a day (as the warm hours) · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
light
א֔וֹר'or
H216
illumination or (concrete) luminary (in every sense · noun, common feminine singular absolute
clear
יְקָר֖וֹתye.ka.Rot
H3368
valuable (objectively or subjectively) · adjective, feminine plural absolute
dark
וְקִפָּאֽוֹןve.yik.pe.'un
H7087
to shrink · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular 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
Psalms 97:10-11 Ye that love the LORD, hate evil: he preserveth the souls of his saints; he delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked.
Psalms 112:4 Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness: he is gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous.
John 12:46 I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness.
Proverbs 4:18-19 But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.
Isaiah 60:1-3 Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee.
2 Peter 1:19 We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the d…
Revelation 11:15 And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord…
Isaiah 13:10 For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moo…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Zechariah 14:1-7
God's providences concerning his church are here represented as strangely changing and strangely mixed.
I. As strangely changing. Sometimes the tide runs high and strong against them, but presently it turns, and comes to be in favour of them; and God has, for wise and holy ends, set the one over against the other.
1. God here appears against Jerusalem; judgment begins at the house of God. When the day of the Lord comes (Zac 14:1) Jerusalem must pass through the fire to be refined. God himself gathers all nations against Jerusalem to battle (Zac 14:2); he gives them a charge, as he did Sennacherib, to take the spoil and to take the prey (Isa 10:6), for the people of Jerusalem have now become…
light . . . not . . . clear . . . dark--JEROME, Chaldee, Syriac, and Septuagint translate, "There shall not be light, but cold and ice"; that is, a day full of horror (Amo 5:18). But the Hebrew for "clear" does not mean "cold," but "precious," "splendid" (compare Job 31:26). CALVIN translates, "The light shall not be clear, but dark" (literally, "condensation," that is, thick mist); like a dark day in which you can hardly distinguish between day and night. English Version accords with Zac 14:7 : "There shall not be altogether light nor altogether darkness," but an intermediate condition in which sorrows shall be mingled with joys.
Adam Clarke on Zechariah 14:6
The light shall not be clear, nor dark - Metaphorically, there will be a mixture of justice and mercy in all this; or a bright light and darkness. Mercy shall triumph over judgment. There shall be darkness - distress, etc.; but there shall be more light - joy and prosperity - than darkness.
John Gill on Zechariah 14:6
And it shall come to pass in that day,.... Which shall precede the coming of Christ, both his spiritual and personal reign; for what follows will not agree with either state:
that the light shall not be clear nor dark; before the latter day glory it will be a darkish dispensation; not "clear", as in the first times of the Gospel, when the sun of righteousness appeared, and the shadows of the ceremonial law were removed, and the Gospel shone out in the ministry of Christ and his apostles; nor as at the reformation from Popery, when the morning star was given, Revelation 2:28 nor as it will be in the spiritual reign of Christ, when Zion's light will be come, and her watchmen will see eye to e…
The Church Fathers
(Vers. 6, 7.) And it shall come to pass in that day, there shall be no light, but cold and frost. And there shall be one day, which is known to the Lord, neither day nor night, and in the evening time there shall be light. LXX: In that day there shall be no light, but cold and frost shall be one day, and that day shall be known to the Lord: neither day nor night, and in the evening there shall be light. Clearly it is preached about the second coming of the Savior, about whom even John speaks in his Apocalypse: Behold, he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him, and they also who pierced him (Apoc. I, 7). And the Lord in the Gospel pronounces that the Son of Man will come in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory (Matthew XXIV). He will come with clouds, that is, with angels, who are ministers of the Spirit, and are sent for various tasks, and with prophets and apostles, of whom it is written: Your truth reaches to the clouds (Psalm XXXV, 6). And when the day of His coming shall be fulfilled, there will be no light, but cold and frost, with the love of all growing cold, and due to the multitude of evils that are to come, everyone will grow cold, and those who lose the warmth of their former faith. But after all the sinners have contracted their cold and frost, there will be one day and eternal: neither light nor darkness, day and night succeeding; but the Lord himself will be the light of all: of whom Isaiah says more clearly: There will be no sun for you in the light of day, nor will the rising of the moon illuminate you at night; but the Lord will be your eternal light, and your God will be your glory (Isaiah 60:19). He also shouts in another place to Jerusalem: Arise, shine, Jerusalem; for your light has come, and the glory of your God has risen upon you. For behold, darkness and gloom shall cover the earth upon the peoples: but upon you the Lord shall arise, and his glory shall be seen upon you. And kings shall walk in the light of you, and nations in the splendor of you (Verse 1 and following). If darkness and gloom shall cover the earth upon the peoples, how then shall the nations walk again in the splendor of the Lord? But those nations shall be in darkness which frost and chill shall have contracted: and they shall walk in the light of the Lord, who have followed kings, apostles and prophets, of whom it is written: The heart of the…
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
Eclipse — Of the sun alluded to in Amos 8:9; Micah 3:6; Zech. 14:6; Joel 2:10. Eclipses were regarded as tokens of God’s anger (Joel 3:15; Job 9:7). The darkness at the crucifixion has been ascribed to an…
Eclipse Of The Sun — No historical notice of an eclipse occurs in the Bible, but there are passages in the prophets which contain manifest allusion to this phenomenon. (Joel 2:10,31; 3:15; Amos 8:9; Micah 3:6; Zechariah…
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 14:6, 7
6. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark:
6. Et erit, die illo non erit lumen pretiosum et coagulatum (ad verbum est, non erit lumen pretiositatum et coagulationum.)
7. But it shall be one day which shall be known to the LORD, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light.
7. Et erit, die uno (ille notus est Iehovae) non dies, neque nox; et erit (aut, accidet) ad tempus vespertinum, ut sit lumen.
The Prophet confirms what we have already observed that the Church would be subject to many troubles and commotions, so that the faithful should not enjoy the common light, but be more miserab…
Complete salvation. - Zac 14:6. "And it will come to pass on that day, there will not be light, the glorious ones will melt away. Zac 14:7. And it will be an only day, which will be known to Jehovah, not day nor night: and it will come to pass, at evening time it will be light." The coming of the Lord will produce a change on the earth. The light of the earth will disappear. The way in which לא יהיה אור is to be understood is indicated more precisely by יקרות יקפאון. These words have been interpreted, however, from time immemorial in very different ways. The difference of gender in the combination of the feminine יקרות with the masculine verb יקפּאוּן, and the rarity with which the two words…
Some identify Azal (Hebrew ’atsal) as a district on the northeast side of Jerusalem inhabited by descendants of Azel (1 Chr 8:37-39; 9:43-44). Others emend the Hebrew to ’etsel, “alongside” or “the side [of it].” • The date of the earthquake in the days of King Uzziah is unknown, but Amos began his ministry two years before it (Amos 1:1). • The holy ones are probably the multitude of angels that worship God and serve as his army (see Ps 89:5, 7).
Rashi on Zechariah 14:6
there shall be no light, only disappearing light and thick darkness Jonathan renders. There shall not be light, only light that passes away, and thickness, i.e., there shall not be splendrous light, only יְקָרוֹת and קִפָּאוֹן shall [there] be. יְקָרוֹת An expression similar to (Ps. 37:20), “like the disappearing light over the plains.” Like a sort of light that appears in the morning over the mountains and disappears little by little.
וְקִפָּאוֹן Congealed and dark and thick, like ice that is congealed and frozen, as in (Job 10: 10), “And like cheese You curdled me.”
