Zechariah 14:20

God's providences concerning his church are here represented as strangely changing and strangely mixed. Sometimes the tide runs high and strong against them, but presently it turns, and comes to be in favour of them; and God has, for wise and holy ends, set the one over against the other. God here appears against Jerusalem; judgment begins at the house of God.

shall there be upon the bells--namely, this inscription, "Holiness to the Lord," the same as was on the miter of the high priest (Ex 28:36). This implies that all things, even the most common, shall be sacred to Jehovah, and not merely the things which under the law had peculiar sanctity attached to them.

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase

THERE ARE MANY days already past which we might well have wished to see. Who would not have rejoiced to have beheld the day when God smote Rabab and broke the dragon in the deep waters, when Miriam took the timbrel and went forth with the daughters of Israel, saying, “Sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea?”

THERE ARE MANY days already past which we might well have wished to see. Who would not have rejoiced to have beheld the day when God smote Rabab and broke the dragon in the deep waters, when Miriam took the timbrel and went forth with the daughters of Israel, saying, “Sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea?” Who might not have wished to have witnessed the glorious victories of the judges when they put to rout the oppressors of Israel, or that day when David returned from the slaughter of Goliath, or that auspicious morn when Solomon’s temple, glittering in unrivalled magnificence, was dedicated by a vast concourse of people with generous sacrifice to the worship of the true God? Many days there were in the chronicles of the Jewish Church which are never to be forgotten earth’s red letter days when God made bare his arm and showed forth his might. Days there were, too, in Christ’s history which it was a high privilege to see. The day of his birth—would that we had been among the shepherds on the plain when they heard the angels sing “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, good will toward men, “or the day of his death when he cried, “It is finished,” and yielded up be ghost, or, better still, the day of his resurrection, when he routed all our foes by rising again for our justification, or the day of his ascension, when he led captivity captive and ascended up on high, or even that day of Pentecost, when the Spirit of God fell on the disciples, and when they, preaching with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance multitudes being added to the Church of these who were ordained unto eternal life. Those days are gone, we look back upon them with faith, and as Abraham rejoiced in prospect, so would we do in retrospect. But there are days yet to come for whose advent we may well be eager.

In that day there shall be upon the bells of the horses, Holiness unto the Lord - He does not say only, that they should be consecrated to God, as Isaiah says of Tyre, “Her merchandise and her hire shall be holiness to the Lord” Isa 23:18; he says that, “the bells of the horses,” things simply secular, should bear the same inscription as the plate on the high priest’s forehead. Perhaps the comparison was suggested by the bells on the high priest’s dress ; not the lamina only on his forehead, but bells (not as his, which were part of his sacred dress), bells, altogether secular, should be inscribed with the self-same title, whereby he himself was dedicated to God. Holiness to the Lord - He does not bring down what is sacred to a level with common things, but he uplifts ordinary things, that they too, should be sacred, as Paul says, “whether ye eat or drink or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God” 1Co 10:31. And the pots of the Lord’s house shall be like bowls before the altar - The pots are mentioned, together with other vessels of the Lord’s house Eze 38:3; 1Ki 7:45; 2Ki 25:14; 2Ch 4:11, 2Ch 4:16; Jer 52:18-19, but not in regard to any sacred use. They were used, with other vessels, for dressing the victims 2Ch 35:13 for the partakers of the sacrifices. These were to be sacred, like those made for the most sacred use of all, “the bowls for sprinkling,” whence, that sacrificial blood was taken, which was to make the typical atonement.