Albert Barnes Commentary Zechariah 14:6

Albert Barnes Commentary

Zechariah 14:6

1798–1870
Presbyterian
Albert Barnes
Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes Commentary

Zechariah 14:6

1798–1870
Presbyterian
SCRIPTURE

"And it shall come to pass in that day, that there shall not be light; the bright ones shall withdraw themselves:" — Zechariah 14:6 (ASV)

The light shall not be clear nor dark - Or, more probably, according to the original reading, “In that day there will be no light; the bright ones will contract themselves,” as it is said, “The stars shall withdraw their shining.”

This is always the description of the Day of Judgment, that, in the presence of God who is Light, all earthly light shall grow pale. So Joel had said, “The sun and moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining” (Joel 3:15). And Isaiah, “The moon shall be confounded and the sun ashamed, when the Lord of hosts shall reign in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem and before His ancients gloriously” (Isaiah 24:23); and, “Behold the day of the Lord cometh, The stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine” (Isaiah 13:9–10). All know well our Lord’s words (Matthew 24:29). John, like Zechariah, unites the failure of the heavenly light “with a great earthquake, and the sun became as sackcloth of hair: and the moon become as blood; and the stars of heaven fell upon the earth” (Revelation 6:12–13).