“Shout for joy, fair Zion, etc.” [2:14]. When the Messiah will come, the Holy One will say to the city of Zion, sing and rejoice you city of Zion, since I will come and will rest among you. Many nations will attach themselves to the Holy One on that day and they will become one people and I will rest among them.1Radak, Zechariah, 2:14.
“The Lord will take Judah as His portion” [2:16]. Each Israelite will inherit his share in the Holy Land and He will choose Jerusalem.
“Be silent, all flesh, before the Lord” [2:17]. All of creation should be silent. God will awaken from His heaven.
Genesis Rabbah writes: Rabbi Phinehas said in the name of Rabbi Reuben. King David said to the Holy One, arise, five times in the book of Psalms.2Psalms, 3:8, 7:7, 9:20, 10:12, 17:13. The Holy One responded: my dear son David, if you would say “Arise O Lord” a thousand times. That is to say, arise God, yet I will not arise. When will I arise? When I will see that the poor are treated unjustly and the paupers will cry out, as the verse says, “because of the groans of the plundered poor and needy, I will now act, says the Lord” [Psalms, 12:6]. This is the meaning of the verse “Be silent, all flesh.” That is to say, when the Holy One awakes and arises, for the sake of the poor, then every person should be afraid of God and should be silent.3Genesis Rabbah, 75.1; Yalkut Shimoni, Zechariah, Remez, 569.
“He further showed me Joshua the high priest” [3:1]. He showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of God. The angel of death stood at his right hand and he wanted to speak evil about Joshua the high priest. The angel said: God should rebuke you, Satan. Joshua is worthy to be the high priest. He has been separated from the fire.
A similar story is found in the Talmud, [Sanhedrin] in chapter 10. There were two false prophets. One was called Zedekiah and another one was called Ahab. Zedekiah went to the daughter of Nebuchadnezzar and told her false prophecies. He said to her that God had ordered that she should sleep with Ahab the prophet and Ahab said the same thing about Zedekiah that the daughter of Nebuchadnezzar should sleep with Zedekiah. The daughter went to her father and told him the news. Her father said: when they come to you, send them to me. She sent both of them to her father. Nebuchadnezzar, her father, said: why has the Holy One commanded you to do this and not Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah? They respond- ed: Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah are not prophets and we are prophets. Nebuchadnezzar said: I will test you like I have tested Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. I tested them in the furnace with fire. The false prophets answered that they were three and we are only two. Their merit was greater. The king answered: take another one so that you will also be three and I will throw you into the fire. They chose Joshua the high priest who is mentioned in the haftorah. They said that perhaps we would also be protected from the fire by the merit of the high priest. They were thrown into the fire. The two false prophets were burned and Joshua the high priest only had his clothes singed by the fire. Nebuchadnezzar asked him, I know very well that you are righteous. Why were your clothes singed by the fire, and Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were not singed by the fire? Joshua answered that they were three and I was alone. He said that Abraham was also alone in the furnace and his clothes were not singed. Joshua responded that the fire was not given permission to burn people in Abraham’s oven. However, here in my case, the fire was given permission to burn Zedekiah and Ahab. That is why the fire came up to my clothes. Further, if there are two pieces of dry wood, then the third log of wood must also be singed, even if it is wet and damp. What sin did Joshua commit? The explanation is that he allowed his children to marry divorcees, which is forbidden.4B. Sanhedrin, 93a.
“A brand plucked from the fire” [3:2]. That is to say, Joshua was separated from the fire.
“Joshua was clothed in filthy garments” [3:3]. Joshua had filthy clothes. That is to say, transgressions that are like stains on the person. Joshua did not warn his children about not marrying divorcees. The angel shouted at Joshua that he should remove the garments. God will forgive your transgressions and you will don beautiful garments.5Radak, Zechariah, 3:3.
“Thus said the Lord of Hosts” [3:7]. Thus has God said to Joshua: if you will follow in My ways, you will rule My house. You will be a lord over My house and Temple.6Rashi, Zechariah, 3:7.
“I will permit you to move about among these attendants” [3:7]. The angel said: if you will be pious, then I will give you a long life in the world to come, just like the angels who live forever and stand before the Holy One eternally.7Rashi, Zechariah, 3:7.
“Hearken well, O High Priest Joshua” [3:8]. The angel said: you Joshua and your friends are people for whom the Holy One does wonders. They are Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.8Rashi, Zechariah, 3:8. I will bring the Messiah, who is called Zemach.
“Here is the stone that I have placed before Joshua, etc.” [3:9]. The angel said to Joshua. Zerubbabel who is building the Temple that will continue to exist. The evildoers will not be able to prevent it from being built. Each stone will have great supervision from the Holy One that it should not be moved, just like seven eyes would be watching and guarding the stones of the Temple.9Radak, Zechariah, 3:9.
“I will execute its engraving” [3:9]. The angel said: I will disrupt the ideas of the evildoers who want to prevent the building of the Temple and I will remove the sins of the land in one day. There will be great peace in the country, and they will live in freedom under their fig tree and vines.
“The angel who talked to me came back and woke me” [4:1]. The angel woke me, just like someone wakes up from sleep, and said to me. What do you see? I said, I see a golden candelabrum and over the candelabrum there was a large bowl in which they used to put oil. The candelabrum had seven branches. From the bowl there were seven small pipes through which oil poured into each branch of the candelabrum from the bowl. Afterwards, I saw two olive trees from which olive oil is made, one tree on the right side of the bowl and one tree on the left side of the bowl. That is to say, oil should never be depleted. This is the meaning of the verse “two olive trees near it” [4:3].
“I, in turn asked the angel who talked to me, etc.” [4:4]. I asked the angel, what is this that the olive tree produces oil by itself which flows into the bowl and from this bowl the oil flows into each branch of the candelabrum and no person is involved in it.10Radak, Zechariah, 4:4.
“Not by might, nor by power, but through My spirit, says the Lord” [4:6]. The angel responded: I will tell you what this means. Just like you see that the tree making oil run from itself into the bowl and the bowl causes the oil to flow by itself into the candelabrum, into each branch, so too, the Temple will be built by God himself, and not through the hands of the people. The tree and the candelabrum signify this.11Radak, Zechariah, 4:6.
“Whoever you are, O great mountain, etc.” [4:7]. He says: when it will be before the evildoers who want to prevent the building of the Temple, it will be like a great mountain that one cannot conquer. The evildoers will think that it is not possible to build the Temple. However, for Zerubbabel the righteous one, the building will be very easy, just like it is easy to build on a fine smooth field.12Radak, Zechariah, 4:7.
“He shall produce the excellent stone, etc.” [4:7]. Just like they laid the first stone to build the Temple, so will they build the whole Temple.13Radak, Zechariah, 4:7.
“Beautiful, Beautiful” [4:7]. Just like many people shouted and roared, “beautiful, beautiful,” when the first stone was laid, and the Blessed Lord gave it beauty. So too will it be with the building of the whole Temple.14Radak, Zechariah, 4:7.
The Talmud writes in [tractate] Berakhot, concerning the verse “the Lord said to the Accuser” [3:2]. Rabbi Joshua the son of Levi said: The Angel of Death told me that you should not stand in front of the women when they walk past a deceased person. That is to say, when they are leaving the cemetery, since I, the Angel of Death, dance and jump before the women and I have permission to kill and harm anyone I encounter. If someone does encounter him, they should say, “The Lord said to the Accuser, the Lord rebuke you” [3:2].15B. Berakhot, 51a.
The Talmud writes all this and the Angel of Death dances before the women, for if the women had not sinned through Eve, people would have lived forever. The Angel of Death would not have been able to kill people and he would not have had his work. That is why he dances before the women when there is a corpse.
The Pardes Rimmonim writes that women used to cry very quickly in the presence of a corpse. The women had red faces from crying. When the men would walk near them and see the women’s red faces, the Evil Inclination would jump on the men and incite them to have thoughts about the women.16I could not find the source in the Pardes Rimmonim, but the earlier source is Zohar, II: 196ab.
Our sages said that the Angel of Death is also the Evil Inclination.17B. Baba Bathra, 16a. However, when the Messiah will come, the Angel of Death will be destroyed, as Scripture says, “He will destroy death forever” [Isaiah, 25:8].