Zechariahchapter 8
23 verses · Zechariah · 520 to 518 BC · The Twelve
This is what the LORD of Hosts says: “Let your hands be strong, you who now hear these words spoken by the prophets who were present when the foundations were laid to rebuild the temple, the house of the LORD of Hosts.
Introduction
Zechariah, The Twelve, Zechariah Overview.
Zechariah gives this chapter on the same occasion as the one before it, and it finishes his answer to the men from Bethel. His hearers lived in a half-empty town that had known siege, famine and deportation within living memory. The chapter is a string of short sayings, each opened by a word of the LORD of Hosts. Listen for the ordinary scenes it uses to describe peace, and for the charge given to the builders. Listen also for what becomes of the four fast days, and for the foreigners who come at the end.
Context
- Who
- People living in a half-empty town, being shown it full
- What
- A series of sayings of the LORD of Hosts promising a Jerusalem restored and full of people, with the fasts of mourning turned into feasts and the nations coming to seek the LORD.
- Where
- Jerusalem and its streets, with the nations looking on.
- When
- The same occasion as chapter 7, about December 518 BC.
- Why
- To encourage the builders, to call the people to truth and justice, and to answer the question about fasting with a promise of joy.
Historical context
This chapter answers the fasting question at last, and it answers it with a picture rather than a rule.
Show the rest of the historical context, 5 more paragraphs
The picture is astonishingly ordinary: old men and old women sitting in the streets of Jerusalem, each with a staff in hand because of great age, and the streets full of boys and girls playing.
Every detail of that is a demographic claim. In a town that had been through siege, famine, and deportation, almost nobody grew old and children were scarce. Old people sitting outside without fear means no war. Children in the street means a birth rate and safety. It is peace described in the only way peace is ever actually experienced.
God anticipates the objection: if it is marvellous in the eyes of the remnant, should it also be marvellous in mine? Then practical instructions follow, aimed at the building site, let your hands be strong; before this work started there was no wage for man or beast and no safety in coming or going.
Then the fasts are answered directly: the fast of the fourth, fifth, seventh, and tenth months shall become joy and gladness and cheerful feasts. All four commemorated stages of the disaster, the breaching of the wall, the burning of the temple, the murder of Gedaliah, and the start of the siege. All four are converted, not cancelled.
The chapter ends with ten men out of all languages taking hold of the skirt of one Jew, saying, we will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.
Significance
For a community whose whole religious calendar was built around grief, this said the grief days themselves would become feasts. Nothing would be forgotten; everything would be reversed.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
And the condition attached is the same as chapter 7's complaint: speak truth to your neighbor, judge honestly in your gates, love no false oath. The city full of playing children is built out of ordinary honesty between neighbors.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
The site's own table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, probed for this lane, printed no weekly portion and no Haftarah from this chapter, and no festival reading for the book. That table carries the Haftarah of each of the fifty-four weekly portions and the books read whole at the feasts. It carries nothing for the special Sabbaths, the festival days or the fast days, so this card names no public reading of chapter 8 and leaves that question to a source that holds those readings.
The chapter answers the question of the fasts, and the corpus ties it to the calendar. Rashi names the fast of the fourth month as "The fast of Tammuz" (Rashi on Zechariah 8:19:1). He reads the promise at the second verse as the end of the fasting. "And you will not need to fast and to mourn" (Rashi on Zechariah 8:2:1). Radak reads the eighteenth verse the same way. Of the fast days they asked about he says "you will no longer fast, but rejoice on them" (Radak on Zechariah 8:18:1). Under the nineteenth verse the corpus carries Ein Yaakov, Rosh Hashanah 1:24 and Jerusalem Talmud Kiddushin 1:1:21.
How it is read
Two commentators on this chapter carry English in the corpus. Rashi is quoted from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY. Radak is quoted from two versions. One is Rabbi Mike Feuer, Jerusalem Anthology, reported CC-BY, and the other is the Sefaria Community Translation, reported CC0. Every quotation is held to fifty words or fewer.
Radak reads the city of truth as the whole land named through its head. "The same is true for all of the land of Israel, but the verse specified Jerusalem because she is the head of the kingdom" (Radak on Zechariah 8:3:1). Rashi reads the old men with the staff plainly, as a picture of long life (Rashi on Zechariah 8:4:1).
The call to build ties the chapter to Ezra. Rashi reads it as "do not fear the people of the land, who are weakening your hands", as Ezra 4:4 relates (Rashi on Zechariah 8:9:1). The Lord who did not relent from the harm he planned "Neither will I repent of the good that I have planned for you" (Rashi on Zechariah 8:14:1).
Two notes on the sixteenth and seventeenth verses carry the chapter's ethics. The judgment of peace in the gates is "compromise" (Rashi on Zechariah 8:16:1). The warning against evil in the heart is a warning "concerning hatred without cause, which brought about the destruction of the Second Temple" (Rashi on Zechariah 8:17:1).
The ten men of the last verse Rashi counts from the seventy nations and the four corners of the garment. "For the four corners of the tallith there will be two thousand and eight hundred" (Rashi on Zechariah 8:23:1).
The corpus carries 12 further notes on this chapter without an English text, each marked linked because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref. They stand cited and unquoted here. Ibn Ezra on Zechariah is cited at 8:1:1, 8:5:1, 8:7:1, 8:8:1, 8:11:1, 8:12:1, 8:13:1, 8:15:1, 8:20:1 and 8:21:1. Radak on Zechariah is cited at 8:1:1. Rashi on Zechariah is cited at 8:10:1.
The corpus lists Malbim on Zechariah 8:22:1 in the version Trans. Betzalel Avraham Feinstein, 2026, and marks it linked because the licence Sefaria reports (CC-BY-NC) does not permit keeping the text here. It is cited here by ref and never quoted.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries 40 rabbinic locators on this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here and none is quoted. The verse numbers are the corpus's own.
At 8:2 it holds Aggadat Bereshit 68:2, Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Vayigash 11:1 and Midrash Tanchuma, Vayigash 10:1. It also holds Shir HaShirim Rabbah 8:6:3 and Shir HaShirim Rabbah 8:6:4 there. At 8:3 it holds Shemot Rabbah 30:8. At 8:4 it holds Aggadat Bereshit 56:1, Eikhah Rabbah 5:18 and Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Makkot 3:9. It also holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Pesakhim 6:4 there.
At 8:5 it holds Kohelet Rabbah 3:8:2. At 8:6 it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sukkah 5:5, Ein Yaakov, Sukkah 5:8 and Midrash Aggadah, Leviticus 19:23:1. It also holds Midrash Tannaim on Deuteronomy 17:8:2 there. At 8:10 it holds Chagigah 10a:2, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 11:46 and Ein Yaakov, Khagigah 1:17. It also holds Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Kedoshim 7:1 there.
At 8:11 it holds Midrash Lekach Tov, Deuteronomy 17:8:1. At 8:11 to 12 it holds Midrash Tanchuma, Kedoshim 7:1. At 8:12 it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 13:12, Bereshit Rabbah 12:6 and Otzar Midrashim, Midrash Gadol u'Gedolah 42. It also holds Ruth Rabbah (Lerner) 8:3:2 there. At 8:13 it holds Otzar Midrashim, Baraita of Rabbi Pinchas Ben Yair 1:29 and Tanna DeBei Eliyahu Rabbah 17:1.
At 8:16 it holds Avot DeRabbi Natan, Recension B 32:14, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 1:3 and Ein Yaakov, Sanhedrin 1:5. It also holds Jerusalem Talmud Megillah 3:6:3 there. At 8:17 it holds Tanna DeBei Eliyahu Zuta 3:1. At 8:19 it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Rosh Hashanah 1:21, Ein Yaakov, Rosh Hashanah 1:24 and Ein Yaakov, Yevamot 1:2. It also holds Jerusalem Talmud Kiddushin 1:1:21 there.
At 8:23 it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 1:3, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Shabbat 2:22 and Ein Yaakov, Shabbat 2:29. It also holds Midrash Lekach Tov on Esther 8:17:4 there.
What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Zechariah 8:2:1 to 8:23:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Radak, Radak on Zechariah 8:3:1 to 8:18:1, Rabbi Mike Feuer, Jerusalem Anthology, reported CC-BY; Sefaria Community Translation, reported CC0; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Zechariah 8:1:1, 8:5:1, 8:7:1, 8:8:1, 8:11:1, 8:12:1, 8:13:1, 8:15:1, 8:20:1 and 8:21:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no text it may quote; Radak, Radak on Zechariah 8:1:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no text it may quote; Rashi, Rashi on Zechariah 8:10:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no text it may quote; Malbim, Malbim on Zechariah 8:22:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no text it may quote; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/zechariah/8.json, the 40 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, probed for this lane through haftarahUsesForChapter("zechariah", 8) and festivalReadingForBook("zechariah").
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Old men with staffs and children playing in the streets
Zechariah 8:1-3
the word of the LORD of Hosts came to me: Chapter 8 answers chapter 7's fasting question with ten fresh oracles, opening on the LORD's zeal: “I am jealous for Zion with great zeal”. Keil notes that this is the word used of a husband's zeal for his wife. The city will be called “the City of Truth”.
Zechariah 8:1
“Again the word of the Lord of hosts came to me saying. The phrase, "to me", is wanting in the Hebrew text; and is the only place it is wanting in, as the Masora observes; though undoubtedly it is to be understood; and therefore is rightly supplied, as it is by the Targum, "with me". Mention being made in the latter part of the preceding chapter Zec 7:8 of the desolations of the earth, comfort is here administered, as Aben Ezra notes.”
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Zechariah 8:1
“Dionysius: “After the Lord had, in the preceding chapter, manifoldly rebuked the Jewish people, He now comforts it with renewed promises, as a good physician, who after a bitter draught employs sweet and soothing remedies; as that most loving Samaritan poured in wine and oil.” The chapter falls into two portions, each marked by the words, The Word of the Lord of hosts came or came unto me, the first Zech.”
Clarke records two readings of this jealousy. Some refer it to the Jews themselves, the unfaithful spouse the Lord punished as a wronged husband would. Others apply the fervor to the nations, who were given a commission to afflict Judah and went beyond it, the charge made at Zechariah 1:15.
Zechariah 8:2
“I was jealous - Some refer this to the Jews themselves. They were as the spouse of Jehovah: but they were unfaithful, and God punished them as an injured husband might be expected to punish an unfaithful wife. Others apply it to the enemies of the Jews. Though I gave them a commission to afflict you, yet they exceeded their commission: I will therefore deal with them in fury - in vindictive justice.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Gill ties the Lord's return to the temple the people were then building, the house where he would dwell. Dionysius, quoted by Barnes, read it as a turn from justice to mercy, with God himself unchanged. Osorius added that the city had turned too.
Zechariah 8:3
“I am returned - Dionysius: “Without change in Myself, I am turned to that people from the effect of justice to the sweetness of mercy, “and I will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem,” in the temple and the people, indwelling the hearts of the good by charity and grace. Christ also, Very God and Very Man, visibly conversed and was seen in Zion.” Osorius: “When He says, ‘I am turned,’ He shows that she was turned too.”
1 more voice on this verse
Zechariah 8:3
“Thus saith the Lord, I am returned to Zion,.... The temple being now building, and almost finished, and the worship of God restored in it.”
Zechariah 8:4-5
“Old men and old women will again sit along the streets of Jerusalem”, and the streets “will be filled with boys and girls”. Gill notes that neither the aged nor the young survive long in a city under siege, so both pictures describe a city at peace.
Zechariah 8:4
“Old age needs a support, and should not be ashamed to use it, but should furnish itself with divine graces, which will be the strength of the heart and a better support than a staff in the hand. Note, The hoary head, as it is a crown of glory to those that wear it, so it is to the places where they live.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 more voices on this verse
Zechariah 8:4
“There shall yet old men and old women - In those happy times the followers of God shall live out all their days, and the hoary head be always found in the way of righteousness.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Zechariah 8:4
The promise of long life was esteemed one of the greatest blessings in the Jewish theocracy with its temporal rewards of obedience (Ex 20:12; Hence this is a leading feature in millennial blessedness (Isa 65:20, 22). for very age--literally, "for multitude of days."
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
the streets of the city will be filled with boys and girls: Henry reads the boys and girls at play as a sign of safety from the enemy, with little care or fear in the city. Gill saw in the full streets a large increase of people. He read them also as the many converts of the gospel.
Zechariah 8:5
“And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls,.... Denoting a large increase of inhabitants, in a literal sense; and may spiritually signify the large numbers of converts, of new born babes, who are regenerated by the grace and Spirit of God, and are accounted of by the Lord for a generation: playing the streets thereof; being in health and rigour, and in great security.”
The LORD asks whether what seems “impossible in the eyes of the remnant of this people” should “also be impossible in My eyes”. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown hear an echo of the question put to Sarah at Genesis 18:14, the same form of question answering unbelief.
Zechariah 8:6
GOD sent His servant Zechariah with a promise that Jerusalem should be rebuilt and that it should enjoy a time of great peace and prosperity. Instead of men being slain in battle in the prime of their days, old men and old women were to dwell in the streets of Jerusalem, "every man with his staff in his hand for very age." And whereas war had often cut off the women and the children, the promise further added, "the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets."
Zechariah 8:7-8
save My people from the land of the east: The gathering reaches past Jerusalem's streets to exiles “from the land of the east and from the land of the west”. Calvin notes that the covenant formula, “they will be My people”, repeats the words given at the exodus. It is said again here after a second deliverance.
Zechariah 8:7
“I will save My people from the East country and from the West country - Dionysius: “that is, the whole world; for Israel had been scattered in every part of the world.” God had said to Israel, “I will bring thy seed from the east and gather thee from the west; I will say to the north, Give up, and to the south, Keep not back” Isa 43:5-6. The two tribes had been carried to Babylon and had been dispersed, or had been allowed to migrate to the various provinces of the Babylonian or Persian empire.”
1 more voice on this verse
Zechariah 8:7
“These promises were fulfilled in the flourishing state of the Jewish church, for some ages, between the captivity and Christ's time; they were to have a further and a fuller accomplishment in the gospel-church, that heavenly Jerusalem, which is from above, is free, and is the mother of us all; but the fullest accomplishment of all will be in the future state.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
I will bring them back to dwell in Jerusalem: The Berean gives both closing words, faithful and righteous, to God. Wesley divided the pair between the two parties, truth on God's side and righteousness on the people's, meaning obedience to his law. Barnes took this Jerusalem as the city of Zechariah 2:4, a city without walls for the multitude.
Zechariah 8:8
“They shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem - Not the literal Jerusalem; for this would not contain the Jews from all quarters of the world, whom, as they multiplied, the whole land could not contain; but the promised Jerusalem, the Jerusalem, which “should be inhabited as towns without walls,” to which the Lord should be a wall of fire round about.”
1 more voice on this verse
Zechariah 8:8
“In truth and in righteousness - This signifies both God's part, and their part; on God's part truth, on their's righteousness, obedience to God's righteous law.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Let your hands be strong; you shall be a blessing
Zechariah 8:9-10
“Let your hands be strong”, the LORD says to those who now hear “the prophets who were present when the foundations were laid”. Barnes dates the days of verse 10 to the years between the foundation laid under Cyrus and the building resumed under Darius.
Zechariah 8:9
“The same prophets who promised prosperity at the foundation of the temple, now promised still greater blessings hereafter.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 more voices on this verse
Zechariah 8:9
“By the mouth of the prophets - The day or time of the foundation was about two years before, as this discourse of the prophet was in the fourth year of Darius. After this God raised up prophets among them.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Zechariah 8:9
“Let your hands be strong - The fulfillment of God’s former promises are the earnest of the future; His former providences, of those to come. Having then those great promises for the time to come, they were to be earnest in whatever meantime God gave them to do.”
neither man nor beast received wages: Jerome noted that some translators put these lines in the future tense, and he preferred the past, as the Hebrew has it. The verse describes the years before the temple's foundation was laid, when the people's labor came to nothing. The Lord names himself as the cause of the strife.
Zechariah 8:10
“There was no hire for man - Literally, “hire for man came not to pass.” It was longed for, waited for and came not. So little was the produce, that neither laborer nor beast of burden were employed to gather it in.”
2 more voices on this verse
Zechariah 8:10
“These are mentioned as a foil to the blessings God was now about to bestow upon them, to make them appear the more strange, to the glory of God, and the more sweet, to their comfort. The truth was the times had long been very bad, and the calamities and difficulties of them were many and great.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Zechariah 8:10
“For before these days there was no hire for man - Previously to this, ye had no prosperity; ye had nothing but civil divisions and domestic broils. I abandoned you to your own spirits, and to your own ways.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Zechariah 8:11-13
I will not treat the remnant of this people: The LORD sets the present against the past. Seed, vine, ground and dew now come to the remnant “as an inheritance”. Verse 13 reverses the covenant curse, “As you have been a curse”, “so I will save you, and you will be a blessing”.
Zechariah 8:11
“But now I will not be unto the residue of this people,.... The remnant brought out of captivity, settled in the land, and now rebuilding the temple: as in the former days, saith the Lord of hosts; when they neglected the house of the Lord, caring only for their own cieled houses, Hag 1:2.”
1 more voice on this verse
Zechariah 8:11
“And now - The words imply a contrast of God’s dealings, rather than a contrast of time. “I am not to the remnant of this people.” He had said, “I will be to them God;” so now He does not say that He will not do to them, “as in former days,” but “I am not to the remnant” of this people as heretofore. He would be, as tie was in Jesus, in a new relation to them.”
Henry reads these gifts as the confirmation of Haggai 2:16 and 19, where Zechariah's colleague had promised blessing from that day on. Seed, vine, ground and sky cover the whole farm. Henry adds that God's people who serve him faithfully have great possessions.
Zechariah 8:12
“This confirms what the prophet's colleague had said, a little before ( Hag. ii. 16, 19 ), From this day will I bless you. Note, God's people, that serve him faithfully, have great possessions. " All is yours, for you are Christ's." 3.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
O house of Judah and house of Israel: The verse names both houses. Barnes notes that the prophets kept the name Israel for the ten northern tribes, as Hosea 1:6 sets them beside Judah. Henry held that many of the ten tribes returned, and Spurgeon saw a minor fulfillment already given and the greater one still to come.
Zechariah 8:13
“AS these words came from the lips of Zechariah, doubtless they referred to the seed of Abraham, including the two tribes of Judah and the ten tribes of Israel. They have already received a minor fulfillment. But their most glorious accomplishment is yet to come. The Jews have for many a generation been cursed by all people. For ages no one had a good word or a kind look for the Jew. In every nation they have been persecuted and hunted like beasts of prey.”
1 more voice on this verse
Zechariah 8:13
“This is here promised to the house both of Israel and Judah; for many of the ten tribes returned out of captivity with the two tribes, and shared with them in those blessings; and, it is probable, besides what came at first, many, very many, flocked to them afterwards, when they saw their affairs take this turn.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Speak truth and judge for peace in your gates
Zechariah 8:14-15
The LORD states his change of purpose. As he once “resolved to bring disaster” and “did not relent”, “so now I have resolved to do good again to Jerusalem and Judah”. Clarke notes the parallel construction, the same resolve that held in judgment now set on good.
Zechariah 8:14
“As I thought to punish you - (Literally, to do evil to you) “and repented not.” In like way God says in Jeremiah, “I have purposed and will not repent.” Jer 4:28.”
1 more voice on this verse
Zechariah 8:14
“The promised blessings are connected with obedience. God's covenanted grace will lead those truly blessed by it to holiness, not licentiousness. truth to . . . neighbour--not that the truth should not be spoken to foreigners too; but He makes it an aggravation of their sin, that they spared not even their brethren.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Gill notes that the verb can be read as a turning again, the word of the Lord's return to Zion in verse 3. What the Lord purposes stands. Dionysius, quoted by Barnes, called this God speaking after the manner of men.
Zechariah 8:16-17
These are the things you must do: Restoration is tied to conduct: speak truth, give “true and sound judgments”, plot no evil against a neighbor, and do not “love to swear falsely”. Henry notes that the list answers the charge of chapter 7 almost point for point, naming again the sins that brought the exile.
Zechariah 8:16
“These are the things that ye shall do - He exhorts them to the same duties, to which the former prophets had exhorted their fathers, Zec 7:9-10, and, as before, first positively to truth and peace; then to avoid everything contrary to it. “Judgment of peace” must be judgment which issues in peace, as all righteous judgment righteously received, in which case each party acquiesces, must. Kimchi: “If ye judge righteousness, there will be peace between the litigants, according to that proverb, Sanhedr. f. 7. a. quoted by Me.”
Cross references
Zechariah 8:16
- Quoted inEphesians 4:25“Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one another.”
'Speak every man truth with his neighbour'
do not plot evil in your hearts against your neighbor: Barnes reads the last clause as emphatic in Hebrew, these things together being the sum of what the Lord hates. The plotted evil and the false oath cover the breaches of both tables of the law, the love of God and the love of man. A false oath wrongs both.
Zechariah 8:17
“For all these things do I hate - Literally, emphatic, “For they are all these things which I hate.” This is the sum of what I hate; for they comprise in brief the breaches of the two tables, the love of God and of man.”
1 more voice on this verse
Zechariah 8:17
“The prophet answers the query (Zec 7:3) as to the fast in the fifth month, by a reply applying to all their fasts: these are to be turned into days of rejoicing. So Jesus replied to His disciples when similarly consulting Him as to why fasting was not imposed by Him, as it was by John the Baptist. When the Sun of righteousness shines, tears are dried up (Mt 9:15).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Ten men grab a Jew's skirt: we have heard God is with you
Zechariah 8:18-19
the word of the LORD of Hosts came to me: Chapter 7's opening question gets its answer: “The fasts of the fourth, the fifth, the seventh, and the tenth months will become times of joy”. Pusey sets the four fasts across the whole span of the city's fall, from the start of the siege to the murder of the governor.
Zechariah 8:18
“And the word of the Lord of hosts came unto me, saying. The word of prophecy, as the Targum paraphrases it: here begins a new prophecy, respecting the abrogation of Jewish fasts, and the calling of the Gentiles.”
The fasts of the fourth, the fifth, the seventh, and the tenth months: Two of the four fasts can be dated. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown place the tenth month at the start of Nebuchadnezzar's siege, and Barnes places the fourth month at the city's fall. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the charge to love truth and peace as the fruit of the promise.
Zechariah 8:19
“The fast of the fourth month - On the ninth day “of the fourth month” of Zedekiah’s eleventh year, Jerusalem, in the extremity of famine, opened to Nebuchadnezzar, and his princes sat in her gate; in the “tenth month” of his ninth year Nebuchadnezzar began the siege. Ezekiel was bidden “on its tenth day; write thee the name of the day, of this same day,” Eze 24:1-2, as the beginning of God’s uttermost judgments against “the bloody city” .”
Zechariah 8:20-23
The chapter widens from Judah's fasts to the nations, as “many peoples and strong nations” come “to seek the LORD of Hosts in Jerusalem”. At the close, “ten men from the nations” grasp the robe of a Jew, because “we have heard that God is with you”.
Zechariah 8:20
“Thus saith the Lord of hosts, It shall yet come to pass,.... This is another thing that shall certainly be accomplished: that there shall come people, and the inhabitants of many cities; in the Gentile world; they shall come and hear the word, believe in Christ, and join together in a Gospel church state; as they did at Antioch, Thessalonica, Corinth, and many other places: Ben Melech says this shall be in the days of the Messiah; and so it has been in the days of the true Messiah Jesus, and will be again in the latter day.”
2 more voices on this verse
Zechariah 8:20
“There shall come people - Similar promises to those in Isa 2:3 and in Mic 4:1, Mic 4:2. Many Gentiles, as well as Jews, will then be found devoting themselves to the Lord.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Zechariah 8:20
“But the full accomplishment of the conversion of the Gentiles foretold here is reserved till "Jerusalem" (Zec 8:22) becomes the center of Christianized Jewry (Ro 11:12, 15).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note the move from the call of many to one voice, each resident of each city resolving to seek the LORD. They render plead as entreat the face, the word used at Zechariah 7:2. Henry recalls Andrew bringing Peter to Jesus.
Zechariah 8:21
“The inhabitants of one city shall go to another - It is one unresting extension of the fairly, the restlessness of faith and love. Osorius: “They shall not be satisfied with their own salvation, careless about the salvation of others; they shall employ all labor and industry, with wondrous love, to provide for the salvation of others as if it were their own.” It is a marvelous stirring of minds. Missionary efforts, so familiar with us as to be a household word, were unknown then.”
1 more voice on this verse
Zechariah 8:21
“To exhortation in general ("Let us go"), they add individual example ("I will go"). Or, the change from plural to singular implies that the general consent in religious earnestness leads each individual to decide for God. go speedily--literally, "go, going"; implying intense earnestness. pray--Hebrew, "entreat the face" (Zec 7:2); entreat His favor and grace.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
many peoples and strong nations will come: The Targum renders strong nations as mighty kingdoms, Gill notes. Wesley found the first fruits of the verse at Acts 2:10 to 12, and he read Jerusalem mystically as the church of Christ. Henry stressed the place itself, the city God had chosen for his word and his temple.
Zechariah 8:22
“Yea, many people, and strong nations,.... Or, "mighty kingdoms", as the Targum renders it; even such have embraced the Gospel, and professed the Christian religion; of which there has been abundant proof since the downfall of Paganism under Constantine: shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem; that is, shall attend the public worship of God in the church: and to pray before the Lord; join in public prayer, and other ordinances of the Gospel.”
1 more voice on this verse
Zechariah 8:22
“In Jerusalem - Literally understood, you have the first fruits of them mentioned, Acts ii, 10-12. Mystically, Jerusalem is the church of Christ. To pray - To perform all gospel-worship.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
ten men from the nations of every tongue: Barnes reads ten as the number of a whole, and the men of every tongue as Babel's confusion reversed at Pentecost. Henry names the Greeks who asked Philip to see Jesus in John 12, men from the nations. Wesley took the Jew as the first to hear the gospel.
Zechariah 8:23
“The gospel was preached to the Jews first (for of that nation the apostles were) and by them it was carried to the Gentiles. St. Paul was a Jew whose skirt many took hold of when they welcomed him as an angel of God, and begged him to take them along with him to Christ; thus the Greeks took hold of Philip's skirt, saying, Sir, we would see Jesus, John xii.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 more voices on this verse
Zechariah 8:23
“God is with you--the effect produced on unbelievers in entering the assemblies of the Church (1Co 14:25). But primarily, that produced on the nations in witnessing the deliverance of the Jews by Cyrus. Finally, that to be produced on the nations by the future grand interposition of Messiah in behalf of His people.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Zechariah 8:23
“A Jew - To whom the gospel was first preached. We have heard - And now see, and are assured. That God - The true God, the only true God, whom to know is life eternal.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Keep studying
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Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Carl Friedrich Keil, The Twelve Minor Prophets; Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 543: “Once A Curse But Now A Blessing” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); Edward Bouverie Pusey, The Minor Prophets: A Commentary; Jamieson Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Zechariah; John Calvin, Commentaries on the Twelve Minor Prophets; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.