Zechariah 14:2, commentary and pictures

The verse means all nations are gathered to make war against Jerusalem, the city is taken and plundered, its houses are rifled and its women assaulted, half the city goes into captivity while the rest are left in the city. It belongs to prophecies that look beyond the return from Babylon to the great day of the Lord, Christ's kingdom and the punishment of the wicked, and its parts apply at widely separated times rather than as one continuous event in order. Its complete fulfillment is the final universal war of Armageddon before the Lord appears, when the gathered nations are met and defeated by the Lord going forth to fight at the second advent. In its end-time setting it also describes the last war after the thousand years, when the wicked dead are raised, Satan deceives them into believing the descended New Jerusalem can be taken, and they surround the camp of the saints only to be destroyed by fire from God from heaven. The Jerusalem attacked is not the old city of stone and mortar but the antitypical heavenly Jerusalem, the same gathering described in Joel 3 and Revelation 16 and 19, making the final conflict a test of allegiance in which those who trust God inherit His holy mountain and dwell safely forever.

Words and Literary Setting

Zechariah 14:2 means that all nations are gathered to attack Jerusalem, the city is taken and plundered with its spoil divided, the houses are rifled and the women assaulted, half of the city goes forth into captivity while the residue of the people are not cut off from the city but remain in it. The battle unfolds in two stages, in which a power holding Jerusalem is first defeated and then the attacking nations seize the city and divide the spoil, after which the Lord goes out against those victorious nations. The events of the chapter need not be recorded in chronological order.

The verse stands in Zechariah's later chapters and closing prophecies, which look beyond the restoration from Babylon to the final restoration when Christ comes. Those closing prophecies also foretell judgments upon those who reject God. It belongs to a prophecy about Christ's kingdom and the Kingdom of God, about the great day of the Lord, and about the punishment of the wicked.

The chapter contains prophecies that apply at widely separated times, so its verses must not be read as one continuous event in chronological order. Each part must be placed by comparing Scripture with Scripture, with this verse belonging to the after-scenes that follow when the former work has been accomplished. The prophecy covers a period of time called the great day of the Lord, when God deals with both the wicked and the righteous, and its language reflects the prophet's own time.

Timing in Day of Lord

The gathering of all nations against Jerusalem and the battle that follows stand at the opening of the day of the Lord, before the first resurrection and the thousand years of judgment. In that battle the wicked who are then alive die the first death, including those who do not know God. That opening death is not the final utter destruction, which comes only after the thousand years when the wicked are raised and destroyed by fire and heaven and earth pass away. The day of the Lord so begun starts before the thousand years of judgment and continues beyond them.

The battle of verses 1-3 and 12-15 belongs together with the voice of God and the battle of the great day at Christ's second coming in the final destruction. It occurs at the same time as the deliverance of God's people in every nation and the outpouring of God's Spirit upon the living saints, just before the resurrection of the righteous, with those delivered from their nations later redeemed together with the righteous dead at Christ's second appearing.

The day of the Lord is not identical with or limited to the thousand years of Revelation 20. It begins before that period and ends after it, so the many events described as occurring in that day cannot all be assigned to the millennium merely because they are in that day.

The chapter spans from the Lord going forth at the second advent to fight against the gathered nations as when He fought in the day of battle, to the Lord's third advent at the close of the thousand years when He sets His feet upon the Mount of Olives. That fighting is the great hailstones falling under the seventh vial, described in symbol in Revelation 19. At the close of the thousand years the Mount cleaves asunder and prepares a place for the city coming from heaven, where the camp of the saints and the beloved city stand on that prepared spot, the revived wicked surround it and are destroyed, the earth is melted and the new earth appears. Then the eternal day commences with the waters of life flowing from the New Jerusalem and the Lord as king over all the new earth, where there is no more utter destruction but Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited forever. That Jerusalem is not a city built by human hands to be superseded by the city from heaven, but the heavenly city itself remaining forever and belonging to the eternal world.

What follows in the chapter concerning the plagues is not in chronological order but is fulfilled in the present world. Verses 4-11 describe events at the end of the day of the Lord, when the beloved City is located on the earth. That return to earth at the close of the thousand-year reign, when Christ establishes His everlasting kingdom, is distinguished from His second coming, when the saints meet Him in the air.

Battle Before Second Advent

The gathering of the nations for war against Jerusalem is the final universal war, the Armageddon conflict that precedes the Lord's appearing, when He fights against the gathered nations and defeats and ruins them, and only then do wars cease. Its complete fulfillment belongs to the great battle of Armageddon associated with verse 3, when all the nations of the earth are gathered and prepared for battle against Jerusalem. Present military preparation fulfills that prophecy, and such preparation stirs boasting and aggressiveness and provokes rival preparation, so the great crash is bound to come.

In that Armageddon application the united armies of paganism, Catholicism, and apostate Protestantism come against Jerusalem, and the Ottoman Empire becomes spoil divided among its enemies. The gathering is a future attack by the nations against the Mohammedan power holding Jerusalem, identified as the Turk, with the city taken and plundered, houses rifled, and some going into captivity. The sixth plague has weakened that power so it is easy prey, and after the capture the conquerors engaged in the battle are then struck by God with plague and destroyed at Christ's second advent, except those already killed.

The capture and overthrow of the power holding the city is associated with the drying of the Euphrates under the sixth plague, where waters symbolize peoples so their drying represents that power and its people being cut off. The nations turn against it after having sustained it, deceived by evil spirits, with the battle located at Jerusalem as the battle of the day of the Lord. That last phase of Armageddon follows Satan impersonating Christ and persuading the nations that Jerusalem belongs to him, so the deceived nations send their armies against the city.

The verse predicts Jerusalem's destruction by the united forces of the nations as part of the lot the Jews chose by rejecting their king, in contrast to the miraculous preservation of city, temple, and nation that receiving Him would have brought. It has some reference to the capture in A.D. 70 and predicts the second destruction and dispersion fulfilled when the Romans under Titus destroyed the city, which after forty years of judgment serves as a type of the future closing conflict centered on Jerusalem when all nations gather and the Lord fights for His people. The restoration promises for literal Israel to Canaan were fulfilled when Israel returned and dwelt in its cities after the Persian decrees, the chapter being the latest prophecy on that restoration and not an unfulfilled promise of a future return. The prophecy of Christ's coming to reign will be fulfilled as literally as Isaiah 53's prophecy of His suffering was literally fulfilled.

Battle After Thousand Years

In its end-time setting the verse describes the resurrected wicked gathered for battle against Jerusalem after the thousand years, and the Jerusalem is the New Jerusalem descended to earth where God's people are with Christ. Christ stands on the Mount of Olives, which splits to form a great plain, and the New Jerusalem descends upon that prepared spot as the camp of the saints and the beloved city. The gathering against it is the last war, when the wicked dead are raised and Satan deceives them into believing the city can be taken and the kingdom given to the saints can be made their own. So deceived, they prepare for war, come up over the breadth of the earth, and surround the camp of the saints and the beloved city, while remaining intent on their sinful purposes.

The nations at war gathered against Jerusalem stand first in a sequence spanning the day of the Lord, in which the Lord goes forth at the second advent to fight the gathered nations as when He fought in the day of battle, a fighting that is the great hailstones under the seventh vial described in symbol in Revelation 19. In that day, at the close of the thousand years, the Lord makes His third advent and sets His feet upon the Mount of Olives, which cleaves asunder and prepares a place for the city coming down from heaven. After the resurrection of the wicked, Satan gathers them around the descended city in an attempt to take it by force, but none of them are able to enter it. The revived wicked surrounding it are destroyed by fire from God out of heaven, the earth is melted and the new earth appears, and then the eternal day commences with the waters of life flowing from the New Jerusalem and the Lord as king over all the new earth.

That destruction is not the first destruction but the final utter destruction after the thousand years, when the wicked are raised and destroyed by fire and heaven and earth pass away. The battle beginning at the opening of the day of the Lord, before the first resurrection and the thousand years, brings the wicked then alive to die the first death, while verses 4-11 describe events at the end of the day of the Lord when the beloved City is located on the earth. Afterward there is no more utter destruction, but Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited forever. That Jerusalem is not a city built by human hands to be superseded by the city from heaven, but the heavenly city itself remaining forever.

Jerusalem and Other Scriptures

The Jerusalem against which all nations are gathered is not a city built by human hands to be superseded by the city from heaven, nor the old city of stone and mortar, but the antitypical Jerusalem, the heavenly city itself remaining forever. It belongs to the eternal world, while what follows in the chapter concerning plagues is fulfilled in the present world. The country around this city will be inhabited, and the redeemed will live there in a real tangible place, worship the personal Creator, and keep the memorial of creation.

Jerusalem above is comforted as the redeemed return from every land with their Redeemer and King, and the holy city descends at the end of the millennium. The place where the city of God descends at the end of the thousand years has God's people inside it.

The gathering for battle is the same battle described in Joel 3 and Revelation 16, in which the nations are gathered for battle and are cut off, with the conflict located at Jerusalem near the place called Armageddon. That fighting is the great hailstones falling under the seventh vial and is described in symbol in Revelation 19.

The gathering is parallel to Joel's Valley of Jehoshaphat, the general scene of God's judgment where the gathered nations meet their doom. Jerusalem is identified as the site of that great battle during the last plague in the valley of Jehoshaphat, taking place under the final judgment when great hail falls on those who continue to blaspheme God. In that Armageddon conflict the gathering place is in Syria and Palestine along the eastern Mediterranean, where a great plain corresponding to the valleys may be the scene of the final conflict.

Jerusalem is the city outside which the winepress of the wrath of God is trodden at the end. The gathering of all nations against Jerusalem to battle brings sudden and certain destruction while the nations are crying peace and safety, with the wheat first gathered into the heavenly garner and then the vintage of the earth cast into the great winepress of the wrath of God outside Jerusalem.

The passage shows that people will again be punished in the valley of Hinnom, the valley south of Jerusalem associated with Gehenna.

Warning and Promise

The gathering of all nations to fight against the Lord and His people at the end makes the final conflict a test of where each person stands. Those who put trust in God rather than relying on earthly forces will possess the land and inherit His holy mountain. That closing conflict is centered on Jerusalem, where all nations gather against the city and the Lord goes forth to fight for His people. The destruction of Jerusalem after forty years of judgment serves as a type of this future event. Christ's visible return to earth to establish His kingdom will occur only at that time, and when these events begin His people are to look up because their redemption is near.

If the Turkish government should move to Jerusalem and the surrounding of the city by armies should follow, it could be a particular sign for God's people to leave the cities and await the Lord's coming. The gathering of the nations to fight against Jerusalem is part of the prophecy of the final conflict before God's children gain complete victory over their foes and the reign of righteousness begins.