Zechariah 1:12

12 The angel of Yahweh answered and said, "O Yahweh of hosts, {how long}^[a] will you have no compassion on Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, [with] which you showed fury these seventy years?"^[b]

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 standing between the myrtle shrubs answered and said, "These [are] those whom Yahweh has sent to patrol [the] earth."

11 And they answered the angel of Yahweh who was standing between the myrtle shrubs, and they said, "We have patrolled the earth, and look, all the earth {is dwelling in peace}."

12 The angel of Yahweh answered and said, "O Yahweh of hosts, {how long} will you have no compassion on Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, [with] which you showed fury these seventy years?"

13 [With] gracious and comforting words Yahweh answered the angel who was talking with me.

14 And the angel who was talking with me said to me, "Proclaim, saying, 'Thus says Yahweh of hosts: "{I am very jealous} for Jerusalem and for Zion!

Footnotes

• [a] Literally "until when"
• [b] Hebrew "year"