The book of Zechariah consists of fourteen chapters. The first eight are authored by the prophet Zechariah, a younger contemporary of Haggai, while the last five are generally accepted to be anonymous prophesies of a much later date. It is possible that the first six chapters were made deliberately obscure to avoid religious persecution.

1-2. Zechariah says that God will return to His people if they return to Him. Zechariah has a vision of a man riding a red horse standing among myrtle trees, with red, white, and brown horses behind him. An angel tells him that these are ‘the ones the Lord has sent to go throughout the land’. The angel gives a message from God of prosperity for Jerusalem. When Zechariah looks again he sees four horns, which the angel tells him are the nations that have oppressed Israel. When Zechariah looks again he sees a man with a measuring line who tells Zechariah that he is going to measure Jerusalem. Zechariah pleads for the Israelites held captive in Babylon to return to Jerusalem. Whether this is deliberately obscure or whether it is badly written and badly edited is hard to tell. In one sentence Zechariah is speaking as if he’s God, then in the adjacent sentence he says ‘Then you will know that the Lord has sent me’ and you have no idea who the ‘me’ is that he is referring to because the context makes it unlikely that he’s referring to himself.

3. Zechariah’s vision turns to Joshua, who may represent the people of Israel, wearing ‘filthy clothes’, which may represent their sins, standing next to Satan, which may represent an accuser, and an ‘angel of the Lord’. The angel scolds Satan and demands Joshua’s filthy clothes be removed and replaced with rich garments. The angel tells Joshua that if he follows God he will be important and prosperous. The angel then says that he is going to ‘bring my servant, the Branch', then sets a stone in front of Joshua that has seven eyes, and says that he will ‘remove the sins of the land in a single day’. ‘My servant, the Branch’ could be a reference to the hoped-for Messiah descended from David. The meaning of the stone with seven eyes is not known.

4. The angel ‘wakes’ Zechariah, and shows him a golden lamp-stand with a bowl at the top with seven lights, and an olive tree to the lamp-stand’s right and left. The angel explains that the seven lights are the eyes of God ‘which range throughout the earth’. The angel says that Zerubbabel will complete the reconstruction of the temple at Jerusalem.

5-6. Zechariah sees a large ‘flying scroll’. The angel tells him that the scroll is a curse that will destroy the homes of those who steal and lie. Then Zechariah sees two women with ‘wings like a stork’ who carry a woman in a basket through the air to Babylon, representing ‘wickedness’ being removed from Israel. Then Zechariah sees four chariots appear from between two bronze mountains and go toward the four compass points, which represents God’s power over the earth. God tells Zechariah to make a crown of gold and silver for Joshua, who will be both priest and ruler of Judah.

7-8. Some of the people of Bethel come to the priests and ask if they should continue the fast commemorating the destruction of Jerusalem now that reconstruction is underway. Zechariah channels God and says that they should show compassion for the poor and be free from sin. Straight answers are never forthcoming. God promises to ‘return’ and dwell in Jerusalem, and bring prosperity to His people.

9. The author, channeling God, condemns a list of neighboring countries and says ‘never again will an oppressor overrun my people’. Another failed prophesy. God says ‘see your king comes to you’ … ‘riding a donkey’ … ‘he will proclaim peace to the nations’, ‘his rule will extend from sea to sea’, ‘his arrow will flash like lightening’, ‘they will destroy and overcome with slingstones’, and God ‘will save them on that day’. This chapter is garbled; it seems to jump for one context to another. While the donkey reference is seen by many as a link to Jesus, it is a link in one word only, not fact; and adjacent sentences, such as the reference to slingstones, and ‘his rule extending from sea to sea’ have no connection whatsoever. There is no clarity here, and claims that this is a prophesy of Jesus make less sense than the chapter itself – if that’s possible.

10. The author says that God brings the rain and idols speak falsely. He says that diviners see visions that lie, and tell dreams that are false. Ain’t that the truth. There are obscure references to ‘a cornerstone coming from Judah’ who, together with ‘every ruler’ will ‘be like mighty men, who tread down their enemies in the mire of the streets’, and ‘because the Lord is with them, they will fight and defeat the horsemen’.

11-12. The author makes an analogy between God and a shepherd who marks his flock for slaughter. A prophesy is made concerning a battle for Jerusalem where her enemies will be destroyed. The author then says that a ‘spirit of grace and prayer’ will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem’ and ‘they shall look upon Me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son.’

13-14. The author says that ‘on that day’, a ‘fountain will be opened’ to ‘cleanse the inhabitants of Jerusalem from sin’. God will remove the ‘idols, prophets, and impurities from the land, and if anyone prophesies, ‘his own parents will stab him’. Delightful. God continues saying he will ‘turn my hand against the little ones’ (yes, that means children), ‘two-thirds (of the population) will be struck down and perish’, and the remaining third will be ‘my people’. The author says that a ‘day of the Lord’ is coming where Jerusalem ‘will be captured, its houses ransacked, and the women raped’, then God will come out and fight, and split a mountain to create a passageway for His people to escape. God will bring a plague on the nations that fought against Jerusalem and ‘their flesh will rot while they are standing on their feet, their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths’. A similar plague will strike all the animals. Then the survivors of this carnage will all go to Jerusalem to worship God, and any who don’t will ‘have no rain’ and endure more plague. The book of Zechariah ends with the genocidal statement ‘there will no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the Lord’.

The book of Zechariah ends with a great deal of depraved and hideous nonsense.

The whole of the Old Testament is immensely parochial: there is no world beyond the Middle East; 'God’s people' are a very narrow racial line; foreigners are invariably evil, and genocide is the explicit will of God. God cares for the Israelites, the house of Judah, and Jerusalem, and that's it. God is oblivious of other lands, and other people. I fail to understand why anyone, but particularly people of any other racial background, would find this gross ignorance and racism appealing.

Back to Haggai. Forward to Malachi.