 11: Verses 3-4 describe a city overflowing with men and animals, and verse 11 infors us that many who come to inhabit Zion will be Gentiles.
Within that inclusio, there are several short chiasms.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Tuesday, April 6, 2010 at 1:01 pm
Zechariah 2 contains several references to the Jubilee. Jerusalem, the Lord says, will become like an unwalled city (2:4), the kind of city where the Jubilee rules do apply (Leviticus 25). At the end of the passage, the prophet learns that Yahweh will inherit Jerusalem, a unique usage in the Old Testament, which never uses Yahweh as the subject of “inherit.” but the Jubilee is again behind that promise, since the whole rationale of the Jubilee legislation is that the land belongs to Yahweh, not Israel.
Isaiah also uses Jubilee to describe Israel’s return from exile, her return to her “ancestral property.” Zechariah gives a twist on that theme. Jerusalem is going to be treated like an unwalled city, which means that it will be restored to its original owner. And that original ower, v. 12 tells us, is Yahweh Himself. The return from exile here is not simply Israel’s return to the land, but Yahweh’s recovery of His own city and dwelling place.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Tuesday, April 6, 2010 at 8:40 am
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