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Behold, the Lord will dispossess her And throw her wealth into the sea; And she will be consumed with fire.
Zechariah 9:4 · New American Standard Bible
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.
  • KJV Behold, the LORD will cast her out, and he will smite her power in the sea; and she shall 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.
  • 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 28:18By the multitude of your iniquities, in the unrighteousness of your traffic, you have profaned your sanctuaries; therefore I have brought out a fire from the middle of you; it has devoured you, and I have turned you to ashes on the earth in the sight of all those who see you.
  • Amos 1:10but I will send a fire on the wall of Tyre, and it will devour its palaces.”
  • Ezek 26:17They shall take up a lamentation over you, and tell you, How you are destroyed, who were inhabited by seafaring men, the renowned city, who was strong in the sea, she and her inhabitants, who caused their terror to be on all who lived there!
  • Prov 10:2Treasures of wickedness profit nothing, but righteousness delivers from death.
  • Isa 23:1–7The burden of Tyre. Howl, you ships of Tarshish! For it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no entering in. From the land of Kittim it is revealed to them.
  • Prov 11:4Riches don’t profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death.
  • Joel 3:8and I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hands of the children of Judah, and they will sell them to the men of Sheba, to a faraway nation, for Yahweh has spoken it.”
  • Ezek 27:26–36Your rowers have brought you into great waters: the east wind has broken you in the heart of the seas.
  • Ezek 26:3–5therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh, Behold, I am against you, Tyre, and will cause many nations to come up against you, as the sea causes its waves to come up.
  • Ezek 28:16By the abundance of your traffic they filled your insides with violence, and you have sinned: therefore I have cast you as profane out of the mountain of God; and I have destroyed you, covering cherub, from the middle of the stones of fire.
  • Ezek 28:8They shall bring you down to the pit; and you shall die the death of those who are slain, in the heart of the seas.
  • Ezek 28:2Son of man, tell the prince of Tyre, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because your heart is lifted up, and you have said, I am a god, I sit in the seat of God, in the middle of the seas; yet you are man, and not God, though you set your 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.