Zechariah 1:1

In the eighth month,.... The month Marchesvan, called the month Bul, in 1 Kings 6:38 which answers to part of our October, and part of November: this was but two months from the first prophecy of

In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the LORD unto Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet, saying, The man among the myrtles-Comforting

CHAPTER 1 Zechariah exhorteth to repentance, Zechariah 1:1-6. His vision of the horses and their angelic riders, Zechariah 1:7-11. At the prayer of the angel comfortable promises are made to Jerusalem, Zechariah 1:12-17. The vision of the four horns, and the four carpenters, Zechariah 1:18-21. In the eighth month; called both Marchesvan and Bul by the Hebrews, and answers to part of our October and November. Two months after Haggai began to encourage the Jews to build the temple. Darius; son of Hystaspes, and the third Persian monarch: see Haggai 1:1; and again Zechariah 1:15, at large. Came the word of the Lord: here is his warrant and Divine call, the Lord communicated to him what he was to communicate to, others. Zechariah: his name bespeaks him a remembrancer of God, or it may speak God remembering him, and the rest of this people. The son; the Jew called the descendants in right line sons, though they were grandsons, or great-grandsons; and in this sense some say Zechariah is the son of Baruch, and the son of Iddo. This Zechariah is not he that is mentioned 2 Chronicles 24:20, this is too early by many years; nor is this Zechariah the father of John Baptist, this is as much too late; but most likely it is that Zechariah whom the Jews slew between the temple and the altar, Matthew 23:35. Berechiah: this name is expressly mentioned Matthew 23, and his time exactly suits the time pointed at by the evangelist. Iddo: one of this name you have 2 Chronicles 9:29, but this is too old to be this in the text, for there will be found (as Wolphius in Ezram notes) four hundred and fifty years' distance between Iddo the seer and this Iddo mentioned in the text. The prophet; whether Zechariah or Iddo I determine not. THE Zechariah is the second prophet who cometh from God to the returned captives, and his errand to them was both to second Haggai's exhortations, and to reveal more fully than he doth all the future revolutions and events; to the final desolation of Jerusalem and the second temple by the Romans, and the rejection of the Jews for their sins against all the mercies of their God, and for their rejecting and murdering of the Messiah; who, rejected of the Jews, taketh in the Gentiles, and establisheth his church amongst them; which is revealed unto Zechariah, and communicated to the Jews by him; with a declaration of the future ruin of the Persian kingdom by the Grecians, and also of the wars of the Seleucidae and Lagidae, and their overthrow by the Romans; during the series of which times, the Jews shall be grown numerous, wealthy, and powerful, and, so long as they keep their covenant with God, shall do wonderful things, and be eminently owned of God, and be either wonderfully secured amidst these troubles, or more wonderfully victorious over those that trouble them.

Zechariah 1:1 In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the LORD unto Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet, saying,Ver. 1. In the eight month, in the second year of Darius] Two months after Haggai began to prophesy. These two prophets did jointly together reprove the Jews for their sloth in rebuilding the temple, and incite them to set forward the work, Ezra 5:1, contributing their utmost help thereunto, Zechariah 1:2. They were also a singular help the one to the other, in the execution of their office. For "two are better than one"; and why, see Ecclesiastes 4:9. For which cause also Christ sent out first the twelve, and then the seventy, by two and two, Mark 6:7 Luke 10:1. So Paul and Barnabas were sent abroad; the two faithful witnesses, Revelation 11:8. Sυντεδυερχομενω, as the poet speaks of Ulysses, and Diomedes sent to fetch in the palladium. One good man may be an angel to another (as Bradford was to his fellow martyr, Dr Taylor), nay, a god to another, as Moses was to Aaron, Exodus 4:16. And for others; in the mouth of two or three witnesses a truth is better believed by them; and a twisted cord not easily broken. Haggai lays down the mind of God to the people more plainly in direct and downright terms; Zechariah flies a higher pitch, abounding with types and visions; and is therefore worthily reckoned among the abstrusest and profoundest penmen of Holy Scripture, Prae caeteris obscurus est, profundas, varius, prolixus, et aenigmaticus (Cor. a Lapide). For it must be understood (and let it here be prefaced) that albeit all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable to instruct, 2 Timothy 3:16, pure, precious, and profitable, every leaf, line, and letter of it, Psalms 12:6 Proverbs 30:5; yet, between Scripture and Scripture there is no small difference; some pieces of God’ s Book for their antiquity, and some other for their obscurity, do justly challenge our greater attention and industry. Of the former sort, famous for their antiquity, are the five Books of Moses, whom Theodoret fitly calleth the great Ocean of divinity (τοντης Yεολογιαςωκεανον), the fountain of the following Scriptures. Of the second sort, noted for their difficulty, and that will not be acquainted with us but upon further suit, some are hard through their fulness of matter in fewness of words, as the poetical books, wherein (no doubt) the verse also hath caused some cloud: and others again, by the sublimity of the subject they handle; such as are the Books of Ezekiel, and Daniel, and this of Zechariah, who is totus fere symbolicus, the whole is to take symbolically and is much followed by St John in his Revelation. Hence Jerome in his prologue to this prophet saith, Ab obscuris ad obscuriora transimus, et cum Mose ingredimur ad nubem et caliginem. Abyssus abyssum invocat.

(1-6) On the four-and-twentieth day of the sixth mouth of the second year (B.C. 520) of Darius Hystaspis, the re-building of the Temple had been resumed (Haggai 1:15); and in the seventh month, on the twenty-first of that month, the prophet Haggai had foretold “the latter glory of this house shall be greater than its former” (Haggai 2:9); and now, but a few weeks later, Zechariah receives his mission. He is commanded to exhort the people to avoid such punishments as fell on their fathers, and to make themselves worthy of the glory which should be revealed, by turning unto the Lord with sincere repentance.

THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ZECHARIAH Chronological Notes relative to this Book -Year from the Creation, according to Archbishop Usher, 3484. -Year of the Julian Period, 4194. -Year of the Jewish era of the world, 3241. -Year from the Flood, 1828. -Year from the vocation of Abram, 1401. -Year since the first celebration of the Olympic games in Elis, by the Idaei Dactyli, 934. -Year since the destruction of Troy, according to the general account, 664. -Year since the foundation of the monarchy of the Israelites by the Divine appointment of Saul to the regal dignity, 576. -Year from the foundation of Solomon's temple, 492. -Year from the division of Solomon's monarchy into the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, 456. -Year since the re-establishment of the Olympic games in Elis by Lycurgus, Iphitus, and Cleosthenes, 365. -Year since the conquest of Coroebus at Olympia, usually called the first Olympiad, 257. -First year of the sixty-fifth Olympiad. -Year from the building of Rome, according to the Varronian or generally received computation, 234. -Year from the building of Rome, according to Cato and the Fasti Consulares, 233. -Year from the building of Rome, according to Polybius the historian, 232. -Year from the building of Rome, according to Fabius Pictor, 228. -Year of the era of Nabonassar, 228. -Year since the destruction of the kingdom of Israel by Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, 202. -Year since the destruction of the kingdom of Judah by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, 68. -Year since the destruction of the Chaldean empire by the Persians, 18. -Year before the birth of Christ, 516. -Year before the vulgar era of Christ's nativity, 520. -Cycle of the Sun, 22. -Cycle of the Moon, 14. -Second year of Darius I., king of Persia. -Twenty-eighth year of Amyntas, king of Macedon. -Seventh year of Demaratus, king of Lacedaemon, of the family of the Proclidae. -Eleventh year of Cleomenes, king of Lacedaemon, of the family of the Eurysthenidae. -Fifteenth year of Tarquinius Superbus, the last king of the Romans. -This was about twelve years before the commencement of the consular government. According to some chronologers this was the age of Confucius. CHAPTER I The prophet earnestly exhorts the people to repentance, that they may escape such punishments as had been inflicted on their fathers, 1-6. The vision of the horses, with the signification, 7-11. The angel of the Lord successfully intercedes in behalf of Jerusalem, 12-17. The vision of the four horns, and of the four carpenters, 18-21. NOTES ON CHAP. I Verse 1. In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius] This was Darius Hystaspes; and from this date we find that Zechariah began to prophecy just two months after Haggai. Son of Iddo] There are a number of various readings on this name, ידו Iddo, and עדוא Iddo, both in MSS. and in editions; but they are only different ways of writing the same name.

1. The prophet;

In the eighth month - o. The date joins on Zechariah’s prophecy to those of Haggai.

1. The title. Eighth month — Called before the exile Bul (1 Kings 6:38); after the exile, by the Babylonian name Marcheshvan. It corresponds to the latter part of October and the early part of November.