Chapter 14 announces the
final events that shall bring in this result, as chapter
13 had especially detailed that which regarded Christ.
The two subjects of chapter 12 are thus resumed in
detail.
We may remark here, that
the effect of the staff being broken, which united Judah
and Israel, is here realised. The prophet speaks only of
Judah, of the people who in the land were guilty of
rejecting the Messiah, and who will suffer the
consequence of so doing in the land during the last days,
the mass of them at that time joining themselves to
Antichrist. Jerusalem, as we have said, forms the centre
of the prophecy. No prophet could perish outside her
borders. What a terrible thing to be outwardly near God
when one is not so inwardly, and when the heart invests
itself with the name of God as with a cloak of
pride—as a buckler, so that His arrows no longer
reach the conscience!
Jerusalem taken:
Jehovah's intervention in the Person of Christ on the
Mount of Olives
Nevertheless, in spite of
her pride and her confederacy with evil, Jerusalem shall
be taken in the last days. We have seen, when studying
the other prophets, that this will be the case; and then
afterwards, when again besieged, Jehovah will intervene
for the destruction of these enemies. This is very
distinctly announced here. The nations shall be assembled
by Jehovah; the city shall be taken and the houses
rifled, and half the people led captive. Jehovah will
then come forth against those nations, as we read in
chapter 12 (compare Isaiah 66 and Micah 4). He comes in
the Person of Christ to the Mount of Olives, whence He
ascended. The Mount of Olives cleaves in the midst,
forming a great valley, spreading terror among the people
who are there. But if Jehovah identifies Himself thus, so
to speak, with the meek and lowly Jesus formerly on the
earth, in order that the identity of the Saviour and
Jehovah should be clearly acknowledged, it is not the
less true that He will come from heaven in all His glory
(as He Himself predicted, as well as the prophets
beginning with Enoch). The heavenly saints will accompany
Him in His public manifestation to the eyes of an
astonished world. Marvellous glory for those that are
His, with whom He will manifest Himself before all the
wicked! For here it is Jehovah's public coming to the
earth, as the righteous Judge, making war upon all that
rebel against Him.
Jehovah's coming
to the earth as the Righteous Judge: His visible
relationship with Judah
I do not see that the
last-mentioned event follows that which precedes it in
the chapter. There is a division in the middle of verse
5. "And Jehovah my God shall come" begins a
fresh subject, introducing a grand distinct event, which
affects the whole earth in a manner that characterises
its future existence. The presence of Jehovah upon the
Mount of Olives renews, we may say, His visible
relationship with Judah. This part of the subject closes
with the words, "Uzziah, king of Judah." That
which follows is intimately connected with the return of
Christ to the Jews, in the very spot from which He left
this earth; but it looks at it from a higher point of
view, and takes up the subject of the relationship of
Jehovah with the whole earth, when He comes from heaven
with the saints. This is another part of the subject and
a very important one.
The day of mingled
light and darkness
The meaning of the rather
difficult passage that follows has, I think, been given,
as to its general sense, by Martin in his French
translation. The Hebrew is acknowledged to be obscure. It
may be, perhaps, translated, "there shall not be a
precious light [which] shall be withdrawn." It is
"a light of preciousness and denseness"; the
last word may be taken for "shall be
withdrawn." It shall not be a day of mingled light
and darkness, but a day appointed by Jehovah, a day
characterised by His intervention and His mighty
presence, and that could not be characterised by the
ordinary vicissitudes of night and day; but, at the
moment when the total darkness of night might be
expected, there should be light. Living waters should
flow from Jerusalem towards the east and towards the
west, into the Dead Sea and into the Great Sea. The heat
of summer should not dry up their source.
"One Jehovah,
and His name one": universal holiness
Jehovah shall be God over
all the earth; there shall be but one Jehovah, and His
name one. It shall be truly one universal religion, the
dominion of the one Jehovah, the God of the Jews, over
all the earth. The land round Jerusalem shall be entirely
peopled, and Jerusalem lifted up and securely inhabited
in her place. There shall be no more any destruction of
the city which Jehovah has chosen. A deadly plague shall
smite all those that have fought against her. They shall
mutually destroy each other. Judah shall also fight
against them, and their riches shall be her prey. The
remnant that are spared among the nations shall come up
to Jerusalem, to the feast in which the entrance of God's
people into their rest is celebrated. And all shall be
holiness; everything in Jerusalem shall be consecrated to
Jehovah.
Zechariah 14 Bible Commentary
John Darby’s Synopsis
Chapter 14 announces the final events that shall bring in this result, as chapter 13 had especially detailed that which regarded Christ. The two subjects of chapter 12 are thus resumed in detail.
We may remark here, that the effect of the staff being broken, which united Judah and Israel, is here realised. The prophet speaks only of Judah, of the people who in the land were guilty of rejecting the Messiah, and who will suffer the consequence of so doing in the land during the last days, the mass of them at that time joining themselves to Antichrist. Jerusalem, as we have said, forms the centre of the prophecy. No prophet could perish outside her borders. What a terrible thing to be outwardly near God when one is not so inwardly, and when the heart invests itself with the name of God as with a cloak of pride—as a buckler, so that His arrows no longer reach the conscience!
Jerusalem taken: Jehovah's intervention in the Person of Christ on the Mount of Olives
Nevertheless, in spite of her pride and her confederacy with evil, Jerusalem shall be taken in the last days. We have seen, when studying the other prophets, that this will be the case; and then afterwards, when again besieged, Jehovah will intervene for the destruction of these enemies. This is very distinctly announced here. The nations shall be assembled by Jehovah; the city shall be taken and the houses rifled, and half the people led captive. Jehovah will then come forth against those nations, as we read in chapter 12 (compare Isaiah 66 and Micah 4). He comes in the Person of Christ to the Mount of Olives, whence He ascended. The Mount of Olives cleaves in the midst, forming a great valley, spreading terror among the people who are there. But if Jehovah identifies Himself thus, so to speak, with the meek and lowly Jesus formerly on the earth, in order that the identity of the Saviour and Jehovah should be clearly acknowledged, it is not the less true that He will come from heaven in all His glory (as He Himself predicted, as well as the prophets beginning with Enoch). The heavenly saints will accompany Him in His public manifestation to the eyes of an astonished world. Marvellous glory for those that are His, with whom He will manifest Himself before all the wicked! For here it is Jehovah's public coming to the earth, as the righteous Judge, making war upon all that rebel against Him.
Jehovah's coming to the earth as the Righteous Judge: His visible relationship with Judah
I do not see that the last-mentioned event follows that which precedes it in the chapter. There is a division in the middle of verse 5. "And Jehovah my God shall come" begins a fresh subject, introducing a grand distinct event, which affects the whole earth in a manner that characterises its future existence. The presence of Jehovah upon the Mount of Olives renews, we may say, His visible relationship with Judah. This part of the subject closes with the words, "Uzziah, king of Judah." That which follows is intimately connected with the return of Christ to the Jews, in the very spot from which He left this earth; but it looks at it from a higher point of view, and takes up the subject of the relationship of Jehovah with the whole earth, when He comes from heaven with the saints. This is another part of the subject and a very important one.
The day of mingled light and darkness
The meaning of the rather difficult passage that follows has, I think, been given, as to its general sense, by Martin in his French translation. The Hebrew is acknowledged to be obscure. It may be, perhaps, translated, "there shall not be a precious light [which] shall be withdrawn." It is "a light of preciousness and denseness"; the last word may be taken for "shall be withdrawn." It shall not be a day of mingled light and darkness, but a day appointed by Jehovah, a day characterised by His intervention and His mighty presence, and that could not be characterised by the ordinary vicissitudes of night and day; but, at the moment when the total darkness of night might be expected, there should be light. Living waters should flow from Jerusalem towards the east and towards the west, into the Dead Sea and into the Great Sea. The heat of summer should not dry up their source.
"One Jehovah, and His name one": universal holiness
Jehovah shall be God over all the earth; there shall be but one Jehovah, and His name one. It shall be truly one universal religion, the dominion of the one Jehovah, the God of the Jews, over all the earth. The land round Jerusalem shall be entirely peopled, and Jerusalem lifted up and securely inhabited in her place. There shall be no more any destruction of the city which Jehovah has chosen. A deadly plague shall smite all those that have fought against her. They shall mutually destroy each other. Judah shall also fight against them, and their riches shall be her prey. The remnant that are spared among the nations shall come up to Jerusalem, to the feast in which the entrance of God's people into their rest is celebrated. And all shall be holiness; everything in Jerusalem shall be consecrated to Jehovah.