Zechariah 12

This week we are reading chapter 12. Zechariah makes a sudden about-face from the gloomy language and depressing outlook of chapter 11 where God declared the end of his covenant relationship with his people who he no longer pitied (11:6). Yahweh abandoned the flock doomed to slaughter, leaving them to their cannibalistic desires, saying “what is to die, let it die” (11:9). Zechariah resigned as shepherd leader.

In chapter 12, Yahweh is back in the role of divine warrior, fighting on behalf of his beloved people, assuring their victory, as if chapter 11 never happened. As a student of the prophets, it is moments like these that leave me raising my hand in the back of the class. I want an explanation for what just happened that will answer all the contradictions.

Remember, Zechariah is not the first prophet to give us whiplash. The prophetic method has often involved swaying from one extreme to another, giving off the feeling that they are unstable leaders with an inconsistent message. Rabbi Heschel in his book The Prophets acknowledges the prophets’ moodiness but defends it is as an understandable hazard of their profession. He explains, “what appears to us as wild emotionalism must seem like restraint to him who has to convey the emotion of the Almighty in the feeble language of man.”

Still, you will be relieved to know that chapter 11 and its theme of doom and gloom is an outlier in the bigger scope of Zechariah. Consider it a brief interruption of pessimistic sign-acts sandwiched between otherwise optimistic oracles. Even when the oracles call the people out for their sins or predict coming trials, they remain hope adjacent. The last section, chapters 12-14, returns to Yahweh’s promises to the remnant. The restored community will be victorious over her attackers, even if the community must first go through a season of repentance and purification.

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