Zechariah 1:12

12 Then the LORD's messenger, who was speaking with me, said: "LORD of heavenly forces, how long will you withhold compassion from Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, with whom you have been angry these seventy years?"

Zechariah 1:12 Meaning and Commentary

Zechariah 1:12

Then the Angel of the Lord answered and said
The same that was among the myrtle trees in the bottom, ( Zechariah 1:8 Zechariah 1:10 Zechariah 1:11 ) : O Lord of hosts, how long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem,
and on the cities of Judah;
which were fallen to ruin, and had lain waste for many years. These words are expressive of the intercession of Christ on the behalf of the people of the Jews, his professing people, both with respect to their temporal and spiritual good: against which thou hast had indignation these threescore and ten
years?
the time of the Babylonish captivity, which lasted such a term of time, and which was a token of the divine displeasure with them; but to be reckoned, not from Jeconiah's captivity, to the deliverance from it by Cyrus, as it is reckoned, ( Jeremiah 25:1 Jeremiah 25:11 ) ( Daniel 9:2 ) but from the taking of Jerusalem, and the destruction of the temple under Zedekiah, to the rebuilding of the temple under Darius Hystaspis, in whose second year Zechariah now prophesied, ( Zechariah 1:7 ) , which was a space of seventy years.

Zechariah 1:12 In-Context

10 The man standing among the myrtles responded, "These are the ones the LORD sent to patrol the earth."
11 Then they responded to the LORD's messenger, who was standing among the myrtles, "We have patrolled the earth. The whole earth is peaceful and quiet."
12 Then the LORD's messenger, who was speaking with me, said: "LORD of heavenly forces, how long will you withhold compassion from Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, with whom you have been angry these seventy years?"
13 The LORD responded to the messenger who was speaking with me with kind and compassionate words.
14 The messenger speaking with me called out, “This is what the LORD of heavenly forces says: I care passionately about Jerusalem and Zion.
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