Zechariah, a contemporary of Haggai, lived in the time of the Persian King Darius I and encouraged the restored Judean community to rebuild the Temple. In chapters 1 through 8, through a series of symbolic visions explained to him by an angel, the prophet assured the people that they would succeed in the rebuilding, that God would return to Jerusalem and would bring the scattered exiles back and settle them in the Holy Land in peace and prosperity. According to Zechariah, many nations will come and worship Israel’s God and become his people; the governor, Zerubbabel, and the priest, Joshua, will lead the people; a “branch” (perhaps Zerubbabel) from the line of David will rule as king; and the fast days that commemorate the destruction of Jerusalem will become joyous festivals. Chapters 9–14 contain pronouncements (possibly from a different prophet or prophets) that envision the future culminating in God’s defeat of the enemy nations, rule by the House of David, the end of idolatry, and universal worship of the Lord alone in Jerusalem. The visions in these chapters influenced the growth of apocalyptic literature.
The word of the Lord came to me: O mortal, proclaim Jerusalem’s abominations to her, and say: Thus said the Lord God to Jerusalem: By origin and birth you are from the land of the Canaanites—your…
It is clear that if there were no other proposal for saving tens of thousands of our brothers from their hard and bitter sufferings, if there were no other way in which our people could be reborn and…