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3. The Structure of Individual Sections of Zechariah 119
hope therefore to gain some insight into his methods.
Even a cursory glance at the table of recurring words suggests that
there is a difference between the outer and middle sections. Few
words are repeated in both apart from very common ones.
Zechariah 4.1-6aa and lQaf$-14
'3 ~mn "jKbnn, vv. 1, 4, 5. The second and third instances seem to be
part of a literary device to delay the answer to a question and to heighten
the tension. 'Angel' does not occur elsewhere in the chapter, not even
on its own. The other part of the delaying phrase is 'And he said to
me, "Do you not know what these are?" And I said to him, "No, my
Lord."' (vv. 5, 13). The answers come in vv. 10 and 13. The first is
immediately after the oracular insertion, where the phrase n"?K mtf
makes it clear that the explanation is to be of the seven nro and not the
two olive trees. As noted above, the explanation mrr »rj> rbx, nmtf
could also refer to the stone set before Joshua with D"]i> nantf in 3.9.
~IDK, "PR, "?u, K 1 ? may be ignored as common words.
no should probably be retained. It helps to characterize the outer
sections as dominated by the question 'What?', and even makes a contrast
with the middle section where 'Who?' is found in vv. 7, 10. 1
"73 occurs in the expression fiRn ^D in vv. 10 and 14 but may be
ignored in v. 2.
nto is one of only three words occurring in the outer and middle
sections which could possibly be thought to be significant for the
structure. We must keep it.
rrvun, "13, anr, runtf, D']tzj, rrr, -inR, ]'n\ "?KQio. These are all used in
the description of the vision. Most of them recur in order to explain
the meaning of the vision. They may be regarded as 'technical terms'.
However, this does not mean they may be discounted completely. For
example, the expressions '(one) on the right and (one) on the left'
involves some apparently unnecessary repetition which may therefore
be significant.
Efm is used in the description of the details of the lampstand in v. 2,
while in v. 7 the feminine form ncfoo, unique in the Hebrew Bible, is
used in apposition to pR. There does not seem to be a connection
between these instances.
1. The English translation 'whoever' in v. 10, which is certainly appropriate,
should not obscure the fact that '0 occurs twice.