Bible Commentaries
Zechariah

Zechariah

(b.c. 520-510).

[Note. "Zechariah, the son of Barachiah and grandson of Iddo, was probably of the priestly tribe (see Neh 12:4 ), and returned from Babylon, when quite a youth, with Zerubbabel and Joshua. Whether Iddo was himself a prophet is not clear (compare Hebrew and LXX.). His grandson, Zechariah, began to prophesy about two months after Haggai (Zechariah 1:1 ; Ezra 5:1 ; Ezra 6:14 ; Hag 1:1 ), in the second year of Darius Hystaspes, and continued to prophesy for two years ( Zec 7:1 ). He had the same general object as Haggai, to encourage and urge the Jews to rebuild the temple. The Jews, we are told, prospered through the prophesying" ( Ezr 6:14 ), and in about six years the temple was finished. Zechariah collected his own prophecies (Zechariah 1:9 ; Zec 2:2 ), and is very frequently quoted in the New Testament. Indeed, next to Isaiah, Zechariah has the most frequent allusions to the character and coming of our Lord. The genuineness of the closing chapters 9-14 has been doubted. Mede and others refer them to Jeremiah, deeming the reading in Matthew 27:9-10 , and internal evidence, in favour of this view. Jahn, Blayney, Hengstenberg, and others, refer the whole to Zechariah, and suppose the reading to be, as it easily might be, an error of copyists. While the immediate object of Zechariah was to encourage the Jews in the restoration of public worship, he has other objects more remote and important. His prophecies, like those of Daniel, extend to the 'the times of the Gentiles'; but in Zechariah the history of the chosen people occupies the centre of his predictions; and that history is set forth both in direct prophecy and in symbolical acts or visions.... It may be added, that, in the version of the LXX., several Psalms are ascribed to Haggai and Zechariah (Psalms 138:0 , Psalms 146-148); and though nothing can be decided with certainty as to these particular Psalms, it is highly probable that both prophets were concerned in the composition of some of those which were produced after the return from captivity." Angus's Bible Handbook .]