Zechariah 8

The word of the LORD of hosts, the LORD who commands the armies of heaven, came to me again. He said:

1Again the word of the LORD of hosts came to me, saying,

Note"The word of the LORD came to me" is the standard formula a Hebrew prophet used to introduce a message he claimed to be delivering rather than composing. "The LORD of hosts" translates *YHWH tsevaʾot*, literally "the LORD of armies", the armies being either Israel's fighting men or the heavenly forces at God's command. "LORD" printed in capitals stands for the personal name of Israel's God, which Jewish readers did not pronounce aloud.

2This is what the LORD of hosts says: I am jealous for Zion. My love for her burns strongly, and I care for her with fierce passion.

2Thus saith the LORD of hosts; I was jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I was jealous for her with great fury.

NoteThe Hebrew word behind "jealous" (*qanaʾ*) covers fierce protective attachment as well as what English calls jealousy; it is the word used of a husband's feeling for his wife and of a person's burning zeal for a cause. "Fury" here translates a word meaning heat, the temperature of strong feeling, and is directed at Zion's enemies, not at Zion. "Zion" was originally the name of one hill in Jerusalem and came to stand for the city as a whole, and especially for the temple hill.

3This is what the LORD says: I have returned to Zion, and I will live in the middle of Jerusalem. Jerusalem will be called the City of Truth, and the mountain of the LORD of hosts will be called the Holy Mountain.

3Thus saith the LORD; I am returned unto Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth; and the mountain of the LORD of hosts the holy mountain.

NoteThe Hebrew verb can be read either as "I have returned" (already done) or "I will return" (still to come); the King James takes the first, most modern versions the second, and the Hebrew itself does not settle it. Zechariah was writing after the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and its temple in 586 BC; "the mountain of the LORD" is the temple hill in the city. "Truth" translates *emet*, which means reliability and faithfulness as much as factual accuracy.

4This is what the LORD of hosts says: Old men and old women will once again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each one holding a walking stick because they have lived so many years.

4Thus saith the LORD of hosts; There shall yet old men and old women dwell in the streets of Jerusalem, and every man with his staff in his hand for very age.

Note"Streets" here means the open squares and public spaces of a city, not roadways. In the ancient world old age reached in peace, and children safe enough to play outdoors, were the standard picture of a city that had not been besieged, starved or deported for a generation.

5And the streets of the city will be full of boys and girls playing there.

5And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof.

6This is what the LORD of hosts says: If this seems impossible to the people who are left in these days, should it seem impossible to me too? That is what the LORD of hosts says.

6Thus saith the LORD of hosts; If it be marvellous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in these days, should it also be marvellous in mine eyes? saith the LORD of hosts.

Note"Marvellous" in 1611 English meant astonishing to the point of being beyond belief or beyond doing; the sense is "too hard," not "lovely." "The remnant of this people" is a set term for the survivors of the Babylonian conquest and their descendants who had come back to a much-reduced Judah, perhaps a few tens of thousands where a kingdom had been.

7This is what the LORD of hosts says: I am going to rescue my people from the countries in the east and from the countries in the west.

7Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Behold, I will save my people from the east country, and from the west country;

NoteThe Hebrew reads literally "the land of the sunrise and the land of the sunset." Naming the two opposite directions is a way of saying "everywhere", the deported Jews were in fact scattered mainly eastward to Babylon but also into Egypt and elsewhere.

8I will bring them back, and they will live in the middle of Jerusalem. They will be my people, and I will be their God, faithful and doing what is right.

8And I will bring them, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God, in truth and in righteousness.

Note"In truth and in righteousness" hangs loose in the Hebrew and can attach either to the people (they will belong to God faithfully and rightly) or to God (he will be their God faithfully and rightly). Translators split on it; the King James keeps the ambiguity.

9This is what the LORD of hosts says: Be strong, all of you who are hearing these words now from the prophets who were there when the foundation of the house of the LORD of hosts was laid, so that the temple could be built.

9Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Let your hands be strong, ye that hear in these days these words by the mouth of the prophets, which were in the day that the foundation of the house of the LORD of hosts was laid, that the temple might be built.

Note"Let your hands be strong" is a Hebrew idiom for taking courage and getting on with the work, not a comment on physical strength. The foundation-laying refers to the rebuilding of the temple destroyed in 586 BC: work began after the return from exile, stalled for years, and restarted in 520 BC under the prophets Haggai and Zechariah. "The prophets" are those speaking at that restart, Zechariah's own contemporaries.

10Before that time no one was paid for work, not people and not animals. No one who came or went was safe, because of the enemy. I had turned everyone against his neighbor.

10For before these days there was no hire for man, nor any hire for beast; neither was there any peace to him that went out or came in because of the affliction: for I set all men every one against his neighbour.

Note"Hire" means wages or hire-income: work by people and by draft animals brought in nothing. "Went out or came in" is an idiom covering the whole of ordinary daily life, leaving home in the morning and returning at evening, so the sense is that no one was safe going about their business.

11But now I will not treat the people who are left the way I treated them before, says the LORD of hosts.

11But now I will not be unto the residue of this people as in the former days, saith the LORD of hosts.

Note"The residue" is the same group called "the remnant" earlier: the survivors of the exile.

12The seed they plant will grow well. The vine will give its fruit, the ground will give its crops, and the skies will give their dew. I will give all these things to the people who are left, to be theirs.

12For the seed shall be prosperous; the vine shall give her fruit, and the ground shall give her increase, and the heavens shall give their dew; and I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all these things.

NoteIn this climate almost no rain falls between spring and autumn, and the heavy night dew off the Mediterranean is what keeps summer crops alive. Listing seed, vine, soil and dew together is a standard way of saying the whole agricultural cycle will work.

13House of Judah and house of Israel, other nations used your name when they cursed someone. But I will rescue you, and your name will be used for a blessing instead. Do not be afraid. Be strong.

13And it shall come to pass, that as ye were a curse among the heathen, O house of Judah, and house of Israel; so will I save you, and ye shall be a blessing: fear not, but let your hands be strong.

NoteThis refers to a fixed verbal formula. A nation whose fate was notoriously terrible became the yardstick in curses, "may you end up like Judah", and a nation visibly thriving became the yardstick in blessings. "Heathen" translates *goyim*, simply "the nations" or foreign peoples, with no implication about their beliefs.

14This is what the LORD of hosts says: I planned to bring trouble on you when your ancestors made me angry, and I did not change my mind, says the LORD of hosts.

14For thus saith the LORD of hosts; As I thought to punish you, when your fathers provoked me to wrath, saith the LORD of hosts, and I repented not:

Note"I repented not" uses "repent" in its older English sense of changing one's mind or relenting from a stated course; it does not mean feeling sorry for sin. "Your fathers" means the earlier generations, the ancestors.

15In the same way I have now planned to do good to Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. Do not be afraid.

15So again have I thought in these days to do well unto Jerusalem and to the house of Judah: fear ye not.

16These are the things you must do: Each of you must tell the truth to your neighbor. Give honest judgments that lead to peace in the courts at your city gates.

16These are the things that ye shall do; Speak ye every man the truth to his neighbour; execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates:

NoteThe gateway of a walled city was a roofed public space where elders heard lawsuits, witnesses testified and contracts were sealed; "in your gates" therefore means "in your courts." "Judgment of truth and peace" means verdicts that are both honest and such that the community can live with the outcome.

17Do not make plans in your heart to harm your neighbor, and do not love making promises you know are false. I hate all these things, says the LORD.

17And let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his neighbour; and love no false oath: for all these are things that I hate, saith the LORD.

NoteA "false oath" is perjury in the specific ancient sense: swearing by the name of God to something untrue, usually in a legal dispute or over a debt or deposit, which was treated as an offense against God and not merely against the other party.

18Then the word of the LORD of hosts came to me. He said:

18And the word of the LORD of hosts came unto me, saying,

19This is what the LORD of hosts says: The fast of the fourth month, the fast of the fifth, the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth will become times of joy and gladness for the house of Judah, happy feast days. So love truth and peace.

19Thus saith the LORD of hosts; The fast of the fourth month, and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth, shall be to the house of Judah joy and gladness, and cheerful feasts; therefore love the truth and peace.

NoteThese four fast days marked stages of the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem, counting months from spring: the tenth month, the start of the siege; the fourth, the breaching of the city wall; the fifth, the burning of the temple; the seventh, the killing of Gedaliah, the governor left behind, which ended the last Judean administration. They were not commanded in the law of Moses but had grown up during the seventy years of exile.

20This is what the LORD of hosts says: The time is still coming when peoples will arrive here, the people who live in many cities.

20Thus saith the LORD of hosts; It shall yet come to pass, that there shall come people, and the inhabitants of many cities:

21The people of one city will go to another city and say, Let us go at once to ask the LORD for his favor and to look for the LORD of hosts. I am going myself.

21And the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, Let us go speedily to pray before the LORD, and to seek the LORD of hosts: I will go also.

Note"To pray before the LORD" translates an idiom that is literally "to soften the face of the LORD", to seek someone's favor, the way a petitioner approaches a king. In the picture being drawn, foreigners take the initiative and urge one another on.

22Many peoples and powerful nations will come to Jerusalem to look for the LORD of hosts and to ask him for his favor.

22Yea, many people and strong nations shall come to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray before the LORD.

23This is what the LORD of hosts says: In those days ten men from nations of every language will take a firm hold of the edge of one Jewish man's robe. They will say, We want to go with you, because we have heard that God is with you.

23Thus saith the LORD of hosts; In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you: for we have heard that God is with you.

Note"Ten" is a round number for "a large number of." The "skirt" is the corner or hem of the loose outer robe; grabbing it was the standard gesture of a suppliant clutching at someone who could help, the same motion used to beg a king or a creditor. Israelites wore tasselled corners on this garment, which may be the specific thing being seized. Note the proportion in the image: ten foreigners to one Jew, and the foreigners speak first.