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106 Structure and the Book ofZechariah
probably connect this also with ptf, vv. 14-15 (also 8.3, 8; 3tf' also
occurs in 1.11; 3.8; 5.7; 6.13; 7.7 [2x]; 8.4, 20-21; 9.5-6; 710.6; 11.6;
12.5-8, 10; 13.1; 14.10-11), especially since both words are found in
8.1-8. This, as we have already noted, has strong links with the
present chapter. The words are used for the people and Yahweh
respectively, except that pel is used of the people in 8.8. All the other
repeated words are confined to vv. 10-17.
TOD vv. 9, 12, is an important theological word, which occurs
nowhere else in Zechariah. Does v. 9 help to explain the author's
intention in v. 12? 1 At this stage we can only say that TOD is prima
1. 'jn'ptf TOD -irw is one of the most difficult phrases to interpret in the whole of
Zechariah. There is no warrant for altering the text in the ancient versions, and certainly
no agreed consensus, so we are bound to keep the MT and to try and make
sense of it. The main lines of interpretation have been as follows.
TIK = 'after' in a temporal sense, either as a preposition (e.g. Mitchell et al.: 'after
the glory [vision] he sent me', Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi and Jonah, p. 142) or as
a conjunction (e.g. Petitjean: 'Car ainsi a parle Jahve Sebaot, apres que la Gloire
m'eut envoyeV He takes TCD without article or suffix to be a divine appellative,
Les oracles, p. 117).
Or = 'with'. So R.B.Y. Scott, 'Secondary Meanings of -irm', JTS 50 (1949),
pp. 178-79; M. Dahood, 'Chiastic Breakup in Isaiah 58.7', Bib 44 (1963),
pp. 292-93. This is difficult to substantiate.
TOD = 'glory' meaning the divine presence, or the revelation of the divine glory to
the prophet in a vision.
Or = 'heaviness'. Chary (Les prophetes et le culte, p. 70) takes this sense,
translating ~irm as 'with', and obtains the sense: 'with insistence he sent me'.
Baldwin finds this the most convincing, but both choices are questionable, and the
final result is doubly uncertain (Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, p. 109).
'jrfttf. Is the subject of the verb 'he' meaning Yahweh (as at the beginning of the
verse) or is TQ3 the subject? If it is the latter, then TCD would have to stand for
Yahweh in some sense: Yahweh in his glory. This would give a satisfactory
meaning, especially soon after v. 9b: 'I will be in your midst for glory'.
We must also ask to what expression 'to the nations' is attached. Is it "Thus said
Yahweh of hosts' or 'sent me'? The latter is more natural, but if this is right, then
who was sent to the nations? It could not have been Zechariah, so perhaps we should
think of one of the angels. The angel who spoke with Zechariah' is a possibility in
4.9b; but 6.15 seems to refer to Zechariah himself unless we take this verse to be a
continuation of 6.8. All in all the latter seems to me to be the best solution.
For a full discussion and list of solutions offered see Rignell, Die Nachtgesichte,
pp. 84-89; Petitjean, Les oracles, pp. 109-19. See also P.R. Ackroyd, Exile and
Restoration (London: SCM Press, 1968), p. 180.