The book of Zechariah

Main theme

“Turn ye unto me, and I will turn unto you”: God remembers Jerusalem, encourages the builders of the temple and announces his King-Shepherd, humble, rejected, pierced, then reigning over the whole earth.

Outline

1. Zechariah 1-6 — The eight visions of the night

   After a call to return to God, a series of visions announces the restoration of Jerusalem, the purification of the people and the coming of the Branch.

2. Zechariah 7-8 — The question of fasts

   God answers the delegation from Bethel: he wants justice more than rituals, and will turn the fasts into feasts.

3. Zechariah 9-11 — First oracle: the King and the rejected Shepherd

   The humble king enters Jerusalem on a donkey; the good shepherd is valued at thirty pieces of silver.

4. Zechariah 12-14 — Second oracle: the day of the LORD

   Jerusalem looks upon the one she has pierced, a fountain cleanses the people, and the LORD reigns over all the earth.

Key points

• Zechariah is a contemporary of Haggai: he begins two months after him and encourages the same rebuilding of the temple (1:1; Ezra 5:1).
• Eight visions in a single night, the 24th day of the month of Shebat, announce the restoration of Jerusalem and the purification of the people (1:7–6:8).
• Joshua, in filthy garments and accused by Satan, is cleansed and clothed in festal robes: a striking picture of justification by grace (3:1-5).
• “Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit”: God’s work is accomplished by his Spirit, not by human means (4:6).
• The Branch will be both king and priest upon his throne, which the crown placed on Joshua foreshadows (6:12-13).
• God prefers justice and mercy to formalistic fasts, and promises to turn mourning into feasting (7:5-10; 8:19).
• The humble king on a donkey, the thirty pieces of silver, the Pierced One and the stricken shepherd: a series of prophecies fulfilled in the Passion of Jesus (9:9; 11:12-13; 12:10; 13:7).
• The book culminates in the day when the LORD will set his feet on the mount of Olives and reign over all the earth (14:4, 9).

Jesus in Zechariah

Chapters 9 to 14 are among the Old Testament pages most quoted in the Passion narratives. Jesus is there the Branch, king and priest (6:12-13), the humble king riding on a donkey (9:9; Matt 21:5), the shepherd valued at thirty pieces of silver (11:12-13; Matt 27:9-10), the one who was pierced (12:10; John 19:37) and the stricken shepherd whose sheep are scattered (13:7; Matt 26:31). His feet on the mount of Olives recall the promise made at the Ascension: he will return in the same way (14:4; Acts 1:11-12).

Did you know?

• With 14 chapters and 211 verses, Zechariah is the longest of the twelve “minor prophets.”
• Zechariah 3 is one of the few Old Testament passages to name Satan (with Job 1-2 and 1 Chronicles 21:1), and the retort “The LORD rebuke thee” is echoed by the archangel Michael in Jude 9.
• The inscription “Holiness unto the LORD,” reserved for the gold plate on the high priest’s turban (Exod 28:36), will one day be engraved even on the horses’ bells (14:20).