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Commentary on Zechariah 14 verses 1–7
God's providences concerning his church are here represented as strangely changing and strangely mixed.
I. As strangely changing. Sometimes the tide runs high and strong against them, but presently it turns, and comes to be in favour of them; and God has, for wise and holy ends, set the one over against the other.
1.God here appears against Jerusalem; judgment begins at the house of God. When the day of the Lord comes (Zac 14:1) Jerusalem must pass through the fire to be refined. God himself gathers all nations against Jerusalem to battle (Zac 14:2); he gives them a charge, as he did Sennacherib, to take the spoil and to take the prey (Isa 10:6), for the people of Jerusalem have now become the people of his wrath. And who can stand before him or before nations gathered by him? Where he gives commission he will give success. The city shall be taken by the Romans, who have nations at command; the houses shall be rifled, and all the riches of them taken away, by the enemy; and, to gratify an insatiable lust of uncleanness as well as avarice, the women shall be ravished, as if victory were a license to the worst of villanies, jusque datum sceleri - and crimes were sanctioned by law. One-half of the city shall then be carried into captivity, to be sold or enslaved, and shall not be able to help itself, such is the destruction that shall be made in the great and terrible day of the Lord.
2.He presently changes his way, and appears for Jerusalem; for, though judgment begin at the house of God, yet, as it shall not end there, so it shall not make a full end there, Jer 4:27; Jer 30:11.
(1.)A remnant shall be spared, the same with that third part spoken of, Zac 13:8. One-half shall go into captivity, whence they may hereafter be fetched back, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off, as one would have feared, from the city. Many of the Jews shall receive the gospel, and so shall prevent their being cut off from the city of God, his church upon earth. In it shall be a tenth, Isa 6:13; See Eze 5:3.
(2.)Their cause shall be pleaded against their enemies (Zac 14:3): Then, when God has made use of these nations as a scourge to his people, he shall go forth and fight against them by his judgments, as when he fought against the enemies of his church formerly in the day of battle, with the Egyptians, Canaanites, and others. Note, The instruments of God's wrath will themselves be made the objects of it; for it will come to their turn to drink of the cup of trembling; and whom God fights against he will be sure to overcome and be too hard for. And every former day of battle, which God has made to his people a day of triumph, as it is an engagement to God to appear for his people, because he is the same, so it is an encouragement to them to trust in him. It is observable that the Roman empire never flourished, after the destruction of Jerusalem as it had done before, but in many instances God fought against it.
(3.)Though Jerusalem and the temple be destroyed, yet God will have a church in the world, into which Gentiles shall be admitted, and with whom the believing Jews shall be incorporated, Zac 14:4, Zac 14:5. These verses are dark and hard to be understood; but divers good expositors take this to be the meaning of them. [1.] God will carefully inspect Jerusalem, even then when the enemies of it are laying it waste: His feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, whence he may take a full view of the city and temple, Mar 13:3. When the refiner puts his gold into the furnace he stands by it, and has his eye upon it, to see that it receive no damage; so when Jerusalem, God's gold, is to be refined, he will have the oversight of it. He will stand by upon the mount of Olives; this was literally fulfilled when our Lord Jesus was often upon this mountain, especially when thence he ascended up into heaven, Act 1:12. It was the last place on which his feet stood on this earth, the place from which he took rise. [2.] The partition-wall between Jews and Gentiles shall be taken away. The mountains about Jerusalem, and particularly this, signified it to be an enclosure, and that it stood in the way of those who would approach to it. Between the Gentiles and Jerusalem this mountain of Bether, of division, stood, Sol 2:17. But by the destruction of Jerusalem this mountain shall be made to cleave in the midst, and so the Jewish pale shall be taken down, and the church laid in common with the Gentiles, who were made one with the Jews by the breaking down of this middle wall of partition, Eph 2:14. Who art thou, O great mountain? And a great mountain the ceremonial law was in the way of the Jews' conversion, which, one would think, could never have been got over; yet before Christ and his gospel it was made plain. This mountain departs, this hill removes, but the covenant of peace cannot be broken; for peace is still preached to him that is afar off and to those that are nigh. [3.] A new and living way shall be opened to the new Jerusalem, both to see it and to come into it. The mountain being divided, one-half towards the north and the other half towards the south, there shall be a very great valley, that is, a broad way of communication opened between Jerusalem and the Gentile world, by which the Gentiles shall have free admission into the gospel-Jerusalem, and the word of the Lord, that goes forth from Jerusalem, shall have a free course into the Gentile world. Thus the way of the Lord is prepared, for every mountain and hill shall be brought low, and plain and pleasant valleys shall come in the room of them, Isa 40:4. [4.] Those of the Jews that believe shall come in, and join themselves to the Gentiles, and incorporate with them in the gospel-church: You shall flee to the valley of the mountains, that valley that is opened between the divided halves of the mount of Olives; they shall hasten into the church with the Gentiles, as formerly the Gentiles with them, Zac 8:23. The valley of the mountains is the gospel-church, to which there were added of the Jews daily such as should be saved, who fled to that valley as to their refuge. This valley of the mountains is said to reach unto Azal, or to the separate place, that is, to all those whom God has set apart for himself. When God makes his mountains a way (Isa 49:11), by making them a valley, the way shall be opened to all the way-faring men (Isa 35:8), and, though fools, they shall not err therein. Or, to those that are now separated from God this valley shall reach; for the Gentiles, who are afar off, shall be made nigh, with the Jews, who are a people near unto him, and both have an access, a mutual access to each other and a joint access to God as a Father by one Spirit, Eph 2:18. [5.] They shall flee to the valley of the mountains, to the gospel-church, under dreadful apprehensions of their danger from the curse of the law. They shall flee from the wrath to come, from the avenger of blood, who is in pursuit of them, to the church as to a city of refuge, or as doves to their windows, as they fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah, Amo 1:1. Therefore the gospel reveals the wrath of God from heaven (Rom 1:18) that we might be awakened to escape for our lives, to flee as from an earthquake, for we feel the earth ready to sink under us, and we can find no firm footing in it, and therefore must flee to Christ, in whom alone we can stand fast and be easy.
(4.)God shall appear in his glory for the accomplishing of all this: The Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee, which may refer to his coming to destroy Jerusalem, or to destroy the enemies of Jerusalem, or his coming to set up his kingdom in the world, which is called the coming of the Son of man (Mat 24:37), or to his last coming, at the end of time; however, it teaches us, [1.] That the Lord will come; it has been the faith of all the saints, Behold, the Lord comes to fulfil every word that he has spoken in its season. [2.] When he comes all his saints come with him; they attend his motions and are ready to serve his interests. Christ will come at the end of time with ten thousands of his saints, as when he came to give the law upon Mount Sinai. [3.] Every particular believer, being related to God as his God, may triumph in the expectation of his coming and speak of it with pleasure, The Lord my God shall come, shall come to the comfort of all that are his; for, "Blessed Lord, all the saints shall be with thee, and it shall be their everlasting happiness to dwell in thy presence; and therefore come, Lord Jesus." And some think that this may be read as a prayer, Yet, O Lord my God! come, and bring all the saints with thee.
II. God's providences appear here strangely mixed (Zac 14:6, Zac 14:7): In that day of the Lord the light shall not be clear nor dark, not day nor night; but at evening time it shall be light. Some refer this to all the time from hence to the coming of the Messiah; the Jewish church had neither perfect peace nor constant trouble, but a cloudy day, neither rain nor sunshine. But it may be taken more generally, as designed to represent the method God usually takes in the administration of the kingdom both of providence and grace. Here is, 1. An idea of the usual course and tenour of God's dispensations; the day of his grace and the day of his providence are neither clear nor dark, not day nor night. It is so with the church of God in this world; where the Sun of righteousness has risen it cannot be dark night, and yet short of heaven it will not be clear day. It is so with particular saints; they are not darkness, but light in the Lord, and yet, while there is so much error and corruption remaining in them, it is not perfect day. So it is as to the providences of God that relate to his church; in general the affairs of the church are neither good nor bad in any extremity, but there is a mixture of both; we are singing both of mercy and judgment, and are uncertain which will prevail, whether it be an evening or a morning twilight. We are between hope and fear, not knowing what to make of things. 2. An intimation of comfort with reference hereunto: It shall be one day which shall be known to the Lord. This intimates, (1.) The beauty and harmony of such mixed events; there is one and the same design and tendency in all; all the wheels make but one wheel, all the revolutions but one day. (2.) The brevity of them; it is, as it were, but for one day, for a little moment; the cloud that darkens the light will soon blow over. (3.) The eye God has upon all these events, and the hand he has in them all; they are known to the Lord; he takes notice of them, and orders and disposes of all for the best, according to the counsel of his will. 3. An issue very joyful secured at last: At evening-time it shall be light: it shall be clear light, and no longer dark; we are sure of it in the other world, and we hope for it in this world - at evening-time, when our hopes are quite spent with waiting all day to no purpose, nay, when we fear it will be quite dark, when things are at the worst and the case of the church is most deplorable. As to the church's enemies the sun goes down at noon, so to the church it rises at night; unto the upright springs light out of darkness (Psa 112:4); deliverance comes when the tale of bricks is doubled, and when God's people have done looking for it, and so it comes with a pleasing surprise.
(Chapter 14, verses 1, 2.) Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when your spoils will be divided in your midst. And I will gather all nations to Jerusalem for battle, and the city shall be taken, and the houses plundered, and the women violated. And half of the city shall go into captivity, but the rest of the people shall not be removed from the city. LXX: Behold, the days of the Lord are coming, and your spoils will be divided within you. And I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be taken, and the houses plundered, and the women defiled. And half of the city shall go into captivity, but the rest of my people shall not perish from the city. Those whom the Lord threatens to come will divide the spoils of Jerusalem in its midst, and everything that is included in the prophetic discourse, these are the ones about whom we also read in Isaiah: The day of the Lord, the day of incurable fury and wrath, to make the whole earth a desolation and to remove sinners from it (Isaiah 13:9). But how necessary will it be for its spoils to be divided in its midst? This often happens, that what has been suddenly seized in the city is divided outside in the field or in the wilderness, lest perhaps the enemies come upon it. However, such a weight of evils will fall upon them, that the spoils will be divided among themselves as a means of securing victory. Not only will Jerusalem be captured, inciting all nations against it in battle, but the houses of those who dwell in Jerusalem will be laid waste, and the women violated, causing sorrow for their husbands and masters. They will be unable to protect their homes from pillage or their wives from the lust of the enemy, as is written elsewhere: 'Those who gather within you shall fall by the sword and your sons shall be dashed to pieces before your eyes; your homes shall be plundered and your wives violated' (Isaiah 13). Nothing can be found more cruel or wretched, where out of fear for their own lives they dare not defend the safety of their children or the modesty of their wives. This very thing, the prophet Amos, speaking against the impious priest Amaziah, says: Your wife will commit adultery in the city, and your sons and daughters will fall by the sword, and your land will be measured out with a measuring line (Amos 7:17). And all these things will happen to the people of Judah: Because the nations have raged, and the peoples have planned in vain. The kings of the earth have risen up, and the rulers have gathered together as one against the Lord and against His Christ (Psalm 2:1-2). He who mocked and scorned them, and in his fury troubled them, to the extent that even the Apostle, seeing that the years appointed for repentance had already passed, and yet they persisted in denial, they who killed the Lord and persecuted the prophets and apostles, said: 'Wrath has come upon them to the end.' (I Thess. II, 16). Josephus, who wrote the history of the Jews, recounts that they endured all of this and much greater things than what we read in the prophets. Cornelius Tacitus, who wrote the Lives of the Caesars in thirty volumes from the time of Augustus until the death of Domitian, also describes how the middle part of the city was captured, while the rest of the population remained in the city. At that time and at other times, it is confirmed that the northern and lower part of the city was captured, but the hill of the temple, and Zion, where the citadel was, remained intact. The Jews claim that these events will be fulfilled under Gog: some claim it happened during the time of the Macedonians and Egyptians, and from various other peoples. Let us explain the truth of the Lord's teachings, which have been written down, in our time.
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SUMMARY
Zechariah 14:1 introduces the climactic "Day of the LORD," a pivotal eschatological event in which God intervenes decisively in human history. This verse specifically foretells a dire initial phase for Jerusalem, where the city will be besieged, conquered, and its valuable possessions plundered and divided by invading nations within its very walls, setting the stage for the dramatic divine intervention described in the subsequent verses of the chapter.
CONTEXT
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
Zechariah 14:1 employs several powerful literary devices to convey its message. The opening word, "Behold," functions as an interjection or apostrophe, drawing the reader's immediate attention to the gravity and certainty of the impending events. It creates a sense of urgency and divine authority. The phrase "the day of the LORD" is a classic example of eschatological language and prophetic idiom, serving as a metonymy for a period of divine judgment and intervention rather than a literal 24-hour day. This phrase also acts as foreshadowing, hinting at the dramatic events that will unfold throughout the rest of the chapter. The description of "thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee" uses vivid imagery to paint a stark picture of Jerusalem's utter humiliation and defeat. The direct address to Jerusalem ("thy spoil") is a form of apostrophe, making the prophecy more personal and impactful to its original audience. The entire verse is imbued with divine agency, implying that even the initial suffering of Jerusalem is part of God's overarching plan, leading to His ultimate purposes.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
Zechariah 14:1 presents a stark theological reality: God's sovereign control over history includes periods of intense judgment and trial, even for His chosen people. The "Day of the LORD" is not merely a historical event but a theological concept signifying God's active involvement in human affairs to bring about His righteous will. This verse emphasizes that before ultimate salvation and restoration, there may be a period of severe testing and purification. The division of spoil in Jerusalem's midst highlights the depth of humiliation and suffering that can precede divine vindication, teaching that God's people are not immune to the consequences of a fallen world or even divine discipline. Ultimately, it underscores that God's justice will be meted out, and His ultimate kingdom will be established through a process that involves both judgment and salvation.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
Zechariah 14:1, though describing a future, cataclysmic event, offers profound insights for contemporary believers. It reminds us that God is actively involved in history, orchestrating events towards His ultimate purposes. Even in the face of overwhelming adversity, apparent defeat, or deep humiliation, the believer is called to remember God's sovereignty. This verse encourages a perspective that looks beyond immediate circumstances to the larger divine narrative, where trials are often precursors to greater manifestations of God's power and faithfulness. It challenges us to trust God's plan even when it involves suffering or difficult periods, knowing that His "Day" will ultimately bring about justice, vindication, and the establishment of His righteous kingdom. It calls for spiritual vigilance and a posture of hope, recognizing that the current state of affairs is not the final word.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
What is "the Day of the LORD" and why is it significant in Zechariah 14:1?
Answer: "The Day of the LORD" (Hebrew: Yom Yahweh) is a recurring and highly significant prophetic idiom throughout the Old Testament, not referring to a literal 24-hour day, but rather a divinely appointed period of time when God decisively intervenes in human history. In Zechariah 14:1, its significance lies in signaling a climactic epoch of divine judgment and warfare, specifically targeting Jerusalem, before God's ultimate triumph. It marks the beginning of the final eschatological events that will lead to the establishment of God's kingdom and the vindication of His people. This concept is foundational to understanding the prophetic books, appearing in texts like Amos 5:18-20 and Zephaniah 1:14-18.
Is the prophecy in Zechariah 14:1 literal or symbolic?
Answer: Prophetic texts often contain elements of both literal and symbolic language. While the "Day of the LORD" is a figurative term for a period, the events described, such as the gathering of nations against Jerusalem and the division of spoil, are generally understood to be literal, though perhaps expressed with heightened, dramatic imagery typical of apocalyptic literature. The detailed descriptions in the subsequent verses of Zechariah 14 (e.g., the splitting of the Mount of Olives, the plague on the armies) suggest a future, tangible fulfillment of these events, even if some elements carry symbolic weight regarding God's power and judgment.
When will the events described in Zechariah 14:1 be fulfilled?
Answer: The fulfillment of Zechariah 14:1 is widely understood to be an eschatological event, meaning it pertains to the "last days" or end times. While some interpretations connect it to historical events like the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, the scope and scale of the prophecy, particularly the global gathering of "all nations" against Jerusalem and the subsequent divine intervention, point to a future event preceding or accompanying the second coming of Christ. Many biblical scholars believe it describes a final, climactic battle (often associated with Armageddon) that will precede the establishment of Christ's millennial kingdom on earth, as further elaborated in passages like Revelation 16:16 and Revelation 19:11-21.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
Zechariah 14:1, with its foreboding declaration of "the Day of the LORD" and the dire fate of Jerusalem, finds its ultimate Christ-centered fulfillment in the broader narrative of God's redemptive plan through Jesus Christ. While the immediate context speaks of judgment and war, the "Day of the LORD" is ultimately the day of Christ's triumph. His first coming inaugurated a new era, marking the beginning of the spiritual "Day of the LORD" where salvation is offered to all who believe, as Peter preached on Pentecost, quoting Joel, that the Spirit's outpouring was a sign of the "great and awesome day of the Lord" (Acts 2:16-21). However, the full, climactic fulfillment of Zechariah 14:1 points to Christ's glorious second coming. It is then that the nations will truly gather against Jerusalem, and Christ will descend to defend His people, bringing judgment upon His enemies and establishing His righteous, eternal kingdom. The "spoil" of Jerusalem being divided foreshadows the suffering of God's people, which Christ Himself experienced in His crucifixion, yet ultimately triumphed over. His return will reverse all human humiliation and establish divine order, as described in Revelation 19:11-16, where He comes as the victorious King of kings and Lord of lords, bringing the true "Day of the LORD" to its glorious culmination.