Zechariah 1 - Peake Arthur S. and Grieve A. J. - Peake's Comment

Zechariah 1

¹ In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the LORD unto Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet, saying,

² The LORD hath been sore displeased with your fathers.

Call to Repentance

³ Therefore say thou unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Turn ye unto me, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will turn unto you, saith the LORD of hosts.

⁴ Be ye not as your fathers, unto whom the former prophets have cried, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Turn ye now from your evil ways, and from your evil doings: but they did not hear, nor hearken unto me, saith the LORD.

⁵ Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live for ever?

⁶ But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not take hold of your fathers? and they returned and said, Like as the LORD of hosts thought to do unto us, according to our ways, and according to our doings, so hath he dealt with us.

Visions of the NightAmong the Myrtle Trees

⁷ Upon the four and twentieth day of the eleventh month, which is the month Sebat, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the LORD unto Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet, saying,

⁸ I saw by night, and behold a man riding upon a red horse, and he stood among the myrtle trees that were in the bottom; and behind him were there red horses, speckled, and white.

⁹ Then said I, O my lord, what are these? And the angel that talked with me said unto me, I will shew thee what these be.

¹⁰ And the man that stood among the myrtle trees answered and said, These are they whom the LORD hath sent to walk to and fro through the earth.

¹¹ And they answered the angel of the LORD that stood among the myrtle trees, and said, We have walked to and fro through the earth, and, behold, all the earth sitteth still, and is at rest.

¹² Then the angel of the LORD answered and said, O LORD of hosts, how long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which thou hast had indignation these threescore and ten years?

¹³ And the LORD answered the angel that talked with me with good words and comfortable words.

¹⁴ So the angel that communed with me said unto me, Cry thou, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy.

¹⁵ And I am very sore displeased with the heathen that are at ease: for I was but a little displeased, and they helped forward the affliction.

¹⁶ Therefore thus saith the LORD; I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies: my house shall be built in it, saith the LORD of hosts, and a line shall be stretched forth upon Jerusalem.

¹⁷ Cry yet, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; My cities through prosperity shall yet be spread abroad; and the LORD shall yet comfort Zion, and shall yet choose Jerusalem.

Four Horns

¹⁸ Then lifted I up mine eyes, and saw, and behold four horns.

¹⁹ And I said unto the angel that talked with me, What be these? And he answered me, These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.

²⁰ And the LORD shewed me four carpenters.

²¹ Then said I, What come these to do? And he spake, saying, These are the horns which have scattered Judah, so that no man did lift up his head: but these are come to fray them, to cast out the horns of the Gentiles, which lifted up their horn over the land of Judah to scatter it.

Zechariah 1

Zec 1:2-6 . This rebuke (see above, p. 575) seems inconsistent with a date five weeks or more after work had been begun at the Temple and at least ten days after the prophecy in Hag 2:1-9 . The clumsy handiwork of one or more editors is also evident in the section. The thought appears to be as follows: The Lord had great cause to be wroth with your fathers, and their punishment has largely fallen upon you. But now if you will change your attitude towards Him in showing loyal obedience, He will change His attitude towards you in showing you mercy. Your fathers were stubborn, and they are gone; but the prophets’ words came to pass, and your fathers were constrained to acknowledge the justice of their punishment. Zec 1:5 , as it stands, is difficult. The required sense is best given by the restoration of a negative omitted by accident; thus, “Your fathers where are they? but the prophets, do not they live for ever? Yea, indeed, my words and my statutes, etc.” The reference is not to individual prophets but to the prophetic order which always endures.



Zec 1:7-17 . This section, to which Zec 1:7 is an editorial introduction, either is not the beginning of Zechariah’s allegories, or has not come down to us in its original form, for the interpreting angel is mentioned in Zec 1:9 as already known to the reader. A verse introducing him may, however, have been omitted between Zec 1:8 and Zec 1:9 , since the opening words of Zec 1:8 imply that we have here the beginning of the allegorical prophecies. There are many corruptions in the text, several of which can, however, be easily corrected from the context. In Zec 1:8 read, “I saw in the (Anglice “a”) night dream (cf. Zec 4:1 ): omit “riding upon a red horse,” as a mutilated fragment of the last clause of the verse which should read, “and behind him were riders on horses red, white, sorrel, and black.” (According to MT the “horses” carry on a conversation.) In Zec 1:11 , for “the angel of the Lord” read “the man” (i.e. of Zec 1:8 ; the correction was perhaps due to reverence, since Zec 1:12 f. shows that the “man” is the Lord Himself). In Zec 1:12 read “the angel that talked with me answered.” For “myrtle trees” the LXX has, perhaps correctly, “mountains,” as in Zec 6:1 . The significance of myrtle trees is not known, nor of the word rendered “the bottom” (Zec 1:8 mg. “shady place”). With a corrected text the meaning of the allegory is clear. Zechariah sees someone, who is later perceived to be the Lord Himself, behind whom are four riders on horses of various colours. These bring reports from the four quarters of the earth that the whole earth is quiet; i.e. the revolts which Haggai expected to end in the downfall of Persia have been quelled. Thereupon the interpreting angel expresses the prophet’s disappointment, but the Lord answers with words of encouragement. The heathen nations have indeed been His instrument to chastise His people (cf. Isa 10:5 ff.), but they are about to be punished for their malice. The outcome will be the restoration of Judah and Jerusalem.



Zec 1:18-21 . The four horns which have scattered Judah and Jerusalem (“Israel” should probably be omitted) represent the whole world arrayed against Judah, and are perhaps iron horns like those made by Zedekiah (1Ki 22:11 ); hence “smiths” are introduced to shatter them.