Zechariah 8:2

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

¹Again the word of the LORD of Hosts came to me, saying: ²This is what the LORD of Hosts says: "I am jealous for Zion with great zeal; I am jealous for her with great fervor."³This is what the LORD says: "I will return to Zion and dwell in Jerusalem. Then Jerusalem will be called the City of Truth, and the mountain of the LORD of Hosts will be called the Holy Mountain." ⁴This is what the LORD of Hosts says: "Old men and old women will again sit along the streets of Jerusalem, each with a staff in hand because of great age. ⁵And the streets of the city will be filled with boys and girls playing there." ⁶This is what the LORD of Hosts says: "If it is marvelous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in those days, should it also be marvelous in My eyes?" declares the LORD of Hosts. ⁷This is what the LORD of Hosts says: "I will save My people from the land of the east and the land of the west. ⁸I will bring them back to live in Jerusalem, where they will be My people, and I will be their faithful and righteous God."

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

I was jealous: Zechariah 1:14-16, Psalms 78:58, Psalms 78:59, Isaiah 42:13, Isaiah 42:14, Isaiah 59:17, Isaiah 63:4-6, Isaiah 63:15, Ezekiel 36:5, Ezekiel 36:6, Joel 2:18, Nahum 1:2, Nahum 1:6

Reciprocal: Isaiah 14:3 - General Ezekiel 39:25 - and will Zechariah 1:13 - with good

Cross-References

Genesis 7:11
In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, on the seventeenth day of the second month, all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened.

Genesis 8:11
And behold, the dove returned to him in the evening with a freshly plucked olive leaf in her beak. So Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth.

Genesis 8:13
In Noah's six hundred and first year, on the first day of the first month, the water had dried up from the earth. So Noah removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry.

Job 38:37
Who has the wisdom to count the clouds? Or who can tilt the water jars of the heavens

Proverbs 8:28
when He established the clouds above, when the fountains of the deep gushed forth,

Jonah 2:3
For You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the current swirled about me. All Your breakers and waves swept over me.

Matthew 8:9
For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell one to go, and he goes; and another to come, and he comes. I tell my servant to do something, and he does it."

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Thus saith the Lord of hosts,.... This prophecy, according to Kimchi and Ben Melech, respects time to come; the days of the Messiah, in the war of Gog and Magog, when they shall come up against Jerusalem, and the Lord shall pour out his great wrath upon them; and it seems right to interpret it, not only literally of Jerusalem, but spiritually of the church in Gospel times:

I was jealous for Zion with great jealousy; the Arabic version reads, "for Jerusalem, and for Zion"; as in Zechariah 1:14,

Zechariah 1:14- ::

and I was jealous for her with great fury: that is, against her enemies; the Babylonians and Chaldeans now, and the antichristian powers in Gospel times. The Targum paraphrases it, "against the people that provoked her to jealousy"; the past tense is put for the future, as Kimchi and Ben Melech observe.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Thus saith the Lord of hosts - Jerome: “At each word and sentence, in which good things, for their greatness, almost incredible are promised, the prophet premises, “Thus saith the Lord of hosts,” as if he would say, Think not that what I pledge you are my own, and refuse me not credence as man. What I unfold are the promises of God.”

I was jealous - Literally, “I have been and am jealous for.” . He repeats in words slightly varied, but in the same rhythm, the declaration of tits tender love wherewith He opened the series of visions, thereby assuring beforehand that this was, like that, an answer of peace. The form of words shows, that this was a jealousy for, not with her; yet it was one and the same strong, yea infinite love, whereby God, as He says, “clave unto their fathers to love them and chose their seed after them out of all nations” Deuteronomy 10:15. His jealousy of their sins was part of that love, whereby, (Dionysius), “without disturbance of passion or of tranquillity, He inflicted rigorous punishment, as a man fearfully reproves a wife who sins.” They are two different forms of love according to two needs. Rup.: “The jealousy (Zelus) of God is good, to love people and hate the sins of people. Contrariwise the jealousy of the devil is evil, to hate people and love the sins of people.” Osorius: “Since God’s anger had its origin in the vehemence of His love (for this sort of jealousy arises from the greatness of love), there was hope that the anger might readily be appeased toward her.”

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Zechariah 8:2. I was jealous — Some refer this to the Jews themselves. They were as the spouse of Jehovah: but they were unfaithful, and God punished them as an injured husband might be expected to punish an unfaithful wife. Others apply it to the enemies of the Jews. Though I gave them a commission to afflict you, yet they exceeded their commission: I will therefore deal with them in fury - in vindictive justice.