3:1 VA YAR'ENI ET YEHOSHU'A HA KOHEN HA GADOL OMED LIPHNEY MAL'ACH YHVH HA HA SATAN OMED AL YEMIYNO LE SITNO
וַיַּרְאֵנִי אֶת יְהוֹשֻׁעַ הַכֹּהֵן הַגָּדוֹל עֹמֵד לִפְנֵי מַלְאַךְ יְהוָה וְהַשָּׂטָן עֹמֵד עַל יְמִינוֹ לְשִׂטְנוֹ
KJ (King James translation): And he shewed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him.
BN (BibleNet translation): And he showed me Yehoshu'a the high priest, standing before the messenger of YHVH, and Ha Satan standing at his right hand as his adversary.
YEHOSHU'A: This is Yehoshu'a the high priest, alive and well at the time, and quite possibly listening to Zechar-Yah delivering his vision.
Hints earlier, but this is where Zechar-Yah takes us fully into the world of Aryan Zoroastrianism, absorbed by the captives during their years in Persia, but also, presumably, the prevalent religion across the Persian empire, of which Yeru-Shala'im is a part. So we can now witness the next stage of the process of transformation that has been slowly taking polytheistic "Hebrewism" towards "Omnideism" (which is not the same as Monotheism - that will come much later).
Zoroastrianism is Dualistic, rooted in a division of Good versus Evil, with emphasis on the word "versus" - and this is precisely where Christianity takes its most fundamental positions too. On the side of Good is Ahura Mazda, on the side of Evil his son Angra Mainyu (in the original form Good was represented by the other twin, Spenta Meynu, and as such was much closer to the Jewish), known as "the Adversary", which translates into Yehudit as Ha Satan - a name that is not in itself new, but now imbued with a radically different meaning. Talmudic Judaism five hundred years later will resolve the conflict caused by this transformation, by returning the responsibility for good and evil to individual humans, through the concepts of YETSER HA TOV and YETSER HA RA. To sum up the difference: "Good" and "Evil" are nouns, "good" and "evil" are adjectives; Zoroastrianism and Christianity use the nouns, Judaism (and early Zoroastrianism) uses the adjectives.
LE SITNO: The same root creating both a noun and a verb. We have to imagine the context as a court of law, with YHVH playing Judge, the Messenger the Prosecuting Counsel, and Ha Satan the Defense Counsel - so he would be named in the Batey Din of the mediaeval world, whenever a case was brought before the Rabbis. Satan as a fiery Lucifer with a forked tail and a copy of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion has nothing to do with Judaism.
3:2 VA YO'MER YHVH EL HA SATAN YIG'AR YHVH BECHA HA SATAN VA YIG'AR YHVH BECHA HA BOCHER BIYRU'SHALA'IM HA LO ZEH UD MUTSAL ME ESH
וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוָה אֶל הַשָּׂטָן יִגְעַר יְהוָה בְּךָ הַשָּׂטָן וְיִגְעַר יְהוָה בְּךָ הַבֹּחֵר בִּירוּשָׁלָםִ הֲלוֹא זֶה אוּד מֻצָּל מֵאֵשׁ
KJ: And the LORD said unto Satan, The LORD rebuke thee, O Satan; even the LORD that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?
BN: Then YHVH said to Ha Satan, "YHVH rebukes you, Ha Satan. Yes indeed, YHVH who has chosen Yeru-Shala'im rebukes you. Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?"
UD: An Ud today is a lute, a sitar, a guitar; at what moment of history did it acquire this secondary meaning? Presumably the musical instrument was made from a tree that was also used for kindling; attach a string to a cut branch, and tighten it so it resonates, and you have your most basic musical instrument.3:3 VIYHOSHU'A HAYAH LAVESH BEGADIM TSO'IM VE OMED LIPHNEY HA MAL'ACH
וִיהוֹשֻׁעַ הָיָה לָבֻשׁ בְּגָדִים צוֹאִים וְעֹמֵד לִפְנֵי הַמַּלְאָךְ
KJ: Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the angel.
BN: Now Yehoshu'a was wearing dirty clothes, and was standing before the messenger.
Standing in the physical presence of both in the way that Faust does in Goethe's play, and ditto in Marlowe's. One on each shoulder, so to speak.
TSO'IM: "Dirty"? Hmm, would that not be MELUCHLACH (מלוכלך)? TSO'AH isn't just dirt, it's the residue of vomit in Isaiah 28:8, and excrement in Isaiah 36:12 (or 2 Kings 18:27, as you prefer - it's the same text). Isaiah 4:4 and Proverbs 30:12 extend it as a metaphor to mean "the filth of sin" - if Yehoshu'a the High Priest was present, listening to this, we can imagine the shocked hiss around the room.
And would he have been wearing the official clothing, even without the completed Temple? Perhaps, because they are his uniform, and the ceremonies and rituals of the cult have to be expedited, with or without a Temple. So we have to ask, is Zechar-Yah complaining that, like the Temple, there has been a failure to make a new set of priestly garb for the Kohen Gadol, and he is still in the rags of exile; or are they metaphorically "dirty" because the absence of a Temple renders them profane, not sacred; it is unlikely that he is simply accusing Yehoshu'a of "filthy sin"?
HA MAL'ACH: The "messenger" thus acting as the other lawyer in this court.
3:4 VA YA'AN VA YO'MER EL HA OMDIM LEPHANAV LE'MOR HASIYRU HA BEGADIM HA TSO'IM ME ALAV VA YO'MER ELAV RE'EH HE'EVARTI ME'ALEYCHA AVONECHA VE HALBESH OT'CHA MACHALATSOT
וַיַּעַן וַיֹּאמֶר אֶל הָעֹמְדִים לְפָנָיו לֵאמֹר הָסִירוּ הַבְּגָדִים הַצֹּאִים מֵעָלָיו וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלָיו רְאֵה הֶעֱבַרְתִּי מֵעָלֶיךָ עֲוֹנֶךָ וְהַלְבֵּשׁ אֹתְךָ מַחֲלָצוֹת
KJ: And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment.
BN: And he answered, speaking to those who stood before him, saying, "Take these filthy garments off him". And to him he said, "See, I have caused your iniquity to pass from you, and I will dress you in rich apparel."
RE'EH: Translated by KJ as "behold", but that is HINENI. I am unable to offer any meaningful suggestion as to the difference between RE'EH and HINENI, though clearly there is some. See verses 8 and 9.
MACHALATSOT: Any garment might be a CHALUTS or a CHALUTSA, but this is a noun created from the Pi'el, not the Po'al, so it is not just any garment. Cf Isaiah 3:22, the only other usage of this particular term.
MACHALATSOT: Any garment might be a CHALUTS or a CHALUTSA, but this is a noun created from the Pi'el, not the Po'al, so it is not just any garment. Cf Isaiah 3:22, the only other usage of this particular term.
But now I must ask again: where is this physically located? I suggested a courtroom, but only to make the point about the official title of the attorney; there are now others present, unnamed previously, and presumably the wardrobe priests of the vestry, to whom the Mal'ach gives these instructions. Would this be happening in a court of law? Perhaps, in a theocratic society, where law-court, palace and shrine could well be the same. The laws for the changing of the High Priests' garments are given in the Torah - but if this is indeed 520 BCE, the Torah as we now know it is still seventy years ahead of being written.
Leviticus 16:4 may provide the clue to this - because there are the CHALUTSOT worn every day of the year by the High Priest, and then there are the "holy garments", worn only on Yom Kippur, the acme-day of Zechar-Yah's intent: repentance:
He shall put on the holy linen tunic, and he shall have the linen breeches on his flesh, and he shall be girded with the linen girdle, and he shall be attired with the linen mitre; these are the holy garments; and he shall bathe his flesh in water, and put them on.
I wonder if "YHVH showed me" is simply a Prophet's way of saying he had been invited to meet the Kohen Ha Gadol in the vestry before prayers, and had been so shocked by what he witnessed that he went straight home and wrote this.
3:5 VA YO'MER YASIYMU TSANIPH TAHOR AL RO'SHO VA YASIYMU HA TSANIPH HA TAHOR AL RO'SHO VA YALBISHUHU BEGADIM U MAL'ACH YHVH OMED
וָאֹמַר יָשִׂימוּ צָנִיף טָהוֹר עַל רֹאשׁוֹ וַיָּשִׂימוּ הַצָּנִיף הַטָּהוֹר עַל רֹאשׁוֹ וַיַּלְבִּשֻׁהוּ בְּגָדִים וּמַלְאַךְ יְהוָה עֹמֵד
KJ: And I said, Let them set a fair mitre upon his head. So they set a fair mitre upon his head, and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the LORD stood by.
BN: And I said, Let them set a properly kosher mitre on his head. So they set a properly kosher mitre on his head, and dressed him in the correct formal garments; and YHVH's messenger was at his side.
Who is the "I" of this? As in the previous chapter, this seems to shift between the messenger, the deity and the Prophet - or is that really the same thing?
YASIYMU TSANIPH: If they are putting on the mitre, they must be dressing him for the rituals, so we are at the same point as in Yesha-Yahu (Isaiah 6), when he has his first vision. Worth comparing the mythologies in both of these; the fire on the sacrificial altar in particular (cf the "brand from the fire" in verse 2, above), sending out its flames like messages of light from YHVH, the black smoke of the grilling meat, aroma'ing us down into a poetical netherworld. But again we have to ask: where was this taking place, given that work on the rebuilding of the Temple has been suspended? There were many shrines near Yeru-Shala'im that could have served, or was there a temporary altar among the ruins of the Solomonic Temple? The cult did not actually require the Temple to perform its daily rites and rituals, though the Temple represented fulfilment of the covenant; nor was it ever stipulated that the Temple had to be on Mount Tsi'on.
TAHOR: I am fully aware that my translation is a little bit over the top, but it makes the point as strongly as can be made. TAHOR does indeed mean "lustrous" and "bright", as in Exodus 24:10 or Psalm 89:45. But more importantly it means "clean", and clean explicitly in the sense of "purified" - cf Leviticus 12:4 and 13:6, Psalm 51:4, or in the Pu'al form the act of cleansing oneself, as in Genesis 35:2 and Numbers 8:7.
3:6 VA YA'AD MAL'ACH YHVH BIYHOSHU'A LE'MOR
וַיָּעַד מַלְאַךְ יְהוָה בִּיהוֹשֻׁעַ לֵאמֹר
KJ: And the angel of the LORD protested unto Joshua, saying,
BN: Then YHVH's messenger protested to Yehoshu'a, saying:
YA'AD: Not to be confused with UD in verse 3; that had an Aleph (א), this has an Ayin (ע).
Telling off the High Priest is something we will find in Nechem-Yah seventy years later. Should we then - over-ruling my comments at verse 3 - take "dirty clothing" as a metaphorical euphemism for specific wickednesses and not a general "state-of-the-nation"? The corruption of the priest El-Yashiv will be commented on in Nehemiah 13:4, alongside numerous other "unclean" practices; as will the exogamous marriages of the sons of Yeho-Yada, the then High Priest, in Nehemiah 13:28. But these are things that a secular governor can say overtly, which perhaps a member of the Guild of Prophets does not have the licence-through-authority to state quite so explicitly - or maybe his maverick status gives him even more licence! Either way, these criticisms are Zechar-Yah's, and not just YHVH-through-his-messenger.
3:7 KOH AMAR YHVH TSEVA'OT IM BIDRACHAI TELECH VE IM MISHMARTI TISHMOR VE GAM ATAH TADIN ET BEITI VE GAM TISHMOR ET CHATSERAI VE NATATI LECHA MAH'LECHIM BEYN HA OMDIM HA ELEH
כֹּה אָמַר יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת אִם בִּדְרָכַי תֵּלֵךְ וְאִם אֶת מִשְׁמַרְתִּי תִשְׁמֹר וְגַם אַתָּה תָּדִין אֶת בֵּיתִי וְגַם תִּשְׁמֹר אֶת חֲצֵרָי וְנָתַתִּי לְךָ מַהְלְכִים בֵּין הָעֹמְדִים הָאֵלֶּה
KJ: Thus saith the LORD of hosts; If thou wilt walk in my ways, and if thou wilt keep my charge, then thou shalt also judge my house, and shalt also keep my courts, and I will give thee places to walk among these that stand by.
BN: Thus says YHVH, the Lord of the Hosts of the Heavens, If you will walk in my ways, and if you will oberve my commandments, then you shall also stand in judgement over my house, and take charge of my courts, and I will give you a place of access among these who are standing here.
IM: "If" is really redundant here; he is the Kohen Ha Gadol, the spiritual head of the people, so "if" should not apply. "If" is an aspect of the criticism, not a negotiating tool.
TADIN... CHATSERAI: Confirming that we are in a court of law, even if it is also multi-purpose. As though Zechar-Yah had (metaphorically) summoned the High Priest to appear before the Beit Din, the way a government minister might be called to appear before a Parliamentary committee. Though there is also a hint of anointment taking place - these would likely be the sorts of words used in a cermony of anointment.
MAHLECHIM: I think he is saying that the crowds will step back to let you pass, recognising you as a figure of respected authority. But it is also another play-on-words, because the root is HALACH, which also yields the word MAL'ACH, "messenger" ("angel").
3:8 SHEM'A NA YEHOSHU'A HA KOHEN HA GADOL ATAH VE RE'EYCHA HA YOSHVIM LEPHANEYCHA KI ANSHEY MOPHET HEMAH KI HINENI MEV'I ET AVDI TSEMACH
שְׁמַע נָא יְהוֹשֻׁעַ הַכֹּהֵן הַגָּדוֹל אַתָּה וְרֵעֶיךָ הַיֹּשְׁבִים לְפָנֶיךָ כִּי אַנְשֵׁי מוֹפֵת הֵמָּה כִּי הִנְנִי מֵבִיא אֶת עַבְדִּי צֶמַח
KJ: Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, thou, and thy fellows that sit before thee: for they are men wondered at: for, behold, I will bring forth my servant the BRANCH.
BN: Hear me now, high priest Yehoshu'a, you and your companions who sit before you; for these men are the proof of the matter: for, you will see, I shall bring forth my servant the branch.
YOSHVIM: Confirmation that Yehosu'a has been present throughout this - ah to have been up in the gallery where the gods sit, and to have witnessed those shocked expressions as the Prophet railed against the leadership!
Even more people present than we had previously thought, these sitting. Are they the congregation in the temporary Temple? The jury in the secular court? The other Kohanim in the Beit Din? Or just a generalisation of the entire priesthood? Or still, perhaps, just an imaginary film-set in the mind of the describer.
ANSHEY MOPHET: Worth looking at Gesenius on this - his inner debate which is actually annotated in his lexicon. The word is used for the miraculous on many occasions in the Tanach (Exodus 4:21, Psalm 105:5 et al), or linked with OTOT to mean "signs and miracles" (Deuteronomy 4:34, Psalm 78:43, Jeremiah 32:21 et al), but here, he concludes, it means not just "a sign", but the kind of sign that modern phenomenological science would expect, forensic signs, evidence, proof. And for his own forensic evidence of this, he refers his reader to 1 Kings 13:3 and 5, and to 2 Chronicles 32:24 and 31 - each of the pairs being the statement of intent, and then the fulfilment - as well as Deuteronomy 13:2 and 3.
TSEMACH: KJ places its translation of this word in upper case, because to Christianity this is a clear prophesy of the coming of Jesus as the Messiah etc etc. The "branch" in question here is rather more likely Zeru-Bavel, who his contemporaries - Zechar-Yah and High Priest Yehoshu'a amongst them - had followed to Yehudah from Bavel (Babylon), with whom they had begun the rebuilding of this Temple whose resumption the Prophet is urging, and in whom they had "messianic" hopes for their future. We shall see this theme repeated, and clearly Zeru-Bavel intended, later in the book.
3:9 KI HINEH HA EVEN ASHER NATATI LIPHNEY YEHOSHU'A AL EVEN ACHAT SHIV'AH EYNAYIM HINENI MEPHATE'ACH PITUCHAH NE'UM YHVH TSEVA'OT U MASHTI ET AVON HA ARETS HA HI BE YOM ECHAD
כִּי הִנֵּה הָאֶבֶן אֲשֶׁר נָתַתִּי לִפְנֵי יְהוֹשֻׁעַ עַל אֶבֶן אַחַת שִׁבְעָה עֵינָיִם הִנְנִי מְפַתֵּחַ פִּתֻּחָהּ נְאֻם יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת וּמַשְׁתִּי אֶת עֲוֹן הָאָרֶץ הַהִיא בְּיוֹם אֶחָד
KJ: For behold the stone that I have laid before Joshua; upon one stone shall be seven eyes: behold, I will engrave the graving thereof, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day.
BN: For, see, the stone that I have set before Yehoshu'a. On one of its stones are seven eyes: behold, I will engrave an inscription on it, says YHVH, the Lord of the Hosts of the Heavens, and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day.
EVEN: Everything in the text suggests that this is all in preparation for the dedication of the still-not-fully-restored Temple, and in that context an EVEN is not just any stone, but presumably a reference to the foundation stone, the one that will be sung about in the Hallel Psalms at that dedication ceremony - if they respond to his and Chagai's urgings (see my note to Chagai 2:18, for example), and get the job done (cf 4:7).
SHIV'AH EYNAYIM: Zechar-Yah repeatedly names his god YHVH TSEVA'OT, the Lord of the Hosts of the Heavens, which is a description of a polytheistic pantheon, with YHVH the Wotan or Zeus at the head. That pantheon consisted of seven planets, one for each day of the week, making up the sacred number seven. Mounted on a stone adjacent to the ramp where the sacrifices took place in the Temple, was the Menorah, the seven-branched candlestick that illuminated the metaphor of the Tseva'ot - these clearly the "seven eyes" that he is metaphoring here (and see 4:2 for confirmation).
MEPHATE'ACH: Taking us back to the CHARASHIM, the "carpenters" or "craftsmen" of 2:3 - see my notes there.
3:10 BA YOM HA HU NE'UM YHVH TSEVA'OT TIKRE'U ISH LE RE'EHU EL TACHAT GEPHEN VE EL TACHAT TE'ENAH
בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא נְאֻם יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת תִּקְרְאוּ אִישׁ לְרֵעֵהוּ אֶל תַּחַת גֶּפֶן וְאֶל תַּחַת תְּאֵנָה
KJ: In that day, saith the LORD of hosts, shall ye call every man his neighbour under the vine and under the fig tree.
BN: "On that day," says YHVH, the Lord of the Hosts of the Heavens, "every man shall invite his neighbour to sit under his vine or under his fig-tree."
GEPHEN: That image of the vine and the vineyard takes us back to Yesha-Yahu once again; the image is central to the entire book, so no use my linking to any particular verse now; having said which, Isaiah 5:7 pretty much sums it up.
TE'ENAH: Why the fig tree? Probably the sycamore fig was the tree of Eden, but there are other possibilities. In the Christian world it is Zacchaeus in Luke 19, symbolising the bringing of salvation to the lost. In the Egyptian world it was the equivalent of Bo'az and Yachin, the two pillars that guarded the entrance to the Solomonic Temple - in "The Book of the Dead" two sycamore trees stood at the eastern gate of Heaven, providing the thighs of the sky-goddess Nut, through which the sun-god Ra was eternally reborn, morning after morning. Given the context, we can safely assume that Zechar-Yah was thinking of Bo'az and Yachin, bringing the political realm (the vineyard) and the spiritual realm (the Temple) together, under a single, combined leadership.
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