Albert Barnes Commentary Zechariah 6:13

"even he shall build the temple of Jehovah; and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne; and he shall be a priest upon his throne; and the counsel of peace shall be between them both." — Zechariah 6:13 (ASV)

Even He - Literally, “He Himself.” The repetition shows that it is a great thing that he affirms; “and He,” again emphatic, “He,” the same who shall build the temple of the LORD, “He shall bear the glory.” Great must be the glory, since it is affirmed of Him as of no one else, “He shall bear glory,” “He should build the temple of the LORD,” as no one else ever built it; He should bear glory, as no one else ever bore it, the glory as of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14). This word glory is almost always used of the special glory of God, and then, although seldom, of the Majesty of those on whom God confers majesty as His representatives, as Moses, or Joshua (Numbers 27:20), or “the glory of the kingdom” given to Solomon (1 Chronicles 29:25).

It is also used of Him, whose likeness these vicegerents of God bore. This occurs in a Psalm whose language (as Jews too have seen) belongs to One more than man, although it also speaks of glory given by God, either of grace or nature.

So in our Lord’s great High Priest’s prayer He says, Father, glorify You Me with Your own self with the glory which I had with You before the world was (John 17:5); and prays, that they also whom You have given Me, be with Me, where I am; that they may behold My glory which You have given Me (John 17:24).

So Paul, applying the words of the eighth Psalm, says of our Lord, We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, crowned with glory and horror (Hebrews 2:9). And the angels and saints around the Throne say, Worthy is the Lamb which was slain to receive power and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing, and those on earth answer, Blessing and honor and glory and power be unto Him that sits upon the Throne and unto the Lamb forever and ever (Revelation 5:12–13).

That glory Isaiah saw (John 12:41). In His miracles He manifested forth His glory (John 2:11), which resided in Him. In His Transfiguration, the three Apostles saw His glory (Luke 9:32), shining out from within Him. Into this His glory, He told the disciples at Emmaus the prophets said, He was to enter, having first suffered what He suffered (Luke 24:26; and 1 Peter 1:11–12). In this His glory He is to sit when He judges (Matthew 19:28; Luke 9:26).

His rule will be, not passing but abiding, not by human might, but in peaceful majesty, as God says, Yet have I set My king upon My holy hill of Zion (Psalms 2:6). And again, Sit You at My right hand, until I make Your enemies Your footstool (Psalms 110:1). And the angel said to Mary, The Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David, and He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there shall be no end (Luke 1:32–33).

And He shall be a priest upon His Throne - He will be at once king and priest, as it is said, You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. When the Christ would reign, He would not cease to be our Priest. He, having all power given to Him in heaven and earth, reigns over His Church and His elect by His grace, and over the world by His power, yet ever lives to make intercession for us.

Rupertus says: “Not dwelling now on what is foremost, that by Him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things were created by Him and for Him, and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist (Colossians 1:16–17), how many crowns of glory belong to Him, One and the Same, God and man, Christ Jesus! He then will bear glory and will sit upon His throne and shall be a priest on His throne.”

How just this is, it is easier to think than to express, that “He would sit and rule all things, by whom all things were made, and He would be a Priest forever,” by whose Blood all things are reconciled.

“He shall rule then upon His throne, and He shall be a priest upon His throne,” which cannot be said of any of the saints, because it is the right of none of them to call the throne of his rule or of his priesthood his own, but of this Only Lord and Priest, whose majesty and throne are one and the same with the Majesty of God, as He says, When the Son of Man shall come in His Majesty (Glory), then shall He sit upon the throne of His Majesty (Glory) (Matthew 25:31). And what does that reduplication mean, “and He shall rule on His Throne,” but that One and the Same, of whom all this is said, would be and is King and Priest.

He who is King shall rule on His Throne, because kingdom and priesthood will meet in One Person, and One will occupy the double throne of kingdom and priesthood.” He alone should be our King; He alone our Savior: He alone the Object of our love, obedience and adoration.

And the counsel of peace shall be between them both - “The counsel of peace” is not merely peace, as Jerome seems to interpret: “He is both king and priest, and will sit both on the royal and sacerdotal throne, and there will be peaceful counsel between both, so that neither should the royal eminence depress the dignity of the priesthood, nor the dignity of the priesthood the royal eminence, but both should be consistent in the glory of the One Lord Jesus.” For if this had been all, the simple idiom, “there will be peace between them,” would have been used here, as elsewhere (Judges 4:17; 1 Samuel 7:14; 1 Kings 5:12). But “counsel of peace,” must, according to the like idioms, signify “a counsel devising or procuring peace” for some other than those who counsel on it. We have the idiom itself, “counsellors of peace” (Proverbs 12:20).

The two - This might be said of things; but things are naturally not said to counsel, so that the meaning would be that the thrones of the priests and of the Branch should counsel. For the throne is in each case merely subordinate. It is not as we might say, “the See of Rome,” or “of Constantinople,” or “of Canterbury,” meaning the successive Bishops. It is simply the material throne on which He sits. Nor is anything said of any throne of a priest, nor had a priest any throne. His office was to stand “before the Lord,” his intercessorial office to offer gifts and sacrifices for sin (Hebrews 5:1; Hebrews 9:9). To offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins and then for the people’s (Hebrews 7:27), was his special office and honor.

There are then not two thrones. One sits on His Throne, as King and Priest. It seems only to remain that the counsel of peace would be between Jesus and the Father. As Jerome says, “I read in the book of some, that this, ‘there will be a peaceful counsel between the two,’ is referred to the Father and the Son, because He came to do not His own will, but the Will of the Father (John 5:30; John 6:38), and the Father is in the Son, and the Son in the Father (John 14:10).” In Christ all is perfect harmony. There is a counsel of peace between Him and the Father whose temple He builds. The Will of the Father and the Son is one. Both had one Will of love toward us: the salvation of the world, bringing forth peace through our redemption.

God the Father so loved the world, that He gave His Only-Begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16); and God the Son is our peace, who has made both one, that He might reconcile both unto God in one body by the Cross, and came and preached peace to them which were afar off and to them that were near (Ephesians 2:14, 16-17).

Others seem to me less naturally to interpret it of Christ in His two offices. Rupertus says: “There will be the counsel of peace between them, the ruler and the priest, not that Christ is divided, but that those two princedoms, which were previously divided (the priest and the king being different persons) should be united in the One Christ. Between these two princedoms, being inseparably joined in one, will be the counsel of peace, because through that union we have peace; and through Him it pleased the Father to reconcile all things unto Himself, and that all things should be brought to peace through the Blood of His cross, whether things in earth or things in heaven (Colossians 1:19–20).”