Zechariah 9:12-17

9:12 Return to the stronghold, you prisoners, with hope; today I declare that I will return double what was taken from you. 9:13 I will bend Judah as my bow; I will load the bow with Ephraim, my arrow! ¹  I will stir up your sons, Zion, against yours, Greece, and I will make you, Zion, ²  like a warrior’s sword.

9:14 Then the Lord will appear above them, and his arrow will shoot forth like lightning; the Lord God will blow the trumpet and will sally forth on the southern storm winds. 9:15 The Lord who rules over all will guard them, and they will prevail and overcome with sling stones. Then they will drink, and will become noisy like drunkards, ³  full like the sacrificial basin or like the corners of the altar. ⁴  9:16 On that day the Lord their God will deliver them as the flock of his people, for they are the precious stones of a crown sparkling over his land. 9:17 How precious and fair! ⁵  Grain will make the young men flourish and new wine the young women.

¹ tn The words “my arrow” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation to clarify the imagery for the modern reader (cf. NRSV, NLT).

² tn The word “Zion” is not repeated here in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation to indicate that the statement refers to Zion and not to Greece.

³ tn Heb “they will drink and roar as with wine”; the LXX (followed here by NAB, NRSV) reads “they will drink blood like wine” (referring to a figurative “drinking” of the blood of their enemies).

⁴ sn The whole setting is eschatological as the intensely figurative language shows. The message is that the Lord will assume his triumphant reign over all the earth and will use his own redeemed and renewed people Israel to accomplish that work. The imagery of v. 15 is the eating and drinking of the flesh and blood of God’s enemies, that is, Israel’s complete mastery of them. Like those who drink too much wine, the Lord’s warriors will be satiated with the blood of their foes and will exult as though drunk.

⁵ sn This expostulation best fits the whole preceding description of God’s eschatological work on behalf of his people. His goodness is especially evident in his nurturing of the young men and women of his kingdom.