to say (used with great latitude) · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
LORD
יְהוָ֣הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
hosts
צְבָא֔וֹתtze.va.'ot
H6635
a mass of persons (or figuratively · noun, common feminine plural absolute
save
מוֹשִׁ֛יעַmo.Shi.a'
H3467
properly · verb, hiphil active participle, masculine singular absolute
people
עַמִּ֖י'a.Mi
H5971
a people (as a congregated unit) · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix
east
מִזְרָ֑חmiz.Rach
H4217
sunrise · noun, common masculine singular absolute
country
מֵאֶ֣רֶץme.'E.retz
H776
the earth (at large · preposition + noun, common feminine singular construct
west
מְב֥וֹאme.Vo'
H3996
an entrance (the place or the act) · noun, common masculine singular construct
country
וּמֵאֶ֖רֶץu.me.'E.retz
H776
the earth (at large · conjunction + preposition + noun, common feminine singular 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).
Cross-references
Jeremiah 31:8 Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the coasts of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the wo…
Isaiah 27:12-13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall beat off from the channel of the river unto the stream of Egypt, and ye shall be…
Isaiah 43:5-6 Fear not: for I am with thee: I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west;
Isaiah 49:12 Behold, these shall come from far: and, lo, these from the north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim.
Amos 9:14-15 And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant v…
Malachi 1:11 For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same my name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense sh…
Psalms 50:1 The mighty God, even the LORD, hath spoken, and called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof.
Psalms 107:2-3 Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy;
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
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…
save my people from . . . east . . . west--that is, from every region (compare Psa 50:1; the "West" is literally, "the going down of the sun") to which they are scattered; they are now found especially in countries west of Jerusalem. The dispersion under Nebuchadnezzar was only to the east, namely, to Babylonia. The restoration, including a spiritual return to God (Zac 8:8), here foretold, must therefore be still future (Isa 11:11-12; Isa 43:5-6; Eze 37:21; Amo 9:14-15; also Zac 13:9; Jer 30:22; Jer 31:1, Jer 31:33).
Adam Clarke on Zechariah 8:7
I will save my people from the east country, and from the west - From every land in which any of them may be found. But these promises principally regard the Christian Church, or the bringing in the Jews with the fullness of the Gentiles.
John Gill on Zechariah 8:7
Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Behold,.... As being something wonderful, of great importance, and deserving attention:
I will save my people from the east country, and from the west country; this can not be understood of bringing those Jews that remained in Babylon, and other places, to their own land, for Babylon lay north of Judea; see Zechariah 6:6, and as yet there were no Jews in the western part of the world; but now they are chiefly in the east and west, from whence they will be gathered at the time of their general conversion; though this may refer to the times of the apostles of Christ, and to their ministry in the several parts of the world, who went forth, east, west, north, and s…
The Church Fathers
(Verses 7, 8.) Thus says the Lord of hosts: Behold, I will save my people from the land of the East, and from the land of the setting sun. And I will bring them, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God, in truth and in justice. Likewise in the Septuagint. Others say that these things were fulfilled by the Jews after the rebuilding of the temple and the city walls by Zerubbabel and Nehemiah, and the restoration of the Jewish state by the Maccabees and various princes who ruled over Judea until King Herod. Others, in talking about the completion of the world under Christ, whom they vainly wait for, mention things that are yet to be fulfilled. But we, on the other hand, say that even at that time, that is, after Zerubbabel and Nehemiah, it was partially completed and already foreshadowed in types and images when the people were brought back from captivity, dwelt in Jerusalem, and were called the people of God, and again the Lord was called their God: not in deceit and injustice, but in truth and righteousness. And now, most fully under the Lord and Savior in the Church, that is, in the true Jerusalem, the promise is being fulfilled, especially because it is said: Behold, I will save my people from the land of the East and from the land of the West, of whom the Lord also spoke in the Gospel: Many shall come from the East and the West, and shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven (Matt. VIII, 11). And long before, the Psalmist had promised, saying: The Lord, the God of gods, has spoken and called the earth. From the rising of the sun to its setting, from Zion, the perfection of beauty, he comes. For from Zion shall come the one who delivers and turns away iniquities from Jacob, when, from the east and the west, incense is offered to the name of the Lord in every place, and a pure sacrifice, not of the victims of the old Testament, but of the sanctity of the gospel purity, of which incense and elsewhere we read: Let my prayer be directed as incense in your sight. And the following speech explains what this offering is: The lifting up of my hands is the evening sacrifice. For after the shoot from the stem of Jesse has blossomed forth, who was to rule the nations, in Him the nations were to hope (Rom. XV), and from the East and the West, as well the first people as the last…
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
East — (1.) The orient (mizrah); the rising of the sun. Thus “the east country” is the country lying to the east of Syria, the Elymais (Zech. 8:7). (2). Properly what is in front of one, or a country that…
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 8:7, 8
7. Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Behold, I will save my people from the east country, and from the west country;
7. Sic dicit Iehova exercituum, Ecce ergo servans populum meum e terra orientis et e terra occasus solis;
8. And I will bring them, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God, in truth and in righteousness.
8. Et reducam eos, et habitabunt in medio Ierosolymae; et erunt mihi in populum, et ego ero illis in Deum, in veritate et justitia.
He pursues the same subject, and introduces a preface, very necessary in so confused a state of things; for it was very difficult to raise up desponding minds and to in…
Zac 8:7. "Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, Behold, I save my people out of the land of the rising and out of the land of the setting of the sun. Zac 8:8. And I bring them hither, and they will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, and will be my people, and I shall be their God, in truth and righteousness." The deliverance of the people of God out of the heathen lands did indeed commence with the return of a body of exiles from Babylon under the guidance of Zerubbabel, but their deliverance out of all the countries of the earth is still in the future. Instead of all countries, the land of the rising (the east) and the land of the setting (the west) are individualized (cf. Psa 50:1; Psa 113:3; Isa 59:…
from the east and from the west: This is an idiom meaning from all the regions to which the Hebrews were dispersed (compare Isa 43:5-6).
Rashi on Zechariah 8:6
As it will be wonderful in their eyes, the great loving-kindness that I will do for them.
it will also be wonderful in My eyes how I returned from the great wrath. And our Sages expounded on [this phrase], concerning the slaughter of the evil inclination, in tractate Sukkah (52a): it will also be wonderful in My eyes how the righteous will be able to stand up against [the evil inclination] during their lifetime.
