Zechariah 9:10 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Zechariah 9:10
And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow shall be cut off: and he shall speak peace unto the heathen: and his dominion shall be from sea even to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth.
a foreign nation · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
dominion
וּמָשְׁלוֹ֙u.ma.she.Lo
H4915
empire · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
sea
מִיָּ֣םmi.Yam
H3220
a sea (as breaking in noisy surf) or large body of water · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
sea
יָ֔םYam
H3220
a sea (as breaking in noisy surf) or large body of water · noun, common masculine singular absolute
river
וּמִנָּהָ֖רu.mi.na.Har
H5104
a stream (including the sea · conjunction + preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
ends
אַפְסֵי'af.sei-
H657
cessation · noun, common masculine plural construct
earth
אָֽרֶץ'A.retz
H776
the earth (at large · noun, common feminine 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
Hosea 1:7 But I will have mercy upon the house of Judah, and will save them by the LORD their God, and will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by…
Hosea 2:18 And in that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of…
Psalms 72:7-11 In his days shall the righteous flourish; and abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth.
2 Corinthians 10:4-5 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)
Colossians 1:20-21 And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in…
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…
Psalms 2:8-12 Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.
Isaiah 9:6-7 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful,…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Zechariah 9:9-11
That here begins a prophecy of the Messiah and his kingdom is plain from the literal accomplishment of the ninth verse in, and its express application to, Christ's riding in triumph into Jerusalem, Mat 21:5; Joh 12:15.
I. Here is notice given of the approach of the Messiah promised, as matter of great joy to the Old Testament church: Behold, thy king cometh unto thee. Christ is a king, invested with regal powers and prerogatives, a sovereign prince, an absolute monarch, having all power both in heaven and on earth. He is Zion's king. God has set him upon his holy hill of Zion, Psa 2:6. In Zion his glory as a king shines; thence his law went forth, even the word of the Lord. In the gospel-chu…
(Isa 2:4; Hos 2:18; Mic 5:10).
Ephraim . . . Jerusalem--the ten tribes, and Judah and Benjamin; both alike to be restored hereafter.
speak peace--command it authoritatively.
dominion . . . from sea . . . river . . . ends of . . . earth--fulfilling Gen 15:18; Exo 23:31; and Psa 72:8. "Sea . . . sea," are the Red Sea and Mediterranean. The "river" is the Euphrates. Jerusalem and the Holy Land, extended to the limits promised to Abraham, are to be the center of His future dominion; whence it will extend to the remotest parts of the earth.
Adam Clarke on Zechariah 9:10
I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem - No wars shall be employed to spread the kingdom of the Messiah; for it shall be founded and established, "not by might nor by power, but by the Spirit of the Lord of hosts," Zac 4:6.
John Gill on Zechariah 9:10
And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim,.... That is, the military one; signifying that wars shall cease, Psalm 46:9,
and the horse from Jerusalem; the warlike one; see Micah 5:10. Ephraim designs the ten tribes, and Jerusalem stands for the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin; and the sense is, that these shall be one in the days of the Messiah, as Kimchi observes; and that all instruments of war shall be removed from them, and there shall be an entire peace between them; see Isaiah 11:13,
and the battle bow shall be cut off; another instrument of war. The Targum paraphrases it,
"I will break the strength of those that make war, the armies of the people;''
all this does not design so m…
The Church Fathers
Be glad, therefore, O Jerusalem, since of such a kind is a king appointed for you by God, and he has come to you, capable of saving his own on account of the divine influence accruing to him and justly inflicting total punishment on the adversaries. While he is riding a lowly animal for the reason that he has just arrived back from captivity, he assumes great power through divine grace, and so from Ephraim and from Jerusalem he will remove all the chariots of the adversaries, every war horse and every battle bow—that is to say, he will drive off all enemies so that there will be no longer any adversary against the country of Judah. He will also wipe out a great multitude of the adversaries and completely deprive them of peace, crushed and destroyed in a war waged by him.
For peace and tranquillity of the soul is above all glory of any house; for peace passeth all understanding. This is that peace above all peace which shall be granted after the third shaking of the heaven, the sea, the earth and the dry land, when He shall destroy all Principalities and Powers. For heaven and earth shall pass away, and all the fashion of this world; and every man shall rise up against his brother with the sword, that is, with the word piercing the marrow of the soul, that whatever opposes itself, the chariot from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem may be cut off, as Zechariah says. And thus there will be peace over all, the passions of the body offering no resistance, and the unbelieving mind no obstacle, that Christ may be all in all, offering in subjection to the Father the hearts of all men.
And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow shall be cut off: and he shall speak peace unto the heathen: and his dominion shall be from sea even to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth. LXX: And he shall destroy the chariots out of Ephraim, and the horse out of Jerusalem, and the battle bow shall be destroyed, and he shall speak peace to the Gentiles, and his dominion shall be from the sea to the rivers, and from the rivers to the ends of the earth. And I will destroy, he says, the chariot of Ephraim. Moreover, it is said in the person of God the Father, that the chariot, or the chariot, of Ephraim may perish, and the horse from Jerusalem. And in the meantime, according to the letter, he speaks thus: There will be no battles, with the advent and birth of Christ pacifying all. Furthermore, according to a higher understanding, Ephraim is referred to as a multitude of heresies, which is interpreted as bearing fruit, that is, abundance and plentiful crops. This is written in the seventy-seventh psalm: The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle. About these chariots and charioteers, we read: Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. They have bowed down and fallen, but we have risen and stand upright (Psalm 20:7-9). The horse that is lost from Jerusalem, that is whom we read about: A deceitful horse for salvation (Psalm 32:17), And in Jeremiah, those who indulged in luxury and lust, they hear: The horses have gone mad, they have become like females to me: each neighed after his neighbor's wife (Jeremiah 5:8). Hence they are called to repentance, as the Psalmist says: Do not be like a horse or a mule, which have no understanding (Psalm 32:9). When God has destroyed the chariots of Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem, which were freed from such horses and chariots; they will be brought into the service of the Lord, and will become cherubim, and it will be said of them: The chariots of God are ten thousandfold, thousands of rejoicing (Psalm 68:18). And: I have likened you, my beloved, to my horse in Pharaoh's chariots (Song of Solomon 1:8). And: Ride on horses, and let your riding be salvation (Habakkuk 3:8). The bow of war will be dispersed, so that no burning arrows may be launched, which could strike the…
Dictionary and topics
Battle-bow — The war-bow used in fighting (Zech. 9:10; 10:4). “Thy bow was made quite naked” (Hab. 3:9) means that it was made ready for use. By David’s order (2 Sam. 1:18) the young men were taught the use, or…
Bow, The · Called the battle bow — Called the battle bow
Peace, Spiritual · Promised to: The Gentiles — Promised to: The Gentiles
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 9:10
10. And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow shall be cut off: and he shall speak peace unto the heathen: and his dominion shall be from sea even to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth.
10. Et excidam quadrigas (vel, currum) ab Ephraim, et equum ab Ierusalem, et excidetur arcus bellicus (arcus belli;) et loquetur pacem ad gentes; et imperium ejus a mari usque ad mare, et a fluvio usque ad terminos terrae.
The Prophet here expresses more clearly what he had briefly referred to by the word poor, and by the metaphor which we have explained. Hence he says, that there would be no horses, no chariots, no bows,…
Just as the coming of the King does not contain within itself a sign of earthly power and exaltation, so will His kingdom not be established by worldly power. The war-chariots and horses, in which the kingdoms of the world seek their strength, will be exterminated by Jehovah out of Ephraim and Jerusalem (cf. Mic 5:9). And so also will the war-chariots, for which "the battle-bow" stands synecdochically. Ephraim denotes the former kingdom of the ten tribes, and Jerusalem is mentioned as the capital in the place of the kingdom of Judah. Under the Messiah will the two kingdoms that were formerly divided be united once more, and through the destruction of their military power will their nature be…
As used here, Israel stands in contrast to Judah, the southern kingdom. The pairing of Israel and Jerusalem signifies a reunited Israel and the regaining of the covenant land. • The kingdoms of Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, and Israel were established by military conquest. By contrast, the kingdom of the Messiah will dismantle the machinery of war and eradicate all arsenals of weapons (see Isa 2:4; 9:5; Mic 5:10-11; Joel 3:10). • The Euphrates River was the northern boundary of the Promised Land (Gen 15:18). • the ends of the earth: The righteous king will establish universal peace.
Rashi on Zechariah 9:10
And I will cut off the chariots for they will not need them.
and his rule וּמָשְׁלוֹ
from the sea to the west From its sea to the west, to the end of the world.
and from the river The Euphrates.