Zechariah 10: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

The chapter opens by telling the people to ask the LORD for spring rain. Idols and fortune-tellers give only false comfort, and the people have wandered like sheep with no shepherd. The LORD says his anger is against the shepherds and leaders, and that he will strengthen Judah and Joseph, bring them back from Egypt and Assyria, and gather them until there is not room enough for them. It closes with the promise that he will make them strong in the LORD and they will live in his name.

Claim by Claim

1. 10:1
   • The hearers are commanded to ask the LORD for rain at the time of the latter rain, the spring rain.
   • The LORD is the one who makes the storm clouds and their lightning.
   • He will give them showers of rain.
   • He will give each person vegetation in the field.
2. 10:2
   • The household idols have spoken wickedness.
   • The diviners have seen a lie.
   • They tell false dreams.
   • They give comfort that is empty.
   • Therefore the people set out like a flock.
   • They are afflicted because there is no shepherd.
3. 10:3
   • The LORD's anger burned against the shepherds.
   • He will punish the male goats, the leaders of the flock.
   • The LORD of hosts has attended to his flock, the house of Judah.
   • He has made them like his majestic horse in battle.
4. 10:4
   • From him comes the cornerstone.
   • From him comes the tent peg.
   • From him comes the battle bow.
   • From him comes every ruler together; the word used means one who drives or exacts, and can mean either ruler or oppressor.
5. 10:5
   • They will be like mighty men.
   • They trample their enemies in the mud of the streets in the battle.
   • They will fight.
   • They fight because the LORD is with them.
   • The riders on horses will be put to shame.
6. 10:6
   • I will strengthen the house of Judah.
   • I will save the house of Joseph.
   • I will bring them back and settle them.
   • I do this because I have had compassion on them.
   • They will be as though I had not rejected them.
   • I am the LORD their God.
   • I will answer them.
7. 10:7
   • Ephraim will be like a mighty man.
   • Their heart will rejoice as with wine.
   • Their children will see it.
   • Their children will be glad.
   • Their heart will rejoice in the LORD.
8. 10:8
   • I will whistle for them.
   • I will gather them.
   • I have redeemed them.
   • They will become many, as many as they were before.
9. 10:9
   • I will sow them among the peoples.
   • In far places they will remember me.
   • They will live together with their children; the wording can also mean they will rear their children.
   • They will return.
10. 10:10
    • I will bring them back from the land of Egypt.
    • I will gather them from Assyria.
    • I will bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon.
    • Room enough will not be found for them.
11. 10:11
    • He will pass through the sea; the wording can mean either that he passes through the sea of distress or that he passes through the sea with distress.
    • He will strike the waves in the sea.
    • All the depths of the Nile will dry up.
    • The pride of Assyria will be brought down.
    • The scepter of Egypt will depart.
12. 10:12
    • I will strengthen them in the LORD.
    • They will walk about in his name.
    • This is the declaration of the LORD.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

10:1

"The LORD" in small capitals stands for the personal name of Israel's God, four Hebrew consonants usually written YHWH. Jewish readers said "Lord" aloud in its place, and English translations have followed that custom since 1611. The farming year in this region depended on two rainy periods: the "former rain" of October–November, which softened the ground for plowing and sowing, and the "latter rain" of March–April, which swelled the grain just before harvest. Missing the late rain meant a failed crop even after a good planting.

10:2

The Hebrew word behind "idols" here is *teraphim*, small household figures kept in the home and consulted for guidance, not the large public images of a temple. Diviners were professionals who claimed to read the future by set techniques: examining the organs of sacrificed animals, casting lots, watching birds, interpreting dreams. "Shepherd" was a standard title for a king or ruler throughout the ancient Near East, not a comment on the countryside. A people "with no shepherd" is a people with no functioning government or leadership.

10:3

"The LORD of Hosts" translates a title meaning the LORD commanding armies (either the armies of Israel or the heavenly armies; ancient readers heard both. The King James "goats" translates a word for the he-goats that walk at the head of a flock, and it was used as an image for the chief men of a nation) the ones out in front. The image and the insult go together: the leaders are being punished.

10:4

Both images are drawn from building. The "cornerstone" is the stone at the angle of a wall that all other courses are lined up against, so it stands for whatever a structure depends on. The "tent peg" (or "nail") is either the stake that anchors a tent against wind or the peg driven into a wall to hang weight from; either way, the thing that holds everything else in place. What these images refer to is left open, the Hebrew simply says "from him," and "him" may mean Judah, or the God speaking, or a ruler yet to come.

10:5

Cavalry were the expensive, prestigious arm of an ancient army; ordinary Israelite forces fought on foot. The point of the line is that infantry will humiliate horsemen, an unexpected reversal to the first hearers.

10:6

After Solomon's death the kingdom split in two. "The house of Judah" is the southern kingdom, around Jerusalem; "the house of Joseph" is the northern kingdom, named for the tribes descended from Joseph's sons. The north was destroyed by Assyria and its people deported roughly two centuries before Zechariah wrote, so promising the return of "Joseph" meant promising something that had long looked finished.

10:7

Ephraim was the largest tribe of the northern kingdom, and its name is regularly used as shorthand for that whole kingdom, the same way "Judah" stands for the south.

10:8

"Hiss" in 1611 English meant to whistle, without the note of contempt the word carries now. Shepherds whistled to call scattered animals in; the same verb is used elsewhere for whistling to summon bees or an army. "Redeem" is the language of buying something back: paying the price to free a relative sold into slavery, or to recover family land that had been sold off. The word carries the idea of a debt actually settled, not merely a rescue.

10:9

The Hebrew verb can be read either as a promise ("I will scatter them like seed among the nations") or as a concession about what has already happened ("though I scattered them"). Translators are divided, and the line works either way: sowing is both a dispersal and a planting that expects a crop.

10:10

Egypt and Assyria were the two great powers that had swallowed Israelite populations (Assyria deporting the north, Egypt a traditional refuge and place of forced labor. Assyria no longer existed as an empire in Zechariah's day, so the two names function as shorthand for the lands of exile in every direction. Gilead is the highland east of the Jordan, Lebanon the mountain country to the north) the far edges of the territory Israel had held at its largest.

10:11

The wording deliberately recalls the escape from Egypt through the divided sea. The Hebrew phrase rendered "the sea of trouble" is difficult and has been read as "the sea of distress," as a place name, or as "he will pass through the sea with distress"; the ambiguity is in the original. "The river" without further description usually means either the Euphrates or the Nile; the mention of Egypt in the same breath points to the Nile here. A scepter was the ornamented staff a king held as the visible sign of his authority, so losing the scepter means losing the power to rule.

10:12

"Walk up and down" is 1611 English for going about one's ordinary life, not pacing back and forth. To do so "in his name" meant to live as someone who belongs to that God and acts under his authority, a name in this culture stood for the person and their standing, not just a label.