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Then the angel of the Lord charged Joshua: “Thus says the Lord of hosts: If you walk in my ways and carry out my charge, you will administer my house and watch over my courts;[a] and I will give you access to those standing here.”

Supplementary Oracle. “Hear, O Joshua, high priest! You and your associates who sit before you! For they are signs of things to come![b](A) I will surely bring my servant the Branch.

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Footnotes

  1. 3:7 If you walk…watch over my courts: four components of priestly activity: (1) following God’s commandments and teaching them to the people, (2) carrying out cultic functions, (3) participating in the judicial system in certain difficult cases, and (4) administering the laborers and lands in the Temple’s domain.
  2. 3:8 Signs of things to come: the restoration of the priesthood is a sign of the expected restoration of the Davidic line. The Branch: a tree metaphor for the expected future ruler as a descendant of the Davidic dynasty. This imagery also appears in Is 11:1, 10; Jer 23:5; 33:15; and Zec 6:12.

The angel of the Lord gave this charge to Joshua: “This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘If you will walk in obedience to me and keep my requirements,(A) then you will govern my house(B) and have charge(C) of my courts, and I will give you a place among these standing here.(D)

“‘Listen, High Priest(E) Joshua, you and your associates seated before you, who are men symbolic(F) of things to come: I am going to bring my servant, the Branch.(G)

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