Themes in Haggai-Zechariah-

Malachi
PAUL REDDITT
Professor of Old Testament
Georgetown College
A survey of a number of themes common to the Book of the
Twelve shows that an intertextual approach to Haggai,
Zechariah, Malachi, and the whole Book of the Twelve offers
perspectives on issues in the texts not available to studies
that isolate the individual collections.
H
aggai and Zech 1-8 predict the restitution of Judah and Israel and the
reestablishment of the pre-exilic institutions of the temple in Jerusalem and
the monarchy in Judah. Zechariah 9-14 and Malachi explain the failure of the
religio-political leaders in Judah during the Persian period. Their failure precluded the arrival
of the new day envisioned by prophets both inside and outside the Twelve. This article will
undertake a survey of a number of themes common to the Twelve, showing that an intertex-
tual approach to Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, and the whole Book of the Twelve offers per-
spectives on issues in the texts not available to studies that isolate the individual collections.
OT scholars have long recognized that redactors played a role in the development of
the prophetic corpus. As late as the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, however, the
significance ofthat role was downplayed as scholars sought the ipsissima verba ("very
words") of the prophets and ignored the "contradictor/' work of the editors. With the rise
of redaction criticism, however, that inclination changed, and the theology of the redactors
themselves became of interest. Next, some modern scholars even wondered out loud if the
scribal redactors were not numbered among the prophets, too. Under the impetus of move-
ments like canonical criticism, scholars began to value what the worshipping community
valued: the canonical shape of the books.
1
With regard to the Minor Prophets, a serious issue eventually arose concerning what con-
stitutes a "book" among the Minor Prophets. The typical answer was "the sayings attributed
1
Cf. Brevard S. Childs, Introduction to the Old Testament as Scripture (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1979).
APRIL 2007 Interpretation 185
to the individual prophets like Hosea, Joel, and Amos." However, the trouble is that some
ancient writers and rabbis considered the entire collection of the "Twelve" one book.
2
In the
1990s, a group of scholars following the lead of James Nogalski
3
in this country and Aaron
Schart
4
in Germany began to inquire into the possibility of reading all twelve collections as
one "book," a process that has borne considerable fruit. The essays gathered in this issue of
Interpretation are designed to look at the fruits of those efforts.
5
This essay will contribute to that effort by examining the final three collections
6
in the
Twelve: Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi (hereafter -M).
7
The first task will be to show the
redactional means by which the redactors combined 1) Haggai and Zech 1-8; 2) Malachi; and
3) Zech 9-14. Then the paper will move on to discuss the themes of those collections.
REDACTIONAL DEVICES WITHIN HAGGAI, ZECHARIAH, AND MALACHI
Since many scholars do not accept the idea that redactors knit together the Twelve as a
single book to be read straight through, it might be helpful to illustrate how redactors
worked on the last part of that work, namely -M. Recognition that the present shape of
-M is the result of a deliberate process with intentional references to other books of the
HB and among the collections comprising -M will prepare the reader for the treatment of
themes connecting components of H-M.
1. Superscripts and Incipits. A number of collections in the Twelve employ superscrip-
tions, i. e., headings consisting of nouns (not sentences), which may be elaborated by adding
phrases and relative clauses. A second type of introduction is the incipit, which is the first sen-
tence in a narrative that doubles as an introduction to a collection.
8
Haggai and Zech 1-8
employ similar incipits, naming the year, month, and day of the reign of the Persian emperor
2
Cf. Eccl 49:10; the rabbinic text B. Bat. 13b-15. Both 2 Esd 14:45 and Josephus (Ag. Ap. 1.8.40) offer totals of
the accepted books (twenty-four in 2 Esd and twenty-two in Ag. Ap.) that seem to require taking the Twelve as one
book.
3
James Nogalski, Literary Precursors to the Book of the Twelve (BZAW 217; Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1993) and
Redactional Processes in the Book of the Twelve (BZAW 218; Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1993).
4
Aaron Schart, Die Entstehung des Zwlfprophetenbuchs (BZAW 260; Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1998). Rainer
Albertz {Die Exihzeit 6. Jahrhundert v. Chr [Biblische Enzyklopdie 7; Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 2001) endorsed the
work of Nogalski and Schart, using their results in discussing exilic additions to Hosea, Amos, Micah, and Zephaniah.
5
For a discussion of this research, see Paul L. Redditt, "Recent Research on the Book of the Twelve as One
Book," CurBS 9 (2001): 47-80 and Paul L. Redditt, "The Formation of the Book of the Twelve: A Review of Research,'
,
in Thematic Threads in the Book of the Twelve (ed. Paul L. Redditt and Aaron Schart; BZAW 325; Berlin: Walter de
Gruyter, 2003), 1-26.
6
To avoid confusion, this essay will employ the word "collection" to refer to the works attributed to the named
collections (e.g., Haggai), while the word "book" will be reserved to refer to the Twelve as a whole or other "books"
of the Bible (e.g., Genesis, Isaiah).
7
The reader might keep in mind that critical scholars have long held that Zech 9-14 derived from a different
source than Zech 1-8, a conclusion that will be accepted in this paper. The reasons for this separation are many;
three must suffice here. First, the nature of the literature changes abruptly between Zech 8 and 9. Zechariah 1:7-
6:15 consists of visions and exhortations based on those visions, and Zech 7-8 consists of a brief narrative (7:1-7)
followed by ten prophetic messages, each introduced by the phrase "Thus says the Lord of hosts" (7:8; 8:1,4,6,7,
9,14,18,20,23). Zechariah 9-14 contains no visions and employs different introductory formulae. Second, the
concern for the Davidide Zerubbabel is replaced by a demand for the cleansing of the royal family, at least in
12:10-12. Third, Zech 9-14 seems to view Jerusalem as a city that a foreign nation would need to besiege, i.e. as a
walled city. It would, therefore date from after 445 B.C.E., when that work was finished. Haggai-Zech 1-8, by con-
trast, date from ca. 520 B.C.E.
8
John D. W. Watts, "Superscriptions and Incipits in the Book of the Twelve," in Reading and Hearing the Book
of the Twelve (SBLSymS 15; ed. James D. Nogalski and Marvin A. Sweeney; Atlanta: Scholars Press, 2000), 111.
186 Interpretation APRIL 2007
Darius I (Hag 1:1 [cf. 2:1,10,20]; Zech 1:1 [cf. v. 7; 7:1]). Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, Amos, and
Micah open with superscriptions naming a king and a date, but only Ezekiel also employs an
incipit giving the year, day, and month of a kingin his case, the exiled king Jehoiachin. The
incipits in Haggai and Zechariah therefore are unique and reveal an orientation toward the
Persians, who had authorized the rebuilding of the templea central act in both collections.
Zechariah 9-11,12-14, and Malachi each begin with the same three Hebrew words, trans-
lated "an oracle, the word of the Lord." This common opening led a number of scholars to
conclude that the three were additions to Zech 1-8, with the last eventually being separated to
create a "twelfth" minor prophet. This argument, however, runs afoul of the differences in how
those three words are used. In Zech 9:1, the word "oracle" is the superscription, with the words
"the word of the Lord" beginning the prophetic saying: "the word of the Lord is upon/against
the land of Hadrach." In Zech 12:1, though, the three words are part of the opening superscrip-
tion: "An oracle. The word of the Lord concerning Israel." In Mai 1:1, finally, the superscription
reads: "An oracle. The word of the Lord to Israel by the hand of Malachi [or my messenger]."
Thus, it seems better to think of the three phrases as belonging to their different contexts, and
not simply as a formula mechanically applied to three different small collections.
9
2. Redactional Phrases. Redactors in Haggai/Zech 1-8 and 9-14 use two common redac-
tional phrases that warrant notice. The first is the phrase "Thus says the Lord" in Zech 7 and 8
(cf. . 7), as well as 11:4 and 12:1. The second is the phrase "on that day." It functions at two
levels, at least in Haggai and Zechariah. On the one hand, it designates the day that something
would happen at a time under discussion, past or present. Simon De Vries calls it a "time iden-
tifier."
10
An example may be found in Hag 2:23, which follows a verse where the prophet had
promised that God would overthrow "the throne of the kingdoms," i.e., the Babylonian king.
Verse 27 says that "on that day" God would also make Zerubbabel God's "signet ring" (see
below). On the other hand, the phrase could function as an eschatological or at least distant
future marker. For example, in Zech 3:10, the phrase introduces an addition to a night vision,
which De Vries thinks envisions a more distant time frame than the preceding verse has in view.
11
In Zech 9-14, often called Second or Deutero Zechariah, the phrase appears in fifteen
texts painting pictures of a radically improved future for Israel (9:16-17; 12:3,4,6,7,9,11;
13:1,2; 14:4,6,8,9,13,20). Especially in Zech 12-14, it functions to connect what appear
to have been short, independent sayings into a longer discourse about future improvements.
De Vries concludes that the initial layers of redaction in chs. 12 and 14 were introduced with
the phrase "and it shall be on that day" (12:3,9; 14:6,8,13), while subsequent layers began
with the shorter variant "on that day" (12:4,6,8 [2x], 11; 14:4,9).
12
9
Cf. Beth Glazier-McDonald, Malachi: The Divine Messenger (SBLDS 98; Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1987), 26-27.
In addition, Zech 9-14 gives indications that it was a redacted unit, not two separate units.
10
Simon J. De Vries, From Old Revelation to New (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995), 39.
11
Ibid., 258.
12
Ibid., 236-37. See also Simon J. De Vries, "Futurism in the Pre-exilic Minor Prophets Compared with That of
the Postexilic Minor Prophets,
,>
in Thematic Threads in the Book of the Twelve (ed. Paul L. Redditt and Aaron
Schart; BZAW 325; Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2003), 252-72, esp. 271-72.
THE BOOK OF THE TWELVE Interpretation 187
3. Allusions to Other Texts. Allusions to other texts abound in Haggai-Malachi. Haggai
2:23, for example, makes an illusion to Jer 22:24 with its reference to a signet ring. There
God swears that though Coniah (called "Jeconiah" in 1 Chr 3:16-17; Ezra 2:6; and Jer 24:1;
27:20; 28:4; and 29:2 and "Jehoiachin" in 2 Kgs 24:8-9//2 Chr 36:9-10) were the signet ring
on God's right hand, God would tear him off and send him away into exile. The Jeremianic
text concludes that no offspring of Coniah would rule over Judah. Haggai 2:23, by contrast,
says God would make Zerubbabel "like a signet ring." While five texts (Ezra 3:2, 8 and 5:2 and
Hag 1:12; 2:2) call Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and one (1 Chr 3:19) calls him the son of
Pediah, both men appear among the sons of Jehoiachin listed in 1 Chr 3:17-18. Either way,
therefore, Zerubbabel appears to have been a descendant of Coniah, and Hag 2:23 appears to
have countermanded Jer 22:24 deliberately. While Haggai does not specifically say that
Zerubbabel would become king, it is difficult to see what else the verse meant in the context
of God's overthrow of Babylon and choice of Zerubbabel to be like a signet ring.
Zechariah 9-14 in particular employs allusions. In fact, Nicholas Tai argues that these
chapters consist substantially of older texts a redactor has picked to dialogue with and
revise in the process.
13
A couple of examples must suffice. Tai thinks Zech 9:l-2a has in view
the boundary line described in Ezek 47:15-17, and Zech 11:7-10 has in view Ezek 37:16-17,
which it corrects or revises.
14
Scholars have disagreed about some alleged allusions, and about
the criteria for determining what constitutes an allusion, but that Deutero Zechariah makes
numerous allusions to earlier written texts is widely recognized.
15
Of direct concern for this
essay, Nogalski suggests further that the passage 13:7-9 was constructed as a bridge con-
necting the famous "Shepherd" passage in 11:4-17 to Mai 3:l-3.
16
Malachi likewise alludes to other texts. One of the most interesting is the one to God's
covenant with Levi (Mai 2:4-6). No such covenant is described in the HB, though Jer 33:21
speaks of God's covenant with God's "ministers the Lvites." A number of scholars think the
allusion was to Deut 33:8-11. In particular, that passage's emphasis on observing God's
word, keeping God's covenant, teaching God's ordinances, and offering sacrifices seems to
stand behind Malachi's references to Levi's reverence for God, true instruction on his lips,
and walking with God in integrity and uprightness.
17
This cursory overview perhaps suffices to illustrate three types of redactional devices
employed in the growth of HaggaiMalachi: vzz., superscripts/incipits, redactional phrases,
and allusions to other texts. It is time now to move to themes employed in those collections.
13
Nicholas Ho Fai Tai, Prophtie als Schriftauslegung in Sacharja 9-14: Traditions- und kjompositionsgeschichtliche
Studien(Celwer Theologische Monographien 17; Stuttgart: Calwer, 1996), 1-3.
14
Ibid., 20-22 and 132-55. Cf. Mark J. Boda, "Reading Between the Lines: Zechariah 11:4^16 in its Literary
Contexts," in Bringing out the Treasure ( JSPOTSup 370; ed. Mark J. Boda and Michael H. Floyd; Sheffield: Sheffield
Academic Press, 2003), 277-91.
15
See Paul L. Redditt ("Zechariah 9-14: The Capstone of the Book of the Twelve," Bringing Out the Treasure,
324-32) for a series of tables showing how Nicholas Tai and three other scholars trace intertextuality in Zech 9-14.
16
James D. Nogalski, "Zechariah 13:7-9 as a Transitional Text," in Bringing out the Treasure, 301-04.
17
Cf. Julia M. O'Brien, Priest and Lvite in Malachi (SBLDS 121; Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1990), 104-06. See
also Paul L. Redditt, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi (NCB; London: HarperCollins; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995),
168-69. Beth Glazier-McDonald {Malachi: The Divine Messenger [SBLDS 98; Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1987], 68-80),
however, thinks the text alludes to Num 25:12-13.
188 Interpretation APRIL 2007
THE RESTORATION IN HAGGAI, ZECHARIAH, AND MALACHI
1. Haggai. Overarching themes appear throughout HaggaiMalachi, and particularly
the theme of the restoration of Judah and its institutions. As background for this theme, one
should recall that the northern kingdom of Israel fell to Assyria in 722 B.C.E., and the south-
ern kingdom of Judah to Babylon in 586 B.C.E. The rise of Persian power in 539 B.C.E. seems
to have offered hope for a Judean restoration. The references to the land of Judah in Haggai
(1:1; 2:2; 2:21) appear exclusively in the title the book gives to Zerubbabel: governor of
Judah. Hope for that governor to rule in his own power, however, would have involved the
end of Persian power, a hope hinted at in Hag 2:22.
2. Zechariah 1-8. Zechariah 1-8 offers a historical review before looking to the future.
Zechariah 1:14 says that Jerusalem and the cities of Judah suffered at the hands of the
Babylonians for seventy years, and v. 19 adds that both Judah and Israel suffered at the
hands of enemies, symbolized as horns. Jerusalem and Judah deserved their punishment,
but the Babylonians had been excessive in their raids (1:15). The exhortation to the exiles to
have faith foresees the Lord inheriting Judah "as his portion in the holy land" and again
choosing Jerusalem (2:12). Laterin 8:19Zechariah reports God as saying that God would
again "do good" to Jerusalem and Judah (8:15), restoring them to harmony and justice with
one another. Thus, Zech 1-8 consistently contrasts the well-deserved punishment of Judah/
Israel in the past with the restoration of bothparticularly Judahin the future.
That restoration would also include two ruling figures, one identified as the Branch, and
the other as a priest. The majority of scholars still think that originally the "Branch" was a
designation for Zerubbabel. Zechariah names him specifically as the one who was to rebuild
the temple (Zech 4:6-8). The priest for the new temple was to be Joshua (cf. Zech 3). Like
Haggai, Zechariah also thought that restoration would involve the demise of the Babylonian
Empire (see Zech 2:8-9).
3. Zechariah 9-14. How do these hopes play out in Zech 9-14? As mentioned earlier,
Zech 9 begins only with a superscript, which reads simply "An oracle." The reader receives
no warning that the speaker has changed, though critical scholars long have argued that it
did. Reader critics remind us today that chs. 9-14 are not just anonymous, but pseudony-
mous, since they have been attached to work ascribed to Zechariah.
Zechariah 9:1 begins by saying that the word of God is "in," "with," "upon," or "against"
Hadrach, probably a city-state in northern Syria.
18
Next, the verse claims that Damascus is the
18
The Hebrew preposition is simply beth.
THE BOOK OF THE TWELVE Interpretation 189
resting place of God or God's hand, which does not require the antagonistic meaning schol-
ars often draw. Continuing, the verse says that the "cities of Aram"
19
belong to the Lord, just
like all the tribes of Israel. The passage continues (w. 2-7) by prophesying that the ancient
enemies, the Philistines, would be cleansed of their pride and abominations and become a
"remnant" (v. 7) for Godlike Judah. Then (v. 8), the text says God would encamp before
Jerusalem as its protector, so that no foreigner would again overrun it.
Where did such ideas come from? They crop up in various places in the prophetic corpus.
The most proximate place, however, is the end of Zech 8, which envisions the day when the
inhabitants of many cities and nations will take the hand of Jews and implore them to guide
the foreigners to God's city, where they too could "entreat the favor of the Lord" (Zech 8:21).
But what about the king in these hopes for future restoration? If Haggai expected
Zerubbabel to be "like a signet ring," and Zechariah expected the "Shoot" or "Branch" to
rebuild the temple, Zech 9 announces the coming of the new king, "righteous" (or "upright"
or "vindicated") and "victorious . . . humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a
donkey" (9:9). This king would rule over a kingdom of peace, ushered in by God.
Interestingly, this kingdom would include both Judah (9:10) and Ephraim, a metonym
for Israel (9:13). God would bring home the exiles from both Israel and Judah (10:6-12).
Where else in the Twelve does one find this combination of the restoration of the Davidic
line and the revival of both Judah and Israel? As already noted, one place is Zech 1-8, with
its hopes for Zerubbabel and its promise in 8:13 that God would save both Judah and Israel.
Zechariah 9:9-10 and 10:6-12 thus repeat the future political hopes expressed at the end of
Zech 1-8.
20
There are, however, two more such texts in the Twelve, both of which are widely under-
stood as additions to the collections in which they appear. The first is in the collection
ascribed to Amos. There, 9:11-15 sounds the only positive note in the collection. The verses
clearly look back on the fall of the Davidic monarchy and anticipate its restoration: "On that
day I will raise up the booth of David that is fallen." Since the verses are attached to the sayings
of a southerner who preached in the north, a reader is permitted to surmise that the later
editor was most likely a southerner writing to update the eighth century prophet in a new
and different context. I have argued that those verses belong to a "pro-Davidic recension" of
the "Book of the Four" (Hosea, Amos, Micah, and Zephaniah).
21
Even if it were the case that
the word "Israel" in Amos 9:14 really meant "Judah" only, one could still say that Zech 9 was
only making explicit that the "Israel" in view there also included the north.
19
It is universally admitted that the phrase "eye of man" in the MT is difficult. It is coupled with the following
phrase, "like all the tribes of Israel." This translation offered above adopts an oft-suggested emendation of reading
"cities" (with a final letter of resh instead of nun) instead of "eye" and Aram instead of Adam. (The Hebrew letters
resh and daletdlso closely resemble each other.)
20
Byron G. Curtis ( Up the Steep and Stony Road [SBL Academia Biblica 25; Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature,
2006], 166-88) argues that Zech 9-14 may have arisen in a single decade from Zechariah himself (179). I am not
persuaded that he is correct about the collection as a whole, but I do agree with his treatment of Zech 9. He con-
siders it the earliest part of Zech 9-14. On thematic grounds, the early Persian period seems preferable for all or
part of the chapter. Curtis also thinks that the chapter draws on 2 Sam 8, and notes linguistic similarities to Zech 10.
21
See Paul L. Redditt, "The King in Haggai-Zechariah 1-8 and the Book of the Twelve," in Tradition in
Transition (ed. Mark J. Boda and Michael H. Floyd; LHB/OTS; London: 8c Clark International, forthcoming).
190 Interpretation APRIL 2007
The combination of the motifs of the nations' coming to Jerusalem and the renewal of
the Davidic monarchy comes front and center in Mie 4-5, which I also ascribe to the "pro-
Davidic recension" of the Four. There, famously, an author addresses Bethlehem in an apos-
trophe, predicting the restoration of the "once and future king" David. There is no explicit
reference to political Israel, the northern kingdom, though nothing is said to preclude its
participation in that future.
The upshot of all of this is that the predictions about the Branch in Zech 1-8 are sand-
wiched between Haggai's hope for Zerubbabel in 2:20-23 and the hopes for Jerusalem's new
ruler and his kingdom in Zech 9:1-10; 10:6-12. These hopes are anticipated in the Twelve
by passages like Amos 9:11-15 and Mie 5:2-5 (Hebrew 5:1-4). It seems to me that all of
these verses very likely arose at about the same time and focused on hopes for the Davidic
line. When no new king appeared, it was time to rethink the hopes, either to abandon them
or to reshape them. Such an explanation is precisely what transpires in the rest of Zech 9-14.
One explanation was that the fault lay with the leadership in Jerusalem: the royal family
(12:10-11; 13:1), the Lvites (12:13), and persons attempting to exercise a prophetic role
(13:2-6). Those leaders were corrupt, and unless and until they repented the new day with
the new king could not dawn.
The second explanation was the one that surfaces in the Deuteronomistic History,
namely that God was the only king Israel needed and would reign from Zion. It appears
also in Zech 14:9, which reads: "And the Lord will become king over all the land, and on
that day the Lord will be one and his name one." It is likely, however, that the verse derived
from Mai 1:14 and 2:10,15, where the two ideas of God's kingship and oneness are found.
The end of Mai 1:14 reads: "For I am a great king, says the Lord of hosts," and Mai 2:10 and
15 emphasize that one God created the people of Judah and the wives whom the men had
divorced. If so, Zech 14:9 probably was composed with an eye to tying Zech 9-14 to Malachi.
It is at least tempting also to see that verse as the culminating view of monarchy in Deutero
Zechariah: namely that God is the only king Jerusalem will need. Following the thread of
Judah/Israel from Haggai-Zech 1-8 into Zech 9-14 reveals how radically those latter chap-
ters (12-14 especially) revised the hope for the future, including the messianic expectations
of Haggai and Zech 1-8 and even Zech 9:9-10.
One more twist appears in Deutero Zechariah, though it is somewhat muted in the
conflicting view of the future characteristic of those chapters. In places, the chapters preserve
the viewprobably derived from Ezek 38-39of the attack of the nations against Israel.
THE BOOK OF THE TWELVE Interpretation 191
Zechariah 12:1-9 clearly applies the image to Jerusalem and depicts God's fighting on the
city's behalf. The passage includes Judah in the victory, but as subservient to Jerusalem.
Zechariah 14 also emphasizes the city over Judah, while including the latter secondarily in
the city's holiness (v. 21). It is God, however, who delivers the city (and Judah) by defeating
the nations that attacked Jerusalem.
4. Malachi. Malachi never mentions a Judean king, hope for one perhaps being a dead
issue for the prophet. Only God is called king (1:14). Even the single reference to the gover-
nor (1:8) is not a political comment, but appears incidentally in a condemnation of reli-
gious malpractice. Unlike Haggai and Zech 1-8,9-14, Malachi seems to speak of Israel in
political terms only once: in 1:5 in the phrase "the border of Israel," and there the point is
that God is known outside those borders.
Scholars have noted the oddity of that phrase. Its immediate context in Malachi is the
contrast between God's love for Judah and hatred of Esa/Edom. A similar contrast appears
in Mai 1:10-11. On the one hand, in v. 10 the prophet criticizes the priesthood for its mis-
handling of sacrifices and even has God say that God will not receive their impure sacri-
fices. On the other hand, in v. 11 the prophet has God commend the nations for offering
incense and pure sacrifices. That commendation is not an exact fit with the hope in Zech
8:21-23, where the nations come to Jerusalem, but it makes the same point about the
nations' worshipping God. This observation gains import ifas seems likely
22
Malachi
was attached originally to Zech 8 or perhaps Zech 8 plus 9:1-10.
Outside of 1:5,10-11, which connect Malachi to Zechariah, Malachi's concern appears
to be with Israel and Judah as the historic and ongoing people of God. Thus God speaks in
the rest of Malachi as Judah's father in 1:6; 2:10, as its master in 1:6, and as its God. In 3:6,
the prophet offers God's covenant fidelity as the reason Jacob had not died as a conse-
quence of its sins, which Malachi says reached back to the days of the ancestors and contin-
ued to the prophet's own time. As Aaron Schart has pointed out, however, the idea of the
covenant sews together Hos 8:1; Zech 9:11,11:10; and Mai 2:10.
OTHER THEMES IN HAGGAI, ZECHARIAH AND MALACHI
1. Lack of Wages. Other themes than restoration tie together -M as well. Seven will
receive limited attention here. The first theme is part of what binds Haggai and Zechariah
1-8. As already noted, the repeated date formulae, the contemporaneity of the prophets,
See Nogalski, Redactional Processes, 201-212.
192 Interpretation APRIL 2007
and the common focus on the temple and Zerubbabel suggest that the traditions about the
prophets passed through the same person or school and were edited together.
23
One mark
ofthat redaction is the use of the theme of poverty (no wages) associated with failure to
rebuild the temple at the beginning (Hag 1:4-6) and end (Zech 8:10) ofthat corpus. It is
not simply that the texts mention the same things; in addition, they both draw a causal
connection between the people's dereliction of duty and specific God-caused consequences.
While Hag 1:10-11 emphasizes that God caused a drought by withholding the dew and
rain, Zech 8:11-12 predicts that in the future the skies would give the dew and the crops
would flourish once more, thus rounding off the corpus Haggai-Zech 1-8. (Similarly, Mai
3:10-11 predicts the flourishing of crops if Israel would tithe properly.)
2. The Temple. The rebuilding of the temple is the most obvious subject in Haggai- Zech
1-8. Worship in and care for the temple are the most obvious subjects in Malachi. Those
collections fit together quite naturally in a before-and-after scheme, one in which the
"after" did not pan out as advertised in Haggai-Zech 1-8. The failure of the grandeur
promised in Haggai was explained in Malachi.
3. God as Refiner. Another theme reveals the connection between Deutero Zechariah
and Malachi, a theme pointed out by Nogalski.
24
The verses connect Deutero Zechariah not
only to Malachi, but also to Hosea.
Zech 13:9a Then I will send this third into the fire
to refine them as silver is refined and
to assay them as gold is assayed
Mai 3:2b-3 For he is like a refiner's fire and like
fuller's soap; he will sit as a refiner and cleanser
of silver, and
he will purify the descendants of Levi
and refine them like gold and silver
Zech 13:9b and I will say,
"They are my people? and he will say,
"The Lord is our God?
Hos 2:23 And I will say to Lo-ammi,
"You are my people? and he shall say,
"You are our God?
It would appear then that Zech 9:13, like 14:9, looks ahead in the Twelve to Mai l:2b-3, but
also back to Hos 2:23.
4. Divorce and God's Love. In the larger corpus of the Twelve, one can see again a frame
around a block of material, this time to the entire Book of the Twelve. Malachi 2:10-16 is
23
It is probably relevant to note that Ezra 5:1 mentions the two prophets in the same breath as ones who urged
the rebuilding of the temple.
24
Nogalski, Redactional Processes, 235.
THE BOOK OF THE TWELVE Interpretation 193
involved again. Following an introductory set of three rhetorical questions in Mai 2:10, the
rest of the passage (2:11-16) offers two complaints. One (in 2:11-13, except the phrase "and
[Judah] has married the daughter of a foreign god") deals with bringing gifts and offerings
to the altar. It is quite general and non-specific. The other (in 2:11 [last phrase]+14-16) is a
complaint about divorce. The two objections are compatible, though not the same. The
connection between the charges looks redactional. The only other place in the Twelve to
discuss divorce is its opening, in Hos 2:1-15. To be sure, the word "divorce" does not appear
in those verses, but the threat that God would divorce Israel is clear nonetheless. In both
cases God wants fidelity from Judah, whom God loves. Thus, the Twelve opens and closes
with a frame that emphasizes divorce, but also God's love for Israel, a love challenged but
not stifled by Israel's infidelity.
25
5. God as King and One. For reasons not necessary to review here, I have argued else-
where that Deutero Zechariah was added last to HaggaiMalachi; indeed, it appears to
have been the last major addition to the Twelve.
26
Two verses in particular will illustrate the
combining of the collections. Zechariah 14:9 reads:
And the Lord shall be/become king over all the earth,
on that day it will come to pass that the Lord will be one and his name one.
This verse epitomizes several from Malachi. The first, dealing with the kingship of God,
is 1:14, where God proclaims: "for I am a great king, says the Lord of hosts, and my name is
dreaded in the nations." The second, dealing with the oneness of God, is 2:10-16, which
insists on the oneness of God as the one father and creator.
27
In addition, the second line of
Zech 14:9 is one of the texts that De Vries identifies as belonging to the latest level of redac-
tion in Deutero Zechariah. The suggestion here is that the second line was added in light of
Mai 2:10-16.
It is true that the kingship of God is celebrated in the Psalter (cf. 5:2; 10:16; 24:7-10;
29:10; 44:4; 47:2,6-8; 48:2; 68:24; 74:12; 84:3; 89:18; 95:3; 98:6; 145:1; 149:2), so it is possi-
ble that the language celebrating God as king in Zech 14:9 was influenced by Psalms. None
of these texts, however, emphasizes the oneness of God, and Ps 95:3 reads:
For a great God [ "el\ is YHWH,
and a great king over all the gods ['elhtm].
The kingship of God appears in the Twelve only at the end of Zechariah ( 14:9,14,17),
25
See John D. W. Watts, "A Frame for the Book of the Twelve: Hosea 1-3 and Malachi," in Reading and Hearing
the Book of the Twelve, 210-12.
26
Cf. Redditt, "Zechariah 9-14: The Capstone of the Book of the Twelve," 305-32.
27
It is possible to understand the reference to "one father" as Abraham, but parallelism in 2:10 suggests other-
wise and marriage permeates the whole passage. Besides, Mai 1:6 has already called God "father." Cf. Redditt,
Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, 164r-65,169-170. References to the oneness of God are more rare than a person might
suppose. Deuteronomy 6:4 is the best known, and Deutero Isaiah is famous for being the first to articulate mono-
theism (cf. Isa 43:11; 44:6,24), a distinction that perhaps should go to Jeremiah (cf. 2:11). A number of texts also
call God king (in the Psalter: 5:2; 10:16; 24:7, 8,9,10; 29:10; 44:4; 47:2,6, 7; 48:2; 68:24; 74:12; 84:3; 89:18; 95:3;
98:6; 145:1; 149:2; and in the prophetic corpus: Isa 41:21; 43:15; 44:6; Zeph 3:15; Jer 10:7,10; 46:18), but the com-
bination of the oneness and the kingship of God appears elsewhere only in Isa 43:15; 44:6; Jer 10:10. Malachi
appears to be a more likely source.
194 Interpretation APRIL 2007
the beginning of Malachi (1:14), and Zeph 3:15, part of an addition (w. 14-20, probably
written to tie Haggai + Zech 1-8 + Malachi to an earlier collection (at least Hosea + Amos
+ Micah + Zephaniah).
28
It appears to represent a postexilic conclusion that the monarchy
was not necessary and/or possible for Judeans living in the Persian empire.
6. Law and Prophets. The sixth theme related to the larger canon is Mai 3:22-24 (Eng
4:4-6). There are good reasons for accepting the suggestion that these verses, the last three
in Malachi, constituted a late addition casting a backward glance over not simply Malachi
or the Twelve, but the entirety of the Torah and the Prophets of the HB. The verses appeal
both to the teaching of Moses and to the prophet Elijah. Neither man is mentioned else-
where in Malachi, and only Moses is mentioned elsewhere in the Twelve, and he only once
(Mie 6:4). Moses is mentioned in the Latter Prophets of the HB elsewhere only in Isa 63:11-12
and Jer 15:l.
29
Elijah is mentioned in the canon only in 1 and 2 Kings and Mai 4:5. It seems
pretty clear, then, that the references to the two men have in mind Moses the law giver and
Elijah the prophet, i.e. representatives respectively of the "law" and the "prophets." The last
three verses of Malachi, therefore, look back over the record of God's prior revelation, urg-
ing the readers to pay attention to it all.
7. Sin and Punishment. One final theme in -M too important theologically to omit is
the theme of sin and punishment. This theme was often discussed in terms of fertility/
infertility. In Haggai, the heavens withheld the dew so that the earth produced no crops
(1:10-11; 2:16-17). The cause for the drought was a delay in rebuilding the temple. The text
does not actually call the drought "punishment," and one might wish to argue instead that
it was merely a warning the returning community had not heeded. Still, Haggai linked fail-
ure to rebuild the temple with the drought, and promised that the day the community
began to rebuild it God would turn with favor toward the people (2:18-19).
30
In Zech 1-8, punishment is more explicit. In the first message (1:1-6), the prophet
takes a historical retrospect. The people had disobeyed God's commandments (which
sometimes had threats attached), and God was justified to allow them to reap the conse-
quences of their misdeeds. (This passage is an example of theodicy, i.e., justifying the good-
ness and power of God in the face of evil. Malachi 2:17 raises the same issue.) Those conse-
quences at times came at the hands of foreign nations, whose zeal in punishing Jerusalem
exceeded the city's misdeeds (1:15). So God would turn to Jerusalem in mercy (1:17), and
28
Nogalski {Literary Precursors), following the lead of previous scholars, argued that Hosea, Amos, Micah, and
Zephaniah constituted a literary precursor to the Twelve, a precursor he and others call the "Book of the Four."
Haggai + Zech 1-8 constituted another. Nogalski then snowed connections between Zech 1-8 and Malachi, leading
to the conclusion adopted here that Malachi was attached to Zech 8 before Zech 9-14 was. The timing of the
process is not precise, but it happened some time after the writing of Malachi (often dated around 450 B.C.E.), by
which time the restoration of the monarchyso important in Haggai-Zech 1-8was probably a dead issue for
most Judeans.
29
Daniel 9:11,13 mention him, but Daniel appears in the "Writings" in the HB.
30
Sometimes scholars have contrasted Haggai with the prophets who demanded social justice, and have deni-
grated him as a cult prophet. Still, his message was probably needed if Judah was to restore the temple in a timely
fashion. It would appear from Ezra 1 that Cyrus had permitted Sheshbazzar to return to Jerusalem during Cyrus'
reign (i.e., between 539 B.C.E. and his death in 530 B.C.E.). If the work remained incomplete in the second year of
King Darius (Hag 1:1; i.e. 520 B.C.E.), then the prophet may have been justified in urging the people to act.
THE BOOK OF THE TWELVE Interpretation 195
punish the foreigners for their excesses (1:20-21). The sixth vision (5:1-4) threatens pun-
ishment for stealing and false swearing. Finally, 7:9-14 repeats the thinking of 1:1-6, viz.,
God had punished God's people in the past for failing to render true judgments in courts,
care for the poor, etc. In doing so, those verses round off Zech 1:1-6 before promising a
new day beyond punishment in Zech 8.
Deutero Zechariah opens with a prediction of a future punishment against the Philis-
tine cities (9:3-8) and the Greeks (9:13-15). The identity of the "shepherds" mentioned in
10:3 is not clear, but God threatens to punish them too. The speaker in the so-called "Shep-
herd Allegory" (11:4-6) complains that the leaders of Judah have abused the people and
gone unpunished, but God reassures him (v. 6) that the leaders will fall into the hands of a
neighbor/king for retribution. Zechariah 13:7-9 portrays God's punishment symbolically in
terms of refining silver. In the throes of such punishment, the people will turn to God. That
repentance is couched in terms probably taken from Hos 2:23 [Hebrew 2:25]: "I will say,
'He is my people,' and he himself shall say 'YHWH is my God'" (Zech 13:9). In 14:12, God
threatens to punish with a plague the foreign nations that wage war against Jerusalem.
Malachi opens (1:2-5) with a vehement prediction that ruined Edom would never be
rebuilt. The passage implies a contrast with Judah, whom God loved and whom God would
forgive or had forgiven. Next, God curses (1:14; 2:2) and threatens to punish and ban (2:3)
the priests for their indifference to the quality of sacrifices brought to God (1:8,12) and the
contempt for God that their indifference betrayed (1:13). Because they had not properly
instructed the people, God would make them "despised and abased before all the peoples"
(2:9). Malachi 3:2b-3 depicts punishment by means of the symbol of refining silver in fire
(cf. burning in an oven in 4:1 [Heb. 3:19]). Malachi 3:9-12 returns to the theme of infertili-
ty/fertility sounded in Hag 1:6-11; 2:15-19. Malachi promises renewed fertility if the people
were to pay their full tithes.
The nature and the agent of punishment in these texts vary from one text to another,
and punishment for Israel is portrayed as deserved and limited. Punishment of foreigners
was not always limited by God, though it could be (cf. Zech 14:13). In fact, the note was
struck once (Zech 14:17-19) that the neighboring peoples would1e~punished if they did
not go up to Jerusalem to worship God there.
CONCLUSION AND ISSUES FOR THEOLOGY
This study has attempted to demonstrate that taking an approach to Haggai, Zechariah,
196 Interpretation APRIL 2007
and Malachi as collections redacted with regard to one another and to the rest of the Twelve
offers perspectives on issues in the text not available to studies that isolate the individual
collections. This study in no way suggests that the individual collections should not be
studied for their own unique perspectives. The collections and the prophetic voices they
contain spoke to Israel and Judah from the eighth century to the fifth at least. They were,
however, gathered into one collection, and scholars have long realized that more voices than
twelve can be heard in these collections. They passed through a (possibly small) number of
hands during their journey into the canon. Those hands too were inspired, and their work
in preserving and updating older voices for newer audiences was crucial for the preserva-
tion of the older voices. Thus, one has not read the last word from the collection named for
Malachi until one reads it in dialogue with Haggai and Zechariah, Hosea and possibly
Zephaniah, and even the law and the prophets.
Along the way, mention has been made of three issues with serious implications for
theology. First, it is important for both Jewish and Christian thought to see that prophetic
anticipations about the messiah were anything but one dimensional. While it is true that
some prophetic texts promised a new king for Israel (cf. esp. Isa 9:2-7 [Hebrew 9:1-6];
11:1-9; and Mie 5:2-6 [Hebrew 5:1-5]), that was not the only view of the future of ruler-
ship in the HB. Nor, of course, did all Jews in Jesus' day look forward to a messiah, although
his followers understood him as the messiah. Besides that, the NT reinterpreted messianism
in the light of the Suffering Servant of Isa 40-55 to accommodate Jesus' death. It also amal-
gamated the Son of Man concept from apocalyptic literature, and the book of Hebrews
even combined messianism with the priesthood through the ancient figure of Melchizadek
(Gen 14:17-24; Ps 110:4). Most significantly, the NT reinterpreted the OT's view of the
messiah as the adopted son of God, seeing Jesus as the divine son.
Second, disputes over religious leadership in the postexilic period wereand are
todayas serious as disputes over political leadership. In reading -M, it would be easy to
play off Haggai and Zechariah as defenders of the status quo in the temple against Deutero
Zechariah and Malachi as their opponents. Still, such an approach does not reckon with the
difference in time or with the real possibility that there was sin on both sides. The reader
should exercise caution in taking sides.
Third, expectations that God will remove the wicked from power and replace them
with the righteous sound Utopian today, and perhaps did in the Persian period as well.
Hopes for God to right wrongs and punish aggressors are the stuff of apocalyptic theology,
THE BOOK OF THE TWELVE Interpretation 197
which surfaced in Israel as early as the third and second centuries.
31
Those hopes grow,
however, out of the quandary of theodicy: how to explain the existence of evil in a world
created and ruled by a good God. Religious people expect God to act to benefit them, an
expectation the book of Job labored to modify. Its answer to the problem of theodicy,
according to James Crenshaw, was that evil served the vital function of sorting out those
who fear God for nothing from the larger crowd of humanity.
32
Crenshaw finds multiple
answers in the Twelve. First, Zeph 3:1-5 denies that a problem exits. Second, Mai 2:17 ques-
tions the traditional affirmation that the virtuous prosper. Third, several texts redefine
God's character: Hab 1:13 questions God's stability; Jonah 4:2 expresses resentment that
God would forgive enemies; Amos 3:3-8 attributes evil to God. Crenshaw's analysis shows
that no given booknot even one in the Biblehas the complete word about God.
33
Still,
the last word on the subject in Malachi and the Twelve sounds traditional: "For IYHWH
have not changed" (Mai 3:6a) and "Return to me and I will return to you" (3:7a), verses to
which Crenshaw calls attention.
34
31
Scholars usually say that the oldest apocalypses were the third century "Book of Heavenly Luminaries
,>
(I En.
72-82) and the "Book of Watchers" (J En. 1-36). Following soon after were the second century "Apocalypse of
Weeks" (J En. 91:12-17; 93:1-10), perhaps the "Animal Apocalypse" {1 En. 85-90, since it seems to know nothing
of the Maccabean revolt), and the book of Daniel (which discusses that revolt).
32
James L. Crenshaw, Defending God (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 184.
33
James L. Crenshaw, "Theodicy in the Book of the Twelve," in Thematic Threads in the Book of the Twelve,
183-91.
34
Crenshaw, Defending God, 95.
^ s
Copyright and Use:
As an ATLAS user, you may print, download, or send articles for individual use
according to fair use as defined by U.S. and international copyright law and as
otherwise authorized under your respective ATLAS subscriber agreement.
No content may be copied or emailed to multiple sites or publicly posted without the
copyright holder(s)' express written permission. Any use, decompiling,
reproduction, or distribution of this journal in excess of fair use provisions may be a
violation of copyright law.
This journal is made available to you through the ATLAS collection with permission
from the copyright holder(s). The copyright holder for an entire issue of a journal
typically is the journal owner, who also may own the copyright in each article. However,
for certain articles, the author of the article may maintain the copyright in the article.
Please contact the copyright holder(s) to request permission to use an article or specific
work for any use not covered by the fair use provisions of the copyright laws or covered
by your respective ATLAS subscriber agreement. For information regarding the
copyright holder(s), please refer to the copyright information in the journal, if available,
or contact ATLA to request contact information for the copyright holder(s).
About ATLAS:
The ATLA Serials (ATLAS) collection contains electronic versions of previously
published religion and theology journals reproduced with permission. The ATLAS
collection is owned and managed by the American Theological Library Association
(ATLA) and received initial funding from Lilly Endowment Inc.
The design and final form of this electronic document is the property of the American
Theological Library Association.