{"commentary":{"id":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","website":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamieson-Fausset-Brown_Bible_Commentary","licenseUrl":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/","licenseNotes":null,"licenseNotice":null,"englishName":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","language":"eng","textDirection":"rtl","sha256":"db3d4c8b3c1f32ef9d1430a57392e02bda3a17aac1f9bbe398461de021a3cb13","availableFormats":["json"],"listOfBooksApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/books.json","listOfProfilesApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/profiles.json","numberOfBooks":66,"totalNumberOfChapters":1187,"totalNumberOfVerses":17056,"totalNumberOfProfiles":0,"languageName":"English","languageEnglishName":"English"},"book":{"id":"ZEC","commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Zechariah","commonName":"Zechariah","introduction":"THE name Zechariah means one whom Jehovah remembers: a common name, four others of the same name occurring in the Old Testament. Like Jeremiah and Ezekiel, he was a priest as well as a prophet, which adapts him for the sacerdotal character of some of his prophecies (Zac 6:13). He is called \"the son of Berechiah the son of Iddo\" (Zac 1:1); but simply \"the son of Iddo\" in Ezr 5:1; Ezr 6:14. Probably his father died when he was young; and hence, as sometimes occurs in Jewish genealogies, he is called \"the son of Iddo,\" his grandfather. Iddo was one of the priests who returned to Zerubbabel and Joshua from Babylon (Neh 12:4).\n\nZechariah entered early on his prophetic functions (Zac 2:4); only two months later than Haggai, in the second year of Darius' reign, 520 B.C. The design of both prophets was to encourage the people and their religious and civil leaders, Joshua and Zerubbabel, in their work of rebuilding the temple, after the interruption caused by the Samaritans (see Introduction to Haggai). Zechariah does so especially by unfolding in detail the glorious future in connection with the present depressed appearance of the theocracy, and its visible symbol, the temple. He must have been very young in leaving Babylonia, where he was born. The Zechariah, son of Barachias, mentioned by our Lord (Mat 23:35) as slain between the porch and the altar, must have been the one called the son of Jehoiada in Ch2 24:21, who so perished: the same person often had two names; and our Lord, in referring to the Hebrew Bible, of which Second Chronicles is the last book, would naturally mention the last martyr in the Hebrew order of the canon, as He had instanced Abel as the first. Owing to Mat 27:9 quoting Zac 11:12-13 as the words of Jeremiah, MEDE doubts the authenticity of the ninth through the fourteenth chapters, and ascribes them to Jeremiah: he thinks that these chapters were not found till after the return from the captivity, and being approved by Zechariah, were added to his prophecies, as Agur's Proverbs were added to those of Solomon. All the oldest authorities, except two manuscripts of the old Italian or Pre-Vulgate version, read Jeremiah in Mat 27:9. The quotation there is not to the letter copied from Zechariah, Jer 18:1-2; Jer 32:6-12, may also have been in the mind of Matthew, and perhaps in the mind of Zechariah, whence the former mentions Jeremiah. HENGSTENBERG similarly thinks that Matthew names Jeremiah, rather than Zechariah, to turn attention to the fact that Zechariah's prophecy is but a reiteration of the fearful oracle in Jer. 18:1-19:15, to be fulfilled in the destruction of the Jewish nation. Jeremiah had already, by the image of a potter's vessel, portrayed their ruin in Nebuchadnezzar's invasion; and as Zechariah virtually repeats this threat, to be inflicted again under Messiah for the nation's rejection of Him, Matthew, virtually, by mentioning Jeremiah, implies that the \"field of blood\" (Mat 27:8-9), now bought by \"the reward of iniquity\" (Act 1:18) in the valley of Hinnom, was long ago a scene of prophetic doom in which awful disaster had been symbolically predicted: that the present purchase of that field with the traitor's price renewed the prophecy and revived the curse--a curse pronounced of old by Jeremiah, and once fulfilled in the Babylonian siege--a curse reiterated by Zechariah, and again to be verified in the Roman desolation. LIGHTFOOT (referring to B. BATHRA and KIMCHI) less probably thinks the third division of Scripture, the prophets, began with Jeremiah, and that the whole body of prophets is thus quoted by the name \"Jeremiah.\" The mention of \"Ephraim\" and \"Israel\" in these chapters as distinct from Judah, does not prove that the prophecy was written while the ten tribes existed as a separate kingdom. It rather implies that hereafter not only Judah, but the ten tribes also, shall be restored, the earnest of which was given in the numbers out of the ten tribes who returned with their brethren the Jews from captivity under Cyrus. There is nothing in these characters to imply that a king reigned in Judah at that time. The editor of the Hebrew canon joined these chapters to Zechariah, not to Jeremiah; the Septuagint, three hundred years B.C., confirms this.\n\nThe prophecy consists of four parts: (1) Introductory, Zac 1:1-6. (2) Symbolical, Zac 1:7, to the end of the sixth chapter, containing nine visions; all these were vouchsafed in one night, and are of a symbolical character. (3) Didactic, the seventh and eighth chapters containing an answer to a query of the Beth-elites concerning a certain feast. And (4) Prophetic, the ninth chapter to the end. These six last chapters predict Alexander's expedition along the west coast of Palestine to Egypt; God's protection of the Jews, both at that time and under the Maccabees; the advent, sufferings, and reign of Messiah; the destruction of Jerusalem by Rome, and dissolution of the Jews' polity; their conversion and restoration; the overthrow of the wicked confederacy which assailed them in Canaan; and the Gentiles' joining in their holy worship [HENDERSON]. The difference in style between the former and the latter chapters is due to the difference of subject; the first six chapters being of a symbolical and peculiar character, while the poetical style of the concluding chapters is adapted admirably to the subjects treated. The titles (Zac 9:1; Zac 12:1) accord with the prophetic matter which follows; nor is it necessary for unity of authorship that the introductory formulas occurring in the first eight chapters should occur in the last six. The non-reference in the last six chapters to the completion of the temple and the Jews' restoration after the captivity is just what we should expect, if, as seems likely, these chapters were written long after the completion of the temple and the restoration of the Jews polity after the captivity, in circumstances different from those which engaged the prophet when he wrote the earlier chapters.\n\nThe style varies with the subject: at one time conversational, at another poetical. His symbols are enigmatical and are therefore accompanied with explanations. His prose is like that of Ezekiel--diffuse, uniform, and repetitious. The rhythm is somewhat unequal, and the parallelisms are not altogether symmetrical. Still, there is found often much of the elevation met with in the earlier prophets, and a general congruity between the style and the subjects. Graphic vividness is his peculiar merit. ChaldÃ&brvbrisms occur occasionally. Another special characteristic of Zechariah is his introduction of spiritual beings into his prophetic scenes. \n\n\n\nNext: Zechariah Chapter 1\n\n","order":38,"numberOfChapters":14,"sha256":"d1c647660fec77e6b63ae1f1ed01101ef9ff627de36526793f2ddb3e2416cdd2","firstChapterNumber":1,"firstChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ZEC/1.json","firstChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ZEC","chapter":1},"lastChapterNumber":14,"lastChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ZEC/14.json","lastChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ZEC","chapter":14},"totalNumberOfVerses":189},"chapter":{"number":3,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":2,"content":["the Lord--JEHOVAH, hereby identified with the \"angel of the Lord (Jehovah)\" (Zac 3:1). \n\nrebuke thee--twice repeated to express the certainty of Satan's accusations and machinations against Jerusalem being frustrated. Instead of lengthened argument, Jehovah silences Satan by the one plea, namely, God's choice. \n\nchosen Jerusalem-- (Rom 9:16; Rom 11:5). The conclusive answer. If the issue rested on Jerusalem's merit or demerit, condemnation must be the award; but Jehovah's \"choice\" (Joh 15:16) rebuts Satan's charge against Jerusalem (Zac 1:17; Zac 2:12; Rom 8:33-34, Rom 8:37), represented by Joshua (compare in the great atonement, Lev 16:6-20, &c.), not that she may continue in sin, but be freed from it (Zac 3:7). \n\nbrand plucked out of . . . fire-- (Amo 4:11; Pe1 4:18; Jde 1:23). Herein God implies that His acquittal of Jerusalem is not that He does not recognize her sin (Zac 3:3-4, Zac 3:9), but that having punished her people for it with a seventy years' captivity, He on the ground of His electing love has delivered her from the fiery ordeal; and when once He has begun a deliverance, as in this case, He will perfect it (Psa 89:30-35; Phi 1:6).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["filthy garments--symbol of sin (Pro 30:12; Isa 4:4; Isa 64:6); proving that it is not on the ground of His people's righteousness that He accepts them. Here primarily the \"filthy garments\" represent the abject state temporally of the priesthood and people at the return from Babylon. Yet he \"stood before the angel.\" Abject as he was, he was before Jehovah's eye, who graciously accepts His people's services, though mixed with sin and infirmity.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["those that stood before him--the ministering angels (compare the phrase in Kg1 10:8; Dan 1:5). \n\nTake away the filthy garments--In Zac 3:9 it is \"remove the iniquity of that land\"; therefore Joshua represents the land. \n\nfrom him--literally, \"from upon him\"; pressing upon him as an overwhelming burden. \n\nchange of raiment--festal robes of the high priest, most costly and gorgeous; symbol of Messiah's imputed righteousness (Mat 22:11). The restoration of the glory of the priesthood is implied: first, partially, at the completion of the second temple; fully realized in the great High Priest Jesus, whose name is identical with Joshua (Heb 4:8), the Representative of Israel, the \"kingdom of priests\" (Exo 19:6); once clad in the filthy garments of our vileness, but being the chosen of the Father (Isa 42:1; Isa 44:1; Isa 49:1-3), He hath by death ceased from sin, and in garments of glory entered the heavenly holy place as our High Priest (Heb 8:1; Heb 9:24). Then, as the consequence (Pe1 2:5), realized in the Church generally (Luk 15:22; Rev 19:8), and in Israel in particular (Isa 61:10; compare Isa 3:6; Isa 66:21).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["And I said--Here the prophet, rejoicing at the change of raiment so far made, interposes to ask for the crowning assurance that the priesthood would be fully restored, namely, the putting the miter or priestly turban on Joshua: its fair color symbolizing the official purity of the order restored. He does not command, but prays; not \"Set,\" but \"Let them set.\" Vulgate and Syriac version read it, \"He then said,\" which is the easier reading; but the very difficulty of the present Hebrew reading makes it less likely to come from a modern corrector of the text. \n\nangel of . . . Lord stood by--the Divine Angel had been sitting (the posture of a judge, Dan 7:9); now He \"stands\" to see that Zechariah's prayer be executed, and then to give the charge (Zac 3:6-7).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["protested--proceeded solemnly to declare. A forensic term for an affirmation on oath (Heb 6:17-18). God thus solemnly states the end for which the priesthood is restored to the people, His own glory in their obedience and pure worship, and their consequent promotion to heavenly honor.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["God's choice of Jerusalem (Zac 3:2) was unto its sanctification (Joh 15:16; Rom 8:29); hence the charge here which connects the promised blessing with obedience. \n\nmy charge--the ordinances, ritual and moral (Num 3:28, Num 3:31-32, Num 3:38; Jos 1:7-9; Kg1 2:3; Eze 44:16). \n\njudge my house--Thou shalt long preside over the temple ceremonial as high priest (Lev 10:10; Eze 44:23; Mal 2:7) [GROTIUS]. Or, rule over My house, that is, My people [MAURER] (Num 12:7; Hos 8:1). We know from Deu 17:9 that the priest judged cases. He was not only to obey the Mosaic institute himself, but to see that it was obeyed by others. God's people are similarly to exercise judgment hereafter, as the reward of their present faithfulness (Dan 7:18, Dan 7:22; Luk 19:17; Co1 6:2); by virtue of their royal priesthood (Rev 1:6). \n\nkeep my courts--guard My house from profanation. \n\nplaces to walk--free ingress and egress (Sa1 18:16; Kg1 3:7; Kg1 15:17), so that thou mayest go through these ministering angels who stand by Jehovah (Zac 4:14; Zac 6:5; Kg1 22:19) into His presence, discharging thy priestly function. In Eze 42:4 the same Hebrew word is used of a walk before the priests' chambers in the future temple. Zechariah probably refers here to such a walk or way; Thou shalt not merely walk among priests like thyself, as in the old temple walks, but among the very angels as thine associates. HENGSTENBERG translates, \"I will give thee guides (from) among these,\" &c. But there is no \"from\" in the Hebrew; English Version is therefore better. Priests are called angels or \"messengers\" (Mal 2:7); they are therefore thought worthy to be associated with heavenly angels. So these latter are present at the assemblies of true Christian worshippers (Co1 11:10; compare Ecc 5:6; Eph 3:10; Rev 22:9).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":8,"content":["Hear--On account of the magnitude of what He is about to say, He at once demands solemn attention. \n\nthy fellows that sit before thee--thy subordinate colleagues in the priesthood; not that they were actually then sitting before him; but their usual posture in consultations was on chairs or benches before him, while he sat on an elevated seat as their president. \n\nthey are--From speaking to Joshua He passes to speaking of him and them, in the third person, to the attendant angels (compare Zac 3:9). \n\nmen wondered at--Hebrew, \"men of wonder,\" that is, having a typical character (Isa 8:18; Isa 20:3; Eze 12:11; Eze 24:24). Joshua the high priest typifies Messiah, as Joshua's \"fellows\" typify believers whom Messiah admits to share His Priesthood (Pe1 2:5; Rev 5:10). This, its typical character, then, is a pledge to assure the desponding Jews that the priesthood shall be preserved till the great Antitype comes. There may be also an indirect reproof of the unbelief of the multitude who \"wonder\" at God's servants and even at God's Son incredulously (Psa 71:7; Isa 8:18; Isa 53:1, &c.). \n\nbehold--marking the greatness of what follows. \n\nmy servant--the characteristic title of Messiah (Isa 42:1; Isa 49:3; Isa 50:10; Isa 52:13; Isa 53:11; Eze 34:23-24). \n\nthe Branch--Messiah, a tender branch from the almost extinct royal line of David (Zac 6:12; Isa 4:2; Isa 11:1; Jer 23:5; Jer 33:15). Luk 1:78, where for \"day spring,\" \"branch\" may be substituted (Mal 4:2, however, favors English Version). The reference cannot be to Zerubbabel (as GROTIUS thinks), for he was then in the full discharge of his office, whereas \"the Branch\" here is regarded as future.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["For--expressing the ground for encouragement to the Jews in building the temple: I (Jehovah) have laid the (foundation) stone as the chief architect, before (in the presence of) Joshua, by \"the hand of Zerubbabel\" (Zac 4:10; Ezr 3:8-13), so that your labor in building shall not be vain. Antitypically, the (foundation) stone alluded to is Christ, before called \"the Branch.\" Lest any should think from that term that His kingdom is weak, He now calls it \"the stone,\" because of its solidity and strength whereby it is to be the foundation of the Church, and shall crush all the world kingdoms (Psa 118:22; compare Isa 28:16; Dan 2:45; Mat 21:42; Co1 3:11; Pe1 2:6-7). The angel pointing to the chief stone lying before Him, intimates that a deeper mystery than the material temple is symbolized. MOORE thinks the \"stone\" is the Jewish Church, which Jehovah engages watchfully to guard. The temple, rather, is that symbolically. But the antitype of the foundation-stone is Messiah. \n\nupon one stone shall be seven eyes--namely, the watchful \"eyes\" of Jehovah's care ever fixed \"upon\" it (Zac 4:10) [MAURER]. The eye is the symbol of Providence: \"seven,\" of perfection (Rev 5:6; compare Ch2 16:9; Psa 32:8). Antitypically, \"the seven eyes upon the stone\" are the eyes of all angels (Ti1 3:16), and of all saints (Joh 3:14-15; Joh 12:32), and of the patriarchs and prophets (Joh 8:56; Pe1 1:10-11), fixed on Christ; above all, the eyes of the Father ever rest with delight on Him. CALVIN (perhaps better) considers the seven eyes to be carved on the stone, that is, not the eyes of the Father and of angels and saints ever fixed on Him, but His own sevenfold (perfect) fullness of grace, and of gifts of the Spirit (Isa 11:2-3; Joh 1:16; Joh 3:34; Col 1:19; Col 2:9), and His watchful providence now for the Jews m building the temple, and always for His Church, His spiritual temple. Thus the \"stone\" is not as other stones senseless, but living and full of eyes of perfect intelligence (Pe1 2:4, \"a living stone\"), who not only attracts the eyes (Joh 12:32) of His people, but emits illumination so as to direct them to Him. \n\nengrave . . . graying--implying Messiah's exceeding beauty and preciousness; alluding to the polished stones of the temple: Christ excelled them, as much as God who \"prepared His body\" (Heb 10:5; compare Joh 2:21) is superior to all human builders. \n\nremove . . . iniquity of that land in one day--that is, the iniquity and its consequences, namely the punishment to which the Jews heretofore had been subjected (Hag 1:6, Hag 1:9-11). The remission of sin is the fountain of every other blessing. The \"one day\" of its removal is primarily the day of national atonement celebrated after the completion of the temple (Lev 23:27) on the tenth day of the seventh month. Antitypically, the atonement by Messiah for all men, once for all (\"one day\") offered, needing no repetition like the Mosaic sacrifices (Heb 10:10, Heb 10:12, Heb 10:14).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":10,"content":["under . . . vine . . . fig tree--emblem of tranquil prosperity (Kg1 4:25). Type of spiritual peace with God through Christ (Rom 5:1); and of millennial blessedness (Mic 4:4).\n\n\n\n\nNext: Zechariah Chapter 4\n\n"]}],"introduction":"FOURTH VISION. Joshua the high priest before the angel of Jehovah; accused by Satan, but justified by Jehovah through Messiah the coming Branch. (Zac 3:1-10)\n\nJoshua as high priest (Hag 1:1) represents \"Jerusalem\" (Zac 3:2), or the elect people, put on its trial, and \"plucked\" narrowly \"out of the fire.\" His attitude, \"standing before the Lord,\" is that of a high priest ministering before the altar erected previously to the building of the temple (Ezr 3:2-3, Ezr 3:6; Psa 135:2). Yet, in this position, by reason of his own and his people's sins, he is represented as on his and their trial (Num 35:12). \n\nhe showed me--\"He\" is the interpreting angel. Jerusalem's (Joshua's) \"filthy garments\" (Zac 3:3) are its sins which had hitherto brought down God's judgments. The \"change of raiment\" implies its restoration to God's favor. Satan suggested to the Jews that so consciously polluted a priesthood and people could offer no acceptable sacrifice to God, and therefore they might as well desist from the building of the temple. Zechariah encourages them by showing that their demerit does not disqualify them for the work, as they are accepted in the righteousness of another, their great High Priest, the Branch (Zac 3:8), a scion of their own royal line of David (Isa 11:1). The full accomplishment of Israel's justification and of Satan the accuser's being \"rebuked\" finally, is yet future (Rev 12:10). Compare Rev 11:8, wherein \"Jerusalem,\" as here, is shown to be meant primarily, though including the whole Church in general (compare Job 1:9). \n\nSatan--the Hebrew term meaning \"adversary\" in a law court: as devil is the Greek term, meaning accuser. Messiah, on the other hand, is \"advocate\" for His people in the court of heaven's justice (Jo1 2:1). \n\nstanding at his right hand--the usual position of a prosecutor or accuser in court, as the left hand was the position of the defendant (Psa 109:6). The \"angel of the Lord\" took the same position just before another high priest was about to beget the forerunner of Messiah (Luk 1:11), who supplants Satan from his place as accuser. Some hence explain Jde 1:9 as referring to this passage: \"the body of Moses\" being thus the Jewish Church, for which Satan contended as his by reason of its sins; just as the \"body of Christ\" is the Christian Church. However, Jde 1:9 plainly speaks of the literal body of Moses, the resurrection of which at the transfiguration Satan seems to have opposed on the ground of Moses' error at Meribah; the same divine rebuke, \"the Lord rebuke thee,\" checked Satan in contending for judgment against Moses' body, as checked him when demanding judgment against the Jewish Church, to which Moses' body corresponds.\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ZEC/3.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ZEC","chapter":3},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ZEC/4.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ZEC","chapter":4},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ZEC/2.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ZEC","chapter":2},"numberOfVerses":9}