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THE BOOK OF ZECHARIAH
Lesson 3, Chapter 1 Continued 2

We left off at verse 11 of Zechariah chapter 1, where it was dealing with
Zechariah’s vision of the 3 horses that were roaming the earth to give a report
to Yehoveh about the condition of the world at that time. Before that, I told
you we’d talk some more about this recently introduced character called the
Angel of Yehoveh; we’ll do that now. And later, I’ll speak to you about
something curious (but it matters) that is only indirectly connected to the Book
of Zechariah.

First, let’s re-read verses 8, 9, 10, and 11.

CJB
Zechariah 1:8-11
8
It was night, and I saw there before me a man
riding on a russet-colored horse. He stood among the myrtle bushes in
the valley; and behind him were other horses, russet, chestnut -colored
and white.
9
I asked, "What are these, my Lord?" The angel speaking
with me said to me, "I will show you what these are."
10
The man
standing among the myrtles said, "These are those whom ADONAI has
sent to wander throughout the earth."
11
Then they themselves
answered the angel of ADONAI standing am ong the myrtles, "We have
been wandering throughout the earth, and the whole world is quiet
and at peace."

To clarify: even though the CJB says “angel of Adonai”, and English Bibles say
“angel of The Lord”, both are incorrect translations. Adonai is Hebrew for the
generic word lord, and so using the word “lord” in English versions means that
the Bible translators are implying that the Hebrew word in this passage that
they are translating from is adonai ; this is false. The words we find in the
Hebrew Scriptures are Malach Yehoveh : Angel of Yehoveh, with Yehoveh
being God’s formal name. There are agendas behind these decisions to
mistranslate these words. In the Jewish world, it is a taboo that began in the
300’s B.C. to not say or write God’s name. In the Christian world, it was an
attempt to remove the influence of God the Father from the Bible and to
replace it with God the Son.

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So, who is this Angel of Yehoveh, how does he fit into this story, and is this
just another name for a character that has already been introduced? It is a
common claim among Bible commentators that the figure of the Angel of
Yehoveh is the same as the man on the horse in the myrtles. I cannot agree
with this. It is the way that verse 8 is worded in Hebrew that confuses the
matter and leads to a few different conclusions. The vision is that an ish…a
man… is riding on a horse. Then in the next sentence it says “he” STOOD
among the myrtle bushes. So, was the man riding or standing? If he was
riding, then the standing figure was a second person in the myrtles. It is my
position that the “he” (who) stood among the myrtle bushes was NOT referring
to the man but to the horse. The man was riding, the horse was standing. That
also works better with the remainder of the passage. If I’m correct, and the
“he” is referring to the horse, then we could slightly reword the passage to
better get its correct meaning across by saying: “It was night, and I saw there
before me a man riding on a russet-colored horse. The horse stood among the
myrtle bushes in the valley, and behind him were other horses…”. Do you see
how well that fits together?

So, with that resolved, then another figure that I call The Interpreting Angel
answers Zechariah’s question about those 3 other horses, and that begins
verse 9: “I asked, what are these, my Lord”. And, indeed, this passage asks in
Hebrew “what are these my adon?”. That is, God’s name is NOT used so this
figure is NOT a manifestation of God. Then we read that “the man standing
among the myrtles answered: “ I will show you who these are”. So, who is this
“man standing among the myrtles?” This is yet another figure. We have the
man sitting on a horse, and that horse is standing in the myrtles. Now we
have another “man” in the myrtles, but (like the horse) this “man” is standing.
This standing man says that those 3 horses have been sent by Yehoveh to
wander throughout the earth. Next we read that they themselves spoke…and
“they themselves” are the 3 horses who say at the end of verse 11, “we have
been wandering throughout the earth, and the whole world is quiet and at
peace”. This is not to claim that like Balaam’s donkey that was enabled to
speak, so were these 3 horses. Rather, this was a vision and the horses were
symbolic and not real.

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Back at the beginning of verse 11 we got a reference to the Angel of Yehoveh
“standing among the myrtles”. This answers the question of who this 2
nd
man
in the myrtles is (the man standing verse the man sitting on his horse). The
man standing in the myrtles is symbolic of the Angel of Yehoveh. Thus, this
“man” isn’t really a man after all; rather, he just had the appearance of a man
in Zecharia’s vision. Complicated, is it not? In this short passage we have 4
different figures involved, not counting the horses: Zechariah, the man on
horseback, the Interpreting Angel, and the Angel of Yehoveh who looks like a
man and is standing among the myrtles.

What is this Angel of Yehoveh? Is this literally a very high angel that is there
to represent God? Or, is this God Himself? Or, is Angel of Yehoveh just rather
figurative since in a certain sense all angels are angels of God since they are
all under God’s authority? I feel that I can answer this rather definitively: the
Angel of Yehoveh is a manifestation of God Himself. A manifestation that
serves a particular role. This ought not to confuse us. Most Believers are
familiar with the Trinity concept in which God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
But in fact, we read in the Scriptures of other persons or direct manifestations
of God such as the Shekinah, The Glory, and (as here) the Angel of Yehoveh.
So, I have just listed 6 named manifestations of God that the Bible speaks of
separately: The Father, The Son, The Holy Spirit, The Glory, The Shekinah,
and The Angel of Yehoveh.

Because of the manmade concept of the Trinity (a word that is never found in
the Bible), that doctrine is that there are not 6 (or perhaps even more)
manifestations of God, there are a total of only 3. And, thus, every
manifestation of God in the Bible must be one and only one of either the
Father, the Son or the Holy Spirit. When speaking of the Trinity, we need to
understand it for what it is: a Church doctrine. And, there is not merely one
universally accepted Trinity Church doctrine, there are a few that typically
revolve around whether all the manifestations are co-equal in authority,
knowledge and purpose…or they are in a hierarchy of authority, knowledge
and purpose; and even if they are merely different names for exactly the same
person or entity. This is why when someone asks the question of “do you
believe in the Trinity”, in reality it is an unanswerable question. When I’m
asked, my first response is “which one?” That usually brings an uncomfortable

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pause to the discussion, because only a very few Believers are aware that
there are a few different Trinity doctrines.

But more, I confess to you that while I believe in the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit, I do not subscribe to the Church-created doctrine called the Trinity
Doctrine, no matter which one it might be. And this is because quite clearly,
there are several more than 3 manifestations of God spoken of in the Bible,
and it is intellectually dishonest to try to fit the others into the mold of The
Father, the Son, or the Holy Spirit only for the purpose of maintaining a
doctrine. Further, there is absolutely a hierarchy of authority, knowledge and
purpose that is presented to us as we find that the Father sits atop that
hierarchy with all the other manifestations of Him representing certain aspects
of His will for His creation and for His creatures, which the Father uses to bring
about His purposes. It is all very mysterious and so any attempt to thoroughly
explain it always reaches a premature end that never quite satisfies. Even so,
that is no good reason to create a fanciful doctrine that tries to close the loop
in a way that humans prefer. God and His manifestations are not of the 4-
dimensional realm that humans reside in (other than for Yeshua who seemed
to belong to both the physical and heavenly realms), so we simply don’t have
the ability to comprehend that heavenly realm.

Here in Zechariah, then, is presented a particular manifestation of God that we
know from earlier Bible books, and he is called The Angel of Yehoveh. His
purpose is to communicate in a direct and visible manner to certain people
that God has chosen. Let’s take this one step further. Often (if not typically),
these various manifestations of God will speak in the first person: that is, “I”
or “Me”, as opposed to a Prophet who speaks of God in the third person (He).
And yet, when the speech gets more nuanced, names or titles of these various
manifestations of God often will be used instead of “I” or “Me”. We have one
example of this before us here, and it explains why it is so critical that we
translate the Hebrew correctly, and that we know God’s name and who,
exactly, that represents. God’s name is Yehoveh, and by this is meant the
name of The Father. So, the manifestation of God that is called The Angel says
it is Yehoveh (God The Father) who sent these figurative horses to wander the
earth as His scouts and to report what they see back to Him. It was the Father
that sent them, and it was the Father who wants the information. Not the Holy

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Spirit. Not the Son. Not The Glory. Not the Shekinah. And, not even the Angel.
This is not meant to shake you up; it is meant to urge you to read the Bible
critically and honestly, and not through the lens of manmade Church doctrines
nor manmade doctrines of Judaism. Once we can do that, then difficult truths
can finally emerge even if they are cloaked in mystery.

Let’s re-read Zechariah chapter 1 starting with verse 12.

RE-READ ZECHARIAH CHAPTER 1:12 – end

Now that we understand the Angel of Yehoveh as a particular manifestation of
God, we see that He asks The Father a question: how long will You keep
withholding mercy from Jerusalem and Judah? This time The Father is
addressed adding a title to His name: Yehoveh of hosts. The term “the hosts”
is referring broadly to the heavenly angels of no specific kind or category. And,
this matches other places in the Bible that speak of one of The Father’s roles
as being in charge of the created spirit beings in Heaven. Interestingly, the
Bible also informs us that just as The Father delegates many of His purposes
to His several different manifestations to carry out, in Heaven He does the
same thing. The Father delegates to the highest class or category of divine
beings in Heaven called the elohim who serve as His Divine Council. Their job
is to be the administrators of Heaven in the same way that humans are to be
the administrators of earth.

The question that The Angel of Yehoveh asks that begins with “for how long”
is, in Hebrew, ad matay, and this term is actually an idiom. It is a protest, a
questioning of what is perceived to be wrong or unfair. It’s like saying to our
kids, “so for how long are you going to be irresponsible and not clean up your
room?” We don’t expect to get an answer back based on some amount of
time, it’s our protest to them. So, the Angel of Yehoveh questions the motive
and reason that The Father isn’t showing mercy, yet, to Jerusalem and to
Judah. Essentially we also could say that the Angel of Yehoveh is expressing
His own compassion and care for Jerusalem and Judah (now called Yehud),
and so is begging on their behalf that The Father return to showing them
mercy.

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I find it interesting that it is NOT the Prophet Zechariah but rather the Angel of
Yehoveh that acts as a sort of intercessor for Jerusalem and Judah. Although,
such a thing ought not to surprise us, because we regularly find Yeshua, The
Son, approaching the Father asking for similar things for His people. When He
hangs dying on the cross, Yeshua doesn’t offer His own forgiveness to those
who put Him there, but rather He asks as an intercessor that The Father
forgive them. It was the Son’s purpose to die as the saving atonement that
meets the requirements of The Father to forgive.

The Angel of Yehoveh asks specifically about Jerusalem and Judah. Why not
just Judah since Jerusalem has been Judah’s capital? Or, why Judah and not
Yehud? After all, Judah as a Jewish nation no longer exists; the same
approximate place is now the Persian Province of Yehud. Some of this must be
speculation on my part. That said, the words Jerusalem and Judah have been
a regular biblical pairing for a very long time. Jerusalem was always more than
merely a capital city. And it was also more than only a capital city of Judah. It
was the capital city of the entire Promised Land. Of course, the civil war in the
late 900’s B.C. split the Israel of David and Solomon into 2 kingdoms, each
governed by their own king, and each with their own capital city (Jerusalem
for Judah and Samaria for Ephraim/Israel). More importantly, Jerusalem is the
place where God put His name. That is, Jerusalem is the spiritual capital of all
Israel, and as we look closer in the Bible, it is also the spiritual capital of the
world. In time, it will be the capital of God’s Kingdom on earth, where Yeshua
will live, rule, and reign.

It seems to me that despite the king of the earthly Persian Empire giving it a
different name, to God the place is still Judah. Here’s the point: what the
Angel of Yehoveh is mostly concerned about in His protesting question to The
Father about Jerusalem and Judah by using the term “for how long”, is not the
Jewish residents per se, but rather it is the political identification of the people
and the land. Right now, their political identification is Persian. That is, it is no
different for those in Yehud than in all the other gentile nations under Persian
control. Judah was the former name of a former set-apart Hebrew nation; but,
now, Yehud is the name of the Persian province where the Judeans live. They
were in essentially the same political position as the many nations and places
where the Jewish Diaspora scattered and spread-out to. Just because Jews

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lived in some gentile nation, it didn’t turn those gentile nations into set-apart
Hebrew nations. From an earthly standpoint, what made Yehud, Yehud was
that the land and the people were under the political identify and authority of
a gentile king. What had made Judah, Judah was they were under the political
identity and authority of a Hebrew king. So, the issue of concern for the Angel
of Yehoveh is, when will God turn His mercy back towards Jerusalem and
Judah, and rescue them from their current forced political identity as Persian,
and return them to their natural Hebrew political identity.

Interestingly, Yehoveh replies with words of kindness and compassion, but His
reply is not to the Angel of Yehoveh who asked the question, but rather to
the Interpreting Angel that has been speaking with Zechariah. The Hebrew for
“word” used here is debarim. It does mean words, but when it is coupled with
Yehoveh speaking them it takes on the character of a prophecy. So, Yehoveh’s
answer as to what will happen will absolutely occur just as any other
revelation of God. When God speaks it, it’s a done deal.

Verse 14 says that Yehoveh’s reply was: “I am extremely jealous on behalf of
Jerusalem and Zion”. No direct mention of Judah. Zion is a term that is used in
different ways in different eras. In Zechariah’s era, Zion was one of the more
known names for the place upon which was built the Temple. I think it is even
more specific as the southeast hill in Jerusalem where King David wanted to
build the Temple, but his son Solomon wound up doing so. The upper part of
the hill is where the Temple was constructed, the middle and lower parts are
where the City of David, along with David’s palace, was built. The idea is that
God was especially concerned over the city of Jerusalem and its precincts, as
well as the place where His Temple belonged. Jerusalem, the city where He
placed His name, and Zion where the Temple that would allow fellowship
between Yehoveh and Israel to take place, was the overriding matter to God.
So, careful study as opposed to rushing through these verses reveals God’s
priorities.

Looking at the opening of verse 14 reveals another interesting line of
questioning that isn’t directly connected to our lesson today (the one I
mentioned at the beginning of today’s lesson), but I think it is worthwhile to
take a brief detour to talk about it. It involves the matter of root words, and

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associated words, in the Hebrew language and how critical of a role they play
in understanding the intent of the various authors. First, there are few
translations that translate verse 14 literally. Here is what it says: “The angel
who speaks with me then said to me, Proclaim! Thus spoke Yehoveh of
Hosts…”. I want to look at the word “proclaim: Proclaim is an important word
because of its weight. It is an announcement that carries legal authority. The
Hebrew word being used is qara. It is indeed proper to translate it as
proclaim, at least when we understand it in terms of it referring to a royal
proclamation. What is fascinating is that it is from the same root or associate
word as the Hebrew miqara. It might not look like it because we find a
beginning mem in the word miqara, but grammatically the root family of
meaning of those 2 words is related. Any good Hebrew Lexicon can supply us
their definitions.

Miqara is often (and most usually) translated in the Hebrew Scriptures as
“convocation”. That is, the sense of it is an assembly of people. Interestingly,
as it was sometimes used in ancient times, it could also mean “a reading”.
That is, much like its cousin word qara that means to proclaim something,
miqara has an alternate use of meaning something like a public reading.
Exactly what the nuance between a reading and a proclamation might have
been in the minds of the ancient Hebrews I can’t say, but here’s why I bring it
up as a good example of the impact of understanding the nature of Hebrew
root words. As Bible students, and especially those of us that adhere to the
Hebrew Roots movement, in Leviticus 23 we read a verse that is so very well
known, but has always been something of a conundrum to deal with in
Judaism.

CJB
Leviticus 23:3 "'Work is to be done on six days; but the seventh
day is a Shabbat of complete rest, a holy convocation; you are not to
do any kind of work; it is a Shabbat for ADONAI, even in your homes.

The puzzling part is this: this verse seems to contain a command that on
Shabbat the Israelites were supposed to get together for a formal assembly.
To use more modern terms, a communal congregation service. Yet, we find in
Exodus 16 in the story of an incident about gathering manna to eat, that
because some people went out on the Sabbath to gather up manna after being

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instructed not to, Moses confined everyone to their tents. So, by doing this,
had Moses gone too far and done this in direct defiance of the command to
meet together every Shabbat? When we examine the Old Testament, from the
time the very first instruction of observing a 7
th
day Sabbath was given, and
until the return of the Jews from Babylon, there is no mention in the Bible or in
any extra-biblical Hebrew literature source, of Israel ever holding a worship
service to observe the weekly 7
th
day Shabbat… not once. Rather, biblically
speaking, Shabbat was determined to be primarily a strict day of ceasing one’s
labors. What gives? One would think that references to Shabbat meetings
would be liberally sprinkled throughout the Old Testament since the
importance of Shabbat is stressed. Historically, however, the evidence is that
Shabbat worship services only began to happen upon the creation of the
Synagogue system, which itself was a post-Babylon institution created and
officiated by lay-Jews… non-priests. That is, meeting on Sabbath seems to
have arisen from Synagogue Traditions that developed, but not something
taken as a command from the Torah nor as something associated to the
Temple. If we assume that we are not properly interpreting Leviticus 23;3,
then the only weekly ceremony the Torah called for and that was practiced for
certain was the special Sabbath day sacrifices accomplished by the Priests,
and it only involved the priests. Let me be clear: this is not to condemn or find
any fault with we at Seed of Abraham, or our Jewish friends, of getting
together on Shabbat for a worship service. But, I have serious doubts that the
Hebrew term miqara as found in Leviticus 23 is correctly translated as saying
God commanded a communal assembly on that day, because not even when
Moses was alive did Shabbat meetings happen, so far as any biblical or any
other evidence that exists.

How words are translated matters. The historical record of what Israel did (and
didn’t do) matters. Accuracy matters.

Many years ago, when I was in Israel, I asked a kind Orthodox Rabbi why, if
Shabbat is a day of ceasing from our normal labors, is he working by
conducting Shabbat services. He smiled and said, “it is a problem, isn’t it?” I
have felt for many years that there is something not quite right about the way
we traditionally understand that Leviticus 23 instruction as regards the word
miqara meaning an assembly. So, here is an alternative way (and I believe

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the far more likely way considering the evidence) to translate Leviticus 23:3
that accounts for this strange anomaly, which indeed falls within one of this
word’s known definitions. It is this:

CJB
Leviticus 23:3 "'Work is to be done on six days; but the seventh
day is a Shabbat of complete rest, a holy reading; you are not to do
any kind of work; it is a Shabbat for ADONAI, even in your homes.

In any event, it is always beneficial to look closely at the Hebrew and
especially at root words that have associated meanings. Much can be lent to
our biblical understanding by doing that no matter what book we are studying;
Zechariah is no exception.

Back to Zechariah. Now that we have a better idea of the likely more nuanced
meaning of the Hebrew words qara and miqara, then what we gather is that
verses 14 – 17 works together as a unit that gives the Angel of Yehoveh a
response to His pleas to The Father to show Jerusalem and Judah mercy. This
4-verse response begins a series of 3 brief oracles or prophetic proclamations.
The first oracle is in verses 14 and 15. So, another nuance of the word qara
(proclaim) is to use it as notification of a new revelation. Verse 14 says that
God has great zeal and jealousy for Jerusalem and Zion. Now, in verse 15,
what was just said is added to by exposing God’s feelings of wrath against
those nations (gentile nations, by definition) who currently are peaceful and at
rest BECAUSE up to now God has felt only a little anger against them even
though they did evil (and this evil was likely something they did to harm Judah
and perhaps includes harm to Ephraim/Israel). The notion is that when God
has wrath against a nation, He will cause turmoil and unrest to occur.
Therefore, the fact that all these nations are at peace indicates that His wrath
was very small against them. Recall that the horses sent out to wander the
earth reported that the world was peaceful; no major wars going on. These
nations are undoubtedly those who were swallowed up first by Babylon and
then later by the Persian Empire.

What exactly was the cause of God’s new and greater wrath? Listen especially
to the ending of verse 15.

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CJB Zechariah 1:15
15
and [to the same degree] I am extremely angry
with the nations that are so self-satisfied; because I was only a little
angry [at Yerushalayim and Tziyon], but they made the suffering
worse.'

Notice that God’s wrath has levels. It’s not a matter of great wrath or no
wrath, just as we learn in Revelation that tribulation has levels. This is how
God and His Creation operate. Sin, punishment, holiness, uncleanness,
sacrifices, and more all have varying levels of cost, intensity or severity
depending on the situation. So, the cause of God’s greater wrath had to do
with what the Persian Empire did as regards Jerusalem and Zion: they took
them from God’s people, which is the same as taking them from G od. We’re
told that God has great jealousy over Jerusalem and Zion; He will react
harshly against those who mess with Jerusalem and Zion because they are
exclusively His. When Persia refused to give Jerusalem and Zion back their
independent sovereignty, this provoked Him to this new and greater level of
wrath.

But verse 15 also reveals that these nations made the suffering of His people
worse than it needed to be. That is, yes, God must have a little bit of anger
towards those that He virtually caused to attack His people in order for them
to carry out God’s punishment for disobedience and unfaithfulness. But… that
punishment had limits. God put a limit of 70 years on it. It involved exile, not
brutality. We begin to realize that while God intended that the Judeans be put
under the control of Babylon then Persia, after 70 years the punishment was
to end, and the Judeans ought to be fully freed and so should the land of
Judah. Persia gave the former Judah a measure of sovereignty, were not
brutal with them, but did not return them to the complete independence that
God wanted. This caused the level of His anger to increase from minimal to a
lot more.

Verse 16 has God saying that because of all the preceding, He will return
Himself to fellowship in Jerusalem, and that fellowship will begin with merciful
deeds to benefit His people. Key to this happening is that God’s house (the
Temple) will be rebuilt there because the Temple is the place where His
irreplaceable fellowship with them happens. And, ladies and gentlemen,

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despite what has been preached for centuries in Churches worldwide, this
reality has not ceased. Israel was to be exiled yet again in 70 A.D. by the
Romans, with that exile not to end until just after WWII, in May of 1948. This
was the first step towards God restoring His fellowship with Israel, and we will
see that same pattern unfold in the modern era as we find here in Zechariah.
This means that God wants His Temple to be rebuilt, on the hill of Zion, in the
city in which He has placed His name… Jerusalem.

It was a little over a century ago that the dispersed Jews of the world along
with the leaders of several nations came to the conclusion that it was
necessary for Jews to have their own state. However, the nations did not want
to give the Jews their ancient homeland back because the Arabs were adamant
against it, and before them the Ottoman Turks. Instead, the Jews were offered
a few different places. The organization that represented the world’s Jews, the
World Zionist Congress, refused those other places, but sometimes by only the
narrowest of voting margins. The most zealous were holding out for ancient
Israel. It was only because of the Holocaust that the world relented and gave
the Jews their ancient homeland back to them. God was not ever going to
allow Israel to be anywhere but the land He gave to them, nor would the place
where He would put His name be anywhere but Jerusalem. And, His Temple
would never be anywhere than where it had always been, on Zion. Once more:
this is exactly what we see in Zechariah.

But, what this also means is that the Temple is going to be rebuilt in modern
times, in exactly the same place it existed up until 70 A.D. And, despite all the
religious rhetoric against it, with most Christian denominations claiming that
God never again wants a Temple in Jerusalem, it is going to happen because
God DOES want it. The Temple is central to God’s covenant with Israel; and
God’s covenant with Israel is central to gentiles having an opportunity to
partake of the salvation offered by God’s Son, Yeshua.

Verse 16 continues by saying that a measuring line will be stretched out over
Jerusalem. What is this measuring line? Also known as the builder’s string, this
line is used to mark the boundaries of the city walls. This is not a measuring
tape that was used to measure cubits to determine distances. In other words,
this line describes where the city limits are. While there is no consensus about

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this in Bible scholarship, I think this is an End Times statement. Just as the
walls of the location of the Temple were known to the returning Judeans
(because the foundation was left mostly intact), so were the walls of the city of
Jerusalem that the Judeans returned to; the city limits were already marked,
visible and well established. Therefore, this can only be referring to a situation
whereby the city limits have to be re-established, most likely because the old
walls are gone.

Verse 17 completes chapter 1 in Bible versions that are based on the Hebrew
Bible. But, for those Bibles based on the Septuagint (that ancient Greek
translation from the 3
rd
century B.C.), chapter one continues through verse
21. To be clear: all this means is that the chapter markings are different. All
the same words in all the same order are there with either version, so don’t be
concerned.

Verse 17 also presents a 3
rd
proclamation or oracle.

CJB
Zechariah 1:17 In addition, proclaim that ADONAI -Tzva'ot says,
'My cities will again overflow with prosperity.' ADONAI will again
comfort Tziyon, and he will again make Yerushalayim the city of his
choice.

This new revelation of God is that the cities of the Promised Land will once
again have great abundance. In the context of what this meant in that era, it
is part and parcel of God’s blessings and mercy opening up once again that
ends inadequate rain, general bad weather, and the poor harvests that such
conditions cause. Instead, God’s blessings and mercy brings back good and
predictable rainfall, general good weather, which results in an abundance of
produce and plenty of drinking water. While these results carry through to a
modern meaning, we can expand it to be indicating a general prosperity for
the people of the land.

When God says He will comfort Zion this is in relation to the former condition
of pain and anguish over exile, and then the constant harassment of nations
against them. It also includes the ideas of restored fellowship with God and full
political autonomy. The continuing proclamation about Jerusalem again

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becoming God’s choice of cities again must be referring to the End Times.
Once in 70 A.D. Jerusalem and the Temple were destroyed and taken by
Rome, one could say that God’s “choice of Jerusalem” was put on pause. Even
though in 1948 the former land of Judah was restored to a Jewish State, it
excluded Jerusalem. In 1967, in the famous six-day war, the Jews retook the
city of Jerusalem. However, the most important part of Zion…the Temple
Mount… is still mostly in the hands of Islam. This is going to change at some
point, because until it does, Jerusalem isn’t really the city of God’s choice. A
Temple needs to exist as the symbol of God’s covenant and of His presence.
Here in verse 17 is the proclamation by God that it will change.

We’ll begin Zechariah chapter 2 next time.