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3. The Structure of Individual Sections of Zechariah 99
If we were to put the emphasis on 'the horns that scattered Judah', we
should arrive at a slightly different structure:
I saw four horns
horns that scattered Judah. ..
... see four contra-horns
horns that scattered Judah
(contra-horns) are to terrify and cast down
horns that scattered Judah
This demonstrates the way that the climax of the passage comes not
right at the end but at the pivotal point of a chiasmus—for this does
give us an off-centre chiasmus. This also would seem to be faithful to
the intention of the writer. We should not, therefore, think that the
schemata that we use to demonstrate the intended patterns in the book
of Zechariah are necessarily adequate, or 'correct' or 'incorrect'. In
this short passage we are fortunate that the meaning is clear, and the
points of emphasis can be seen without detailed analysis. It is valuable
to see, therefore, that a close consideration of structure, such as we
have undertaken, actually does confirm and bring into relief, the features
that we should probably note intuitively. Repeated words cannot
simply be treated statistically or mathematically. The syntax and
meaning have to be taken into consideration. Nevertheless, the fact
that we have considered all repeated words has removed the objection
to structural studies that only the convenient correspondences are
noted. We have been able, in this section at least, to account for all
repetitions. This includes the 'technical' word 'horn' which we might
think would be bound to occur more than once: 1 we have seen that the
'technical' word 'smith' does not do so, and that 'horn' occurs far
more frequently than is necessary.
Zechariah 2.5-17 (5-9 + 10-17)
In dealing with Zech. 2.5-9, 10-17 and 5-17, the neatest way to
proceed is to consider the significant repeated words in the sections
2.5-9 and 10-17, and then to consider the whole section together.
Zechariah 2.5-9
Zech. 2.5-9 is less clearly a self-contained unit than vv. 1-4 since it is
followed by material which is not a direct account of a vision, but
1. Cf. Magonet, Form and Meaning, pp. 16, 116.