In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, HOLINESS UNTO JEHOVAH; and the pots in Jehovah's house shall be like the bowls before the altar.
Zechariah closes with the day when the Lord is King over the whole earth. The sign of that day is not a throne or an army. It is a horse's harness and a kitchen pot. Why does the word holiness — the inscription worn by Israel's high priest — now appear on the most ordinary things in the city? (Older translations read "Holiness unto the LORD"; the ESV renders it "Holy to the LORD".)
The promise has a date. It belongs to the same day the chapter has been describing. On that day the nations that survive come up to Jerusalem to worship the King.
The Lord shall be God over all the earth; there shall be only one Lord, and His name one. It will truly be one universal religion — the rule of the one Lord, the God of the Jews, over all the earth. … The remnant spared among the nations shall come up to Jerusalem, to the feast that celebrates the entry of God's people into their rest. And all shall be holiness; everything in Jerusalem shall be consecrated to the Lord.
The word behind "bells" points to something worn on the horse's head. Translators have long noted a second possible sense.
metsilloth, "bells," so called from their tinkling, Zech. 14:20, but the margin reads "or bridles." These are thought to be the metal plates hung from the heads of the horses. You can engrave inscriptions on them, and they make a tinkling noise. At the restoration and blessing of Israel, "Holiness unto the Lord" will be engraved on such plates.
Those same words once had one place in Israel: the head of the high priest. The prophecy moves them to the lowest place.
The most holy person in Israel, the high priest, carried the inscription "Holiness to the Lord" around his turban. But now even the little bells of the horses bear that inscription. … There will be no difference in the vessels used in Jerusalem; the lowliest and smallest will be holy. In one word, all will be holy, all will be consecrated to the Lord. What a perfect service that will be, of the people who are then, in truth, a holy people.
Under the law, Israel lived by a constant sorting: this is holy, that is not. Horses fell on the wrong side of the line. That whole system of separation ends here.
In the past there had been clean things and unclean, holy and unholy. Now all such distinctions end, because all alike will be holy, set apart for the Lord. At last the Lord's own requirement is met and satisfied: "You shall be holy, for I am holy" (Lev. 11:44). So even the horses, unclean as they were under the law, have written on their bells or bridles, "Holiness to the Lord."
The verse does not stop at the horses. It ranks the cooking pots of the temple with the vessels at the altar itself. The change lifts the common up to the holy.
But the change would be so thorough and complete that holiness reaches into the most common things. The very pots, the humblest utensils in the Lord's house, "shall be like the bowls before the altar" — those that were most holy. … Everything is to be according to God, as far as this can be on the earth. That lasts until God, in the most absolute way, makes all things new. Who can wonder, when the Lord takes the kingdom?
The holiness lands on harness and cookware. So it reaches past what people are, into what they own and use. That has a claim on believers now.
Holiness will mark not only their persons, but also what they own. There will be no separation between everyday life and spiritual life. All will be for God, just as Christian lives should be today. Even pots would be "like the bowls before the altar": people would use their everyday dishes as things dedicated to the Lord.
- King first. The verse belongs to the day when the Lord is God over all the earth and the nations come up to worship. Holiness follows the throne.
- Inscription moved. The words once reserved for the high priest's turban now sit on plates hanging from a horse's head. The highest motto lands in the lowest place.
- Reach downward. Horses were unclean under the law, and pots were only utensils. Both now carry the Lord's name, so the old sorting of holy and unholy ends.
- Levelled upward. Nothing sinks to the common level. The common rises — the humblest pot ranks with the bowls at the altar.
- Applied now. What will then cover a whole city should already mark a believer's things and daily life. No line divides the spiritual from the ordinary.
And every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto Jehovah of hosts; and all they that sacrifice shall come and take of them, and seethe therein. And in that day there shall be no more a Canaanite in the house of Jehovah of hosts.
Zechariah ends with holiness spreading from the altar into every kitchen in Jerusalem, and with one line about who will not be there. Commentators ask two questions here: what makes ordinary pots holy, and who is the "Canaanite" — the word older translations use where the ESV has "trader"?
The inscription named here once belonged to one man only. Now it spreads downward to the least important objects in the city.
The most holy person in Israel, the high priest, carried the inscription "Holiness to Jehovah" around his turban. Now even the little bells of the horses bear that inscription. In the temple that stands during the Millennium, sacrifices will be brought. But there will be no difference between the vessels used in Jerusalem: the lowliest and smallest will be holy. In one word, all will be holy, all will be consecrated to Jehovah.
This is not only a gain in holiness. It is the end of an old division.
In the past there had been clean things and unclean, holy and unholy. Now all such distinctions will disappear, since all alike will be holy as separated to the Lord. At last the Lord's own requirement is met and satisfied: "You shall be holy, for I am holy" (Lev. 11:44). Even the horses, unclean as they were under the law, have written on their bells or bridles, "Holiness to the Lord." Every pot in Jerusalem and Judah should be equally holy, and the worshippers should use them for their sacrifices. The homes of the people shall be in that day as holy as the house of the Lord.
Commentators differ over this one word. One takes it to mean merchant, and links it to what Jesus said about His Father's house.
The name means "a merchant." A spirit of trading has plagued the house of the Lord in Israel throughout its history. So the Lord Jesus spoke with good reason: "Do not make my Father's house a house of trade" (John 2:16). At last that house will be fully cleansed of the defilement of those who use Jewish religion to serve their own greed.
Another keeps it as the name of a people, an enemy Israel never drove out of the land.
I admit the curse of a money-minded class of religious teachers. We see what a stumbling block the greed of the Jewish priesthood proved in Israel. But I see no reason to give up the plain sense of "Canaanite" here, even while I allow for broad and deep principles as well as facts. He was in the land when Abram entered it; he was not banished from the land by the victories of Joshua. The enemy, never fully expelled before, will vanish then.
One writer reads the word even more widely. The Vulgate he names is the old Latin translation of the Bible.
No Canaanite will be there, nothing unclean. The Vulgate translates the word Canaanite as merchant. It stands, however, for everything that is unclean and detestable. The city will be completely cleansed of it.
An earlier prophecy had charged Israel with letting outsiders serve in the sanctuary.
In that day there will be no Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts. Earlier it had been otherwise: "Let it be enough of all your abominations, O house of Israel. You have brought foreigners, uncircumcised in heart and in flesh, into My sanctuary to profane it… and you have not kept charge of My holy things, but have set others to keep My charge in My sanctuary for yourselves" (Ezek. 44:6-8).
The same writer turns the charge on the present.
Is this not the crime of confessing Christendom in relation to the worship of our God? Do not the uncircumcised — those who do not believe — share in serving in the holy things? How humiliating for the people of God is such a mixing of the holy with the unholy!
The cooking pot is where this reaches ordinary life.
Israel will be "a holy nation." Holiness will mark not only their persons, but what they own. There will be no separation between secular and spiritual life. All will be for God, just as Christian lives should be today. Even pots would be "like the bowls before the altar" — that is, everyday eating utensils would be dedicated to the Lord.
- Holiness spreads. The words once worn on the high priest's turban end up on horse bells and cooking pots. Holiness moves out from the sanctuary into the whole city.
- Holiness levels. The old split between clean and unclean is gone. God's call, "You shall be holy, for I am holy," is answered at last.
- Holiness excludes. The prophecy ends by naming who will be gone: the Canaanite. Some read him as the enemy never driven out of the land, others as the trader who made worship a business.
- Holiness has a history. Israel had let unbelievers serve in the sanctuary. That mixing of holy and unholy will never happen again.
- Holiness starts now. If even a pot can be set apart for God, no part of a believer's life stays secular.