Zechariah 6: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Zechariah sees a vision of four chariots with horses of different colors coming out from between two bronze mountains, and the angel explains they are four spirits sent out from before the Lord of all the earth to patrol. Then the Lord tells Zechariah to take silver and gold from men who have returned from Babylon and make a crown for Joshua the high priest. Through that act Zechariah announces a man called the Branch, who will build the temple of the Lord, rule from his throne, and be a priest there as well. The crown is to stay in the temple as a reminder, and distant people will come and help build, if the people obey the Lord's voice.

Claim by Claim

1. 6:1
   • The prophet turned and lifted up his eyes and looked.
   • He saw four chariots coming out from between two mountains.
   • The two mountains were mountains of bronze.
2. 6:2
   • The first chariot had red horses.
   • The second chariot had black horses.
3. 6:3
   • The third chariot had white horses.
   • The fourth chariot had dappled horses.
   • The fourth chariot's horses are further described by a word meaning strong or mighty, which the King James renders as a separate group of bay horses; it is unclear whether this describes the dappled horses or names another set.
4. 6:4
   • The prophet spoke to the angel who talked with him.
   • He asked the angel what these were.
   • He addressed the angel as 'my lord'.
5. 6:5
   • The angel answered him.
   • The angel said these are the four spirits of the heavens.
   • The angel said they go out from standing before the Lord of all the earth.
6. 6:6
   • The chariot with the black horses goes out to the land of the north.
   • The white horses go out after them.
   • The dappled horses go out toward the south country.
7. 6:7
   • The strong horses went out.
   • They sought to go and walk about through the earth.
   • He said to them, 'Go, walk about through the earth.'
   • They walked about through the earth.
8. 6:8
   • He cried out to the prophet.
   • He spoke to him.
   • He told him to look at those going out to the land of the north.
   • He said those going to the north country have set his spirit at rest in the land of the north.
9. 6:9
   • The word of the LORD came to the prophet.
10. 6:10
    • The LORD told him to take from the exiles.
    • The LORD named Heldai, Tobijah, and Jedaiah.
    • These men had come from Babylon.
    • The LORD told him to come that same day.
    • The LORD told him to go into the house of Josiah son of Zephaniah.
11. 6:11
    • The LORD told him to take silver and gold.
    • The LORD told him to make crowns.
    • The LORD told him to set them on the head of Joshua son of Josedech.
    • Joshua was the high priest.
12. 6:12
    • The LORD told him to speak to Joshua.
    • The message is introduced as the words of the LORD of hosts.
    • The message says, 'Behold the man whose name is the Branch.'
    • The message says he shall sprout up from his place.
    • The message says he shall build the temple of the LORD.
13. 6:13
    • He shall build the temple of the LORD.
    • He shall bear the glory.
    • He shall sit and rule upon his throne.
    • He shall be a priest upon his throne.
    • The counsel of peace shall be between them both.
14. 6:14
    • The crowns shall be for Helem, Tobijah, Jedaiah, and Hen son of Zephaniah.
    • The crowns shall be for a memorial in the temple of the LORD.
15. 6:15
    • Those who are far off shall come and build in the temple of the LORD.
    • They shall know that the LORD of hosts sent the speaker to them.
    • This shall come to pass if they diligently obey the voice of the LORD their God.

Words Worth Explaining

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

6:1

This is the last of eight night visions that Zechariah reports one after another in chapters 1–6. Bronze was the hardest metal in ordinary use, the material of gates, weapons and armor, so bronze mountains suggest something immovable.

6:3

"Grisled" in the King James means dappled or mottled. The Hebrew word attached to the fourth team is uncertain: it can mean "strong" or can name a color (reddish-brown, "bay"). Older English versions read it as a color, most modern ones as "strong", which is why the same word turns up as "bay horses" in verse 3 of the King James and as "the strong horses" in verse 7.

6:4

"Then I answered and said" translates a Hebrew idiom for speaking up in reaction to something, not for replying to a question; nobody has asked Zechariah anything. "My lord" is ordinary courtesy toward the angel, roughly "sir".

6:5

The Hebrew word here, ruach, means wind, breath or spirit, all at once; "the four winds of the heavens" was a standard phrase for the four points of the compass. Chariots patrolling in four directions and four winds are the same picture.

6:6

"The land in the north" means Mesopotamia, Assyria and then Babylon. Armies from there could not cross the desert directly, so they always entered Israel from the north, and "the north" became shorthand for the great imperial power. "The south" means Egypt. The Hebrew for the white horses reads only "after them"; some translations adjust one letter to get "toward the west," which would complete the four directions. No chariot is sent east.

6:7

"Walk to and fro through the earth" describes patrolling, going up and down a territory the way a king's mounted messengers and inspectors did in the Persian empire, reporting back on its condition.

6:8

"Have quieted my spirit" is a Hebrew idiom for anger being satisfied and settling, the same wording is used elsewhere of wrath being spent. It does not mean the spirit was made calm in the sense of soothed feelings.

6:9

When "LORD" is printed in capitals it stands for God's personal name in Hebrew, four consonants usually written as Yahweh, which Jewish readers did not say aloud. The King James translators marked the name this way rather than translating or pronouncing it.

6:10

These are Judeans returning from Babylon, where their families had been deported roughly seventy years earlier. Judah was now a small province of the Persian empire, and returning exiles brought contributions of silver and gold for the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem, which was under way around 520 BC.

6:11

The Hebrew word for crown is plural in form here, though later verbs treat it as one object, so it may be a single composite crown of several circlets, or two crowns. Joshua son of Jehozadak was the serving high priest; the King James "Josedech" is the same name in its Greek spelling. Crowning a priest rather than a king is unusual: the crown named here is the ornate kind worn by royalty, not the priest's ordinary turban.

6:12

"The Branch" translates the Hebrew tsemach, a shoot or sprout, used by earlier prophets as a title for a coming king descended from David (Jeremiah 23:5; 33:15). The next phrase is a play on the same word: he will sprout up from where he is. "The Lord of Armies" (King James "the LORD of hosts") is a title picturing God at the head of heavenly forces. The temple meant is the second one, being rebuilt on the ruins of Solomon's temple, which Babylon had destroyed.

6:13

In Israel kingship and priesthood were normally held by different men from different families. "Between them both" is ambiguous in the Hebrew: it can mean between the two offices held by one figure, or between two persons, the crowned figure and the priest, working in agreement.

6:14

Two of the names have changed since verse 10: Helem for Heldai, and Hen for Josiah. Both may be variant forms or nicknames; "Hen" is also the ordinary Hebrew word for favor or graciousness, which is why some translations read "the gracious son of Zephaniah" instead of a name.

6:15

"They that are far off" is left open: it can mean Judeans still living abroad who had not returned, or foreigners from other nations. "Has sent me" is spoken by the prophet, or possibly by the messenger figure speaking through him. The Hebrew of the last sentence trails off: it states the condition without completing the thought.