ZECHARIAH CHAPTER 1 - 7

BOOK OF ZECHARIAH

I have remembrance of Your name that I
Recite at morn and eve, on Sabbath’s wry
Return in judgement and in joy and peace.
But You, too, my Beloved, enjoy release
Of the remembrance of the names You choose
To keep in life and love, no breath to lose.
The prophet with name of remembrance here
Came in Darius the king’s second year,
Five-twenty, and remained perhaps another
To finish the book’s last half as to smother
The clarity, if such exists in this.
Truth is, there’s only one thing not to miss
In Zechariah: that’s to keep Your law,
Beloved, and let the heathen wranglers caw.

ZECHARIAH 1

1 In the eighth month, the second year
Of Darius, came the word clear
Of YHWH to prophet Zechariah,
Who was the son of Berechiah,
The son of Iddo the prophet,
Saying 2 “YHWH has been sore beset,
Displeased with your ancestors met.
3 “So say to them,” says YHWH of hosts,
“Turn back to Me away from boasts,”
Says YHWH of hosts, “and I will turn
To you,” says YHWH of hosts and stern.
4 “Do not be like your ancestors,
To whom the former prophets’ spurs
Cried, saying ‘So says YHWH of hosts,
“Repent your evils ways’ ripostes,
And from your evil doings’ roasts,”’
But they did not hear nor obey
Me,” says YHWH who is still in sway.
5 “Your ancestors, where are they now?
And do prophets live always, how?
6 ”But My words and My statutes, which
I commanded My servants’ stitch,
The prophets, did they not take hold
Of your fathers?” They returned bold
And said “Just as YHWH of hosts thought
To do to us by our ways wrought,
According to the things we do,
Just so has He dealt with our crew.”

It’s hardly fair, Beloved, to compare flesh
And blood with written word caught in the mesh
Of Scriptures handed down for generations,
Writing recopied over for our rations.
When man’s body’s worn out, it’s planted deep
And there’s nothing left for it but to weep.
When Your law’s tattered, then another score
Or sheep were slaughtered for their skins and more,
And voilà! All is new, in fresh ink crested,
While bones alone remain of the men bested.
Beloved, the good and evil, are all laid
Down in the grave after their life’s parade,
While truth remains to hear and see and do,
The only self that stays is that of You.

7 On the twenty-fourth day in view
Of the eleventh month and true,
Which is the month Sebat, and in
Second year of Darius’ win,
Came YHWH’s word unto Zechariah
Who was the son of Berechiah,
The son of Iddo, prophet, saying:

Is this a kind thought, my Beloved, to find
The calendar’s Babylonized, resigned
Behind the Persian royalty combined?
What month is this, this Sebat in the year
Of sacred rounds of Sabbaths without fear?
Put out, Beloved, Babylon’s feast of days,
Rabbinical in counting to amaze,
And give us back the calendar in phase
With Enoch and with Noah for Your praise.
Gregorian divides the western plot
Upon a year from Julian once sought
In Russian cloisters by the twice begot.
Beloved, hand down the righteous days again
From heaven and the celestial, starry glen.

8 I saw by night and see, a man
Riding on a red horse in span,
And he stood among myrtles swaying
Below; and behind him to go
Red horses, speckled and white show.
9 And I said ”O sir, what are these?
And the angel that spoke with ease
Said to me, “I’ll show what you please.”
And the man stand in the trees
Of myrtle replied and he said
“These are the ones that YHWH has led
To walk around through the earth spread.”
11 They answered the angel of YHWH
That stood among the myrtle crew,
And said “We’ve walked about the earth,
And see, all’s at rest in its berth.”
12 And the angel of YHWH replied
And said “O YHWH of hosts, abide,
How long will You have no mercy
On Jerusalem and city
Of Judah, against which you’ve held
Wrath seventy year and unquelled?”
13 YHWH replied to the angel there
That talked with me good wards and fair.
14 So the angel speaking with me,
Said to me, “Call and say in fee,
So says YHWH of hosts, ‘I am bound
In jealousy upon the ground
Of Jerusalem and its fort
With jealousy greater than sport.
15 “And with great wrath I’m angry too
Against the nation who in pew
Sit at their ease, for in My small
Displeasure they made speck a wall.’
16 So says YHWH, ‘I have now returned
To Jerusalem I had spurned
With mercies; My house shall be built
In it,’ says YHWH of hosts, to tilt
A line shall be stretched out upon
Jerusalem when comes the dawn.”
17 Call out again, say so says YHWH
Of hosts, “My cities by and through
Prosperity shall yet be spread
Abroad, and YHWH comfort instead
Zion, and choose Jerusalem.”

The coloured horses of Zechariah
Are there to say when the time comes the straw
Of wrath is over and the temple spires
Must be raised once more for human desires.
The horses portend the setting aright
Of sanctuary after human plight.
So why should horses in the Revelation
Be so difficult in interpretation?
They too predict the line drawn out again
Toward Jerusalem and its good den.
They ride the earth to show that heaven seat
Where Your Messiah serves to wash the feet
Of saint once sinner till all sin is gone
And blotted from eternity’s fair dawn.

18 And I raised up my eyes and saw
And there were four horns like a claw.
19 And I said to the angel that
Talked with me, “What are these at bat?”
And he replied to me, “These are
The horns which scattered wide and far
Judah, Israel, Jerusalem.”
20 And YHWH showed me four carpenters.
21 And I said ”What work do these fers?”
And he spoke up and said to me,
“These are the horns that scattered free
Judah, so no man lifted head;
But these have come to fray instead,
To cast out the Gentile horns which
Lifted their power over the pitch
Of Judah to scatter its bed.”

The book of Revelation has the horns
And horses, the destroyers with their scorns
And the predictors of the temple shown
In glory above all things on earth known.
But carpenters are missing from the share,
No doubt because they came to build the fair
City of old Jerusalem one day.
But in the Revelation all the sway
Is new creation, without need of stroke
Of hammer or of nail by any bloke.
The new earth and the new sky come to shake
The temple cleansed of every sin in wake.
Beloved, I still like carpenters and feel
They have a place and vision to reveal.

ZECHARIAH 2

1 I lifted up my eyes and saw
Indeed a man held in his paw
A measuring line. 2 And I asked him,
“Where are you going with that trim?”
And he told me, “To lay a line
In measurement of the divine
Jerusalem, to see how wide
And how long it is on each side.”
3 See, the angel addressing me
Went out, and another freely
Came to meet angel in degree.
4 And said to him, “Run tell this youth,
‘Jerusalem for lodge and booth
Shall be filled to capacity
With man and beast abundantly.’”
5 “And I will be to her” says YHWH,
“A wall of fire around her view,
And as a glory in her breast.
6 “Avast, flee out from the north land,”
Says YHWH, “For I have spread like sand
You from heaven’s four winds,” says YHWH.
7 “Ho, Zion, escape, you who live with
The daughter of Babylon’s myth.”

Rabbis today still follow Babylon,
The Talmud written in the light of dawn.
And so who follow them still have a plate
And part with Babylon, the desolate.
But let me not join in the prophet’s song
To criticize the Rabbanite for wrong.
I too cherish the ardent wish that made
Them write that book and put it on parade,
That is, to know and do Your will in all,
Even in those things missing in Your call.
Let me, Beloved, escape my own desire
To serve and love You with my heart on fire
To flee to Your heart and there sink as one
With You who spread me out under the sun.

8 For so says YHWH of hosts who sent
Me after the glory unspent
To the nations that have spoiled you,
“For he who lays a hand on you
Touches the apple of His eye.
9 “For indeed I will shake My hand
Over them and they’ll be a band
Of prey to those who served their way,”
And you shall know that YHWH of hosts
Has sent me to speak in your coasts.
10 “Rejoice and be glad, Zion’s child,
For indeed I come reconciled
To live among you,” has said YHWH.
11 And many Gentiles in that day
Shall flee to YHWH for refuge sway
And live among you, and you’ll know
The Lord of Hosts has not been slow
To send me to you on the go.
12 And YHWH shall inherit His part
Of Judah in the holy mart
To choose Jerusalem again.
13 Be silent, then, all flesh of men
Before YHWH, for He has come out
Of His holy dwelling with shout.’”

My ancestry of Hittite rushed upon
Your call and woke up early with the dawn
To find You living in the sacred tent
Of cedar and stone on Zion’s ascent.
Who knows but that the one who graved the stone
With Decalogue and left it with the bone
Of Hopewell and Adena native’s plot.
My grandmothers would fill a boiling pot.
Beloved, whether I come to claim as heir
Jerusalem’s heritage, do not spare
Me of Your word. In silence I repare
Before Your throne, and turn both east and west
To find Your dwelling in valley and crest
Of Zion. Beloved, let me too be blessed.

ZECHARIAH 3

1 He showed me Joshua the high
Priest standing before angel nigh
Of YHWH, and Satan standing there
At his right hand to resist share.
2 And YHWH said to Satan, “May YHWH
Rebuke you, Satan, even YHWH
That’s chosen Jerusalem now
Rebuke you; is this not somehow
A brand plucked out of the fire now?”

I translate the word Satan, but I think
That adversary or accuser’s link
Might be a better choice. And yet I know
That Persian thoughts of the Satanic show
Might well have had effects on Zechariah,
Who caught the spirit of the age in fire.
The very adversary that came by
Ahura Mazda to unshaped the sky
Stands before priest and son of Aaron now
To brings excitement in the show somehow.
Beloved, whether this satan was a man
Or being supernatural by plan,
I do eschew what he’s about to do,
And pity Joshua before the view.

3 And Joshua was decked in clothes
Of filth and where the angel rose.
4 The angel quoted and spoke to
Those standing round and in his crew,
And said “Now take away the clothes
Of filth from him.” And to him chose
To say “See I’ve made pass away
Iniquity and I will deck
You with a change up to your neck.”
5 And I said “Let them set a fair
Mitre upon his head to wear.”
So they set a fair mitre there,
And clothed him with garments to wear.
And the angel of YHWH stood there.
6 The messenger of YHWH spoke up
To Joshua protesting tup,
Saying: 7 “So says YHWH of hosts, ‘If
You will walk in My counsels stiff,
And if you’ll keep My charge, then you
Shall also judge My house in view,
And also shall keep My courts, and
I’ll give you here a place to stand.

Equating clean clothes with moral exactness
Is ancient Persian too matter-of-factness.
It’s still done by that chosen race with grace
To overwork ablutions of the face
And hand and rub the feet before the score
Of prayer in such prostration at the door.
One’s tempted to say Persians at the time
Invented Judaism for a rhyme
Against Samaritans to make in proof
Divide and rule the better sort of roof.
Beloved, I too perform ablutions here,
And walk around the Kaaba with my gear,
While pick-pockets relieve companions near
Of money while attention runs aloof.

8 “Hear now, O Joshua, high priest,
You and your fellows here increased
Who sit with you; that they are men
To be wondered at; see, again
I’ll bring out My servant, a shoot.
9 “For the stone that I’ve laid before
Joshua; upon one stone’s root
There thrall be seven eyes to boot:
See I’ll engrave the graving’s score,’
Says YHWH of hosts, ‘and I’ll remove
Iniquity from that land’s groove
In one day, and so My love prove.
10 “In that day,’ says YHWH of hosts, ‘you
Shall each one call his neighbour to
The vine under the fig tree too.’”

The word for eye is not too clear to me,
Although it’s quoted with the horns to see
By John the Revelator. It can be
The word means mesh or colour or at last
A spring or fountain on the way to blast.
A stone of seven colours suits the way
I’d like to see the thing in light of day:
The first stone of the temple new to sway.
The stone of seven fountains comes along
After the stones of Moses where the wrong
Replied to right and left the man to die.
The seven springs of stone unstruck to fly
And also stone unspoken to, tells why
The living waters flow beneath the sky.

ZECHARIAH 4

1 The angel that talked with me came
Again and waked me just the same
As a man’s wakened from his sleep.
2 He asked me, “Do you see a flame?”
And I said “I have looked in deep,
And there’s a candlestick of gold
With a bowl on top of it told,
And its lamps seven from the cold,
And seven tubes to seven lights
That are upon the top for sights.
3 “And there are two olive trees there,
One on the right of the bowl’s share,
The other on the left to bear.”
4 I spoke with the messenger there
Who talked with me and asked to share:
”What are these, sir?” 5 The messenger
That talked with me replied to stir,
“Don’t you know what these are for sure?”
And I replied, saying “No sir.”
6 Then he answered and spoke to me,
Saying “This is YHWH’s word to see
To Zerubbabel, and to say
‘Not by might nor by power to sway,
But by My spirit,’ so says YHWH
Of hosts.” 7 Who are you, great mountain
Before Zerubbabel a plain?
He shall bring out the corner stone
With shoutings of “Grace, grace alone.”
8 And there was a word of YHWH then
Addressed to me and once again.
9 “The hands of Zerubbabel laid
Foundation of this house arcade,
His hand shall also finish it;
So you will know that YHWH of hosts
Has sent me to inform your toasts.
10 “Who has despised time of small things?
They shall rejoice and see what brings
The plummet in the hand by seven
Beside Zerubbabel; from heaven
They are the eyes of YHWH, which run
Throughout the whole world paragon.”

The horses and all things in sevens are seen
As eyes divine that run through the whole green
Earth to see how soon temples can be built
With seven or eight on a working tilt.
Not by the might or power of men shall be
All things set right throughout eternity,
But by the spirit of YHWH come to see.
Beloved, Zerubbabel, and what a name!
It sounds like woollen sole of Bel in flame.
Well let the man and not the name rebuild
The sanctuary with Your spirit filled.
And I shall find its pattern in the gloom
Of sky and earth before I meet my doom,
Before I come into the golden room.

11 And I answered and said to him,
“What are these two olive trees trim
On the right side of candlestick
And on its left too just as thick?”
12 And I replied again and said
To him, “What are these two outspread
Olive branches which through the two
Golden pipes empty golden hue
Out of themselves?” 13 And he replied
To me and said “Don’t you divide?”
And I said “No sir, please confide.”
14 And he said “These are the two sons
Of oil who stand before the bums
Ruling the whole earth, all beside.”

ZECHARIAH 5

1 Then I turned to lift up my eyes,
And looked and saw upon the skies
A flying roll. 2 And he asked me,
“What is it now that you can see?”
And I replied, “Flying roll;
The length is twenty arm lengths’ toll,
The width is ten arm lengths in fee.”
3 Then he said to me, “This curse goes
Over all the face of earth’s rows;
For every one that steals shall be
Cut off this side accordingly,
And every one that swears shall be
Cut off that side accordingly.
4 “I’ll bring it out,” says YHWH of hosts,
“And it shall enter in the coasts
Of the thief and into the house
Of him who swears falsely to grouse;
And it shall stay there in the middle
Of his house and consume and riddle
Its timbers and its stones in fee.”

The flying roll, one Pentecostal said
To me, is television on the spread.
I somehow doubted where his meaning led.
And yet I cannot find a word among
The four here that the prophet’s strung
That does not apply to the flying tongue
And the electronical sort of lung.
No doubt, Beloved, Your word had better sense
In centuries past in Bedouin tents,
But that does not mean that the fickle mind
Of man may not find messages behind
To prop up every quaintness of belief
And bring the ragged soul sweeter relief.
So let it be the television’s feoff.

5 Then the angel that talked with me
Went out and said once more to me,
“Lift up your eyes, what do you see?”
6 And I said “What is it?” and he
Replied, “This is an ephah free
That goes about.” And so said he,
It like this throughout all the earth.
7 See there was lift a talent’s worth
Of lead; and this is she that sits
In the middle of ephah’s pits.”
8 And he said “This is wickedness.”
And he threw it in the address
Of the ephah; and he cast in
The weight of lead upon its bin.
9 And I lifted up my eyes and
Looked and see there came out in band
Two women with wind in their wings;
For they had wings like a stork’s things;
And they lifted the ephah up
Between the earth and sky like cup.
10 Then I said to the angel that
Talked with me, “Where do these off pat
Take the ephah out of the flat?”
11 And he said to me, “To build it
A house in land of Shinar’s kit;
And it shall be established there
And set on her own base to wear.”

How many women build a house to rise
In Shinar between the earth and the skies?
The visions of the roll and ephah are
Really but one warning against the car
Of Israel, that, though peace may abound,
And restoration on the lovely ground,
That disobedience to Your law brings
Always the curse of Shinar in its wings.
Beloved, though I have been forgiven, restored,
Let me not rest on laurels of the Lord,
But faithfully live in the light of law
Instead of by the human word of claw.
Then I shall fly not by the roll or by
The ephah flying under Shinar’s sky.

ZECHARIAH 6

1 And I turned to lift up my eyes
And looked and saw there by surprise
Four chariots from between two hills;
And the hills were of brazen fills.
2 At the first chariot horses red;
And at the second black ones led;
3 And at the third white horses fed,
While at the fourth chariot there stay
Grizzled horses as well as bay.
4 Then I replied and I said to
The messenger that spoke the true
To me, “What are these sir, pray tell?”
5 And the angel answered a spell
And said to me, “These are the four
Spirits of the sky which go out
From standing on the earth before
The ruler of all on the shore.”
6 The black horses there go out to
The north country, the white in view
Go after them; the grizzled go
Towards the south country and slow.
7 And the bay went out, tried to go
To walk through the earth to and fro;
And he said “Go away from here
And walk through the earth far and near.”
So they walked to and fro from berth
To go walking through all the earth.
8 Then he shouted and said to me,
“See those that go to north country
Have calmed my spirit in northland.”

The vision of four-coloured horses here
Reveals the meaning of those to appear
To John in Revelation: they are those
Celestial messengers that once arose
To take the warning message to its close
In every land and way upon the earth.
The word goes out indeed with pain and mirth,
With every facet of the law and grace
Preparing tribes and nations, every race,
To gather in judgement before Your face.
Beloved, I see the horses running still:
It is not something lost upon the hill.
I hear the messages and with a thrill
I lay hold on the hope come to fulfil.

9 And the word of YHWH came to me,
Saying 10 “Take of captivity,
Of Heldai, of Tabijah, and
Of Jedaiah, which come to stand
From Babylon, and come that day
And go into the house to stay
With Josiah son of one called
Zephaniah by honed and halled.
11 “Then take silver and gold, make crown,
And set them on the head renown
Of Joshua Josedech’s son
The high priest when all’s said and done.
12 “And speak to him, say ‘So says YHWH
Of hosts, saying “See the man who
Is called the Sprout; and he shall grow
Up out of his place, not be slow
To build the temple of YHWH’s show.
13 “He’ll even build temple of YHWH;
And he shall bear the glory too,
And shall sit and rule on his throne;
And he shall be priest all alone;
And counsel of peace shall intone
Between them both without a bone.
14 “The crowns shall be for Helem and
For Tobijah, as well as stand
On Jedaiah, and for the son
Of Zephaniah, Hen undone
For a memorial there in
The temple of YHWH without sin.
15 “Those far off shall come here to build
The temple of YHWH glory-filled,
And you shall know that YHWH of hosts
Has sent me to you in your coasts.
And this shall happen if you will
Diligently obey the will
Of YHWH who’s your Ælohim still.”’”

Joshua the high priest is chosen now,
The namesake of poor Jesus and whose brow
Was cut by thorns. I hear the word go out
As though the great and messianic clout
Had come at last and never should there be
More any curse upon terrestrial lee.
It’s always the same here, Beloved, I see
The border of the reign of justice rise
And always recede before cloudy skies.
Mirage upon the desert, nothing more
Is prophecy of good things in Your store.
Unless a man grasp now and taste the good
He has no hope before him in the wood,
But only and for ever choice as should.

ZECHARIAH 7

1 Now in the fourth year of the King
Darius it happened a thing
That the word of YHWH came in ear
Of Zechariah not to fear,
On the fourth day of the month nine,
Called Chislev by the people fine,
2 When they sent Sherezer, with him
Regem-Melech and his men grim,
To house of Ælohim, to pray
Before YHWH, 3 and to ask the way
Of the priests who were in the house
Of YHWH of hosts, and not to grouse
The prophets, saying, “Should I weep
In the fifth month and a fast keep
As I have done for so many years?”
4 And word of YHWH of hosts appears
To me, saying, 5 “Tell all the folk
Of the land and the priests a stroke:
‘When you fasted and mourned a bit
In the fifth and seventh months fit
During those seventy years, did you
Really fast for Me, for My views?
6 “And when you eat and when you drink,
Do you not eat and drink for meet
Of yourselves? 7 “Should you not have done
The words which YHWH proclaimed and spun
Through the earlier prophets when
Jerusalem and the towns then
Around it were inhabited
And prosperous, and the south bid
And lowlands were inhabited?’”

St Paul quoted the proverb in his day,
Whether to eat and drink or go astray,
Or do all for the glory of the Lord.
I eat and drink but fail to raise the sword.
As I take in the eating in my due,
And drinking of both water and the dew,
Let me not follow St Paul in the view
That all the prophets said in past days now
Has been rescinded by each holy brow.
Nor let me blame St. Paul for all the craft
Of following the heathen sort of graft,
And using and abusing prophecy
To excuse disobedience in spree.
Then I shall find my hope and health fall free.

8 The word of YHWH to Zechariah said,
9 “So says YHWH of hosts: ‘Execute
True justice, show mercy to boot
And compassion, everyone led
To his brother. 10 Do not oppress
The widow or the fatherless,
The alien or yet the poor.
Let none of you plan, evil-doer,
Wickedness in his heart at all
Against his brother to make fall.’
11 “But they refused to heed, and shrugged
Their shoulders, and stopped their ears and plugged
So that they could not hear. 12 “Yes, they made
Their hearts like flint, refused, gainsaid
The law and the words YHWH of hosts
Had sent by His spirit and boasts
Through the former prophets. So great
Wrath came from YHWH of hosts on state.
13 “Therefore it happened, just as He
Proclaimed and they’d not hear freely,
So they called and I would not listen,”
Says YHWH of hosts. 14 “But I shall christen
Them scattered with a whirlwind in
All the nations where they’d not been.
So the land became desolate
After them, so that no one passed gate
Or returned, for they made the land
Of Muhammad desolate land.”

The promise You made to Abram one night
That his descendant would have the land’s right
Was truly promise of the message bright
To live the good life in Your loving sight.
Rebellion against Your word sealed the fate
Of those who would not follow to Your gate,
But set their hearts like flint and so the land
Was desolation like flint in their hand.
Repentance for the violence and woe
Is all it takes to make the bare field grow.
The promise of Abram is resurrected
In the prophet You finally selected.
Let me return to that one promised land
Which is obedience beneath Your hand.

AUTHOR: THOMAS G. MCELWAIN

Copyright © 2007 Adams & McElwain Publishers and Thomas McElwain First Published in two volumes, The Beloved and I 2005, and Led of the Beloved, 2006. Second Edition, 2010 Third and revised edition, 2012 All rights reserved. No part of this verse commentary on the sacred Scriptures may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in a retrieval system, in any form or by any means, without permission in writing from publisher.

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