Zechariah 3: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Zechariah sees Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, with Satan at his right hand to accuse him. The LORD rebukes Satan, Joshua's filthy clothes are taken away and replaced with clean robes and a clean turban, and the angel tells Joshua that if he walks in the LORD's ways and keeps his charge, he will govern the temple and its courts. The angel then says that Joshua and his companions are a sign, and announces the coming servant called the Branch, a stone with seven eyes, and the removal of the land's guilt in a single day.

Claim by Claim

1. 3:1
   • Someone showed the speaker Joshua the high priest.
   • Joshua was the high priest.
   • Joshua was standing before the angel of the LORD.
   • The accuser, Satan, was standing at Joshua's right hand.
   • Satan was standing there in order to accuse and oppose Joshua.
2. 3:2
   • The LORD spoke to Satan.
   • The LORD said, 'May the LORD rebuke you, Satan.'
   • The LORD said, 'May the LORD rebuke you.'
   • The LORD said that the LORD has chosen Jerusalem.
   • The LORD asked whether this one is not a burning stick snatched out of the fire.
3. 3:3
   • Joshua was clothed in filthy, excrement-soiled garments.
   • Joshua was standing before the angel.
4. 3:4
   • He answered and spoke to those standing before him.
   • He ordered them to take the filthy garments off Joshua.
   • He said to Joshua, 'See, I have caused your iniquity to pass away from you.'
   • He said he would clothe Joshua with fine festal robes.
5. 3:5
   • The speaker said, 'Let them put a clean turban on his head.'
   • They put the clean turban on Joshua's head.
   • They clothed Joshua with garments.
   • The angel of the LORD was standing there.
6. 3:6
   • The angel of the LORD solemnly charged Joshua.
   • The angel of the LORD spoke to Joshua.
7. 3:7
   • The angel said this is what the LORD of hosts says.
   • The condition is stated: if Joshua walks in the LORD's ways.
   • The condition is stated: if Joshua keeps the LORD's charge.
   • Then Joshua will govern the LORD's house.
   • Then Joshua will also have charge of the LORD's courts.
   • The LORD will give Joshua passage among those who are standing there.
8. 3:8
   • The LORD called Joshua the high priest to listen.
   • Joshua's companions sit before him.
   • Joshua and his companions are men who serve as a sign or portent.
   • The LORD declared that he is bringing his servant, the Branch.
9. 3:9
   • The LORD has set a stone before Joshua.
   • Upon that one stone are seven eyes.
   • The LORD declared that he will engrave an inscription on it.
   • This is the declaration of the LORD of hosts.
   • The LORD will remove the iniquity of that land.
   • The LORD will remove that iniquity in a single day.
10. 3:10
    • This will happen in that day.
    • This is the declaration of the LORD of hosts.
    • Each man will call to his neighbor.
    • The calling will be to come under the vine and under the fig tree.

Words Worth Explaining

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

3:1

Joshua here is not the Joshua of the conquest; he is the chief priest in Jerusalem around 520 BC, after the Judeans returned from exile in Babylon and began rebuilding the ruined temple. The scene is a courtroom. "Satan" translates Hebrew ha-satan, "the accuser" or "the adversary", in this book a title for the prosecuting figure rather than a personal name, and the right-hand side of the accused was the accuser's standing place at a trial. LORD printed in capitals stands for the personal name of Israel's God, written in Hebrew with four consonants and traditionally left unpronounced when read aloud.

3:2

A half-burnt stick snatched out of a fire was a stock image for something rescued at the last possible moment and still scorched by what it went through: Jerusalem and its priesthood had barely survived Babylon's destruction of the city. "Rebuke" is a courtroom word here, an authoritative order that silences the accuser and stops the case, not a telling-off.

3:3

The Hebrew word for these clothes is unusually crude, used elsewhere of garments fouled with excrement. A priest could serve only in clean garments, so filthy clothing was not merely undignified but disqualifying; in this trial scene the soiled clothes stand for the guilt being charged against him.

3:4

Removing and replacing someone's clothing was how a change of legal or official status was made visible; "change of raiment" in older English means a fresh set of garments, here rich or festal ones. "I have taken your guilt away" is the verdict being pronounced: the charge and its liability are canceled.

3:5

The turban was part of the high priest's official dress, the headpiece that marked out who he was; the King James "fair mitre" means a clean, pure one. This is the only point in the vision where the watching prophet speaks instead of simply reporting what he sees.

3:6

"Protested" in 1611 English meant solemnly declared or formally charged, the opposite of the modern sense of objecting. What follows is a charge laid on Joshua, like terms read out to someone taking office.

3:7

"LORD of hosts" means the LORD of armies, the heavenly forces at his command. To "judge my house" is to administer the temple and settle the cases brought to it, and the courts are the open courtyards of the temple complex where worship actually took place. The last promise is disputed in the Hebrew: it appears to grant Joshua the right to come and go among the heavenly attendants standing in this vision, something ordinarily reserved for them.

3:8

"Men wondered at" translates a Hebrew phrase meaning men who are a sign or portent, people whose situation points beyond itself to something coming. "The Branch" renders Hebrew tsemach, a green shoot sprouting from a stump or root. It is used elsewhere as a title for a coming king descended from David (as in Jeremiah 23:5); the image had force because Babylon had cut the royal line down like a felled tree, and no king was ruling in Jerusalem when Zechariah spoke.

3:9

The stone is not identified, and interpreters have read it as a foundation stone or finishing stone of the temple then being rebuilt, or as a jewel in the priest's regalia. The Hebrew behind "seven eyes" can mean eyes, or faces and facets of a cut stone, or springs of water; the ambiguity is in the original. Cutting an inscription into a stone was standard work on precious gems in priestly dress, which carried the engraved names of the tribes of Israel.

3:10

Inviting a neighbor to sit under your own vine and fig tree was a set phrase for settled peace and prosperity: no armies passing through, each household secure on its own land long enough for slow-growing vines and fig trees to mature and bear.