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3. The Structure of Individual Sections of Zechariah 89
4a* as your fathers
b 1 to whom prophets called
c 1 thus says Yahweh of hosts
d 1 Return
e 1 from evil ways and doings
f 1 (cf. d?) did not hear or turn (an ear)
(oracle of Yahweh)
5a 2 fathers where?
b 2 prophets forever ?
6c 3 ? my words and statutes
b 3 which I commanded prophets
a 3 overtook fathers
d 2 they returned
g 1 (f?) (c?) as Yahweh of hosts purposed to do to us
e 2 according to our ways and doings
g 2 so has he done with us
This seems to have a clear logic about it, and some apparently clear
patterns emerge, e.g. abcba in vv. 5-6a. This is a logical subsection
and seems likely to be intended as a chiasmus. The overall thought is
consonant with the layout given.
Following the same notation for vv. 1-3, we could add:
lb the prophet
2a° your fathers
3c~ 2 thus says Yahweh of hosts
d" 1 return to me
c" 1 oracle of Yahweh of hosts
d° I will return to you
c° says Yahweh of hosts
4a J your fathers. ..
This presents us with a very tightly structured whole. 1 Virtually every
1. We might ask whether Beuken's view that 1.3-6 has the form of a Levitical
sermon (cf. 2 Chron. 30.6-9; Haggai-Sacharja, pp. 84-115, esp. 91-92) makes any
appreciable difference to this investigation. I am unable to accept his thesis as a
whole, but it is quite possible that Zechariah or his editor(s) did base some of their
writing on traditional forms. Would this mean that regular patterns would be
produced unconsciously? In principle we should hope to be able to detect an underlying
pattern and its modification, and to form some opinion of original author and
later redactor. However, in practice the evidence that reaches us is capable of too
many different reconstructions for this to be done precisely. We must maintain our
primary interest in the structure intended by the writer(s), irrespective of his/their