How to read this page

An Intertextuality Pair — one connection between two passages, shown as linked verse cards: the Later text and the Earlier text it quotes, alludes to or echoes. The Significance essay explains why the link matters and where it points in Christ.

Reference Type— how explicit the link is: Quotation, Allusion, or Echo
Connection Method(s)— how it carries meaning: e.g. Typology, Promise-Fulfillment, Analogy, Longitudinal Theme
Found via— where the connection was identified, e.g. the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge or an Anchor-Text Network

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Intertextuality Pair

Zechariah 13:5 → Genesis 4:2

Echo

Later text

Zechariah 13:5BSB

He will say, 'I am not a prophet; I work the land, for I was purchased as a servant in my youth.'

Earlier text

Genesis 4:2BSB

Later she gave birth to Cain's brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, while Cain was a tiller of the soil.

Significance

Zechariah 13:5's claim "I work the land" (אִישׁ עֹבֵד אֲדָמָה, ish oved adamah) echoes Genesis 4:2's description of Cain: "Cain was a tiller of the soil" (עֹבֵד אֲדָמָה, oved adamah, "worker of the ground"). The exact phrase "worker of the ground/land" (עֹבֵד אֲדָמָה) appears in both texts, linking Zechariah's false prophet's cover story to humanity's original agricultural vocation. In Genesis 4:2, Cain's identity as a tiller of soil is a straightforward description of his occupation. In Zechariah 13:5, the false prophet adopts this same identity as a disguise, claiming he is merely a farmer rather than a prophet. The echo highlights the universality and respectability of the agricultural claim — returning to humanity's most basic calling to avoid detection.

Found via: John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1763)
Reference Type: Echo
Connection Method(s): Analogy — the false prophet reaches for the exact primeval job description עֹבֵד אֲדָמָה ("worker of the ground," said of Cain in Gen 4:2) as his cover story: the correspondence trades on farming as humanity's ordinary, unremarkable calling — the safest identity behind which a discredited prophet can disappear

Linked Mentions 1

Trajectory Tables 1

False Prophets (Way of Cain) Trajectory Table