Yahweh said to Satan, "Yahweh rebuke you, Satan! Yes, Yahweh who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Isn't this a burning stick plucked out of the fire?" -- Zechariah 3:2

Unless otherwise noted, scripture citations are from the World English Bible translation. References and links to other works does not necessarily mean that we endorse all that other authors state, nor that these authors necessarily agree with our presentation.

This scripture is quoted as proof that Jesus is called "Yahweh" and therefore it is claimed that Jesus is a person of the trinitarian concept of three persons in God. Claims are made that the angel of Yahweh here is Jesus, who supposedly speaks to Satan and says, "Yahweh rebuke you." (Some trinitarians have claimed that "Yahweh" in this context is God the Father, and they claim that the the angel is God the Son, thus it is claimed that two persons of the trinity are spoken of here.)

We should first point out that the above viewpoints are more eisegesis than exegesis, for they read into the verse that the angel of Yahweh is Christ, and then further read into this verse that there is something here about the trinity. There is nothing at all in this or the rest of Zechariah that would point to the idea that the angel of Yahweh who was speaking for Yahweh was in reality Christ. Such an idea is assumed, although we concede that the angel of Yahweh could possibly have been Christ in his prehuman existence, but it probably was Gabriel, who appeared as the angel of Yahweh* in Luke. Regardless, the idea of three persons in one God would have to be read into the verse, for it certainly is not there.
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*http://reslight.net/angelofyahweh.html

Many trinitarians will claim that the angel of Yahweh is the visible form of Yahweh, and Numbers 12:8 and Hebrews 1:3 are given to support this idea. However, there is nothing in Zechariah 3:2 that shows that the Son is called "YHWH" (Yahweh, Jehovah). The idea that the angel of Yahweh is Jesus is but an assumption to begin with, and even if the angel of Yahweh were Jesus, at most this would only prove that he was being called Yahweh as the spokesperson for Yahweh.

That the angel of Yahweh is speaking is left "understood" in verse 2, for it is directly stated in verse 3 that it is the "angel" of Yahweh who is speaking and not Yahweh himself. With this thought even many trinitarian tranlators have agreed, as we show in the translations quoted below:

And the angel of the Lord said to Satan, "May the Lord rebuke you, Satan; may the Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this man a brand snatched from the fire?" -- Confraternity-Douay Version.

And the angel of the Lord said to Satan, "May the Lord rebuke you, Satan; may the Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this man a brand snatched from the fire?" -- New American Bible

The angel of Yahweh said to Satan, "May Yahweh rebuke you, Satan, may Yahweh rebuke, he who has made Jerusalem his very own. Is not this man a brand snatched from the fire?" -- New Jerusalem Bible.

We also wish to point out that the Syriac Peshitta text also reads "angel of Yahweh", and not just "Yahweh", in Zechariah 3:2.

Regardless, the context shows that it is the angel of Yahweh speaking for Yahweh. (Zechariah 2:3; 3:1,6) One would have to *assume* that the angel that speaks here was actually Jesus, which is not clearly shown from the scripture itself.

Some parallel this verse with Jude 9, and claim that these two verses show that Jesus is Yahweh. This approach to the scriptures becomes a problem for those trinitarians that do not wish to accept that Jesus is Michael the archangel.* However, many trinitarians do believe that Jesus is Michael the archangel.
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*See our short study on Jude 1:9:
http://reslight.net/archangel.html#jude9

If the angel of Yahweh in Zechariah 3:2 is the same angel spoken of in Jude 9, then the angel in Zechariah 3:2 would be Michael the archangel. While it is possible that the angel of Yahweh in Zechariah 3:2 could have been Jesus; nevertheless we don't think this to be true. We certainly see nothing here that says that Jesus is Yahweh.

Some other helpful information on the web concerning this scripture may be found in the following links, although we do not necessarily agree with all statements presented by the authors.

http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/newworldtranslation/zecharia3.2.htm
http://jehovah.to/exe/translation/nwterrors1.htm

See also our online resource page on the trinity:
http://reslight.net/l-trinity.html