Zechariah 2:6

"Ho, ho, flee from the land of the north, saith Jehovah; for I have spread you abroad as the four winds of heaven, saith Jehovah."

"Saith Jehovah ..." This expression, repeated twice, identifies the message as originating with God Himself, not with the prophet Zechariah. To reject this is to reduce Holy Scripture to the status of any other book. If such a thing is really true, why do the critical commentators bother with it? If Zechariah is only an ordinary book, it doesn't make any difference what he said.

"Flee from the land of the north ..." This means "flee from Babylon"; and while Babylon did not actually lie in that direction, the traveler either to or from that city was compelled to use the road leading north, which made a great arc around the desert that lay between. This became therefore a traditional expression referring to Babylon as "the north." It was by the northern route that Chaldaean invaders came to Jerusalem.

The reason for this exhortation was:

"A great number of the exiles had remained in Babylon, having established themselves there according to Jeremiah 29:5, and grown rich. They are now called upon to flee from their adopted country."[14]

The reason for this plea was twofold: (1) They were in eminent danger of adopting the philosophy, life-style, and even the gods of Babylon. They were in a most dangerous and precarious situation. (2) Babylon itself was not destined to escape the punishment which God would send upon that wicked and dissolute city. It would be only a few years before powerful foes would utterly destroy the place.

"I have spread you abroad ..." The dispersion of the Jews at the time of events leading to the Babylonian captivity had been most extensive; and the simplest way to view this passage is as a reference to that fact. Some would make it refer to the prosperous expansion of Israel, but this appears to be incorrect.