Zechariah 1:16

Because the people of Jerusalem had experienced so much hostility the Lord promised to return to them and show them compassion. The sovereign Lord promised that the temple would be rebuilt there, and the city again would become a viable entity. The Jews finished the temple in 515 B.C., but the city walls were not complete until 444 B.C. (Nehemiah 7:4; Nehemiah 11:1). Measuring the city pictures its expanded restoration (cf. Jeremiah 31:38-40), the measuring line being a construction tool. [Note: See Baruch Halpern, "The Ritual Background of Zechariah’s Temple Song," Catholic Biblical Quarterly 40 (1978):178, n. 51.]