And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
Zechariah 12:9 stands in chapters 9–14, which have a different historical setting and style from the earlier chapters. Some have proposed that those later chapters were originally writings of Jeremiah later placed under Zechariah's name when the manuscripts were gathered. If Jeremiah wrote them they came before the restoration from Babylon, and if Zechariah wrote them they came after it, a difference that may affect how some promises are interpreted. In its wider outlook the prophecy looks beyond the restoration from Babylon to the final restoration when Christ comes.
These last chapters give the latest Old Testament prophecy concerning the return to the literal land of Canaan, given in B.C. 487. Their prophecies encouraged the restoration of Jerusalem, and that restoration movement is a type of the last reformation. In that day God will act to seek and bring about the destruction of all the nations that come against Jerusalem. He will miraculously preserve and defend the city against opposing nations, even against superior military powers such as the Roman forces whose weapons Israel could not itself command.
The verse opens a prophecy connected with the people's earnest consecration to God. This divine protection was the possible lot of the Jews and was promised on condition that they receive Christ as their king. When the nation rejected him the promise of protection was withdrawn and destruction followed instead.
On one understanding, the verse concerns God's promise to national Israel regarding literal Jerusalem and Canaan, not a future gathering of the Jews now scattered over the earth back to old Jerusalem to re-establish David's throne and kingdom. Every national promise of restoration to literal Canaan, including this one, was completely fulfilled to Israel as a nation forty-two years later, by B.C. 445, when under the provision opened by Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes all Israel who would return dwelt in their cities. On another understanding, the prophecy belongs in its fullest sense to the closing prophecies of Christ's kingdom, the great day of the Lord, final restoration, judgment on those who reject God, punishment of the wicked on earth, the ultimate triumph of good, and the judgment of individuals according to their own works.
In the closing days of time Jerusalem and the surrounding country will bear the brunt of a final attack by the nations gathered against Jerusalem for Armageddon just before Christ comes. God will act to destroy them. Jerusalem's deliverance belongs to the restoration of the true Israelites.
Zechariah 12:9 stands in chapters 9–14, which have a different historical setting and style from the earlier chapters. Some have proposed that those later chapters were originally writings of Jeremiah later placed under Zechariah's name when the manuscripts were gathered. If Jeremiah wrote them they came before the restoration from Babylon, and if Zechariah wrote them they came after it, a difference that may affect how some promises are interpreted. In its wider outlook the prophecy looks beyond the restoration from Babylon to the final restoration when Christ comes.
These last chapters give the latest Old Testament prophecy concerning the return to the literal land of Canaan, given in B.C. 487. Their prophecies encouraged the restoration of Jerusalem, and that restoration movement is a type of the last reformation. In that day God will act to seek and bring about the destruction of all the nations that come against Jerusalem. He will miraculously preserve and defend the city against opposing nations, even against superior military powers such as the Roman forces whose weapons Israel could not itself command.
The verse opens a prophecy connected with the people's earnest consecration to God. This divine protection was the possible lot of the Jews and was promised on condition that they receive Christ as their king. When the nation rejected him the promise of protection was withdrawn and destruction followed instead.
On one understanding, the verse concerns God's promise to national Israel regarding literal Jerusalem and Canaan, not a future gathering of the Jews now scattered over the earth back to old Jerusalem to re-establish David's throne and kingdom. Every national promise of restoration to literal Canaan, including this one, was completely fulfilled to Israel as a nation forty-two years later, by B.C. 445, when under the provision opened by Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes all Israel who would return dwelt in their cities. On another understanding, the prophecy belongs in its fullest sense to the closing prophecies of Christ's kingdom, the great day of the Lord, final restoration, judgment on those who reject God, punishment of the wicked on earth, the ultimate triumph of good, and the judgment of individuals according to their own works.
In the closing days of time Jerusalem and the surrounding country will bear the brunt of a final attack by the nations gathered against Jerusalem for Armageddon just before Christ comes. God will act to destroy them. Jerusalem's deliverance belongs to the restoration of the true Israelites.