Zechariah 14:16
in Zechariah 14Then all the survivors from the nations that came against Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the King, the LORD of Hosts, and to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations that came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, Jehovah of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles.
KJV
And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles.
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This verse in Zechariah 14
Commentary
9 notes on this verseShall even go up from year to year - The Jews had three grand original festivals, which characterized different epochs in their history, viz.: - 1. The feast of the passover, in commemoration of their departure from Egypt. 2. The feast of pentecost, in commemoration of the giving of the law upon Mount Sinai. 3. The feast of tabernacles, in commemoration of their wandering forty years in the wilderness.
This site's exposition
will go up year after year
on Zechariah 14:16-19
The nations' survivors are drawn in, going up “year after year to worship the King” and keep the Feast of Tabernacles, the ingathering feast. Families that stay away get no rain, and Egypt meets the same plague. Readers divide between a future, literal worship and a figure of worldwide worship.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
(Verse 16.) And all who remain of all the nations that came against Jerusalem shall go up year after year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. LXX: And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord Almighty, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.
The Puritans and the Awakening4 voices
That is left - That escapes the stroke. To worship - By a ceremonial usage which shadowed out a better worship, the prophet foretells the constant zeal of the converted Gentiles to worship the Lord. The feast of tabernacles - One solemn festival is by a figure, put for all the days consecrated to God for holy worship.
They shall go up to worship at Jerusalem, because that was the place which God had chosen, and there the temple was, which was a type of Christ and his mediation. Converting grace sets us right, 1.
And it shall come to pass,....
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.
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
A feast of peculiar joy (Ps 118:15; The feast on which Jesus gave the invitation to the living waters of salvation ("Hosanna," save us now, was the cry, Mt 21:9; compare Ps 118:25, 26) (Joh 7:2, 37). To the Gentiles, too, it will be significant of perfected salvation after past wanderings in a moral wilderness, as it originally commemorated the ingathering of the harvest.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Every one that is left of the nations - God so gives the repentance, even through His visitations, that, in proportion to the largeness of the rebellion and the visitation upon it, shall be the largeness of the conversion. “Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles shall be fulfilled” Luk 21:24. And Paul, “Blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles shall be come in; and so all Israel shall be saved” Rom 11:25-26. Hitherto prophets had spoken of a “remnant” of Jacob, who should “return to the mighty God” Isa 10:21, and should be saved; now, upon this universal rebellion of the pagan. He foretells the conversion of a remnant of the pagan also. Shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts - There is a harmony between the rebellion and the repentance. The converted shall go to worship God there, where they had striven to exterminate His worshipers. The prophet could only speak of the Gospel under the image of the law. “The Feast of Tabernacles” has its counterpart, not, like the Pascha or the Pentecost, in any single feast, but in the whole life of the Gospel. It was a thanksgiving for past deliverance; it was a picture of their pilgrim-life from the passage of the Red Sea, until the parting of the Jordan opened to them the entrance to their temporary rest in Canaan (see at greater length Hos 12:9, vol. i. p. 122). […]
How the passage was read
On Zechariah 14:16-21On Zechariah 14:16-21
The feast with a future
Of all the feasts, Zechariah gives Tabernacles (Sukkot, the autumn booth-feast) the widest horizon: the surviving nations come up to Jerusalem year by year to keep it. The sages noticed the feast's reach toward the nations from the Torah itself: the seventy bulls offered across Sukkot's seven days (Numbers 29) were read in the Talmud as offerings on behalf of the seventy nations of the world (Sukkah 55b). The feast Israel keeps in a backyard booth carries, in both Testaments' reception, the whole world in view.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Sources: Sukkah 55b (the seventy bulls for the seventy nations) · Numbers 29:12–34 (the seventy bulls, counted)
The words behind it
20 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וְהָיָ֗ה | vehayah | and it will be | H1961 → | 3559 times |
| כָּל־ | kol- | every | H3605 → | 5413 times |
| הַנּוֹתָר֙ | hanotar | <the> [one who] remains | H3498 → | |
| מִכָּל־ | mikol | of all | H3605 → | 5413 times |
| הַגּוֹיִ֔ם | hagoyim | the nations | H1471 → | 561 times |
| הַבָּאִ֖ים | habaim | which came | H935 → | 2568 times |
| עַל־ | ʾal- | on | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| יְרֽוּשָׁלִָ֑ם | yerushalim | Jerusalem | H3389 → | 643 times |
| וְעָל֞וּ | vealu | and they will go up | H5927 → | 890 times |
| מִדֵּ֧י | midei | as often as | H1767 → | |
| שָׁנָ֣ה | shanah | a year | H8141 → | 877 times |
| בְשָׁנָ֗ה | veshanah | in a year | H8141 → | 877 times |
| לְהִֽשְׁתַּחֲוֹת֙ | lehishtachavot | to bow down | H7812 → | |
| לְמֶ֙לֶךְ֙ | lemelekh | to [the] king | H4428 → | 2525 times |
| יְהוָ֣ה | yahweh | Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
| צְבָא֔וֹת | tzevaot | of hosts | H6635 → | 485 times |
| וְלָחֹ֖ג | velachog | and to celebrate a festival | H2287 → | 16 times |
| אֶת־ | ʾet- | <obj.> | H853 → | 10935 times |
| חַ֥ג | chag | [the] festival of | H2282 → | 62 times |
| הַסֻּכּֽוֹת׃ | hasukot | <the> Tabernacles | H5521 → | 31 times |
וְהָיָ֗הand it will be
vehayahH1961 →3559 times
כָּל־every
kol-H3605 →5413 times
הַנּוֹתָר֙<the> [one who] remains
hanotarH3498 →
מִכָּל־of all
mikolH3605 →5413 times
הַגּוֹיִ֔םthe nations
hagoyimH1471 →561 times
הַבָּאִ֖יםwhich came
habaimH935 →2568 times
עַל־on
ʾal-H5921 →5755 times
יְרֽוּשָׁלִָ֑םJerusalem
yerushalimH3389 →643 times
וְעָל֞וּand they will go up
vealuH5927 →890 times
מִדֵּ֧יas often as
mideiH1767 →
שָׁנָ֣הa year
shanahH8141 →877 times
בְשָׁנָ֗הin a year
veshanahH8141 →877 times
לְהִֽשְׁתַּחֲוֹת֙to bow down
lehishtachavotH7812 →
לְמֶ֙לֶךְ֙to [the] king
lemelekhH4428 →2525 times
יְהוָ֣הYahweh
yahwehH3068 →6520 times
צְבָא֔וֹתof hosts
tzevaotH6635 →485 times
וְלָחֹ֖גand to celebrate a festival
velachogH2287 →16 times
אֶת־<obj.>
ʾet-H853 →10935 times
חַ֥ג[the] festival of
chagH2282 →62 times
הַסֻּכּֽוֹת׃<the> Tabernacles
hasukotH5521 →31 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
5 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Isaiah 66:23From one New Moon to another and from one Sabbath to another, all mankind will come to worship before Me,” says the LORD.
it leads to
- Ezekiel 46:1
“This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘The gate of the inner court that faces east must be kept shut during the six days of work, but on the Sabbath day and on the…
- Psalms 86:9
All the nations You have made will come and bow before You, O Lord, and they will glorify Your name.
- Ezekiel 46:6
On the day of the New Moon he shall offer a young, unblemished bull, six lambs, and a ram without blemish.
- Colossians 2:16–17
Therefore let no one judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a feast, a New Moon, or a Sabbath.
- Psalms 81:3–4
Sound the ram’s horn at the New Moon, and at the full moon on the day of our Feast.
- Ezekiel 46:1
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Zechariah
Who and where
1 name in this verse with a page on the site.
This page draws on 9 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Carl Friedrich Keil, The Twelve Minor Prophets; Edward Bouverie Pusey, The Minor Prophets: A Commentary; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Zechariah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.