Biblion Bible Commentary
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Chariots, and a Crown for the Priest
Zechariah 6:1-15
1 Again I lifted up my eyes, and saw, and behold, four chariots came out from between two mountains; and the mountains were mountains of bronze. · WEB
The night's last vision closes the circle the first one opened, and then the prophet is told to do something rather than watch it.
Four chariots come out from between two mountains; and the mountains were mountains of bronze, with horses of four colors. The angel identifies them as the four winds of the sky, which go out from standing before the Lord of all the earth.
The vision answers the first one. That night began with riders reporting that all the earth is at rest and in peace Zechariah 1:11, which was the complaint — nothing moving. It ends with chariots dispatched in every direction from a gate of bronze. The patrol has become a deployment.
And the report that closes it is about the direction the exile came from: those who go toward the north country have quieted my spirit in the north country. Babylon lay north by the traveled route, and what is settled there is God's own disquiet.
Then the visions stop, and the prophet is given a task. Silver and gold are taken from named men just arrived from Babylon — Heldai, Tobijah, Jedaiah — and made into crowns, and the crowns are set on the head of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest.
That is a deliberate irregularity. A crown is not priestly furniture; the priest wore a turban, and Israel's kings and priests came from different tribes. The one man in the province who could not be king is crowned, and the act is performed with metal donated by returning exiles.
The words spoken over him explain it, and they are not about him: behold, the man whose name is the Branch! He will grow up out of his place; and he will build Yahweh's temple Zechariah 6:12. The title has been used once before, of a servant yet to be brought out Zechariah 3:8. Joshua is wearing the crown on someone else's behalf.
Verse 13 says what the crowning means, and it joins two offices the law kept apart: he will bear the glory, and will sit and rule on his throne. He will be a priest on his throne. Then, the counsel of peace will be between them both — the two functions at peace in one person rather than checking each other across two.
The crowns are then left for a memorial in Yahweh's temple, and the promise widens: those who are far off shall come and build.
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