Your fathers, where are they? - Israel has been destroyed and ruined in the bloody wars with the Assyrians; and Judah, in those with the Chaldeans. The prophets, do they live for ever? - They also, who spoke unto your fathers, are dead; but their predictions remain; and the events, which have taken place according to those predictions, prove that God sent them. read more
Did they not take hold of your fathers? - Every thing happened according to the predictions, and they were obliged to acknowledge this; and yet they would not turn from their evil way. read more
Upon the four and twentieth day of the eleventh month - This revelation was given about three months after the former, and two months after they had recommenced the building of the temple. Sebat - Answers to a part of our February. See Haggai 2:18 . read more
I saw by night - The time was emblematical of the affliction under which the Jews groaned. A man - An angel in the form of a man: supposed to have been the Lord Jesus; who seems to have appeared often in this way, as a prelude to his incarnation; see Joshua 5:13 ; Ezekiel 1:26 ; Daniel 7:13 ; Daniel 10:6 . The same, probably, that appeared to Joshua with a drawn sword, as the captain of the Lord's host. Joshua 5:13-15 . A red horse - An emblem of war and bloodshed. Among... read more
O my lord, what are these - The angel here mentioned was distinct from those mentioned in the eighth verse; he who talked with the prophet, Zechariah 1:13 . read more
The man that stood among the myrtle trees - The angel of the Covenant, as above, Zechariah 1:11 . Whom the Lord hath sent - Who are constituted guardians of the land. read more
All the earth sitteth still, and is at rest - There is general peace through the Persian empire, and other states connected with Judea; but the Jews are still in affliction; their city is not yet restored, nor their temple built. read more
Then the angel of the Lord - He who was among the myrtles - the Lord Jesus. O Lord of hosts, how long - Jesus Christ was not only the "Lamb slain from the foundation of the world," but was always the sole Mediator and intercessor between God and man. These threescore and ten years? - This cannot mean the duration of the captivity for that was nearly twenty years past. It must mean simply the time that had elapsed from the destruction of the temple to the time in which the angel... read more
The Lord answered the angel - And the angel told the prophet that the answer was gracious and comfortable. This answer is given in the next verse. read more
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Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Zechariah 1:3
Turn ye unto me - This shows that they had power to return, if they would but use it. And I will turn unto you - I will show you mercy and grant you salvation, if you will use the grace I have already given you. Men are lost, because they turn not unto God; but no man is lost because he had not power to return. God gives this, and he will require it. read more