Whereby shall I know this? for I am an old man. There was something evidently blamable in this hesitation on the part of Zacharias to receive the angel's promise. It seems as though the radiant glory of the messenger, as he stood before the curtain of the silent sanctuary in his awful beauty, ought to have convinced the doubting old man of the truth of the strange message.
The words of the angel, which follow, seem to imply this. What! do you doubt my message? "I am Gabriel, who stand in the presence of the Eternal." Others in Old Testament story before—for instance, Abraham (Genesis 15:1-21) and Gideon ( 6:1-40)—had seen and listened to an angel, had at first doubted, but had received in consequence no rebuke, no punishment, for their want of faith.
Zacharias was, however, condemned, we learn, to a long period of dumbness.