Zechariah
The post-exilic prophet whose night visions pointed forward to the coming Messiah
The Prophet of the Return
Zechariah was a priest and prophet who returned to Judah with the first wave of exiles from Babylon under Zerubbabel, around 536 BC. He began prophesying in the second year of the Persian king Darius (520 BC), alongside the prophet Haggai, to encourage the Jewish community to resume the construction of the second temple, which had stalled for about sixteen years due to opposition and discouragement.
He was grandson of Iddo, one of the priestly leaders who returned from Babylon, and he eventually became head of his family’s priestly course (Nehemiah 12:16). His prophetic ministry combined immediate encouragement for his discouraged contemporaries with some of the most far-reaching Messianic visions in the Hebrew scriptures.
The Night Visions
In a single night Zechariah received eight symbolic visions that form the heart of the book. They include a man on a red horse among myrtle trees, four horns representing the nations that scattered Israel, a man with a measuring line, Joshua the high priest being clothed in clean garments, a golden lampstand, a flying scroll, a woman in a basket carried to Babylon, and four chariots going out among the nations.
One of the most memorable messages delivered during this sequence was given to Zerubbabel, the governor overseeing the temple reconstruction:
Zechariah 4:6
“Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.”
This became one of the Old Testament’s most quoted encouragements: the work of God advances not through human military or political force but through the Spirit of the Lord.
Messianic Prophecies
The second half of Zechariah (chapters 9–14) contains a dense cluster of prophecies fulfilled in specific events of Christ’s life. The New Testament cites Zechariah more frequently than any other Old Testament prophet except Isaiah.
Messianic Prophecies in Zechariah
- Zechariah 9:9 — “Thy King cometh… riding upon an ass” — fulfilled in the Triumphal Entry (Matthew 21:5)
- Zechariah 11:12–13 — Thirty pieces of silver; potter’s field — fulfilled by Judas (Matthew 27:9–10)
- Zechariah 12:10 — “They shall look upon me whom they have pierced” — cited at the Crucifixion (John 19:37)
- Zechariah 13:7 — “Smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered” — quoted by Jesus before Gethsemane (Matthew 26:31)
The Wounded Messiah
One of Zechariah’s most poignant and theologically rich passages describes a future moment when the people of Jerusalem will behold one “whom they have pierced” and mourn for him as for an only son (Zechariah 12:10). Chapter 13 follows with a vision of a fountain opened for sin and uncleanness—and the poignant question: “What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends” (Zechariah 13:6).
These passages, written five centuries before the Crucifixion, speak to a prophet who saw beyond the immediate task of temple reconstruction to the far horizon of God’s redemptive plan—a plan that would culminate in a pierced Savior and an opened fountain of grace.
Key Scriptures
- Zechariah 4:6 — “Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit”
- Zechariah 9:9 — Messianic King entering on a donkey
- Zechariah 12:10 — Looking on Him whom they pierced