[b-hebrew] Zech 6:8

Harold Holmyard hholmyard at ont.com
Sun Nov 27 17:57:32 EST 2005


Dear Steve:

You wrote:

The more I study Z`Q and Zech 6, the more I think that "and it [or he]
caused me to cry out." Is the only way to translate the beginning of Zech
6:8.

HH: Your reading certainly is possible, but since no lexicon I have agrees with you, I ask whether the context calls for the reading that you like. Little in the context may suggest that meaning other than the verb form. Zechariah is being told that the horses going northward have quieted God's Spirit in the land of the north. It looks as though the horses represent aggressors who defeat Babylon. Babylon had taken Israel into captivity,and Cyrus'defeat of Babylon allowed Israelites to return home. The text would be like 2:7-9. The vision in 5:5-11 was also about Babylon.

HH: So why would the speaker make Zechariah cry for help? Was Zechariah to imitate the plight of Israel in captivity crying for deliverance? That's possible, but Zechariah may just be a bystander, a witness here, and the speaker may simply summon him in order to give him data that helps to make sense of the vision.

HH: A significant question is the subject of the verb q[z in Zech 6:8. One commentary I have assumes that the speaker is the angel, but it seems quite possible to me that the speaker is "the Lord of all the earth" introduced in 6:5. The messenger angel could close his speech at the end of verse 6. Then verse 7 could be narrative. If the horses have to get permission to go through the earth, it is logical that they would get it from the Lord before whom they had been standing as servants (v. 5). So the speaker in verse 7 ("Go, patrol the earth") could be the Lord, and the HCSB and NET insert "Lord" as the subject of the verb (v. 7). The same subject could continue into verse 8, so that the Lord summoned Zechariah and told him what the horses were doing. Since the speaker in verse 8 seems to be the Lord ("quieted My Spirit"), this makes good sense. So the Lord would have summoned Zechariah over to Himself to give him the message conveyed in verse 8.

Yours,
Harold Holmyard 




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