translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: ZEC

label: NET study note

text: Lord who rules over all . There is a remarkable concentration of this name of God in this section of Zechariah. Of 53 occurrences of יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת ( yÿhvah tsÿva ’ ot ) in the Hebrew text in the book, 18 are in this chapter. The reason is the sheer human impossibility of accomplishing what lies ahead – it must be done by the Lord who rules over all .


text: The references to longevity and to children living and playing in peace are eschatological in tone. Elsewhere the millennial kingdom is characterized in a similar manner (cf. Isa 65:20 ; Jer 31:12-13 ).


text: The affirmation They will be my people, and I will be their God speaks of covenant renewal, a restoration of the unbroken fellowship the Lord desired to have with his people but which their disloyalty had shattered. In the eschaton God and Israel will be in covenant union once again (cf. Jer 31:33 ).


text: These prophets who were there at the founding of the house of the Lord who rules over all included at least Haggai and Zechariah, and perhaps others. The founding referred to here is not the initial laying of the temple’s foundations in 536 b.c. ( Ezra 3:8 ) but the resumption of work two years before the time of the present narrative (i.e., in 520 b.c. ), as vv. 10-12 make clear.


text: For a similar reference to true and righteous judgment see Mic 6:8 .


text: The fasts of the fifth and seventh months, mentioned previously ( 7:5 ), are listed here along with the observances of the fourth and tenth months. The latter commemorated the siege of Jerusalem by the Babylonians on January 15, 588 b.c. ( 2 Kgs 25:1 ), and the former the breach of the city walls on or about July 18, 586 b.c. ( Jer 39:2-5 ).


text: This scene of universal and overwhelming attraction of the nations to Israel’s God finds initial fulfillment in the establishment of the church ( Acts 2:5-11 ) but ultimate completion in the messianic age ( Isa 45:14, 24; 60:14 ; Zech 14:16-21 ).