To the Third Vision there has been appended the only lyrical piece which breaks the prose narrative of the Visions. We have already seen that it is a piece of earlier date. Israel is addressed as still scattered to the four winds of heaven, and still inhabiting Babylon. While in Zechariah’s own oracles and visions Jehovah has returned to Jerusalem, His return according to this piece is still future. There is nothing about the Temple: God’s holy dwelling from which He has roused Himself is Heaven. The piece was probably inserted by Zechariah himself: its lines are broken by what seems to be a piece of prose, in which the prophet asserts his mission, in words he twice uses elsewhere. But this is uncertain.
_Ho, ho! Flee from the Land of the North (oracle of Jehovah); For as the four winds have I spread you abroad[819] (oracle of Jehovah). Ho! to Zion escape, thou inhabitress of Babel._[820]
_For thus saith Jehovah of Hosts[821] to the nations that plunder you (for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of His eye), that, lo! I am about to wave My hand over them, and they shall be plunder to their own servants, and ye shall know that Jehovah of Hosts hath sent me._
_Sing out and rejoice, O daughter of Zion; For, lo! I come, and will dwell in thy midst (oracle of Jehovah). And many nations shall join themselves to Jehovah in that day, And shall be to Him[822] a people. And I will dwell in thy midst (And thou shalt know that Jehovah of Hosts hath sent me to thee). And Jehovah will make Judah His heritage, His portion shall be upon holy soil, And make choice once more of Jerusalem. Silence, all flesh, before Jehovah;[823] For He hath roused Himself up from His holy dwelling._
THE FOURTH VISION: THE HIGH PRIEST AND THE SATAN (Chap. iii.).
The next Visions deal with the moral condition of Israel and their standing before God. The Fourth is a judgment scene. The Angel of Jehovah, who is not to be distinguished from Jehovah Himself,[824] stands for judgment, and there appear before him Joshua the High Priest and the Satan or Adversary who has come to accuse him. Now those who are accused by the Satan—see next chapter of this volume upon the Angels of the Visions—are, according to Jewish belief, those who have been overtaken by misfortune. The people who are standing at God’s bar in the person of their High Priest still suffer from the adversity in which Haggai found them, and the continuance of which so disheartened them after the Temple had begun. The evil seasons and poor harvests tormented their hearts with the thought that the Satan still slandered them in the court of God. But Zechariah comforts them with the vision of the Satan rebuked. Israel has indeed been sorely beset by calamity, a brand much burned, but now of God’s grace plucked from the fire. The Satan’s role is closed, and he disappears from the Vision.[825] Yet something remains: Israel is rescued, but not sanctified. The nation’s troubles are over: their uncleanness has still to be removed. Zechariah sees that the High Priest is clothed in filthy garments, while he stands before the Angel of Judgment. The Angel orders his servants, those _that stand before him_,[826] to give him clean festal robes. And the prophet, breaking out in sympathy with what he sees, for the first time takes part in the Visions. _Then I said, Let them also put a clean turban on his head_—the turban being the headdress, in Ezekiel of the Prince of Israel, and in the Priestly Code of the High Priest.[827] This is done, and the national effect of his cleansing is explained to the High Priest. If he remains loyal to the law of Jehovah, he, the representative of Israel, shall have right of entry to Jehovah’s presence among the angels who stand there. But more, he and his colleagues the priests are a portent of the coming of the Messiah—_the Servant of Jehovah, the Branch_, as he has been called by many prophets.[828] A stone has already been set before Joshua, with seven eyes upon it. God will engrave it with inscriptions, and on the same day take away the guilt of the land. Then shall be the peace upon which Zechariah loves to dwell.