The First Oracle: The arrangement of the various prophetic sayings in Zechariah 7–8 has opened up a space between the return to the land and the promised age to come. God has reaffirmed the cherished promises but moved them into the future relative to the fourth year of Darius, thereby encouraging the waiting community to hold on to its hopes. Meanwhile, God makes clear to them that the Law and the earlier prophetic preaching still define their relationship to God. Even after coming through the experience of exile Israel still had the potential to sin, still needed to be cleansed, and still might be punished as a nation and scattered again. The anonymous oracles included in Zechariah 9–14 expand on these themes by giving both a vivid picture of what is yet to come with the ultimate establi…