Passage

Zechariah 3.2

Book: Zechariah · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

And he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of Jehovah, and Satan standing at his right hand to be his adversary.

2. And Jehovah said unto Satan, Jehovah rebuke you, O Satan; Yes, Jehovah that has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?

Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and was standing before the angel. 4. And he answered and spoke unto those that stood before him, saying, Take the filthy garments from off him. And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused your iniquity to pass from you, and I will clothe you with rich apparel. (Zechariah 3:1-4, ASV)

WEB

He showed me Joshua the high priest standing before Yahweh’s angel, and Satan standing at his right hand to be his adversary.

2. Yahweh said to Satan, “Yahweh rebuke you, Satan! Yes, Yahweh who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Isn’t this a burning stick plucked out of the fire?”

Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and was standing before the angel. 4. He answered and spoke to those who stood before him, saying, “Take the filthy garments off of him.” To him he said, “Behold, I have caused your iniquity to pass from you, and I will clothe you with rich clothing.” (Zechariah 3:1-4, WEB)

KJV

And he shewed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him. ^{Satan: that is, an adversary} ^{to: Heb. to be his adversary}

2. And the LORD said unto Satan, The LORD rebuke thee, O Satan; even the LORD that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?

Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the angel. 4. And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment. (Zechariah 3:1-4, KJV)

YLT

And he sheweth me Joshua the high priest standing before the messenger of Jehovah, and the Adversary standing at his right hand, to be an adversary to him.

2. And Jehovah saith unto the Adversary: 'Jehovah doth push against thee, O Adversary, Yea, push against thee doth Jehovah, Who is fixing on Jerusalem, Is not this a brand delivered from fire?'

And Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and is standing before the messenger. 4. And he answereth and speaketh unto those standing before him, saying: 'Turn aside the filthy garments from off him.' And he saith unto him, 'See, I have caused thine iniquity to pass away from off thee, so as to clothe thee with costly apparel.' (Zechariah 3:1-4, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: Zechariah, son of Berechiah, son of Iddo (1:1), a prophet of priestly descent
Audience: the returned Judean community in Jerusalem, under Zerubbabel the governor and Joshua the high priest
Location: Jerusalem, in the Persian province of Yehud
Time period: the night visions are dated to the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month of the second year of Darius I, early 519 BC

Theological reading

"And Jehovah said unto Satan, Jehovah rebuke thee, O Satan; yea, Jehovah that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?"

The reply is the theological heart of the vision, and its shape is worth noticing. The accusation is not refuted, disproved, or excused. It is silenced by rebuke, and the rebuke is grounded in two things outside the defendant: God's choice of Jerusalem, and the fact that this man has already been rescued.

"A brand plucked out of the fire" is a charred stick pulled from a blaze. The figure concedes the burning. Joshua and the community he represents came through the exile and bear its marks; the argument is not that they are clean but that God went into the fire after them, and an object retrieved at that cost is not thrown back.

Note also who speaks. The rebuke is invoked in the third person, "Jehovah rebuke thee," rather than pronounced directly, which is a form of speech that appeals to a higher authority rather than asserting one's own. Jude 9 preserves the same formula in a different setting, which suggests the wording had become a fixed way of refusing to engage an accuser on the accuser's terms.

The practical use is direct. Where the accusation is true, the answer is not denial but election and rescue.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word.

H7854 - satan, satan, Strong's H7854
H3068 - YHWH, YHWH, Strong's H3068

Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Job Bet Objection Defeater, via Zechariah 3.1-2

Concepts:

Lexicon:

Notes

Your annotations.

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.