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Zechariah 9 ends with the promise of agricultural fertility: “Grain shall make the young men flourish, and new wine the young women” (9:17). The guarantee of satiated bellies carries over into Zechariah 10, reminding the people to ask God to send the “spring rain” and “the vegetation in the field” (10:1).
After encouraging the people to pray to Yahweh for their needs, the prophet warned them not to seek their protection and provision through other means. He cautioned the people against falling back into idol worship, reminding them that “the teraphim utter nonsense, and the diviners see lies; the dreamers tell false dreams and give empty consolation” (10:2).
Before the exile, the people of Israel and Judah had been fond of merging Yahwism with the occult. They had flirted with all kinds of pagan divination. Rachel had brought her father’s statues into Canaan (Gen. 31). Right after the Exodus, when they should have been thanking God for his saving grace, they were constructing the golden calf at Mount Sinai (Ex. 32). Even King Saul had consulted a medium to conjure up the ghost of Samuel (1 Sam. 28).
Idols, diviners, and false prophets
The Bible indicates that idol worship had ceased in the land of Israel after the exile, and the archaeology confirms this. The prophets Hosea and Ezekiel had prophesied that after the ordeal of captivity, the people would eradicate idol worship (Hos. 3:4; Ezek. 37:23). Hosea foresaw a time when “the Israelites shall remain many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or teraphim” (Hos. 3:4).
Before the exile, the people had consulted diviners and had listened to self-declared prophets about their dreams. The prophet Micah had accused the diviners of lying to the people to console them (Mic. 3:7). Jeremiah had faulted the people for following false prophets because of their comforting lies, whereas he had been unpopular because he had predicted the truth regarding the coming exile, and he had offered correction, not comfort (Jer. 27:9-10). False prophets had told the people what they wanted to hear instead of what they needed to hear.
The postexilic scriptures and the archaeological record convey that the remnant were no longer guilty of idolatry and divination. When Zechariah enumerated the remnant’s moral and ethical shortcomings, idolatry was not listed among them (7:8-12). Though archaeologists routinely find teraphim—small household gods—at Judean and Israelite sites that date to the centuries before the Babylonian exile, they notice an absence of idols in the postexilic communities. After the exile, the people were attentive to the words and warnings of Haggai and Zechariah. They no longer persecuted the true prophets but were eager to hear their message.
Zechariah’s discourse on teraphim and diviners served as a warning to the people not to repeat the mistakes of their ancestors. His entire book begins with the command, “do not be like your ancestors” (1:4). His message encouraged the returnees to be on their guard against syncretism, and not allow it to take hold in the community again.
Corrupt shepherds and scattered sheep
In Second Zechariah, sheep and shepherd imagery are a consistent motif. Zechariah warned that if the people went after false gods and prophets, they would be like sheep who “suffer for a lack of a shepherd” (10:3). God’s anger was “hot against the shepherds” (10:3).
The identity of the corrupt leaders is unknown. Presumably, it was not Joshua or Zerubbabel because Zechariah’s vision sequence had judged them both favorably. Since the composition date for the last part of Zechariah is unknown, perhaps a new generation of priests, judges, and civil leaders had assumed leadership after Joshua and Zerubbabel. With Judah being part of the Persian Empire, there was also the possibility that the corrupt shepherds were imperial officials. If so, Zechariah was clever to wrap an anti-imperial message in a shepherd metaphor.
Despite the unknown identity of the corrupt shepherds, Yahweh is the good shepherd in the metaphor. As Zechariah described the problems with Judah’s leaders, he contrasted their failures with God’s good-shepherd qualities. After promising to purge the corrupt leaders, he reminded his listeners “the Lord of hosts cares for his flock” (10:3).
Before the exile, Israel and Judah both had a series of unrighteous kings. After their restoration to the land, they would now go without a king. This seemed worse to them than having a terrible king. Still, Zechariah vowed to raise up leaders who were capable of reviving the nation, even if they were not royal. He swore, “Out of them shall come the cornerstone, out of them the tent peg, out of them the battle bow, out of them every commander” (10:4).
Zechariah’s cornerstone, peg, and battle bow passage is cryptic and difficult to interpret (10:4). All three were likely designations for future leaders or messianic titles. The peg suggested a leader who would uphold the lineage of David. The prophet Isaiah had portrayed Eliakim son of Hilkiah as the critical “peg in a secure place,” propping up the royal household before the Assyrian attack (Isa. 22:22-24). The battle bow was a general allusion to a successful military leader for Judah. The cornerstone is the title with obvious messianic application. A cornerstone is a stone placed at the intersection of two walls. It must be strong enough to withstand the weight of the walls or the whole thing will collapse.
Isaiah popularized the cornerstone as a messianic title: “See, I am laying in Zion a foundation stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation” (Isa. 28:16). After the death and resurrection of Christ, Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians, interpreted the cornerstone prophecy as a sign for Jesus. Paul wrote, “Built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone; in him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord” (Eph. 2:20-21).
Zechariah predicted total transformation for Judah from a flock of scattered sheep to a “proud warhorse” (10:3). Zechariah described them as stirring up dust and shaming their enemies in battle. The source of their newfound military power was Yahweh. Zechariah explained, “Since the Lord is with them as they fight, they will overthrow even the enemy’s horsemen” (10:5).
House of Joseph
In the last six verses, Zechariah focuses on promises pertaining to Israel. He wrote, “I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the House of Joseph” (10:6). The House of Joseph was an alternate name for Israel, the 10 tribes that once made up the Northern Kingdom. Probably one of the most common points of confusion for Christians reading the Hebrew scriptures is misunderstanding the synonymous names for the Northern Kingdom. Zechariah used all the labels interchangeably: Israel, Ephraim, and House of Joseph.
When the Northern and Southern Kingdoms split in 931 BCE after the death of Solomon, the 10 tribes of the north became known as the Kingdom of Israel. The two tribes in the south became known as the Kingdom of Judah because Judah’s role and influence were greater than those of the tribe of Benjamin. Ephraim was the largest and most important of the 10 northern tribes, so they are sometimes collectively called Israel. The House of Joseph is also synonymous with Ephraim because Joseph was the father of Ephraim and Manasseh, which were both northern tribes. Ephraim was the younger of Joseph’s two sons, but he was the recipient of the firstborn’s blessing from Jacob (Gen. 48), and the capital of the Northern Kingdom—Samaria—was in the land allotted to Ephraim.
All the blessings given to Judah guaranteed military strength (10:4-5). All the promises given to Israel guaranteed return and restoration. Yahweh assured, “I will bring them back because I have compassion on them, and they shall be as though I had not rejected them” (10:6). Earlier prophets had forecasted the reunification of Judah and Israel (Isa. 11:11-16; Jer. 3:11-18). After the decree of Cyrus, waves of returnees from Judah arrived in Jerusalem from Babylon. However, Judah awaited a wave of returnees from the 10 tribes of Israel to join them in the restoration process.
In exile, the Babylonians had allowed the community of Judah to live together and form a diaspora. Assyria had dispersed the people of Israel throughout the empire, leaving them vulnerable to assimilation. In Judaism, it is difficult to practice the faith without community. The prophets were aware that only a miracle would be able to bring back the House of Joseph.
Yahweh was aware of the impossibility of their reemergence. He declared, “I will signal for them and gather them in, for I have redeemed them” (10:8). The verbiage here maintained the sheep metaphor. Alternatively, the Hebrew word translated as “signal” can be translated as “whistle.” God whistled like a shepherd to signal his flock. The basis of their redemption would be through his great mercy. Their return would result from hearing his call. Zechariah continued, “Though I scattered them among the nations, yet in far countries they shall remember me” (10:9).
Zechariah’s audience was primarily concerned with the return of the 10 tribes. They believed they could only grow strong through numbers, and they wondered if God would reincorporate the scattered tribes of Israel into their new community. Yahweh explained, through Zechariah, that the restoration of his relationship with Israel was at the forefront of his plans.
Yahweh declared that he would facilitate the return of all the exiles from “the land of Egypt” and he would “gather them from Assyria” (10:10). In Zechariah’s day, the Assyrian Empire had long been defeated, so a reference to Assyria may seem misplaced. Zechariah may have been contemplating the role of Assyria and Egypt in Israel’s history. After the division into the Northern and Southern Kingdoms, the people of God found themselves caught in the struggle for dominance between Egypt and Assyria. By the sixth century BCE, Assyria had disappeared. The primary conflict shifted to Egypt and Babylon, who had both tussled over control of Judah.
The returnees had little hope that the cycle of violence would end with their restoration in the land, even with a vanquished Assyria and weakened Egypt. Zechariah spoke directly into their communal pain when he pronounced, “the pride of Assyria shall be laid low, and the scepter of Egypt shall depart” (10:11).
God was promising that once the exiles returned, “I will bring them to the land of Gilead and to Lebanon, until there is no room for them” (10:10). Gilead and Lebanon were odd choices for a promise directed at Israel. A reference to the capital of Samaria may have made more sense than to random border towns. However, in context, the prophet was implying that once all 12 tribes returned, the swollen population would expand into the periphery.
The passage closes with a reminder of the Exodus from Egypt: “They shall pass through the sea of distress, and the waves of the sea shall be struck down, and all the depths of the Nile dried up” (10:11). In the Hebrew scriptures, the Exodus was the paradigm for God’s miraculous saving acts. The crossing of the Red Sea was the ultimate symbol of the extreme steps Yahweh had taken to rescue his people. Whether it was deliverance from Babylonian captivity or deliverance from the Assyrian dispersion, every wave of returnees represented a Second Exodus. Even today, in modern Israel, Jews who flee lands of oppression are performing a Second Exodus.
In Zechariah’s time, the northern tribes never returned in large numbers. They had repopulated the Galilee region during the Maccabean period, but the Romans uprooted them from the land again in the first century CE. In the grand sweep of God’s redemption plans throughout history, the twentieth century may have witnessed the fulfillment of Zechariah’s prophecies in the rebirth of the modern state of Israel. People often call the 10 northern tribes the “lost tribes” of Israel, but according to the prophets, they would not stay lost forever. In fact, the naming of the state of Israel shows the enduring power of the dream of all 12 tribes being reincorporated into one nation.
Naming Israel
When David Ben Gurion declared the establishment of the modern Jewish state on May 14, 1948, no one knew the name of the new state. Possible names that floated around were the State of the Hebrews, Zion, Judah, Judea, or the Land of Israel. They decided against Judea or Judah. With war clouds looming, it was uncertain if the state would include Jerusalem. The largest portion of the new state would be the Negev, so it seemed inappropriate to extend the ancient name for Jerusalem to the desert.
In addition, the derivative of Judea would be “Jewish.” Citizens of the new state would therefore be called Jewish, but not all the citizens were going to be Jewish. The problem with calling the land Zion was that its inhabitants would be called Zionists. However, since Zionism was already a global movement, it seemed counter-productive to reduce the Zionist identity only to those living in the land. At the very last minute, they voted on “Israel,” which was then cemented with Ben Gurion’s announcement: “We hereby declare the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz-Israel, to be known as the State of Israel.” They had formed a new identity from an ancient identity.