style="font-size:15px;"> The sixth vision (Zech. 5:5-11) has a barrel being carried around. The angel lifts the cover of the barrel and identifies a woman in it as “Wickedness.” Then he puts down the barrel with the cover against the ground, making it impossible for wickedness to get out. Two women with wings like the wings of storks lifted the barrel to the sky. When Zechariah asks the angel where they are taking it, he is told that the barrel is being taken to the land of Shinar, where it will be placed on its base. The vision describes the elimination of the remnants of the worship of the fertility goddess of the Canaanites which was, of course, still quite prevalent in the land after the exile. This wickedness would be done in a foreign land, not any more in Jerusalem. Thus, while in Zechariah we do not read about a new heaven and a new earth free from the pollutions that permeate the fallen creation, like in Ezekiel we do read of the purification of a polluted land of Israel. Cleansing from pollution is a primary concern in a culture centered on a temple, and apocalypticism reinstated an attachment to the Temple, the place where the unity of the universe is displayed. In Revelation the throne is found in the temple. The two are the central symbols of apocalyptic texts.
The final vision (Zech. 6:1-8) is of four chariots driven by four horses of different colors (red, black, white and dappled gray) which come from between two bronze mountains and take off in the direction of the four winds of heaven. They are to “patrol the earth,” like the four riders of the first vision. The vision ends with the angel telling Zechariah, “Behold, those who go toward the north country have set my Spirit at rest in the north country.” From the perspective of all the prophets, all the enemies of Jerusalem come from the north. Since the north is being carefully patrolled, God is at rest. In this way the seventh vision comes full circle to a land at rest, carefully patrolled by God’s agents. The agenda of all seven visions is to affirm that the world is under God’s total control.
The chapters that come from Zechariah end with the report of a matter that was causing confusion among the people who had returned from the exile. Chapter 7 tells of a delegation from Bethel that came to Jerusalem with a question to the priests at the temple: Were they to observe the fast of the fifth month? The answer given by Zechariah is a word of the Lord which does not refer to the question. It gives a lengthy list of what the Lord expects from his people. It would seem that the answer is that rather than being concerned with fasting they should be concerned with kindness, mercy, non-oppression of others, etc. This answer is in agreement with the prophetic tradition that prioritizes upholding justice and peace rather than cultic performances. In the process, it shifts attention from the past to the future. Actually, since God is going to “be their God in faithfulness and in righteousness,” from now on “the fast of the fourth month, and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth shall be to the house of Judah seasons of joy and gladness, and cheerful feasts; therefore love truth and peace” (Zech. 8:19). The future will not consist of fasts but of celebrations. The only explanation for the question having been raised by the delegation from Bethel, it would seem, is that they thought that on account of their syncretistic practices during the exile in Babylon they were now in no condition to observe the fast commemorating the destruction of the temple in 587 B.C.E. The answer, rather than to place attention to the destruction of the temple, calls attention to the restoration of the fortunes of Israel, something which apocalyptic texts will consider essential.
In the tradition of the prophets, Zechariah reviews what is going on at the time and pleads with the people to repent and live according to the ways the Lord expects from them. Yet, significantly, he does what no other prophet had done before. At the very introduction, God instructs Zechariah, “The Lord was very angry with your fathers, . . Therefore say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts: Return to me, says the Lord of hosts, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. Be not like your fathers, to whom the former prophets cried out, Thus says the Lord of hosts, Return from your evil ways and from your evil deeds.’ But they did not hear or heed me, says the Lord. ‘Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live for ever? But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not overtake your fathers?’” (Zech. 1:2-6). Zechariah is calling attention to the past as a source of valuable lessons. Their fathers did not follow God’s advice to repent, and the punishments God described to them in advance came to pass. In this way he places himself in the tradition of the “former prophets” (Zech. 7:7, 12), and applies their oracles to his own day. Many of his images are taken from them, suggesting that he sees himself as the interpreter of previous prophetic sayings. He refers to the seventy years of Jeremiah (Zech. 1:12; Jer. 25:11; 29:10), the smiths (Is. 54:16-17), the measuring line (Ez. 42:20), the north country (Jer. 1:13-16; Ez. 38:6), the Branch (Jer. 22:5; 33:15), the wall of fire (Is. 4:5) and probably the horsemen with news of Babylon’s defeat (Is. 21:9). Thus, Zechariah is the forerunner of a characteristic of the authors of apocalypses who saw themselves as the eschatological interpreters of the “former prophets.”
Another innovation found in Zechariah is the way in which angels functions in his oracles. In Micah and in Isaiah one reads of supernatural beings who speak to each other or with the seer. It is only in Zechariah that the angel becomes the interpreter of what the prophet is seeing. This means that the role of the prophet has been changed. Rather than being the one who receives the Word of the Lord, or is inspired to speak for the Lord, the prophet has become the interpreter of previous words of the Lord, or the messenger of the interpretation of visions provided by an angel. One needs to note that the Hebrew word for angel, mal’ak, also means messenger, and in time also came to mean prophet. In Zechariah the angel also functions as intercessor (Zech. 1:12) and the giver of oracles (Zech. 1:14-17; 2:4-5).
As I said at the beginning of this section, chapters 9 to 14 of Zechariah come from a different, later source. They are actually two booklets of a collection of three anonymous announcements that are titled “oracles” (massa’). The third one is now known as the book of Malachi (from mal’ak), that is to say “my messenger,” on account of the expression, “Behold, I send my messenger” (Mal. 3:1). The first two oracles now found in Zechariah (Zech. 9:1-11:17 and 12:1-14:21) are also eschatological oracles of “the messenger” who had been identified before as a prophet. These two are similar to the third massa’ which was published independently as Malachi.
Like Ezekiel, Zechariah envisions the restoration of the land in peace and prosperity to take place in Judah and the surrounding regions, especially toward the South. God’s promise is, “I will return to Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem.” Like Ezekiel, Zechariah gives to Jerusalem a new name, actually two different ones: “The faithful city,” “The mountain of the Lord of hosts,” or “The holy mountain” (Zech. 8:3), rather than “The Lord is there” (Ez. 48:35). Then the Lord promises that “old men and old women shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each with staff in hand for very age. And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets .… For there shall be a sowing of peace; the vine shall yield its fruit, and the ground shall give its increase, and the heavens shall give their dew” (Zech. 8:4-5, 12). Also in agreement with Ezekiel, Zechariah understands that God is the source of both good and evil. God says, “As I purposed to do evil to you, when your fathers provoked me to wrath, and I did not relent, says the Lord of hosts, so again have I purposed in these days to do good to Jerusalem and to the house of Judah; fear not” (Zech. 8:14-15). Unlike the future apocalypticists, Zechariah does not attribute to Satan and his cohorts the power to bring about the suffering experienced by God’s people. As in Job, here Satan is known as the accuser at the heavenly court, not as the one who operates freely in a fallen world. It is clear that Zechariah introduces changes to the prophetic perspective in reference to its view of inspiration and its view of God as the Lord of history. These changes became prominent in apocalyptic texts, but Zechariah is not yet an apocalyptic book. In the tradition of the prophets, Zechariah shows a God who is zealous and punishes discreet sins in specific ways, and he envisions the future of Israel still in nationalistic terms. He does not envision the people’s historical experience as the result of a cosmic Fall, and the future he describes is still a historical one in a purified land.
The Book of the Watchers
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