Zechariah 14:1-7
Christian Standard Bible
The Lord’s Triumph and Reign
14 Look, a day belonging to the Lord is coming(A) when the plunder taken from you will be divided in your presence. 2 I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem for battle.(B) The city will be captured, the houses looted, and the women raped. Half the city will go into exile, but the rest of the people will not be removed from the city.
3 Then the Lord will go out to fight against those nations as he fights on a day of battle.(C) 4 On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives,(D) which faces Jerusalem on the east. The Mount of Olives will be split in half from east to west, forming a huge valley, so that half the mountain will move to the north and half to the south. 5 You will flee by my mountain valley,[a] for the valley of the mountains will extend to Azal. You will flee as you fled[b] from the earthquake in the days of King Uzziah of Judah.(E) Then the Lord my God will come and all the holy ones(F) with him.[c](G)
6 On that day there will be no light; the sunlight and moonlight will diminish.[d][e](H) 7 It will be a unique day known only to the Lord,(I) without day or night, but there will be light at evening.
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Zechariah 14:1-7
New English Translation
The Sovereignty of the Lord
14 A day of the Lord[a] is about to come when your possessions[b] will be divided as plunder in your midst. 2 For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to wage war; the city will be taken, its houses plundered, and the women raped. Then half of the city will go into exile, but the remainder of the people will not be taken away.[c]
3 Then the Lord will go to battle[d] and fight against those nations, just as he fought battles in ancient days.[e] 4 On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives that lies to the east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in half from east to west, leaving a great valley. Half the mountain will move northward and the other half southward.[f] 5 Then you will escape[g] through my mountain valley, for the valley of the mountains will extend to Azal.[h] Indeed, you will flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of King Uzziah[i] of Judah. Then the Lord my God will come with all his holy ones with him. 6 On that day there will be no light—the sources of light in the heavens will congeal.[j] 7 It will happen in one day—a day known to the Lord—not in the day or the night, but in the evening there will be light.[k]
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- Zechariah 14:1 sn The eschatological day of the Lord described here (and through v. 8) is considered by many interpreters to refer to the period known as the great tribulation, a seven year time of great suffering by God’s (Jewish) people culminating in the establishing of the millennial reign of the Lord (vv. 9-21). For other OT and NT references to this aspect of the day of the Lord see Amos 9:8-15; Joel 1:15-2:11; Isa 1:24-31; 2:2-4; 4:2-6; 26:16-27:6; 33:13-24; 59:1-60:22; 65:13-25; Jer 30:7-11; 32:36-44; Ezek 20:33-44; Dan 11:40; 12:1; Matt 24:21, 29; 25:31-46; Rev 19:11-16.
- Zechariah 14:1 tn Heb “your plunder.” Cf. NCV “the wealth you have taken.”
- Zechariah 14:2 tn Heb “not be cut off from the city” (so NRSV); NAB “not be removed.”
- Zechariah 14:3 sn The statement the Lord will go to battle introduces the conflict known elsewhere as the “battle of Armageddon,” a battle in which the Lord delivers his people and establishes his millennial reign (cf. Joel 3:12, 15-16; Ezek 38-39; Rev 16:12-21; 19:19-21).
- Zechariah 14:3 tn Heb “as he fights on a day of battle” (similar NASB, NIV, NRSV).
- Zechariah 14:4 sn This seismic activity provides a means of escape from Jerusalem so that the Messiah (the Lord), whose feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, may destroy the wicked nations in the Kidron Valley (the v. of Jehoshaphat, or of “judgment of the Lord”) without harming the inhabitants of the city.
- Zechariah 14:5 tc For the MT reading נַסְתֶּם (nastem, “you will escape”) the LXX presupposes נִסְתַּם (nistam, “will be stopped up”; this reading is followed by NAB). This appears to derive from a perceived need to eliminate the unexpected “you” as subject. This not only is unnecessary to Hebrew discourse (see “you” in the next clause), but it contradicts the statement in the previous verse that the mountain will be split open, not stopped up.
- Zechariah 14:5 sn Azal is a place otherwise unknown.
- Zechariah 14:5 sn The earthquake in the days of King Uzziah, also mentioned in Amos 1:1, is apparently the one attested to at Hazor in 760 b.c.
- Zechariah 14:6 tn Heb “the splendid will congeal.” This difficult phrase (MT יְקָרוֹת יְקִפָּאוֹן, yeqarot yeqippaʾon) is not clarified by the LXX which presupposes וְקָרוּת וְקִפָּאוֹן (veqarut veqippaʾon, “and cold and ice,” a reading followed by NAB, NIV, NCV, NRSV, TEV). Besides the fact that cold and ice do not necessarily follow the absence of light, the idea here is that day will be night and night day. The heavenly sources of light “freeze up” as it were, and refuse to shine.
- Zechariah 14:7 sn In the evening there will be light. The normal pattern is that light breaks through in the morning (Gen 1:3) but in the day of the Lord in judgment it would do so in the evening. In a sense the universe will be “de-created” in order to be “recreated.”
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