“The Jews,” Jerome says, “say that these things are to be fulfilled under Gog; others that they were accomplished in part, in the times of the Macedonians, Egyptians, and other nations. We, leaving the truth of the time to the judgment of the Lord, would explain what is written.” Eusebius points out... [ Continue Reading ]
BEHOLD THE DAY OF THE LORD COMETH - Literally, “a day cometh, the Lord’s,” in which He Himself shall be Judge, and no longer leave man to fulfill his own will, and despise God’s; in which His glory and holiness and the righteousness of all His ways shall be revealed. AND THY SPOIL SHALL BE IN THE M... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL GATHER ALL NATIONS AGAINST JERUSALEM TO BATTLE - This is a feature which belongs to the end. It had been dwelt upon by Joel; Joel 3:2, Joel 3:11; Ezekiel spoke of the “many nations” Ezekiel 38:6, Ezekiel 38:15, Ezekiel 38:22 which should come under Gog. John foretells of an universal strife a... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LORD SHALL GO FORTH AND SHALL FIGHT - Jerome: “Is to be taken like that in Habakkuk, ‘Thou wentest forth for the salvation of Thy people, for salvation with Thine Anointed” Habakkuk 3:13, and in Micah, ‘For behold, the Lord cometh forth out of His place, and will come down and will tread upon th... [ Continue Reading ]
AND HIS FEET SHALL STAND IN THAT DAY UPON THE MOUNT OF OLIVES - “Over against Jerusalem to the east, wherein riseth the Sun of Righteousness.” The Mount of Olives is the central eminence of a line of hills, of rather more than a mile in length, overhanging the city, from which it is separated only b... [ Continue Reading ]
AND YE SHALL FLEE TO THE VALLEY OF THE MOUNTAINS - Rather, along the valley of My mountains namely, of those mountains, which God had just formed by dividing the mount of Olives. “For the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal, that is, Azel,” the same word which enters into Beth-Azel of Mica... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LIGHT SHALL NOT BE CLEAR NOR DARK - Or, more probably, according to the original reading , “In that day there will be no light; the bright ones will contract themselves,” as it is said, “The stars shall withdraw their shining.” This is evermore the description of the Day of Judgment, that, in th... [ Continue Reading ]
AND IT SHALL BE ONE DAY: IT SHALL BE KNOWN UNTO THE LORD: NOT DAY, AND NOT NIGHT; AND AT THE EVENTIDE IT SHALL BE LIGHT - “One” special “day; one,” unlike all beside; known unto God, and to Him alone. For God alone knows the day of the consummation of all things, as He saith, “Of that day and that h... [ Continue Reading ]
AND IT SHALL BE, THAT LIVING WATERS - Kimchi: “This is what is said in the prophecy of Joel, ‘A fountain shall come forth from the house of the Lord’ Joel 3:18; and in that of Ezekiel, ‘And behold there ran out waters.’ Ezekiel 47:2.” Zechariah leaves to the mind to supply what the former prophets h... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE LORD SHALL BE KING OVER ALL THE EARTH - Such should be the influence of the living water, that is, of the Spirit of God. God who has ever reigned and will reign, “a great King over all the earth” Psalms 47:3, Psalms 47:8, shall be owned by His creatures, as what He is. THERE SHALL BE ONE LOR... [ Continue Reading ]
ALL THE LAND SHALL BE TURNED AS A PLAIN FROM RIMMON TO GEBAH - Kimchi: “All the land, which is round about Jerusalem, which is now mountains, as is said, “The mountains are round about Jerusalem” Psalms 125:2, shall be level as a plain, but Jerusalem itself shall be exalted, and high above all the e... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THEY SHALL DWELL IN IT - In peace, going forth from it, neither into “captivity,” nor in flight Zechariah 14:2, Zechariah 14:5; for God should exempt from curse the city which He had chosen, against which the gates of hell shall not prevail, and He says of the heavenly Jerusalem, “there shall be... [ Continue Reading ]
Again, upon the restoration of His people follows the destruction of His enemies. It shall, first and chiefly, be God’s doing, not man’s. “This shall be the plague.” The word is used of direct infliction by pestilence, “wherewith the Lord shall smite all the people (peoples) that fought against Jeru... [ Continue Reading ]
A GREAT TUMULT - And panic fear, such as God said He would send upon the Canaanites before Israel Deuteronomy 7:23, or on Israel itself, if disobedient Deuteronomy 28:20; or which fell on the Philistines after Jonathan’s capture of the garrison at Michmash, when every man’s “sword was against his fe... [ Continue Reading ]
AND JUDAH ALSO SHALL FIGHT AT JERUSALEM - This seems more probable than the alternative rendering of the English margin, “against.” For Judah is united with Jerusalem as one, in the same context Zechariah 14:21; and, if it had shared with the pagan, it must also have shared their lot. It is Judah it... [ Continue Reading ]
AND SO SHALL BE THE PLAGUE OF THE LORD ... - Dionysius: “So, when God sendeth the plague, all the irrational animals of antichrist and his satellites shall perish as the aforesaid men, who used them, perished. For, for the sins of men, God, to their greater confusion, sometimes slays their beasts, s... [ Continue Reading ]
EVERY ONE THAT IS LEFT OF THE NATIONS - God so gives the repentance, even through His visitations, that, in proportion to the largeness of the rebellion and the visitation upon it, shall be the largeness of the conversion. “Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gent... [ Continue Reading ]
WHOSO WILL NOT GO UP - Cyril: “To those who ‘go not up,’” he threatens the same punishment as persecutors would endure. For enemies, and they who will not love, shall have the same lot. This is, I think, what Christ Himself said, ‘Whoso is not with Me is against Me, and whoso gathereth not with Me s... [ Continue Reading ]
AND IF THE FAMILY OF EGYPT GO NOT UP, AND COME NOT, THAT HAVE NO RAIN - Rather, “and there shall not be.” It may be that the prophet chose this elliptical form, as well knowing that the symbol did not hold as to Egypt, which, however it ultimately depended on the equatorial rains which overfilled th... [ Continue Reading ]
THIS SHALL BE THE SIN OF EGYPT AND THE SIN OF ALL NATIONS THAT COME NOT UP TO KEEP THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES - For before the coming of the Saviour, good perhaps had been in part the excuse of the pagan, that they had been called by none. For no one had preached unto them. Wherefore the Saviour also,... [ Continue Reading ]
IN THAT DAY THERE SHALL BE UPON THE BELLS OF THE HORSES, HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD - He does not say only, that they should be consecrated to God, as Isaiah says of Tyre, “Her merchandise and her hire shall be holiness to the Lord” Isaiah 23:18; he says that, “the bells of the horses,” things simply se... [ Continue Reading ]
AND EVERY POT IN JERUSALEM AND IN JUDAH SHALL BE HOLINESS TO THE LORD - Everything is to be advanced in holiness. All the common utensils everywhere in the people of God shall not only be holy, but “holiness,” and capable of the same use as the vessels of the temple. AND THERE SHALL BE NO MORE THE C... [ Continue Reading ]