As for thee also, by the blood of thy covenant I have sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water.
Chapters 9-14 have a different historical setting and style from the earlier chapters, spoken beginning in 520 B.C. to the returned exiles in Jerusalem to restore hope, courage, and holy zeal for God's cause. This latter part of the book has a much wider sweep than the first part and is very rich in predictions of the Messianic King and kingdom. Its authorship has been questioned as possibly the work of Jeremiah before the return from Babylon or of Zechariah afterward. Those who held the former view suggested the section had originally been part of Jeremiah's writings and was later misplaced among Zechariah's, basing this on its language and its use of the phrase the burden of the word of the Lord.
The prophecy encouraged Zerubbabel and Ezra in building the temple and restoring Jerusalem, and that restoration work and reformation movement is a type of the last reformation. It looks beyond that restoration to Christ's final restoration. The closing prophecies offer hope to those who seek God and trust the promises of the Spirit, and foretell judgment for those who reject him.
The verse speaks of Israel's deliverance from captivity among the heathen. It belongs to the prophecy of the Jews' triumph in their conflict with the Greeks, which had to be fulfilled before Christ's first advent because the Greek kingdom gave way to the Roman kingdom before then. The verse is in the past tense in the original, though some translators render it as a future promise.
The covenant by whose blood the prisoners are delivered was dedicated with blood. That blood is the price by which the church's prisoners are brought out of the pit: the atonement purchases redemption, and redemption is actual freedom through deliverance from sin and its consequences. The pit without water represents the grave, which is a prison from which the dead are sent forth by the blood of the covenant when they hear Christ's voice and come out. The pit means a deep place of destruction, not a place of conscious torment.
The image of a prisoner trapped in a pit without water pictures the danger of perishing for lack of instruction in God's word. The blood of the covenant has power to release prisoners from the pit. Christ's blood brings salvation, cleanses from sin and from all sin, restores the image of God in humanity, and restores what sin caused to be lost. That blood is still offered before God and can set every sinner free, so no one need despair under the weight of sin because grace is greater.
Chapters 9-14 have a different historical setting and style from the earlier chapters, spoken beginning in 520 B.C. to the returned exiles in Jerusalem to restore hope, courage, and holy zeal for God's cause. This latter part of the book has a much wider sweep than the first part and is very rich in predictions of the Messianic King and kingdom. Its authorship has been questioned as possibly the work of Jeremiah before the return from Babylon or of Zechariah afterward. Those who held the former view suggested the section had originally been part of Jeremiah's writings and was later misplaced among Zechariah's, basing this on its language and its use of the phrase the burden of the word of the Lord.
The prophecy encouraged Zerubbabel and Ezra in building the temple and restoring Jerusalem, and that restoration work and reformation movement is a type of the last reformation. It looks beyond that restoration to Christ's final restoration. The closing prophecies offer hope to those who seek God and trust the promises of the Spirit, and foretell judgment for those who reject him.
The verse speaks of Israel's deliverance from captivity among the heathen. It belongs to the prophecy of the Jews' triumph in their conflict with the Greeks, which had to be fulfilled before Christ's first advent because the Greek kingdom gave way to the Roman kingdom before then. The verse is in the past tense in the original, though some translators render it as a future promise.
The covenant by whose blood the prisoners are delivered was dedicated with blood. That blood is the price by which the church's prisoners are brought out of the pit: the atonement purchases redemption, and redemption is actual freedom through deliverance from sin and its consequences. The pit without water represents the grave, which is a prison from which the dead are sent forth by the blood of the covenant when they hear Christ's voice and come out. The pit means a deep place of destruction, not a place of conscious torment.
The image of a prisoner trapped in a pit without water pictures the danger of perishing for lack of instruction in God's word. The blood of the covenant has power to release prisoners from the pit. Christ's blood brings salvation, cleanses from sin and from all sin, restores the image of God in humanity, and restores what sin caused to be lost. That blood is still offered before God and can set every sinner free, so no one need despair under the weight of sin because grace is greater.