141 Note well: God's Judgment Day is on the way: "Plunder will be piled high and handed out. 2 I'm bringing all the godless nations to war against Jerusalem - Houses plundered, women raped, Half the city taken into exile, the other half left behind." 3 But then God will march out against the godless nations and fight - a great war! 4 That's the Day he'll take his stand on the Mount of Olives, facing Jerusalem from the east. The Mount of Olives will be split right down the middle, from east to west, leaving a wide valley. Half the mountain will shift north, the other half south. 5 Then you will run for your lives down the valley, your escape route that will take you all the way to Azal. You'll run for your lives, just as you ran on the day of the great earthquake in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah. Then my God will arrive and all the holy angels with him. 6 What a Day that will be! No more cold nights - in fact, no more nights! 7 The Day is coming - the timing is God's - when it will be continuous day. Every evening will be a fresh morning.
8 What a Day that will be! Fresh flowing rivers out of Jerusalem, half to the eastern sea, half to the western sea, flowing year-round, summer and winter! 9 God will be king over all the earth, one God and only one. What a Day that will be! 10 The land will stretch out spaciously around Jerusalem - to Geba in the north and Rimmon in the south, with Jerusalem towering at the center, and the commanding city gates - Gate of Benjamin to First Gate to Corner Gate to Hananel Tower to the Royal Winery - ringing the city 11 full of people. Never again will Jerusalem be totally destroyed. From now on it will be a safe city. 12 But this is what will happen to all who fought against Jerusalem: God will visit them with a terrible plague. People's flesh will rot off their bones while they are walking around; their eyes will rot in their sockets and their tongues in their mouths; people will be dying on their feet! 13 Mass hysteria when that happens - total panic! Fellow soldiers fighting and killing each other - holy terror!
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Zechariah 14:1-13
Commentary on Zechariah 14:1-7
(Read Zechariah 14:1-7)
The Lord Jesus often stood upon the Mount of Olives when on earth. He ascended from thence to heaven, and then desolations and distresses came upon the Jewish nation. Such is the view taken of this figuratively; but many consider it as a notice of events yet unfulfilled, and that it relates to troubles of which we cannot now form a full idea. Every believer, being related to God as his God, may triumph in the expectation of Christ's coming in power, and speak of it with pleasure. During a long season, the state of the church would be deformed by sin; there would be a mixture of truth and error, of happiness and misery. Such is the experience of God's people, a mingled state of grace and corruption. But, when the season is at the worst, and most unpromising, the Lord will turn darkness into light; deliverance comes when God's people have done looking for it.
Commentary on Zechariah 14:8-15
(Read Zechariah 14:8-15)
Some consider that the progress of the gospel, beginning from Jerusalem, is referred to by the living waters flowing from that city. Neither shall the gospel and means of grace, nor the graces of the Spirit wrought in the hearts of believers by those means, ever fail, by reason either of the heat of persecution, or storms of temptation, or the blasts of any other affliction. Tremendous judgments appear to be foretold, to be sent upon those who should oppose the settlement of the Jews in their own land. How far they are to be understood literally, events alone can determine. The furious rage and malice which stir up men against each other, are faint shadows of the enmity which reigns among those who have perished in their sins. Even the inferior creatures often suffer for the sin of man, and in his plagues. Thus God will show his displeasure against sin.