Old Testament
Zechariah encourages the discouraged exiles rebuilding the temple, and lifts their eyes from the small day of beginnings to the grand horizon of God's purpose. It opens with a call to return — 'return to me, and I will return to you' — and a series of eight night visions assuring the community that God is jealously at work to rebuild Jerusalem, cleanse his people, and complete his house 'not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit.' Running through the book is the promise of 'the Branch,' the coming priest-king, and a stream of stunning messianic prophecies the New Testament applies to Jesus: the King coming lowly on a donkey, the shepherd valued at thirty pieces of silver thrown to the potter, the struck shepherd whose sheep scatter, the pierced one over whom the people mourn, and the fountain opened for sin. It demands true justice over hollow ritual, foresees the nations streaming to seek the LORD, and climaxes in the day of the LORD when God comes, living waters flow, and 'the LORD will be King over all the earth' — a world made wholly holy to him.
Open Zechariah in the Atlas →Work through Zechariah in the Atlas — passage by passage. Read the text, test your understanding, discover its themes, and watch how it connects across Scripture.