Zechariah 1:3

1:1-6 God's almighty power and sovereign dominion, should engage and encourage sinners to repent and turn to Him. It is very desirable to have the Lord of hosts for our friend, and very dreadful to have him for our enemy. Review what is past, and observe the message God sent by his servants, the prophets, to your fathers. Turn ye now from your evil ways, and from your evil doings. Be persuaded to leave your sins, as the only way to prevent approaching ruin. What is become of our fathers, and of the prophets that preached to them? They are all dead and gone. Here they were, in the towns and countries where we live, passing and repassing in the same streets, dwelling in the same houses, trading in the same shops and exchanges, worshipping God in the same places. But where are they? When they died, there was not an end of them; they are in eternity, in the world of spirits, the unchangeable world to which we hasten apace. Where are they? Those of them who lived and died in sin, are in torment. Those who lived and died in Christ, are in heaven; and if we live and die as they did, we shall be with them shortly and eternally. If they minded not their own souls, is that a reason why their posterity should ruin theirs also? The prophets are gone. Christ is a Prophet that lives for ever, but all other prophets have a period put to their office.

Oh that this consideration had its due weight; that dying ministers are dealing with dying people about their never-dying souls, and an awful eternity, upon the brink of which both are standing! In another world, both we and our prophets shall live for ever: to prepare for that world ought to be our great care in this. The preachers died, and the hearers died, but the word of God died not; not one jot or title of it fell to the ground; for he is righteous.

Therefore say thou unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; {d} Turn ye unto me, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will turn unto you, saith the LORD of hosts. (d) Let your fruits declare that you are God's people, and that he has wrought in you by his Spirit, and mortified you: for otherwise man has no power to return to God, but God must convert him; Jer 31:18 La 5:21 Isa 31:6 45:21

Zechariah 1:3-6 . Therefore say — Rather, but say thou unto them, Thus saith the Lord, Turn ye unto me — The word turn, as it related to the people, signified that they should change their corrupt manners and turn to God in newness of life; and by God’s turning to them, was meant, that he would take them again into his favour, and perform for them acts of manifest kindness, instead of displeasure. Be ye not as your fathers — Do not persist in impenitence as your fathers did. Instead of being hardened in your evil courses by the example of your fathers’ sin, rather be deterred from those courses by the example of your fathers’ punishment. Your fathers, where are they — Where are your disobedient fathers? Were they not consumed with famine and the sword, as God threatened them? And the prophets, do they live for ever — Though the prophets, and those to whom they delivered their message, are dead, yet the commandments delivered by their ministry still continue in full force; which appears by the judgments that came upon your fathers, for not hearkening to them; as they themselves could not but acknowledge. And the same punishments will overtake you, if you continue disobedient. But my words — The dreadful menaces which I delivered; and my statutes — The decreed judgments which I resolved to execute on them: did they not take hold on your fathers? — Overtake them as a pursuing enemy overtakes and seizes on the object of his hostility?

In other words, Did not the evils which I had denounced by the prophets come upon your fathers? And they returned, &c. — They were forced to acknowledge with sorrow, that all those calamities which I had threatened against them, and forewarned them of, if they did not obey my voice, were actually come upon them.

Therefore, Heb. And. Say; command and require. Unto them of the captivity who are returned to their own land. Thus saith the Lord of hosts; in my name, by the authority I have over them as Lord of hosts, require they hear and obey. Turn ye unto me; repent ye of all your sins, leave them, set your hearts on my law to obey it, on my worship to give me it, on my temple to re-edify it. Saith the Lord of hosts; who can punish your refusal, who can protect you in your return, and reward your obedience. I will turn unto you, with blessings, with all blessings, which my presence brings to a repenting people. It was woe with you, and your fathers, when I departed from them, but it shall be as well with them when I return unto them. Saith the Lord of hosts; that you may be assured hereof, I promise it to you, and will be engaged to perform, as Lord of hosts, as having all things at my disposal.

3 . saith the Lord of hosts ] See note on Haggai 2:6 . In this verse the phrase occurs three times. The first and third times it is literally, “saith Jehovah of hosts.” But the second time there is a variation in the Hebrew and it is properly “(it is the) utterance, or oracle of Jehovah of hosts.” The same interchange of the two forms of expression is found in Haggai 1:8-9 ; Haggai 2:6-9 . 3. The interpreting angel; a clear and satisfactory idea of the vision is obtained. The man riding upon a red horse, the Leader of the company of horsemen, appears again in Zechariah 1:10 , where the circumstance of his “standing among the myrtle-trees” is repeated, in order to identify him with the horseman of Zechariah 1:8 . In Zechariah 1:11 he is called “the Angel of the Lord;” but to make it clear that he is the same person who was previously described as “a man,” his “standing among the myrtle trees” is again mentioned. Having thus been defined as the angel of the Lord (and he is the only person throughout the vision to whom that name is given) he is referred to in the next verse, Zechariah 1:12 , by that title only, there being no further need to mention the circumstance of his standing among the myrtle trees, which was only introduced for the purpose of identifying him with the “man” of Zechariah 1:8 ; Zechariah 1:10 . In Zechariah 1:13 he who is “a man” in Zechariah 1:8 , and “the Angel of Jehovah” in Zechariah 1:11-12 , becomes perhaps (see note on that verse) “Jehovah” Himself.

If this view be adopted, then only one other angel appears upon the scene, “the angel that talked or communed with me” ( Zechariah 1:9 ; Zechariah 1:13-14 ), who on this supposition stands, as it were, outside in this as he does in all the subsequent visions, and is only employed to interpret them to the prophet. the myrtles ] The myrtle is said to be indigenous to Palestine. That it abounded in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem at this period of Jewish history we learn incidentally, from the description of the Feast of Tabernacles, which was held under Ezra and Nehemiah. “Go forth,” so the proclamation ran, “unto the mount, and fetch olive-branches, and pine-branches, and myrtle-branches, and palm-branches, and branches of thick trees, to make booths, as it is written.” Nehemiah 8:15 . in the bottom ] i.e. the low, deep valley, which appears to have been the favourite habitat of the myrtle. Comp. “litora myrtetis lætissima,” “amantes litora myrtos.” Virgil, Georg. ii. 112, iv. 124. Here it may well have been the valley of the Kedron. Others render, but with less probability, “the shady (place).” The idea that the “tabernacle” or dwelling-place of God is intended has nothing to recommend it. red horses, speckled, and white ] With respect to the first and last of the colours, “red,” i.e. bay or chestnut, and “white,” there is no doubt. What exactly the intermediate colour is, “speckled,” or “bay” (margin), “sorrel,” R.V., must remain uncertain.

3. saith the Lord of hosts—a phrase frequent in Haggai and Zechariah, implying God's boundless resources and universal power, so as to inspire the Jews with confidence to work. Turn ye unto me … and I will turn—that is, and then, as the sure consequence, "I will turn unto you" (Mal 3:7; Jas 4:8; compare also Jer 3:12; Eze 18:30; Mic 7:19). Though God hath brought you back from captivity, yet this state will not last long unless ye are really converted. God has heavier scourges ready, and has begun to give symptoms of displeasure [Calvin]. (Hag 1:6).

Verse 3. - Say thou unto them . The prophet shows why he has reminded them of their forefathers' sins and punishment. Saith the Lord of hosts. The expression recurs three times in this verse; it denotes the almightiness and infinite resources of God (see note A in the appendix to Archdeacon Perowne's edition of this prophet). Its constant repetition, as in Haggai, gives a certain heaviness to the prophet's style. Turn ( return ) ye unto me . He calls the people to repentance, partly, doubtless, with a view to their taking an active part in rebuilding the temple, thus carrying on the exhortations of Haggai, but also with reference to their general indevotion and laxity which Ezra afterwards had to reprove (see Ezra 9:2 ). Saith the Lord of hosts; literally, ( it is ) the utterance of Jehovah of hosts. This is a more threatening form than the mere "saith" in the other two places in this verse. And I will turn ( return ) unto you ( Malachi 3:7 ). God promises his favour on their repentance and better conduct; as Haggai had been commissioned to proclaim a return of fruitful seasons as soon as the people obeyed his word and attended diligently to the work before them ( Haggai 2:19 ). They were called now to attend to the pure worship of the Lord, as the sole condition of prosperity (comp. 2 Chronicles 30:6 ; James 4:8 ).