The Book of Zechariah in Fausset's Bible Dictionary

The Jewish saying was, "the spirit of Jeremiah dwelt in Zechariah." Like Ezekiel and Daniel, Zechariah delights in symbols, allegories, and visions of angels ministering before Jehovah and executing His commands on earth. Zechariah, like Genesis, Job, and Chronicles, brings Satan personally into view. The mention of myrtles (representing the then depressed Jewish church, Zechariah 1:11) accords with the fact of their non mention before the Babylonian exile (Nehemiah 8:15); contrast the original command as to the trees at the feast of tabernacles, "palms, and willows of the brook" Esther's name Hadassah means "myrtle". (See MYRTLE.) Joshua's filthy garments (Zechariah 3) were those assumed by the accused in Persian courts; the white robe substituted was the caftan, to this day put upon a state minister in the East when acquitted. Some forms and phrases indicate a late age (as 'achath used as the indefinite article). Zechariah encouraged the Jews in rebuilding the temple by unfolding the glorious future in contrast with the present depression of the theocracy. Matthew (Matthew 27:9) quotes Zechariah 11:12 as Jeremiah's words. Doubtless because Zechariah had before his mind Jeremiah 18:1-2; Jeremiah 32:6-12; Zechariah's prophecy is but a reiteration of the fearful oracle of Jeremiah 18-19, about to be fulfilled in the destruction of the Jewish nation. Jeremiah, by the image of a potter's vessel (the symbol of God's absolute power over His creatures: Romans 9:21; Isaiah 45:9; Isaiah 64:8), portrayed their ruin in Nebuchadnezzar's invasion. Zechariah repeats this threat as about to be fulfilled again by Rome for their rejection of Messiah Matthew, by mentioning Jeremiah, implies that the field of blood now bought by "the reward of iniquity" in the valley of Hinnom was long ago a scene of doom symbolically predicted, that the purchase of it with the traitor's price renewed the prophecy and revived the curse. The mention of Ephraim and Israel as distinct from Judah, in chapters 10 to 14, points to the ultimate restoration, not only of the Jews but of the northern Israelite ten tribes, who never returned as a body from their Assyrian captivity, the earnest of which was given in the numbers out of the ten tribes who returned with their brethren of Judah from the Babylonian captivity under Cyrus. There are four parts:...