ZECHARIAH
Zechariah’s prophecies are dated to about 520-518 B.C., during the rule of Persian king Darius the Great (Darius I) and was contemporary with the prophet Haggai (of the Old Testament book of Haggai), Ezra the priest (of the Old Testament book of Ezra) and Jerusalem governor Nehemiah (of the Old Testament book of Nehemiah).
ZECHARIAH 1:1-6
1 In the eighth month of the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet, saying,
2 “The Lord has been very angry with your fathers.
3 Therefore say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Return to Me,” says the Lord of hosts, “and I will return to you,” says the Lord of hosts.
4 “Do not be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets preached, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Turn now from your evil ways and your evil deeds.” ’ But they did not hear nor heed Me,” says the Lord.
5 “Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever?
6 Yet surely My words and My statutes, which I commanded My servants the prophets, did they not overtake your fathers? “So they returned and said: ‘Just as the Lord of hosts determined to do to us, according to our ways and according to our deeds, so He has dealt with us.’ ”
Zechariah’s grandfather Iddo is mentioned in the Old Testament and while his prophecies are mentioned by others, no direct writings have survived. (Note: the prophets were sometimes called “seers”. The Old Testament prophet Samuel was called a “seer”.)
2 CHRONICLES 9:29
29 Now the rest of the acts of Solomon, first and last, are they not written in the book of Nathan the prophet, in the prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite, and in the visions of Iddo the seer concerning Jeroboam the son of Nebat?
The second year of Darius I would have been about 520 B.C. God has Zechariah remind the people of Judah to remember their history, to remember God’s warnings of divine retribution and punishment for sin and how God’s eternal words were fulfilled when the people didn’t listen. God also shows His love and mercy in exhorting the people to return to Him and He will in turn return to them.
ZECHARIAH 1:7-11
7 On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, which is the month Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet:
8 I saw by night, and behold, a man riding on a red horse, and it stood among the myrtle trees in the hollow; and behind him were horses: red, sorrel, and white.
9 Then I said, “My lord, what are these?” So the angel who talked with me said to me, “I will show you what they are.”
10 And the man who stood among the myrtle trees answered and said, “These are the ones whom the Lord has sent to walk to and fro throughout the earth.”
11 So they answered the Angel of the Lord, who stood among the myrtle trees, and said, “We have walked to and fro throughout the earth, and behold, all the earth is resting quietly.”
Zechariah sees a vision of a man standing in the middle of a grove of trees, riding a red horse and behind him are other horses of red, chestnut (reddish-brown) and white colors. An angel tells Zechariah they are like messengers who roam the Earth and report their findings to the Lord.
The fact that the Earth is “resting quietly” indicates that this is one of the rare times when the entire Earth is at peace, a rare event indeed!!
Note the distinction between the angel talking with Zechariah and the man in the trees described as the “Angel of the Lord”. The fact that the horses report to the man and his having the distinction of being “the Angel of the Lord” points to the Angel being a pre-incarnate appearance of the second member of the Triune Godhead, namely Jesus Christ, who appeared several times in the Old Testament. And several times in the Old Testament the “Angel of the Lord” spoke as God in the first-person;
When the Midianites had been plaguing Israel, the Angel of the Lord appeared to a young man named Gideon;
JUDGES 6:11-14
11 Now the Angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth tree which was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon threshed wheat in the winepress, in order to hide it from the Midianites.
12 And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him, and said to him, “The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!”
13 Gideon said to Him, “O my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.”
14 Then the Lord turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?”
Note that the Angel is identified as God in verse 14 above.
And;
When the Angel of the Lord appeared to Samson’s parents to prophesy of Samson’s birth, Scripture records;
JUDGES 13:19-24
19 So Manoah took the young goat with the grain offering, and offered it upon the rock to the Lord. And He did a wondrous thing while Manoah and his wife looked on—
20 it happened as the flame went up toward heaven from the altar—the Angel of the Lord ascended in the flame of the altar! When Manoah and his wife saw this, they fell on their faces to the ground.
21 When the Angel of the Lord appeared no more to Manoah and his wife, then Manoah knew that He was the Angel of the Lord.
22 And Manoah said to his wife, “We shall surely die, because we have seen God!”
23 But his wife said to him, “If the Lord had desired to kill us, He would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering from our hands, nor would He have shown us all these things, nor would He have told us such things as these at this time.”
ZECHARIAH 1:13-17
12 Then the Angel of the Lord answered and said, “O Lord of hosts, how long will You not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which You were angry these seventy years?”
13 And the Lord answered the angel who talked to me, with good and comforting words.
14 So the angel who spoke with me said to me, “Proclaim, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts: “I am zealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with great zeal.
15 I am exceedingly angry with the nations at ease; for I was a little angry, and they helped—but with evil intent.”
16 ‘Therefore thus says the Lord: “I am returning to Jerusalem with mercy; My house shall be built in it,” says the Lord of hosts, “and a surveyor’s line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem.” ’
17 “Again proclaim, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts: “My cities shall again spread out through prosperity; the Lord will again comfort Zion, and will again choose Jerusalem.” ’
God’s fury against Jerusalem has been spent, and He is willing to again have mercy on Judah and will cause them to prosper. He is also deeply angered at the conduct of Babylon and its allies because of their cruelty and brutality against Jerusalem and Judah. The offending nations in turn would be later be conquered by others.
ZECHARIAH 1:18-21
18 Then I raised my eyes and looked, and there were four horns.
19 And I said to the angel who talked with me, “What are these?” So he answered me, “These are the horns that have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.”
20 Then the Lord showed me four craftsmen.
21 And I said, “What are these coming to do?” So he said, “These are the horns that scattered Judah, so that no one could lift up his head; but the craftsmen are coming to terrify them, to cast out the horns of the nations that lifted up their horn against the land of Judah to scatter it.”
This is a hard one to interpret. Horns (bull’s horns) in ancient times were used to denote strength and power like the strength and power of a bull. The nations represented by the horns had scattered and destroyed both the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah.
And while the specific nations aren’t mentioned, history shows that the Northern Kingdom was destroyed by Assyria in 721 B.C.and the Southern Kingdom was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 B.C.
The other two nations? I believe that they are Syria and the Philistines, deadly enemies of Israel and Judah who warred frequently against both kingdoms.
The four craftsmen aren’t mentioned either, but I suspect it is the coalition of Persians, Medes, Elamites and the remnants of the Assyrians who conquered Babylon and its empire in 539 B.C. But I can only speculate here.
ZECHARIAH 2:1-5
1 Then I raised my eyes and looked, and behold, a man with a measuring line in his hand.
2 So I said, “Where are you going?” And he said to me, “To measure Jerusalem, to see what is its width and what is its length.”
3 And there was the angel who talked with me, going out; and another angel was coming out to meet him,
4 who said to him, “Run, speak to this young man, saying: ‘Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls, because of the multitude of men and livestock in it.
5 For I,’ says the Lord, ‘will be a wall of fire all around her, and I will be the glory in her midst.’ ”
The angel is told to inform Zechariah that Jerusalem will again flourish even though it lay a burned ruin for 70 years because of the Lord’s wrath against the sins of its people. God promises to be a barrier of protection around the city that it may prosper.
ZECHARIAH 2:6-13
6 “Up, up! Flee from the land of the north,” says the Lord; “for I have spread you abroad like the four winds of heaven,” says the Lord.
7 “Up, Zion! Escape, you who dwell with the daughter of Babylon.”
8 For thus says the Lord of hosts: “He sent Me after glory, to the nations which plunder you; for he who touches you touches the apple of His eye.
9 For surely I will shake My hand against them, and they shall become spoil for their servants. Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent Me.
10 “Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion! For behold, I am coming and I will dwell in your midst,” says the Lord.
11 “Many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day, and they shall become My people. And I will dwell in your midst. Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent Me to you.
12 And the Lord will take possession of Judah as His inheritance in the Holy Land, and will again choose Jerusalem.
13 Be silent, all flesh, before the Lord, for He is aroused from His holy habitation!”
This is both a short-range and a long-range prophecy. First, God commands that the captive Jews in Babylon return to the Land and promises that their oppressors and captors would become oppressed and captive themselves, which indeed happened. Assyria was conquered by Babylon, Babylon was conquered by Persia, Persia was conquered by the Greeks, the Romans conquered Greece, and Rome eventually fell to decadence and barbarian attacks.
More recently, Germany was conquered by the Allies during WW II, and Russia was overthrown and oppressed by the Communists. All of these nations had persecuted and destroyed the Jews and God in turn punished them as He promised.
And in the present, many peoples who have become Christians have joined themselves to the Lord as He prophesied. And in the future when Jesus returns, many will join themselves to Him as prophesied by Isaiah;
ISAIAH 19:19-25
19 In that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the Lord at its border.
20 And it will be for a sign and for a witness to the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt; for they will cry to the Lord because of the oppressors, and He will send them a Savior and a Mighty One, and He will deliver them.
21 Then the Lord will be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will know the Lord in that day, and will make sacrifice and offering; yes, they will make a vow to the Lord and perform it.
22 And the Lord will strike Egypt, He will strike and heal it; they will return to the Lord, and He will be entreated by them and heal them.
23 In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian will come into Egypt and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians will serve with the Assyrians.
24 In that day Israel will be one of three with Egypt and Assyria—a blessing in the midst of the land,
25 whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, “Blessed is Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance.”
ZECHARIAH 3:1-5
1 Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the Angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to oppose him.
2 And the Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?”
3 Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and was standing before the Angel.
4 Then He answered and spoke to those who stood before Him, saying, “Take away the filthy garments from him.” And to him He said, “See, I have removed your iniquity from you, and I will clothe you with rich robes.”
5 And I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head, and they put the clothes on him. And the Angel of the Lord stood by.
This is a fascinating point of Scripture. A man called “Joshua” stands before the Lord and Satan is there to oppose him. Hold that thought for a few moments..
“Joshua” is the Anglicized version of the Hebrew name “Yehoshua”, shortened in Hebrew to “Yeshua”. The Greek version of ”Yehoshua” is “Iesous”, the Latinized version is ‘Iesus’ and the Anglicized version is Jesus.
ZECHARIAH 3:6-7
6 Then the Angel of the Lord admonished Joshua, saying,
7 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘If you will walk in My ways, and if you will keep My command, then you shall also judge My house, and likewise have charge of My courts; I will give you places to walk among these who stand here.
God says that if he, Joshua, will obey the Lord, God will give him authority to rule over all His kingdom and give him power to judge His people.
Joshua’s clothing is filthy, fitting in with Isaiah’s description of Man’s righteousness, when he said;
ISAIAH 64:6
6 But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; we all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
The promised rich robes and turban follow passages of both Job and Isaiah;
JOB 29:14
14 I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; My justice was like a robe and a turban.
ISAIAH 61:10
10 I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, My soul shall be joyful in my God; for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
So far we have a person of some importance named Joshua (or Jesus) named as High Priest standing before the Lord, with the Lord removing his filthy clothing (representing sin) and replacing them with rich robes and a turban.
The robes are robes of righteousness and a turban is that of justice. Satan is personally present to accuse and oppose him, and God promises Joshua the power and right to rule over His kingdom. So this person has to be more than a man as God has never given Man the authority to judge His people and rule His kingdom.
No Earthly High Priest was ever given this honor and authority by God, not even Aaron, Moses’ brother who was the first high Priest of Israel. Therefore God is offering this honor and authority to someone He considers to be equal with Himself.
No created being is equal or greater than its creator which is one of Satan’s biggest sins, considering himself to be equal with God. Scripture says;
ISAIAH 14:12-15
12 “How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations!
13 For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north;
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’
15 Yet you shall be brought down to Hell, to the lowest depths of the Pit.
So who is this High Priest to whom God considers to be equal with Himself? The Old Testament gives us clues, as shown;
PROVERBS 30:4
4 Who has ascended into heaven, or descended? Who has gathered the wind in His fists? Who has bound the waters in a garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is His name, and what is His Son’s name, if you know?
The author of this Proverb is obviously talking about God, but interestingly enough also indicates that He has a Son as well.
PSALM 110:1, 4
1 The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool.”
4 The Lord has sworn and will not relent, “You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.”
David is speaking prophetically of God talking to someone whom David, the king of Israel, calls “Lord” indicating someone greater than himself. God also says that this man is an eternal priest, modeled after a mysterious figure named Melchizedek, whom met Abraham after his battle with 5 Mesopotamian kings. Scripture says of Melchizedek;
GENESIS 14:18-20
18 Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was the priest of God Most High.
19 And he blessed him and said: “Blessed be Abram of God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth;
20 And blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand.” and he gave him a tithe of all.
Abraham is considered as one of the greatest figures in the Old Testament, yet he freely offered a tithe of the spoils of war to Melchizedek. Tithes are given to God as a thanksgiving offering for His blessings. As He told Israel;
MALACHI 3:8
8 “Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, ‘In what way have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings.
Therefore Abraham considered this man to be worthy to receive tithes.
King David also said;
PSALMS 45:6-7
6 Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom.
7 You love righteousness and hate wickedness; therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness more than Your companions.
Note carefully that God is speaking to someone that He in turn calls “God”, indicating that this person is equal with Himself.
ISAIAH 53:11-12
11 He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong, because He poured out His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
ZECHARIAH 3:8-10
8 ‘Hear, O Joshua, the high priest, you and your companions who sit before you, For they are a wondrous sign; for behold, I am bringing forth My Servant the BRANCH.
9 For behold, the stone that I have laid before Joshua: upon the stone are seven eyes. Behold, I will engrave its inscription,’ says the Lord of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day.
10 In that day,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘Everyone will invite his neighbor under his vine and under his fig tree.’ ”
The seven eyes are the seven spirits of God which roam the Earth and report back to Him all that they see, as we shall see in the next chapter.
The Branch refers to the Messiah who will come from the line of king David, as was prophesied by Isaiah;
ISAIAH 11:1-2
1 There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots.
2 The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.
ZECHARIAH 4:1-2
1 Now the angel who talked with me came back and wakened me, as a man who is wakened out of his sleep.
2 And he said to me, “What do you see?” So I said, “I am looking, and there is a lampstand of solid gold with a bowl on top of it, and on the stand seven lamps with seven pipes to the seven lamps.
The seven lamps represent the seven spirits of God, which the Apostle John saw in his vision in the New Testament book of Revelation;
REVELATION 4:2-5
2 Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne set in heaven, and One sat on the throne.
3 And He who sat there was like a jasper and a sardius stone in appearance; and there was a rainbow around the throne, in appearance like an emerald.
4 Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and on the thrones I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white robes; and they had crowns of gold on their heads.
5 And from the throne proceeded lightnings, thunderings, and voices. Seven lamps of fire were burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.
The prophet Isaiah listed these spirits when He was told the attributes of the promised Messiah, Jesus Christ of the lineage of king David. Isaiah was told;
ISAIAH 11:1-2
1 There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots.
2 The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.
(Note: Jesse was the father of King David)
The seven Spirits are:
1. The Holy Spirit (Spirit of the Lord)
2. The Spirit of wisdom
3. The Spirit of understanding
4. The Spirit of counsel
5. The Spirit of might
6. The Spirit of knowledge
7. The Spirit of the fear (reverence) of the Lord
The 24 elders that John saw in Revelation 4:4 above are the 12 original patriarchs of the 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 Apostles of Jesus, showing the continuity of both the Old and New Testaments. (For more information on the book of Revelation, please see the Revelation study in this Web site.)
ZECHARIAH 4:3-14
3 Two olive trees are by it, one at the right of the bowl and the other at its left.”
4 So I answered and spoke to the angel who talked with me, saying, “What are these, my lord?”
5 Then the angel who talked with me answered and said to me, “Do you not know what these are?” And I said, “No, my lord.”
6 So he answered and said to me: “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord of hosts.
7 ‘Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain! And he shall bring forth the capstone with shouts of “Grace, grace to it!” ’ ”
8 Moreover the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
9 “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this temple; his hands shall also finish it. Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent Me to you.
10 For who has despised the day of small things? For these seven rejoice to see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel. They are the eyes of the Lord,which scan to and fro throughout the whole earth.”
11 Then I answered and said to him, “What are these two olive trees—at the right of the lampstand and at its left?”
12 And I further answered and said to him, “What are these two olive branches that drip into the receptacles of the two gold pipes from which the golden oil drains?”
13 Then he answered me and said, “Do you not know what these are?” And I said, “No, my lord.”
14 So he said, “These are the two anointed ones, who stand beside the Lord of the whole earth.”
Zerubbabel was the governor of Judah who returned with the first wave of people who returned to the Land when Persian king Cyrus the Great released the Jews from their 70 year captivity in Babylon. And as recorded in the Biblical book of Ezra, he began rebuilding theTemple that had been destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. And according to the angel that spoke to Zechariah, it would be Zerubbabel who would place the final stone (capstone) on the Temple.
The olive trees are two unidentified individuals specifically anointed and chosen by God for His service. The Apostle John saw them in his vision in the book of Revelation of the Last Days and recorded;
REVELATION 11:1-6
1 Then I was given a reed like a measuring rod. And the angel stood, saying, “Rise and measure the temple of God, the altar, and those who worship there.
2 But leave out the court which is outside the temple, and do not measure it, for it has been given to the Gentiles. And they will tread the holy city underfoot for forty-two months.
3 And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy one thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth.”
4 These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands standing before the God of the earth.
5 And if anyone wants to harm them, fire proceeds from their mouth and devours their enemies. And if anyone wants to harm them, he must be killed in this manner.
6 These have power to shut heaven, so that no rain falls in the days of their prophecy; and they have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to strike the earth with all plagues, as often as they desire.
This indicates that there will be a third Temple built (the Second Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D.) and the Gentiles under the coming Antichrist will control Jerusalem for 42 months as prophesied by Daniel (of the Old Testament book of Daniel) in about 550 B.C.
God will send the two chosen ones in the spirit and power of Moses and Elijah who will prophesy concerning God and His coming judgments and who will resist the Antichrist and his forces.
Note carefully that Scripture indicates that they will be like Moses and Elijah, but does not say that they are Moses and Elijah.
ZECHARIAH 5:1-4
1 Then I turned and raised my eyes, and saw there a flying scroll.
2 And he said to me, “What do you see?”
So I answered, “I see a flying scroll. Its length is twenty cubits and its width ten cubits.”
3 Then he said to me, “This is the curse that goes out over the face of the whole earth: ‘Every thief shall be expelled,’ according to this side of the scroll; and, ‘Every perjurer shall be expelled,’ according to that side of it.”
4 “I will send out the curse,” says the Lord of hosts; “It shall enter the house of the thief and the house of the one who swears falsely by My name. It shall remain in the midst of his house and consume it, with its timber and stones.”
Zechariah sees a scroll whose length is 10 yards (30 feet / 9.1 meters) and whose width is 5 yards (15 feet / 4.5 meters) covered on both sides by a written curse from God. While hard to interpret, considering that Zechariah prophesied near the end of the Babylonian captivity, I suspect that God was about to purge the soon-to-return captives of Judah of their prime forms of wickedness.
ZECHARIAH 5:5-11
5 Then the angel who talked with me came out and said to me, “Lift your eyes now, and see what this is that goes forth.”
6 So I asked, “What is it?” And he said, “It is a basket that is going forth.” He also said, “This is their resemblance throughout the earth:
7 Here is a lead disc lifted up, and this is a woman sitting inside the basket”;
8 then he said, “This is Wickedness!” And he thrust her down into the basket, and threw the lead cover over its mouth.
9 Then I raised my eyes and looked, and there were two women, coming with the wind in their wings; for they had wings like the wings of a stork, and they lifted up the basket between earth and heaven.
10 So I said to the angel who talked with me, “Where are they carrying the basket?”
11 And he said to me, “To build a house for it in the land of Shinar; when it is ready, the basket will be set there on its base.”
This is a hard one.
The land of Shinar covers pretty much all of ancient Mesopotamia and has long been considered a source of wickedness. The first mention of it appears in Genesis;
GENESIS 10:8-12
8 Cush begot Nimrod; he began to be a mighty one on the earth.
9 He was a mighty hunter before the Lord; therefore it is said, “Like Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord.”
10 And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.
11 From that land he went to Assyria and built Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir, Calah,
12 and Resen between Nineveh and Calah (that is the principal city).
Nimrod, the grandson of Noah’s son Ham, is listed as the first king after the Flood and was reputedly a hunter of the souls of men. This could allude to ruthless conquests in setting up his kingdom, but we can only speculate here.
The cities he founded became some of the ancient major city-state empires of the Middle East; Assyria, Babylon; Ur; Akkad; Uruk (Erech) and others. The Tower of Babel was also built on the plain of Shinar.
Some of the cities, (Babylon and Assyria especially) were well known for their cruelty and brutality toward conquered enemies, such as flaying (skinning) people alive and nailing their skins to city walls, impalement (placing living people atop sharpened stakes and letting their own weight drive the stakes through them), to burning them alive in furnaces, among other things.
As God prophesied concerning the coming destruction of Judah and Jerusalem by the Babylonians;
EZEKIEL 7:23-24
23 ‘Make a chain, for the land is filled with crimes of blood, and the city is full of violence.
24 Therefore I will bring the worst of the Gentiles, and they will possess their houses; I will cause the pomp of the strong to cease, and their holy places shall be defiled.
Note that God calls the Babylonians “the worst of the Gentiles” because of their cruelty and brutality. (Assyria was worse, but had already been conquered by Babylon by this time so it is not mentioned).
As for the vision, I can only speculate here. I believe that the woman labeled as “wickedness” may refer to the Mesopotamian pagan female goddess Ishtar (also called Ashtoreth, Asherah, Astarte, Inanna) who was associated with fertility but was also a goddess of war.
Starting as early as 4,000 B.C. she was worshiped for thousands of years in the Middle East having started in the land of Shinar (present-day Iraq) and spreading throughout Mesoptamia as nations who worshiped her conquered their neighbors.
I think the lead seal atop the basket shows that her influence would be limited by God, although again I can only speculate here.
ZECHARIAH 6:1-8
1 Then I turned and raised my eyes and looked, and behold, four chariots were coming from between two mountains, and the mountains were mountains of bronze.
2 With the first chariot were red horses, with the second chariot black horses,
3 with the third chariot white horses, and with the fourth chariot dappled horses—strong steeds.
4 Then I answered and said to the angel who talked with me, “What are these, my lord?”
5 And the angel answered and said to me, “These are four spirits of heaven, who go out from their station before the Lord of all the earth.
6 The one with the black horses is going to the north country, the white are going after them, and the dappled are going toward the south country.”
7 Then the strong steeds went out, eager to go, that they might walk to and fro throughout the earth. And He said, “Go, walk to and fro throughout the earth.” So they walked to and fro throughout the earth.
8 And He called to me, and spoke to me, saying, “See, those who go toward the north country have given rest to My Spirit in the north country.”
Another somewhat hard one. Again I can only speculate here. While the destination of the red horses isn’t mentioned, red horses are usually associated with war. The Apostle John saw this in his vision of Revelation, when he said;
REVELATION 6:4
4 Another horse, fiery red, went out. And it was granted to the one who sat on it to take peace from the earth, and that people should kill one another; and there was given to him a great sword.
The black horses usually represents famine and starvation. John also saw this and said;
REVELATION 6:5-6
5 When He opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come and see.” So I looked, and behold, a black horse, and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand.
6 And I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not harm the oil and the wine.”
A silver denarius was the equivalent of a day’s wage for a skilled laborer. In today’s economy this would equate to about $50, which means that due to scarcity, 1 dry quart (.95 liters) of wheat or 3 dry quarts of barley (2.8 liters) would cost $50!!!
The white horses I believe in this case represent peace.
Considering what happened to the Northern Kingdom of Israel, this makes sense. The horses of war were the wrath of God brought by the Assyrians against Israel, the black horses represent the straits of famine and disease that plagued besieged cities.
The prophet Jeremiah prophesied of these things when God sent the Babylonians against Jerusalem;
JEREMIAH 19:8-9
8 I will make this city desolate and a hissing; everyone who passes by it will be astonished and hiss because of all its plagues.
9 And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and everyone shall eat the flesh of his friend in the siege and in the desperation with which their enemies and those who seek their lives shall drive them to despair.” ’
And;
JEREMIAH 24:10
10 And I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence among them, till they are consumed from the land that I gave to them and their fathers.’ ”
The white horses show the end of God’s wrath against the Northern Kingdom of Israel, for as He would later say to Jeremiah after the Northern Kingdom’s destruction;
JEREMIAH 3:11-13
11 Then the Lord said to me, “Backsliding Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah.
12 Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say: ‘Return, backsliding Israel,’ says the Lord; ‘I will not cause My anger to fall on you. For I am merciful,’ says the Lord; ‘I will not remain angry forever.
13 Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have transgressed against the Lord your God, and have scattered your charms to alien deities under every green tree, and you have not obeyed My voice,’ says the Lord.
The purpose of the dappled horses is unknown, unless it was to report on the activities of Judah. The meaning of the bronze mountains is unknown also.
ZECHARIAH 6:9-13
9 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
10 “Receive the gift from the captives—from Heldai, Tobijah, and Jedaiah, who have come from Babylon—and go the same day and enter the house of Josiah the son of Zephaniah.
11 Take the silver and gold, make an elaborate crown, and set it on the head of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest.
12 Then speak to him, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, saying: “Behold, the Man whose name is the BRANCH! From His place He shall branch out, and He shall build the Temple of the Lord;
13 Yes, He shall build the Temple of the Lord. He shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule on His throne; so He shall be a priest on His throne, and the counsel of peace shall be between them both.” ’
Remember, as discussed earlier, the name “Joshua” has been Anglicized to “Jesus” in the English language. We also discussed earlier that the one named “the Branch” referred to the promised Messiah, the descendant of king David of the tribe of Judah.
The Joshua spoken of above is from the tribe of Levi from whom the priests would be chosen, therefore he could not be the “Branch” who was supposed to be from the lineage of king David.
This Joshua was a symbol, showing that the coming Messiah would be King (descendant of king David, shown by the crown and throne) and Priest, uniting both offices in one Man, Jesus, the Son of God.
ZECHARIAH 6:14-15
14 “Now the elaborate crown shall be for a memorial in the temple of the Lord for Helem, Tobijah, Jedaiah, and Hen the son of Zephaniah.
15 Even those from afar shall come and build the temple of the Lord. Then you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent Me to you. And this shall come to pass if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God.”
The men mentioned above would return after the Babylonian captivity and would rebuild the Temple that Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar destroyed in 586 B.C. By this, Judah would know that Zechariah’s vision was a true vision from God.
ZECHARIAH 7:1-7
1 Now in the fourth year of King Darius it came to pass that the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, on the fourth day of the ninth month, Chislev,
2 when the people sent Sherezer, with Regem-Melech and his men, to the house of God, to pray before the Lord,
3 and to ask the priests who were in the house of the Lord of hosts, and the prophets, saying, “Should I weep in the fifth month and fast as I have done for so many years?”
4 Then the word of the Lord of hosts came to me, saying,
5 “Say to all the people of the land, and to the priests: ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months during those seventy years, did you really fast for Me—for Me?
6 When you eat and when you drink, do you not eat and drink for yourselves?
7 Should you not have obeyed the words which the Lord proclaimed through the former prophets when Jerusalem and the cities around it were inhabited and prosperous, and the South and the Lowland were inhabited?’ ”
The fourth year of Persian king Darius was about 518 B.C.
The fast of the 5th month was the commemoration of the destruction of Solomon’s Temple by the Babylonians in 586 B.C.
The fast of the 7th month is Yom Kippur, the great Day of Atonement, the holiest day of the year in Judaism in which the Jews as a nation fast and repent before the Lord of their wickedness during the year.
God pointed out that the established periods of mourning which were to commemorate key events in Jewish history had become a meaningless ritual to them during their captivity, despite the object lessons of God’s blessings for obedience and punishments for disobedience throughout their history.
Zechariah 7:8-14
8 Then the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, saying,
9 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Execute true justice, show mercy and compassion everyone to his brother.
10 Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. Let none of you plan evil in his heart against his brother.’
11 “But they refused to heed, shrugged their shoulders, and stopped their ears so that they could not hear.
12 Yes, they made their hearts like flint, refusing to hear the law and the words which the Lord of hosts had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets. Thus great wrath came from the Lord of hosts.
13 Therefore it happened, that just as He proclaimed and they would not hear, so they called out and I would not listen,” says the Lord of hosts.
14 “But I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations which they had not known. Thus the land became desolate after them, so that no one passed through or returned; for they made the pleasant land desolate.”
God makes His case concerning the causes of the misery and destruction of the nation of Judah resulting in the destruction of Jerusalem, the Temple and the deportation to Babylon of its people for 70 years. And just as they had not listen to Him when He pleaded with them, He did not listen when they pleaded with Him.
As a result, the fruitful land of Judah became a wasteland from not being tended or cultivated during their captivity.
ZECHARIAH 8:1-8
1 Again the word of the Lord of hosts came, saying,
2 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘I am zealous for Zion with great zeal; with great fervor I am zealous for her.’
3 “Thus says the Lord: ‘I will return to Zion, and dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. Jerusalem shall be called the City of Truth, the Mountain of the Lord of hosts, the Holy Mountain.’
4 “Thus says the Lord of hosts; ‘Old men and old women shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each one with his staff in his hand because of great age.
5 The streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets.’
6 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘If it is marvelous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in these days, will it also be marvelous in My eyes?’ says the Lord of hosts.
7 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Behold, I will save My people from the land of the east and from the land of the west;
8 I will bring them back, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. They shall be My people and I will be their God, in truth and righteousness.’
The people of Israel and Judah had been greatly reduced and captive in foreign lands. The Northern Kingdom of Israel had been destroyed in 721 B.C. and deported to Assyria and lands east. Babylon had in turn destroyed Assyria so when king Nebuchadnezzar deported the Jews of Judah to Babylon in 586 B.C., they were met by the remnants of the Jews from the Northern Kingdom who were taken to Babylon when Assyria was destroyed around 616 B.C.
God promised that their captivity would not be permanent, but that Jerusalem would be rebuilt and inhabited just like in days of old. But Jerusalem had now been in ruins for 68 years and most of those living in Babylon had never seen the city.
God’s promise becomes even greater since the Jews had no idea the amount of work that would be required to rebuild the city, or the opposition they would have from the surrounding nations trying to stop them.
For more detailed information concerning the task of rebuilding the city and the opposition of their enemies to the work, please see the study of the Book of Nehemiah in this site.
ZECHARIAH 8:9-17
9 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Let your hands be strong, you who have been hearing in these days these words by the mouth of the prophets, who spoke in the day the foundation was laid for the house of the Lord of hosts, that the temple might be built.
10 For before these days there were no wages for man nor any hire for beast; there was no peace from the enemy for whoever went out or came in; for I set all men, everyone, against his neighbor.
11 But now I will not treat the remnant of this people as in the former days,’ says the Lord of hosts.
12 ‘For the seed shall be prosperous, the vine shall give its fruit, the ground shall give her increase, and the heavens shall give their dew— I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all these.
13 And it shall come to pass that just as you were a curse among the nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so I will save you, and you shall be a blessing. Do not fear, let your hands be strong.’
14 “For thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Just as I determined to punish you when your fathers provoked Me to wrath,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘and I would not relent,
15 So again in these days I am determined to do good to Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. Do not fear.
16 These are the things you shall do: speak each man the truth to his neighbor; give judgment in your gates for truth, justice, and peace;
17 Let none of you think evil in your heart against your neighbor; and do not love a false oath. For all these are things that I hate,’ says the Lord.”
These were words of hope to the people who would return to the land of Judah after their long (70 year) captivity which would end in about 2 years. God promises that even though in His wrath He turned the nations against each other in former days, He would cause Judah to flourish.
These words of hope would be sorely needed by the returnees for Jerusalem had been in ruins for 70 years and it would require back-breaking work to rebuild it, especially its defensive walls. It would be even more difficult because of the resistance of Judah’s enemies who would seek to hinder them. For a detailed account of this, please see the study on the Book of Nehemiah in this site.
But God put conditions on His blessings, namely that Judah follow His commandments and judge righteously, and to not sin like their fathers.
ZECHARIAH 8:18-23
18 Then the word of the Lord of hosts came to me, saying,
19 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘The fast of the fourth month, the fast of the fifth, the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth, shall be joy and gladness and cheerful feasts for the house of Judah. Therefore love truth and peace.’
20 “Thus says the Lord of hosts; ‘Peoples shall yet come, inhabitants of many cities;
21 The inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, “Let us continue to go and pray before the Lord, and seek the Lord of hosts. I myself will go also.”
22 Yes, many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray before the Lord.’
23 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘In those days ten men from every language of the nations shall grasp the sleeve of a Jewish man, saying, “Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.” ’ ”
There are so many fast days in Judaism that it is sometimes hard to figure out which ones God was referring in verse 19 above. I have made a list below of what I believe God was referring to;
Fourth month - the day the Babylonians broke through the walls of Jerusalem.
Fifth month - Commemoration of the date of the destruction of the Temple by the Babylonians in 586 B.C.
Seventh month - Yom Kippur, the great Day of Atonement, when the Jews as a nation repent before God of their sins committed during the year.
Tenth month - Commemoration of the beginning of the siege of Jerusalem by Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar
God says that the time will come when these fast days will become feast days, and instead of sorrow there will be joy. Jerusalem will be a holy city to all nations and they will seek the Lord there.
As this has yet to happen, it will likely happen when Jesus Christ, the Messiah, returns to Earth and sets up His Millennial Kingdom.
ZECHARIAH 9:1-4
1 The burden of the word of the Lord against the land of Hadrach, and Damascus its resting place (for the eyes of men and all the tribes of Israel are on the Lord);
2 Also against Hamath, which borders on it, and against Tyre and Sidon, though they are very wise.
3 For Tyre built herself a tower, heaped up silver like the dust, and gold like the mire of the streets.
4 Behold, the Lord will cast her out; He will destroy her power in the sea, and she will be devoured by fire.
Hadrach (Syriac: “fortress”) is mentioned only once in the Bible, in verse 1 above and seems to indicate ancient Syria. Hamath in turn is an ancient town in Syria and is known today as Hama.
Tyre and Sidon are located to the west of Syria on the western Phoenician (Lebanese) coast. The ancient city of Tyre was actually on an island half a mile off-shore and was considered to be virtually impregnable. Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar besieged it for 13 years (586 - 573 B.C.) but was unable to conquer it mainly because he didn’t have a Navy to blockade the island.
The prophet Ezekiel was told by God;
EZEKIEL 29:17-20
17 And it came to pass in the twenty-seventh year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, that the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
18 “Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon caused his army to labor strenuously against Tyre; every head was made bald, and every shoulder rubbed raw; yet neither he nor his army received wages from Tyre, for the labor which they expended on it.
19 Therefore thus says the Lord God: ‘Surely I will give the land of Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; he shall take away her wealth, carry off her spoil, and remove her pillage; and that will be the wages for his army.
20 I have given him the land of Egypt for his labor, because they worked for Me,’ says the Lord God.
In 332 B.C. Alexander the Great besieged Tyre, first by setting up a naval blockade of the island. He then destroyed the coastal city facing the island (called Ushu) and used the stones of the city to build two land bridges (causeways) to the island for his army, siege engines and supplies.
Finally after a 7-month siege that saw many setbacks for Alexander he finally conquered the city as God prophesied in verse 4 above.
Sidon, also located in Lebanon was a major seafaring center and was famous for its glass-works and for the manufacture of deep purple dye, extracted with difficulty from the Murex (Venus Comb) snail and was so expensive that only the very rich and royalty could afford it.
Sidon, like Tyre, had been besieged and destroyed by both Nebuchadnezzar and Alexander.
ZECHARIAH 9:5-7
5 Ashkelon shall see it and fear; Gaza also shall be very sorrowful; and Ekron, for He dried up her expectation. The king shall perish from Gaza, and Ashkelon shall not be inhabited.
6 “A mixed race shall settle in Ashdod, and I will cut off the pride of the Philistines.
7 I will take away the blood from his mouth, and the abominations from between his teeth. But he who remains, even he shall be for our God, and shall be like a leader in Judah, and Ekron like a Jebusite.
The five cities of the Philistines (Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gath, Gaza and Ekron) fell to Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar in 605 B.C. After the Jews returned from their 70 year captivity in Babylon, some of them had married women of Ashdod producing mixed-race children as prophesied in verse 6 above.
Judah’s governor Nehemiah had to address this problem as Jerusalem was being rebuilt after the Babylonian captivity;
NEHEMIAH 13:23-24
23 In those days I also saw Jews who had married women of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab.
24 And half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod, and could not speak the language of Judah, but spoke according to the language of one or the other people.
ZECHARIAH 9:8
8 I will camp around My house because of the army, because of him who passes by and him who returns. No more shall an oppressor pass through them, for now I have seen with My eyes.
God promises to protect Jerusalem from its enemies. But then again, this is contingent on the inhabitants’ obedience to Him and His commandments.
ZECHARIAH 9:9
9 “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey.
This prophecy was fulfilled in 26 A.D. when Jesus Christ, Israel’s long-awaited Messiah, entered Jerusalem, acclaimed by the people;
MATTHEW 21:1-11
1 Now when they drew near Jerusalem, and came to Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples,
2 saying to them, “Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Loose them and bring them to Me.
3 And if anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord has need of them,’ and immediately he will send them.”
4 All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying:
5 “Tell the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your King is coming to you, lowly, and sitting on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey.’ ”
6 So the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them.
7 They brought the donkey and the colt, laid their clothes on them, and set Him on them.
8 And a very great multitude spread their clothes on the road; others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road.
9 Then the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out, saying: “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”
10 And when He had come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, “Who is this?”
11 So the multitudes said, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee.”
Calling Jesus “the Son of David” meant that the crowd knew that the Messiah was prophesied to be a descendant of King David and was proclaiming Jesus as the fulfillment of that prophecy.
ZECHARIAH 9:10
10 I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem; the battle bow shall be cut off. He shall speak peace to the nations; His dominion shall be ‘from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.’
This is a prophecy of what will happen when the Messiah returns. He will banish war completely and His rule will be world-wide. (Note: the River spoken of here is the Euphrates River)
This will also fulfill Isaiah’s prophecy of;
ISAIAH 2:1-4
1 The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
2 Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow to it.
3 Many people shall come and say, “Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
4 He shall judge between the nations, and rebuke many people; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.
ZECHARIAH 9:11
11 “As for you also, because of the blood of your covenant, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.
God is speaking to the Messiah, His Son, whose sacrifice of Himself as the only perfect offering for sin would free the spirits of those who died in obedience to the Law of Moses. Even though they had obeyed the Law, the Law required that a man follow its commandments (all 613 of them) to perfection all the days of their life, something sinful Man could never do.
As such they were sentenced to “the Pit”, as the animal sacrifices could only cover their sins, they could not remove them. Therefore even though they were righteous according to the Law, they were still sinners in God’s eyes.
With the atoning death of Jesus Christ, the sinless Son of God taking on and paying for the sins of Mankind, those who died in obedience to the Law were made perfect, and were allowed into Heaven at His resurrection.
ZECHARIAH 9:12-13
12 Return to the stronghold, you prisoners of hope. Even today I declare that I will restore double to you.
13 For I have bent Judah, My bow, fitted the bow with Ephraim, and raised up your sons, O Zion, against your sons, O Greece, and made you like the sword of a mighty man.”
This is a hard one, although if I had to guess, it refers to the future Jewish forces of Judas Maccabeus who fought and expelled the invading Greek forces of pagan Seleucid king Antiochus IV “Epiphanes” (Greek: God made manifest). Antiochus had considered himself a son of Zeus and had desecrated the Temple by sacrificing swine on the altar in 167 B.C.
ZECHARIAH 9:14-17
14 Then the Lord will be seen over them, and His arrow will go forth like lightning. The Lord God will blow the trumpet, and go with whirlwinds from the south.
15 The Lord of hosts will defend them; they shall devour and subdue with slingstones. They shall drink and roar as if with wine; they shall be filled with blood like basins, like the corners of the altar.
16 The Lord their God will save them in that day, as the flock of His people. For they shall be like the jewels of a crown, lifted like a banner over His land—
17 For how great is its goodness and how great its beauty! Grain shall make the young men thrive, and new wine the young women.
Ths is another hard one, but it seems to refer to when the Messiah, Jesus Christ returns during the war of Armageddon at the End of Days. We’ll see more of this in chapter 12.
ZECHARIAH 10:1-2
1 Ask the Lord for rain in the time of the latter rain. The Lord will make flashing clouds; He will give them showers of rain, grass in the field for everyone.
2 For the idols speak delusion; the diviners envision lies, and tell false dreams; they comfort in vain. Therefore the people wend their way like sheep; they are in trouble because there is no shepherd.
The “latter rains” were important as they softened the ground in the Fall after the baking summer heat, making the soil soft for planting. Asking God for rain acknowledges that He causes the blessings of rain and reminds Man that this is a gift from Him and not something to be taken for granted.
The supposed “prophets” misled the people, prophesying lies and falsehood for their own glory instead of teaching the people the truth. As a result the people had no idea who or what to believe. As God would prophesy 200 years earlier through Hosea;
HOSEA 4:6
6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.
Jesus also saw this when He was on Earth;
MATTHEW 9:35-36
35 Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.
36 But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd.
MARK 6:34
34 And Jesus, when He came out, saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion for them, because they were like sheep not having a shepherd. So He began to teach them many things.
ZECHARIAH 10:3-8
3 “My anger is kindled against the shepherds, and I will punish the goatherds. For the Lord of hosts will visit His flock, the house of Judah, and will make them as His royal horse in the battle.
4 From him comes the cornerstone, from him the tent peg, from him the battle bow, from him every ruler together.
5 They shall be like mighty men, who tread down their enemies in the mire of the streets in the battle. They shall fight because the Lord is with them, and the riders on horses shall be put to shame.
6 “I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph. I will bring them back, because I have mercy on them. They shall be as though I had not cast them aside; for I am the Lord their God, and I will hear them.
7 Those of Ephraim shall be like a mighty man, and their heart shall rejoice as if with wine. Yes, their children shall see it and be glad; their heart shall rejoice in the Lord.
8 I will whistle for them and gather them, for I will redeem them; and they shall increase as they once increased.
God again shows the primacy of the tribe of Judah through whom the Messiah would come. But notice also, He promises to rescue both houses of Israel (Judah, representing the tribes of Judah and Benjamin), and Joseph, (representing the remnant 10 tribes (called Ephraim, collectively) of the former Northern Kingdom of Israel).
ZECHARIAH 10:9-12
9 “I will sow them among the peoples, and they shall remember Me in far countries; they shall live, together with their children, and they shall return.
10 I will also bring them back from the land of Egypt, and gather them from Assyria. I will bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon, until no more room is found for them.
11 He shall pass through the sea with affliction, and strike the waves of the sea: all the depths of the River shall dry up. Then the pride of Assyria shall be brought down, and the scepter of Egypt shall depart.
12 “So I will strengthen them in the Lord, and they shall walk up and down in His name,” says the Lord.
When the Assyrians destroyed the Northern Kingdom of Israel in 721 B.C. the survivors were deported to Assyria, while some fled to Egypt. In verse 11 above God speaks of the River drying up, and this usually refers to the Euphrates river, but in this case it means the Tigris river.
In about 612 B.C. the Medes and Babylonians destroyed Nineveh, the capital city of Assyria by diverting the Tigris river against the walls of the city, melting the mud bricks in fulfillment of the prophecy given to Nahum against Nineveh;
NAHUM 2:6
6 The gates of the rivers are opened, and the palace is dissolved.
And in 342 B.C. the Persians conquered Egypt and ended the line of native Egyptian Pharaohs (Senedjemibre Nakhthorhebyt (Nectanebo II)) being the last. After that Egypt was ruled by successive empires (Persian, Greek, Roman) but never again became independent.
ZECHARIAH 11:1-6
1 Open your doors, O Lebanon, that fire may devour your cedars.
2 Wail, O cypress, for the cedar has fallen, because the mighty trees are ruined. Wail, O oaks of Bashan, for the thick forest has come down.
3 There is the sound of wailing shepherds! For their glory is in ruins. There is the sound of roaring lions! For the pride of the Jordan is in ruins.
4 Thus says the Lord my God, “Feed the flock for slaughter,
5 whose owners slaughter them and feel no guilt; those who sell them say, ‘Blessed be the Lord, for I am rich’; and their shepherds do not pity them.
6 For I will no longer pity the inhabitants of the land,” says the Lord. “But indeed I will give everyone into his neighbor’s hand and into the hand of his king. They shall attack the land, and I will not deliver them from their hand.”
God’s judgment is about to sweep the land from end to end. The cedars, oaks and cypress trees represent classes of people with cedars representing the rich and royal; oaks representing the mighty and strong and the cypresses representing the resilient common people.
Verse 3 could indicate drought, as the shepherds could be wailing because there is no pasture for their flocks. Packs of lions (called ‘prides’) inhabited the thick bushes on the banks of the Jordan river, and drought could force animals they preyed on to look elsewhere for water. The lions were roaring from hunger.
The flock being fed for slaughter by pitiless shepherds is more than likely referring to corrupt teachers and false ‘prophets’ feeding the people who supported and paid them, with lies, while unscrupulous merchants and the wealthy enrich themselves by dishonest means.
God in his wrath is about to turn every man against his neighbor, allowing them to reap what they have sown. They sowed violence and wickedness and they would reap violence and destruction in turn. They had no pity on others, neither will God show pity to them.
God had previously condemned the unrighteous teachers and corrupt leaders when He spoke through the prophet Ezekiel;
EZEKIEL 34:1-6
1 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
2 “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God to the shepherds: “Woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flocks?
3 You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool; you slaughter the fatlings, but you do not feed the flock.
4 The weak you have not strengthened, nor have you healed those who were sick, nor bound up the broken, nor brought back what was driven away, nor sought what was lost; but with force and cruelty you have ruled them.
5 So they were scattered because there was no shepherd; and they became food for all the beasts of the field when they were scattered.
6 My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and on every high hill; yes, My flock was scattered over the whole face of the earth, and no one was seeking or searching for them.”
The “shepherds” deceived the people with false teachings and lies even as they made themselves fat by demanding wages for their services, caring nothing for the physical and spiritual welfare of the people. This was just like the Pharisees and Sadducees whom Jesus condemned while here on Earth.
ZECHARIAH 11:7
7 So I fed the flock for slaughter, in particular the poor of the flock. I took for myself two staffs: the one I called Beauty, and the other I called Bonds; and I fed the flock.
Shepherds usually had two staffs, one for warding off wild animals, the other for directing the sheep in the direction he wanted them to go. This signified God’s protection and directing of His people.
The staff named ‘Beauty’ represented the glory of Israel in God’s eyes, the staff named ‘Bonds’ represented the brotherhood between the two houses of Israel. 10 of the tribes had earlier rebelled against king Solomon’s son (roughly 930 B.C.) forming the Northern Kingdom of Israel, (Samaria) leaving Judah and Benjamin to form the Southern Kingdom of Judah. There were frequent wars between the two kingdoms.
In 721 B.C. God destroyed the Northern Kingdom for their idolatry and wickedness by bringing the Assyrians upon them, and the survivors were deported to Assyria as captives.
Around 619 B.C. Assyria was destroyed by rival Babylon and the survivors, including the Jews of the former Northern Kingdom of Israel were absorbed into the Babylonian empire.
In 586 B.C. the Babylonians destroyed Judah because of their wickedness and deported the survivors to Babylon for 70 years where they were met by their brethren of the former Kingdom of Israel.
When the Jews were allowed to return after their captivity, the book of Ezra records that sacrifices were offered for all 12 tribes, showing that both houses of Israel were again reunited as shown by the ‘Bonds’ staff.
EZRA 6:17
17 And they offered sacrifices at the dedication of this house of God, one hundred bulls, two hundred rams, four hundred lambs, and as a sin offering for all Israel twelve male goats, according to the number of the tribes of Israel.
This also fulfilled God’s words to Ezekiel about 60 years previously when He said;
EZEKIEL 37:15-20
15 Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
16 “As for you, son of man, take a stick for yourself and write on it: ‘For Judah and for the children of Israel, his companions.’ Then take another stick and write on it, ‘For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel, his companions.’
17 Then join them one to another for yourself into one stick, and they will become one in your hand.
18 “And when the children of your people speak to you, saying, ‘Will you not show us what you mean by these?’—
19 say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Surely I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel, his companions; and I will join them with it, with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they will be one in My hand.” ’
20 And the sticks on which you write will be in your hand before their eyes.
ZECHARIAH 11:8-13
8 I dismissed the three shepherds in one month. My soul loathed them, and their soul also abhorred me.
9 Then I said, “I will not feed you. Let what is dying die, and what is perishing perish. Let those that are left eat each other’s flesh.”
10 And I took my staff, Beauty, and cut it in two, that I might break the covenant which I had made with all the peoples.
11 So it was broken on that day. Thus the poor of the flock, who were watching me, knew that it was the word of the Lord.
12 Then I said to them, “If it is agreeable to you, give me my wages; and if not, refrain.” So they weighed out for my wages thirty pieces of silver.
13 And the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the potter”—that princely price they set on me. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord for the potter.
The names and positions of the ‘shepherds’ is unknown but they were more than likely leaders or teachers chosen to teach God’s Word to the people. Whoever they were they were corrupt and were dismissed from their positions.
God has apparently had enough of appealing to the people and having them ignore Him and His teachings. He would now leave them to fend for themselves.
The thirty pieces of silver given at that time was the average cost of buying a slave. And 500 years later, as prophesied, the Great Shepherd Jesus Christ was betrayed by one of His disciples and sold to His enemies for thirty pieces of silver;
MATTHEW 26:14-16
14 Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests
15 and said, “What are you willing to give me if I deliver Him to you?” And they counted out to him thirty pieces of silver.
16 So from that time he sought opportunity to betray Him.
And as prophesied, the silver was given to the potter;
MATTHEW 27:1-8
1 When morning came, all the chief priests and elders of the people plotted against Jesus to put Him to death.
2 And when they had bound Him, they led Him away and delivered Him to Pontius Pilate the governor.
3 Then Judas, His betrayer, seeing that He had been condemned, was remorseful and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders,
4 saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.” and they said, “What is that to us? You see to it!”
5 Then he threw down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed, and went and hanged himself.
6 But the chief priests took the silver pieces and said, “It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, because they are the price of blood.”
7 And they consulted together and bought with them the potter’s field, to bury strangers in.
8 Therefore that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day.
ZECHARIAH 11:14-17
14 Then I cut in two my other staff, Bonds, that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.
15 And the Lord said to me, “Next, take for yourself the implements of a foolish shepherd.
16 For indeed I will raise up a shepherd in the land who will not care for those who are cut off, nor seek the young, nor heal those that are broken, nor feed those that still stand. But he will eat the flesh of the fat and tear their hooves in pieces.
17 “Woe to the worthless shepherd, who leaves the flock! A sword shall be against his arm and against his right eye; his arm shall completely wither, and his right eye shall be totally blinded.”
This is a difficult one, as the shepherd in question is not named, no time frame is given, and the description of his activities is somewhat vague. The withering of his right hand usually means an allegory showing a weakening of his strength and power and his right eye being blinded indicates weakness of intellect.
After the Jews returned from captivity in Babylon they were ruled by a series of governors until Alexander the Great conquered Judah in 332 B.C.
After Alexander’s death in 323 B.C. each of his four generals ripped a piece of his empire for themselves, of which two would greatly trouble Judah, namely Seleucus I who took Syria and Ptolemy I who conquered Egypt. Their descendants fought over Judah for 150 years, bringing much death and misery to the Jews.
After the final defeat of the Greek invaders by Judas Maccabeus in 160 B.C., a series of priests from what is called the Hasmonean dynasty proclaimed themselves as kings, uniting the priesthood with the kingly line. They ruled from 104 B.C. until 63 B.C. when the Romans under general Pompey invaded and conquered Judah.
Rome then installed “puppet kings” (the Herod dynasty) from 37 B.C. until the destruction of Judea by the Roman X and XIII legions in 73 A.D.
There were many corrupt and cruel rulers and High Priests who could have fulfilled Zechariah’s prophecy but with the vagueness of the description it is difficult to identify the shepherd in question.
ZECHARIAH 12:1-6
1 The burden of the word of the Lord against Israel. Thus says the Lord, who stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him:
2 “Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of drunkenness to all the surrounding peoples, when they lay siege against Judah and Jerusalem.
3 And it shall happen in that day that I will make Jerusalem a very heavy stone for all peoples; all who would heave it away will surely be cut in pieces, though all nations of the earth are gathered against it.
4 In that day,” says the Lord, “I will strike every horse with confusion, and its rider with madness; I will open My eyes on the house of Judah, and will strike every horse of the peoples with blindness.
5 And the governors of Judah shall say in their heart, ‘The inhabitants of Jerusalem are my strength in the Lord of hosts, their God.’
6 In that day I will make the governors of Judah like a firepan in the woodpile, and like a fiery torch in the sheaves; they shall devour all the surrounding peoples on the right hand and on the left, but Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place—Jerusalem.
We are seeing the beginnings of the fulfillment of this prophecy today as it is seldom that Israel isn’t in the news, usually being attacked, threatened or condemned by someone, namely the UN, Iran, Turkey, Hezbollah, Hamas, the “Palestinians”, far - Left, far - Right groups and the like.
The hatred of Israel and its people is growing and we’re seeing an alarming rise of anti-Semitism in Europe and the United States and rising calls for boycotts of Israeli products worldwide even though Israel has done nothing to deserve such antagonism.
God prophesies a coming time when He will make Jerusalem an irritant to the entire world and will bring all of the nations against Jerusalem. This fits right in with the apostle John’s vision of the final battle of Armageddon just before the return of Jesus Christ;
REVELATION 16:13-16
13 And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.
14 For they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.
15 “Behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame.”
16 And they gathered them together to the place called in Hebrew, Armageddon.
The Dragon in this vision is Satan, the ‘beast’ is the Antichrist and the ‘false prophet’ will be a religious leader in league with the Antichrist who will perform Satanic miracles in his presence. (For more information concerning the Last Days please see the End Times Studies in this Web site.)
At first, it will appear as if Jerusalem will be destroyed but according to a vision given to the prophet Daniel by an angel, just when it seems that all hope in Jerusalem is lost and the city will be destroyed, God will intervene and save Israel.
DANIEL 12:7
7 Then I heard the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand to heaven, and swore by Him who lives forever, that it shall be for a time, times, and half a time; and when the power of the holy people has been completely shattered, all these things shall be finished.
The ‘time, times, and half a time’ refers to the 3 ½ year rule of the Antichrist just before the final battle of Armageddon.
We’ll see more of the attack on Jerusalem and God’s intervention in chapter 14.
ZECHARIAH 12:7-9
7 “The Lord will save the tents of Judah first, so that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall not become greater than that of Judah.
8 In that day the Lord will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; the one who is feeble among them in that day shall be like David, and the house of David shall be like God, like the Angel of the Lord before them.
9 It shall be in that day that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
God will save the remnants of Judah and Jerusalem together and will empower His people into mighty men in battle. God will bring the armies of the wicked against Jerusalem so that He may destroy them all at once.
ZECHARIAH 12:10
10 “And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.
This is a clear reference to the return of Jesus Christ who was crucified with spikes being driven through His hands and feet and whose side was pierced by a Roman spear after His death on the cross.
This shows the fulfilled prophecies of the Suffering Servant when He hung on the cross;
PSALM 22:16-18
16 For dogs have surrounded Me; the congregation of the wicked has enclosed Me. They pierced My hands and My feet;
17 I can count all My bones. They look and stare at Me.
18 They divide My garments among them, and for My clothing they cast lots.
This psalm was fulfilled when Jesus was crucified. The apostle John who was present during the crucifixion recorded;
JOHN 19:23-24
23 Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took His garments and made four parts, to each soldier a part, and also the tunic. Now the tunic was without seam, woven from the top in one piece.
24 They said therefore among themselves, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be,” that the Scripture might be fulfilled which says: “They divided My garments among them, and for My clothing they cast lots.” Therefore the soldiers did these things.
The surviving Jews will realize at last that their promised Messiah had indeed come but they didn’t recognize Him because He first came as a ‘suffering servant” as prophesied by Isaiah, rather than a mighty, conquering hero as they expected;
ISAIAH 53:2-6
2 For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; and when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him.
3 He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
4 Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
ZECHARIAH 12:11-14
11 In that day there shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning at Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo.
12 And the land shall mourn, every family by itself: the family of the house of David by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Nathan by itself, and their wives by themselves;
13 the family of the house of Levi by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of Shimei by itself, and their wives by themselves;
14 all the families that remain, every family by itself, and their wives by themselves.
The survivors will finally understand God’s plan of salvation and they will be filled with remorse for not understanding their own Scriptures concerning the Messiah and being blind as to the salvation offered by Him.
The reference to Hadad Rimmon is unknown to scholars and both history and the Scriptures are silent on the issue.
ZECHARIAH 13:1
1 “In that day a fountain shall be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness.
This will be a future event which will occur after the Messiah returns, in fulfillment of the vision given to Ezekiel;
EZEKIEL 47:1-2
1 Then he brought me back to the door of the Temple; and there was water, flowing from under the threshold of the Temple toward the east, for the front of the temple faced east; the water was flowing from under the right side of the Temple, south of the altar.
2 He brought me out by way of the north gate, and led me around on the outside to the outer gateway that faces east; and there was water, running out on the right side.
EZEKIEL 42:7-12
7 When I returned, there, along the bank of the river, were very many trees on one side and the other.
8 Then he said to me: “This water flows toward the eastern region, goes down into the valley, and enters the sea. When it reaches the sea, its waters are healed.
9 And it shall be that every living thing that moves, wherever the rivers go, will live. There will be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters go there; for they will be healed, and everything will live wherever the river goes.
10 It shall be that fishermen will stand by it from En Gedi to En Eglaim; they will be places for spreading their nets. Their fish will be of the same kinds as the fish of the Great Sea, exceedingly many.
11 But its swamps and marshes will not be healed; they will be given over to salt.
12 Along the bank of the river, on this side and that, will grow all kinds of trees used for food; their leaves will not wither, and their fruit will not fail. They will bear fruit every month, because their water flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for medicine.
This is interesting in that En Gedi and En Eglaim are located to the west and south of the shores of the Dead Sea. God says that this fountain will heal the waters of the Dead Sea and it will be filled with fish.
The Dead Sea valley, called the Valley of Salt was once luxurious and well-watered, but has been a blasted, dry, salt-encrusted wasteland ever since God destroyed Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim with a firestorm as recorded in Genesis 19. The Dead Sea is named such as it is so salty and mineral-infused that nothing can live in it.
Yet God says that when the waters flow into the Dead Sea the land will be healed as well, with an abundance of trees. Note also, that salt is an important factor in the Middle East to maintain health, and God will allow salt to be harvested from the swamps and marshes of the Dead Sea.
ZECHARIAH 13:2-5
2 “It shall be in that day,” says the Lord of hosts, “that I will cut off the names of the idols from the land, and they shall no longer be remembered. I will also cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to depart from the land.
3 It shall come to pass that if anyone still prophesies, then his father and mother who begot him will say to him, ‘You shall not live, because you have spoken lies in the name of the Lord.’ And his father and mother who begot him shall thrust him through when he prophesies.
4 “And it shall be in that day that every prophet will be ashamed of his vision when he prophesies; they will not wear a robe of coarse hair to deceive.
5 But he will say, ‘I am no prophet, I am a farmer; for a man taught me to keep cattle from my youth.’
When the Messiah returns there will no longer be a need for prophets as God Himself will dwell with us here on Earth. Jesus will rule for 1,000 years during which time Satan and his demons will be imprisoned in Hell. As the Apostle John saw in Revelation;
REVELATION 20:1-3
1 Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.
2 He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years;
3 and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while.
Thus, as prophesied, the unclean spirits will be banished during Jesus’ reign on Earth. And as prophesied, the names of idols are no longer mentioned in Israel and are only footnotes in history today.
ZECHARIAH 13:6
6 And one will say to him, ‘What are these wounds between your arms?’ Then he will answer, ‘Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.’
This is a direct reference to the sufferings of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. The wounds described here could be referring to the nail holes in His hands where He was nailed to the cross, or the hideous wounds He suffered while being scourged by the Romans just before His crucifixion.
Scourging was a punishment that would make even battle-hardened Roman soldiers turn pale with fear. It was a brutal punishment, used many times to get information from prisoners or as a savage disciplinary example to others.
The victim to be scourged was stripped and tied to a post in a bent-over position with his arms over his head. A Roman soldier stood on either side of the victim with a whip containing two or three leather thongs tipped by a dumbbell-shaped piece of lead.
The soldiers would whip the victim repeatedly from neck to ankles, and the lead weights would cause deep bruising, tearing of skin and muscle, and internal hemorrhaging. Many died from the trauma of scourging.
So “wounds between the arms” could refer to either the nail holes in Jesus’ hands or the wounds on his back and thorax from scourging, or both.
ZECHARIAH 13:7
7 “Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, against the Man who is My Companion,” says the Lord of hosts. “Strike the Shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered; then I will turn My hand against the little ones.
This was fulfilled when Judas Iscariot led a mob from the Sanhedrin (Jewish High Council) to arrest Jesus while He was in the garden of Gethsemane with His disciples the night before His crucifixion. Scripture records;
MATTHEW 26:31-32
31 Then Jesus said to them, “All of you will be made to stumble because of Me this night, for it is written: ‘I will strike the Shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’
32 But after I have been raised, I will go before you to Galilee.”
And;
MATTHEW 26:47-56
47 And while He was still speaking, behold, Judas, one of the twelve, with a great multitude with swords and clubs, came from the chief priests and elders of the people.
48 Now His betrayer had given them a sign, saying, “Whomever I kiss, He is the One; seize Him.”
49 Immediately he went up to Jesus and said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” and kissed Him.
50 But Jesus said to him, “Friend, why have you come?” Then they came and laid hands on Jesus and took Him.
51 And suddenly, one of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword, struck the servant of the high priest, and cut off his ear.
52 But Jesus said to him, “Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.
53 Or do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels?
54 How then could the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must happen thus?”
55 In that hour Jesus said to the multitudes, “Have you come out, as against a robber, with swords and clubs to take Me? I sat daily with you, teaching in the temple, and you did not seize Me.
56 But all this was done that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples forsook Him and fled.
The kiss on the cheek that Judas gave Jesus to show the mob who to arrest is where we get the expression “the kiss of death”.
ZECHARIAH 13:8
8 And it shall come to pass in all the land,” says the Lord, “That two-thirds in it shall be cut off and die, but one-third shall be left in it:
I believe that this was fulfilled when the Romans finished their destruction of Judea in 73 A.D. According to Jewish general and historian Flavius Josephus, 1.1 million Jews died in the war, and 97,000 were enslaved and scattered through the Roman Empire.
Jesus had previously warned the people of this when He said;
LUKE 21:20-24
20 “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near.
21 Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those who are in the midst of her depart, and let not those who are in the country enter her.
22 For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.
23 But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! For there will be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people.
24 And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.
Some earlier historians (Eusebius, and Epiphanius) record that those who believed Jesus’ words fled Jerusalem and escaped its destruction. Therefore as per Zechariah 13:9 above, some Jews were still left in the Land and survived.
And in fulfillment of Luke 21:24 above, for 1,897 years (70 A.D. - 1967 A.D.) Jerusalem was under the control of foreigners until the Jewish army re-captured East Jerusalem from Arab forces in 1967 during the Six Day War.
ZECHARIAH 13:9
9 I will bring the one-third through the fire, will refine them as silver is refined, and test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘This is My people’; and each one will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’ ”
The Jews suffered terribly during their 1,878 years without a homeland, being persecuted, slaughtered and driven out of countries where they tried to settle and assimilate, with the Holocaust of World War II being the latest (and worst) when 6 million Jews perished in Nazi death camps.
The result was that the Jews realized that only in their ancient homeland could they hope to flourish as a race in fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy made 2,600 years ago;
ISAIAH 11:11
11 It shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall set His hand again the second time to recover the remnant of His people who are left, from Assyria and Egypt, from Pathros and Cush, from Elam and Shinar, from Hamath and the islands of the sea.
Note carefully that God says He will recover the remnant of His people “the second time” back to the Land. This was prophesied 100 years before the Jews were cast out of the Land for the first time in 586 B.C. by the Babylonians and were cast out the second time by the Romans in 70 A.D.
2,500 years ago the prophet Ezekiel in his prophecy of events leading up to World War III wrote of Israel’s resurrection as a nation, which happened on May 8, 1948. (For more information about the resurrection of the State of Israel, please see the End Times Studies in this site).
ZECHARIAH 14:1-5
1 Behold, the day of the Lord is coming, and your spoil will be divided in your midst.
2 For I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem; the city shall be taken, the houses rifled, and the women ravished. Half of the city shall go into captivity, but the remnant of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
3 Then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations, as He fights in the day of battle.
4 And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two, from east to west, making a very large valley; half of the mountain shall move toward the north and half of it toward the south.
5 Then you shall flee through My mountain valley, for the mountain valley shall reach to Azal. Yes, you shall flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Thus the Lord my God will come, and all the saints with You.
When the Bible speaks of “the Day of the Lord”, it is usually a time of wrath and terror, as prophesied by Isaiah;
ISAIAH 13:6-13
6 Wail, for the day of the Lord is at hand! It will come as destruction from the Almighty.
7 Therefore all hands will be limp, every man’s heart will melt,
8 And they will be afraid. Pangs and sorrows will take hold of them; they will be in pain as a woman in childbirth; they will be amazed at one another; their faces will be like flames.
9 Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel, with both wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate; and He will destroy its sinners from it.
10 For the stars of heaven and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be darkened in its going forth, and the moon will not cause its light to shine.
11 “I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will halt the arrogance of the proud, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
12 I will make a mortal more rare than fine gold, a man more than the golden wedge of Ophir.
13 Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth will move out of her place, in the wrath of the Lord of hosts and in the day of His fierce anger.
Scholars and historians have wrestled with Zechariah 14:2-5 for centuries, with some believing that God saying that He will “gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem” refers to the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.
However while the Roman Empire included many nations, it didn’t include all of the nations as specified in Zechariah 14:2 above. I think the key to the timing of this event can be found in a careful reading of Revelation 16:12-16, which says;
REVELATION 16:12-16
12 Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, so that the way of the kings from the east might be prepared.
13 And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.
14 For they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.
15 “Behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame.”
16 And they gathered them together to the place called in Hebrew, Armageddon.
Verse 14 above says that demons coming from the mouth of the Dragon (Satan), the Beast (Antichrist) and his False Prophet will gather all of the nations to Armageddon.
I believe that the part in verse 2 about the city being taken and half the city going into captivity may occur at the beginning of the Armageddon battle. The forces coming against Jerusalem may capture and plunder half of the city before they’re driven back to the Valley of Megiddo (Armageddon) by the forces of the one called the Antichrist.
Note also that while half the city will go into captivity, no time-frame is given as to how long they will be captive, or where they will be taken.
Beneath the Mount of Olives runs a East / West fault line which bisects the mountain. Thus while it would take a massive earthquake to split the mountain, the fault line is already there, something only discovered by geologists in 1964.
Such a massive earthquake would certainly affect Jerusalem just a few miles to the West. Take Zechariah 14:13 below;
ZECHARIAH 14:13
13 Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth will move out of her place, in the wrath of the Lord of hosts and in the day of His fierce anger.
And compare it with this quote from the Book of Isaiah;
ISAIAH 24:17-20
17 Fear and the pit and the snare are upon you, O inhabitant of the earth.
18 And it shall be that he who flees from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit, and he who comes up from the midst of the pit shall be caught in the snare; for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth are shaken.
19 The earth is violently broken, the earth is split open, the earth is shaken exceedingly.
20 The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall totter like a hut; its transgression shall be heavy upon it, and it will fall, and not rise again.
And from the Book of Revelation;
REVELATION 16:17-21
17 Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, “It is done!”
18 And there were noises and thunderings and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such a mighty and great earthquake as had not occurred since men were on the earth.
19 Now the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. And great Babylon was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath.
20 Then every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.
21 And great hail from heaven fell upon men, each hailstone about the weight of a talent. Men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, since that plague was exceedingly great.
They all seem to be talking about the same event.
Israel has been plagued with earthquakes throughout its history, including the one at Jesus’ death;
MATTHEW 27:50-54
50 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit.
51 Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split,
52 and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised;
53 and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many.
54 So when the centurion and those with him, who were guarding Jesus, saw the earthquake and the things that had happened, they feared greatly, saying, “Truly this was the Son of God!”
And another at His resurrection.
MATTHEW 28:1-8
1 Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb.
2 And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat on it.
3 His countenance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow.
4 And the guards shook for fear of him, and became like dead men.
5 But the angel answered and said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified.
6 He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.
7 And go quickly and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead, and indeed He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him. Behold, I have told you.”
8 So they went out quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to bring His disciples word.
In 1997 core samples taken from the coastline of the Dead Sea record that an earthquake hit the region between 26-30 A.D. Jesus was crucified and arose from the dead in 26 A.D.
Just to the East of Jerusalem is the Jordan Valley which is part of the great African Rift which is a 3,700 mile (6,000 km) long fault line running from the El Bekaa valley in Western Lebanon, South through the Jordan Valley, alongside the West coast of the Dead Sea, underneath the Red Sea and into Mozambique in East Africa.
The fault is slowly widening which will someday split East Africa away from the African continent and has caused earthquakes and volcanic activity in the past.
ZECHARIAH 14:6-8
6 It shall come to pass in that day that there will be no light; the lights will diminish.
7 It shall be one day which is known to the Lord— neither day nor night. But at evening time it shall happen that it will be light.
8 And in that day it shall be that living waters shall flow from Jerusalem, half of them toward the eastern sea and half of them toward the western sea; in both summer and winter it shall occur.
Verse 6 agrees with Isaiah, who said;
ISAIAH 13:10
10 For the stars of heaven and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be darkened in its going forth, and the moon will not cause its light to shine.
Also with the prophet Joel who said;
JOEL 2:30-31
30 “And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: blood and fire and pillars of smoke.
31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.
And with the Book of Revelation;
REVELATION 6:12-17
12 I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood.
13 And the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind.
14 Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place.
15 And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains,
16 and said to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!
17 For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”
ZECHARIAH 14:7
7 It shall be one day which is known to the Lord— neither day nor night. But at evening time it shall happen that it will be light.
The above verse agrees with Revelation which says;
REVELATION 21:23-24
23 The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light.
24 And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it.
ZECHARIAH 14:8
8 And in that day it shall be that living waters shall flow from Jerusalem, half of them toward the eastern sea and half of them toward the western sea; in both summer and winter it shall occur.
This verse agrees with Ezekiel’s prophecy of;
EZEKIEL 47:1-2
1 Then he brought me back to the door of the temple; and there was water, flowing from under the threshold of the temple toward the east, for the front of the temple faced east; the water was flowing from under the right side of the temple, south of the altar.
2 He brought me out by way of the north gate, and led me around on the outside to the outer gateway that faces east; and there was water, running out on the right side.
The waters that flow eastward will flow through the Jordan Valley, and according to God’s words to Ezekiel in the book of Ezekiel, chapter 47, the waters will flow into and heal the Dead Sea, which will become full of fish.
The waters flowing to the West will flow into the Mediterranean Sea and will heal the sea, for as the Book of Revelation says;
REVELATION 16:3
3 Then the second angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it became blood as of a dead man; and every living creature in the sea died.
ZECHARIAH 14:9-10
9 And the Lord shall be King over all the earth. In that day it shall be— “The Lord is one,” and His name one.
10 All the land shall be turned into a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem. Jerusalem shall be raised up and inhabited in her place from Benjamin’s Gate to the place of the First Gate and the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the king’s winepresses.
The locations of Geba and Rimmon are uncertain, but it appears that when the Messiah returns, the area will be leveled and made into a plain. With the uncertainty of the locations, it’s difficult to speculate on how this might happen.
ZECHARIAH 14:11-15
11 The people shall dwell in it; and no longer shall there be utter destruction, but Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited.
12 And this shall be the plague with which the Lord will strike all the people who fought against Jerusalem: their flesh shall dissolve while they stand on their feet, their eyes shall dissolve in their sockets, and their tongues shall dissolve in their mouths.
13 It shall come to pass in that day that a great panic from the Lord will be among them. Everyone will seize the hand of his neighbor, and raise his hand against his neighbor’s hand;
14 Judah also will fight at Jerusalem. And the wealth of all the surrounding nations shall be gathered together: gold, silver, and apparel in great abundance.
15 Such also shall be the plague on the horse and the mule, on the camel and the donkey, and on all the cattle that will be in those camps. So shall this plague be.
This plague seems to be one in which intense light will consume the flesh of the attacking armies, although this is only speculation. Reports from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan were recorded as having had similar effects on people facing the flash when the two nuclear bombs exploded during WW II.
I suspect that the wealth spoken of in verse 14 will be offerings brought by the nations to the Lord when He returns to rule the Earth.
ZECHARIAH 14:16-21
16 And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.
17 And it shall be that whichever of the families of the earth do not come up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, on them there will be no rain.
18 If the family of Egypt will not come up and enter in, they shall have no rain; they shall receive the plague with which the Lord strikes the nations who do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.
19 This shall be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.
20 In that day “HOLINESS TO THE LORD” shall be engraved on the bells of the horses. The pots in the Lord’s house shall be like the bowls before the altar.
21 Yes, every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be holiness to the Lord of hosts. Everyone who sacrifices shall come and take them and cook in them. In that day there shall no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts.
Scripture says that when the Messiah returns to rule the Earth, His reign will be strict, but fair. King David first spoke of this when he prophesied concerning the Messiah;
PSALMS 2:7-9
7 “I will declare the decree: The Lord has said to Me, ‘You are My Son, today I have begotten You.
8 Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance, and the ends of the Earth for Your possession.
9 You shall break them with a rod of iron; You shall dash them to pieces like a potter’s vessel.’ ”
John saw a vision of the birth of the Messiah and recorded;
REVELATION 12:5
5 She bore a male Child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her Child was caught up to God and His throne.
Sin and rebellion will still be in the world when the Messiah returns, thus the prescribed punishments laid out above.
The Feast of Tabernacles (Latin: “tabernaculum”, ‘tents’) commemorates Israel’s journey through the desert during which they lived in tents. It also includes celebrating the Fall harvest. In modern Israel people build temporary “booths” (Hebrew: “sukkot”), decorate them with branches and vines and live in them during the 7 days of the festival.
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