Zechariah 1:12

12. The purpose of the vision is to remove this sense of disappointment and despondency by a solemn reaffirmation of the promises of the past (12-17). It is the angel of Jehovah (see on Zechariah 1:11) who intercedes with Jehovah for Jerusalem and Judah. The fact that the angel intercedes with Jehovah might be urged against the identification of the two (see above); but this representation, which is figurative, disproves the identification no more “than the intercessory prayer of Christ in John 17:0 is a disproof of his divinity.”

Answered See on Zechariah 1:10. The “angel” understands the true significance of the report, and he inquires why Jehovah is withholding his favor, when the allotted time of his displeasure has come to an end.

Threescore and ten years Undoubtedly a reference to Jeremiah 25:12; Jeremiah 29:10. The former passage was uttered in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, about 604 B.C.; seventy years from that date would bring us to about 534, a few years subsequent to the edict of Cyrus granting permission to the Jews to return from Babylon, and about fourteen years before the date of this vision. If this is the period meant the disappointment can be understood very easily. The pre-exilic prophets had connected the sublimest hopes with the return, but the years immediately following the return of 537 were years of depression and oppression. Many would ask and did ask, What has become of the promises of Jehovah? The angel simply voices the sentiment of the majority in the community. However, it is possible that the beginning of the seventy years should be placed at the destruction of the temple in 586; seventy years from that date would bring us to about 516. As the latter date approached, the people would inquire anxiously whether the promised exaltation would materialize. The former interpretation does justice to the primary reference, but the fact that seventy years from the destruction of the temple were about to expire may have intensified the expectation as well as the disappointment.