Albert Barnes Commentary Zechariah 1:12

"Then the angel of Jehovah answered and said, O Jehovah of hosts, how long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which thou hast had indignation these threescore and ten years?" — Zechariah 1:12 (ASV)

And the Angel of the Lord answered—addressing the implied longing—by intercession with God. As the angel-interpreter in Job had “the office of no mere created angel, but one, anticipative of His, who came at once to redeem and justify,” so the Angel of the Lord, in whom God was, exercised at once a mediatorial office with God, typical of our Lord’s high priest’s prayer (John 17), and acted as God.

These seventy years—the seventy years of the captivity, prophesied by Jeremiah (Jeremiah 25:11–12; Jeremiah 29:10), were on the eve of their conclusion at the time of Daniel’s great prayer of intercession (Daniel 9:2). They ended with the capture of Babylon and the edict of Cyrus permitting the Jews to return (2 Chronicles 36:22–23; Ezra 1:1). Yet there seems to have been a secondary fulfillment, from the destruction of the temple and city in Zedekiah’s eleventh year (2 Kings 25:2, 2 Kings 25:8–9), 588 B.C., to the second year of Darius, 519 B.C.

Such double fulfillments of prophecy are not like alternative fulfillments. They are a more intricate and fuller, not an easier fulfillment of it. Yet “these 70 years” do not necessitate such a double fulfillment. It might express only a reverent wonder that, the 70 years being accomplished, the complete restoration was not yet brought to pass.

Cyril says: “God having fixed the time of the captivity to the 70th year, it was necessary to be silent as long as the time had not yet come to an end, so that he might not seem to oppose the Lord’s will. But, when the time had now come to a close and the fear of offending was removed, he, knowing that the Lord cannot lie, entreats and ventures to inquire whether His anger has come to an end, as it had for those who sinned; or whether, if fresh sins had accrued, there would be a further delay, and their desolate state would be still further extended.”

So then, those who worship God have a good and certain hope that, if they should sin due to weakness, they still have those who will intercede for them—not only people but the holy angels themselves, who render God gracious and propitious, soothing His anger by their purity, and in a way, persuading the grieved judge.

Then the Angel interceded for the synagogue of the Jews; but we, who believe and have been sanctified in the Spirit, have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and He is the propitiation for our sins (1 John 2:1–2). And as the inspired Paul writes, God hath set Him forth as a propitiation through faith, freeing from sin those who come to Him (Romans 3:25).