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Zechariah 14:18

in Zechariah 14

And if the people of Egypt will not go up and enter in, then the rain will not fall on them; this will be the plague with which the LORD strikes the nations who do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, neither shall it be upon them; there shall be the plague wherewith Jehovah will smite the nations that go not up to keep the feast of tabernacles.

KJV

And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, that have no rain; there shall be the plague, wherewith the Lord will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles.

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This verse in Zechariah 14

Commentary

9 notes on this verse

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

If the family of Egypt - This may allude to those Jews who, flying from the persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes, settled in Egypt, and built a temple at Heliopolis, under the direction of Onias, son of the high priest. Josephus Antiq. lib. xiii., c. 6, and War, lib. vii., c. 36. If these do not rejoin their brethren, they shall have no rain, no interest in the favor of God.

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.

This site's exposition

if the people of Egypt will not go up

Egypt relied on the Nile flood rather than on rain, so a threat of drought seems not to touch it. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown and Albert Barnes both take up the difficulty. Their answer is that Egypt will face a plague of its own.

The record, by era

The Church Fathers1 voice

A commentator

Jerome

Commentary on Zechariah · Written before 420.

proposed

(Vers. 18, 19.) And if the family of Egypt does not ascend and does not come, there will be no plague on them, but there will be a punishment by which the Lord will strike all the nations that do not ascend to celebrate the feast of Tabernacles. This will be the sin of Egypt, and this will be the sin of all the nations that do not ascend to celebrate the feast of Tabernacles.

The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

This shall be the punishment --margin, This shall be the sin of Egypt, and the sin of all nations, that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles. The same word signifies both sin and the punishment of sin, so close and inseparable is the connexion between them (as Gen. iv. 7 ), and sin is often its own punishment.
And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not,....

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

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.

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

Egypt go not up--specified as Israel's ancient foe. If Egypt go not up, and so there be no rain on them (a judgment which Egypt would condemn, as depending on the Nile's overflow, not on rain), there shall be the plague . . . . Because the guilty are not affected by one judgment, let them not think to escape, for God has other judgments which shall plague them.
1 more voice on this verse

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, that have no rain - Rather, “and there shall not be.” It may be that the prophet chose this elliptical form, as well knowing that the symbol did not hold as to Egypt, which, however it ultimately depended on the equatorial rains which overfilled the lakes which supply the Nile, did not need that fine arrangement of the rains of Autumn and Spring which were essential to the fruitfulness of Palestine. The omission leaves room for the somewhat prosaic supply of Jonathan, “The Nile shall not ascend to them.” More probably the words are left undefined with a purposed abruptness, “there shall not be upon them,” namely, whatever they need: the omission of the symbol in these two verses might the more suggest, that it is a symbol only. Egypt, the ancient oppressor of Israel, is united with Judah as one, in the same worship of God, as Isaiah had said, “In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria” Isa 19:24; and since it is united in the duty, so also in the punishment for despising it. Osorius: “Let not Egypt be proud, that it is watered by the Nile, as if it needed no rain: that is, let no one be secure in this life. For though we stand by faith, yet may we fall. For although bedewed by the efflux of divine grace, and filled with its richness, yet if we give not thanks continually for such great gifts, God will count us as the rest, to whom such copious goodness never came. […]

How the passage was read

On Zechariah 14:16-21

On 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

23 Hebrew words

Every 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.

  • וְאִם־and if

    veim-H518 →1069 times

  • מִשְׁפַּ֨חַת[the] clan of

    mishpachatH4940 →303 times

  • מִצְרַ֧יִםEgypt

    mitzrayimH4714 →641 times

  • לֹֽא־not

    lo'-H3808 →5168 times

  • תַעֲלֶ֛הit will go up

    taalehH5927 →890 times

  • וְלֹ֥אand not

    velo'H3808 →5168 times

  • בָאָ֖ה[is] going

    vaahH935 →2568 times

  • וְלֹ֣אand not

    velo'H3808 →5168 times

  • עֲלֵיהֶ֑םon them

    ʾaleihemH5921 →5755 times

  • תִּֽהְיֶ֣הit will be

    tihyehH1961 →3559 times

  • הַמַּגֵּפָ֗הthe plague

    hamagefahH4046 →25 times

  • אֲשֶׁ֨רwhich

    ʾasherH834 →5497 times

  • יִגֹּ֤ףhe will strike

    yigofH5062 →

  • יְהוָה֙Yahweh

    yahwehH3068 →6520 times

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H853 →10935 times

  • הַגּוֹיִ֔םthe nations

    hagoyimH1471 →561 times

  • אֲשֶׁר֙which

    ʾasherH834 →5497 times

  • לֹ֣אnot

    lo'H3808 →5168 times

  • יַֽעֲל֔וּthey will go up

    yaaluH5927 →890 times

  • לָחֹ֖גto celebrate a festival

    lachogH2287 →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.

Related verses

6 in all, six open

The number beside each verse is how many compiled reference works tie it to this one. The strongest six stand open.

Deuteronomy 11:10For the land that you are entering to possess is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and irrigated on foot, like a vegetable garden.4 worksZechariah 14:12And this will be the plague with which the LORD strikes all the peoples who have warred against Jerusalem: Their flesh will rot while they stand on their feet, their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths.2 worksZechariah 14:15And a similar plague will strike the horses and mules, camels and donkeys, and all the animals in those camps.2 worksIsaiah 19:1This is the burden against Egypt: Behold, the LORD rides on a swift cloud; He is coming to Egypt. The idols of Egypt will tremble before Him, and the hearts of the Egyptians will melt within them.2 worksIsaiah 19:5The waters of the Nile will dry up, and the riverbed will be parched and empty.2 worksPsalms 9:19Rise up, O LORD, do not let man prevail; let the nations be judged in Your presence.2 works

The walk

6 stops

Each 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

    Zechariah 14:12

    And this will be the plague with which the LORD strikes all the peoples who have warred against Jerusalem: Their flesh will rot while they stand on their feet, their eyes will rot in…

    it leads to

    • Ezekiel 39:17–20

      And as for you, son of man, this is what the Lord GOD says: Call out to every kind of bird and to every beast of the field: ‘Assemble and come together from all…

    • Isaiah 66:15–16

      For behold, the LORD will come with fire—His chariots are like a whirlwind—to execute His anger with fury and His rebuke with flames of fire.

    • Micah 4:11–13

      But now many nations have assembled against you, saying, “Let her be defiled, and let us feast our eyes on Zion.”

    • Psalms 110:5–6

      The Lord is at Your right hand; He will crush kings in the day of His wrath.

    • Psalms 90:11

      Who knows the power of Your anger? Your wrath matches the fear You are due.

  • Through

    Zechariah 14:15

    And a similar plague will strike the horses and mules, camels and donkeys, and all the animals in those camps.

    it leads to

    • Zechariah 14:12

      And this will be the plague with which the LORD strikes all the peoples who have warred against Jerusalem: Their flesh will rot while they stand on their feet, their eyes will rot in…

Where this verse is studied

About Zechariah

Zechariah's Vision of Four Chariots, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Zechariah's Vision of Four Chariots, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Zechariah: the study guide →Read Zechariah 14 →
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; 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) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.

Read on in Zechariah 14 →