Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope; even today I declare that I will restore to you double.
Parallel translations
- WEB Turn to the stronghold, you prisoners of hope! Even today I declare that I will restore double to you.
- KJV Turn you to the strong hold, ye prisoners of hope: even to day do I declare that I will render double unto thee;
- NKJV Return to the stronghold, You prisoners of hope. Even today I declare That I will restore double to you.
- NASB Return to the stronghold, you prisoners who have the hope; This very day I am declaring that I will restore double to you.
- NLT Come back to the place of safety, all you prisoners who still have hope! I promise this very day that I will repay two blessings for each of your troubles.
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 His people, 'prisoners of hope,' to return to their stronghold, promising to restore double to them. Even in captivity, His people are held by hope and destined for abundant blessing.
Overview
The striking phrase 'prisoners of hope' captures a people bound in distress yet anchored in God's promises. The pledge to 'restore double' assures them of compensation far exceeding their losses (cf. Isaiah 61:7). Their true refuge is the Lord Himself, who turns captivity into overflowing blessing.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 18
- Job 42:10After Job had prayed for his friends, the LORD restored his prosperity and doubled his former possessions.
- Isa 61:7Instead of shame, My people will have a double portion, and instead of humiliation, they will rejoice in their share; and so they will inherit a double portion in their land, and everlasting joy will be theirs.
- Lam 3:21–22Yet I call this to mind, and therefore I have hope:
- Heb 6:18Thus by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be strongly encouraged.
- Isa 40:2“Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her forced labor has been completed; her iniquity has been pardoned. For she has received from the hand of the LORD double for all her sins.”
- Jer 51:10“The LORD has brought forth our vindication; come, let us tell in Zion what the LORD our God has accomplished.”
- Jer 31:17So there is hope for your future, declares the LORD, and your children will return to their own land.
- Nah 1:7The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of distress; He cares for those who trust in Him.
- Hos 2:15There I will give back her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor into a gateway of hope. There she will respond as she did in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt.
- Joel 3:16The LORD will roar from Zion and raise His voice from Jerusalem; heaven and earth will tremble. But the LORD will be a refuge for His people, a stronghold for the people of Israel.
- Jer 50:4–5“In those days and at that time, declares the LORD, the children of Israel and the children of Judah will come together, weeping as they come, and will seek the LORD their God.
- 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.
- Ezek 37:11Then He said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Look, they are saying, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope has perished; we are cut off.’
- Mic 4:8And you, O watchtower of the flock, O stronghold of the Daughter of Zion—the former dominion will be restored to you; sovereignty will come to the Daughter of Jerusalem.”
- Isa 38:18For Sheol cannot thank You; Death cannot praise You. Those who descend to the Pit cannot hope for Your faithfulness.
- Jer 31:6For there will be a day when watchmen will call out on the hills of Ephraim, ‘Arise, let us go up to Zion, to the LORD our God!’”
- Isa 49:9to say to the prisoners, ‘Come out,’ and to those in darkness, ‘Show yourselves.’ They will feed along the pathways, and find pasture on every barren hill.
- Jer 50:28Listen to the fugitives and refugees from the land of Babylon, declaring in Zion the vengeance of the LORD our God, the vengeance for His temple.
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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 9:12 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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