1:1 BA CHODESH HA SHEMIYNI BISHNAT SHETAYIM LE DAR-YAVESH HAYAH DEVAR YHVH EL ZECHAR-YAH BEN BERECH-YAH BEN IDO HA NAVI LE'MOR
בַּחֹדֶשׁ הַשְּׁמִינִי בִּשְׁנַת שְׁתַּיִם לְדָרְיָוֶשׁ הָיָה דְבַר־יְהוָה אֶל זְכַרְיָה בֶּן בֶּרֶכְיָה בֶּן עִדּוֹ הַנָּבִיא לֵאמֹר
KJ (King James translation): In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the LORD unto Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet, saying,
BN (BibleNet translation): In the eighth month, in the second year of Dar-Yavesh, the word of YHVH came to Zechar-Yah ben Berech-Yah ben Ido, the prophet, saying,
DATE: Almost but not precisely the same date as Chagai's first "word" - his came on the first day of the sixth month. But same year, same location, same topic. From Persian archives we know that the Achaemenid Dynasty came to power with the defeat of Bavel (Babylon) in 559 BCE, and its first ruler, Koresh (Cyrus), was the one who appointed Zeru-Bavel to lead the Yehudim home and begin the rebuilding of Yeru-Shala'im, probably in 536 BCE. Darius the Great - Dar-Yavesh as he is called in the Yehudit texts - came to the throne in 521 BCE, so this must be 520 BCE.
The following chart is also posted in my notes to Chagai 1:1.
The list of Achaemenid rulers, with their dates, is:
559-530: Cyrus the Great (Koresh)
529-522: Cambyses
522 - 521: Smerdis (Bardiya)
521-486: Darius I, the Great (Dar-Yavesh)
485-465: Xerxes I
464-424: Artaxerxes I, Longimanus (Artachshast)
424: Xerxes II (son)
424: Sogdianus (brother)
It was under Artaxerxes I that Ezra and Nechem-Yah (Nehemiah) would return, and complete the rebuilding of Yeru-Shala'im, the establishment of Yehudan independence, and the writing of the Tanach.
559-530: Cyrus the Great (Koresh)
529-522: Cambyses
522 - 521: Smerdis (Bardiya)
521-486: Darius I, the Great (Dar-Yavesh)
485-465: Xerxes I
464-424: Artaxerxes I, Longimanus (Artachshast)
424: Xerxes II (son)
424: Sogdianus (brother)
It was under Artaxerxes I that Ezra and Nechem-Yah (Nehemiah) would return, and complete the rebuilding of Yeru-Shala'im, the establishment of Yehudan independence, and the writing of the Tanach.
BEN IDO: The root of the name connects to ADAH, a wife of Lamech in Genesis 4:19, and to several other characters in the Tanach; but see my notes to Genesis 4:19, which explain the further connection to the word EDAH, which is the "congregation of Yisra-El" (cf Exodus 12:3, Numbers 27:17 and Leviticus 4:15), and the perhaps even more important usage of the same word as "the testimony" of YHVH, which is how it is used throughout the Psalms especially. Precepts of the deity, moral and ethical paradigms for human behaviour, responsibilities and obligations in a civilised society, all these come under the broad definition of EDAH or EDUT as "testimony", and BEN IDO is therefore not his paronymic, but a description of his ideals as a Prophet: either someone who lives out those paradigms, and/or one who provides instruction in them to others ; probably both: the role of the Prophet perfectly articulated.
Ben Ido, then, may signify a Yeshiva, or at least its latter-day equivalent, a Guild of Prophets, and the Ben functions as it does with, say, the Beney Korach of the Temple (a way of describing the members of the orchestra), or the relationship of monks to abbots in Catholic monasteries, the abbot being "the father" from the Yehudit Av, the monk addressed as "my son", regardless of biological relationship.
1:2 KATSAPH YHVH AL AVOTEYCHEM KATSEPH
קָצַף יְהוָה עַל אֲבוֹתֵיכֶם קָצֶף
KJ: The LORD hath been sore displeased with your fathers.
BN: YHVH has been somewhat displeased with your ancestors.
KATSAPH...KATSEPH: Need to find some way to render the poetry of this in English. But also important to note the significant difference between Chagai and Zehar-Yah, evident from this very first line: Chagai the educator who writes his prophecies, in the manner of a civil servant advising the Minister of State, and expecting his words to be accesible by anyone: Zechar-Yah the poet, playing with words in the most abstruse and esoteric manner, not expecting ordinary folk to necessarily have a clue what he was saying, but taking it for granted that the trained Kohanim to grasp every nuance and subtlety.
So, here, the root KATSAPH indicates something broken, which could be the still-unfinished Temple or it could be the moral state of the nation. KETSEPHIM are twigs and splinters, for the obvious reason that they are the pieces broken off the tree - metaphorically here. But then there is Genesis 40:2, or Exodus 16:20, or a dozen other occasions when - and perhaps it is a completely different root that happens to have the same letters - the word unquestionably describes "anger". So the deity is "angry" with the "splinters" - the "remnant" of Yisra-El, because something has become "broken" which they should have fixed by now.
AVOTEYCHEM: Fathers, forefathers, ancestors, patriarchs? Or simply the present-day leadership, the Abbots of his world? After all, Zechar-Yah cannot address, let alone do anything about, the ones who came before him.
1:3 VE AMARTA AL'EHEM KOH AMAR YHVH TSEVA'OT SHUVU ELAI NE'UM YHVH TSEVA'OT VE ASHUV ALEYCHEM AMAR YHVH TSEVA'OT
וְאָמַרְתָּ אֲלֵהֶם כֹּה אָמַר יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת שׁוּבוּ אֵלַי נְאֻם יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת וְאָשׁוּב אֲלֵיכֶם אָמַר יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת
KJ: Therefore say thou unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Turn ye unto me, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will turn unto you, saith the LORD of hosts.
BN: Therefore say to them, Thus says YHVH, the Lord of the Hosts of the Heavens: "Return to me," says YHVH, the Lord of the Hosts of the Heavens, "and I will return to you," says YHVH, the Lord of the Hosts of the Heavens.
YHVH TSEVA'OT: Three times. Confirmation - and we saw the same with Chagai - that the religion of this epoch is still in the transition stage between full polytheism and the Omnideity; this is Yesha-Yahu's deity, YHVH raised to the high-seat of the Heavens, but as Prime Minister, not yet President, and a full Cabinet of planets and constellations (the Hosts of the Heavens) sharing the Round Table with him.
Having established Zechar-Yah as the poet of metaphors in my previous comment, the text from now until the end of verse 7, which is his first public address, does not contain such poetry, but is simply a fire-and-brimstone sermon, an attention-seeker - though it will have to be said that, by the standards of his predecessors, there isn't terribly much fire, and he gets nowhere near the brim, let alone the stone.
1:4 AL TIHEYU CHA AVOTEYCHEM ASHER KAR'U ALEYHEM HA NEVIY'IM HA RI'SHONIM LE'MOR KOH AMAR YHVH TSEVA'OT SHUVU NA MI DARCHEYCHEM HA RA'IM U MA'ALIYLEYCHEM HA RA'IM VE LO SHAM'U VE LO HIKSHIYVU ELAI NE'UM YHVH
אַל תִּהְיוּ כַאֲבֹתֵיכֶם אֲשֶׁר קָרְאוּ אֲלֵיהֶם הַנְּבִיאִים הָרִאשֹׁנִים לֵאמֹר כֹּה אָמַר יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת שׁוּבוּ נָא מִדַּרְכֵיכֶם הָרָעִים וּמַעֲלִילֵיכֶם הָרָעִים וְלֹא שָׁמְעוּ וְלֹא הִקְשִׁיבוּ אֵלַי נְאֻם יְהוָה
KJ: Be ye not as your fathers, unto whom the former prophets have cried, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Turn ye now from your evil ways, and from your evil doings: but they did not hear, nor hearken unto me, saith the LORD.
BN: Do not be like your ancestors, to whom the first of the Prophets cried, saying, "Thus says YHVH, the Lord of the Hosts of the Heavens, 'Return now from your evil ways, and from your evil doings. But they did not hear nor heed me,' says YHVH."
AVOTEYCHEM: Now we can see that both were intended, the former and the present-day. One of the problems for Judaism, though it is also one of its great strengths, is that every one of the ancestors was a normal, flawed and frail human being, who did terrible things, as well as having the primary virtue of being the patriarchal ancestor. Av-Raham sold his wife, twice, and Yitschak did the same, if only once, with Rivkah. Ya'akov stole his brother's birthtight and paternal blessing, then his father-in-law's flock of sheep. Yoseph set up the system of vassaldom that would be the "slavery" of the Habiru in Egypt. Our first encounter with adult Mosheh has him killing a man in cold blood. So there are no "perfect role-models", as in some national histories; but there is also a profound sense of reality, which is probably worth more than the fantasies of perfection.
And this is just the patriarchal ancestors; Zechar-Yah also means the general populace of every period.
ALEYHEM: But above it was AL'EHEM (though it was also ALEYCHEM).
1:5 AVOTEYCHEM AYEH HEM VE HA NEVI'IM HA LE'OLAM YIHEYU
אֲבוֹתֵיכֶם אַיֵּה הֵם וְהַנְּבִאִים הַלְעוֹלָם יִחְיוּ
KJ: Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live for ever?
BN: Your ancestors, where are they? And the Prophets, do they live for ever?
NEVI'IM: without a Yud on this occasion; restored in the next verse.
1:6 ACH DEVARAI VE CHUKAI ASHER TSIVIYTI ET AVADEY HA NEVIY'IM HA LO HISIYGU AVOTEYCHEM VA YASHUVU VA YOMRU KA ASHER ZAMAM YHVH TSEVA'OT LA'ASOT LANU KIDRACHEYNU U CHE MA'ALALEYNU KEN ASAH ITANU
אַךְ דְּבָרַי וְחֻקַּי אֲשֶׁר צִוִּיתִי אֶת עֲבָדַי הַנְּבִיאִים הֲלוֹא הִשִּׂיגוּ אֲבֹתֵיכֶם וַיָּשׁוּבוּ וַיֹּאמְרוּ כַּאֲשֶׁר זָמַם יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת לַעֲשׂוֹת לָנוּ כִּדְרָכֵינוּ וּכְמַעֲלָלֵינוּ כֵּן עָשָׂה אִתָּנוּ
KJ: But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not take hold of your fathers? and they returned and said, Like as the LORD of hosts thought to do unto us, according to our ways, and according to our doings, so hath he dealt with us.
BN: But my words and my statutes, which I gave as instructions to my servants the Prophets, were they not taken up by your ancestors? No, they turned and said, "Just as YHVH, the Lord of the Hosts of the Heavens thought to do to us, because of our ways, and because of our doings, so has he dealt with us."
And this is all there is of Zechar-Yah's first engagement with the people. A man with a sharp finger, pointing accusingly.
samech break
samech break
1:7 BE YOM ESRIM VE ARBA'AH LE ASHTEY ASAR CHODESH HU CHODESH SHEVAT BISHNAT SHETAYIM LE DAR-YAVESH HAYAH DEVAR YHVH EL ZECHAR-YAH BEN BERECH-YAH BEN IDO HA NAVI LE'MOR
בְּיוֹם עֶשְׂרִים וְאַרְבָּעָה לְעַשְׁתֵּי עָשָׂר חֹדֶשׁ הוּא חֹדֶשׁ שְׁבָט בִּשְׁנַת שְׁתַּיִם לְדָרְיָוֶשׁ הָיָה דְבַר יְהוָה אֶל זְכַרְיָה בֶּן בֶּרֶכְיָהוּ בֶּן עִדּוֹא הַנָּבִיא לֵאמֹר
KJ: Upon the four and twentieth day of the eleventh month, which is the month Sebat, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the LORD unto Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet, saying,
BN: On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, which is the month of Shvat, in the second year of Dar-Yavesh, the word of YHVH came to Zechar-Yah ben Berech-Yah ben Ido, the prophet, saying:
ESRIM VE ARBA'AH: Three months later. And isn't it odd that almost all of these prophetic pronouncements come on the 24th of the month? See also Chagai and Mal'achi.
SHVAT: Telling us both "Shvat" and "eleventh month" is extremely useful, and allows me to go back to my notes on Chagai and confirm what was not clear there. In today's calendar, as in Zechar-Yah's, the month of Shvat falls in January-February, though it is no longer the eleventh but now the fifth month, because the new year has moved to Tishrey from Nisan - click here for a fuller background.
1:8 RA'IYTI HA LAILAH VE HINEH ISH ROCHEV AL SUS ADOM VE HU OMED BEYN HA HADASIM ASHER BA METSULAH VE ACHARAV SUSIM ADUMIM SERUKIM U LEVANIM
רָאִיתִי הַלַּיְלָה וְהִנֵּה אִישׁ רֹכֵב עַל סוּס אָדֹם וְהוּא עֹמֵד בֵּין הַהֲדַסִּים אֲשֶׁר בַּמְּצֻלָה וְאַחֲרָיו סוּסִים אֲדֻמִּים שְׂרֻקִּים וּלְבָנִים
KJ: I saw by night, and behold a man riding upon a red horse, and he stood among the myrtle trees that were in the bottom; and behind him were there red horses, speckled, and white.
BN: A vision came to me in the night, and, behold, a man riding on a red horse, and he came to a halt between the myrtle-trees that were in the vale; and behind him there were more horses, red, sorrel, and white.
RA'IYTI HA LAILAH: "I saw by night" would be RA'IYTI BA LAILAH".
SUSIM: When Prophets recount their dreams, we understand that they are not recounting their dreams at all, but composing mythological allegories in order to convey their message. So, in the world of the cultural archeologist, we look for clues, to try to understand what they are doing, the how as much as the what. So I see SUSIM, and I hear SUSA, the capital of the Medean kingdom of Persia where Dar-Yavesh resigns. So I read that they are red, and the red is the ADOM of Adam and ha adamah (the red clay) and Edom, which is Esav's (Esau's) land, while the white is the Levanah of his brother Ya'akov, and their uncle Lavan in Padan-Aram. And it may well be pure coincidence, and it may be none of these, and I need to read on to find out. And it says nothing about the SERUK, which I have translated as "sorrel", though King James goes for "speckled", just as Ya'akov did, with his uncle Lavan's sheep (Genesis 30). And it says nothing about the red and white being in conflict, but in most dragon-myths, they are. We shall return to this paragraph when we have read a good few more. Or not, if it turns out I have speculated in vain.
METSULAH: Dale or vale? The word means "depths", for which cf Jonah 2:4 or Micah 7:9 for the depths of the sea, or Psalm 69:3 for its use as metaphor.
BN: A vision came to me in the night, and, behold, a man riding on a red horse, and he came to a halt between the myrtle-trees that were in the vale; and behind him there were more horses, red, sorrel, and white.
RA'IYTI HA LAILAH: "I saw by night" would be RA'IYTI BA LAILAH".
SUSIM: When Prophets recount their dreams, we understand that they are not recounting their dreams at all, but composing mythological allegories in order to convey their message. So, in the world of the cultural archeologist, we look for clues, to try to understand what they are doing, the how as much as the what. So I see SUSIM, and I hear SUSA, the capital of the Medean kingdom of Persia where Dar-Yavesh resigns. So I read that they are red, and the red is the ADOM of Adam and ha adamah (the red clay) and Edom, which is Esav's (Esau's) land, while the white is the Levanah of his brother Ya'akov, and their uncle Lavan in Padan-Aram. And it may well be pure coincidence, and it may be none of these, and I need to read on to find out. And it says nothing about the SERUK, which I have translated as "sorrel", though King James goes for "speckled", just as Ya'akov did, with his uncle Lavan's sheep (Genesis 30). And it says nothing about the red and white being in conflict, but in most dragon-myths, they are. We shall return to this paragraph when we have read a good few more. Or not, if it turns out I have speculated in vain.
METSULAH: Dale or vale? The word means "depths", for which cf Jonah 2:4 or Micah 7:9 for the depths of the sea, or Psalm 69:3 for its use as metaphor.
1:9 VA OMAR MAH ELEH ADONI VA YO'MER ELAI HA MAL'ACH HA DOVER BI ANI AR'ECHA MAH HEMAH ELEH
וָאֹמַר מָה אֵלֶּה אֲדֹנִי וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלַי הַמַּלְאָךְ הַדֹּבֵר בִּי אֲנִי אַרְאֶךָּ מָה הֵמָּה אֵלֶּה
KJ: Then said I, O my lord, what are these? And the angel that talked with me said unto me, I will shew thee what these be.
BN: And I said, "What are these, my lord?". And the messenger who was speaking inside me said to me, "I will show you what these are".
MAL'ACH: Whenever this word has come up in Biblical texts, and it does so from Genesis onwards, I have commented that the word really just means "messenger", and is used for human messengers even more often than it is for the horoscopal messages interpreted from the stars, which is what the Zoroastrians who first introduced the idea of "angels" really meant. Zechar-Yah is a returnee from Persia, and [I predict that] we will see throughout these chapters innumerable examples of Persian and especially Zoroastrian culture, with the same consequent changes to proto-Judaism that we will later witness even more extensively in Ezra, Nechem-Yah and Mal'achi - the shift from the bi-gendered polytheism of YHVH Tseva'ot, which we have in this chapter, and in Chagai at the same epoch, to masculine YHVH as Omnideity, being the most obvious of those changes.
HA DOVER BI: BI is the interesting part of this phrase. BI, not IMI or ELAI, but BI. The voice is inside his head, though he is imagining it among the myrtles. This is definitely a metaphorical angel! (We will encounter it again in verses 13 and 14.)
1:10 VA YA'AN HA ISH HA OMED BEYN HA HADASIM VA YO'MER ELEH ASHER SHALACH YHVH LEHITHALECH BA ARETS
וַיַּעַן הָאִישׁ הָעֹמֵד בֵּין הַהֲדַסִּים וַיֹּאמַר אֵלֶּה אֲשֶׁר שָׁלַח יְהוָה לְהִתְהַלֵּךְ בָּאָרֶץ
KJ: And the man that stood among the myrtle trees answered and said, These are they whom the LORD hath sent to walk to and fro through the earth.
BN: And the man who was standing among the myrtle trees answered, saying, "These are the ones that YHVH has sent to wander to and fro about the Earth."
BN: And the man who was standing among the myrtle trees answered, saying, "These are the ones that YHVH has sent to wander to and fro about the Earth."
ISH or MAL'ACH? Or both? Is there a voice inside his head, and a man among the myrtles, or are they the same figure? The writer appears to be alternating the two words, verse by verse. MAL'ACH again in the next verse. [We have witnessed this before, with Av-Raham and Ya'akov (the latter at Penu-El).]
HADASIM: Queen Ester, whose official title is really just a wilful Yehudit mispronounciation of Ishtar, the Queen of Heaven, was given the birth-name Hadasah (הֲדַסָּה - Book of Esther 2:7) - though this has absolutely no relevance to the current verse, because the story of Ester belongs to the reign of King Achashverosh, which is reckoned to be Xerxes I, and therefore some years in the future from Zechar-Yah. Her uncle, who brought her up because she was an orphan, was named Mordechai, which is really just a wilful Yehudit mispronounciation of Marduk, the King of Heaven; this too is merely information that I am providing because it is interesting, and has absolutely no relevance to this verse. (And yet, Zechar-Yah has chosen Hadasim, rather than any other tree or plant, so there must be some significance. And he isn't telling this tale at Sukot, so there must be something else - try here, though there really isn't much.)
ELEH ASHER: The horses will appear again, attached to chariots, in chapter 6 - see especially 6:1 and 6:7.
1:11 VA YA'ANU ET MAL'ACH YHVH HA OMED BEYN HA HADASIM VA YOMRU HITHALACHNU VA ARETS VE HINEH CHOL HA ARETS YOSHEVET VE SHOKATET
וַיַּעֲנוּ אֶת מַלְאַךְ יְהוָה הָעֹמֵד בֵּין הַהֲדַסִּים וַיֹּאמְרוּ הִתְהַלַּכְנוּ בָאָרֶץ וְהִנֵּה כָל הָאָרֶץ יֹשֶׁבֶת וְשֹׁקָטֶת
KJ: And they answered the angel of the LORD that stood among the myrtle trees, and said, We have walked to and fro through the earth, and, behold, all the earth sitteth still, and is at rest.
BN: And they answered the messenger of YHVH who was standing among the myrtle trees, saying, "We have walked to and fro across the Earth, and, behold, all the Earth is still, and silent."
VA YA'ANU: Did the messenger address them, or are they just feeling their ears burn and butting in? Remember, they are horses - see verse 8 - albeit talking horses; not people from Susa, nothing to do with the "remnant" or the "returnees".
BN: And they answered the messenger of YHVH who was standing among the myrtle trees, saying, "We have walked to and fro across the Earth, and, behold, all the Earth is still, and silent."
VA YA'ANU: Did the messenger address them, or are they just feeling their ears burn and butting in? Remember, they are horses - see verse 8 - albeit talking horses; not people from Susa, nothing to do with the "remnant" or the "returnees".
HITHALACHNU: Wandering to and from across the Earth sounds like an allusion to Kayin (Cain). But only in English. In Yehudit that would require use of the verb LENADNED, because Kayin wandered in "the land of Nod". Poets use language symbolically, but they also don't use language that doesn't fit the symbolism of the moment, so choosing HITHALACHNU tells us that he didn't choose NIDNADNU for a reason. This is the Golah (the "captivity"), not even the Galut, let alone the Tephutsah (the Diaspora) - click here.
SHOKATET: The word SHEKET comes from this; there is no connotation of being "at rest"; silence is perfectly capable of being just as turbulent as noise.
SHOKATET: The word SHEKET comes from this; there is no connotation of being "at rest"; silence is perfectly capable of being just as turbulent as noise.
1:12 VA YA'AN MAL'ACH YHVH VA YO'MER YHVH TSEVA'OT AD MATAI ATAH LO TERACHEM ET YERU-SHALA'IM VE ET AREY YEHUDAH ASHER ZA'AMTAH ZEH SHIV'IM SHANAH
וַיַּעַן מַלְאַךְ יְהוָה וַיֹּאמַר יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת עַד מָתַי אַתָּה לֹא תְרַחֵם אֶת יְרוּשָׁלִַם וְאֵת עָרֵי יְהוּדָה אֲשֶׁר זָעַמְתָּה זֶה שִׁבְעִים שָׁנָה
KJ: Then the angel of the LORD answered and said, O LORD of hosts, how long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which thou hast had indignation these threescore and ten years?
BN: Then the messenger of YHVH answered, saying, "YHVH, Lord of the Hosts of the Heavens, how long will you go on denying mercy to Yeru-Shala'im and the cities of Yehudah, against which you have been so indignant these threescore and ten years?"
My prediction of Persian influences needs to be seen within the context of a Prophet trained in the schools of Yesha-Yahu (Isaiah) and Yirme-Yah (Jeremiah) and Yechezke-El (Ezekiel), who used the allegory and the metaphor in precisely the same way, and whose influence will also be strongly palpable in these verses. Here, for example, it is Yesha-Yahu's most famous question, AD MATAI, "how long?" (Isaiah 6:11), which Zechar-Yah is simply quoting for his own use.
Zechar-Yah, like Chagai, is speaking/writing in 520 BCE; the destruction of Yeru-Shala'im took place in 586 BCE, seventy years after which would be 516 BCE, and we also know that 516 was the year in which the rebuilt/Second Temple was dedicated - four years from the time of this verse. So he is using "threescore and ten years" as a symbolic phrase, not as a precise mathematical calculation.
TERACHEM: See my note to Ezra 9:5; the same unusual grammatical issue occurs here.
ZA'AMTAH: YHVH's "indignation" is simply rhetoric; the reason for the failure to rebuild the cities is explained at the start of my Introduction to the Book of Chagai - interference by enemies who conned the Persian king into stopping the work; Chagai has urged them to go back to the king nd re-examine the archive for the Koresh Edict (see Ezra 1:1 ff), but the leadership apparently need further encouragement, or the inspiration of YHVH, so he gets the blame. Given that YHVH plays the same game the other way around, constantly, it serves him right when one of his Prophets tosses the same ball back to him!
1:13 VA YA'AN YHVH ET HA MAL'ACH HA DOVER BI DEVARIM TOVIM DEVARIM NICHUMIM
וַיַּעַן יְהוָה אֶת הַמַּלְאָךְ הַדֹּבֵר בִּי דְּבָרִים טוֹבִים דְּבָרִים נִחֻמִים
KJ: And the LORD answered the angel that talked with me with good words and comfortable words.
BN: And YHVH answered the messenger who was speaking inside me, with good words, even comforting words.
HA DOVER BI: See my note at verse 10.
1:14 VA YO'MER ELAI HA MAL'ACH HA DOVER BI KER'A LE'MOR KOH AMAR YHVH TSEVA'OT KIN'ETI LIYRU-SHALA'IM U LE TSI'ON KIN'AH GEDOLAH
וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלַי הַמַּלְאָךְ הַדֹּבֵר בִּי קְרָא לֵאמֹר כֹּה אָמַר יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת קִנֵּאתִי לִירוּשָׁלִַם וּלְצִיּוֹן קִנְאָה גְדוֹלָה
KJ: So the angel that communed with me said unto me, Cry thou, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy.
BN: So the messenger who was speaking inside me said to me, "Call out, saying, 'Thus says YHVH, the Lord of the Hosts of the Heavens: I yearn for Yeru-Shala'im and for Tsi'on with a great yearning...
KIN'ETI... KIN'AH: The best-known use of this root is in the Ten Commandments, not the verse that tells us that YHVH is a "jealous" god, because that uses a different root altogether, but the one that prohibits adultery. In fact, it isn't the adultery that is being prohibited, but the lust that leads to it, the craving. So, in this verse, YHVH has nothing to be jealous of, nor even envious of; what Zechar-Yah wants to convey to his listeners is that inspiration to rebuild the cities and the Temple.
Though there is also the memory of the conquest, the fear of future conquest, the awareness of present enemies - normal human trepidations, and these too will have to be addressed.
1:15 VE KETSEPH GADOL ANI KOTSEPH AL HA GOYIM HA SHA'ANANIM ASHER ANI KATSAPHTI ME'AT VEHEMAH AZRU LE RA'AH
וְקֶצֶף גָּדוֹל אֲנִי קֹצֵף עַל הַגּוֹיִם הַשַּׁאֲנַנִּים אֲשֶׁר אֲנִי קָצַפְתִּי מְּעָט וְהֵמָּה עָזְרוּ לְרָעָה
KJ: And I am very sore displeased with the heathen that are at ease: for I was but a little displeased, and they helped forward the affliction.
BN: "'And I am very upset with all the complacent nations round about; because I was a little bit upset, but they added to the problem.'
KETSEPH: See verse 2
BN: "'And I am very upset with all the complacent nations round about; because I was a little bit upset, but they added to the problem.'
KETSEPH: See verse 2
I used the enemy to punish the Yehudim for not worshipping me properly; and they overdid it, so I am cross with them too now. But it's all history anyway. Mercy restored (see next verse). Time to move on... the tone of all of which tells us why, in the end, Zechar-Yah was a very minor Prophet.
1:16 LACHEN KOH AMAR YHVH SHAVTI LIYRU'SHALA'IM BE RACHAMIM BEITI YIBANEH BAH NE'UM YHVH TSEVA'OT VE KAVAH YINATEH AL YERU-SHALA'IM
לָכֵן כֹּה אָמַר יְהוָה שַׁבְתִּי לִירוּשָׁלִַם בְּרַחֲמִים בֵּיתִי יִבָּנֶה בָּהּ נְאֻם יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת וְקָוָה יִנָּטֶה עַל יְרוּשָׁלִָם
KJ: Therefore thus saith the LORD; I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies: my house shall be built in it, saith the LORD of hosts, and a line shall be stretched forth upon Jerusalem.
BN: "Therefore thus says YHVH: 'I have returned to Yeru-Shala'im with all my capacity for mercy intact. My house shall be built there,' says YHVH, the Lord of the Hosts of the Heavens, and a line shall be stretched over Yeru-Shala'im...
KAVAH YINATEH: Exactly what that line will be will become clear (or clearer anyway!) at the start of the next chapter, when the man with the CHEVEL MIDAH, the "measuring line" makes his appearance.
1:17 OD KER'A LE'MOR KOH AMAR YHVH TSEVA'OT OD TEPHUTSEYNAH AREY MI TOV VE NICHAM YHVH OD ET TSI'ON U VACHAR OD BIYRU-SHALA'IM
עוֹד קְרָא לֵאמֹר כֹּה אָמַר יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת עוֹד תְּפוּצֶינָה עָרַי מִטּוֹב וְנִחַם יְהוָה עוֹד אֶת צִיּוֹן וּבָחַר עוֹד בִּירוּשָׁלָםִ
KJ: Cry yet, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; My cities through prosperity shall yet be spread abroad; and the LORD shall yet comfort Zion, and shall yet choose Jerusalem.
BN: "Call again, saying, 'Thus says YHVH, the Lord of the Hosts of the Heavens: My cities shall yet overflow with prosperity; and YHVH shall yet comfort Tsi'on, and shall yet choose Yeru-Shala'im.'"
OD KER'A: as in verse 14.
BN: "Call again, saying, 'Thus says YHVH, the Lord of the Hosts of the Heavens: My cities shall yet overflow with prosperity; and YHVH shall yet comfort Tsi'on, and shall yet choose Yeru-Shala'im.'"
OD KER'A: as in verse 14.
TSI'ON: Tsi'on as a synonym for Yeru-Shala'im, like saying Washington for America, or Whitehall for England; the reason why it is impossible to be an anti-Zionist without simultaneously being an anti-Semite.
samech break
Yehudit versions of the text end the chapter here. King James, and some other translations, continue for four more verses, so that this chapter has 21 verses, and the next only 13, where the Yehudit will again have 17. I have not included those four verses here. Click on the chapter link, and you will find them at the start of chapter 2, with verse numbering marked to make the differences clear.
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