Turn you to the strong hold, ye prisoners of hope: even to day do I declare that I will render double unto thee;
Parallel translations
- WEB Turn to the stronghold, you prisoners of hope! Even today I declare that I will restore double to you.
- BSB Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope; even today I declare that I will restore to you double.
- 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 42:10And the LORD turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before.
- Isa 61:7For your shame ye shall have double; and for confusion they shall rejoice in their portion: therefore in their land they shall possess the double: everlasting joy shall be unto them.
- Lam 3:21–22This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.
- Heb 6:18That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:
- Isa 40:2Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD’s hand double for all her sins.
- Jer 51:10The LORD hath brought forth our righteousness: come, and let us declare in Zion the work of the LORD our God.
- Jer 31:17And there is hope in thine end, saith the LORD, that thy children shall come again to their own border.
- Nah 1:7The LORD is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him.
- Hos 2:15And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.
- Joel 3:16The LORD also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the LORD will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel.
- Jer 50:4–5In those days, and in that time, saith the LORD, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together, going and weeping: they shall go, and seek the LORD their God.
- Isa 52:2Shake thyself from the dust; arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem: loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion.
- Ezek 37:11Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts.
- Mic 4:8And thou, O tower of the flock, the strong hold of the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion; the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem.
- Isa 38:18For the grave cannot praise thee, death can not celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth.
- Jer 31:6For there shall be a day, that the watchmen upon the mount Ephraim shall cry, Arise ye, and let us go up to Zion unto the LORD our God.
- Isa 49:9That thou mayest say to the prisoners, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Shew yourselves. They shall feed in the ways, and their pastures shall be in all high places.
- Jer 50:28The voice of them that flee and escape out of the land of Babylon, to declare in Zion the vengeance of the LORD our God, the vengeance of 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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