Zechariah 1:14

The angel then instructed Zechariah to proclaim that Yahweh was very jealous for Jerusalem and Zion. Jealousy when used to describe God’s attitude refers to His careful concern, specifically intolerance of rivalry or unfaithfulness, for the wellbeing of others. Often in Scripture it alludes to God as a husband wanting to keep His wife, Israel or the church, true to Himself. [Note: See Baldwin, pp. 101-3.] God’s jealousy has none of the negative connotations that we associate with selfish human jealousy. The double names for Jerusalem may be a case of poetic parallelism, or they could suggest Jerusalem of the past and Zion of the future. Zechariah’s people evidently thought that the stability that the Persian Empire currently enjoyed indicated that God had turned from them to look favorably on the nations.