{"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":6,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":2,"content":["red--implying carnage. \n\nblack--representing sorrow; also famine (Rev 6:5-6; compare Zac 1:8).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["white--implying joy and victory [CALVIN]. \n\ngrizzled--piebald. Implying a mixed dispensation, partly prosperity, partly adversity. All four dispensations, though various in character to the Gentile nation, portended alike good to God's people. \n\nbay--rather, \"strong\" or \"fleet\"; so Vulgate [GESENIUS]. The horses have this epithet, whose part it was to \"walk to and fro through the earth\" (Zac 6:7). However, the Septuagint and Chaldee agree with English Version in referring the Hebrew to color, not strength.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["The prophet humbly and teachably seeks instruction from God, and therefore seeks not in vain.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["four spirits of the heavens--heavenly spirits who \"stand before Jehovah\" to receive God's commands (Zac 4:14; Kg1 22:19; Job 2:1; Luk 1:19) in heaven (of which Zion is the counterpart on earth, see on Zac 6:1), and proceed with chariot speed (Kg2 6:17; Psa 68:17) to execute them on earth in its four various quarters (Psa 104:4; Heb 1:7, Heb 1:14) [PEMBELLUS]. Or, the secret impulses of God which emanate from His counsel and providence; the prophet implies that all the revolutions in the world are from the Spirit of God and are as it were, His messengers or spirits [CALVIN].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["north country--Babylon (see on Jer 1:14). The north is the quarter specified in particular whence Judah and Israel are hereafter to return to their own land (Zac 2:6; Jer 3:18). \"The black horses\" go to Babylon, primarily to represent the awful desolation with which Darius visited it in the fifth year of his reign (two years after this prophecy) for revolting [HENDERSON]. The \"white\" go after the \"black\" horses to the same country; two sets being sent to it because of its greater cruelty and guilt in respect to Judea. The white represent Darius triumphant subjugation of it [MOORE]. Rather, I think, the white are sent to victoriously subdue Medo-Persia, the second world kingdom, lying in the same quarter as Babylon, namely, north. \n\ngrizzled . . . toward the south--that is, to Egypt, the other great foe of God's people. It, being a part of the GrÃ&brvbrco-Macedonian kingdom, stands for the whole of it, the third world kingdom.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["bay--rather, the \"fleet\" (or \"strong\"). As the \"red\" are not otherwise mentioned, the epithet \"fleet\" (as the Hebrew for \"bay\" ought to be translated) in Zac 6:3 seems to apply to all four, and here especially to the \"red.\" Their office is to complete hereafter the work already in part executed by the previous three who have stilled Babylon, Medo-Persia, and GrÃ&brvbrco-Macedonia; namely, to punish finally the last great foe of Israel, the final form assumed by the fourth world kingdom, Rome, which is to continue down to the second advent of Christ. Hence they \"walk to and fro through the earth,\" counterworking Satan's \"going to and fro in the earth\" (Job 1:7; Th2 2:8-9; Ti1 4:1), in connection with the last awful development of the fourth world kingdom. Their \"fleetness\" is needed to counteract his restless activity; their red color implies the final great carnage (Eze. 39:1-29; Rev 19:17-18, Rev 19:21).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":8,"content":["north . . . quieted . . . my spirit--that is, caused My anger to rest (Jdg 8:3, Margin; Ecc 10:4; Eze 5:13; Eze 16:42). Babylon alone of the four great world kingdoms had in Zechariah's time been finally punished; therefore, in its case alone does God now say His anger is satisfied; the others had as yet to expiate their sin; the fourth has still to do so.\n\nThe double crown is placed on Joshua's head, symbolizing that the true priesthood and the kingdom shall be conferred on the one Messiah. Compare Heb 6:20; Heb. 7:1-21, on Melchisedek, who similarly combined the kingdom and priesthood as type of Messiah.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":10,"content":["NINTH VISION. THE CROWNING OF JOSHUA. (Zac 6:9-15)\n\nTake of them of the captivity--Take silver and gold (Zac 6:11) from them. The three named came from Babylon (where some of the exiled Jews still were left) to present gifts of silver and gold towards the building of the temple. But in Zac 6:11, Zac 6:14, \"crowns\" are directed to be made of them, then to be set on Joshua's head, and to be deposited in the temple as a memorial of the donors, until Messiah shall appear. \n\nHeldai--meaning \"robust.\" Called Helem below. \n\nTobijah--that is, \"the goodness of God.\" \n\nJedaiah--that is, \"God knows.\" \n\nwhich are come from Babylon--This clause in the Hebrew comes after \"Josiah son of Zephaniah.\" Therefore, MOORE thinks Josiah as well as the three \"came from Babylon.\" But as he has a \"house\" at Jerusalem, he is plainly a resident, not a visitor. Therefore English Version is right; or MAURER, \"Josiah son of Zephaniah, to whom they are come (as guests) from Babylon.\" \n\nthe same day--No time was to be lost to mark the significancy of their coming from afar to offer gifts to the temple, typifying, in the double crown made of their gifts and set on Joshua's head, the gathering in of Israel's outcasts to Messiah hereafter, who shall then be recognized as the true king and priest.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":11,"content":["The high priest wore a crown above the miter (Zac 3:5; Lev 8:9). Messiah shall wear many crowns, one surmounting the other (Rev 19:12). It was a thing before unknown in the Levitical priesthood that the same person should wear at once the crown of a king and that of a high priest (Psa 110:4; Heb 5:10). Messiah shall be revealed fully in this twofold dignity when He shall \"restore the kingdom to Israel\" (Act 1:6).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["Behold, the man--namely, shall arise. Pilate unconsciously spake God's will concerning Him, \"Behold the man\" (Joh 19:5). The sense here is, \"Behold in Joshua a remarkable shadowing forth of Messiah.\" It is not for his own sake that the crown is placed on him, but as type of Messiah about to be at once king and priest. Joshua could not personally be crowned king, not being of the royal line of David, but only in his representative character. \n\nBranch--(See on Zac 3:8; Isa 4:2; Jer 23:5; Jer 33:15). \n\nhe shall grow up out of his place--retaining the image of a \"Branch\"; \"He shall sprout up from His place,\" that is, the place peculiar to Him: not merely from Beth-lehem or Nazareth, but by His own power, without man's aid, in His miraculous conception [HENDERSON]; a sense brought out in the original, \"from under Himself,\" or \"from (of) Himself\" [CALVIN]. MOORE makes it refer to His growing lowly in His place of obscurity, \"as a tender plant and a root out of a dry ground\" (Isa 53:2), for thirty years unknown except as the son of a carpenter. MAURER translates, \"Under Him there shall be growth (in the Church).\" English Version accords better with the Hebrew (compare Exo 10:23). The idea in a Branch is that Christ's glory is growing, not yet fully manifested as a full-grown tree. Therefore men reject Him now. \n\nbuild the temple--The promise of the future true building of the spiritual temple by Messiah (Mat 16:18; Co1 3:17; Co2 6:16; Eph 2:20-22; Heb 3:3) is an earnest to assure the Jews, that the material temple will be built by Joshua and Zerubbabel, in spite of all seeming obstacles. It also raises their thoughts beyond the material to the spiritual temple, and also to the future glorious temple, to be reared in Israel under Messiah's superintendence (Eze. 40:1-43:27). The repetition of the same clause (Zac 6:13) gives emphasis to the statement as to Messiah's work.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["bear the glory--that is, wear the insignia of the kingly glory, \"the crowns\" (Psa 21:5; Psa 102:16; Isa 52:13). He himself shall bear the glory, not thou, Joshua, though thou dost bear the crowns. The Church's dignity is in her head alone, Christ. So Eliakim, type of Messiah, was to have \"all the glory of his father's house hung upon him\" (Isa 22:24). \n\nsit--implying security and permanence. \n\npriest . . . throne-- (Gen 14:18; Psa 110:4; Heb 5:6, Heb 5:10; Heb 6:20; Heb. 7:1-28). \n\ncounsel of peace . . . between . . . both--Joshua and Zerubbabel, the religious and civil authorities co-operating in the temple, typify the peace, or harmonious union, between both the kingly and priestly offices. The kingly majesty shall not depress the priestly dignity, nor the priestly dignity the kingly majesty [JEROME]. The peace of the Church, formerly sought for in the mutual \"counsels\" of the kings and the priests, who had been always distinct, shall be perfectly ensured by the concurrence of the two offices in the one Messiah, who by His mediatorial priesthood purchases it, and by His kingly rule maintains it. VITRINGA takes \"His throne\" to be Jehovah the Father's. Thus it will be, \"there shall be . . . peace between the Branch and Jehovah\" [LUDOVICUS DE DIEU]. The other view is better, namely, \"Messiah's throne.\" As Priest He expiates sin; as King, extirpates it. \"Counsel of peace,\" implies that it is the plan of infinite \"wisdom,\" whence Messiah is called \"Counsellor\" (Isa 9:6; Eph 1:8, Eph 1:11; Heb 6:17). Peace between the kingly and priestly attributes of Messiah implies the harmonizing of the conflicting claims of God's justice as a King, and His love as a Father and Priest. Hence is produced peace to man (Luk 2:14; Act 10:36; Eph 2:13-17). It is only by being pardoned through His atonement and ruled by His laws, that we can find \"peace.\" The royal \"throne\" was always connected with the \"temple,\" as is the case in the Apocalypse (Rev 7:15), because Christ is to be a king on His throne and a priest, and because the people, whose \"king\" the Lord is, cannot approach Him except by a priestly mediation [ROOS]. Jesus shall come to effect, by His presence (Isa 11:4; Dan 7:17), that which in vain is looked for, in His absence, by other means. He shall exercise His power mediatorially as priest on His throne (Zac 6:13); therefore His reign is for a limited period, which it could not be if it were the final and everlasting state of glory. But being for a special purpose, to reconcile all things in this world, now disordered by sin, and so present it to God the Father that He may again for the first time since the fall come into direct connection with His creatures; therefore it is limited, forming the dispensation in the fulness of times (Eph 1:10), when God shall gather in one all things in Christ, the final end of which shall be, \"God all in all\" (Co1 15:24-28).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":14,"content":["the crowns shall be to Helem . . . a memorial--deposited in the temple, to the honor of the donors; a memorial, too, of the coronation of Joshua, to remind all of Messiah, the promised antitypical king-priest, soon to come. Helem, the same as Heldai above. So Hen (that is, \"favor\") is another name for Josiah (that is, \"God founds\") above. The same person often had two names.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":15,"content":["they . . . far off shall . . . build--The reason why the crowns were made of gold received from afar, namely, from the Jews of Babylon, was to typify the conversion of the Gentiles to Messiah, King of Israel. This, too, was included in the \"peace\" spoken of in Zac 6:13 (Act 2:39; Eph 2:12-17). Primarily, however, the return of the dispersed Israelites \"from afar\" (Isa 60:9) to the king of the Jews at Jerusalem is intended, to be followed, secondly, by the conversion of the Gentiles from \"far off\" (Zac 2:11; Zec. 8:2-23; Isa 60:10; Isa 57:19). \n\nbuild in the temple--Christ \"builds the temple\" (Zac 6:12-13; Heb 3:3-4): His people \"build in the temple.\" Compare Heb 3:2, \"Moses in His house.\" \n\nye shall know, &c.--when the event corresponds to the prediction (Zac 2:9; Zac 4:9). \n\nthis shall come to pass, if ye . . . obey, &c.--To the Jews of Zechariah's day a stimulus is given to diligent prosecution of the temple building, the work which it was meanwhile their duty to fulfil, relying on the hope of the Messiah afterwards to glorify it. The completion of the temple shall \"come to pass,\" if ye diligently on your part \"obey the Lord.\" It is not meant that their unbelief could set aside God's gracious purpose as to Messiah's coming. But there is, secondarily, meant, that Messiah's glory as priest-king of Israel shall not be manifested to the Jews till they turn to Him with obedient penitence. They meanwhile are cast away \"branches\" until they be grafted in again on the Branch and their own olive tree (Zac 3:8; Zac 12:10-12; Mat 23:39; Rom 11:16-24).\n\n\n\n\nNext: Zechariah Chapter 7\n\n"]}],"introduction":"EIGHTH VISION. THE FOUR CHARIOTS. (Zac 6:1-8)\n\nfour chariots--symbolizing the various dispensations of Providence towards the Gentile nations which had been more or less brought into contact with Judea; especially in punishing Babylon. Compare Zac 6:8 (\"the north country,\" that is, Babylon); Zac 1:15; Zac 2:6. The number \"four\" is specified not merely in reference to the four quarters of the horizon (implying universal judgments), but in allusion to the four world kingdoms of Daniel. \n\nfrom between two mountains--the valley of Jehoshaphat, between Moriah and Mount Olivet [MOORE]; or the valley between Zion and Moriah, where the Lord is (Zac 2:10), and whence He sends forth His ministers of judgment on the heathen [MAURER]. The temple on Mount Moriah is the symbol of the theocracy; hence the nearest spot accessible to chariots in the valley below is the most suitable for a vision affecting Judah in relation to the Gentile world powers. The chariot is the symbol of war, and so of judgments. \n\nof brass--the metal among the ancients representing hard solidity; so the immovable and resistless firmness of God's people (compare Jer 1:18). CALVIN explains the \"two mountains\" thus: The secret purpose of God from eternity does not come forth to view before the execution, but is hidden and kept back irresistibly till the fit time, as it were between lofty mountains; the chariots are the various changes wrought in nations, which, as swift heralds, announce to us what before we knew not. The \"two\" may thus correspond to the number of the \"olive trees\" (Zac 4:3); the allusion to the \"two mountains\" near the temple is not necessarily excluded in this view. HENDERSON explains them to be the Medo-Persian kingdom, represented by the \"two horns\" (Dan 8:3-4), now employed to execute God's purpose in punishing the nations; but the prophecy reaches far beyond those times.\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ZEC/6.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ZEC","chapter":6},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ZEC/7.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ZEC","chapter":7},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ZEC/5.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ZEC","chapter":5},"numberOfVerses":13}