Charles Ellicott Commentary Zechariah 14

The day of the Lord cometh. —Better. A day comes for the Lord —namely, on which He will significantly manifest His glory. (Compare Psalms 2:12 and other similar passages.) The second half of the verse gives with—as it were—one stroke of the pen the most vivid description of the first feature of this “day,” namely, judgment upon Jerusalem.

This verse is simply a further description of the event depicted in the second half of the preceding verse.

And the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. —This was the case (with regard to Judah) in the Chaldean conquest (2 Kings 25:22). Whether or not this can be interpreted of the taking of Jerusalem by Titus, we leave it for our readers to decide, after placing the following words of Josephus (Bel. Jud. vi. 9, § 2) before them:

“And now, since his soldiers were already quite tired of killing, and yet a vast multitude still appeared to remain alive, Caesar gave orders that they should kill only those who were armed and resisted, but should take the rest alive.

However, along with those whom they had orders to kill, they also killed the aged and the infirm. But as for those who were in the prime of life and who might be useful to them, they drove them together into the Temple and shut them up within the walls of the court of the women. Over this court, Caesar appointed one of his freedmen, and also Fronto, one of his friends; this Fronto was to determine everyone’s fate according to his merits.

So this Fronto killed all those who had been seditious and robbers, who were accused by one another. But from the young men, he selected the tallest and most beautiful, and reserved them for the triumph. And as for the rest of the multitude who were above seventeen years old, he put them in bonds, and sent them to the Egyptian mines. Titus also sent a great number into the provinces as a gift to them, so that they might be destroyed in their theaters by the sword and by wild beasts; but those who were under seventeen years of age were sold for slaves.” We simply ask, what room is there for a remnant?

Then shall the Lord go forth. — In the hour of Israel’s direst need the Lord will appear as their champion, as in former times. (Joshua 23:3; Judges 4:15; 1 Samuel 7:10; and especially 2 Chronicles 20:15.)

And his feet ...—The language is, of course, figurative.

Shall cleave. —Earthquake is commonly represented as an accompaniment of the Lord’s appearing (Exodus 19:18; Isaiah 29:6; Ezekiel 38:19–20). The Mount of Olives shall be cleft eastward to westward, and its two halves will be removed northward and southward respectively, so that a valley will be formed between them.

And you shall flee to. — The Hebrew will not bear the rendering of Luther, “and you shall flee before.” The Oriental Jews, Targum, Septuagint, etc., by a different vocalization, read, “And the valley of my mountains shall be stopped;” but this reading is inappropriate. My mountains—the Mount of Olives, which is divided in two by the advent of the Lord—He calls my mountains (Margin).

It seems that they would flee there for fear of being overwhelmed in the destruction of Jerusalem, for the valley of the mountains will afford a ready place of refuge, as it shall reach unto Azal. Some suppose Azal to be a place near Jerusalem (some placing it to the west of the Temple Mount, others to the east of the Mount of Olives), but others take the word as a preposition and render it “very near.” In any case, they flee to the valley because of its convenient proximity.

The earthquake in the days of Uzziah is not mentioned in the sacred history, but it was an event that left such an impression on the popular mind that it became an era from which to date (Amos 1:1). “Similarly in Crete recent events are dated by such eras as in the year before the great earthquake” (Blakesley’s Herodotus 1.263). Thus, the mention of this earthquake does not “fix the date of the prophecy to the days of Uzziah” as some commentators have affirmed.

The second person, you fled, need not be taken as referring directly to the persons addressed; but, considering the fact of the continuity of the national existence, it may be understood as denoting the same nation at an earlier period, as in Joshua 24:5. Moreover, if we were to dwell on the fact of the addition of the words king of Judah to the name of Uzziah, it might be taken to imply that the prophecy was delivered so long after the time of Uzziah that it was necessary for the prophet to remind his hearers who this Uzziah was.

Saints. — Better, angels (Psalms 89:5, 6).

With you. — The change into the second person denotes the prophet’s own joyful waiting for his God’s advent. Some versions and manuscripts read “with him.”