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146 Structure and the Book ofZechariah
to the unit, and must take the next verse as part of the original
account. Some commentators, including Petersen, take vv. 12-13 to
be a separate oracle inserted into vv. 9-11 + 14. It is difficult to find a
parallel to a symbolic action of this kind without some sort of
explanatory word. 1 It consists of an oracle with a weighty introductory
formula and an oracle about 'a man: no* (is) his name'. 'He will
branch up rnnnn, and he will build the temple of Yahweh.' This
oracle is addressed to Joshua and informs him about someone else. It
is conjectured that the original text may have been different,2 but we
have no warrant for adopting an emended reading here.
Verse 13 looks as if it could have been added by an editor. It begins
by repeating, almost word for word but with emphasis, the last part of
the previous verse, before adding new material:
and he will build the temple of Yahweh
13 And he (is the one who) will build the temple of Yahweh
And he (is the one who) will bear honour
and he will sit
and he will rule
upon his throne (TKDS *?R)
and there will be a priest
by his throne (TKOD •»)
and there will be peace between the two of them.
Verse 14 would have formed a fitting end to our supposed 'original
account', with or without v. 13. It mentions the crowns again and the
people whose names were specified earlier. What was taken from
(with) the exiles, becomes a remembrance for them O 5 four times).
1. Petersen does not seem to address this question (Haggai and Zechariah,
pp. 272-81), although he regards the writer/editor as 'an accomplished literary
architect' and vv. 12-13 as 'a carefully constructed oracle' (pp. 273, 278).
Stuhlmueller offers Isa. 20, Jer. 28, Ezek. 3.22-27 and chs. 4-5. In the first an
oracle was certainly delayed but it was given; Jeremiah was commanded not only to
'make yoke bars' but to give a message to the envoys who had come to Jerusalem
(27.2-11); Ezekiel is a special case, hardly comparable to Zech. 6.9ff. However, the
examples do illustrate the variety of communication in the OT, and warn us against
demanding analogies for everything we seem to find.
2. There is no widespread agreement on this question. Full discussion would
involve questions about the historical situation of the time, and in particular what
hopes surrounded and what happened to Zerubbabel. These matters are covered in
most commentaries, e.g. Amsler, Agee, Zacharie, Malachi, pp. 106-110; Meyers,
Haggai, Zechariah, esp. pp. 350-64.