Albert Barnes Commentary Zechariah 2

A man with a measuring line in his hand — This is probably the Angel of the Lord, of whom Ezekiel has a similar vision.

Jerome states: “He who before, when he lifted up his eyes, had seen in the four horns mournful things, now again lifts up his eyes to see a man, of whom it is written, Behold a man whose name is the Branch (Zechariah 6:12); of whom we read above, Behold a man riding upon a red horse, and he stood among the myrtle trees, which were in the bottom (Zechariah 1:8). Of whom also the Father says, He built My city, whose builder and maker is God (Hebrews 11:10).”

He too is seen by Ezekiel in a description like this: a man whose appearance was like the appearance of brass (Ezekiel 40:3), that is, burnished and shining as fire, with a line of flax in his hand and a measuring reed (Ezekiel 1:7). The office also seems to be one of authority, not to measure the actual length and breadth of Jerusalem, but to lay down what it should be. Cyril says this is “to mark it out broad and very long.”

The angel that talked with me went forth—probably to receive the explanation that was given to him for Zechariah; and another angel, a higher angel, since he gives him a commission, went forth to meet him, being (it seems probable) instructed by the Angel of the Lord, who established the future dimensions of the city.

The indefiniteness of the description "another angel" implies that this angel was neither the Angel of the Lord, nor Michael (if they were different), nor the man with the measuring line. Rather, it suggests an angel of intermediate rank: one instructed by a higher one, and in turn instructing the lower angel, who then immediately instructed Zechariah.

And said to him, Run, speak to this young man - The prophet himself, who was to report to his people what he heard. Jeremiah says, I am a youth (Jeremiah 1:6); and, “the young man,” “the young prophet,” carried the prophetic message from Elisha to Jehu. “Youth,” common as our English term in regard to man, is inapplicable and unapplied to angels, who have not our human variations of age, but exist, as they were created.

Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls - Or as villages (see the notes at Habakkuk 3:14), namely, an unconfined, uncramped population, spreading itself freely, without restraint of walls, and (it follows) without need of them. Clearly then it is no earthly city. To be inhabited as villages would be weakness, not strength; a peril, not a blessing. The earthly Jerusalem, so long as she remained unwalled, was in continual fear and weakness.

God put it into the heart of His servant to desire to restore her; her wall was built, and then she prospered. He Himself had promised to Daniel, that Her street shall be rebuilt, and her wall, even in strait of times (Daniel 9:25).

Nehemiah mourned 73 years after this, in 443 B.C., when it was told him, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire (Nehemiah 1:3). He said to Artaxerxes, Why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers’ sepulchres, lieth waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire? (Nehemiah 2:3). When permitted by Artaxerxes to return, he addressed the rulers of the Jews, Ye see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lieth waste, and the gates thereof are burned with fire; come, and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more a reproach; and they said, let us rise and build. So they strengthened their hands for this good work (Nehemiah 2:17–18).

When the wall was finished and our enemies heard, and the pagan about us saw it, they were much cast down in their own eyes; for they perceived that this work was wrought of our God (Nehemiah 6:15–16).

This prophecy then looks forward directly to the time of Christ. Wonderfully does it picture the gradual expansion of the kingdom of Christ, without bound or limit, whose protection and glory God is, and the character of its defenses. It should dwell as villages, peacefully and gently expanding itself to the right and to the left, through its own inherent power of multiplying itself, as a city to which no bounds were assigned, but which was to fill the earth.

Cyril: “For us God has raised a church, that truly holy and far-famed city, which Christ fortifies, consuming opponents by invisible powers, and filling it with His own glory, and as it were, standing in the midst of those who dwell in it. For He promised; Lo, I am with you always even unto the end of the world. This holy city Isaiah mentioned: thine eyes shall see Jerusalem, a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down; not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken (Isaiah 33:20); and to her he says, enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitation; spare not; lengthen thy cords and strengthen thy stakes. For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left (Isaiah 54:2–3).

For the church of Christ is widened and extended boundlessly, ever receiving countless souls who worship Him.” Rup.: “What king or emperor could make walls so ample as to include the whole world? Yet, without this, it could not encircle that Jerusalem, the church which is diffused through the whole world. This Jerusalem, the pilgrim part of the heavenly Jerusalem, is, in this present world, inhabited without walls, not being contained in a vile place or one nation. But in that world, where it is daily being removed from here, all the more, there cannot be, nor ought to be, nor is there, any wall around, except the Lord, who is also the glory in the midst of it.”

And I, Myself in My own Being, will be to her a wall of fire - Not protection only, an inner circle around her, however near an enemy might press in upon her, but destructive to her enemies. Isaiah says, No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise in judgment against thee thou shalt condemn (Isaiah 54:17). Its defense, Isaiah says, shall be immaterial. We have a strong city; salvation shall God appoint for walls and bulwarks (Isaiah 26:1); thou shalt call thy walls salvation and thy gates praise (Isaiah 60:18). By a different figure it is said, I will encamp about mine house because of the army (Zechariah 9:8).

And glory will I be in the midst of her - As Isaiah says, The Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory (Isaiah 60:19); and of Christ, In that day shall the Branch of the Lord be Beauty and Glory - to the escaped of Israel (Isaiah 4:2).

Ho! ho! and flee - Since such safety and glory are in store for God’s people in Jerusalem, He who had provided it, the Angel of the Lord, bids His people everywhere to come to it, saving themselves also from the peril that was to come on Babylon. So Isaiah bade them, “Go you forth of Babylon; flee you from the Chaldaeans with a voice of singing; declare you, tell this, utter it to the end of the earth; say you, The Lord has redeemed His servant Jacob” (Isaiah 48:20). “Depart you, depart you, go you out from there; touch no unclean thing: go you out of the midst of her; be you clean, that bear the vessels of the Lord” (Isaiah 52:11); and Jeremiah, “Flee you out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul; be not cut off in her iniquity, for this is the time of the Lord’s vengeance. He will render to her a recompense” (Jeremiah 51:6, and Jeremiah 50:8). “My people, go you out of the midst of her, and deliver you, every man his soul from the fierce anger of the Lord” (Jeremiah 51:45).

The words, “flee, deliver yourself,” imply an imminent peril for Babylon, such as came upon her two years after this prophecy, in the fourth year of Darius. But the earnestness of the command, its repetition by three prophets, and the context in Isaiah and Jeremiah, imply something more than temporal peril: the peril of the infection of the customs of Babylon, which may have detained many there who did not return. For this reason, in the New Testament, the words are cited concerning the great evil city of the world: “Wherefore come out from among them and be you separate, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you” (2 Corinthians 6:17); and under the name of Babylon: “I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, My people, that you be not partakers of her sins, and that you receive not of her plagues” (Revelation 18:4).

For I have spread you abroad as the four winds of heaven - The north country, although its capital and center was Babylon, was the whole Babylonian empire, called “the North” (Jeremiah 1:13–14; Jeremiah 3:18; Jeremiah 4:6; Jeremiah 6:1, 6:22; Jeremiah 23:8) because its invasions always came upon Israel from the north.

But the book of Esther shows that, sixty years after this, the Jews were dispersed over the 127 provinces of the Persian empire, from India (the Punjab) to Ethiopia (Esther 1:1; Esther 3:8, 3:12-14; Esther 8:5, 8:9), whether they were purposely placed by the policy of the conquerors in detached groups, as the ten tribes were in the “cities of the Medes” (2 Kings 17:6), or whether, when more trusted, they migrated of their own accord.

God, in calling them to return, reminds them of the greatness of their dispersion. He had dispersed them abroad as the four winds of heaven. He, the Same, recalled them.