Zechariah 12:6
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On that day I will make the clans of Judah like a firepot in a woodpile, like a flaming torch among the sheaves; they will consume all the peoples around them on the right and on the left, while the people of Jerusalem remain secure there.
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
Israel's Conflict and Victory, Conversion and Sanctification - Zechariah 12:1-13:6 This section forms the first half of the second prophecy of Zechariah concerning the future of Israel and of the nations of the world, viz., the prophecy contained in ch. 12-14, which, as a side-piece to ch. 9-11, treats of the judgment by which Israel, the nation of God, will be refined, sifted, and led on to perfection through conflict with the nations of the world. This first section announces how the conflict against Jerusalem and Judah will issue in destruction to the nations of the world (Zac 12:1-4). Jehovah will endow the princes of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem with marvellous strength to overcome all their foes (Zac 12:5-9), and will pour out His Spirit of grace upon them, so that they will bitterly repent the death of the Messiah (Zac 12:10-14), and purify themselves from all ungodliness (Zac 13:1-6).
Open source ↗The apostle (Gal 4:25, Gal 4:26) distinguishes between "Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children" - the remaining carcase of the Jewish church that rejected Christ, and "Jerusalem that is from above, that is free, and is the mother of us all" - the Christian church, the spiritual Jerusalem, which God has chosen to put his name there; in the foregoing chapter we read the doom of the former, and left that carcase to be a prey to the eagles that should be gathered to it. Now, in this chapter, we have the blessings of the latter, many precious promises made to the gospel-Jerusalem by him who (Zac 12:1) declares his power to make them good. It is promised, I. That the attempts of the church's enemies against her shall be to their own ruin, and they shall find that it is at their peril if they do her any hurt (Zac 12:2-4, Zac 12:6). II. That the endeavours of the church's friends and patrons for her good shall be pious, regular, and successful (Zac 12:5). III. That God will protect and strengthen the meanest and weakest that belong to his church, and work salvation for them (Zac 12:7, Zac 12:8). IV. That as a preparative for all this mercy, and a pledge of it, he will pour upon them a spirit of prayer and repentance, the effect of which shall be universal and very particular (Zac 12:9-14). These promises were of use then to the pious Jews that lived in the troublous times under Antiochus, and other persecutors and oppressors; and they are still to be improved in every age for the directing of our prayers and the encouraging of our hopes with reference to the gospel-church.
Open source ↗12:6 flame (literally firepan): Bronze or gold firepans were used to carry hot coals to and from the sacrificial altars of the Tabernacle and the Temple (Exod 27:3; 1 Kgs 7:50). God would set Israel among the nations like a burning firepan to destroy or purify them.
Open source ↗Cross-references
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Then the house of Jacob will be a blazing fire, and the house of Joseph a burning flame; but the house of Esau will be stubble— Jacob will set it ablaze and consume it. Therefore no survivor will remain from the house of Esau.” For the LORD has spoken.
and said to him, “Run and tell that young man: ‘Jerusalem will be a city without walls because of the multitude of men and livestock within it.
For you will spread out to the right and left; your descendants will dispossess the nations and inhabit the desolate cities.
The LORD of Hosts will shield them.They will destroy and conquer with slingstones;they will drink and roar as with wine.And they will be filled like sprinkling bowls,drenched like the corners of the altar.
They carve out what is on the right, but they are still hungry; they eat what is on the left, but they are still not satisfied. Each one devours the flesh of his own offspring.
This is what the LORD says: “I will restore the fortunes of Jacob’s tents and have compassion on his dwellings. And the city will be rebuilt on her own ruins, and the palace will stand in its rightful place.
Rise and thresh, O Daughter of Zion, for I will give you horns of iron and hooves of bronze to break to pieces many peoples. Then you will devote their gain to the LORD, their wealth to the Lord of all the earth.
And the LORD will take possession of Judah as His portion in the Holy Land, and He will once again choose Jerusalem.
Open your doors, O Lebanon,that the fire may consume your cedars!
Therefore this is what the LORD says: ‘I will return to Jerusalem with mercy, and there My house will be rebuilt, declares the LORD of Hosts, and a measuring line will be stretched out over Jerusalem.’