Passage

Zechariah 4.7

Book: Zechariah · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

5. Then the angel that talked with me answered and said unto me, Knowest thou not what these are? And I said, No, my lord. 6. Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of Jehovah unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith Jehovah of hosts.

7. Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain; and he shall bring forth the top stone with shoutings of Grace, grace, unto it.

Moreover the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, 9. The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also finish it; and thou shalt know that Jehovah of hosts hath sent me unto you. (Zechariah 4:5-9, ASV)

WEB

5. Then the angel who talked with me answered me, “Don’t you know what these are?” I said, “No, my lord.” 6. Then he answered and spoke to me, saying, “This is Yahweh’s word to Zerubbabel, saying, ‘Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says Yahweh of Armies.

7. Who are you, great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you are a plain; and he will bring out the capstone with shouts of ‘Grace, grace, to it!’”

Moreover Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, 9. “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house. His hands shall also finish it; and you will know that Yahweh of Armies has sent me to you. (Zechariah 4:5-9, WEB)

KJV

5. Then the angel that talked with me answered and said unto me, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord. 6. Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts. ^{might: or, army}

7. Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain: and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it.

Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 9. The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also finish it; and thou shalt know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me unto you. (Zechariah 4:5-9, KJV)

YLT

5. And the messenger who is speaking with me answereth and saith unto me, 'Hast thou not known what these [are]?' And I say, 'No, my lord.' 6. And he answereth and speaketh unto me, saying: 'This [is] a word of Jehovah unto Zerubbabel, saying: Not by a force, nor by power, But, by My Spirit, said Jehovah of Hosts.

7. Who [art] thou, O great mountain Before Zerubbabel, for a plain! And he hath brought forth the top-stone, Cries of Grace, grace, [are] to it.'

And there is a word of Jehovah to me, saying, 9. Hands of Zerubbabel did found this house, And his hands do finish it, And thou hast known that Jehovah of Hosts Hath sent me unto you. (Zechariah 4:5-9, YLT)

See this page's graph and discover linked topics

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

"Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain; and he shall bring forth the top stone with shoutings of Grace, grace, unto it."

The mountain is addressed rather than described, which is the rhetorical move of the verse. Whatever the obstacle is, it is being made to answer for itself, and the answer is that it will be flattened.

The obstacles facing the rebuilding are documented in Ezra 4: local opposition, formal complaint to the Persian court, and a work stoppage that lasted until the second year of Darius. The verse does not deny the obstacle. It denies its permanence.

"The top stone" is the final stone set in the completed building, so the promise runs to the finish rather than to the next stage, which v. 9 states plainly. The shout that accompanies it is "Grace, grace unto it," and the choice of word is deliberate: a finished temple could easily be celebrated as an achievement, and the acclamation given is one that credits it to favor received rather than to work performed. That is the same argument as v. 6, expressed as a chant instead of a maxim.

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; see Lexicon Roadmap.

H2580 - chen, chen, Strong's H2580

Quoted in

Lexicon:

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.