Persian King Darius I

December 27, 2017

The earth patrol (Zech 1:9-1:11)

“Then I said.

‘What are these?

My lord!’

The angel who talked with me

Said to me.

`I will show you

What they are.’

Then the man

Who was standing

Among the myrtle trees

Answered.

‘They are those

Whom Yahweh has sent

To patrol the earth.’

Then they spoke

To the angel of Yahweh,

Who was standing

Among the myrtle trees.

‘We have patrolled

the earth.

Look!

The whole earth

Remains at peace.’”

Zechariah had the same question, what was this all about?  The angel of Yahweh told Zechariah that he would explain what was going on.  Actually, the man standing among the myrtle trees did most of the talking.  He said that these horses with their riders were patrolling the earth, like a worldwide police force that Yahweh had sent out.  Then this man from the myrtle tree area spoke directly to the angel of Yahweh.  He reported that they had patrolled the whole earth and there was peace everywhere.  Apparently, during the early reign of the Persian King Darius I, there were very few disturbances.

December 27, 2017

Title (Zech 1:1-1:1)

“In the eighth month,

In the second year

Of King Darius,

The word of Yahweh

Came to the prophet Zechariah,

The son of Berechiah,

The son of Iddo.”

The word of Yahweh came to the prophet Zechariah in the same year as it had come to Haggai, the second year of Persian King Darius I in 520 BCE.  However, this was the 8th month and not the 6th month as with Haggai, so that it was 2 month later.  Zechariah was the son of Berechiah and the grandson of Iddo.  In the Book of Ezra, chapter 5, there is an explicit mention of Haggai and Zechariah, the son of Iddo.  Nehemiah, chapter 12, mentioned Iddo as one of the high priests who came with Zerubbabel when he left Babylon in 538 BCE.  Thus, Iddo would have been an important person.  Berechiah seemed to be less important, but could be the father of the young Zechariah.  Nehemiah mentioned Berechiah as the son of Meshezabel, in chapter 3.

September 8, 2017

Darius the Mede (Dan 11:1-11:1)

“As for me,

In the first year

Of Darius the Mede,

I stood up

To support him,

To strengthen him.”

Once again, there is a reference to Darius the Mede, also mentioned in chapter 9. As far as we can tell, there was no such person. Somehow, he comes between the Babylonian King Belshazzar and the Persian Cyrus the Great. Perhaps, he was the first Persian general who entered Babylon after its fall in 539 BCE, but there are no indications of that. He appears to be a literary fiction, perhaps based on the later Persian King Darius I, the 3rd ruler after Cyrus, from 522-486 BCE, who acted very favorably towards the returning Jews to Jerusalem. This time it is the angel Gabriel referring to how he helped Darius the Mede in his first year as the ruler, by supporting and strengthening him.