Zechariah 8:13 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Zechariah 8:13
And it shall come to pass, that as ye were a curse among the heathen, O house of Judah, and house of Israel; so will I save you, and ye shall be a blessing: fear not, but let your hands be strong.
vilification · noun, common feminine singular absolute
heathen
בַּגּוֹיִ֗םba.go.Yim
H1471
a foreign nation · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
house
בֵּ֤יתbeit
H1004
a house (in the greatest variation of applications · noun, common masculine singular construct
Judah
יְהוּדָה֙ye.hu.Dah
H3063
Jehudah (or Judah) · proper noun, a place name
house
וּבֵ֣יתu.Veit
H1004
a house (in the greatest variation of applications · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular construct
Israel
יִשְׂרָאֵ֔לYis.ra.'El
H3478
Jisrael · proper noun, a place name
save
אוֹשִׁ֣יעַ'o.Shi.a'
H3467
properly · verb, hiphil imperfect, 1st person common singular
blessing
בְּרָכָ֑הbe.ra.Khah
H1293
benediction · noun, common feminine singular absolute
fear
תִּירָ֖אוּti.Ra.'u
H3372
to fear · verb, qal jussive, 2nd person masculine plural
hands
יְדֵיכֶֽםye.dei.Khem
H3027
a hand (the open one (indicating power · noun, common both genders dual construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine plural
strong
תֶּחֱזַ֥קְנָהte.che.Zak.nah
H2388
to fasten upon · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person feminine plural
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
Genesis 12:2-3 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
Psalms 72:17 His name shall endure for ever: his name shall be continued as long as the sun: and men shall be blessed in him: all nations shall call him…
Zephaniah 3:20 At that time will I bring you again, even in the time that I gather you: for I will make you a name and a praise among all people of the ear…
Zechariah 8:9 Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Let your hands be strong, ye that hear in these days these words by the mouth of the prophets, which were in t…
1 Corinthians 16:13 Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.
Ruth 4:11-12 And all the people that were in the gate, and the elders, said, We are witnesses. The LORD make the woman that is come into thine house like…
Ezekiel 5:15 So it shall be a reproach and a taunt, an instruction and an astonishment unto the nations that are round about thee, when I shall execute j…
Jeremiah 29:18 And I will persecute them with the sword, with the famine, and with the pestilence, and will deliver them to be removed to all the kingdoms…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Zechariah 8:9-17
God, by the prophet, here gives further assurances of the mercy he had in store for Judah and Jerusalem. Here is line upon line for their comfort, as before there was for their conviction. These verses contain strong encouragements with reference to the difficulties they now laboured under. And we may observe,
I. Who they were to whom these encouragements did belong - to those who, in obedience to the call of God by his prophets, applied in good earnest to the building of the temple (Zac 8:9): "Let your hands be strong, that are busy at work for God, you that hear in these days these words by the mouth of the prophets, and are not disobedient to them as your fathers were, in the former days,…
a curse--As the heathen have made you another name for "a curse," wishing to their foes as bad a lot as yours (Jer 24:9; Jer 29:18); so your name shall be a formula of blessing, so that men shall say to their friend, May thy lot be as happy as that of Judah (Gen 48:20). Including also the idea of the Jews being a source of blessing to the Gentile nations (Mic 5:7; Zep 3:20). The distinct mention of "Judah" and "Israel" proves that the prophecy has not yet had its full accomplishment, as Israel (the ten tribes) has never yet been restored, though individuals of Israel returned with Judah.
Adam Clarke on Zechariah 8:13
As ye were a curse - Instead of being execrated among the people, ye shall be blessed; instead of being reproached, ye shall be commended. Ye shall be a blessing to all the nations round about. All these promises we may expect to be completely fulfilled when the Jews acknowledge their Messiah.
O house of Judah, and house of Israel - The restoration shall be complete, when both Israel and Judah are brought back.
John Gill on Zechariah 8:13
And it shall come to pass, that as ye were a curse among the heathen,.... Reproached, vilified, and called accursed by them; see Jeremiah 24:9 as true Christians, and real believers in Christ, are by the men of this world, 1 Corinthians 4:12,
O house of Judah, and house of Israel; both being carried captive at different times, and were typical of the true and Spiritual Israel of God:
so will I save you, and ye shall be a blessing; be blessed in themselves with the above blessings of plenty and prosperity in outward things; see Haggai 2:19 and a blessing to others, and blessed by them; and all those who are saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation are blessed with all spiritual bless…
The Church Fathers
(Verse 13 and following) And it shall be, as you were a curse among the nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so I will save you and you shall be a blessing. Do not fear, let your hands be strong. For thus says the Lord of hosts: Just as I purposed to afflict you, when your fathers provoked me to wrath, says the Lord, and I did not relent, so now I have purposed in these days to do good to Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. Do not fear. LXX: And it shall be, as you were a curse among the nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so I will save you, and you shall be a blessing. Fear not, let your hands be strong.' For thus says the LORD of hosts, 'As I purposed to bring disaster to you when your fathers provoked me to wrath, and I did not relent, says the LORD of hosts, so again have I purposed in these days to do good to Jerusalem and to the house of Judah; fear not. These things after the building of the temple promise to be in the future, that just as they were in all nations for a curse and for a hissing and for an example, the house of Judah and the house of Israel (namely, the two and ten tribes), so when they have been saved and returned to Judaea, they may be a blessing for all. Do not, he says, fear the rebellious adversaries: trust that what the Lord promises through me is true: strengthen your hands: fulfill the works that you have begun. For the cause of comfort, there is a promise of the Lord. For thus says the Almighty Lord, to whom nothing is impossible, who can fulfill what He promises: just as I have devised to afflict you and deliver you into captivity because your fathers provoked me to anger and I did not show mercy. And the Septuagint translated it as 'I did not repent', which is written in Hebrew as 'Ulo Naamathi'. But I did not show mercy in order to correct you with captivity and instruct you with all kinds of torments and afflictions. So now, at this present time, I have devised to do good to Jerusalem and the house of Judah. And it is to be noted that when he is angry, his curse is upon the nations of the house of Judah and the house of Israel, that is, all twelve tribes that were handed over to captivity. But when he plans to do good, he does not do so for Judah and Israel, that is, the two and ten tribes, namely Jerusalem and Samaria, Oollae and Oolibae; but leaving Israel in captivity, he does good to Jerusalem…
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
Hands, The · Should be employed: In God’s service — Should be employed: In God’s service
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 8:13
13. And it shall come to pass, that as ye were a curse among the heathen, O house of Judah, and house of Israel; so will I save you, and ye shall be a blessing: fear not, but let your hands be strong.
13. Et erit, quemadmodum fuistis maledictio inter gentes, domus Iehudah, et domus Israel; sic servabo vos et eritis benedictio: ne timeatis, roborentur manus vestrae.
He goes on with the same subject, and in this verse he states two contrary things, in order to render more clear what he teaches here -- that while God was angry the earth was barren, and all things went on unhappily with the Jews; but that when God had begun to be reconciled, the earth had as it were changed its…
The whole blessing is finally summed up in one expression in Zac 8:13 : "And it will come to pass, as ye were a curse among the nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so will I endow you with salvation, that ye may be a blessing. Fear not, let your hands be strong." The formula, to be a curse among the nations, is to be interpreted according to Jer 24:9; Jer 25:9; Jer 42:18; Kg2 22:19, as equivalent to being the object of a curse, i.e., so smitten by God as to serve as the object of curses. In harmony with this, the phrase to "become a blessing" is equivalent to being so blessed as to be used as a benedictory formula (cf. Gen 48:22; Jer 29:22). This promise is made to the remnant of…
Peace (Hebrew shalom) is an important theme underlying Zechariah’s message (8:10, 12, 16, 19). God’s presence in the rebuilt Temple would bring peace to Judah (see Hag 2:6-9). Zechariah uses the agricultural cycle to represent God’s blessing (see Hag 2:18-19), which would reverse the drought conditions that Haggai described (Hag 1:10). • The small community that returned to Judah from exile was called the remnant. Theologically, the remnant is a bridge between God’s punishment and his promised restoration (see Hag 1:12, 14).
Rashi on Zechariah 8:9
Let your hands be strong to build and to complete [the Temple]; and do not fear the people of the land, who are weakening your hands and frightening you from building it, as is related in the Book of Ezra (4:4).
you who hear in these days In the fourth year of Darius
these words of consolations from the mouths of the prophets who prophesied for [the people] - on the day the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid, in the second year of Darius - to begin the work. Those prophets were proven with their words to be true prophets in your eyes; therefore, it is also worthy to rely on them for the words of consolation concerning the present time. And in what way were they proven? For before…
