Zechariah 2 explained: A City Too Big for Walls

A man measuring Jerusalem (vv. 1-2)

Zechariah sees a man setting out to measure Jerusalem, which still lay largely in ruins after the return from exile in Babylon. Measuring a city was a first step toward rebuilding it, so this signals that restoration is planned.

A city without walls (vv. 3-5)

A second angel sends word that Jerusalem will hold so many people and animals that it will be like a city without walls. God himself will be its wall of fire and its glory inside, an image that may recall the pillar of fire that guarded Israel in the desert.

Come home from Babylon (vv. 6-7)

Many Jews had stayed in Babylon, called "the north" because invaders and travelers from there reached Israel by the northern route. The God who scattered them in every direction now urges them to leave and come back.

The eye God guards (vv. 8-9)

Harming God's people is pictured as poking the pupil of God's eye, the part anyone protects most fiercely, and the nations that looted Judah will be looted by those they once enslaved. Who exactly is speaking as the one sent here, and what the opening phrase of verse 8 means, are unclear, and translations and interpreters differ.

God will live among them (vv. 10-13)

God promises to come and live in Jerusalem, many other nations will join him and become his people, and Judah stays his special share, as all humanity is called to fall silent while God rises to act. Christians have read this promise of God coming to live among his people in light of Jesus.

Key verse: Zechariah 2:5

Where Christians differ

Christians differ on whether these promises are fulfilled spiritually in the worldwide church or still await a future, literal fulfillment for Jerusalem and the Jewish people.

Something to think about

If you had built a settled, comfortable life far from where your family came from, what would it take for you to leave it and return to a place still in ruins?