Zechariah

Zechariah, a contemporary of Haggai, encouraged the same post-exilic community with a series of vivid night visions and oracles. He urges the completion of the Temple while lifting the people's eyes to a far larger hope centred on the coming Messiah.

Rich in imagery later taken up in the Gospels and Revelation, Zechariah foresees a king coming 'humble and mounted on a donkey' (9:9), one who is pierced and mourned, and a shepherd who is struck. Few prophets point so directly to Christ, and the book closes with the vision of a day when 'the Lord will be king over all the earth'.