1I lifted up my eyes, and saw, and behold, a man with a measuring line in his hand. 2Then I asked, “Where are you going?”
He said to me, “To measure Jerusalem, to see what is its width and what is its length.”
3Behold, the angel who talked with me went out, and another angel went out to meet him, 4and said to him, “Run, speak to this young man, saying, ‘Jerusalem will be inhabited as villages without walls, because of the multitude of men and livestock in it. 5For I,’ says Yahweh, ‘will be to her a wall of fire around it, and I will be the glory in the middle of her.
6Come! Come! Flee from the land of the north,’ says Yahweh; ‘for I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the sky,’ says Yahweh. 7‘Come, Zion! Escape, you who dwell with the daughter of Babylon.’ 8For Yahweh of Armies says: ‘For honor he has sent me to the nations which plundered you; for he who touches you touches the apple of his eye. 9For, behold, I will shake my hand over them, and they will be a plunder to those who served them; and you will know that Yahweh of Armies has sent me. 10Sing and rejoice, daughter of Zion! For behold, I come and I will dwell within you,’ says Yahweh. 11Many nations shall join themselves to Yahweh in that day, and shall be my people; and I will dwell among you, and you shall know that Yahweh of Armies has sent me to you. 12Yahweh will inherit Judah as his portion in the holy land, and will again choose Jerusalem. 13Be silent, all flesh, before Yahweh; for he has roused himself from his holy habitation!”
The authority to forgive sins is ascribed only to Israel’s God in the Old Testament (Ps 130:4, 51:1-3; 85:2; 2 Sam 12:13; Ps 32:1-5; 51:3-4, 9-11; 103:3; Isa 44:22; Dan 9:9; Zech 3:4; cf. 1QS 2:8f.; 11.14; CD 2:4-5; 3:18; 4:6-10). In Isa 43:25, YHWH declares himself as the forgiver of Israel’s sins: “I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake; And I will not remember your sins” (NASB). Micah 7:18 links the act of forgiving sins with the rhetoric concerning God’s uniqueness: “Who is a God like Thee, who pardons iniquity [a]nd passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of His possession?” (NASB) Mark’s Gospel itself includes Jesus’ teaching that corresponds to these Old Testament passages: “And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone; so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your transgressions” (11:25 NASB [emphasis added]). If Jesus’ authority to forgive sins as portrayed in Mark 2:1-12 is read alongside 11:25 and the noted Old Testament passages, Mark the author is seen to view Jesus as participating in God’s unique prerogative of forgiving sins, and such a view undoubtedly reflects Mark’s high Christology. -John Lee