Zechariah 14:12 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Zechariah 14:12
And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.
a pestilence · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
LORD
יְהוָה֙Yah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
smite
יִגֹּ֤ףyi.Gof
H5062
to push · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
people
הָ֣עַמִּ֔יםha.'a.Mim
H5971
a people (as a congregated unit) · definite article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
fought
צָבְא֖וּtza.ve.'U
H6633
to mass (an army or servants) · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural
Jerusalem
יְרוּשָׁלִָ֑םye.ru.sha.Lim
H3389
Jerushalaim or Jerushalem · proper noun, a place name
flesh
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Ezekiel 39:17-20 And, thou son of man, thus saith the Lord GOD; Speak unto every feathered fowl, and to every beast of the field, Assemble yourselves, and co…
Isaiah 66:15-16 For, behold, the LORD will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames…
Micah 4:11-13 Now also many nations are gathered against thee, that say, Let her be defiled, and let our eye look upon Zion.
Psalms 90:11 Who knoweth the power of thine anger? even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath.
Psalms 110:5-6 The Lord at thy right hand shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath.
Ezekiel 38:18-22 And it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord GOD, that my fury shall come up in…
Micah 7:16-17 The nations shall see and be confounded at all their might: they shall lay their hand upon their mouth, their ears shall be deaf.
Zechariah 12:9 And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Zechariah 14:8-15
Here are, I. Blessings promised to Jerusalem, the gospel-Jerusalem, in the day of the Messiah, and to all the earth, by virtue of the blessings poured out on Jerusalem, especially to the land of Israel.
1. Jerusalem shall be a spring of living waters to the world; it was made so when there the Spirit was poured out upon the apostles, and thence the word of the Lord diffused itself to the nations about (Zac 14:8): Living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; for there they began, and thence those set out who were to preach repentance and remission of sins unto all nations, Luk 24:47. Note, Where the gospel goes, and the graces of God's Spirit go along with it, there living waters go; those stre…
Punishment on the foe, the last Antichristian confederacy (Isa 59:18; Isa 66:24; Eze. 38:1-39:29; Rev 19:17-21). A living death: the corruption (Gal 6:8) of death combined in ghastly union with the conscious sensibility of life. Sin will be felt by the sinner in all its loathsomeness, inseparably clinging to him as a festering, putrid body.
Adam Clarke on Zechariah 14:12
And this shall be the plague - All her enemies shall be destroyed.
Their flesh shall consume away - These are the effects of famine which are described in this verse.
John Gill on Zechariah 14:12
And this shall be the plagues,.... This respects one or more, or all, of the seven plagues, which will be inflicted on the antichristian states, mentioned in Revelation 15:1,
wherewith the Lord will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; who have been the enemies and persecutors of his church; and with which plague or plagues they shall be utterly consumed and destroyed:
their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet; antichrist will be consumed with the breath of Christ's mouth; the flesh of the whore of Rome, which is her substance, shall be eaten and devoured by the kings of the earth; and her destruction will be in a moment, suddenly, and at unawares,…
The Church Fathers
(Verse 12) And this will be the plague with which the Lord will strike all the nations that have fought against Jerusalem. The flesh of each one standing on their feet will rot away, and their eyes will rot away in their sockets, and their tongue will rot away in their mouths (Septuagint: their mouths). The Scriptures testify to the nations that will suffer, those that will fight against the city of the Lord: 'They will stand,' it says, 'on their own feet, and their flesh will waste away and flow off, and their eyes will decay, and from their openings they will fall out; their arrogant tongue, which blasphemed against the people of God, will dissolve into pus, and within the fortification of their teeth it will decay. It is clear to everyone that the Romans who destroyed Jerusalem did not suffer these things, unless perhaps the Jews claim that those nations, which were to fight against the golden and jeweled Jerusalem, would suffer them.' But we will say that all the persecutors, who afflicted the Church of the Lord, received in the present age what they did, even if we remain silent about future tortures. Let us read the Ecclesiastical histories, what Valerian, what Decius, what Diocletian, what Maximian, what the cruelest of all Maximinus, and recently Julian, suffered: and then we will prove by facts, even according to the letter, that the truth of the prophecies has been fulfilled, that their flesh has rotted away, and their eyes have decayed, and their tongue has dissolved into filth and pus. Moreover, if the cruelty of God towards heretics seems to be shown in this saying, let it be understood that all these things happen so that good things may increase as evil things decrease. For whoever stands in the Lord and with the Lord, his carnal things flow away so that spiritual things may arise, and the eyes that were seeing poorly fall from their sockets so that others may be put in their place, who can receive the Lord with the prophet saying: To you I lift up my eyes, you who dwell in the heavens (Ps. 122:1). And the blaspheming tongue will decay, so that another tongue may be born, which glorifies God, and can say: My tongue shall meditate on your righteousness, your praise all day long (Ps. LXX, 15). Therefore Simeon, receiving the Infant in his arms and foretelling the future, says: Behold, this Child is set for the fall and rise of many (Luke II,…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
בְּשָׂר֗וֹbe.sa.Ro
H1320
flesh (from its freshness) · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
away
הָמֵ֣קha.Mek
H4743
to melt · verb, hiphil infinitive construct
stand
עֹמֵ֣ד'o.Med
H5975
to stand · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
feet
רַגְלָ֔יוrag.Lav
H7272
a foot (as used in walking) · noun, common feminine dual construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
eyes
וְעֵינָיו֙ve.'ei.Nav
H5869
an eye (literally or figuratively) · conjunction + noun, common feminine dual construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
away
תִּמַּ֣קְנָהti.Mak.nah
H4743
to melt · verb, niphal imperfect, 3rd person feminine plural
holes
בְחֹֽרֵיהֶ֔ןve.cho.rei.Hen
H2356
a cavity · preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person feminine plural
tongue
וּלְשׁוֹנ֖וֹu.le.sho.No
H3956
the tongue (of man or animals) · conjunction + noun, common both genders singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
away
תִּמַּ֥קti.Mak
H4743
to melt · verb, niphal imperfect, 3rd person feminine singular
mouth
בְּפִיהֶֽםbe.fi.Hem
H6310
the mouth (as the means of blowing) · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
Zechariah 14:12
12. And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.
12. Et haec erit plaga qua percutiet (vel, plagabit) Iehova omnes populos, qui pugnaverint contra Ierusalem, --liquescet (alii vertunt, tabescet) caro ejus, dum ipse stabit super pedes suos; et oculi ejus liquescent in foraminibus suis; et lingua ejus liquescet in ore ipsorum.
The Prophet adds, that though there would not be wanting many ungodly men, who should distress the Church, and attempt man…
Punishment of the hostile nations. - Zac 14:12. "And this will be the stroke wherewith Jehovah will smite all the nations which have made war upon Jerusalem: its flesh will rot while it stands upon its feet, and its eyes will rot in their sockets, and its tongue will rot in their mouth. Zac 14:13. And it will come to pass in that day, the confusion from Jehovah will be great among them, and they will lay hold of one another's hand, and his hand will rise up against the hand of his neighbour. Zac 14:14. And Judah will also fight at Jerusalem, and the riches of all nations will be gathered together round about, gold and silver and clothes in great abundance. Zac 14:15. And so will be the strok…
