The Accuser Rebuked
1 He showed me Joshua the high priest standing before Yahweh’s angel, and Satan standing at his right hand to be his adversary. 2 Yahweh said to Satan, “Yahweh rebuke you, Satan! Yes, Yahweh who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Isn’t this a burning stick plucked out of the fire?” 3 Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and was standing before the angel. 4 He answered and spoke to those who stood before him, saying, “Take the filthy garments off him.” To him he said, “Behold, I have caused your iniquity to pass from you, and I will clothe you with rich clothing.” 5 I said, “Let them set a clean turban on his head.” So they set a clean turban on his head, and clothed him; and Yahweh’s angel was standing by. 6 Yahweh’s angel solemnly assured Joshua, saying, 7 “Yahweh of Armies says: ‘If you will walk in my ways, and if you will follow my instructions, then you also shall judge my house, and shall also keep my courts, and I will give you a place of access among these who stand by. 8 Hear now, Joshua the high priest, you and your fellows who sit before you, for they are men who are a sign; for, behold, I will bring out my servant, the Branch. 9 For, behold, the stone that I have set before Joshua: on one stone are seven eyes; behold, I will engrave its inscription,’ says Yahweh of Armies, ‘and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day. 10 In that day,’ says Yahweh of Armies, ‘you will invite every man his neighbor under the vine and under the fig tree.’”
A high priest is accused in filthy clothes, the charge is never disputed, and every verb of the acquittal is done to him rather than by him.
The scene is a courtroom and the positions are formal. Joshua the high priest stands before Yahweh's angel, and Satan standing at his right hand to be his adversary — the accuser's place. The Hebrew word behind the name is the ordinary term for an opponent at law, and it is being used as a title.
Verse 3 concedes the case before it is made: Joshua was clothed with filthy garments. The nation's representative before God appears in soiled clothing, and the text does not soften what that means. Whatever the accusation was, it was true.
So the striking thing is that the charge is never answered. It is not disputed, mitigated, or explained. The accuser is simply rebuked, and the ground given is not Joshua's record but God's prior decision: Yahweh who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you Zechariah 3:2. Then an image of narrow rescue — isn't this a burning stick plucked out of the fire? A brand snatched from a blaze is not a fine object; it is a salvaged one.
Every verb of what follows has Joshua as its object. The garments are taken off him by order. I have caused your iniquity to pass from you. I will clothe you with rich clothing. He speaks no word in his own defense and performs no act of his own cleansing.
One detail is the prophet's own. I said, Let them set a clean turban on his head — the only place in the visions where the watcher interrupts to ask for something, and it is granted. The turban matters because the high priest's carried a gold plate engraved HOLY TO YAHWEH Exodus 28:36, and the book will end by putting those same words on horses' harness Zechariah 14:20.
The conditions in verse 7 come after the reclothing, not before it — if you will walk in my ways... then you also shall judge my house. Standing first, service second; the order cannot be reversed without contradicting the verse.
And verse 8 turns from the man to someone else: I will bring out my servant, the Branch. A single stone with seven eyes is set before him, and the promise is that iniquity will be removed from the land in one day.
settled What this mark means