Passage

Zechariah 14.5

Book: Zechariah · NASB95

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

3. Then shall Jehovah go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. 4. And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east; and the mount of Olives shall be cleft in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.

5. And ye shall flee by the valley of my mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azel; yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah; and Jehovah my God shall come, and all the holy ones with thee.

And it shall come to pass in that day, that there shall not be light; the bright ones shall withdraw themselves: 7. but it shall be one day which is known unto Jehovah; not day, and not night; but it shall come to pass, that at evening time there shall be light. (Zechariah 14:3-7, ASV)

WEB

3. Then Yahweh will go out and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. 4. His feet will stand in that day on the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be split in two, from east to west, making a very great valley. Half of the mountain will move toward the north, and half of it toward the south.

5. You shall flee by the valley of my mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach to Azel; yes, you shall flee, just like you fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Yahweh my God will come, and all the holy ones with you.

It will happen in that day, that there will not be light, cold, or frost. 7. It will be a unique day which is known to Yahweh; not day, and not night; but it will come to pass, that at evening time there will be light. (Zechariah 14:3-7, WEB)

KJV

3. Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. 4. And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.

5. And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with thee. ^{the mountains: or, my mountains} ^{for the: or, when he shall touch the valley of the mountains to the place he separated}

And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark: ^{that the: that is, it shall not be clear in some places, and dark in other places of the world} ^{clear: Heb. precious} ^{dark: Heb. thickness} 7. But it shall be one day which shall be known to the LORD, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light. ^{it shall be: or, the day shall be one} (Zechariah 14:3-7, KJV)

YLT

3. And gone forth hath Jehovah, And He hath fought against those nations, As in the day of His fighting in a day of conflict. 4. And stood have His feet, in that day, On the mount of Olives, That [is] before Jerusalem eastward, And cleft hath been the mount of Olives at its midst, To the east, and to the west, a very great valley, And removed hath the half of the mount towards the north. And its half towards the south.

5. And ye have fled [to] the valley of My mountains, For join doth the valley of the mountains to Azal, And ye have fled as ye fled before the shaking, In the days of Uzziah king of Judah, And come in hath Jehovah my God, All holy ones [are] with Thee.

And it hath come to pass, in that day, The precious light is not, it is dense darkness, 7. And there hath been one day, It is known to Jehovah, not day nor night, And it hath been at evening-time, there is light. (Zechariah 14:3-7, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: the prophetic voice of the book, who speaks of "Jehovah my God" and then addresses him directly ("with thee")
Audience: Judah and Jerusalem, addressed in the second person throughout
Location: Jerusalem and the valley opened through the Mount of Olives, reaching to Azel
Time period: undated. Chapters 9-14 stand apart from the dated material of 1-8, and their date and composition are disputed; the reading below rests on the text rather than on a settled dating

Theological reading

"And ye shall flee by the valley of my mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azel; yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah; and Jehovah my God shall come, and all the holy ones with thee."

The valley opened when the Mount of Olives splits (v. 4) becomes the way of escape. It reaches to Azel, a place not otherwise identified, and the text does not need it to be: the valley runs far enough to bring the people out.

The flight is compared to a remembered one. The earthquake in the days of Uzziah was a fixed point in memory; Amos dated his words "two years before the earthquake" (Amos 1:1). The comparison treats the coming deliverance as no less physical and no less real than that event.

The last clause shifts person. "Jehovah my God shall come," the prophet says, and then he turns to God directly: "and all the holy ones with thee." Some ancient versions read "with him." The holy ones are the heavenly company who come with God, as at Sinai, where "he came from the ten thousands of holy ones" (Deuteronomy 33:2). The New Testament draws on the same picture for "the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints" (1 Thessalonians 3:13) and for the Lord who "came with ten thousands of his holy ones" (Jude 14).

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word.

H6918 - qadosh, qadosh, Strong's H6918
H0430 - elohim, elohim, Strong's H0430
H3068 - YHWH, YHWH, Strong's H3068

Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Jesus Failed the Messianic Job Description Objection Defeater, via Zechariah 14.4-9

Concepts:

Two-Stage Messianic Prophecy, via Zechariah 14.1-9

Notes

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Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.