ris3n's Apologetics Codex

Passage

Zechariah 8.2

Book: Zechariah · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

There are ads on our codex that pay for hosting and keep the codex free. If you can, please consider whitelisting ris3n.com or allowing scripts to support the work.

Sponsored

Brands, events, influencers advertise here

ASV
  1. And the word of Jehovah of hosts came to me, saying,

2. Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: I am jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I am jealous for her with great wrath.

  1. Thus saith Jehovah: I am returned unto Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and Jerusalem shall be called The city of truth; and the mountain of Jehovah of hosts, The holy mountain. 4. Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: There shall yet old men and old women dwell in the streets of Jerusalem, every man with his staff in his hand for very age. (Zechariah 8:1-4, ASV)
WEB
  1. The word of Yahweh of Armies came to me.

2. Yahweh of Armies says: “I am jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I am jealous for her with great wrath.”

  1. Yahweh says: “I have returned to Zion, and will dwell in the middle of Jerusalem. Jerusalem shall be called ‘The City of Truth;’ and the mountain of Yahweh of Armies, ‘The Holy Mountain.’” 4. Yahweh of Armies says: “Old men and old women will again dwell in the streets of Jerusalem, every man with his staff in his hand for very age. (Zechariah 8:1-4, WEB)
KJV
  1. Again the word of the LORD of hosts came to me, saying,

2. Thus saith the LORD of hosts; I was jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I was jealous for her with great fury.

  1. Thus saith the LORD; I am returned unto Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth; and the mountain of the LORD of hosts the holy mountain. 4. Thus saith the LORD of hosts; There shall yet old men and old women dwell in the streets of Jerusalem, and every man with his staff in his hand for very age. very: Heb. multitude of days (Zechariah 8:1-4, KJV)
YLT
  1. And there is a word of Jehovah of Hosts, saying:

2. 'Thus said Jehovah of Hosts: I have been zealous for Zion with great zeal, With great heat I have been zealous for her.

  1. Thus said Jehovah: I have turned back unto Zion, And I have dwelt in the midst of Jerusalem, And Jerusalem hath been called 'The city of truth,' And the mountain of Jehovah of Hosts, 'The holy mountain.' 4. Thus said Jehovah of Hosts: Again dwell do old men and old women, In broad places of Jerusalem, And each his staff in his hand, Because of abundance of days. (Zechariah 8:1-4, YLT)

See this page's graph and discover linked topics

Setting

  • Speaker: Zechariah, son of Berechiah, son of Iddo (1:1), a prophet of priestly descent
  • Audience: the Judean community in Jerusalem, prompted by a delegation asking whether the exilic fasts should continue
  • Location: Jerusalem, in the Persian province of Yehud
  • Time period: the fourth year of Darius I, 518 BC (7:1), with the temple still unfinished

Theological reading

"Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: I am jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I am jealous for her with great wrath."

The verse opens the series of ten oracles in chapter 8 that answer the fasting question of 7:3 with promises rather than rulings.

The jealousy language is covenantal, not petty. The Hebrew qanna describes the exclusive commitment of a party to a bond and the corresponding refusal to share it, which is why Exodus 20:5 and Exodus 34:14 attach it to the prohibition of other gods. English "jealous" has drifted toward insecurity, and the drift misreads the word; the sense here is closer to a protective zeal that will not let go of what it has claimed.

Note the direction. God is jealous for Zion, not of her. The same wrath that fell on Jerusalem in the exile is here turned outward on the nations at ease (compare 1:15), and the shift is what makes the verse a comfort rather than a threat. A God indifferent to Zion would have left her alone in both directions.

The oracle that follows, in vv. 3-5, cashes the promise in the plainest possible image: God returning to dwell in Jerusalem, and old men with staves and children playing in the streets. Ordinary life restored is the proof of the jealousy.

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; see Lexicon Roadmap.

Quoted in

Lexicon:

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.