Zechariah 8:14

8:14 “For the Lord who rules over all says, ‘As I had planned to hurt ¹  you when your fathers made me angry,’ says the Lord who rules over all, ‘and I was not sorry,

Zechariah 9:8

9:8 Then I will surround my temple ²  to protect it like a guard ³  from anyone crossing back and forth; so no one will cross over against them anymore as an oppressor, for now I myself have seen it.

Zechariah 10:10

10:10 I will bring them back from Egypt and gather them from Assyria. ⁴  I will bring them to the lands of Gilead and Lebanon, for there will not be enough room for them in their own land.

Zechariah 11:5

11:5 Those who buy them ⁵  slaughter them and are not held guilty; those who sell them say, ‘Blessed be the Lord, for I am rich.’ Their own shepherds have no compassion for them.

Zechariah 13:4

13:4 “Therefore, on that day each prophet will be ashamed of his vision when he prophesies and will no longer wear the hairy garment ⁶  of a prophet to deceive the people. ⁷ 

Zechariah 14:7

14:7 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. ⁸ 

Zechariah 14:17

14:17 But if any of the nations anywhere on earth refuse to go up to Jerusalem ⁹  to worship the King, the Lord who rules over all, they will get no rain.

¹ tn The verb זָמַם (zamam) usually means “to plot to do evil,” but with a divine subject (as here), and in light of v. 15 where it means to plan good, the meaning here has to be the implementation of discipline (cf. NCV, CEV “punish”). God may bring hurt but its purpose is redemptive and/or pedagogical.

² tn Heb “house” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).

³ tn Though a hapax legomenon, the מִצָּבָה (mitsavah) of the MT (from נָצַב, natsav, “take a stand”) is preferable to the suggestion מַצֵּבָה (matsevah, “pillar”) or even מִצָּבָא (mitsava’, “from” or “against the army”). The context favors the idea of the Lord as a protector.

³ sn I will bring them back from Egypt…from Assyria. The gathering of God’s people to their land in eschatological times will be like a reenactment of the exodus, but this time they will come from all over the world (cf. Isa 40:3-5; 43:1-7, 14-21; 48:20-22; 51:9-11).

⁴ sn The expression those who buy them appears to be a reference to the foreign nations to whom Israel’s own kings “sold” their subjects. Far from being good shepherds, then, they were evil and profiteering. The whole section (vv. 4-14) refers to the past when the Lord, the Good Shepherd, had in vain tried to lead his people to salvation and life.

⁵ tn The “hairy garment of a prophet” (אַדֶּרֶת שֵׁעָר, ’adderet she’ar) was the rough clothing of Elijah (1 Kgs 19:13), Elisha (1 Kgs 19:19; 2 Kgs 2:14), and even John the Baptist (Matt 3:4). Yet, אַדֶּרֶת alone suggests something of beauty and honor (Josh 7:21). The prophet’s attire may have been simple the image it conveyed was one of great dignity.

⁶ tn The words “the people” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation from context (cf. NCV, TEV, NLT).

⁶ 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.”

⁷ sn The reference to any…who refuse to go up to Jerusalem makes clear the fact that the nations are by no means “converted” to the Lord but are under his compulsory domination.