Zakharia 4:7

Oracle of Response

4:7 “What are you, you great mountain? ¹  Because of Zerubbabel you will become a level plain! And he will bring forth the temple ²  capstone with shoutings of ‘Grace! Grace!’ ³  because of this.”

Zakharia 6:7

6:7 All these strong ones ⁴  are scattering; they have sought permission to go and walk about over the earth.” The Lord had said, “Go! Walk about over the earth!” So they are doing so.

[4:7]  ¹ sn In context, the great mountain here must be viewed as a metaphor for the enormous task of rebuilding the temple and establishing the messianic kingdom (cf. TEV “Obstacles as great as mountains”).

[4:7]  ² tn The word “temple” has been supplied in the translation to clarify the referent (cf. NLT “final stone of the Temple”).

[4:7]  ³ sn Grace is a fitting response to the idea that it was “not by strength and not by power” but by God’s gracious Spirit that the work could be done (cf. v. 6).

[6:7]  ⁴ tn The present translation takes אֲמֻצִּים (’amutsim, “strong”) to be a descriptive of all the horses – white, black, red, and spotted (cf. NAB, NIV, NLT).