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Behold, the LORD will cast her out, and he will smite her power in the sea; and she shall be devoured with fire.
Zechariah 9:4 · King James Version
Parallel translations
  • WEB Behold, the Lord will dispossess her, and he will strike her power in the sea; and she will be devoured with fire.
  • BSB Behold, the Lord will impoverish her and cast her wealth into the sea, and she will be consumed by fire.
  • NKJV Behold, the Lord will cast her out; He will destroy her power in the sea, And she will be devoured by fire.
  • NASB Behold, the Lord will dispossess her And throw her wealth into the sea; And she will be consumed with fire.
  • NLT But now the Lord will strip away Tyre’s possessions and hurl its fortifications into the sea, and it will be burned to the ground.

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

The Lord will dispossess Tyre, cast her wealth into the sea, and consume her with fire. No human power can withstand God's judgment.

Overview

Despite her defenses, Tyre will be stripped of her riches and destroyed, a prophecy historically fulfilled when Alexander the Great took the city. The verse demonstrates that God brings low the proud and self-sufficient. It assures God's people that worldly powers, however formidable, are subject to the Lord's righteous judgment.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 12

  • Ezek 28:18Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee.
  • Amos 1:10But I will send a fire on the wall of Tyrus, which shall devour the palaces thereof.
  • Ezek 26:17And they shall take up a lamentation for thee, and say to thee, How art thou destroyed, that wast inhabited of seafaring men, the renowned city, which wast strong in the sea, she and her inhabitants, which cause their terror to be on all that haunt it!
  • Prov 10:2Treasures of wickedness profit nothing: but righteousness delivereth from death.
  • Isa 23:1–7The burden of Tyre. Howl, ye ships of Tarshish; for it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no entering in: from the land of Chittim it is revealed to them.
  • Prov 11:4Riches profit not in the day of wrath: but righteousness delivereth from death.
  • Joel 3:8And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah, and they shall sell them to the Sabeans, to a people far off: for the LORD hath spoken it.
  • Ezek 27:26–36Thy rowers have brought thee into great waters: the east wind hath broken thee in the midst of the seas.
  • Ezek 26:3–5Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Tyrus, and will cause many nations to come up against thee, as the sea causeth his waves to come up.
  • Ezek 28:16By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.
  • Ezek 28:8They shall bring thee down to the pit, and thou shalt die the deaths of them that are slain in the midst of the seas.
  • Ezek 28:2Son of man, say unto the prince of Tyrus, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thine heart is lifted up, and thou hast said, I am a God, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas; yet thou art a man, and not God, though thou set thine heart as the heart of God:

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Zechariah videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Zechariah 9:4YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on ZechariahMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    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 9:4 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.