Zechariah 14:1-21

VARIOUS UTTERANCES CONCERNING THE FUTURE OF ISRAEL, Zechariah 12:1 to Zechariah 14:21.

The heading (Zechariah 12:1) names the subject of these utterances, Israel, a term used here not in a national but in a religious sense of the people of Jehovah. The prophecies center around Jerusalem and Judah, the home of the postexilic Jewish community. The section falls naturally into two parts, Zechariah 12:1 to Zechariah 13:6, and Zechariah 14:1-21; Zechariah 13:7-9, has no close connection either with Zechariah 13:1-6, or with chapter 14 (see on Zechariah 13:7-9). The first part, Zechariah 12:1 to Zechariah 13:6, consists of three divisions; the first (Zechariah 12:1-9) deals with some marvelous deliverance of Judah and Jerusalem, the second (Zechariah 12:10-14) with a prolonged penitential mourning over some great crime, the third (Zechariah 13:1-6) with the purification of the community and its restoration to intimate fellowship with Jehovah.