Zechariah 8:10

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

⁹This is what the LORD of Hosts says: "Let your hands be strong, you who now hear these words spoken by the prophets who were present when the foundations were laid to rebuild the temple, the house of the LORD of Hosts. ¹⁰For before those days neither man nor beast received wages, nor was there safety from the enemy for anyone who came or went, for I had turned every man against his neighbor.¹¹But now I will not treat the remnant of this people as I did in the past," declares the LORD of Hosts. ¹²"For the seed will be prosperous, the vine will yield its fruit, the ground will yield its produce, and the skies will give their dew. To the remnant of this people I will give all these things as an inheritance. ¹³As you have been a curse among the nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so I will save you, and you will be a blessing. Do not be afraid; let your hands be strong." ¹⁴For this is what the LORD of Hosts says: "Just as I resolved to bring disaster upon you when your fathers provoked Me to anger, and I did not relent," says the LORD of Hosts, ¹⁵"so now I have resolved to do good again to Jerusalem and Judah. Do not be afraid. ¹⁶These are the things you must do: Speak truth to one another, render true and sound decisions in your gates, ¹⁷do not plot evil in your hearts against your neighbor, and do not love perjury, for I hate all these things," declares the LORD.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

before: Haggai 1:6-11, Haggai 2:16-18

there was no hire for man: or, the hire of man became nothing, etc

neither: Judges 5:6, Judges 5:7, Judges 5:11, 2 Chronicles 15:5-7, Jeremiah 16:16

for: Isaiah 19:2, Amos 3:6, Amos 9:4, Matthew 10:34-36

Reciprocal: Exodus 22:15 - it came for his hire Jeremiah 16:5 - I have Lamentations 3:17 - thou Zechariah 11:6 - deliver

Cross-References

Genesis 7:4
For seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living thing I have made."

Genesis 7:10
And after seven days the floodwaters came upon the earth.

Genesis 8:12
And Noah waited seven more days and sent out the dove again, but this time she did not return to him.

Psalms 40:1
For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. I waited patiently for the LORD; He inclined to me and heard my cry.

Isaiah 8:17
I will wait for the LORD, who is hiding His face from the house of Jacob. I will put my trust in Him.

Isaiah 26:8
Yes, we wait for You, O LORD; we walk in the path of Your judgments. Your name and renown are the desire of our souls.

Romans 8:25
But if we hope for what we do not yet see, we wait for it patiently.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

For before these days,.... That the temple began to be built:

there was no hire for men, nor any hire for beasts; that turned to any account; the wages earned by the one, and with the other, were as if they were put into a bag with holes, did not prosper with them, or do them any service, Haggai 1:6:

neither [was there any] peace to him that went out or came in, because of the affliction; there was no safety in passing to and fro, nor any peaceable enjoyment of what a man had, because of affliction and oppression by the enemy on every side, and from every quarter:

for I set all men everyone against his neighbour; expressive of the internal divisions and contentions among themselves, which are said to be of the Lord, because he permitted them as a chastisement upon them for their sins.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

There was no hire for man - Literally, “hire for man came not to pass.” It was longed for, waited for and came not. So little was the produce, that neither laborer nor beast of burden were employed to gather it in.

Neither was there peace to him who went out or came in because of the affliction, better, of the adversary - In such an empire as the Persian, there was large scope for actual hostility among the petty nations subject to it, so that they did not threaten revolt against itself, or interfere with the payment of tribute, as in the Turkish Empire now, or in the weak government of Greece. At the rebuilding of the walls, after this time, the Samaritans, “Arabians, Ammonites, Ashdodites conspired to fight against Jerusalem,” and to “slay them” Nehemiah 4:7-11. They are summed up here in the general title used here, “our adversaries”.

For I set - Literally, “and I set.” Domestic confusions and strife were added to hostility from without. Nehemiah’s reformation was, in part, to stop the grinding usury in time of dearth or to lear the king’s taxes, through which men sold lands, vineyards, even their children Nehemiah 5:1-12.

(literally) let them loose, each against his neighbor - in that He left them to their own ways and did not withhold them.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Zechariah 8:10. For before these days there was no hire for man — Previously to this, ye had no prosperity; ye had nothing but civil divisions and domestic broils. I abandoned you to your own spirits, and to your own ways.