Behold, the day cometh for Jehovah, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee.
Zechariah's last chapter opens with a warning aimed at Jerusalem, not at her enemies. One short verse raises two questions: what is "the day of the LORD," and whose spoil is divided inside the city?
The verse says the day belongs to the LORD. Writers show that the prophets use this phrase with one settled sense.
The "day of the Lord" has a fixed meaning in the prophets, and is always tied to judgment — see, for example, Isaiah 2:12 (compare Joel 2; 2 Peter 3:10). And the context shows it has this meaning here. It is the day when Jehovah will appear for judgment upon His enemies, and for the deliverance of those who have waited for Him.
The day has an opposite. One writer sets it against the present time, when people run their own affairs.
The day of the Lord stands in contrast to "man's day" (1 Cor. 4:3 — JND). "Man's day" is the present time when God is allowing man to express his own opinions and to some extent have his own way. This day will reach its peak in man's bold challenge to God's authority. Man will place "the abomination of desolation" in the temple area of Jerusalem (Matt. 24:15)… So man's proud defiance of God will rise to its most lawless height. Then the day of the Lord will burst upon the world in all its awe-inspiring solemnity. God will openly step into the affairs of mankind, first for judgment, then for blessing.
How long is this day? One writer ties it to the Lord's whole reign, and points to the moment it begins.
Let us now turn to Zechariah 14. We shall see there that "the day of the Lord" is not a literal day of twenty-four hours. It is the same as His reign as king over all the earth… Here we have the beginning of the day: at the worst point of Jerusalem's final sorrows, the Lord goes out to fight against her enemies.
Here the writers part company. Grant reads the spoil as the enemies' loot:
In that day the spoil taken by the enemies will be divided in the middle of the city. They will not carry it out first. They will be so sure they have completely subdued the city that they will take all the time they want to divide the spoils among themselves there.
Dennett reads it the other way. He takes the verse as a headline that gives away the ending before the details come.
The "spoil" here is probably the spoil taken from the nations (see verse 14), which the prophet says will be divided in the middle of Jerusalem. So in one sentence, before he gives the details, he sets the full result before the reader — the full result of the nations gathering against Jerusalem. They will come to plunder the city, but they will be plundered. The people who were on the very edge of destruction will divide the spoil of their enemies.
The ESV reads "the spoil taken from you," which supports the first view. Dennett works from a wording that leaves the owner of the spoil open.
Two enemies press on Jerusalem in that day. One writer warns against mixing them up.
The one besieging Jerusalem is clearly not the beast. The beast supports the false prophet with all his might, and the false prophet is "the king" who reigns in Jerusalem, whom "the many" accept as the Messiah and Jehovah of Israel. The king of the north is an outside enemy. He attacks Jerusalem at the head of all the nations of the east. We must always remember that the man of sin, or the Antichrist, is inside Jerusalem. No verse says he besieges it, for the city is too submissive to him as "the king."
The verse points to a rescue for people on earth in that crisis. One writer marks how the Christian's hope is different.
If the second coming of Christ brings salvation to the godly remnant in the land of Israel, when all the nations gather around Jerusalem (Zech. 14:1-4), then the heirs of salvation will already have gone up to heaven at the rapture of the church. His appearing will indeed be salvation for us, for we shall then enter the blessing we have long hoped for.
- Man's day ends. The present time lets people have their own way; the day of the LORD is when God openly steps in.
- The day begins. It starts at Jerusalem's darkest hour, and it is a period, not twenty-four hours.
- Judgment first. The phrase is always tied to judgment on His enemies — and to deliverance for those who waited for Him.
- The spoil turns. Commentators differ. Either the enemy shares out its loot inside the city, or the plunderers lose everything and the rescued people take their enemies' wealth.
- Then blessing. God steps in first for judgment, then for blessing. Christians meet Him before this day breaks.
And I will assemble all the nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity; and the rest of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
Zechariah's last chapter looks ahead to the day of the Lord. Verse 2 then says what no reader expects: God Himself gathers the armies that will sack His own city. Two facts stand side by side. The defeat is real — plunder, violence, captivity. Yet a limit is fixed on it, and part of the people stay.
The armies attack Jerusalem. Yet the verse opens with God's own words: "I will gather." One writer explains why God lets the enemy win.
Chapter 12 also mentions the siege of Jerusalem, as we have seen. But there it speaks more of the effect on the peoples who besiege her. Here we learn something new. At first, before Jehovah appears, the enemy will win and capture the city. Jehovah allows this to punish those in Judah who have turned away from Him, led on by the antichrist.
The suffering in this verse is not new to Jerusalem. One writer runs through her long record of sieges, then asks the reason behind them.
No city in the world has undergone such frightful sieges. Jeremiah marked out the sorrows of its capture by Nebuchadnezzar in his Lamentations. The pages of Josephus keep a description of the horrors of the siege by the Romans. And, as we gather from this Scripture, the sorrows of this chosen city are not yet ended. Does the reader ask the reason? Our blessed Lord Himself gives it in His lament: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!" (Matt. 23:37.)
Zechariah 12 shows Jerusalem attacked and the attackers beaten off. This verse shows Jerusalem attacked and taken. One writer reads them as two different sieges, set out in the book in reverse order.
Jerusalem still faces two sieges before millennial peace can wrap her and her people. Zechariah has foretold them both, and we believe Isaiah 29 refers to them as well. The first of these sieges will be successful. Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, teaches us this in 14:1-2… The presence of the Lord Jesus will defeat the second siege, and he mentions that one in 12:1-9.
One writer adds that "all nations will be involved in the tremendous happenings of those days" (F. B. Hole).
Half the city goes into exile. The other half stays. Those who remain are not simply lucky survivors.
Zechariah 13:9 already spoke of a third part in all the land. They are brought through the fire, refined as silver and tested as gold. They call on Jehovah, and He hears them. He will say, "You are My people"; and they shall say, "Jehovah is my God." So we find extreme trouble here. Yet the work of God in a remnant is just as clear.
God does not step in before the city falls. He steps in after it has fallen — at the point where the invaders think the work is finished.
Her deliverance and the full end of her sorrows come at the very moment when the destroying force is flushed with triumph. It has taken and sacked the city, and carried off half its people. For the Lord says, "I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle…" "Then the Lord will go out and fight against those nations as when He fights on a day of battle. On that day His feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives that lies before Jerusalem."
This scene belongs to Jerusalem, not to the church.
The last chapter of our prophet is full of the glorious day that is yet to dawn. The hope it sets out is not the Christian's hope. Before these events take place, we Christians will have been "caught up" to meet the Lord in the air, whether we are alive or asleep. So 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 tells us.
- Gathered. God says, "I will gather." The siege is His discipline on a city that has turned away from Him. It is not an accident of history.
- Given up. The Lord longed to gather Jerusalem's children under His wings, and she would not. Her sorrows are not yet ended.
- Halved. Half go into captivity — the first of two sieges, and the one that succeeds.
- Kept. The rest are not cut off. The third part, refined in fire, calls on Jehovah, and He answers, "You are My people."
- Delivered. Rescue comes at the enemy's proudest moment, when the Lord's own feet stand on the Mount of Olives.
And Jehovah will go forth and fight with those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.
Zechariah 14 opens with Jerusalem overrun, and verse 3 turns the whole scene with one word: "Then." Everything hangs on who this fighting LORD is, when He steps in, and which battle He fought before.
The rescue comes only after the disaster of verse 2. And it is no quiet act of providence — the One who comes is the Son of Man Himself.
Suddenly the Lord will appear. As Zechariah shows (Zech. 14), Jerusalem is surrounded by her enemies and has already fallen into their hands. Then "shall Jehovah go forth, and fight with those nations, as when He fought in the day of battle." This might be, and has been, taken as a providential visit. But what follows shows conclusively, and in agreement with many other prophecies (Dan. 7:13-14), that it is — though indeed Jehovah — the Son of Man who comes: for "His feet shall stand in that day on the Mount of Olives … and Jehovah my God shall come, and all the holy ones with You."
One writer answers the question from the New Testament, and adds what this Lord's own hands will do for the captives.
The New Testament makes it abundantly clear that the Jehovah who, according to Zechariah 14:3, will "go forth, and fight against those nations," is no other than our blessed Lord Jesus Christ; and by His hands, "the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered."
The Lord does not go out alone. One writer sets this rescue after the king of the north comes up with a huge army, and after the Lord has already dealt with the beast and the false prophet.
After this comes up the king of the north at the head of a vast force. Then shall the Lord go forth at the head of His people "as in the day of battle." So we find it stated in Zech. 14:3. Before that it was the Lord coming from heaven that dealt with the beast and the false prophet. Now He will have taken up His people Israel. It is the rod of His power from out of Zion, as Ps. 110 expresses it, dealing with the head of a great country.
Commentators differ over which battle this points to. Some look back to God's earlier rescues, and see the Lord here defending His own city.
In the end these nations attack Jerusalem, and this chapter describes that attack (see Joel 2). But then the Lord goes forth, and fights against those nations, as when He fought in the day of battle (Exodus 14; 2 Chronicles 20:15-17). He shows His kingly power and glory in defending His city and His people.
Others read it as pointing forward, to a battle still to come.
The words "in the day of battle" refer to what will happen when the Lord with all His hosts will come from heaven to destroy the beast and the false prophet with their armies.
The nations end in defeat, and the chapter leaves a test anyone can still check today.
The nations may seem to succeed at first, but their defeat follows at once, and it is for ever. … God will not leave the mount of Olives without an everlasting token that the Maker of heaven and earth is that glorious One whose feet stand there in that day. Is Olivet split now? Clearly not. What can you make of it by the so-called spiritual interpretation? Absolutely nothing. … The undivided mountain rises up to condemn those false interpretations, and is a silent standing witness that the prophecy is not yet accomplished.
The verse does not say exactly when this happens. One writer warns us not to guess beyond what is written.
It is not clear whether the Lord appears at once, or whether this happens after the city is captured. The fact is stated, and we must take care not to go beyond it: the Lord goes forth against His enemies and the enemies of His people. … Then the nations of the world will have to learn what Pharaoh learned at the Red Sea — the irresistible might of Him against whom they have dared to set themselves in battle array.
- Then — the rescue comes after the city falls, not before. God saves His people when nothing is left to them.
- Goes out — the One who fights is Jehovah, and the New Testament names Him as the Lord Jesus Himself.
- Fights — He acts at the head of His people, wielding the rod of His power out of Zion.
- As of old — writers differ: some point back to Exodus and 2 Chronicles, others ahead to the destruction of the beast and false prophet.
- Not yet — the Mount of Olives still stands unbroken. It is a silent witness that this day has not come. Beyond that, don't press the details.