Return to the stronghold, You prisoners of hope. Even today I declare That I will restore double to you.
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;
- BSB Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope; even today I declare that I will restore to you double.
- 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 42:10Yahweh turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends. Yahweh gave Job twice as much as he had before.
- Isa 61:7Instead of your shame you will have double. Instead of dishonor, they will rejoice in their portion. Therefore in their land, they will possess double. Everlasting joy will be to them.
- Lam 3:21–22This I recall to my mind; therefore I have hope.
- Heb 6:18that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have a strong encouragement, who have fled for refuge to take hold of the hope set before us.
- Isa 40:2“Speak comfortably to Jerusalem; and call out to her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received of Yahweh’s hand double for all her sins.”
- Jer 51:10‘Yahweh has produced our righteousness: come, and let us declare in Zion the work of Yahweh our God.’
- Jer 31:17There is hope for your latter end,” says Yahweh; “and your children shall come again to their own border.
- Nah 1:7Yahweh is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and he knows those who take refuge in him.
- Hos 2:15I will give her vineyards from there, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope; and she will respond there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.
- Joel 3:16Yahweh will roar from Zion, and thunder from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth will shake; but Yahweh will be a refuge to his people, and a stronghold to the children of Israel.
- Jer 50:4–5“In those days, and in that time,” says Yahweh, “the children of Israel will come, they and the children of Judah together; they will go on their way weeping, and will seek Yahweh their God.
- Isa 52:2Shake yourself from the dust! Arise, sit up, Jerusalem! Release yourself from the bonds of your neck, captive daughter of Zion!
- Ezek 37:11Then he said to me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are clean cut off.
- Mic 4:8You, tower of the flock, the hill of the daughter of Zion, to you it will come, yes, the former dominion will come, the kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem.
- Isa 38:18For Sheol can’t praise you. Death can’t celebrate you. Those who go down into the pit can’t hope for your truth.
- Jer 31:6For there will be a day that the watchmen on the hills of Ephraim cry, ‘Arise, and let us go up to Zion to Yahweh our God.’”
- Isa 49:9saying to those who are bound, ‘Come out!’; to those who are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves!’ “They shall feed along the paths, and their pasture shall be on all treeless heights.
- Jer 50:28Listen to those who flee and escape out of the land of Babylon, to declare in Zion the vengeance of Yahweh 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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