Zechariah8chapter 8

Zechariah 8:1-3

Again the word of the Lord of hosts came to me: The chapter answers chapter 7's question about fasting with ten fresh oracles, and it opens on jealousy, the Lord's own word for his zeal for Zion, doubled for emphasis as jealousy and fury. Keil reads the doubling as covenant language, the same word used of a husband's zeal for a wife rather than mere anger, and it sets the tone for everything that follows. The Lord's own return to dwell in Jerusalem's midst gives the city new names, a city of truth and a holy mountain, in place of the desolation just described in chapter 7.

Zechariah 8:4-5

Two pictures of ordinary peace follow the promise of the Lord's presence: old men and old women sitting in the streets, each leaning on a staff for very age, and the same streets full of boys and girls at play. Gill notes that both images describe a city that has stopped being a battlefield, since neither the aged nor the young survive long in a city under siege or recently sacked. The contrast with the whirlwind and desolation that closed chapter 7 is deliberate, ordinary long life and children's play standing in for the peace the exile had taken away.

Zechariah 8:6

The Lord asks whether the promise seems too wonderful to the returned remnant's eyes, and if so, whether it should seem too wonderful to his own. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown hear an echo of the question put to Sarah at Genesis 18:14, is anything too hard for the Lord, the same rhetorical form used to answer unbelief with a reminder of who is speaking. The remnant's small numbers and modest resources made the promised restoration look impossible by ordinary measure, and the verse answers that measure directly.

Zechariah 8:7-8

The gathering promise widens from Jerusalem's own streets to the exiles scattered east and west, brought back to dwell in the city and to be the Lord's people in truth and righteousness. Calvin reads the covenant formula, they shall be my people and I will be their God, as the same words given at the exodus and renewed here after a second deliverance, the return from Babylon read as a smaller second exodus. Truth and righteousness qualify the relationship rather than merely the geography, the promise reaching further than a change of address.

Zechariah 8:9-10

The command to strengthen their hands is addressed to those present at the temple's refounding, the same builders urged two years earlier, and it looks back at the hardship the unfinished work had cost. Barnes describes the former days named in verse 10 as the years between the foundation laid under Cyrus and the resumed building under Darius, when no wage covered the labor of man or beast and the land offered no peace to anyone going out or coming in. The command to be strong is addressed to men who have already lived through the years it names, not to strangers to the difficulty.

Zechariah 8:11-13

The Lord turns the former days into a named contrast, promising instead a prosperous seed, fruitful vine, generous ground, and dew from heaven, so the remnant now possesses what the earlier years withheld. Verse 13 reverses the very language of the covenant curse, as you were a curse among the nations, so I will save you and you shall be a blessing, deliberately answering the older warnings with their opposite. Wesley reads the double command, fear not and let your hands be strong, as bracketing the whole promise, courage grounded in a stated reversal rather than in wishful hope.

Zechariah 8:14-15

The Lord states his own change of intention as plainly as the fasting question was answered earlier, the same resolve that once purposed punishment without relenting now purposed good toward Jerusalem and Judah without relenting either. Clarke reads the parallel construction, I thought to punish and I repented not against so again have I thought to do well, as making the coming blessing as fixed and certain as the judgment had been. The double command, fear ye not, closes the pair of oracles on assurance rather than warning.

Zechariah 8:16-17

Restoration is tied at once to conduct: speak truth to your neighbor, judge with truth and peace in your gates, do not plot evil against one another, and love no false oath. Henry notes that this list answers chapter 7's earlier indictment almost point for point, the very sins that brought the exile named again as the things now to be put away. The Lord's own closing line, these are things I hate, keeps the demand from reading as mere civic advice, since it is stated as his own settled aversion.

Zechariah 8:18-19

The question that opened chapter 7 finally receives its direct answer: the fasts of the fourth, fifth, seventh, and tenth months, each marking a stage of Jerusalem's fall, shall become for Judah joy, gladness, and cheerful feasts. Pusey counts the four fasts as covering the whole span of the city's destruction, from the siege's start to the governor's murder afterward, so the answer touches every stage of the grief being asked about. The closing charge, therefore love the truth and peace, ties the changed calendar to the same ethic just commanded in verse 16.

Zechariah 8:20-23

The chapter widens from Judah's own fasts to a picture of nations streaming toward Jerusalem to seek the Lord, one city inviting another until many peoples and strong nations arrive. The closing image sharpens the point to ten men from every language taking hold of a single Jew's garment, saying, we will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you. Keil and Calvin read the picture as pointing toward the nations being drawn to the God of Israel, and the church later saw its own ingathering foreshadowed here, though the verse itself names the pilgrims coming to Jerusalem rather than describing where they end.