Zechariah 14:2-5

14:2 For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem ¹  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. ² 

14:3 Then the Lord will go to battle ³  and fight against those nations, just as he fought battles in ancient days. ⁴  14:4 On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives which 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. ⁵  14:5 Then you will escape ⁶  through my mountain valley, for the mountains will extend to Azal. ⁷  Indeed, you will flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of King Uzziah ⁸  of Judah. Then the Lord my God will come with all his holy ones with him.

¹ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

² tn Heb “not be cut off from the city” (so NRSV); NAB “not be removed.”

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).

⁴ tn Heb “as he fights on a day of battle” (similar NASB, NIV, NRSV).

⁵ 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.

⁶ 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.

⁷ sn Azal is a place otherwise unknown.

⁸ 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.