Zechariah 1:12

12 And the angel of the Lord answered, and said, Lord of hosts, how long shalt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem, and on [the] cities of Judah, to which thou art wroth? (with whom thou art angry?) This now is the seventieth year.

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 And the man that stood betwixt places where myrtles waxed, answered, and said, These it be, which the Lord sent, that they walk through (the) earth. (And the man who stood between the places where the myrtles grew, answered, and said, These be they, which the Lord sent, to walk through the earth.)

11 And they answered to the angel of the Lord, that stood betwixt places where myrtles waxed, and said, We have walked through (the) earth, and lo! all (the) earth is inhabited, and resteth.

12 And the angel of the Lord answered, and said, Lord of hosts, how long shalt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem, and on [the] cities of Judah, to which thou art wroth? (with whom thou art angry?) This now is the seventieth year.

13 And the Lord answered to the angel, that spake in me (who spoke to me), good words, and words of comfort.

14 And the angel that spake in me, said to me, Cry thou, saying, The Lord of hosts saith these things, I loved Jerusalem and Zion in great fervor; (And the angel who spoke to me, said to me, Cry thou, saying, The Lord of hosts saith these things, I loved Jerusalem and Zion with great fervor;)