Zechariah 14:18 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Zechariah 14:18
And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, that have no rain; there shall be the plague, wherewith the LORD will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles.
a family · noun, common feminine singular construct
Egypt
מִצְרַ֧יִםmitz.Ra.yim
H4714
Mitsrajim · proper noun, a place name
up
תַעֲלֶ֛הta.'a.Leh
H5927
to ascend · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person feminine singular
come
בָאָ֖הva.'Ah
H935
to go or come (in a wide variety of applications) · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person feminine singular
plague
הַמַּגֵּפָ֗הha.ma.ge.Fah
H4046
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
heathen
הַגּוֹיִ֔םha.go.Yim
H1471
a foreign nation · definite article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
up
יַֽעֲל֔וּya.'a.Lu
H5927
to ascend · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
keep
לָחֹ֖גla.Chog
H2287
properly · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
feast
חַ֥גchag
H2282
a festival · noun, common masculine singular construct
tabernacles
הַסֻּכּֽוֹתha.su.Kot
H5521
a hut or lair · definite article + noun, common feminine plural absolute
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
Deuteronomy 11:10-11 For the land, whither thou goest in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt, from whence ye came out, where thou sowedst thy seed, and wa…
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…
Zechariah 14:15 And so shall be the plague of the horse, of the mule, of the camel, and of the ass, and of all the beasts that shall be in these tents, as t…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Zechariah 14:16–end
Three things are here foretold: -
I. That a gospel-way of worship being set up in the church there shall be a great resort to it and a general attendance upon it. Those that were left of the enemies of religion shall be so sensible of the mercy of God to them in their narrow escape that they shall apply themselves to the worship of the God of Israel, and pay their homage to him, Zac 14:16. Those that were not consumed shall be converted, and this makes their deliverance a mercy indeed, a double mercy. It is a great change that the grace of God makes upon them; those that had come against Jerusalem, finding their attempts vain and fruitless, shall become as much her admirers as ever they had…
if . . . Egypt go not up--specified as Israel's ancient foe. If Egypt go not up, and so there be no rain on them (a judgment which Egypt would condemn, as depending on the Nile's overflow, not on rain), there shall be the plague . . . . Because the guilty are not affected by one judgment, let them not think to escape, for God has other judgments which shall plague them. MAURER translates, "If Egypt go not up, upon them also there shall be none" (no rain). Psa 105:32 mentions "rain" in Egypt. But it is not their main source of fertility.
Adam Clarke on Zechariah 14:18
If the family of Egypt - This may allude to those Jews who, flying from the persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes, settled in Egypt, and built a temple at Heliopolis, under the direction of Onias, son of the high priest. Josephus Antiq. lib. xiii., c. 6, and War, lib. vii., c. 36. If these do not rejoin their brethren, they shall have no rain, no interest in the favor of God.
John Gill on Zechariah 14:18
And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not,.... To Jerusalem, the church of God; do not go thither to worship the Lord, attend his ordinances, and keep them in their purity; nor walk as becomes the people of God: by "the family of Egypt" are meant the Papists, so called for their tyranny, cruelty, and idolatry, Revelation 11:8,
that have no rain; have not the pure word of God, and the ordinances thereof, only the traditions of men; yea, the doctrines of devils, and lies in hypocrisy: the allusion is to the land of Egypt, which was watered, not so much by rain as by the overflowing of the river Nile: or it may be rendered, "and upon them there shall be no rain" (w); or that which is…
The Church Fathers
(Vers. 18, 19.) And if the family of Egypt does not ascend and does not come, there will be no plague on them, but there will be a punishment by which the Lord will strike all the nations that do not ascend to celebrate the feast of Tabernacles. This will be the sin of Egypt, and this will be the sin of all the nations that do not ascend to celebrate the feast of Tabernacles. LXX: But if the tribe of Egypt does not ascend and does not come there, there will be a punishment on them by which the Lord will strike all the nations that did not ascend to observe the feast of Booths. This will be the sin of Egypt, and the sin of all the nations that do not go up to celebrate the feast of the tabernacles. Whoever is an Egyptian, and of other nations, as long as he remains an Egyptian and a foreigner, will not go up to Jerusalem; and because he cannot go up, nor raise himself to higher things, therefore the rain of the Lord's blessing will not be upon him. And this sin will be the greatest for the Egyptians, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Syrians, Moabites, and Ammonites, if they do not desire to leave their lands and go up to Jerusalem, to pass through the tabernacles in Jerusalem, and find an eternal home, and if the people of other nations cease, and if they become Israelites in whom there is no deceit (John 7:24). All these things which we quickly discuss, O Jews, and our Judaizers, or rather not ours, because they are Judaizers, hope for future things bodily, certainly circumcision for themselves, and marriages promising in the reign of a thousand years, so that the curse which is written may not be fulfilled in them: Cursed is the barren one who does not bear seed in Israel; and: Blessed is he who has seed in Zion and household members in Jerusalem (Isa. XXXI, 9, sec. LXX). But if it is true, all the virgins that the thousand-year reign shall find shall be subject to eternal curses and sterility: or certainly they shall marry, to escape the curse.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Year — Heb. shanah, meaning “repetition” or “revolution” (Gen. 1:14; 5:3). Among the ancient Egyptians the year consisted of twelve months of thirty days each, with five days added to make it a complete…
Heathen, The · God: Punishes — God: Punishes
Rain · Rarely falls in Egypt — Rarely falls in Egypt
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Zechariah 14:17, 18
17. And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain.
17. Et erit, Qui non ascenderit e familiis terrae in Ierusalem ad supplicandum Regi, Iehovae exercituum, etiam non erit super eos pluvia.
18. And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, that have no rain; there shall be the plague, wherewith the Lord will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles.
18. Et si familia Egypti non ascenderit et non venerit, etiam non super eos; erit autem plaga qua percutiet, (plagabit, ad verbum,) Iehova gentes quae non ascenderint ad ce…
Conversion of the heathen. - Zac 14:16. "And it will come to pass, that every remnant of all the nations which came against Jerusalem will go up year by year to worship the King Jehovah of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. Zac 14:17. And it will come to pass, that whoever of the families of the earth does not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King Jehovah of hosts, upon them there will be no rain. Zac 14:18. And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, then also not upon them; there will be (upon them) the plague with which Jehovah will plague all nations which do not go up to keep the feast of tabernacles. Zac 14:19. This will be the sin of Egypt, and the sin of all the na…
come to Jerusalem to worship: Jerusalem, with God’s Temple, is envisioned as the center of God’s universal kingdom (8:20-22; see Isa 56:6-7; 66:19-23; Mic 4:1; Hag 2:7; Rev 21:1-2, 10-27). • no rain: This was one of the curses God pronounced against Israel for covenant disobedience (see Deut 28:22-24). That curse extended to all the nations, as God’s rule extends over all peoples (cp. Zech 10:1).
Rashi on Zechariah 14:18
And if the family of Egypt does not go up and they do not require rain, for the Nile comes up and waters it [i.e., the land of Egypt].
it shall not [rain] upon them Their rain shall not be upon them; i.e., the Nile will not water them, and so did Jonathan render: The Nile shall not ascend upon them.
the plague will be The plague of famine.
with which the Lord will plague This will be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations, as He states. “upon them there shall be no rain.”
