Zechariahchapter 1
21 verses · BSBZechariah book hub →
Speaks with:Zechariah 1×5Zechariah 2×4Joel 2×2Ecclesiastes 12×2Isaiah 40×2Zechariah 8×2
Summary
Chapter summary
The book opens with a summons before it opens with visions: 'Return unto me, saith Jehovah of hosts, and I will return unto you.' Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live for ever?, but the word outlived them and overtook them. Then the night visions begin. A man rides a red horse among the myrtle-trees, with horses behind him that have patrolled the earth and report that all the world sits still and is at rest, quiet for the empires, unbearable for Zion. The angel asks, 'how long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem?' and the answer is comfortable words: 'I am jealous for Jerusalem… with a great jealousy.' Then four horns, and four smiths to cast them down.
Context
Prophecy · Zechariah — Zechariah overview
- A. 1–6 Return to me, and I will return to you
- B. 7–17 Riders among the myrtle trees, and all the earth at rest
- C. 18–21 Four horns, and four smiths sent to cast them out
The outline
A.Return to me, and I will return to youvv. 1 to 6
Read vv. 1 to 6 →B.Riders among the myrtle trees, and all the earth at restvv. 7 to 17
Read vv. 7 to 17 →C.Four horns, and four smiths sent to cast them outvv. 18 to 21
Read vv. 18 to 21 →
The world behind this chapter
Zechariah 1The history
Zechariah was a priest as well as a prophet, and he begins by naming the thing everyone was afraid of: your fathers, where are they? The generation that ignored the earlier prophets was gone, and the prophets were gone too, but the words landed anyway. Do not repeat it.
Then, on a February night, a sequence of eight visions comes in one night. The first is a man on a red horse standing among myrtle trees in a low place, with other horses behind him.
The picture is drawn from Persian imperial life. The empire ran on mounted couriers stationed along the royal roads, riding in relays so that news moved from one end of the realm to the other faster than anywhere on earth; a Greek historian described the system with open admiration. These riders come back with a report, and the report is the problem: "all the earth sitteth still, and is at rest."
That was the discouraging part. The Persian empire, after its succession crisis, had settled down. Nothing was shaking. Judah was a poor backwater province with a half-built temple, and the world was comfortable.
The angel asks, "O LORD of hosts, how long?" and the answer is jealousy for Jerusalem, anger at the nations that went too far in punishing her, and a promise: my house shall be built in it, and a line shall be stretched forth upon Jerusalem.
The chapter ends with four horns and four carpenters — the powers that scattered Judah, and the workmen sent to knock them down.
What it meant to them
The community's fear was that they had been forgotten inside a settled empire. The vision says the quiet is being watched, and that God is jealous — a word about attachment, not indifference.
The opening call framed everything else: "Turn ye unto me… and I will turn unto you." The rebuilding of the temple and the returning of hearts were the same project.
Sources cited
- Edwin Yamauchi, Persia and the Bible
- Herodotus, Histories (public domain)
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Zechariah 1. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.