Zechariah 6
Zechariah 6 is the sixth of the 14 chapters in the Book of Zechariah in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. This book contains the prophecies attributed to the prophet Zechariah. In the Hebrew Bible it is part of the Book of the Twelve Minor Prophets. This chapter contains a description of Zechariah's eighth and final vision, and the crowning of Joshua the High Priest. It is a part of a section consisting of Zechariah 1–8.
Text
The original text was written in the Hebrew language. This chapter is divided into 15 verses.Textual witnesses
Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in Hebrew are of the Masoretic Text, which includes the Codex Cairensis, the Petersburg Codex of the Prophets, and Codex Leningradensis. Fragments containing parts of this chapter were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, that is, 4Q80 with extant verses 1–5.There is also a translation into Koine Greek known as the Septuagint, made in the last few centuries BCE. Extant ancient manuscripts of the Septuagint version include Codex Vaticanus, Codex Sinaiticus, Codex Alexandrinus and Codex Marchalianus.
Vision of the four chariots (verses 1–8)
This section records the eighth vision in the series, which forms an inclusio with the first, referring to the pacifying of "the north country". This is the direction from which the majority of attacks on Israel had come.Verse 5
- "Spirits of heaven": or "winds of heaven". The Hebrew word for "spirit" may also mean "wind" or "breath", depending on the context.
The command to crown Joshua (verses 9–15)
Following the final vision, the remaining verses in this chapter close the "vision cycle" by describing the crowning of Joshua the High Priest as a 'messianic' leader. Zerubbabel, the governor and temple-builder, and Joshua are referred to together in the prophecies of Zechariah's contemporary Haggai, and both have been the subject of earlier references in Zechariah. Larkin suggests that Zerubbabel would have been included here originally and his name has been "blatantly" removed during the evolution of the text, leaving only the name of Joshua. The editors of the Jerusalem Bible argue that Joshua's name replaced that of Zerubbabel in the original text once the high priests had become the leaders of the Jewish community: see High Priest of Israel#Late Second Temple.Verse 10
The prophet is to take "an offering" from these returning exiles. Some translations refer to Heldai as "Helem" in verse 14.Verse 11
- "Silver and gold": A part of what was brought from Babylon or the contributions from the Jews in the diaspora, the kings and princes in the area.
- "Make crowns": Zechariah was to get the crowns made. The plural may here be used intensively for "a noble crown", as in ; or it may signify the two metals of which the crown was made, two or more wreaths being intertwined to form it. Here Joshua may symbolize 'a Person in whom the offices of priest and king were united', because a high priest's "mitre" is never called a crown, but what to be set on Joshua's head is a royal crown.
Verse 12
- "Behold, the man" : This phrase is used in a speech to draw attention to someone different from the one in conversation, so Joshua here is not the Branch, but that figure is 'accessible and approaching' the scene. Pilate spoke similar words regarding Jesus, "Behold the man".
- "Grow up out": from the Hebrew verb צָמַח, ', to "sprout out", with the same root as for the noun צֶ֤מַח, ', a "sprout", translated here as "The Branch" ; referring to a lowly figure growing in obscurity "as a tender plant and a root out of a dry ground".
- "He shall build the temple of the Lord": In the time of Zechariah, the temple was soon to be finished by Zerubbabel, to whom this had been promised, not by Joshua the High Priest, but then a new temple is to be built from the foundation, of which the builder is to be "the foundation", as said, "on this rock I will build My Church" ; and in him "all the building, fitly framed together0, groweth unto an holy temple to the Lord".
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