Lessons from the book of zechariah

When was zechariah written
Zechariah commentary john macarthur
Zachariah biblical story

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Old Testament Overviews

Zechariah

One important aspect of the ancient TaNaK order of the Hebrew Bible is that the 12 prophetic works of Hosea through Malachi, sometimes referred to as the Minor Prophets, were designed as a single book called The Twelve. Zechariah is the 11th book of The Twelve.

Zechariah is set after the return of the exiles from Babylon to Jerusalem. We are told in the book of Ezra (Ezra 5:1-2) that Zechariah and Haggai together challenged and motivated the people to rebuild the temple and look for the fulfillment of God’s promises. Long ago, Jeremiah the prophet said that Israel’s exile would last for 70 years (Jer. 25:1; Jer. 29:10) and that afterwards God would restore his presence to a new temple. That’s when God would bring his Kingdom and the rule of the messiah over all nations (Jer. 30-33). The dates at the beginning of this book tell us that the 70 years were almost up, but life back in the land was hard, and it seemed like none of these hopes were ever going to be fulfilled. The book of Zechariah offers an explanation about what

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Best Resources on Zechariah

"Zechariah’s prophecies were delivered when God’s people had returned to the promised land after their exile in Babylon. Although the messages address a specific situation, they also are timeless. Zechariah encouraged the leaders of Jerusalem and called the Jewish people to rebuild the temple—and he looked forward to the ultimate fulfillment of Yahweh’s promise to restore and save.
Like the prophet Haggai, Zechariah appears in 520 BC as a prophet to the Jewish exiles who returned to the promised land. Zechariah’s efforts are set against the backdrop of a trying time for God’s people. The story of Zechariah really begins back in 586 BC, when the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem and took most of its people back to Babylon (2 Kgs 25:1–21). In 538 BC the Persian king Cyrus allowed these deported Jews to return to their land and to begin rebuilding the temple (2 Chr 36:22–23; Ezra 1:1–4). The Historical Book of Nehemiah identifies Zechariah as part of a priestly family that returned to Jerusalem under the leadership of Zerubbabel the g

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About the Book of Zechariah

God remembers his promises

An EasyEnglish Bible Version and Commentary (2800 word vocabulary) on the Book of Zechariah

www.easyenglish.bible

Gordon Churchyard

This commentary has been through Advanced Checking.

Words in boxes are from the Bible, except for words in brackets (…).

A word list at the end explains words with a *star by them.

‘The *prophet (Zechariah) said that these events would happen. And these events did happen.’

(Matthew 21:4) (A *prophet tells people what God is saying.)

Zechariah wrote his book in the *Hebrew language. The *Hebrew word ‘zechariah’ (or ‘zachariah’) means ‘God remembers’. Zechariah was a *prophet. This meant that he did two things.

(1) He told people what God was saying about the present time.

(2) He told people what God was saying about the future.

Zechariah 1:1 says that the *prophet was the ‘son of Berechiah, son of Iddo’. Ezra 5:1 says that he was the son of Iddo. This is a puzzle for Bible students. There are three possible explanations.

(1) Berechiah was the son of Iddo, who was therefore Zechariah