Zechariah 2:6, commentary and pictures

The verse belongs to visions given at a time when the Jews feared that permission to rebuild Jerusalem would be withdrawn, assuring them that God had returned to Jerusalem with mercy and that the cities of Judah would spread abroad, to encourage the work of restoration. The land of the north is Babylon, and being spread abroad as the four winds of heaven describes how God scattered the people among many lands and nations, including throughout the Medo-Persian realm. It is God's urgent call and warning to the Israelites still living in Babylonian captivity to flee and come forth without delay and return to Judea, Jerusalem, and their former homeland.

The call belongs to God's work of delivering and restoring His afflicted people, pictured as Jerusalem, and preparing to dwell among them, showing the Lord coming to their relief in pity and in answer to intercession. It came when the way was being prepared for the many who had remained behind after the decree of Cyrus, giving them another opportunity to return before the troubled times under Xerxes, the Ahasuerus of Esther. Remaining among heathen influences was thereby made perilous as religious liberty came under threat, and the warning summoned the priests and Levites especially to return to serve in the rebuilt temple and teach the people.

The warning was a gracious opportunity and way of escape to join the returning remnant and avoid later danger, yet many ignored it even when later urged to leave without delay. Those who remained later faced a crisis in Persia in the Medo-Persian realm under the reign of Ahasuerus that threatened them with death.