Hebrew Zekaryah, "Yahweh remembers." Postexilic prophet contemporary with Haggai, active from about 520 BC. Both men were sent to stir up the discouraged returnees to complete the rebuilding of the temple, which had been languishing for sixteen years. Zechariah's book contains eight night-visions (chapters 1-6), oracles on fasting and justice (7-8), and a concluding section with some of the most densely messianic prophecies in the Old Testament (9-14).
Zechariah is perhaps the most Christ-centered book in the Hebrew Scriptures outside of Isaiah. Messianic prophecies quoted repeatedly in the NT include: (1) 9:9 — "Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey" (fulfilled, Matthew 21:5, the Triumphal Entry); (2) 11:12-13 — thirty pieces of silver cast to the potter in the house of the LORD (Matthew 27:9-10, Judas's betrayal money); (3) 12:10 — "when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child" (John 19:37, the crucifixion); (4) 13:7 — "Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered" (Matthew 26:31, Gethsemane); (5) 14:4 — the LORD's feet stand on the Mount of Olives (the Second Coming, Acts 1:11-12). No short paragraph can summarize Zechariah; his visions involve the high priest Joshua being cleansed by an angel, the adversary being rebuked, four chariots patrolling the earth, a flying scroll, a woman in a basket, two anointed ones standing before the LORD of all the earth. Christians who read Zechariah carefully find Jesus on nearly every page.