Later text
Then the angel of the LORD said, "How long, O LORD of Hosts, will You withhold mercy from Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, with which You have been angry these seventy years?"
Intertextuality Pair
Echo
Later text
Then the angel of the LORD said, "How long, O LORD of Hosts, will You withhold mercy from Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, with which You have been angry these seventy years?"
Earlier text
Isaiah 51:3BSB
For the LORD will comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins; He will make her wilderness like Eden and her desert like the garden of the LORD. Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and melodious song.
Zechariah 1:12 asks "How long... will You withhold mercy from Jerusalem...?" after reporting the earth is at ease while Zion suffers, and God responds with "kind and comforting words" (1:13). Isaiah 51:3 promises that "the LORD will comfort Zion" (נִחַם יְהוָה צִיּוֹן, nicham YHWH Tsiyon) and "will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD." Both texts use the verb נָחַם (nacham, "to comfort") applied to Zion/Jerusalem after a period of divine judgment. Zechariah's angelic intercession during the seventy years of desolation anticipates the fulfillment of Isaiah's promise that God's comfort would transform Jerusalem's ruins into Edenic abundance.