Zechariah 2: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Zechariah sees a man going out with a measuring line to measure Jerusalem, and an angel is told to run and say that Jerusalem will be settled like an open town, too full of people and livestock for walls. The LORD says he himself will be a wall of fire around the city and the glory inside it. The chapter then calls the exiles to flee Babylon, warns the nations that plundered them, and promises that the LORD will come and live among his people, that many nations will join themselves to him, and that he will take Judah as his share and choose Jerusalem again. It closes by telling all people to be silent before the LORD, who has roused himself from his holy dwelling.

Claim by Claim

1. 2:1
   • The speaker lifted up his eyes again and looked.
   • The speaker saw a man.
   • The man had a measuring cord in his hand.
2. 2:2
   • The speaker asked the man where he was going.
   • The man answered that he was going to measure Jerusalem.
   • The man said he was going to see what its width was.
   • The man said he was going to see what its length was.
3. 2:3
   • The angel who was talking with the speaker went out.
   • Another angel came out to meet him.
4. 2:4
   • The second angel said to the first angel to run and speak to the young man.
   • The message was that Jerusalem would be inhabited as unwalled settlements.
   • The reason given was the multitude of men and livestock within it.
5. 2:5
   • The LORD declares that He will be a wall of fire around her.
   • The LORD declares that He will be the glory in her midst.
6. 2:6
   • A call is given twice to come out.
   • A call is given to flee from the land of the north.
   • The LORD declares this.
   • The LORD says He has scattered them like the four winds of the heavens.
   • The LORD declares this.
7. 2:7
   • Zion is told to escape.
   • Zion is described as dwelling with the daughter of Babylon.
8. 2:8
   • This is what the LORD of hosts says.
   • After glory He has sent me to the nations that plundered you.
   • It is ambiguous what "after the glory" refers to.
   • Whoever touches you touches the pupil of His eye.
9. 2:9
   • The speaker says he will wave his hand over them.
   • They will become plunder for their own servants.
   • You will know that the LORD of hosts has sent me.
10. 2:10
    • The daughter of Zion is told to sing.
    • The daughter of Zion is told to rejoice.
    • The speaker says he is coming.
    • The speaker says he will dwell in your midst.
    • The LORD declares this.
11. 2:11
    • Many nations will be joined to the LORD in that day.
    • Those nations will become my people.
    • The speaker says he will dwell in your midst.
    • You will know that the LORD of hosts has sent me to you.
12. 2:12
    • The LORD will take possession of Judah as His portion in the holy land.
    • The LORD will choose Jerusalem again.
13. 2:13
    • All flesh is told to be silent before the LORD.
    • The reason given is that He has roused Himself out of His holy dwelling.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

2:1

A measuring line was a builder's or surveyor's cord, used to lay out the plan of a wall or a building before construction; measuring a city was the normal first step in rebuilding or laying claim to it. Note that Hebrew Bibles number the verses differently here: this chapter's verses 1–4 are 1:18–21 in the Hebrew text, so Hebrew 2:1 corresponds to verse 5 in the King James numbering.

2:2

When Zechariah saw this, Jerusalem was mostly rubble. Its people had only recently come home after years held far away in Babylon. Measuring the city was the first step toward rebuilding it.

2:3

"The angel that talked with me" is a recurring figure running through Zechariah's series of night visions: an interpreting angel who explains to the prophet what he is seeing. The second angel is a separate messenger who intercepts him.

2:4

It is not stated who "this young man" is (the phrase most naturally points to the man with the measuring line in verse 1, though some take it as Zechariah himself. In the ancient world a city's wall was its survival: an unwalled town was one too poor or too small to defend itself. Saying Jerusalem will be lived in like an open town is therefore a startling image, explained by the reason given) it will overflow the space any wall could enclose.

2:5

"The LORD" in small capitals stands in for the Hebrew personal name of God, four consonants usually written YHWH, which Jewish readers by this period did not pronounce aloud, saying "my Lord" instead. "Glory" translates Hebrew kabod, literally "weight" or "heaviness," used for visible splendor and specifically for the blazing presence that older texts describe as filling the tabernacle and the temple.

2:6

"The land of the north" means Babylon. Babylon lies east of Judah, but the desert between them was impassable, so armies and travelers went around it up the Euphrates and arrived from the north; "the north" became a standard way of naming it. Zechariah was speaking around 520 BC, when Jerusalem was being resettled but many deported families were still living in Babylonia. "The four winds of the heaven" means the four points of the compass: that is, in all directions.

2:7

"Zion" was originally the name of one hill in Jerusalem and came to stand for the city as a whole and for its people. "Daughter of Babylon" is a Hebrew idiom in which a city is spoken of as a woman; it means the city Babylon itself, not a person living in it.

2:8

"The LORD of hosts" is a title meaning the LORD who commands the armies (either Israel's armies or the massed heavenly ones. The clause "after the glory hath he sent me" is obscure in the Hebrew and translators disagree about it: it may mean "after the glory appeared," "in pursuit of honour," or "the Glorious One has sent me." It is also unclear who "me" is) the prophet, the angel, or a speaker who blends into the LORD himself. "The apple of his eye" is literally the pupil, in Hebrew "the little man of the eye" (from the tiny reflection you see in someone's pupil); it stands for the most fragile part of the body, the one a person shields without thinking. Ancient Jewish scribal tradition records that the text here originally read "my eye," altered to "his" out of reverence.

2:9

Shaking or waving the hand over someone is a gesture of threat, the arm raised before a blow. "They shall be a spoil to their servants" describes a reversal: the plunder taken by these nations will be stripped from them by the very people they had enslaved.

2:10

"Daughter of Zion" is Jerusalem addressed as a woman, the same figure of speech as "daughter of Babylon" in verse 7. "Dwell in the midst of thee" uses the language of the temple, where God was understood to be present among the people rather than in a distant sky.

2:11

Nations means all the other peoples of the world. They had not belonged to God's people before.

2:12

"Portion" and "inherit" are the vocabulary of land allotment, the shares of territory parcelled out to families and tribes, passed down and not sold off. Judah is spoken of as the LORD's own allotted share. "The holy land" occurs nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible; this verse is the origin of the phrase.

2:13

"All flesh" is a Hebrew idiom for every living creature, or in context every human being. The silence called for is the hush of a court or a shrine when the one in authority rises. "Raised up" translates a verb for being roused or waking from sleep.