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1–5. Vision Four: Justification of the Great Priest. 6–10. Promises accompanying vision four. The general idea of ​​the fourth vision is this. The benefits promised to the chosen people will undoubtedly be granted to them, but only on the condition that they are cleansed of sins that remove them from God, who cannot dwell among a people defiled by sins. In this vision, the prophet was shown the forgiveness of the sins of the people as a new mercy of God, which must, of course, be earned through one’s own efforts. Only a people cleansed of sins can hope for the promised prosperity and glorification. Zechariah 3:1. And he showed me Jesus the great priest standing before the Angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to oppose him. It is not clear from Zechariah 3.1 who shows this new vision to the prophet; but in accordance with Zechariah 1:20 and the context, we can believe that the Lord Himself does this. This is how the LXX understood it, adding the word κυριος to Zech. 3:1 (the same in Vulg.). – The High Priest, the head of the priests, in whose hands were the means of cleansing the sins of the people, is presented to the eyes of the prophet standing before the Angel of Jehovah, as if as a defendant. On the right side of the great priest stood Satan, rebelling against the Lord’s decision to return His mercy to Israel. High Priest Jesus in the vision of ch. III appears as a representative of the whole people, and not as a private person answerable before God for his personal sins (Plat. 665–668). Satan insists, therefore, in essence, that the people cannot have effective representation before God in the person of the high priest, wearing filthy robes (Zechariah 3:3): as a representative of the priesthood, he could be accused “of not observing the laws of Levitical and priestly purity, the violation of which was also a desecration of theocratic society” (ib. 663). Zechariah 3:2. And the Lord said to Satan: May the Lord rebuke you, Satan; may the Lord, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you! is he not a brand plucked from the fire? The sins of the Israeli people, it is true, were great, but they also suffered sufficient retribution for them in the disasters of captivity; these disasters were so great that Israel almost perished among them; now he is like a brand plucked from the fire: further punishment would be pointless cruelty. Zechariah 3:3. Jesus was dressed in filthy clothes and stood before the angel, Zechariah 3:4. who answered and said to those who stood before him, “Take off his filthy clothes.” And he said to him: look, I have taken away your guilt and clothed you in ceremonial robes. God's justice is satisfied; now the time has come for mercy and forgiveness, as a sign of which, at the command of the Angel of Jehovah, the Angels subordinate to him remove from the high priest the stained clothes in which he stood before the Angel of Jehovah, his judge; and it is explained to him that this removal means the forgiveness of sin. Following this, at the command of the Angel of the Lord, the high priest was clothed in ceremonial robes (Viennese: clean). Since the high priest, in this case, appears as a representative of the entire people, his justification serves as a symbol of the justification of the entire people. Zechariah 3:5. And he said, “Put a clean miter on his head.” And they placed a clean miter on his head and clothed him with clothing; The Angel of the Lord stood. Regarding the placing, in particular, of a clean mitre on the head of the high priest, St. Ephraim makes the following remark: “It was said to the priest who served before the onset of captivity: I will take off your ornament and the miter (Ezek. 21:26), which is on your head; Now the Angel commands, saying: “Put a clean turban on the head of the priest returning from captivity” (p. 229). Zechariah 3:8. Listen, Jesus, great priest, you and your brethren who sit before you, men of significance: behold, I bring My servant, BRANCH. Zechariah 3:9. For this is the stone that I lay before Jesus; on this one stone there are seven eyes; Behold, I will engrave his mark upon him, says the Lord of hosts, and will blot out the sin of the land in one day. In conclusion there is a promise which relates to the aspirations of all Israel. Jesus and his fellow priests are prophesied about the appearance of the servant of God, whose name is Branch. This name, of course, denotes the Messiah. But researchers of the negative direction are trying to prove that in Zech. 3:8 Zerubbabel (and only he) is called a Branch; Zellin, for example, argues: according to Zech. 4:9, Zerubbabel appears to be the founder and builder of the church, and according to Zech. 6:13 - Branch: hence the identity of Zerubbabel and Branch cannot be doubted (And. 2:77). This interpretation, which ignores the context of speech, cannot be considered sound. How, for example, can we agree with the expression of the following verse: I will blot out the sin of this land in one day? It is clear that the blotting out of the sin of the earth is in direct connection with the marks on that stone, which in the previous verse is called the Branch, with marks expressing both the dignity and the mission of the Branch. This expression is completely inapplicable to Zerubbabel, but only to the Messiah, of whom he was a type and ancestor in the flesh. Here is an interpretation of Zerubbabel’s relationship to Christ, which is alien to one-sidedness, in the explanation of Zechariah 4:9 by St. Cyril: “if God says about Zerubbabel that with the hand of Zerubbabel he founded this church, and with his hand they will finish it, then, considering historically, you can relate these words to him, and in a spiritual sense you can understand them about Christ; for He has become our foundation, and we are all spiritually built for Him into a holy church” (pp. 7–8). The combination of royal power and priestly dignity in one person, as mentioned in Zech. 6:13, also cannot be attributed to Zerubbabel: again only the Messiah was king and priest. (Reinke, ss. 71 and 84). Zechariah 3:10. On that day, says the Lord of hosts, you will invite one another under the vine and under the fig tree. After the sins of the people are forgiven, they will experience the same prosperity that the Jews enjoyed during the peaceful reign of Solomon (1 Kings 4:25). 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