Zechariah 12-14*

Zechariah 12-14 has  broad repetition of the deliverance of Jerusalem from the latter day invaders and of the coming of Messiah. Based on The Oxford Encyclopaedia of Books of the Bible (2011) we have

A. 12:1-9 Deliverance of Jerusalem

B. 12:10-13:1 Sacrifice of Messiah

C. 13:2-6(5)  Cleansing of the land from false teaching

B’. 13: (6)7-9 Suffering of Messiah

A’. 14:1-21 Deliverance and elevation of Jerusalem

I would like to make one departure from the Oxford Encycl. 13:6 is clearly Messianic and it would be a mistake to read it as attached to the false prophet of verse 5. If the chiasm boundary is slightly amended then it fits well with the Messianic parallel of the crucifixion in chapter 12. The centre of the chiasm emphasises the important theme of the whole prophecy – that Jerusalem once more will be a City of Truth. Recognition of this pattern avoids the mistake of thinking there are two separate invasions of Jerusalem described. 

 

2 thoughts on “Zechariah 12-14*”

  1. I noticed a chiasm in the centre of that chiasm:
    d: (2)And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD of hosts, that I will cut off the names of the idols out of the land, and they shall no more be remembered: and also I will cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to pass out of the land.

    c: (3)And it shall come to pass, that when any shall yet prophesy,

    b: then his father and his mother that begat him shall say unto him, Thou shalt not live;

    A: for thou speakest lies in the name of the LORD:

    b: and his father and his mother that begat him shall thrust him through

    c: when he prophesieth.

    d: And it shall come to pass in that day, that the prophets shall be ashamed every one of his vision, when he hath prophesied; neither shall they wear a rough garment to deceive:

    The centre seems to fit well with the centre of the larger chiasm.

  2. The broad structure indicated above was discussed much earlier, in the Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries; Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi, by Joyce Baldwin, in 1972, 20 year before the current interest in chiasmus in academic circles. Baldwin refers to a French author, P Lamarche, who published a double chiasm proposal for Zechariah 9-14 in 1961.

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