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In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, the LORD’s word came to the prophet Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, saying,
Verse 1. Barachias adopted him, (1 Ezra 5:1) or rather Addo was his grandfather.
When rendered in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS, “LORD” or “GOD” is the translation of God’s Proper Name (Hebrew “יהוה”, usually pronounced Yahweh).
“The LORD was very displeased with your fathers.
Verse 2. Angry, as he has severely chastised them. Calmet.
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.
Verse 3. Turn ye. Such expressions admonish us of our free-will, and when we answer, convert us, and so forth (Lamentations 5:11. Calmet.) we confess that God’s grace preventeth us. Trid. Sess. vi. 5. Worthington.—We may resist the Holy Spirit, ( Bible.) and reject his graces. The prophet exhorts the people to lay aside all former negligence, ( Calmet.) and proceed with the temple. Bible.—It had been commenced about two months before. Agg. 2:1 16.
Don’t you be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets proclaimed, saying: The LORD of Armies says, ‘Return now from your evil ways and from your evil doings;’ but they didn’t hear nor listen to me, says the LORD.
Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever?
Verse 5. Always. He seems to hint, that after Malachias prophets would be sent no more till Christ should appear; or, that God’s word should be fulfilled (verse 6) though the prophets were dead. Calmet.
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 the LORD of Armies determined to do to us, according to our ways and according to our practices, so he has dealt with us.’”
Verse 6. Fathers. They felt their effects. Bible.—Returned; being converted by the sight of God’s judgments. Osee 4:1 and 2 Ezra 1:6.
On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, which is the month Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the LORD’s word came to the prophet Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, saying,
Verse 7. Sabath. These names were brought from Chaldea. The month was lunar, and corresponded sometimes with parts of our December and January, at other times with January, or with that and the following month. Calmet.
“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.
Verse 8. A man. An angel in the shape of a man. It was probably S. Michael, the guardian angel of the Church of God. Challoner.—It is plain that he was an ange. verse 11. Worthington.—He appears in obscurity, to shew the distress of the nation. Calmet.—Among. Septuagint “between two shady mountains.” Bible.
“Behold”, from “הִנֵּה”, means look at, take notice, observe, see, or gaze at. It is often used as an interjection.
Then I asked, ‘My lord, what are these?’” The angel who talked with me said to me, “I will show you what these are.”
The man who stood among the myrtle trees answered, “They are the ones the LORD has sent to go back and forth through the earth.”
Verse 10. These are they, and so forth The guardian angels of provinces and nations. Challoner.—The Jews believed that each nation had such an angel, who had to give an account to one in higher authority. God proportions his revelation to their ideas.
They reported to the LORD’s angel 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.”
Verse 11. Rest. All the country under Michael’s care enjoyed peace, ( Calmet.) in the second year of Darius. Bible.—The red horse implies slaughter. Revelation 6:4. It was now repressed. Tournemine.
Then the LORD’s angel replied, “O LORD 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?”
Verse 12. The seventieth year; that is from the beginning of the siege of Jerusalem, in the ninth year of king Sedecias, to the second year of king Darius. These seventy years of the desolation of Jerusalem and the cities of Juda, are different from the seventy years of captivity foretold by Jeremias; which began in the fourth year of Joakim, and ended in the first year of king Cyrus. Challoner.—Of these Daniel (9) speaks. The temple had also been destroyed now seventy years, ( Worthington.) and the angel prays, ( Bible.) while the prophet begs that the people may be inspired to rebuild it. Worthington.—Michael takes occasion from the angels’ report, to beseech the Lord to perfect what had been so well begun. He speaks not expressly of the temple, as Aggeus had prevailed on the people to commence that edifice. They had excused themselves that the time was not come, as they probably dated from the burning of the temple; though its desolation began with the siege, thirty months before. See Jeremiah 25:11 and 29:10. Calmet.
The LORD answered the angel who talked with me with kind and comforting words.
Verse 13. Answered. We have here a proof of the intercession of angel, and of its good effects. Bible.—In me; revealing God’s will. Saint Jerome—Yet it seems to be S. Michael. Calmet. iv. 1. Chal. Theod. Calmet.
So the angel who talked with me said to me, “Proclaim, saying, ‘The LORD of Armies says: “I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy.
Verse 14. Zeal. I will again treat her as my spouse. Bible.
I am very angry with the nations that are at ease; for I was but a little displeased, but they added to the calamity.”
Verse 15. Nations, represented as four horns, verse 18, 19.—Evil, through malice, and thus deserved themselves to be punished. Osee 1:4.
Therefore the LORD says: “I have returned to Jerusalem with mercy. My house shall be built in it,” says the LORD of Armies, “and a line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem.”’
Verse 16. Line. Soon after Nehemias came to rebuild the city. Calmet.
“Proclaim further, saying, ‘The LORD of Armies says: “My cities will again overflow with prosperity, and the LORD will again comfort Zion, and will again choose Jerusalem.”’”
I lifted up my eyes and saw, and behold, four horns.
Verse 18–20. Four horns, … four smiths. The four horns represent the empires, or kingdoms, that persecute and oppress the people of God: the four smiths or carpenters (for faber may signify either) represent those whom God makes his instruments in bringing to nothing the power of persecutors. Challoner.—The Ammonites, and so forth on the east, the Philistines on the west, the Idumeans and Egyptians on the south, and the Assyrians and Chaldees on the north, had much molested God’s people, and were therefore punished. Worthington.—The princes of Assyria and of Babylon, the kings of Persia and of Egypt, had all treated them ill; and these four empires have or will be destroyed by four chariots, (Calmet. 6:1.) Nabopolassar, Cyrus, Alexander, and Antiochus. Daniel 7:1. and so forth S. Jerom, and many who usually follow him, understand the empires of the Chaldeans, Persians, Greeks, and Romans, to be designated by the horns, as the workmen mean the angels who have chastised those nations.
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.”
Verse 18–20. Four horns, … four smiths. The four horns represent the empires, or kingdoms, that persecute and oppress the people of God: the four smiths or carpenters (for faber may signify either) represent those whom God makes his instruments in bringing to nothing the power of persecutors. Challoner.—The Ammonites, and so forth on the east, the Philistines on the west, the Idumeans and Egyptians on the south, and the Assyrians and Chaldees on the north, had much molested God’s people, and were therefore punished. Worthington.—The princes of Assyria and of Babylon, the kings of Persia and of Egypt, had all treated them ill; and these four empires have or will be destroyed by four chariots, (Calmet. 6:1.) Nabopolassar, Cyrus, Alexander, and Antiochus. Daniel 7:1. and so forth S. Jerom, and many who usually follow him, understand the empires of the Chaldeans, Persians, Greeks, and Romans, to be designated by the horns, as the workmen mean the angels who have chastised those nations.
The LORD showed me four craftsmen.
Verse 18–20. Four horns, … four smiths. The four horns represent the empires, or kingdoms, that persecute and oppress the people of God: the four smiths or carpenters (for faber may signify either) represent those whom God makes his instruments in bringing to nothing the power of persecutors. Challoner.—The Ammonites, and so forth on the east, the Philistines on the west, the Idumeans and Egyptians on the south, and the Assyrians and Chaldees on the north, had much molested God’s people, and were therefore punished. Worthington.—The princes of Assyria and of Babylon, the kings of Persia and of Egypt, had all treated them ill; and these four empires have or will be destroyed by four chariots, (Calmet. 6:1.) Nabopolassar, Cyrus, Alexander, and Antiochus. Daniel 7:1. and so forth S. Jerom, and many who usually follow him, understand the empires of the Chaldeans, Persians, Greeks, and Romans, to be designated by the horns, as the workmen mean the angels who have chastised those nations.
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 that lifted up their horn against the land of Judah to scatter it.”
Verse 21. Every. Hebrew “at pleasure; none shall lift,” and so forth These kingdoms shall no longer prove formidable. Calmet.—Fray, or “terrify.” Septuagint “to sharpen them in their hands. The horns are nations,” and so forth Bible.