I will gather all the nations to fight against Jerusalem. The city will be taken, the houses looted, and the women raped. Half the population will be taken into captivity, and the rest will be left among the ruins of the city.
Parallel translations
- WEB For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city will be taken, the houses rifled, and the women ravished. Half of the city will go out into captivity, and the rest of the people will not be cut off from the city.
- KJV For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
- BSB For I will gather all the nations for battle against Jerusalem, and the city will be captured, the houses looted, and the women ravished. Half of the city will go into exile, but the rest of the people will not be removed from the city.
- NKJV For I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem; The city shall be taken, The houses rifled, And the women ravished. Half of the city shall go into captivity, But the remnant of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
- NASB For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city will be taken, the houses plundered, the women raped, and half of the city exiled, but the rest of the people will not be eliminated from the city.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God will gather all nations against Jerusalem; the city falls, with houses plundered and people exiled, yet a remnant is not cut off. It matters because even in deepest distress God preserves His people.
Overview
The LORD Himself gathers the nations for a final assault, and Jerusalem suffers capture, looting, and partial exile. Yet crucially 'the rest of the people will not be cut off'—judgment is real but not total. This preserved remnant amid catastrophe shows that God's purposes of salvation persist even through the worst of times, awaiting His decisive intervention in the next verses.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 23
- Luke 21:20–24“But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is at hand.
- Rom 9:27–29Isaiah cries concerning Israel, “If the number of the children of Israel are as the sand of the sea, it is the remnant who will be saved;
- Isa 13:16Their infants also will be dashed in pieces before their eyes. Their houses will be ransacked, and their wives raped.
- Matt 24:19–22But woe to those who are with child and to nursing mothers in those days!
- Mark 13:14But when you see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains,
- Matt 24:15–16“When, therefore, you see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand),
- Luke 19:43–44For the days will come on you, when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, surround you, hem you in on every side,
- Isa 65:6–9“Behold, it is written before me: I will not keep silence, but will repay, yes, I will repay into their bosom,
- Gal 4:26–27But the Jerusalem that is above is free, which is the mother of us all.
- Matt 22:7When the king heard that, he was angry, and sent his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city.
- Deut 28:9–14Yahweh will establish you for a holy people to himself, as he has sworn to you, if you shall keep the commandments of Yahweh your God, and walk in his ways.
- Zech 13:8–9It shall happen that in all the land,” says Yahweh, “two parts in it will be cut off and die; but the third will be left in it.
- Isa 5:26He will lift up a banner to the nations from far, and he will whistle for them from the end of the earth. Behold, they will come speedily and swiftly.
- Amos 7:17Therefore Yahweh says: ‘Your wife shall be a prostitute in the city, and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword, and your land shall be divided by line; and you yourself shall die in a land that is unclean, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of his land.’”
- Joel 3:2I will gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat; and I will execute judgment on them there for my people, and for my heritage, Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations. They have divided my land,
- Lam 5:11–12They ravished the women in Zion, The virgins in the cities of Judah.
- Isa 65:18But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for, behold, I create Jerusalem to be a delight, and her people a joy.
- Lam 1:10The adversary has spread out his hand on all her pleasant things: for she has seen that the nations are entered into her sanctuary, concerning whom you commanded that they should not enter into your assembly.
- Luke 2:1Now in those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be enrolled.
- Matt 23:37–38“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets, and stones those who are sent to her! How often I would have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not!
- Mark 13:19For in those days there will be oppression, such as there has not been the like from the beginning of the creation which God created until now, and never will be.
- Jer 34:1The word which came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and all his army, and all the kingdoms of the earth that were under his dominion, and all the peoples, were fighting against Jerusalem, and against all the cities of it, saying:
- Dan 2:40–43The fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron, because iron breaks in pieces and subdues all things; and as iron that crushes all these, shall it break in pieces and crush.
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Christ at the center
The Branch who is both priest and king, the shepherd struck and the flock scattered, the king coming humble on a donkey, the one they pierced, the fountain opened for sin — Zechariah is dense with Christ.
How Zechariah 14:2 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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