“Get up, O Zion! Escape, you who dwell with the Daughter of Babylon!”
Parallel translations
- WEB ‘Come, Zion! Escape, you who dwell with the daughter of Babylon.’
- KJV Deliver thyself, O Zion, that dwellest with the daughter of Babylon.
- NKJV “Up, Zion! Escape, you who dwell with the daughter of Babylon.”
- NASB “You, Zion! Escape, you who are living with the daughter of Babylon.”
- NLT Come away, people of Zion, you who are exiled in Babylon!”
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 calls Zion's people who still dwell in Babylon to escape. Do not linger where you do not belong.
Overview
Those identified as 'Zion' are urged to separate from 'the daughter of Babylon,' the empire of exile and idolatry. The urgency reflects both opportunity and danger in remaining. This call to come out of Babylon echoes through Scripture as a summons to God's people to separate from a doomed world system and belong wholly to Him.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Isa 48:20Leave Babylon! Flee from the Chaldeans! Declare it with a shout of joy, proclaim it, let it go out to the ends of the earth, saying, “The LORD has redeemed His servant Jacob!”
- Gen 19:17As soon as the men had brought them out, one of them said, “Run for your lives! Do not look back, and do not stop anywhere on the plain! Flee to the mountains, or you will be swept away!”
- Rev 18:4Then I heard another voice from heaven say: “Come out of her, My people, so that you will not share in her sins or contract any of her plagues.
- Acts 2:40With many other words he testified, and he urged them, “Be saved from this corrupt generation.”
- Isa 52:11Depart, depart, go out from there! Touch no unclean thing; come out from it, purify yourselves, you who carry the vessels of the LORD.
- Jer 51:6Flee from Babylon! Escape with your lives! Do not be destroyed in her punishment. For this is the time of the LORD’s vengeance; He will pay her what she deserves.
- Isa 52:2Shake off your dust! Rise up and sit on your throne, O Jerusalem. Remove the chains from your neck, O captive Daughter of Zion.
- Jer 51:45Come out of her, My people! Save your lives, each of you, from the fierce anger of the LORD.
- Jer 50:8Flee from the midst of Babylon; depart from the land of the Chaldeans; be like the he-goats that lead the flock.
- Mic 4:10Writhe in agony, O Daughter of Zion, like a woman in labor. For now you will leave the city and camp in the open fields. You will go to Babylon; there you will be rescued; there the LORD will redeem you from the hand of your enemies!
- Num 16:34At their cries, all the people of Israel who were around them fled, saying, “The earth may swallow us too!”
- Num 16:26And he warned the congregation, “Move away now from the tents of these wicked men. Do not touch anything that belongs to them, or you will be swept away because of all their sins.”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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 2:7 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
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.