Haggai told a discouraged people to pick up their tools. Zechariah, two months later, tells them what the building is for — and does it in horses, horns, scrolls, lampstands and a flying basket. It is the strangest book in this section and one of the most quoted in the New Testament.

The young one

Very little is known about him. He was a contemporary of Haggai, and appears to have been quite young at the time of his prophecy (2:4), so he was probably born during the captivity as Haggai was.

He joins Haggai in rousing the Jews to rebuild the temple, with much the same zeal (Ezra 6:14). It is worth noting that the Septuagint credits several of the Psalms to Zechariah and Haggai — these two were remembered as men who put words in the mouth of a worshipping people, not only in its ears.

But the two of them work completely differently. Haggai speaks very directly to the people in front of him. Zechariah is visionary, and writes in far more figurative language — much as Ezekiel and Daniel do, and for the same reason: all three are writing in or just out of exile, where saying things plainly about empires was not always wise and where the plain thing had stopped being enough anyway.

His prophecy is aimed at the same lethargy Haggai attacks. But he also looks forward to the coming of the Messiah, and makes some astonishing statements about what would happen when He came.

The line the whole book turns on

They were a small, poor, unimpressive community rebuilding a modest house with a hostile province watching. The fifth vision answers that directly.

“This is the word the LORD spoke to Zerubbabel: You won’t ⌜succeed⌝ by might or by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of Armies.”Zechariah 4:6 · GW

It is spoken to a man holding a trowel with no army and no treasury. Not a consolation for the weak — a statement about which force is actually operating.

Eight visions in a night

They come in one night, and they run in a deliberate order: from the outside world inward to the temple, and from the present toward the end.

1. The man among the myrtle trees, and the horses  1:7–17 — patrols returning to report that the whole earth is quiet. Which sounds like good news, and is not: the nations are comfortable while Jerusalem is rubble.
2. The four horns and the four craftsmen  1:18–21 — the powers that scattered Judah, and the workmen sent to strike them down. One craftsman per horn.
3. The man with the measuring line  chapter 2 — a surveyor goes out to measure Jerusalem for walls and is told to stop. There will be too many people for walls, and God Himself will be a wall of fire around it.
4. The cleansing of the high priest  chapter 3 — see below.
5. The golden lampstand and the two olive trees  chapter 4 — a lamp fed directly, with no one carrying the oil. Compare Revelation 1:19–20 and 11:4.
6. The flying scroll  5:1–4 — a curse going out over the land against theft and perjury, and entering houses.
7. The woman in the basket  5:5–11 — wickedness sealed in a measuring basket and carried off to Babylon, which is where it came from. Sin is not reformed here. It is deported.
8. The four chariots  6:1–8 — going out to the four winds; and then the crowning of the high priest (6:9–15).

The filthy clothes

The fourth vision is the one to read slowly. The high priest is standing before the Messenger of the LORD with the accuser at his right hand, and he is filthy — the word is a strong one, and for a priest it is disqualifying.

“Joshua was wearing filthy clothes and was standing in front of the Messenger. The Messenger said to those who were standing in front of him, ‘Remove Joshua’s filthy clothes.’ Then he said to Joshua, ‘See, I have taken your sin away from you, and I will dress you in fine clothing.’”Zechariah 3:3–4 · GW

Nobody disputes the accusation. The clothes really are filthy and the charge is not answered on the facts. It is answered by a change of clothing, handed over rather than earned.

Which is the gospel, standing in the middle of a book written five centuries early, in the only form available at the time — a picture.

The astonishing statements

From chapter 9 the book turns almost entirely to what happens when Messiah comes, and the specificity of it is the reason the Gospel writers keep reaching for Zechariah in the last week of Jesus’ life.

“Look! Your King is coming to you: He is righteous and victorious. He is humble and rides on a donkey, on a colt, a young pack animal.”Zechariah 9:9 · GW

A victorious king arriving on a working animal instead of a warhorse. Both halves at once, and neither one softened.

“And they paid me my wages — 30 pieces of silver. The LORD told me, ‘Give it to the potter.’ … Such a magnificent price was set by them! I gave the pieces of silver to the potter at the house of the LORD.”Zechariah 11:12–13 · GW

The sarcasm in such a magnificent price is in the Hebrew. Thirty pieces of silver was the compensation due for a gored slave — the going rate for a person you did not think much of.

“Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.”Zechariah 13:7 · GW

Quoted by Jesus on the way to Gethsemane, about the men walking with Him.

“They will look at me, whom they have stabbed. Then they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only son.”Zechariah 12:10 · GW

Read the pronouns in that sentence and then read them again. Me, whom they have stabbed — then they will mourn for him. The speaker is God, and the one pierced is somehow both God and another. The grammar is not tidy and it is not an accident.

The bells on the horses

And then the ending, which is the most amazing statement in the book.

“On that day ‘Holy to the LORD’ will be written on the bells of the horses. And the cooking pots in the house of the LORD will be like the bowls in front of the altar. Yes, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah will be holy to the LORD of Armies.”Zechariah 14:20–21 · GW

You have to know what that phrase was to feel it. Holy to the LORD was engraved on a gold plate on the high priest’s turban, and on nothing else. One object, on one man, once a year in the holiest place.

Zechariah puts it on horse harness. And then on kitchen pots, and every pot, in every house, in the whole country — each one as fit for the altar as the temple’s own bowls.

The entire architecture of holy and common, which the whole Law had spent centuries building, is not abolished. It is overrun from the inside, by holiness spreading until there is nowhere left for the ordinary to stand.

“The LORD will be king over all the earth. On that day the LORD will be the only LORD and his name the only name.”Zechariah 14:9 · GW

The book in three sections

Opening exhortations  1:1–6 — do not be like your fathers, who would not listen.

I. The eight visions  1:7 – 6:15, as listed above.

II. The answer to the deputation from Bethel about the fasts  chapters 7 and 8 — a delegation asks whether they should keep fasting for a disaster that is now over. The prophecy is that the fasts will become festivals. The gentlest thing in the book sits in the middle of it: old men and women sitting in the streets with canes, and the streets full of children playing (8:4–5). After a siege, that is what peace looks like — the very old and the very young outdoors and unafraid.

III. A vision of the final triumph of God’s kingdom in the coming of the Messiah  chapters 9 – 14.

Before you move on

Read Malachi last. He comes some decades after this, to people who have the temple Haggai and Zechariah argued them into building — and who are bored with it.