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4. Connections Between Sections ofZechariah 1-14 271
whether he should fast (~in niphal) as he has done for many years, and
receives the answer 'When you fasted, did you not fast for your own
benefit; and do you not eat and drink for your own benefit ...' In the
future Gaza's king will perish and Jerusalem's king will come;
Yahweh, the one who makes (nfou) the storm clouds, will set
Jerusalem's prisoners free; his people will be (not fasting: "inn, but) a
crown (in).
In fact this does not stand up to critical scrutiny. We have to discount
most of the words in the list because their use is different: any
connection between them would be too subtle for anyone we might
imagine to be a normal hearer or reader. This excludes: "j^n, nbttf, "iT3,
ntofl, ^DK, nntf, jitim, »3», aa 1 ?, "no, n»to, "IJJD, tfip, »bo, nV, rr-iKtf,
mm, pin (probably), ID*, rua, "ofo, nnna, KIT, mr, mx, D'otf, fia, KT,
am, -wzf, arm, mo, -jbn, tfpn, \wh.
Some words might possibly be intentionally connected: ISO (but the
passages are very different and there is not much else to link them),
Dm (but the reference is different: human and divine compassion), |ra
(8.12 and 10.1 only. Both refer to blessing but, in the first reference,
the vine, ground and heavens give their increase; in the latter it is God
who gives), *15 (but it can only serve to indicate the main focus of the
contexts in which it occurs).
D'fttf refers to relationships between people in 8.16 and 19, to safety
for the people of Judah in 8.10 and 12, but to peace to the nations in
9.10.
Some words are used in similar ways but not distinctively enough to
be effective in structuring: ipej, nofo.
We have noted the distinctive phrase Dttfai "ODD previously. It
occurs in a fairly prominent place in both 7.14 and 9.8, almost at the
end of a sub-section of the text. In the first passage 1 its absence indicates
the devastation of the pleasant land, in the second Yahweh himself
stands as a guard so that no one (presumably no unauthorized
person) can come and go as they please. The precise meaning, there-
the table: it has been considered separately. I do not think that the individual parts of
these names can be used for structuring purposes.
1. Many commentators decline to explain the significance of this phrase.
Rudolph translates 'ohne Verkehr' (Haggai, pp. 141-42); Perowne suggests 'as we
say, went backward and forward'; presumably it signifies the everyday business of
settled life, cf. Ps. 121.8, 701 -\tnKt -its}' nvr.