Zechariah 14 explained: The LORD Becomes King of All

The city falls (vv. 1-3)

Nations capture Jerusalem, loot its homes, rape its women and take half its people into exile, and verse 2 says God himself gathers them there. Then the LORD turns and fights those same nations, as he fought for Israel in earlier battles.

The mountain splits (vv. 4-5)

The LORD stands on the Mount of Olives, just east of the city, and it splits into a valley the people flee through, as they once fled a remembered earthquake under King Uzziah. Christians often link this hill to Jesus leaving the earth in Acts 1; some expect a literal return there, while others read it as a picture of the way to God opening to all peoples.

Light, water, one King (vv. 6-11)

Verses 6 and 7 are hard to translate and versions differ, but they picture a unique day when light comes at evening, and living water flows from Jerusalem to the eastern and western seas all year. The LORD becomes king of the whole earth, worshiped as the one God, while the land around is leveled and Jerusalem is raised high and kept safe.

Plague on the attackers (vv. 12-15)

A plague rots the attackers' flesh, eyes and tongues while they still stand, and it strikes their animals too. Panic sets them against each other, Judah fights at Jerusalem, and the nations' wealth is gathered up, reversing the plunder of verse 1.

All nations at the festival (vv. 16-19)

Survivors from the attacking nations now come every year to worship the LORD as King at the Festival of Shelters (Tabernacles), an autumn harvest feast closely tied to hopes for the winter rains. Nations that stay away get no rain, and Egypt, watered by the Nile rather than rain, is named separately, though the Hebrew of verse 18 is hard to follow.

Everything made holy (vv. 20-21)

The inscription once worn on the high priest's headpiece, marking him as set apart for the LORD, now appears on horses' bells, and ordinary cooking pots become as sacred as the temple's bowls. The last line bars any Canaanite from the temple, but the word can also mean trader, so readers differ on whether it means no unfit worshipers or no merchants.

Key verse: Zechariah 14:9

Where Christians differ

Christians differ on whether this chapter describes literal future events at Jesus' return, as many evangelical Protestants hold, or uses symbols for God's rule spreading through the church, as many Catholic, Orthodox and other Protestant readers hold, with some also hearing echoes of Rome's destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD.

Something to think about

Is it possible to long for rescue and justice without also longing for your enemies to suffer?