And it shall come to pass, that all that are left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, Jehovah of hosts, and to celebrate the feast of tabernacles.
Zechariah's last chapter moves from armies closing in on Jerusalem to the Lord Himself reigning as King over all the earth. This verse asks who is left alive when that is over, who this King is, and why the nations must keep one Israelite feast.
Left over from what? One writer says the number will be small, because the fighting earlier in the chapter reaches every nation:
The king of the north may have a special part in this attack on Jerusalem. But all the nations will be involved, as verse 2 says. So these huge judgments of war will be felt far and wide, in every direction. That is why verse 16 uses the words "every one that is left." We believe this means that only a very small part of mankind will be left.
These survivors come from the nations that attacked the city. Another writer names what they are spared for:
The remnant spared among the nations will come up to Jerusalem, to the feast that celebrates God's people entering into their rest.
The verse gives two titles to one person. He holds the throne promised to David's line, and He bears the name of God Himself:
The King is no one other than Jesus of Nazareth. When the angel announced His birth, he said that the Lord God would give Him the throne of His father David (Luke 1). And yet, as the Spirit of God loves to show, He is also Jehovah Sabaoth, the Lord of hosts. He was once here as a root out of dry ground, with no beauty that the natural eye could see, the lowly man of Nazareth. In the coming age, exalted and glorified as King over all the earth, He will be the One all nations adore and worship.
The ESV calls it the Feast of Booths; older translations, and the writers here, call it the Feast of Tabernacles. It closed the farming year, and it pointed forward:
They lived in booths for seven days and kept the feast after they had gathered in their grain, wine, and oil. They rested and rejoiced when the year's work was over. It was a picture of the rest that is still to come, and of the joy that will come when all their troubles on earth are over and Messiah is reigning over them... Passover concerns the redeemed of the Lord, and Pentecost concerns in a special way those who are called out for heaven. But Tabernacles will concern everyone on earth who has had dealings with Jerusalem in the past.
This feast is not the first thing to happen. One writer points to what must come before it:
The true feast of tabernacles, the final feast, will not be kept until a time still future, as Zechariah 14:16 shows. And when it comes, the great day of atonement will come first (Zech. 12:10-14). We do not find that day in Ezra, or in Nehemiah, or in the gospels.
Worship here is not left to choice, and only one of Israel's feasts is named:
The Lord does not force anyone to worship Him. Many people in this world have great material wealth and still refuse to worship the Lord. Right now He sends rain on the just and on the unjust (Matt. 5:45). In the time that is coming, if the nations do not obey and go up to worship the King and keep the Feast of Tabernacles, they will get no rain. How remarkable that they are not told to keep the Feast of the Passover or Pentecost, but only the Feast of Tabernacles.
Commentators differ on what that silence proves. One holds that Passover will still be kept then:
The Passover is missing here, but we have no right to conclude that it will not be kept then. The end of Ezekiel plainly speaks of the same time and the same circumstances, and it shows that the Passover will be kept as well as the feast of Tabernacles — but not Pentecost.
Some read all of this as picture language only. One writer objects:
What a scene! Who would want to rob it of its own beauty by a vague way of interpreting that is wrongly called spiritualizing? Surely Jerusalem means Jerusalem, nations mean nations, and the feast of tabernacles means the feast of tabernacles.
- Left — the worshippers are survivors of the nations that attacked Jerusalem; only a small part of mankind will remain.
- Spared — those spared come up to Jerusalem, to the feast that celebrates God's people entering their rest.
- King — the One they worship is Jesus of Nazareth, who receives David's throne and is also the Lord of hosts.
- Feast — Booths marked rest after the harvest was gathered in. It concerns everyone on earth, and it follows the great day of atonement.
- Year by year — worship becomes a yearly duty for the nations, and those who refuse get no rain. Commentators differ on whether the other feasts are kept too.
And it shall be, that whoso goeth not up of the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, Jehovah of hosts, upon them shall be no rain.
Zechariah's last chapter looks past every battle to a coming day. Then the nations will go up to Jerusalem year after year to worship the King. This verse names the cost of staying home: rain now depends on whether a people will bow.
The verse turns on the worship of one Person, named both as King and as the LORD of hosts. One commentator links both titles to one Person, and recalls how plain He once looked.
The King, as we know, is none other than Jesus of Nazareth. When the angel announced His birth, he said that the Lord God would give Him the throne of His father David (Luke 1). And yet, as the Spirit of God loves to show, He is also Jehovah Sabaoth, the Lord of hosts. He was once here below as the Root out of dry ground, with no form or beauty to the natural eye — the lowly Nazarene. In the coming age He will be the exalted and glorified One, King over all the earth, and the object of the worship and adoration of all nations.
The command names a place. What it sets up is not church life but a kingdom on earth, with one capital city.
This is plainly God ruling on earth, and too unlike the nature of Christianity to need any argument. Jerusalem, as the city of the great King, is the religious capital of the earth, and all must be at least represented there year by year. We have no ground for concluding that the absence of the Passover here means it will not be kept then. The end of Ezekiel speaks of the same time and circumstances, and from it we know the Passover will be observed as well as the feast of Tabernacles. Pentecost will not, for it is the characteristic feast whose full meaning is already met in the church.
Commentators differ here. Kelly holds that the Passover will still be kept, though Zechariah does not name it. Others point out that Zechariah calls the nations to the Feast of Tabernacles alone.
The Lord asks for worship. He does not force it. So refusal is possible, and it has a cost.
The nations must come up to worship. Now, the Lord does not compel anyone to worship Him. Many people in this world have great wealth and still refuse to worship the Lord. Now, He "sends rain on the just and on the unjust" (Matt. 5:45). In the time that is coming, the nations must obey. If they do not go up to worship the King and keep the Feast of Tabernacles, they will get no rain. How remarkable that they are not asked to keep the Feast of the Passover or Pentecost, but only the Feast of Tabernacles. Passover and Pentecost have to do especially with the Church. The Feast of Tabernacles has to do with the Kingdom.
No rain sounds mild until you picture it. One writer describes what a shut heaven looks like.
What barrenness and desolation there must be when heaven is shut up! No refreshing showers coming down, no dewdrops falling, no contact between heaven and earth.
The punishment fits the refusal. One writer adds that these nations are not saved as nations, and that refusal costs them more than rain.
The nations will share in the feast of booths. A large crowd from among them will be saved (Rev. 7:9-12), but they will not be saved as whole nations. They will have to submit to the iron sceptre of the Messiah, or be dashed in pieces like a potter's vessel (Ps. 2:9). Here we see that those who will not go up to Jerusalem to the feast of booths to bow before the King will be struck with a plague. The blessing that should have made their land fertile will be kept from them.
The verse assumes some will refuse. That corrects a common picture of the coming age of Christ's reign, the millennial age.
What makes this so hard to understand is that many have a false idea of the millennial age. They picture "righteousness dwelling" on the earth instead of "righteousness reigning" over it. … Isaiah, speaking of the great length of life then, says, "the young man shall die a hundred years old," but adds, "and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed" (Isa. 65:20). So Zechariah declares the punishment of those who do not come up to Jerusalem to worship the glorious King.
- King. All nations must come to worship one Person: Jesus of Nazareth. He is King over all the earth, and He is the LORD of hosts.
- Feast. Zechariah names only the Feast of Tabernacles. That feast belongs to the Kingdom; Passover and Pentecost have to do with the Church.
- Choice. The Lord calls every nation to worship, but He forces no one to bow.
- Rain. Refusal shuts heaven over that land: no showers, no dew, and no fruitful ground.
- Reign. The threat shows what that age is like. Righteousness reigns over the earth; it does not yet dwell in every heart.
And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, neither [shall it be] upon them; [there] shall be the plague, wherewith Jehovah will smite the nations that go not up to celebrate the feast of tabernacles.
Zechariah 14 ends with the King reigning in Jerusalem and the surviving nations coming each year to worship Him. Verse 18 names Egypt on its own, because the usual penalty — no rain — would mean nothing to a land that does not live on rain.
The threat only makes sense once the King is on His throne.
The rest of the chapter assumes Messiah's throne is already set up, since He is called the King. So Jerusalem has been delivered from the hand of her enemies. Judgment has fallen on those who fought against her. The Redeemer has come to Zion, and He has arranged everything according to His own mind in setting up His righteous throne. This having been done, Zechariah now speaks of the consequences for the nations.
Verse 17 says drought will fall on any people who refuse to come. Egypt is the obvious exception to that rule.
So if a nation refuses to go up to Jerusalem to pay homage to the Lord of glory, the King over all the earth, rain will be withheld from that country. But we know that Egypt is not watered by rain from heaven, so there is to be a special judgment on that people.
Older translations read "that have no rain" here — a note on Egypt's climate, not a threat to it.
Egypt of all nations knows what a plague from God can do.
Egypt does not depend on rain. Irrigation from the Nile River waters it. So if she sends no representatives to Jerusalem, a plague will strike her. Which plague is not said. But Egypt has learned in the past that God knows how to send plagues that leave the nation in great distress (Ex. 7:19 to Ex. 12:30).
This is not how God deals with the world now.
While God is calling the church, He is not stepping in that way at all. He is proclaiming salvation to the world that rejected and murdered His Son... But the time is fast coming when the way God openly deals with the world will change. Now He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust alike. Instead of that, "if any of the families of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, there will be no rain on them."
The nations' yearly journey will not be an option they can take or leave.
This coming up of the nations year by year is not to be a matter of choice or privilege, great as the privilege will be. They will be put under the obligation and necessity of making this annual journey... Now it is the attraction of grace that draws believers to worship their God and Father; but in the kingdom it will be the compulsion of righteousness.
Two of Israel's feasts have already found their fulfilment. This one has not.
The Passover and Pentecost, as many have noted, have had their fulfilment in Christianity. But the Feast of Tabernacles still waits to be fulfilled, because it was a picture of millennial joy. It was held on the eighth day (Lev. 23), and that also showed that the saints in resurrection will share this joy. Above all it is Israel's feast of joy. By then they will have ended their wanderings in the wilderness and will hold the land.
Egypt is not only a target here. It has a real place in that coming order — but a place at a distance.
Egypt's position alongside Israel is blessed. Yet as a nation they are still at a distance from Jerusalem. Like the other nations, they must "go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Booths"... Egypt lies close to Israel, and it once sheltered God's people during a famine in the days of Joseph. So God remembers Egypt and gives them special blessings. But the place nearest to Himself and to His King belongs to Israel.
- Throne first. The King already reigns in Jerusalem. Everything in the verse orders a kingdom; it is not a warning to an old one.
- Worship required. Under that throne, worship is law, not choice. Refusing it costs a nation its rain.
- Egypt excepted. Egypt lives off the Nile, not rain, so drought would cost it nothing; the plague is the penalty fitted to it.
- Plague remembered. Egypt above all nations has already learned what God's plagues can do to a country that will not listen.
- Feast awaited. The Feast of Booths is the one festival still unfulfilled. It pictures the joy of that reign, kept by a world that must honour the King it once fought.
This shall be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all the nations that go not up to celebrate the feast of tabernacles.
Zechariah 14 ends with the nations that once attacked Jerusalem going up to worship there year by year. This verse names the penalty for those who stay away — and it names Egypt on its own.
By this point in the chapter Messiah reigns as King. The verses that follow set out what the surviving nations must do:
From verse 16 we have the rule for the honour that the rest of those hostile nations must pay during the kingdom… Jerusalem, then, as the city of the great King, is the religious centre of the earth. All must be at least represented there year by year.
The penalty announced in the previous verses is drought. That threat means little in a land the Nile waters, so Egypt gets its own penalty:
Having no rain would be no punishment to Egypt. The overflowing of the Nile waters that land. So this special judgment will fall on that people if they do not go up to keep the feast of tabernacles.
The staying away is not only met with a penalty; it is itself the offence. One writer reads the refusal as a Gentile unwillingness to accept the position God has given Israel:
Now in Zechariah 14:19, the Gentiles are to go up and keep the feast of tabernacles. The sin of the Jews was that they would not acknowledge God's mercy to Gentiles. Gentiles must bow and share in the joy of mercy shown to Jews. If they do not, this shall be their sin. They will be dealt with in judgment about it: they would not submit to Israel's grace.
The verse names one feast in particular — the ESV calls it the Feast of Booths, and the writers use its older name, the Feast of Tabernacles. Its place in the calendar explains the choice:
The Feast of Tabernacles is chosen because it is the last of "the feasts of Jehovah" listed in Leviticus 23. It stands for the full carrying out of God's purposes for Israel. It looks forward to the day of millennial blessing that Israel will have entered by then… That feast of seven days was a time of great rejoicing after the harvest was gathered in.
So staying away means refusing to share in the joy of a harvest safely gathered in.
This penalty is not the same as the judgment on nations that openly rebel:
This will actually take place, just as all the facts mentioned in this chapter will. But it is also a picture of the spiritual blessings that those who will not obey the Lord will lose. That will be the punishment for their sin. It is a plague very different from the one that will fall on the nations who openly rebel against God and His Anointed.
Even under Messiah's rule, some will refuse to obey:
But, as shown before, it will not be a perfect scene. So there is also the announcement of penalties for those who refuse to obey the King's laws… On the family of Egypt, who do not depend on rain, there shall be the plague — that is, we think, the pestilence. In these ways the King will uphold His authority and punish those who break His laws.
God does not deal with nations this way today:
While God is calling the church, He is not stepping in this way. He is proclaiming salvation to the world that rejected and murdered His Son… So suffering is her portion meanwhile, and her cry to God about her enemies is grace, not judgment. But the time is fast coming when God's ways will change. Instead of making His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sending rain on the just and on the unjust alike, He will withhold rain from the families of the earth who will not come up to worship the King.
- Ordinance — A standing law in Messiah's kingdom sends every nation to Jerusalem year by year. This verse is its penalty clause.
- Egypt — Drought means nothing to a land the Nile waters, so Egypt gets a plague instead. The punishment fits the offender.
- Sin — Staying away is not a missed formality. It is a refusal to bow and share the joy of God's mercy to Israel, and judgment will follow.
- Loss — The plague takes blessing away instead of destroying. It pictures the spiritual good that disobedient nations lose, and it is not the judgment that falls on open rebels.
- Contrast — Now God sends sun and rain on the just and unjust alike, and grace is the answer to enemies. The verse marks the point where that changes.