Notes on Zechariah 2

When I say Zechariah 2 I'm talking about the Hebrew numbering; in English it's 1:18-2:13. Conveniently the Hebrew versification gives us two chapters of equal length. 

And, as with chapter 1, the basic division gives us two sections of unequal length. Chapter 1 was divided by the date formulas into 1:1-6 and 1:7-17. Chapter 2 is divided by the vision formulas into 2:1-4 and 2:5-17. However, as with the secondary division I suggested in chapter 1 (revealing 1-6; 7-11; 12-17), the second part of chapter 2 divides into two as the visions give way to a divine oracle. This reveals the following structure:

2:1-4 The vision of the four horns
2:5-7 The vision of the measuring man

2:8-17 The word for Daughter Zion

1. The four horns

The four horns are mentioned four times, with a fifth in the singular in the final line of v4 (Eng. 1:21). These horns are what Zechariah sees in this vision, and there are four of them, which could, depending on how you count horses, have somehow morphed out of the horses of chapter 1. It's interesting that in chapter 6 and the final vision, there are explicitly four chariots, while at least the first (and presumably the others too) had four horses, which are also four spirits. 

Apart from date formulas, it is only in chapters 2 and 6 where the number four appears. While I haven't yet started to think about the suggestion of a chiastic structure of the vision sequence, it does seem at this point that the first two visions somehow meld into the final vision. But as I say, I'll think about that after I get to the midway point of the book.

However, while the horses of ch1 were scouts, these horns are the powers which scattered Judah and Israel and Jerusalem. At first I thought this could be a way of speaking about the power of Yhwh but the four smiths (2:3-4) would seem to be the anti-horns and also working for Yhwh. Therefore the horns are the powers of the nations, perhaps identified with Assyria (Israel), Egypt and Babylon (Judah & Jerusalem) and I'm not sure who the fourth would be. Perhaps Persia? I know they're sort of God's means of return but that doesn't make them the good guys either. 

2:4 is a super confusing verse; it's also super long. It says something like:

And I said
   "What are these going to do?"
and he spoke and said
   "These are the horns which scattered Yehud
      such that a man's lip could not lift his head
   And these [the smiths?] are going to terrify them [the horns]
      to throw down the horns of the nations
      who raised up a horn against the land of Yehud, to scatter her."

I have no idea what the smiths could be representing except the vibe that Yhwh will sort them out.

2. The measuring man

With the same formula the next vision is a new scene, which reintroduces the measuring line of 1:16. However rather than Yhwh of Armies stretching out his line, it is this man in the vision. 

But while Yhwh promised to measure Jerusalem for a new fit-out, another divine messenger jumps in to stop him, not because he's doing something wrong, but because Yhwh's vision for his city has been enlarged, such that no wall could hope to enclose the multitude of man and beast which will be within it. Thankfully she will not be defenseless, but Yhwh will be a wall of fire around her. 

I'm not clear how this answers the question of the rebuild Zerubbabel is commissioned to do. Perhaps it is about priorities - don't fret about the wall, focus on the temple. The wall can wait, and maybe you won't even need it. 

There is a similar ring to the description of future Jerusalem and Jonah's Nineveh, with it not just being about people but animals (בהמה) too. The difference of course is that Yhwh does not promise to dwell in Nineveh, but he will be in Jerusalem: a fiery wall without and glory within. 

3. Daughter Zion

This final part is punctuated by the declaration formula (נאם־יהוה) and also divides quite nicely into בת־בבל (daughter Babel) and  בת־ציון (daughter Jerusalem). 

2:10-13 (Eng. 2:6-9) is a warning to flee and be free of Babylon, the land of the north (I guess you have to travel north to get east?), and then 2:14-17 (Eng. 2:10-13) are the promise of the new life in the restored land. 

The first section here thrice has the interjection הוי, which is sometimes "woe!" and sometimes just like it sounds: "oi!" McComiskey explains that with the verbal idea it precedes it has to be something similar, like "up!" or as the NIV puts it, "come!" The conjunction כי (ki - for) turns up here surprisingly for the first time in the book. It's five times in 2:10-13 and another three in 14-17, and clearly seems to providing some structure. 

In the second section שכן (to dwell) occurs twice, and this is the key promise. Yhwh will dwell among his people in his city in land. This reverses the departure of Yhwh from the temple in Ezekiel, and is the foundation upon which the future of Yehud as the reconstituted people of God can proceed. "He has roused himself from his holy dwelling" (2:17) in order to make Jerusalem again known as the place where he dwells. 

This is also the beginning of the promise which reaches its pinnacle in ch8, that of the nations coming in to be joined to Yehud and become with them the people of Yhwh. 

Conclusion

It is this final idea of Yhwh bringing in all the nations to his city to fill it to overflowing which ties the whole passage together. The destruction of the horns of the nations, the pausing of the wall rebuilding, the return from Babylon, all make sense as the future for God's people in God's place under God's rule is revealed.