Zechariah 14

Some students of the Bible say this reads like an abbreviated report on the Battle of Armageddon. But in Revelation 16:16, it’s not God uniting the nations against Jerusalem, it’s “demons.”

The traditional interpretation makes no sense, some scholars say. The translation goes something like this: “You’ll flee by way of the valley between the LORD’s mountain. The valley reaches to Azal.” Azal? There’s no such person or place in the Bible record. Some scholars guess that the word azal should read etzel, a term that means “side,” like the side of a mountain. If that’s right, Zechariah may have been saying the new valley torn open in an earthquake stretched from one side of what had been the Mount of Olives to the other. Or Azal may have been a town whose name was lost to history or changed.

Uzziah reigned from 767-740 BC as full king, and as coregent with his aging father Amaziah from 791-767 BC. That’s a couple of centuries before Zechariah. It’s unknown when the earthquake took place. One guess is 760 BC. But the quake could have happened anywhere within a stretch of about 25 years: from 767-742 BC. The earliest possible date is 767 BC, the year Uzziah became king. The latest date is about 742 BC, two years before the end of Uzziah’s reign.

“Holy company” is anyone’s guess. “Angels” is the most common guess among Bible scholars. Perhaps coming as celestial warriors to fight Jerusalem’s enemies in the Final Battle, Armageddon. But some say the guests could refer to the people who escaped when the coalition army from enemy nations attacked Jerusalem.

Revelation 21:23 seems to embrace this idea, explaining that “The Lamb of God is the light.”

Geba and Rimmon marked the northern and southern boundaries of the Kingdom of Judah before Babylonians invaded and conquered it in 586 BC (1 Kings 15:22; 2 Kings 23:8).

These are the four corners of the city at the time: Benjamin at the northeast (Jeremiah 37:12-13); Corner Gate on the west (2 Kings 14:13); Tower on the north (Nehemiah 3:1; 12:39); winepress in the south (Nehemiah 2:14; 3:15).

It’s often called the Festival of Shelters or Festival of Booths. In Exodus, it was the last harvest festival of the year. That’s when farmers harvested late-season crops such as grapes, figs, and olives (Exodus 23:16). This was in the late summer and early autumn. The Hebrew word describing the festival here is sukka. It can mean tent, canopy, or temporary shelter. Moses said God wanted the Israelites to observe this festival by building temporary shelters and living in them for seven days “so you and your descendants will remember that the people of Israel I led out of Egyptian slavery once lived in shelters like this” (Leviticus 23:43).

Literally, “Holy to the LORD.” Holy horse bells? Sounds like an exclamation, “Holy horse bells!” The message in verses 20-21 seems to be that in this new Jerusalem’s near utopia, everything becomes holy, even horse bells and kitchen pots. It’s all devoted to God, used in ways to please him and bless the people. The bells, like worship utensils such as lampstands inside the Temple, were considered holy because they were reserved for sacred use, devoted to God. People, too, were considered holy when they devoted themselves to God.