This is brought out first by the emphasis on his official title, ha-kohen lia-gadol, the high priest; secondly, from the fact that the plea of the great Advocate, and His answer to Satan's accusations in the 2nd verse, is made, not on behalf of Joshua, but for "Jerusalem" which, as in so many places, stands not only for the city but for the people; and thirdly, from a comparison of the 4th verse with the pth, from which we see that the words addressed to Joshua, " I have caused thine iniquity to pass," are meant to set forth the blessed fact that God " will remove the iniquity of that land in one day"
Standing thus as the high priest and mediator of the people, it is the nation of Israel which is on its trial. If he is rejected, they are rejected; if he is justified, they are accepted.
The scene, then, to make free use of words of another writer, may be imagined as follows: " The high priest is in the sanctuary, the building of which had already com menced, and is engaged in some part of his priestly duty or prayer for mercy (on behalf of the people). The Angel of Jehovah comes down and condescends to appear in the Temple, as a proof of His favour, attended by a company of angels (ver. 7). Satan, the sworn enemy of the Church of God, looks on with jealous eyes, . . . and prepares to interrupt by his accusations." But, while this is in the main true, the fact that Satan was there to accuse invests the symbolic transaction, which is here presented to the prophet's spiritual sight, with a judicial character, and the
" was actually accused at the time, or was then dreading an accusation at the Persian Court," and that this accusation formed the superstructure on which the vision is based. "Zechariah, with peculiar sympathy, depicts the high priest as suffering under grievous accusations, and promises him a glorious acquittal. The garments of the high priest are represented as dirty because robes of that character were usually worn by accused persons as indications of mourning" (which, by the way, though a Roman custom, was not at all the case among the Jews). According to this father among German critics, " the ardent hopes of the prophet were soon to be justified by the event. On receipt of the Governor's report, which presented an impartial statement of facts, an inquiry was instituted by authority into the case, the accusation was repelled, and the decree of Cyrus, which had given permission for the rebuilding of the Temple, was duly confirmed and ordered to be carried into execution "; for all which, as already observed, there is not even a shadow of historic ground.
