{N}8,{/}1 It seems that this prophecy, like paragraph 6,12, referred at the beginning to Zorobabel, a descendant of David and of the kings of Judah, who had led one of the first caravans of those deported to Babylon, as they returned to Jerusalem. The prophet Haggai (Hg 2,20) also encouraged the prince and transmitted to him the divine oracles that promised him a great future: with him the Messianic times would begin.
This genre of prophecies had constituted the task of the royal prophets in all the countries of the Middle East, but it is not found in the great prophets of the Bible, who were always independent from the powers that be. Curiously, this is the only case in the Bible where two of the last prophets follow the same practice. And, as if by chance, their prophecy would not be realized. Later on, their words would be slightly modified, so that the promises would refer to the priests that soon would assume the power, and it is in this fashion that they would be included in the Bible. They would help maintain the awaiting of  a Messiah.
It would take too long to mention the cases of holy men and women of the Christian history that were also keen on one king or the other, asserting that he/she would be the glory of the Church; almost always the future was but a mere deception.

