For thus saith Jehovah of hosts After the glory, hath he sent me unto the nations that made you a spoil; for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye.
Zechariah sees a young man sent to measure Jerusalem, and then hears God speak about the nations that plundered His people. Two questions decide how the whole chapter reads: when is this "after the glory," and who is the "me" the LORD of hosts sends?
The phrase fixes the timing of everything that follows:
Notice the words "after the glory." No blessing before Christ came could fulfil what Zechariah wrote. More than that: when Christ presented Himself, He did not fulfil these words then. Instead there followed further sin and a fresh scattering. So God's dealings after the first coming and the crucifixion pushed this prophecy further off than ever. This will be "after the glory." Christ must first appear in glory.
Another writer sets out the order these words imply:
This, then, is the order: after the glory, after the appearing of the Lord, when He shows Himself to Israel. As we read in Zechariah 12:10, they will look on Him whom they had pierced. Then He will set up His throne on earth in Jerusalem. He will use His people as His battle-axe and weapons of war, to break the nations in pieces and destroy kingdoms.
The same order appears in Matthew's account of the Son of Man's return:
"The sign of the Son of Man" means His appearance in glory. After this glory He will gather the scattered elect. These verses in Matthew, like those in Zechariah, refer to the gathering in of Israel.
The speaker says the LORD of hosts sent Him — yet He also speaks as the LORD. One writer calls the sent one "the angel of the Lord," whose divine mission Israel will come to recognise (Edward Dennett). Another writer states it plainly:
This work would be so plainly divine that the word is repeated: "You will know that the LORD of hosts has sent Me to you." He is both the Sender and the Sent One! Israel's recognition that Christ is God will be a marvellous joy to their hearts.
Two Hebrew words lie behind "apple of the eye," and both point to the pupil:
Gesenius says ishon means "little man," and then "the little man of the eye" — the pupil, in which a person sees his own image reflected in miniature. babah, the black part or pupil of the eye, or, as others say, "the gate of the eye." To touch God's people is touching the apple of His eye.
So the warning to the nations is a warning about themselves. Whoever strikes them "will do himself irreparable damage, or injure himself in the most sensitive part" (Edward Dennett). A picture from the mines makes the tenderness vivid:
There is nothing in the human body so guarded as the eye. The eyelid guards it in a wonderful way. When the miner strikes the coal with his pick and the dust flies from it, the lid closes instantly over that most sensitive member. God kept His people as the apple of His eye.
The reason lies in where God chose to live:
From the moment God is in Israel, He identifies Himself with His people. As a result, He treats the nations according to how they treated Israel. "As you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me," says the King. The moment they touch Israel, they touch the apple of His eye. Through all these chapters we see Israel's relations with the nations, and God judging the nations because they trampled His people — though He also used them to punish His people.
God may have real complaints against His own, and still stand between them and the enemy:
Such is God's way. He may have many a private controversy with His child about his practical ways. But the moment the enemy brings a case against him, the LORD always pleads His servant's cause. "Touch not my anointed ones, do my prophets no harm." "He who touches you touches the apple of my eye." (Older translations read "my eye"; the ESV has "his eye.")
One writer applies the words beyond Israel, to every believer:
It is spoken of Israel; it finds a still higher application to us... So honour done to one of the little ones is done to Him, injury done to one of them is injury done to Him. What glory of the believer this reveals! How this fact should teach us how to behave towards one another, and not despise anyone who is Christ's.
- Glory first. Zechariah dates the blessing "after the glory" — after Christ appears in glory, not before.
- Glory gathers. Once He appears, He gathers His scattered people, then deals with the nations that plundered them.
- Glory belongs to the Sent One. The LORD of hosts sends Him, yet He speaks as the LORD — both the Sender and the Sent One.
- Touch and be touched. The pupil is the body's most guarded spot. Whoever strikes God's people damages himself at his most sensitive point.
- Touch one, touch Him. God identifies with His people. Injury to the least of them is injury to Him. He defends them even while He has a private controversy with them.
For behold, I will shake my hand upon them, and they shall become a spoil to those that served them and ye shall know that Jehovah of hosts hath sent me.
Zechariah's third vision ends with a promise: God will turn the empires that plundered Judah into plunder for the very people who served them. The Speaker then says that the LORD of hosts sent Him — so who is speaking?
The promise of verse 9 hangs on a phrase from verse 8: "after the glory." That phrase fixes when God shakes His hand. One writer argues that no earlier event in Israel's history fits:
Notice the words "after the glory": no blessing before Christ came could fulfil Zechariah's words. More than this: when Christ presented Himself, these words still did not come true. Instead there was a further sin and a fresh scattering. So God's dealings after His first coming and the crucifixion pushed the fulfilment of this prophecy further off than ever. They brought in fresh grounds for a new punishment of Israel — not the fulfilment of the prophecy yet. This will be "after the glory." Christ must first appear in glory.
Another writer sets out the order of events, and notes the confusion this phrase has caused:
The phrase — after the glory — has confused many teachers and readers, because they did not understand the order of God's dealings... This, then, is the order: after the glory, after the Lord appears and shows Himself to Israel — when, as we read in Zechariah 12:10, they will look on Him whom they had pierced. Then He will set up His throne on earth in Jerusalem. He will use His people as His battle-axe and weapons of war, to break the nations in pieces and to destroy kingdoms.
One writer reads the shaken hand as God's judgment on the nations. He reaches back to an older prophecy to show what it produces:
This is how the LORD will execute judgment on the nations. His people, in the words of another prophet, "will take captive those who were their captors, and rule over those who oppressed them" (Isaiah 14:2). This proof of the prophet's message should convince the people that God sent the angel of the LORD.
Another writer ties this reversal to the fall of Babylon:
The overthrow of Babylon involves the freeing of Israel... Israel are yet to have as their servants the very people who once enslaved them.
Verse 8 gives the reason God acts. One writer explains what the image of the eye says about God:
He will be jealous for His people, because those who touch them are touching "the apple of His eye," the pupil, the most sensitive spot. He feels deeply everything that affects His beloved people Israel — and no less what affects His body, the Church.
In verse 8 the Speaker is called the LORD of hosts. Here He says the LORD of hosts sent Him. One writer draws a conclusion about Christ:
The LORD would shake His hand upon the nations, and they would become plunder for Israel, who had served these nations so long. This great reversal would assure them that the LORD of hosts had sent the Lord Jesus, the Messiah of Israel, who is Himself called "the LORD of hosts" in verse 8. How clear is the truth of the deity of Christ in this declaration from the LORD of hosts that "the LORD of hosts has sent Me."
Notice also how they will know. One writer counts three things:
There are three things by which they will know that Jesus, that Christ... was the Sent One. He makes the nations "plunder for those who served them." Many nations "join themselves to the LORD," and the LORD dwells in the middle of the daughter of Zion. And the house among the Jews is finished at last (chapters 2:9-10, 11; 4:9; 6:15).
Commentators differ on whose voice this is. One holds both readings together — the prophet spoke, and something greater stood behind him:
Zechariah, no doubt referring to himself, says, "And you shall know that the LORD of hosts has sent me to you"; but does it not also speak of what the nation will come to know in a coming day? They refused Zechariah's word, and so refused the word of the Lord. But in that day they will know beyond all doubt that He was the Sent One of the Father.
- Touch — To harm God's people is to strike the most sensitive part of Him. That is why judgment comes.
- Timing — God shakes His hand "after the glory," after Christ appears. No past event in Israel's history fits.
- Turn — The nations that plundered become the plunder. Their old servants now rule over them.
- Testimony — The reversal is more than rescue. It is one of three signs that show Israel who sent the Speaker.
- Truth — The Speaker is called the LORD of hosts, yet says the LORD of hosts sent Him. The deity of Christ stands in plain sight.
Sing aloud and rejoice, daughter of Zion; for behold, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith Jehovah.
This chapter speaks to people living in ruins. It promises a Jerusalem too full for walls, and God Himself as her defence. Verse 10 turns that promise into a call to sing. Who is the "I" who says He is coming, and when does He arrive?
The promise of verse 10 stands at the end of a chain of visions. Each link leads to the same arrival.
The man with the measuring line (v. 1) gives the answer. He is going to "measure Jerusalem," that is, take possession of it. The angel's message states powerfully that one day so large a multitude will live in Jerusalem that it can have no walls, except for the wall of fire which is Jehovah Himself (vv. 4, 5)… Jehovah Himself will come (v. 10) and dwell in their midst (vv. 10, 11). He appears as if He had already started His "journey" (v. 13), the journey that would bring Him to them… What a full answer to every heart troubled about the ruins of Zion!
The promise is not mainly about the city. It is about who lives in it.
The Lord left Zion and rejected the holy city as His dwelling place because of His people's sins (Ezekiel 9, 10). So His return would mark their restoration to His favour, and would complete all His purposes of blessing towards "the mountain of His holiness"… Notice again that the source of all blessing for God's people lies in His dwelling in their midst. From the very first this was the sign that they were His redeemed people (Exodus 25:8), and that they had found favour in His sight (Exodus 33:16). In the same way, having His tabernacle with men is the distinctive blessedness of the new heavens and the new earth, where righteousness will dwell (Rev. 21).
Nothing in Israel's history since the exile matches these words. The present age does not look like this either.
Jehovah has never yet dwelt in Zion, inheriting Judah as His portion, with many nations "joined to the Lord". But that day will yet come to pass. At the present time God is not joining nations to Himself. He is visiting them, "to take from them a people for His name" (Acts 15:14).
Read against the Gospels, the verse marks off one arrival from another.
When the Lord came the first time, He was rejected. He left this world and returned to the Father. But at His second coming He will dwell in the midst of His people Israel. Because of this He says, "Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion, for behold, I come and I will dwell in your midst… and you shall know that the LORD of hosts has sent Me to you" (Zech. 2:10-11).
The song is addressed to a people worn down by long trouble, and the singer's reason is a Person taking His place among them.
This same Lord of hosts would come and dwell in the midst of her. He would take the place of central importance. That would bring the greatest rejoicing to a people long depressed and troubled.
The call to sing comes long before the promise arrives.
Prophecy often treats a prediction as fulfilled the moment it is spoken. So the prophet calls Zion to sing and rejoice… He teaches that our springs of energy and gladness are found in the revelation of God's accomplished purposes.
Verse 8 calls the speaker the Lord of hosts, and here He says the Lord of hosts sent Him.
The Lord would shake His hand over the nations, and they would become a spoil to Israel, who had so long served them (v. 9). This great reversal would assure them that the Lord of hosts had sent the Lord Jesus, the Messiah of Israel. He is Himself called "the Lord of hosts" in verse 8. How clear is the truth of the deity of Christ in this declaration from the Lord of hosts that "the Lord of hosts has sent Me."
The next verse widens the song beyond Jerusalem. Who joins the Lord in that day?
The singing times have come (Zeph. 3). Zion rejoices for He dwells in their midst (Isa. 12). Then the nations will join themselves to the Lord in that day. They do not join the Church, for the true Church is in glory. They will be joined to Israel in the kingdom… Now is the time when God is silent. The flesh speaks now, for it is man's day. But our God will come, and He will not keep silent.
- Coming. The "I" who speaks is Jehovah, announcing His own arrival. He speaks as though already on the journey.
- Dwelling. His presence in the midst is the source of all blessing. It marked His redeemed people at the tabernacle, and it crowns the new heavens and the new earth.
- Singing. Zion sings before the promise arrives, because the One coming takes the central place among a people long depressed and troubled.
- Widening. From that centre the blessing spreads. Nations will join themselves to the Lord in that day, and be joined to Israel in the kingdom.
- Waiting. None of this has happened yet; the promise belongs to His appearing, when the God who is silent now will speak.
And many nations shall join themselves to Jehovah in that day, and shall be unto me for a people; and I will dwell in the midst of thee, and thou shalt know that Jehovah of hosts hath sent me unto thee.
This promise looks far past Zechariah's own day: whole nations belong to God, and God Himself lives among His people. Two questions press: when does this happen, and who is the "me" that the LORD of hosts has sent?
Israel's return from exile never looked like this. The writers quoted here all place the fulfilment in the future. One of them sets the verse against what God is doing now:
The LORD has never yet dwelt in Zion, inheriting Judah as His portion, with many nations "joined to the Lord". But that day will still come. At the present time God is not joining nations to Himself. He is visiting them, "to take from them a people for His name" (Acts 15:14).
Three verses earlier the LORD speaks of sending His messenger "after his glory". That phrase rules out any earlier fulfilment:
Notice the words "after the glory". So no blessing before Christ came could ever fulfil Zechariah's words. There is more. When Christ presented Himself, that did not fulfil these words. Instead came further sin and a fresh scattering of Israel. So God's dealings after the first coming and the crucifixion pushed this prophecy farther off than ever. They brought fresh grounds for a new punishment of Israel, not yet the fulfilment of the prophecy. This will be "after the glory." Christ must first appear in glory.
The nations that plundered Jerusalem end up joined to the LORD. They even receive the name that belonged to Israel — God's own people:
When God delivers Israel, He will defeat the nations. But in matchless grace He will also bless many nations by joining them to the Lord, and He will call them too His people.
The nations do not know it, but their blessing waits on Israel's restoration:
Isaiah speaks of the same time, when the glory of the Lord has risen on Zion: "And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising" (Isa. 60:3). The nations are waiting and longing for this time without knowing it (see Haggai 2:7). They do not know that their blessing depends on the restoration of the despised race of Israel. Yet it is so. As soon as the LORD has returned to Zion, judged His enemies and founded His kingdom, the nations will come to the scene of His power and glory. They will count it their highest honour to be enrolled among His people.
The same promise stands in the verse before, word for word. The repeat itself is the point:
Then the promise is repeated: "I will dwell in your midst." The repeat gives His people's faith a double security, and an unchangeable guarantee that God will carry it out.
There is an order behind it. God settles among His people only after He redeems them:
Scripture speaks of His dwelling among His people right after it speaks of their redemption. We see this in Exodus 15, Exodus 29 and many other passages. When the redemption was only a picture, He dwelt among them in a visible way. When Israel receives true and eternal redemption by faith, then He will dwell among His people truly and for ever. But this is "after the glory."
The One who promises to dwell among them also says the LORD of hosts sent Him. The verse holds both together:
This work would be so plainly divine that the word comes again: "You shall know that the LORD of hosts has sent Me to you." He is both the Sender and the Sent One! Israel will recognise that Christ is God, and that will be a marvellous joy to their hearts.
What Israel failed to see at the first coming, they will know then. His rejection is not the end of the story:
When the Lord came the first time, people rejected Him. He left this world and returned to the Father. But at His second coming He will dwell among His people Israel… Israel will then know the Lord as living among them, and know that the Father had sent Him.
- Glory first. God dwells among His people only "after the glory". Christ must appear in glory first.
- Redemption first. God settles among His people only after He redeems them. Exodus shows the pattern, and Israel's future will follow it.
- Grace reaches out. Today God takes from the nations a people for His name. In that day He joins whole nations to Himself and calls them His people — matchless grace, not their merit.
- The promise doubled. God says "I will dwell in your midst" twice in two verses. The repeat gives faith a double security and an unchangeable guarantee.
- Then they will know. The One sent is also the One who sends. Israel will recognise that Christ is God, and that will be the joy of that day.
And Jehovah shall inherit Judah [as] his portion in the holy land, and shall yet choose Jerusalem.
The closing verses of this chapter hold three promises: a people God claims as His own, a land called holy, and a city chosen a second time. Zechariah spoke them after the exiles had already come home from Babylon. So what was still left to happen?
"Portion" is the language of inheritance. God uses it of a people, not of property.
God had always spoken of Israel as His inheritance — His portion (Deuteronomy 4:20; 9:26, 29; 1 Samuel 26:19, and countless other passages; compare Ephesians 1:18 as to the Church). His ancient people are now scattered over the face of the whole earth. Yet He will gather them and re-establish them in their own land. Then, in the purposes of His grace, He will inherit Judah — the tribe out of which Christ came according to the flesh — as His portion.
The verse names the land holy. One writer says the title does not fit it yet.
In a day still future to Ezekiel the land would be defiled by the blood of Christ. Only when the fountain for uncleanness is opened, and their sin taken away in a day (Zechariah 13), will Palestine be called holy. It is a misnomer to call it the Holy Land today, and an (unintentional) insult to the Lord. But for the present the land is defiled by His murder.
So what will make it holy? Edward Dennett points to a cleansing still to come.
Notice the expression — "in the holy land." It is not holy merely because it is the land of promise. It is holy because its iniquity will be removed in one day (Zechariah 3:9). Cleansed from all its defilement, it will again be holy to the Lord — set apart for Him and for His use and service.
"Again" only makes sense if God set the city aside first. One writer places the Lord's lament over Jerusalem beside the promise that still stands.
In His mind it was already judged. "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem… How often would I have gathered your children… and you were not willing!" The things that were for her peace were hidden from her: from then on she was to be known as the Forsaken One, not the chosen one. Yet He "will again choose Jerusalem." (Zechariah 2:12.)
Long delay does not weaken the promise.
Ages have passed since God spoke these words, but He has never taken them back, and never will. Though Jerusalem lies trodden down at this moment under the foot of the Gentile, these words will have their fulfilment, and Jerusalem will become "the perfection of beauty, the joy of the whole earth," because it is the object of the Lord's favour and the seat of His throne.
The chapter gives its own timing marker — the phrase "after the glory."
To me it is beyond question: the expression "after the glory" fixes the moment. That great event will be when the Lord appears in glory… The remnant had already returned from the Babylonian captivity. That makes it even clearer that God here reveals His purpose to bring about a still fuller restoration of the Jews to the land.
If the promise is future, what is God doing now?
Never yet has the Lord been dwelling in Zion and inheriting Judah as His portion, with many nations "joined to the Lord." But that day will yet come to pass. At the present time God is not joining nations to Himself. Instead He is visiting them "to take from them a people for His name" (Acts 15:14).
Both names in the verse carry meanings the place has never lived up to.
Judah is the royal tribe from which Christ came. Its name means "praise" — the portion that rightly belongs to Him from all His people. He will again choose Jerusalem as His centre. It means "the foundation of peace." The city has not been true to its name in the past, and so wars have never stopped troubling it. Peace must rest on righteousness… Righteousness will become the character of the city only when Jerusalem recognises Jesus as the Son of God.
- Portion. God calls a people, not a territory, His inheritance — and He takes Judah, the tribe Christ came from, as His own share.
- Cleansed. The land earns the title "holy" only when God removes its defilement. Today the name is a misnomer.
- Chosen. "Again" admits a rejection. The city the Lord lamented over and forsook is the same city He commits Himself to choose a second time.
- Timed. The marker is "after the glory" — the appearing of the Lord, not the return from Babylon, which had already happened when Zechariah spoke.
- Meanwhile. Today God is not joining nations to Himself at Jerusalem but taking from them a people for His name — the promise waits, unbroken, for its day.
Let all flesh be silent before Jehovah; for he is risen up out of his holy habitation.
Zechariah's third vision has just promised that God Himself will come and live among His people. Then the chapter hushes the whole human race — "all flesh," not Israel only — because of what God is about to do.
The verse ends a vision that opened with a man going out to measure the city. Taken whole, the chapter answers people who were discouraged by ruins.
The man with the measuring line (v. 1) gives the answer. He is going to "measure Jerusalem," that is, take possession of it… Many who were still in "the land of the north" or with "the daughter of Babylon" are invited to come, and they will be gathered (vv. 6, 7) after the Lord's appearing in glory (v. 8). Finally, Jehovah Himself will come (v. 10) and dwell in their midst (vv. 10, 11). He is pictured as having already set out on His "journey" (v. 13) that would bring Him to them… What a full answer to every heart troubled about the ruins of Zion!
The command rests on something the prophet sees. God stirs from where He dwells and comes out.
The chapter concludes with a solemn address to all flesh… The prophet sees Jehovah rising up, as it were, out of the habitation of His holiness. He comes out in judgment to carry out the purposes just announced. Seeing what this will mean for men, the prophet cries, "Be silent, all flesh, before the LORD" — for when the day of His wrath comes, who will be able to stand? At that time the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all flesh will see it together. Every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him. All tribes of the earth will wail because of Him.
For now God says nothing while people talk. The verse marks the moment that swaps over.
The third vision closes with an exhortation similar to the one in Habakkuk 2. All flesh is to be silent before the Lord. Now is the time when God is silent. The flesh speaks now, for it is man's day. But our God will come and will not keep silent. Then all the flesh, with its fruits, will have to be silent before Him in that day.
The matching call in Habakkuk shows what the hush settles. Judgment does not just frighten people into quiet. It proves where God has been all along.
The judgment that overtakes this wicked nation establishes a great and blessed fact. Despite all the failure of God's people and the growing wickedness of the world, "The LORD is in His holy temple." In His presence He will at last stop every mouth that opens in rebellion to blaspheme His holy Name.
The silence has another side. When God acts at last, the noise that stops is also the noise of human misery.
After centuries of turmoil, confusion, trouble, anger and sorrow, how wonderful it will be when the Lord of glory steps in! He breaks His long silence and rises up out of His holy habitation to measure the earth. How fitting then is the call to all flesh to be silent before Him… It is He alone who can calm the turbulent sea of the world's conflicts, troubles and sorrows.
The people who first heard this had already come home from exile in Babylon. Their return did not empty the promise — it sharpened it, because what they had received fell far short.
The second chapter shows us proof of Jehovah's particular care for this purpose for the earth. Jerusalem is its centre, and its witness goes out to all nations once Jehovah has made the daughter of Zion His holy habitation. To me it is beyond question that the expression "after the glory" fixes the moment… The remnant had already returned from the captivity in Babylon. That makes it even clearer that God here reveals His purpose to carry out a still more complete restoration of the Jews to the land.
- Cause — God rises. The prophet watches God rise out of His holy dwelling and come out to act on what He has just announced.
- Gift — measuring means owning. The man with the line goes to measure Jerusalem, that is, to take possession of it.
- Reach — all flesh, not one nation. The hush falls on everyone, because every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him.
- Reversal — the silences swap. Now God is silent and the flesh speaks, for it is man's day; then flesh will be silent and He will not keep silent.
- Result — quiet, both ways. He stops every rebellious mouth. He alone can calm the world's long turmoil, and He will.