Zechariah 1:9 - Exposition

O my lord. The prophet speaks to the angel of the Lord, who answers briefly, and is succeeded by the interpreting angel. What are these? Not "who," but "what;" i.e. what do they signify? (comp. Amos 7:8 ). That talked with me; literally, as the LXX . and Vulgate, that spake in me. So Zechariah 1:13 , Zechariah 1:14 , and in the following visions. Hence some regard the expression as intimating a communication berne inwardly to the soul without the aid of external organs, or that the angel overpowered and influenced the prophet as the evil spirit possessed the demoniac. But the same term is used, as Dr. Wright points out, in the sense of to commune with a person ( Numbers 12:6 , Numbers 12:8 ; 1 Samuel 25:39 ), and to speak to a person ( Hosea 1:2 ; and perhaps Habakkuk 2:1 ). It may, however, be that the angel of the Lord presented matters objectively, and the prophet's own angel interpreted subjectively. But the Authorized Version is probably correct. I will show thee. This he does through the chief angel ( Zechariah 1:10 ).