Chapter Two

1–5. (according to Masoretic text verses 5–9). Third vision: a man with a measuring line. 6–13. (according to Masoretic text verses 10–17). A call to return from Babylon and promises serving as a clarification of the third vision.

Zechariah 2:1. And again I lifted my eyes and saw: and behold, a man, in whose hand was a measuring line. Zechariah 2:2. I asked: Where are you going? And he said to me: To measure Jerusalem, to see what its width is and what its length is. The third vision is an elucidation of what was revealed in the first vision concerning the impending restoration of Jerusalem (Zech 1:16-17).

Zechariah 2:4. And he said to him: Go quickly, say to this young man: Jerusalem shall be inhabited in the countryside because of the multitude of people and cattle in it. Jerusalem, because of the great multitude of people and cattle, cannot be confined within certain boundaries; it will represent a very extensive inhabited space, not enclosed by walls, and therefore the intention of the man to determine the dimensions of Jerusalem is pointless.

Zechariah 2:5. And I myself will be for it, says the Lord, a wall of fire all around it and will show my glory in its midst. However, the absence of walls will not threaten the safety of the inhabitants, for the Lord himself will guard that city in which his glory will again dwell, protecting it as if with a wall of fire. St. Cyril, besides the historical sense of the prophecy concerning the restoration of Israel after captivity, refers this vision also to the Church of Christ.

Zechariah 2:6. Ho, ho! Flee from the northern land, says the Lord; for I have scattered you to the four winds of heaven, says the Lord. In the third vision, the expansion of the boundaries of Jerusalem is depicted, as a result of the multitude of its inhabitants, to the point of the impossibility of enclosing it with walls. How then does this multitude of people? Only a few have returned from captivity as yet. In Zech 2:6-13, which comprise a supplement to the third vision, the thought is expressed that those sons of Israel scattered throughout all lands will gradually return to their native city. The Lord himself, through his Angel, calls them, first of all, from the northern land, that is, from Babylon.

Zechariah 2:7. Escape, O Zion, you who dwell with the daughter of Babylon. Dwelling in Babylon, which faces God’s wrath, as shown in the two first visions, becomes unsafe: those remaining among the pagans may meet the same fate as them.

Zechariah 2:11. Many nations shall turn to the Lord in that day and shall be my people; and I will dwell in your midst, and you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you. But the mercy of the Lord toward Jerusalem and his people, which is to express itself in the gathering of all Israel and in the dwelling of God on Zion, will reveal itself also in the fact that many pagan peoples will turn to the Lord and join his people.