a word · noun, common masculine singular construct
LORD
יְהוָ֥הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
hosts
צְבָא֖וֹתtze.va.'ot
H6635
a mass of persons (or figuratively · noun, common feminine plural absolute
saying
לֵאמֹֽרle.Mor
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
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).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Zechariah 8:1-8
The prophet, in his foregoing discourses, had left his hearers under a high charge of guilt and a deep sense of wrath; he had left them in a melancholy view of the desolations of their pleasant land, which was the effect of their fathers' disobedience; but because he designed to bring them to repentance, not to drive them to despair, he here sets before them the great things God had in store for them, encouraging them hereby to hope that their case of conscience would shortly determine itself and that God's providence would as loudly call them to joy and gladness as ever it called them to fasting and mourning. It is here promised,
I. That God will appear for Jerusalem, and will espouse and p…
Again the word of the Lord of hosts came to me saying. The phrase, "to me", is wanting in the Hebrew text; and is the only place it is wanting in, as the Masora observes; though undoubtedly it is to be understood; and therefore is rightly supplied, as it is by the Targum, "with me". Mention being made in the latter part of the preceding chapter Zechariah 7:8 of the desolations of the earth, comfort is here administered, as Aben Ezra notes.
John Calvin on Zechariah 8:1-2
Zechariah 8:1, 2
1. Again the word of the Lord of hosts came to me, saying,
1. Et fuit sermo Jehovae exercituum, dicendo, --
2. Thus saith the Lord of hosts; I was jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I was jealous for her with great fury.
2. Sic dicit Iehova exercitumm, Zelatus sum pro Sion zelo magno (vel, aemulatione magna,) et indignatione magna aemulatus sum pro ea (vel, zelatus sum.)
Some think that at the beginning of this chapter the people are reproved for their unfaithfulness, because they conducted themselves towards God in a way they ought not to have done, as they had violated that sacred marriage which God had been pleased to contract with them; for it is a common mo…
(Chapter 8, Verses 1 onwards) And the word of the Lord of hosts came, saying: Thus saith the Lord of hosts: I am jealous for Zion with a great jealousy, and with a great indignation am I jealous for her. Thus saith the Lord of hosts: I am returned to Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and Jerusalem shall be called the city of truth, and the mountain of the Lord of hosts, the holy mountain. LXX: And the word of the Lord Almighty came, saying: Thus saith the Lord Almighty: I am jealous for Jerusalem and Zion with a great jealousy, and with a great fury am I jealous for her. Thus says the Lord Almighty: I will return to Zion and dwell in the midst of Jerusalem; and Jerusalem shall be called the true city, and the mountain of the Lord Almighty, the holy mountain. In the book of Ezekiel (Chapter 16), we learn in greater detail how the Lord took Jerusalem, that is, the Israelite people, when they were in the wilderness like a wife, covered in the blood of idolatry, and he covered them with his cloak and loved them with marital affection. Later, we learn that she ate fine flour, honey, and oil, adorned with the most beautiful garments, and had all the jewelry and ornaments given by her husband, but she committed adultery with the Assyrians and the Chaldeans, and the Lord said: As a wife despises her husband, so Israel has despised me in the house of Israel (Jeremiah 3). But when she was delivered into captivity and mocked by her lovers, and stripped of her former beauty, after she spread her legs to every passerby and was defiled up to her head, she laments the memory of her former happiness, saying: 'I will return to my former husband, for it was better for me then than it is now.' (Hosea 2:7). And he, taking her back in marriage, to whom he had previously said, 'I will not be angry with you, and my jealousy shall depart from you' (Ezekiel 16), now speaks: 'I am consumed with zeal for Zion, with great zeal and great indignation I am consumed for her.' I was very angry that she was defiled by many lovers and stained my marriage bed. Therefore, I handed her over to her lovers, not as an adulteress under her husband, but as a harlot and worthless slave, and she was prostituted in brothels. Now I have returned to her even more, because she has repented and built a temple for me to dwell in the midst of her. And she will be called the city of truth, which…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Restoration and completion of the covenant relation. - Zac 8:1. "And the word of Jehovah of hosts came, saying, Zac 8:2. Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, I am jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and with great fury I am jealous for her." The promise commences with the declaration of the Lord, that He has resolved to give active expression once more to the warmth of His love to Zion. The perfects are used prophetically of that which God had resolved to do, and was now about to accomplish. For the fact itself, compare Zac 1:14-15. This warmth of the love of God towards Zion, and of His wrath towards the nations that were hostile to Zion, will manifest itself in the facts described in Zac 8:3 : "…
This section of Zechariah’s sermons is connected to the previous one by the topics of fasting (questions posed in 7:2-7 are answered in 8:18-19) and the ethical demands of covenant relationship with the Lord (7:8-10; 8:16-17). The tone and message shift from admonition and judgment to exhortation and restoration. Fasting would change to feasting (8:19).
