78 GREG GOSWELL that the majority view concerning the office of Zerubbabel finds no support in the passage. 1. The structure of the oracle The oracle proper is prefaced by a messenger formula and date (v. 20). Zerubbabel is the recipient of an oracle (2,21-23), which is in two parts (vv. 21-22.23). A break in the oracle is indicated by the chronological formula “on that day” (awhh μwyb) (v. 23a). The formula is an indicator of prophetic subsections (cf. Isa 7,18.20.21.23; Zech 12,3.4.6.8.9.11), though it need not be viewed as marking redactional supplements. Simon J. DeVries views it as “an emphatic synchronizer” of the events in vv. 21-22 and the intended result of those events in v. 23 4. P.A. Munch is probably more accurate when he says that the temporal adverbial phrase “introduces the [main] point of the oracle” 5. The formula indicates that the coming cosmic shakeup (vv. 21-22) is the context for a significant divine promise to Zerubbabel (v. 23). The transition is also signalled by the saying formula “ says the LORD of hosts” (twabx hwhyAμan) in v. 23a 6. Verse 23 is, in fact, surrounded by the formula “says the LORD of hosts”, with a further use of “ says the LORD” (hwhyAμan) in its middle. In the first part of the oracle, God tells Zerubbabel what he is about to do to the nations (vv. 21-22). As noted by H.W. Wolff, only the second part of the final oracle (v. 23) is specifically phrased as an address to Zerubbabel and is about him, namely, what God will do for him (v. 23) 7. A vital issue to be clarified is the exact relation between the two parts of the oracle. What exactly is the relation between what God says he will do to the nations and what he says he will do for Zerubbabel? There is a temporal relation between the two divine actions, for the second happens at the same time as the first (v. 23a : “on that day”), either simultaneously or in close succession. The temporal relation implies a thematic S.J. DEVRIES, From Old Revelation to New. A Tradition-Historical and 4 Redactional Study of Temporal Transitions in Prophetic Prediction (Grand Rapids, MI 1995) 213-214. P.A . MUNCH, The Expression “Bajjom Hahu”: Is it an Eschatological 5 Terminus Technicus? (ANVAO ; Oslo 1936) 15 (addition mine). B.K. WALTKE – M. O’CONNOR, An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew 6 Syntax (Winona Lake, IN 1990) § 40.2.3a, include hwhyAμan under “Nominal Exclamations ” and declare that it is almost always used as “a closing formula” in the prophets, adding (n. 29) that the closure may be slight. It is better termed a separating formula (cf. Hag 1,9.13; 2,4.8.9.14.17); cf. F. BAUMGÄRTEL, “Die Formel ne’um jahwe”, ZAW 73 (1961) 277-290, esp. 280-281. WOLFF, Haggai, 98. 7