2. The occasion for the Prophecy is the same as that of the Prophecy of Haggai.
The occasion of writing the Prophecy was the same for Zechariah, as it was for Haggai. Certainly in his time the state of the people was such that it was to be deplored. For they were subject to the will of the nations, and hardly any returned out of Babylon, an impure land, that by the grant of Cyrus made use of the altar. The structure of the Temple was after the likeness of ruins. And by their neighbors they were mocked, harassed, and most recently under Ahasuerus brought to a crisis of πανολεθρίας, general destruction. Therefore, they were living life, as if it were precarious; and in addition, as it is evident out of Haggai, the diminished harvests of the land had brought in famine.