Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Zechariah 14:16
And it shall come to pass, [that] every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles.
16. the feast of tabernacles ] The Jews had been required to appear three times in the year before God at His sanctuary. Of the Gentile nations, distant as they are and scattered over the face of the earth, only one such appearance is required. Various reasons have been suggested why, out of the three great festivals, the feast of tabernacles is selected: because it fell in autumn when travelling is most convenient; because, as a thanksgiving festival for the fruits of the earth, it was one in which all nations might more readily take part; or (which is more probable), because it was the last and greatest festival of the Jewish year, gathering up into itself, as it were, the year’s worship, and at the same time typifying the ingathering of all nations into the Church of God. Comp. Rev 7:9.
“From every clime they come
To see thy beauty, and to share thy joy,
O Sion! an assembly such as earth
Saw never, such as heav’n stoops down to see.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
16 19. The Homage of the Residue of the Nations
The deliverance of Israel and judgments on her enemies shall have a converting influence on the residue of the Gentiles, who shall become worshippers of Jehovah, and keep the Feast of Tabernacles every year at Jerusalem, Zec 14:16. From any nation that refuses so to worship rain shall be withheld as a punishment, Zec 14:17. Egypt, the ancient foe of Israel, shall be liable to the same punishment, Zec 14:18, which shall fall upon all nations that neglect the feast, Zec 14:19.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Every one that is left of the nations – God so gives the repentance, even through His visitations, that, in proportion to the largeness of the rebellion and the visitation upon it, shall be the largeness of the conversion. Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles shall be fulfilled Luk 21:24. And Paul, Blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles shall be come in; and so all Israel shall be saved Rom 11:25-26. Hitherto prophets had spoken of a remnant of Jacob, who should return to the mighty God Isa 10:21, and should be saved; now, upon this universal rebellion of the pagan. He foretells the conversion of a remnant of the pagan also.
Shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts – There is a harmony between the rebellion and the repentance. The converted shall go to worship God there, where they had striven to exterminate His worshipers. The prophet could only speak of the Gospel under the image of the law. The Feast of Tabernacles has its counterpart, not, like the Pascha or the Pentecost, in any single feast, but in the whole life of the Gospel. It was a thanksgiving for past deliverance; it was a picture of their pilgrim-life from the passage of the Red Sea, until the parting of the Jordan opened to them the entrance to their temporary rest in Canaan (see at greater length Hos 12:9, vol. i. p. 122). Jerome: In that vast, wide, terrible wilderness, where was no village, house, town, cave, it made itself tents, wherein to sojourn with wives and children, avoiding by day the burning sun, by night damp and cold and hurt from dew; and it was a statute forever in their generations; ye shall dwell in booths seven days; all, that are Israelites born, shall dwell in booths, that your generations may know, that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt Lev 23:41-43.
Lap.: Much more truly do Christians keep the feast of tabernacles, not once in the year only, but continually, unceasingly. This is, what Peter admonisheth, Dearly beloved, I beseech you, as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts 1Pe 2:11. And Paul often teacheth that we, like Abraham, are strangers on earth, but citizens of heaven with the saints, and of the household of God Eph 2:19. Faith, he says, is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. By faith Abraham sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; for he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God Heb 11:1, Heb 11:9-10. Jerome: As long as we are in progress, in the course and militant, we dwell in tabernacles, striving with all our mind to pass from the tabernacles to the firm and lasting dwelling-place of the house of God. Whence, also holy David said, I am a stranger with Thee and a sojourner, as all my fathers were Psa 39:12. So speaketh he, who is still in Egypt and yet placed in the world. But he who goeth forth out of Egypt, and entereth a desert from vices, holdeth his way and says in the Psalm, I will pass through to the place of the tabernacle of the Wonderful unto the house of God (Psa 41:5, Vulgate). Whence, also he says elsewhere, How amiable are Thy dwellings. Thou Lord of hosts; my soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord and a little after, Blessed are they who dwell in thy house, they shall be alway praising Thee Psa 41:4. The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tabernacles of the righteous Psa 118:15. One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to enquire in His temple Psa 27:4.
Whoso dwelleth in such tabernacles, and hastes to go from the tabernacles to the court, and from the court to the house, and from the house to the temple of the Lord, ought to celebrate the feast of Tabernacles etc. It symbolizes how, (Dionysius), in the New Testament, Christians, being delivered through Christ from the slavery to sin and satan, and sojourning in this vale of misery, by making progress in virtues go up to the home of the heavenly paradise, the door of glory being open by the merit of the Lords Passion, and so the faithful of Christ celebrate the feast of tabernacles; and, after the destruction of antichrist, they will celebrate it the more devoutly, as there will then be among them a fuller fervor of faith.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Zec 14:16
Shall go up from year to year to worship the King.
The genius and inner heart of Christianity
1. It brings us into the possession of a new life. We are Christians, not because we avow a certain creed, or conform to certain outward exercises; but because we have received the life, the Eternal Life, which was with the Father, and was manifested to us in Jesus. And is it possible to restrict the manifestations of life? Is not God’s life always the same in its abundant and infinite variety? So surely the life of God in the soul should, and must, express itself in all the outgoings of our existence,–in speech, act, movement–equally on the six days as the one day; as much in the kitchen, or the shop, as the Church. If you are possessed by the life of the Holy One, it will as certainly appear as the idiosyncrasy of your character, which underlies, moulds, and fashions your every gesture.
2. Christianity is consecration to Christ. It may be questioned if we have a right to call ourselves Christians unless we regard Him as our Judge, our Lawgiver, and our King, and are deliberately obeying and serving Him. But if we are going to reserve our religion to certain days, places, and actions, we necessarily exclude Him from all that is not contained within the fences we erect. What right have we to suppose that our Master Christ will be satisfied with an arrangement which asks Him to accept a part for the whole, a composition for the entire debt?
3. The needs of the world demand an entire and unbroken religious life. The world does not see us in our religious exercises, whether in our private retirement or our public worship. It has no idea, therefore, of the anguish of our penitence, the earnestness of our desires for a right and noble life, the persistency of our endeavours. And if we do not give evidence of our religion in dealing with matters that the men of the world understand, they will naturally and rightly consider that religion is an unpractical dream, the child of superstition and emotion. We should, therefore, refuse to maintain the false distinction between things that arc sacred, and those that are secular. (F. B. Meyer, B.A.)
The public worship of Jehovah
I. It is a duty binding on all people. The feast of tabernacles was meant to keep them in mind that, amidst their abundant harvests, and well-cared-for fields and vineyards, that as in the desert, so still it was God who gave the increase. It was therefore a festival most suitable for all the nations to join in, by way of acknowledging that Jehovah was the God of Nature throughout the earth, however various might be the aspects of nature with which they were familiar. Besides, there can be little doubt that by the time of Zechariah, and probably long before, this feast had become a kind of symbol of the ingathering of the nations (Joh 4:35).
Dr. Dods. Whilst the thousands neglect public worship, not a few argue against it, they say it is uncalled for and unnecessary. In reply to this we state, where there is genuine religion–
1. Public worship is a natural development. The Being we love most we crave an opportunity for extolling, we want that all shall know His merits.
2. Public worship is a happy development. What delights the soul so much as to hear others praise the object we love the most? This at once gratifies the religious instinct and the social love.
3. Public worship is a beneficent development. There is nothing that tends so much to quicken and ennoble souls as worship, and nothing gives such a vital interest in one soul for another, as public worship.
II. Its neglect exposes to terrible calamities.
1. The greatness of the punishment. Upon them shall be no rain. Now the absence of rain involves every temporal evil you can think of, famine, pestilence, loss of physical enjoyment, loss of health, loss of life.
2. The fitness of the punishment.
(1) To the offence. The withholding of the rain.
(2) To the offender. The idea of not having rain would not, perhaps, terrify the Egyptians, for they had the Nile. Hence a plague is threatened to them. The punishment here was to come because of the neglect of public worship. And this is punished by–
(a) Loss of the highest spiritual enjoyments.
(b) Hereafter, by the reproaching of conscience, and the banishment from all good. (Homilist.)
The worship of God a duty and a privilege
Though it is generally admitted that Zechariah is the most obscure of all the minor prophets, yet there were two topics on which we may safely affirm that he was as luminous, or more so, than the rest. The first respected the public worship of God. He and Haggai were conspicuously active in urging the Jews, on their return from their captivity, to rebuild their temple; and when the sanctuary was erected, we find him not only administering to the tribes themselves, but to the strangers and foreigners who had mixed themselves up with them to frequent the house of God, lest renewed judgment should break forth upon them to their injury and ruin.
I. Press it upon you as a duty and privilege.
1. It is founded in the relation in which we stand to God. He is our Creator, Preserver, Benefactor; He is our Father. We are the families of Israel here addressed; and has not God dealt fraternally with you as His children? Show your filial gratitude, etc.
2. It is suggested by the appointment of Divine ordinances.
3. It is enforced by the commands and exhortations of the sacred Scriptures. The books of Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, and Joshua issued these precepts. They are echoed by the prophets (Psa 95:1-4; Psa 95:7; Psa 100:2-5).
4. It is recommended by the example of the best of men who ever lived. We are to be followers of all those who through faith, etc., and ought we not to copy them in this feature? Read the histories of Moses–Joshua–Nehemiah–of the prophets and apostles–or select one conspicuous example, David; what was his principal wish? One thing have I, etc. What his chief affliction? The sparrow, etc. What his chief joy? I was glad, etc. What his prayer for others? O send out Thy light, etc. This was his testimony, this his appeal–Lord, I have loved the habitation. They continued daily in the temple, etc.
5. It is urged upon us by the advantages connected with its observance. It is the house of God which He has promised to keep with His especial presence. Of Zion He says, This is My rest; here will I dwell, etc. It is through His institutions that light, grace, and comfort are imparted to His Church.
II. To show you the consequences of the neglect of that worship which God requires. Even upon them there shall be no rain. No doubt there was a literal meaning attached to this menace. But we must not satisfy ourselves with this comment. In making a spiritual application of this part of the text, observe that rain is often employed as a metaphor to denote the abundant communication of spiritual blessings–thus, the coming of the Messiah, and the bestowments of His grace; the influences of the Spirit; the instructions and consolations of the Word of God. My doctrine shall drop as the rain. (Evangelical Preacher.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 16. Shall even go up from year to year] The Jews had three grand original festivals, which characterized different epochs in their history, viz.: –
1. The feast of the passover, in commemoration of their departure from Egypt.
2. The feast of pentecost, in commemoration of the giving of the law upon Mount Sinai.
3. The feast of tabernacles, in commemoration of their wandering forty years in the wilderness.
This last feast is very properly brought in here to point out the final restoration of the Jews, and their establishment in the light and liberty of the Gospel of Christ, after their long wandering in vice and error.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Every one that is left; such as escape the stroke, and are by mercy reserved, very many of them, among all the nations, shall consider Gods hand, repent, and submit themselves to his law; they shall, (as many did,) on sight of Gods hand for the church, and against the churchs enemies, convert, become proselytes and Christians.
Shall even go up from year to year to worship: by a ceremonial phrase and usage, which shadowed out a better worship, the prophet foretells, the constant zeal and care the converted Gentiles should have to worship the Lord.
To keep the feast of tabernacles; one solemn festival, by a figure, put for all the days consecrated to God for holy worship, and this perhaps with an eye to Christs tabernacling with us, and may point to the Christian sabbath.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
16. every one . . . left(Isa 66:19; Isa 66:23).God will conquer all the foes of the Church. Some He will destroy;others He will bring into willing subjection.
from year to yearliterally,”from the sufficiency of a year in a year.”
feast of tabernaclesTheother two great yearly feasts, passover and pentecost, are notspecified, because, their antitypes having come, the types are doneaway with. But the feast of tabernacles will be commemorative of theJews’ sojourn, not merely forty years in the wilderness, but foralmost two thousand years of their dispersion. So it was kept ontheir return from the Babylonian dispersion (Ne8:14-17). It was the feast on which Jesus made His triumphalentry into Jerusalem (Mt 21:8);a pledge of His return to His capital to reign (compare Lev 23:34;Lev 23:39; Lev 23:40;Lev 23:42; Rev 7:9;Rev 21:3). A feast of peculiarjoy (Psa 118:15; Hos 12:9).The feast on which Jesus gave the invitation to the living waters ofsalvation (“Hosanna,” save us now, was the cry, Mt21:9; compare Psa 118:25;Psa 118:26) (Joh 7:2;Joh 7:37). To the Gentiles, too,it will be significant of perfected salvation after past wanderingsin a moral wilderness, as it originally commemorated the ingatheringof the harvest. The seedtime of tears shall then have issued in theharvest of joy [MOORE].”All the nations” could not possibly in person go up to thefeast, but they may do so by representatives.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And it shall come to pass,…. After the plague on man and beast is over:
[that] everyone that is left of all the nations which come against Jerusalem; these are the remnant, according to the election of grace, who will have been among the enemies of Christ and his people, but preserved when others will be destroyed; and they will not only be frightened at the general destruction, but will be truly converted, and give glory to the God of heaven, Re 11:13: these
shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts; the King Messiah, as Aben Ezra and Abendana on the place observe; the same with the King overall the earth, Zec 14:9 who is Lord of hosts, of all the armies in heaven, that will have followed him, at this time, and is to be worshipped by angels and men; he is equal with God, the Creator of both, the Redeemer of men, and King of saints; and to worship him shall the above persons preserved and called go up to Jerusalem, the church of God, year by year, that is, constantly:
and to keep the feast of tabernacles; not literally, but spiritually; for, as all the Jewish feasts have been long since abolished, having had their accomplishment in Christ, not one of them will ever be revived in the latter day. This feast was originally kept in commemoration of the Israelites dwelling in tents in the wilderness, and was typical of Christ’s incarnation, who was made flesh, and tabernacled among us; so that to keep this feast is no other than to believe in Christ as come in the flesh, and in the faith of this to attend to the Gospel feast of the word and ordinances; and whereas this feast was observed by drawing water with expressions of joy, this may respect the pouring forth of the Spirit in the last day, and that spiritual joy saints will then be filled with; to which may be added, that palm tree branches used to be carried in their hands at the time of that feast; and so the keeping of it now may denote the victory that will be obtained over the beast and his image, which palm tree branches are a token of; and this will issue in the personal reign of Christ, when the tabernacle of God shall be with men.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Conversion of the heathen. – Zec 14:16. “And it will come to pass, that every remnant of all the nations which came against Jerusalem will go up year by year to worship the King Jehovah of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. Zec 14:17. And it will come to pass, that whoever of the families of the earth does not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King Jehovah of hosts, upon them there will be no rain. Zec 14:18. And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, then also not upon them; there will be (upon them) the plague with which Jehovah will plague all nations which do not go up to keep the feast of tabernacles. Zec 14:19. This will be the sin of Egypt, and the sin of all the nations, which do not go up to keep the feast of tabernacles.” The heathen will not be all destroyed by the judgment; but a portion of them will be converted. This portion is called “the whole remnant of those who marched against Jerusalem” ( as in Zec 12:9). It will turn to the worship of the Lord. The construction in Zec 14:16 is anacolouthic: , with its further definition, is placed at the head absolutely, whilst the predicate is attached in the form of an apodosis with . The entrance of the heathen into the kingdom of God is depicted under the figure of the festal journeys to the sanctuary of Jehovah, which had to be repeated year by year. Of the feasts which they will keep there every year (on , see Delitzsch on Isa 66:23), the feast of tabernacles is mentioned, not because it occurred in the autumn, and the autumn was the best time for travelling (Theod. Mops., Theodoret, Grot., Ros.), or because it was the greatest feast of rejoicing kept by the Jews, or for any other outward reason, but simply on account of its internal significance, which we must not seek for, however, as Koehler does, in its agrarian importance as a feast of thanksgiving for the termination of the harvest, and of the gathering in of the fruit; but rather in its historical allusion as a feast of thanksgiving for the gracious protection of Israel in its wanderings through the desert, and its introduction into the promised land with its abundance of glorious blessings, whereby it foreshadowed the blessedness to be enjoyed in the kingdom of God (see my bibl. Archologie, i. p. 414ff.). This feast will be kept by the heathen who have come to believe in the living God, to thank the Lord for His grace, that He has brought them out of the wanderings of this life into the blessedness of His kingdom of peace. With this view of the significance of the feast of tabernacles, it is also possible to harmonize the punishment threatened in Zec 14:17 for neglecting to keep this feast, – namely, that the rain will not be (come) upon the families of the nations which absent themselves from this feast. For rain is an individualizing expression denoting the blessing of God generally, and is mentioned here with reference to the fact, that without rain the fruits of the land, on the enjoyment of which our happiness depends, will not flourish. The meaning of the threat is, therefore, that those families which do not come to worship the Lord, will be punished by Him with the withdrawal of the blessings of His grace. The Egyptians are mentioned again, by way of example, as those upon whom the punishment will fall. So far as the construction of this verse is concerned, is added to strengthen and contains the apodosis to the conditional clause introduced with , to which is easily supplied from Zec 14:17. The positive clause which follows is then appended as an asyndeton: It (the fact that the rain does not come) will be the plague, etc. The prophet mentions Egypt especially, not because of the fact in natural history, that this land owes its fertility not to the rain, but to the overflowing of the Nile, – a notion which has given rise to the most forced interpretations; but as the nation which showed the greatest hostility to Jehovah and His people in the olden time, and for the purpose of showing that this nation was also to attain to a full participation in the blessings of salvation bestowed upon Israel (cf. Isa 19:19.). In Zec 14:19 this thought is rounded off by way of conclusion. , this, namely the fact that no rain falls, will be the sin of Egypt, etc. , the sin, including its consequences, or in its effects, as in Num 32:23, etc. Moreover, we must not infer from the way in which this is carried out in Zec 14:17-19, that at the time of the completion of the kingdom of God there will still be heathen, who will abstain from the worship of the true God; but the thought is simply this: there will then be no more room for heathenism within the sphere of the kingdom of God. To this there is appended the thought, in Zec 14:20, Zec 14:21, that everything unholy will then be removed from that kingdom.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Evangelical Predictions; Threatenings and Promises; Encouraging Prospects. | B. C. 500. |
16 And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. 17 And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain. 18 And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, that have no rain; there shall be the plague, wherewith the LORD will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles. 19 This shall be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles. 20 In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD; and the pots in the LORD‘s house shall be like the bowls before the altar. 21 Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto the LORD of hosts: and all they that sacrifice shall come and take of them, and seethe therein: and in that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the LORD of hosts.
Three things are here foretold:–
I. That a gospel-way of worship being set up in the church there shall be a great resort to it and a general attendance upon it. Those that were left of the enemies of religion shall be so sensible of the mercy of God to them in their narrow escape that they shall apply themselves to the worship of the God of Israel, and pay their homage to him, v. 16. Those that were not consumed shall be converted, and this makes their deliverance a mercy indeed, a double mercy. It is a great change that the grace of God makes upon them; those that had come against Jerusalem, finding their attempts vain and fruitless, shall become as much her admirers as ever they had been her adversaries, and shall come to Jerusalem to worship there, and go in concurrence with those whom they had gone contrary to. Note, As some of Christ’s foes shall be made his footstool, so others of them shall be made his friends; and, when the principle of enmity is slain in them, their former acts of hostility are pardoned to them, and their services are admitted and accepted, as though they had never fought against Jerusalem. They shall go up to worship at Jerusalem, because that was the place which God had chosen, and there the temple was, which was a type of Christ and his mediation. Converting grace sets us right, 1. In the object of our worship. They shall no longer worship the Molochs and Baals, the kings and lords, that the Gentiles worship, the creatures of their own imagination, but the King, the Lord of hosts, the everlasting King, the King of kings, the sovereign Lord of all. 2. In the ordinances of worship, those which God himself has appointed. Gospel-worship is here represented by the keeping of the feast of tabernacles, for the sake of those two great graces which were in a special manner acted and signified in that feast-contempt of the world, and joy in God, Neh. viii. 17. The life of a good Christian is a constant feast of tabernacles, and, in all acts of devotion, we must retire from the world and rejoice in the Lord, must worship as in that feast. 3. In the Mediator of our worship; we must go to Christ our temple with all our offerings, for in him only our spiritual sacrifices are acceptable to God, 1 Pet. ii. 5. If we rest in ourselves, we come short of pleasing God; we must go up to him, and mention his righteousness only. 4. In the time of it; we must be constant. They shall go up from year to year, at the times appointed for this solemn feast. Every day of a Christian’s life is a day of the feast of tabernacles, and every Lord’s day especially (that is the great day of the feast); and therefore every day we must worship the Lord of hosts and every Lord’s day with a peculiar solemnity.
II. That those who neglect the duties of gospel-worship shall be reckoned with for their neglect. God will compel them to come and worship before him, by suspending his favours from those that keep not his ordinances: Upon them there shall be no rain, v. 17. Some understand it figuratively; the rain of heavenly doctrine shall be withheld, and of the heavenly grace, which should accompany that doctrine. God will command the clouds that they rain no rain upon them. Note, It is a righteous thing with God to withhold the blessings of grace from those that do not attend the means of grace, to deny the green pastures to those that attend not the shepherd’s tents. Or we may take it literally: On them there shall be no rain, to make their ground fruitful. Note, The gifts of common providence are justly denied to those that neglect and despise instituted ordinances. Those that neglected to build the temple were punished with the want of rain (Hag. ii. 17), and so were those that neglected to attend there when it was built. If we be barren and unfruitful towards God, justly is the earth made so to us. Many are crossed, and go backward, in their affairs, and this is at the bottom of it–they do not keep close to the worship of God as they should; they go off from God, and then he walks contrary to them. If we omit or postpone the duties he expects from us, it is just with him to deny the favours we expect from him. But what shall be done to the defaulters of the land of Egypt, to whom the threatening of the want of rain is no threatening, for they have no rain at any time; they need none; they desire none; the river Nilus is to them instead of the clouds of heaven, waters their land, and makes it fruitful, so that what is a punishment to others is none to them? Zec 14:18; Zec 14:19. It is threatened that if the family of Egypt go not up, that have no rain, yet God will find out a way to meet with them, for there shall be, in effect, the same plague wherewith other nations are smitten for their neglect. God can, and often did, restrain the overflowing of the river, which was equivalent to the shutting up of the clouds; or if the river did its part, and rose as high as it used to do, God had other ways of bringing famine upon them, and destroying the fruits of their ground, as he did by several of the ten plagues of Egypt, so that this (that is, the same) shall be the punishment of Egypt that is the punishment of other nations who come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles. Note, Those who think themselves least indebted to, and depending on, the mercy of heaven, cannot therefore think themselves guarded against the justice of Heaven. It does not follow that those who can live without rain can therefore live without God; for not the heavens only, but all other creatures, are that to us that God makes them to be, and no more; nor can any man’s way of living enable him to set light by the judgments of God. This shall be the punishment–margin, This shall be the sin of Egypt, and the sin of all nations, that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles. The same word signifies both sin and the punishment of sin, so close and inseparable is the connexion between them (as Gen. iv. 7), and sin is often its own punishment. Note, Omissions are sins, and we must come into judgment for them; those contract guilt that go not up to worship at the times appointed, as they have opportunity; and it is a sin that is its own punishment, for those who forsake the duty forfeit the privilege of communion with God.
III. That those who perform the duties of gospel-worship shall have grace to adorn their profession by the duties of a gospel-conversation too. This is promised (Zec 14:20; Zec 14:21), and it is necessary to the completing of the beauty and happiness of the church. In general, all shall be holiness to the Lord.
1. The name and character of holiness shall not be so confined as formerly. Holiness to the Lord had been written only upon the high priest’s forehead, but now it shall not be so appropriated. All Christians shall be living temples, and spiritual priests, dedicated to the honour of God and employed in his service.
2. Real holiness shall be more diffused than it had been, because there shall be more powerful means of sanctification, more excellent rules, more cogent arguments, and brighter patterns of holiness, and because there shall be a more plentiful effusion of the Spirit of holiness and sanctification, after Christ’s ascension than ever before.
(1.) There shall be holiness introduced into common things; and those things shall be devoted to God that seemed very foreign. [1.] The furniture of their horses shall be consecrated to God. “Upon the bells of the horses shall be engraven Holiness to the Lord, or upon the bridles of the horses (so the margin) or the trappings. The horses used in war shall no longer be used against God and his people, as they have been, but for him and them. Even their wars shall be holy wars, their troopers serving under God’s banner. Their great men, who ride in state with a pompous retinue, shall reckon it their greatest ornament to honour God with their honours. Holiness to the Lord shall be written on the harness of their chariot-horses, as great men have sometimes their coat of arms with their motto painted on their coaches; every gentleman shall take the high priest’s motto for his, and glory in it, and make it a memento to himself not to do any thing unworthy of it. Travellers shall have it upon their bridles, with which they guide their horses, as those who desire always to be put in mind of it, by having it continually before them, and to guide themselves in all their motions by this rule. The bells of the horses, which are designed to quicken them in their journey and to give notice of their approach, shall have Holiness to the Lord upon them,” to signify that this is that which we ought to be influenced by ourselves, and make profession of to others, wherever we go. [2.] The furniture of their houses too shall be consecrated to God, to be employed in his service. First, The furniture of the priests’ houses, or apartments adjoining to the house of the Lord. The common drinking cups they used shall be like the bowls before the altar, that were used either to receive the blood of the sacrifices or to present the wine and oil in, which were for the drink-offerings. The vessels which they used for their own tables shall be used in such a religious manner, with such sobriety and temperance, such devotedness to the glory of God, and such a mixture of pious thoughts and expressions, that their meals shall look like sacrifices; they shall eat and drink, not to themselves, but to him that spreads their tables and fills their cups. And thus, in ministers’ families especially, should common actions be done after a godly sort, however they are done in other families. Secondly, The furniture of other houses, those of the common people: “Every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness to the Lord. The pots in which they boil their meat, the cups out of which they drink their wine (Jer. xxxv. 5), in these God’s good creatures shall never be abused to excess, nor that made the food and fuel of lust which should be oil to the wheels of obedience,” as had formerly been, when all tables were full of vomit and filthiness, Isa. xxviii. 8. “What they eat and drink out of these shall nourish their bodies for the service of God; and out of these they shall give liberally for the relief of the poor;” then are they Holiness to the Lord, as the merchandise and the hire of the converted Tyrians are said to be (Isa. xxiii. 18); for both in our gettings and in our spendings we must have an eye to the will of God as our rule and the glory of God as our end. Thirdly, When there shall be such an abundance of real holiness people shall not be nice and curious about ceremonial holiness: “Those that sacrifice shall come and take of these common vessels, and seethe their sacrifices therein, making no distinction between them and the bowls before the altar.” In gospel-times the true worshippers shall worship God in spirit and in truth, and neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem, John iv. 21. One place shall be as acceptable to God as another (I will that men pray every where); and one vessel shall be as acceptable as another. Little regard shall be had to the circumstance, provided there be nothing indecent or disorderly, while the substance is religiously preserved and adhered to. Some think it intimates that there should be greater numbers of sacrifices offered than the vessels of the sanctuary would serve for; but, rather than any should be turned back or deferred, they shall make no difficulty at all of using common vessels, as the Levites in a case of necessity helped the priests to kill the sacrifices, 2 Chron. xxix. 34.
(2.) There shall be no unholiness introduced into their sacred things, to corrupt them: In that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts. Some read it, There shall be no more the merchant, for so a Canaanite sometimes signifies; and they think it was fulfilled when Christ once and again drove the buyers and sellers out of the temple. Or though those that were Canaanites, strangers and foreigners, shall be brought into the house of the Lord, yet they shall cease to be Canaanites; they shall have nothing of the spirit or disposition of Canaanites in them. Or it intimates that though in gospel-times people should grow indifferent as to holy vessels, yet they should be very strict in church-discipline, and careful not to admit the profane to special ordinances, but to separate between the precious and the vile, between Israelites and Canaanites. Yet this will not have its full accomplishment short of the heavenly Jerusalem, that house of the Lord of hosts, into which no unclean thing shall enter; for at the end of time, and not before, Christ shall gather out of his kingdom every thing that offends, and the tares and wheat shall be perfectly and eternally separated.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
The Worship And Spiritual Nature Of The Reign
Verses 16-21:
Verse 16 declares that every person left alive after these plagues shall go up to worship the king, the Lord of hosts, year after year, Isa 66:19; Isa 66:23. They shall join the Jews in solemn commemoration of their days of wandering, in observing the Feast of Tabernacles, when the Passover, Pentecost, and Lord’s Supper observance will be no more, Rev 7:9; Rev 21:3; Neh 8:15; Neh 8:17; 2Co 5:1.
Verse 17 foretells that no rain shall fall upon any family that does not (of his own accord) go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts in that day. This suggests calamities shall fall upon family, field, and all the beasts, bringing famine and pestilence wherever families are derelict to worship the Lord in that hour. Rain is a symbol of God’s favor, Hos 6:3. There shall be unconverted men among the Gentiles, through all the Millennial era, who shall join Gog and Magog to oppose God in battle at the end; Though they. like Satan and his angels, will be restrained during the thousand years, Rev 20:7-9. Note also that the Gentiles will come up to Jerusalem in this era rather than the Jews and the church going out as missionaries, Isa 2:2; Mic 5:7.
Verse 18 asserts that Egypt, Israel’s ancient foe, too shall be victim of the flesh consuming plague, and receive no rain, but famine, pestilence, and hunger, if they go not up to Jerusalem to worship. in that precious day of the Lord, Psa 105:32.
Verse 19 reaffirms that “this,” “this kind” of curse shall be upon both Egypt and every nation or race that refuses to go up to Jerusalem, voluntarily, to keep the feast of tabernacles, Num 22:23.
Verse 20 states that in that day there shall be upon the bells of the horses’ necks, “Holiness to the Lord,” the same inscription found on the golden place or the mitre of the high priest, Exo 28:36. Even the pots for bearing ashes in the Lord’s house shall then be “holy,” as the bowls before the altar that caught the blood of the sacrificed lamb, Zec 9:15; 1Sa 2:14. All then devoted to God will be considered holy; nothing profane; See 1Co 6:19-20; Ro 12:1-2.
Verse 21 asserts that all utensils of the temple, and in homes in the land, would be considered holy in that day, as holy as sacrificial utensils in ancient days. All Jerusalem, Judea, and those who worship there, may or do so as holy ones in their feasting and worship. No more Canaanite or godless people shall then exist in the house, or order of worship of the Lord; Only the righteous will be admitted; Hallelujah! What a day! Isa 35:8; Joe 3:17; Rev 21:27; Rev 22:15; Eph 2:19-22.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
Zechariah here advances farther, — that those who shall have escaped the ruin of which he had spoken shall be so humbled that they would of their own accord submit to God. He said before, that God would take vengeance and destroy all the enemies of his Church; but the promise here is still more valuable, — that he would turn the hearts of those who escaped punishment, so that without any constraint they would become obedient; for come, he says, shall they every year to worship God in his temple. Then the sum of what is said is this, that God would subdue all the enemies of his Church, and in two ways, for some he would destroy, and he would humble others, so as to make them willing servants and ready of themselves to obey his authority. It shall be then that every one who shall remain of all the nations which came against Jerusalem, shall ascend to supplicate God, or humbly to worship God.
If the time be inquired, I answer, that whenever the Prophets speak of the conversion of the nations, they are wont to speak always in general terms; but that this is an hyperbolical language, and that still there is nothing unreasonable in this excess, for surely it was a wonderful work of God when a great number from the nations became subject to him. We indeed know, that the name of the people of Israel was universally hated, so that their religion was disliked by almost the whole world. It was then a thing incredible when Zechariah said, that men from all countries would be so changed as to worship the true God of Israel. But many Churches we know were everywhere formed in the world, and men without number professed God’s name, and undertook his yoke, and embraced that religion which before had been despised by them, and which indeed they had persecuted with the greatest hatred. It is therefore no wonder that the Prophet should say, that the remnant who escaped the sword of vengeance would at length become the willing servants of God. But we ought to notice, as I have said, the mode of speaking commonly adopted by the Prophets, for, in order to amplify the grace of God, they speak in general terms, though what they say ought to be confined to the elect alone.
Ascend, he says, shall every one from year to year. Zechariah speaks here also according to the apprehensions of the people. Festivals, we know, were appointed by God; the Israelites ascended at least three times a year unto the temple, but as this was too hard and difficult for the miserable exiles to do, who had been scattered through all countries, those influenced by zeal for religion were wont to descend unto Jerusalem once a year. To this custom of the law the Prophet now alludes, as though he had said, “God indeed spares some, yet they will at length come to his service without any constraint, and submit to the God of Israel.” But he speaks, as I have said, according to the rites of the law; and of this mode of speaking we have often reminded you: I shall therefore pass by the subject, but some additional remarks shall be made at the end of this chapter. Ascend then shall every one to supplicate the king, Jehovah of hosts; that is, that they might confess the only true God to be king: for he has regard to the Prophecy which we considered yesterday, when he said that the only true God would be king. So also in this place, confirming the former truth he says, that they who had before furiously assailed the Church would become the worshipers of God, for they would understand him to be the king of the whole world. But the remainder shall be deferred to another time.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(16) Go up . . . to worship.The judgment on the nation is to be remedial. The result of it is to be that they will earnestly embrace the worship of the one only true God. The Feast of Tabernacles (lasting from the 15th to the 22nd of Tishri) is called par excellence The Feast. The chief object in its observance is, from a material point of view, the thanksgiving for the in gathering of the harvest and vintage. On the 21st (called Hoshana Rabba) the Jews always pray that the coming year may not be one of drought. It is most appropriate, then, that the prophet should represent the nations of the earth as joining the Jews in keeping their festival, which is that on which the Lord is especially praised as the beneficent God of nature. This prophecy is, of course, not to be taken literally. The prophet is merely foretelling in Old Testament language the future in gathering of the nations. Our Lord refers to the gathering of people into the kingdom of heaven as a harvesting (Joh. 4:35).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
16. Every one that is left Few, if any, will escape from the catastrophe described in Zec 14:12-15, but since the judgment is expected to fall before Jerusalem the noncombatants at home will be spared. These will see the hand of God in the disaster that befalls their armies; they will recognize his supremacy, and will render homage to him as their King and God. The conversion of the nations is pictured under the figure of annual pilgrimages to the temple.
From year to year Three times a year all males among the Jews were required to appear before Jehovah (Deu 16:16; compare Exo 23:17; Exo 34:23). For the converts from the more distant lands one such pilgrimage appears to have been considered sufficient.
Feast of tabernacles One of the three occasions mentioned in Deu 16:16. Various reasons have been suggested why this rather than one of the others is selected here. The more important are: (1) The feast of tabernacles came in autumn, when traveling is most pleasant and convenient. (2) It was primarily an agricultural feast, celebrated at the close of the harvest season; in it all the nations of the earth might join to give thanks for the blessings of nature. (3) It was the last and most joyful of all the great festivals in the year, gathering up into itself, as it were, the year’s worship. (4) It more than any other would typify the ingathering of the nations into the kingdom of God. Which of these explanations is correct, of whether or not there is any special reason for mentioning the feast of tabernacles, it is difficult to say.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
DISCOURSE: 1264
THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES
Zec 14:16-19. It shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. And it shall be, that whose will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain. And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, that have no rain; there shall be the plague, wherewith the Lord will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles. This shall be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles.
MANY passages of Holy Writ derive an interest from the plainness of their import, and the force with which they are expressed; and many attract our attention from the peculiarity of the subject, and even from the difficulty of finding the just interpretation of them. It is in this latter view that I propose to call your attention to the passage which I have now read. That vast importance is attached to the subject by the prophet himself, is evident: and therefore it should not be overlooked by us. But, whether the true sense of it has yet been ascertained, may well admit of doubt.
There are two points of view in which it may be considered:
I.
As a prediction to be accomplished in due season
[That the event which it refers to is yet future, can admit of no doubt. It is not to take place till the period shall arrive, when the Lord shall be King over all the earth; and when, instead of the multitudes of gods that are now worshipped, there shall be but one Lord, and his name one [Note: ver. 9.].
By the Mosaic law there were appointed three great feasts, for the observance of which all the males in Israel were to go up to Jerusalem: these were the feast of the Passover, the feast of Pentecost, and the feast of Tabernacles; and they were all partly commemorative, and partly predictive. The Passover referred to the deliverance of the Hebrew first-born through the sprinkling of the blood of the paschal lamb, when the Egyptian first-born were slain; the Pentecost reminded them of the giving of the law from Mount Sinai: and the feast of Tabernacles brought to their remembrance their dwelling in tents for forty years in the wilderness. The event predicted by the Passover was the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ for the sins of the whole world [Note: 1Co 5:7.]; and that predicted by the Pentecost was the out-pouring of the Holy Spirit upon the fiftieth day after the deliverance by Christs death should have been effected, and the writing of Gods law by him upon our hearts [Note: Act 2:1-4.]. But now comes the difficulty: What was the event predicted by the feast of Tabernacles? Commentators have mentioned two; namely, the incarnation of our blessed Lord, and the state in which all his people should live in this dreary wilderness. For the former of these, there appears some foundation in Scripture: for our blessed Lords advent was, in all probability, at that season of the year, the autumn; and not, as we generally imagine, in the winter: and the expression whereby his incarnation is designated by St. John seems to have a special reference to this feast; The Word was made flesh, and dwelt (tabernacled) amongst us [Note: .]. And this being so wonderful an event, and withal so accordant with the other two, it may well be supposed that the expectation of it should be kept up by a particular feast instituted for that express purpose. But then there arises a great difficulty; Why should this be so particularly, and so exclusively, celebrated in the latter day? Why should such heavy judgments be denounced against those who should omit to celebrate this, whilst yet no notice at all is taken of the other two? This necessitates one to look for some other event, which is of sufficient importance to justify the appointment of a feast, and which demands that peculiar honour which is here exclusively reserved for it. As for the state in which all are to live under the Christian dispensation, there is nothing at all mysterious in that, nothing that calls for such a typical prefiguration, and nothing that is peculiarly appropriate to the latter-day. We therefore dismiss that altogether from our thoughts, as far as the prediction is concerned,
In order to discover what event there is, which the prophet had in view, and which, either by itself, or in connexion with Christs first advent, corresponds with the feast of Tabernacles, and which moreover calls for such distinguished honour in the latter day; we must examine the whole preceding context. The prophet is speaking respecting the future restoration and conversion of the Jews [Note: ver. 11.]. He foretells, that it will be opposed to the uttermost by the heathen nations: but that the Jews will triumph over all their enemies [Note: ver. 1214. See also Zec 12:3; Zec 12:6-9.], and having destroyed immense multitudes of them, will be the instruments of converting the rest to the faith of Christ [Note: Isa 66:14-16; Isa 66:19.]. Now, it is obvious, that the Jews, in going up to their own land, must dwell in booths made of the branches of trees; or, at best, in tents, such as soldiers use when they take the field. It is equally obvious, that, in appearance, they will be as likely to fall a prey to their enemies, as when they came out of Egypt to sojourn in the wilderness. Yet shall they be as miraculously preserved then as heretofore; not only through the destruction of their enemies, but by a supply of all their wants: and they shall have renewed to them all their former mercies under their Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will then reign over them, and fix his Tabernacle in the midst of them, as their Head and King [Note: Eze 34:23-24. with Rev 21:3.]. By this blessed event, their surviving enemies will be convinced, and converted to the faith of Christ: and all who shall resist the evidence thus afforded them, and refuse to join them in the worshipping of the Saviour, shall be visited with plagues, which shall mark plainly the indignation of God against them. At the feast of Tabernacles they were wont to pray for the latter rain, which fell at that season of the year [Note: Joe 2:23.]: and God threatens, that they who should not unite with them in these holy exercises should have no rain. And whereas Egypt was independent of rain, their land being fertilized by the overflowing of the Nile, they should have some other plague equivalent to that inflicted on other disobedient nations [Note: ver. 18.]: for God would sorely chastise all who should refuse to unite in celebrating this wonderful event, and in honouring the Saviour who shall have brought it to pass.
Now, here we have an object worthy of such an ordinance to prefigure it: for it is the consummation of all the prophecies, relating either to the Jewish or Gentile world. And here we see why this feast is to be observed, not only in preference to, but to the exclusion of, the other two. And certainly, if we conceive, as many do, that the Lord Jesus Christ will then descend, and personally reign on earth, the connexion between his first and second advent will more strongly appear, and the authoritative injunction respecting the observance of that feast will be more fully accounted for. Could we make up our minds to this point, it must be confessed it would throw great light on the passage before us; because this feast would then have the same direct reference to Christ as is unquestionably found in the other two. But of his spiritual reign there can be no doubt: and that being then more glorious than ever, and over both the Jewish and Gentile world in one collective body, it may well be regarded as a renewal of his presence upon earth, and an accomplishment of the prophecy before us.
But there is yet further reason for supposing the conversion of the Gentile world to be the immediate subject of this prophecy: for the feast of Tabernacles was expressly called the feast of in-gathering [Note: Exo 23:16.]; and therefore it might well prefigure that second advent of Shiloh, to whom shall the gathering of the Gentiles be [Note: Gen 49:10.]. And, in fact, the whole current of prophecy seems to determine the point: for at that period shall many people and strong nations come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem; and ten men out of all languages of the nations shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you; for we have heard that God is with you [Note: Zec 8:22-23. See also Isa 60:10-14; Isa 66:13.].]
Having endeavoured to throw light on my text as a prediction, I shall now proceed to notice it,
II.
As a command, to be obeyed in all ages
Beyond all doubt, that which is so authoritatively required of the whole world at a future period, must, in spirit at least, be required of the Church in all ages. Now, the spirit of the ordinance plainly inculcates,
1.
A grateful remembrance of past mercies
[This was indisputably one great end of the feast, as it was originally established: Ye shall dwell in booths seven days; all that are Israelites born shall dwell in booths; that your generations may know, that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt [Note: Lev 23:39-43.]. In that state they were exposed to the want of every necessary of life, and to numberless dangers, both from men and beasts: yet were they preserved by the continued care of their Heavenly Protector. And have not we, also, similar mercies to recount? With respect to our bodies, what care has God taken of us, from the first moment that we came into the world! How many millions of the children of men have never attained to our age, or had such blessings multiplied to them as we! And if we speak of our souls, we must know all the devices of Satan himself, before we can estimate aright the care which we have experienced at the hands of our heavenly Father. There has not been an hour in which we should not have been destroyed, if God had permitted Satan to sift us, as he gladly would have done. It is through Gods unbounded mercy that we continue to this day following after God, and that we have not long since turned back unto perdition. If, through mercy, we can say, My foot standeth fast; it becomes us gratefully to add, In the congregations will I bless the Lord [Note: Psa 26:12.].]
2.
An humble dependence on God for future blessings
[In the passage before cited, to shew that the ordinance was appointed for the remembrance of past mercies, it is added, I am the Lord your God [Note: Lev 23:43.]. This taught the Hebrews to expect a continuance of those blessings at his hands. And to whom shall we look? Whither shall we go for blessings, either temporal or spiritual? If we lean on the creature, we shall find it a broken reed. We must rely on God alone. We must look to Him, as our Sun and our Shield: we must rely on him both for grace and glory; and rest assured, that he will withhold no good thing from us, if only we walk uprightly before him; acknowledging him in all our ways, and committing our every concern into his hands [Note: Pro 3:6.].
It is worthy of observation, that, on the last day of this feast, the Jews were wont to go to the pool of Siloam, and to pour out water with joy; referring, in their minds, to the promise, that at that time living waters should go out from Jerusalem [Note: ver. 8.]; and to that particular song which the Prophet Isaiah had taught them, With joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation [Note: Isa 12:3.]. In the midst of that ceremony, our blessed Lord addressed the whole multitude, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. And this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believed on him should receive [Note: Joh 7:37-39.]. If only we look to Him, we shall want no manner of thing that is good [Note: In the Church of England we have Rogation-days, for the express purpose of supplicating Gods blessing in reference to the fruits of the earth, and the out-pouring of his Spirit on the Church: and these begin the Sunday before Whitsunday.].]
3.
A self-denying surrender of our whole selves to God
[It was no little act of self-denial, for the whole nation to leave their houses, and live in booths (not in tents of canvass, as we are apt to imagine; but in booths, made of the branches of trees) for seven days every year. In truth, this ordinance was so contrary to flesh and blood, that, from the days of Joshua, till after their return from the Babylonish captivity, the people never once observed it. But we must not draw back from any act of self-denial whatever. We must forsake all, and follow Christ: father, mother, houses, lands, yea, and life itself, must be hated by us in comparison of him. Though in the world, we must not be of the world; but be crucified to it, and have our conversation altogether in heaven. This is our duty: we must live not to ourselves, but to Him who died for us, and rose again. Nor must we account any thing hard: we should rather rejoice, if we are counted worthy to suffer shame or loss for the Lords sake; and not count even our lives dear to us, if only we may honour him, andfinish our course with joy. At the discovery of their long-neglected duty through the instructions of Ezra, the people, even all the congregation of those who were come out of captivity, made themselves booths, on the roof of their houses, and in their courts, and in the courts of the House of God, and in the street of the water-gate, and in the street of the gate of Ephraim: and there was very great gladness [Note: Neh 8:14-17.]. O, that there were in us also such a heart! For I hesitate not to affirm, that the more self-denying readiness we manifest to obey the commands of God, the more solid joy shall we possess. Verily,in keeping Gods commandments there is great reward.]
4.
A joyful anticipation of the period more especially referred to
[Abraham, two thousand years before the Saviours advent, was filled with joy at the glimmering view of it which he beheld: and shall not we rejoice in the prospect of his second advent, when all the ends of his incarnation and death will be gloriously accomplished; and when all, both Jews and Gentiles, shall be gathered together as one fold under one Shepherd? Woe be to us, if we are at ease in Zion, and altogether insensible to these great events! Were the Ammonite and the Moabite forbidden to enter into the congregation of the Lord, even to the tenth generation, because they met not the Hebrews with supplies of bread and water, when they came out of Egypt [Note: Deu 23:3-4.]; what judgment, then, think ye, may we expect, if we help not forward, to the utmost of our power, this glorious consummation, of which their deliverance from Egypt was but a faint shadow! Truly, God calls us to enter into the subject with our whole hearts, and to help it forward with our whole souls. Thus saith the Lord: Sing with gladness for Jacob: shout among the chief of the nations: publish ye; praise ye; and say, O Lord, save thy people, the remnant of Israel [Note: Jer 31:7.]! This is addressed to us: and if it was the duty of Gentiles five hundred years before the first coming of Christ, what must it be now that his second advent is so nigh at hand? Come, Brethren; rise to the occasion: prepare to keep the feast. If ye refuse to participate in this joy, no wonder ye have no rainupon your souls; no wonder ye are visited with plagues: but, if ye will enter fully into the design of this mystery, then shall ye come with singing unto Zion, and with everlasting joy upon your heads.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
And it shall come to pass, that everyone that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. 17 And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, even upon them shall be no Rev 18 And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, that have no rain; there shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles. 19 This shall be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles.
I beg the Reader to remark, somewhat more particularly, the honor put upon the least of tabernacles. This feast, if the Reader will consult Lev 23:34 . he will discover, that it was intended evidently to typify the human nature of Christ. For as Israel then abode in a tabernacle, so God in our nature, in the person of Christ, would substantially dwell with us. Heb 8:2 . Now, wherefore was this feast to be so eminently distinguished in this latter day dispensation, but in honor of Christ’s tabernacling in our nature? Is not this a further confirmation, how much this concluding Chapter of the Prophet was looking into more distant times, than the first open manifestation of Christ? Rev 21:3 . And the contempt of it, having no influence of the Spirit, of which rain was a type and emblem, is very striking also.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Zec 14:16 And it shall come to pass, [that] every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles.
Ver. 16. Every one that is left of all the nations ] i.e. That hath escaped the plague, Zec 14:12 , and is beaten into a better mind, as those Huns, that, vanquished by the Christians, concluded that Christ was the true God, and became his subjects. God had promised before to subvert the Church’s enemies, but here to convert them, which is far better. And it shall appear to be so, as conversion cannot be hidden: you cannot turn a bell but it will make a sound, and report its own motion. See Gal 1:23 .
For they shall even go up
To worship the King, the Lord of hosts
And to keep the feast of tabernacles
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Zec 14:16-19
16Then it will come about that any who are left of all the nations that went against Jerusalem will go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to celebrate the Feast of Booths. 17And it will be that whichever of the families of the earth does not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, there will be no rain on them. 18If the family of Egypt does not go up or enter, then no rain will fall on them; it will be the plague with which the LORD smites the nations who do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Booths. 19This will be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all the nations who do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Booths.
Zec 14:16 any who are left of all the nations that went against Jerusalem will go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts This magnifies the eternal redemptive plan of God. This could mean (1) that some few soldiers survived or (2) that some from the nations they represent survived, but those of the nations who are left will be converted (cf. Zec 8:20-23)! There is an allusion to the world-wide annual worship in Isa 2:2-4 (cf. Isa 66:19-24).
to celebrate the Feast of Booths This feast is described in Lev 23:34-44 and Deu 16:13-17. Foreigners were welcome to participate (cf. Deu 16:14). It was basically a time for (1) thanksgiving for the harvest; (2) God’s provision for the poor; and (3) a time for reading the Torah (cf. Neh 8:14-18). The mention of living waters in Zec 8:14 and their use in John 7, during the Feast of Tabernacles (Booths), seems to be significant. During the Feast of Tabernacles several ceremonies pointed toward this living water as a symbol of spiritual strength.
Zec 14:17-19 there will be no rain on them All of the remaining pagans seem to be converted to faith in YHWH at this eschatological period. Any who refuse to come and worship at least annually are cursed with the plague of Deu 28:22-24. Egypt had seen the plagues of YHWH before! It is surprising that some nations may not come. It is possible to interpret this as not everyone is fully converted to faith in Christ. Some see this as characteristic of the millennium of Rev 20:1-6.
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
the King. As in Zec 14:2. Jehovah will then be the universal Sovereign.
the LORD of hosts. See note on Zec 1:3.
the feast of tabernacles. Reference to Pentateuch (Lev 23:34, Lev 23:43. Deu 16:16), App-92.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Zec 14:16-21
Gods Blessings to Man have ever
been contingent upon his Obedience
(Zec 14:16-21)
And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations that came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, Jehovah of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles (Zec 14:16).
Some of the ungodly who waged war against Jehovah and his kingdom will see the error of their ways and turn to Jehovah. One considers the apostle Paul. Paul had waged war against the saints of God yet in the end he turned to the church as his eternal hope. These Gentiles and all others who once opposed the church of God shall come, with a spirit of thanksgiving (the feast of tabernacles) and worship the King, Jehovah of hosts.
And it shall be, that whoso of all the families of the earth goeth not up unto Jerusalem to worship the King, Jehovah of hosts, upon them there shall be no rain. And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, neither shall it be upon them; there shall be the plague wherewith Jehovah will smite the nations that go not up to keep the feast of tabernacles. This shall be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all the nations that go not up to keep the feast of tabernacles (Zec 14:17-19).
Zechariah has now completed the argument aimed at the discouraged Jews who have left off building Gods temple. The delinquent Jews have been commanded to build; however, they have been discouraged. God assures them of the great importance in the grand scheme to redeem man the building of the temple plays (cf. Zec 4:10). The lesson to learn is that Gods blessings are contingent upon mans obedience. Jehovah takes the opportunity of their failure to build to teach the remnant of the far reaching doctrine of conditional grace. God has withheld the blessings of rain from them because they have not obeyed (cf. Hag 1:7 ff). The eternal principle is that all those who refuse obedience and worship to Jehovah God in truth will have His blessing of salvation withheld! Nothing but punishment awaits such a foolish one.
In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, HOLY UNTO JEHOVAH; and the pots in Jehovahs house shall be like the bowls before the altar. Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holy unto Jehovah of hosts; and all they that sacrifice shall come and take of them, and boil therein: and in that day there shall be no more a Canaanite in the house of Jehovah of hosts (Zec 14:20-21).
The prophet concludes by saying that in the day that Jesus reigns as King in the kingdom of God all within the gates thereof shall be clean through the blood of Jesus Christ. There shall be no unclean or sinful person within the church of Jesus Christ.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
that every: Zec 8:20-23, Zec 9:7, Isa 60:6-9, Isa 66:18-21, Isa 66:23, Joe 2:32, Act 15:17, Rom 9:23, Rom 9:24, Rom 11:5, Rom 11:16, Rom 11:26, Rev 11:13, Rev 11:15-17
the King: Zec 14:17, Psa 24:7-10, Isa 6:5, Jer 46:18, Jer 48:15, Jer 51:57, Mal 1:14, Luk 19:38, Joh 1:49, Phi 2:9-11, Rev 19:16
and to: Zec 14:18, Zec 14:19, Lev 23:33-36, Lev 23:43, Num 29:12-38, Deu 16:13-16, Deu 31:10-13, 2Ch 7:8-10, 2Ch 8:13, Ezr 3:4, Neh 8:14-18, Hos 12:9, Joh 7:2, Joh 7:37-39
Reciprocal: Exo 5:3 – lest he Exo 23:16 – ingathering Lev 23:34 – The fifteenth 1Ki 8:2 – at the feast 1Ki 8:42 – when he shall 2Ch 6:32 – if they come Psa 84:7 – in Zion Isa 5:6 – also Isa 18:7 – to the Isa 25:3 – General Isa 27:13 – and shall Jer 12:17 – if Eze 45:25 – In the seventh Hos 2:23 – Thou art my God Mic 4:1 – and people Zec 14:21 – in the Rev 15:4 – for all
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Zec 14:16. Many who had opposed the Lord will be converted and will go up to worship. They will look to Jerusalem for the divine model of true worship. This great truth is predicted in Isa 2:1-4 and Mic 4:1-5.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Zec 14:16. And every one that is left of all the nations Such as escape the fore-mentioned strokes of divine judgment, and are by mercy preserved; of all the nations which came against Jerusalem That is, many among all these nations shall consider Gods hand, repent, and submit to his law. Such a change shall the grace of God, sanctifying his judgments, make upon them. Of Christs foes, as some shall be made his footstool, so others shall be made his friends; and when the principle of enmity is slain in them, their former acts of hostility are pardoned to them, and their services are accepted as though they had never fought against Jerusalem. Shall even go up to worship, and keep the feast of tabernacles That is, they shall join in the solemn acts of Christian worship. The prophets, as we have repeatedly had occasion to observe in the course of these notes, often describe, the state of the gospel by the usages of their own times. The feast of tabernacles, being kept in remembrance of Gods conducting and preserving the Israelites forty years in the wilderness, and afterward bringing them into the promised land, was observed with extraordinary expressions of rejoicing. Here this one solemn festival is, by a figure, put for all the days consecrated to God for holy worship; and that very properly, because of those two great graces which were, in a special manner, signified and required in that feast, namely, contempt of the world and joy in God, Neh 8:17. The life of a true Christian is a constant feast of tabernacles, and in all our acts of devotion we must retire from the world and rejoice in the Lord, or worship as the truly pious did in that feast.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The worship of the sovereign King 14:16-21
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
The remaining former enemies of Israel who would not die would bow to the sovereignty of Yahweh (cf. Zec 8:20-23; Isa 2:2-4; Isa 45:21-24; Isa 60:4-14; Ezekiel 40-48; Php 2:10). They would be expected to make annual pilgrimages to Jerusalem to worship the one King, Almighty Yahweh (cf. Psa 24:10; Isa 6:5; Rev 11:15; Rev 19:16), and to celebrate the feast of Booths. The feast of Booths (or Tabernacles, Ingathering) commemorated the Lord’s provision of agricultural bounty and the Israelites’ redemption from Egyptian slavery. Strangers were welcome to participate in it in Israel’s past history. It also anticipated entrance into the Promised Land and kingdom blessings (Lev 23:34-43).
The Apostle Peter evidently concluded that the messianic kingdom had begun when he saw Jesus transfigured (Luk 9:33). He suggested that the disciples make three booths for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah. This indicates that the Jews in Jesus’ day associated the feast of Booths with the beginning of Messiah’s kingdom, the same connection that Zechariah made here.
The feast of Booths was the last of the three most important feasts on Israel’s calendar, so it would be an appropriate one for these Gentiles to celebrate in Jerusalem yearly. This feast was a time of grateful rejoicing (Lev 23:40; Deu 16:14-15; Neh 8:17). This may not be the only feast these people will celebrate, but it was the only one Zechariah mentioned, perhaps because it was so climactic. [Note: See de Vaux, pp. 495-502, 506.]
"There are many views as to why choice was made of the Feast of Tabernacles, but the most probable is that, speaking of the joys of the ingathering, it will celebrate the gathering of the nations to the Lord and especially His tabernacling among them [cf. Rev 7:15-17; Rev 21:3]." [Note: Feinberg, God Remembers, pp. 260-61.]
The feast of Tabernacles is the only one of Israel’s major feasts that will be unfulfilled until it is celebrated at this time. [Note: Unger, p. 265.]