Zacarias 8:1-17

D. Israel’s restoration to God’s favor 8:1-17

Chapter 8 not only contains two major messages from the Lord (Zechariah 8:1-23) but 10 minor messages, "a decalogue of divine words," [Note: Leupold, p. 141.] that make up the two major ones. Another writer believed there were seven oracles in this section. [Note: Waltke, p. 846.] "Thus says the Lord" introduces each of these minor messages (Zechariah 8:2-23) each of which contains a promise of future blessing for Israel. These short sayings may have been the texts of different sermons that Zechariah had preached and later wove together because of their similar content. [Note: Baldwin, p. 148.]

"In the preceding section [ch. 7] Israel was to repent and live righteously after the punishment of her captivity; here [in ch. 8] she is to repent and live righteously because of the promise of her future restoration." [Note: Barker, pp. 649-50.]

The whole chapter presents Israel’s eventual restoration and participation in full millennial blessing. [Note: Unger, p. 132.] The restoration from exile in Zechariah’s day was only a precursor of greater future blessing and prosperity.

"Of a total of 36 occurrences of ’YHWH of hosts’ in Zechariah, 15 are in this one oracle [ch. 8], the highest concentration of the phrase in the OT with the possible exception of Malachi. Even more remarkable, it occurs six times in the present passage alone [Zechariah 8:1-8], a passage that focuses narrowly on eschatological restoration. So humanly impossible will that be, it can come to pass only by the resources of the Almighty One." [Note: Merrill, p. 220.]

I counted 16 occurrences of "the LORD of hosts" and four more of "the LORD" in this chapter.