DRAFT: A Chiastic Reconfiguration Of Zechariah 12-14

Kuruvilla Thomas
Bangalore
Published on 12 January 2024

Fig. 1

Introduction

This study treats Zechariah 12-14 as a cryptochiasmus in order to arrive at a coherent reconfiguration of the text ( see definition of cryptochiasmus in [1] ). If you wish to skip the technicalities of a chiastic parse, you may read starting from Section 4 of the Discussion section, which has the reconfigured text.

This passage in Zechariah is justifiably considered one of the hardest to interpret. Though the chiastic structure of this passage is straightforward, the other mechanisms used to obfuscate the text make this a difficult passage, for instance: the phrasing of the figurative language in the passage is complex; and some words, like "Jerusalem", have different meanings in different Periods of the prophecy.

Discussion

1. Presuppositions

We base our parse of Zechariah 12-14 on the assumption that it refers to 3 periods:

1. The period of the Ministry of Christ up to his Death (26AD-30AD).
2. The Attack on Jerusalem (70 AD) during the First Jewish–Roman War (66AD–73AD). The Roman army began their siege of Jerusalem in 70 AD and completely destroyed the city and its people shortly thereafter.
3. The Start of Christ's Millennial Reign on Earth (2027AD).

2. Parsing the chiasmus

We will use the NIV Bible for this parse.

Parsing this chiasmus involves dividing portions of the text into three categories as above. We will call the period of the ministry of Christ Period 1, the siege of Jerusalem in 70 AD Period 2 and Christ's Millennial Reign Period 3.

Categorizing Zechariah 12-14

Ch 12 Vs 2-9 belong to Period 3. The defeat of Israel's enemies at the start of Christ's Millennial Reign.

Ch 12 Vs 10-14 belong to Period 2. During the First Jewish-Roman war, the Judahites mourn for the Messiah they had pierced.

Ch 13 belongs to Period 1. Judea is cleansed through the ministry and death of Christ.

Ch 14 Vs 1-7 belongs to Period 2. The destruction of Jerusalem and the escape of the Christians.

Ch 14 Vs 8-21 belong to Period 3. The nature of the Millennial Reign of Christ.

Original text

We color-code the chiastic units of the original text (NIV) below for easy visual identification using: red for Period 1, blue for Period 2 and green for Period 3. We have retranslated parts of the text.

Zechariah 12 2 “I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling. Judah will be besieged as well as Jerusalem. 3 On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will injure themselves. 4 On that day I will strike every horse with confusion [a] and its rider with madness,” declares the Lord. “I will keep a watchful eye over Judah, but I will blind all the horses of the nations. 5 Then the clans of Judah will say in their hearts, ‘The people of Jerusalem are strong, because the Lord Almighty is their God.’
6 “On that day I will make the clans of Judah like a firepot in a woodpile, like a flaming torch among sheaves. They will consume all the surrounding peoples right and left. Jerusalem will once again be inhabited in her own place [b].
7 “The Lord will save the dwellings of Judah first, so that the honor of the house of David and of Jerusalem’s inhabitants may not be greater than that of Judah. 8 On that day the Lord will shield those who live in Jerusalem, so that the feeblest among them will be like David, and the house of David will be like God, like the angel of the Lord going before them. 9 On that day I will set out to destroy all the nations that attack Jerusalem.
10 “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son. 11 On that day the weeping in Jerusalem will be as great as the weeping of Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. 12 The land will mourn, each clan by itself, with their wives by themselves: the clan of the house of David and their wives, the clan of the house of Nathan and their wives, 13 the clan of the house of Levi and their wives, the clan of Shimei and their wives, 14 and all the rest of the clans and their wives.

Retranslation notes for Zechariah 12
[a] vs 4 "with confusion" instead of "with panic".
[b] vs 6 "left. Jerusalem will once again be inhabited in her own place" instead of "left, but Jerusalem will remain intact in her place".


Zechariah 13 1 “On that day a fountain will be opened at the house of David for the inhabitants of Jerusalem [a], to cleanse them from sin and impurity.
2 “On that day, I will banish the names of the idols from the land, and they will be remembered no more,” declares the Lord Almighty. “I will remove both the prophets and the spirit of impurity from the land. 3 And if anyone still prophesies, their father and mother, to whom they were born, will say to them, ‘You must die, because you have told lies in the Lord’s name.’ Then their own parents will stab the one who prophesies.
4 “On that day every prophet will be ashamed of their prophetic vision. They will not put on a prophet’s garment of hair in order to deceive. 5 Each will say, ‘I am not a prophet. I am a farmer; the land has been my livelihood since my youth.’ 6 If someone asks, ‘What are these wounds on your body?’ they will answer, ‘The wounds I was given at the house of my friends.’
7 “Awake, sword, against my shepherd, against the man who is close to me!” declares the Lord Almighty. “Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered, and I will turn my hand against the little ones. 8 In the whole land,” declares the Lord, “two-thirds will be struck down and perish; yet one-third will be left in it. 9 This third I will put into the fire; I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. They will call on my name and I will answer them; I will say, ‘They are my people,’ and they will say, ‘The Lord is our God.’”

Retranslation notes for Zechariah 13
[a] vs 1 "at the house of David for the inhabitants of Jerusalem" instead of "to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem".


Zechariah 14 1 A day of the Lord is coming, Jerusalem, when your possessions will be plundered and divided up within your very walls.
2 I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem to fight against it; the city will be captured, the houses ransacked, and the women raped. Half of the city will go into exile, but the rest of the people will not be taken from the city. 3 Then the Lord will go out and fight against those nations, as he fights on a day of battle. 4 On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley, with half of the mountain moving north and half moving south. 5 You will flee by my mountain valley, for it will extend to Azel. You will flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. The Lord my God will go, and all the holy ones among you [a].
6 And it will come to pass on that day, that the sunlight will not be bright - it will be dimmed. 7 It will be a special day known only to the Lord - it will be neither day nor night. But at evening, there will be light. [b]
8 On that day living water will flow out from Jerusalem, half of it east to the Dead Sea and half of it west to the Mediterranean Sea, in summer and in winter.
9 The Lord will be king over the whole earth. On that day there will be one Lord, and his name the only name.
10 The whole land, from Geba to Rimmon, south of Jerusalem, will become like the Arabah. But Jerusalem will be raised up high from the Benjamin Gate to the site of the First Gate, to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the royal winepresses, and will remain in its place. 11 It will be inhabited; never again will it be destroyed. Jerusalem will be secure.
12 This is the plague with which the Lord will strike all the nations that fought against Jerusalem: Their flesh will rot while they are still standing on their feet, their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths. 13 On that day people will be stricken by the Lord with great confusion [c]. They will seize each other by the hand and attack one another. 14 Judah too will fight with Jerusalem [d]. The wealth of all the surrounding nations will be collected—great quantities of gold and silver and plunder [e]. 15 A similar plague will strike the horses and mules, the camels and donkeys, and all the animals in those camps.
16 Then the survivors from all the nations that have attacked Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the King, the Lord Almighty, and to celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles. 17 If any of the peoples of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord Almighty, they will have no rain. 18 If the Egyptian people do not go up and take part, they will have no rain. There will be the plague that the Lord [f] inflicts on the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles. 19 This will be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles.
20 On that day holy to the Lord will be inscribed on the bells of the horses, and the cooking pots in the Lord’s house will be like the sacred bowls in front of the altar. 21 Every pot in Jerusalem and Judah will be holy to the Lord Almighty, and all who come to sacrifice will take some of the pots and cook in them. And on that day there will no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the Lord Almighty.

Retranslation notes for Zechariah 14
[a] vs 5 "The Lord my God will go, and all the holy ones among you" instead of "Then the LORD my God will come, and all the holy ones with him".
[b] vs 6,7 "6 And it will come to pass on that day, that the sunlight will not be bright - it will be dimmed. 7 It will be a special day known only to the Lord - it will be neither day nor night. But at evening, there will be light" instead of "6 On that day there will be neither sunlight nor cold, frosty darkness. 7 It will be a unique day—a day known only to the Lord—with no distinction between day and night. When evening comes, there will be light".
[c] vs 13 "confusion" instead of "panic".
[d] vs 14 "fight with Jerusalem" instead of "fight at Jerusalem".
[e] vs 14 "plunder" instead of "clothing".
[f] vs 18 "There will be the plague that the Lord" instead of "The LORD will bring on them the plague he".

3. Building the reconfigured text

From this parse, it appears that Zechariah 12-14 forms a cryptochiasmus as below:

A1   Ch 12 Vs 2-9 Period 3. Israel's enemies defeated at the start of the Christ's Reign
  B1   Ch 12 Vs 10-14 Period 2. The people of Jerusalem mourn for the Messiah
    X   Ch 13 Period 1. The ministry and death of Christ
  B2   Ch 14 Vs 1-7 Period 2. The destruction of Jerusalem and the escape of the Christians
A2   Ch 14 Vs 8-21 Period 3. The Millennial Reign of Christ

We now reconstruct the passages in the right order based on the chiastic structure above and based on the ordering rules of a cryptochiasmus [1].

We lead with central pivot point 'X'. The corresponding subunits (For example; subunit A1 corresponds to A2) are placed contiguously to form units (For example, A1,A2 is a unit ) so that we get a list of such units.

The sequence selected for rearrangement is:

X  [A1,A2]  [B1,B2]        (1)

Translating (1) into verse numbers, we get:

Ch 13  [Ch 12 Vs 2-9,Ch 14 Vs 8-21]   [Ch 12 Vs 10-14, Ch 14 Vs 1-7]        (2)

We arrive at the reconfigured passage in the next section by rearranging the verses so they are in sequence (2).

4. Zechariah 12-14 Reconfigured

The Ministry of Christ (26AD-30AD) (Ch 13)

Chiasmus 1: God cleanses Judah through Christ's mission


Chiasmus 2: God refines the righteous Judahites after Christ's death



The Start of Christ's Millennial Reign on earth (2027AD) (Ch 12 Vs 2-9,Ch 14 Vs 8-21)

Chiasmus 1: The Beast army attacks Israel and Christians around the world


Chiasmus 2: Israel is a spiritual leader to the world


Chiasmus 3: The Beast army is utterly destroyed


Chiasmus 4: All nations will worship God



The Attack on Jerusalem (70 AD) during the First Jewish–Roman War (66AD–73AD) (Ch 12 Vs 10-14, Ch 14 Vs 1-7)

5. A Commentary on the Reconfigured Text

We believe that the phrases 'Jerusalem', 'Judah' and 'the house of David' take on different meanings in each Period, so that the meaning of the passage is obscured. Both 'Jerusalem' and 'the house of David' appear in each of the 3 Periods.

5.0 Introduction to the Prophecy (Ch 12:1)

Chapter 12:1 A prophecy: The word of the Lord concerning Israel. The Lord, who stretches out the heavens, who lays the foundation of the earth, and who forms the human spirit within a person, declares:

This passage, that lies outside the chiasmus, grandly introduces this prophecy regarding three significant periods of Israel's existence. Three creative acts of God are mentioned here: the creation of the heavens, the creation of earth and all that is in it, and the creation of human souls.

5.1 The Ministry of Christ (26AD-30AD) (Ch 13)

In this Period, 'Jerusalem' refers to Judah and the surrounding regions where Jesus taught, and 'the house of David' refers to Jesus, who was of the line of David. (The word 'Judah' does not appear in the text for this Period.)

This Period is structured as a series of 2 chiasmi. They are regarding the effects of Christ's mission and his death.

Chiasmus 1: God cleanses Judah through Christ's mission

The passage below in 13:1-6 is structured as a chiasmus. The pivot, X [13:3], details the punishment of those who continue with false prophecies. The subunits, A1 [13:1-2] and A2 [13:4-6], indicate that Jesus will cleanse Judah of false prophets and idolatry.

Subunit A1: Jesus cleanses Judah of false prophets and idolatry (13:1-2)

Chapter 13 1 “On that day a fountain will be opened at the house of David for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity.

Jesus ('house of David') passed on the Gospel from God ('fountain') to the people of Judah and the neighbouring regions ('Jerusalem') (John 12:49, John 4:14). Those who believed in Jesus and followed his teachings were cleansed of their sins (John 1:29).

Chapter 13 2 “On that day, I will banish the names of the idols from the land, and they will be remembered no more,” declares the Lord Almighty. “I will remove both the prophets and the spirit of impurity from the land.

When Jesus started his ministry, covert idolaters and false prophets were common in the region (Zeph. 1:4-6, 1 John 4:1-3). These false prophets were occultists who received their prophecies from demon gods, but pretended that they were from the God of Israel (Matt. 7:15). Jesus' teachings, his life, death and resurrection turned the people back to their God. He helped them identify false prophets (Matt 7:15-20) and reject other gods.

Pivot X: Those who continue with false prophecies are punished (13:3)

Chapter 13 3 And if anyone still prophesies, their father and mother, to whom they were born, will say to them, ‘You must die, because you have told lies in the Lord’s name.’ Then their own parents will stab the one who prophesies.

Some of those who ignored Jesus' teachings and continued as false prophets were killed by their own God-fearing parents (according to the law in Deut. 13:6-9).

Subunit A2: Jesus cleanses Judah of false prophets and idolatry (13:4-6)

Chapter 13 4 “On that day every prophet will be ashamed of their prophetic vision. They will not put on a prophet’s garment of hair in order to deceive. 5 Each will say, ‘I am not a prophet. I am a farmer; the land has been my livelihood since my youth.’ 6 If someone asks, ‘What are these wounds on your body?’ they will answer, ‘The wounds I was given at the house of my friends.’

After Jesus' ministry, the false prophets that had practised the black arts were ashamed of it (Acts 19:19); they stopped pretending to be prophets of God, and they no longer wore the rough clothes of prophets. The false prophets lied when asked about their past profession or when asked about the ritual scarring on their bodies (ritual self-mutilation is a part of occult practice - 1 Kings 18:28); they said they were always farmers and that their bodies were scarred by others.

Chiasmus 2: God refines the righteous Judahites after Christ's death

The passage below in 13:7-9 is structured as a chiasmus. The pivot, X [13:8], indicates that wicked Judahites will be punished. The subunits, A1 [13:7] and A2 [13:9], indicate that God will test and refine the righteous Judahites.

Subunit A1: God tests and refines the righteous Judahites (13:7)

Chapter 13 7 “Awake, sword, against my shepherd, against the man who is close to me!” declares the Lord Almighty. “Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered, and I will turn my hand against the little ones.

With this personification, God makes it clear that He allowed the death of His Son (Romans 8:32) and the persecution of Jesus' followers to occur. Jesus himself quotes from this passage in Matthew 26:31, so confirming that it predicted his death. After Jesus' death ("Strike the shepherd"), his disciples fell away ("sheep will be scattered"), and his followers ('little ones') faced persecution from the Pharisees and the Romans (Matt. 23:34). God allowed the righteous Judahites to face tribulation to test and refine them.

Pivot X: Wicked Judahites are punished (13:8)

Chapter 13 8 In the whole land,” declares the Lord, “two-thirds will be struck down and perish; yet one-third will be left in it.

Those who did not believe in Jesus and ignored his advice to flee to the mountains (Matt. 24:16), were killed by the Romans in 70AD. Only a third of the people of Judah believed in Jesus (these 1/3 and 2/3 fractions appear in other battles for souls - Rev. 12:4, 9:15...).

Subunit A2: God tests and refines the righteous Judahites (13:9)

Chapter 13 9 This third I will put into the fire; I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. They will call on my name and I will answer them; I will say, ‘They are my people,’ and they will say, ‘The Lord is our God.’”

These righteous Judahites were tested and refined through struggles, temptations and persecutions (James 1:2-3, Acts 14:22), so that they may be worthy of being called God's people. ( The events in vs. 8&9 occurred over some indefinite span of time that extends even beyond Period 2, but they were the results of Christ's ministry in this Period. )

5.2 The Start of Christ's Millennial Reign on earth (2027AD) (Ch 12 Vs 2-9,Ch 14 Vs 8-21)

For this Period, 'Jerusalem' refers to the New Israel of Christ's Millennial Reign; 'the house of David' is the ruler of the Millennial kingdom, the coming Messiah who reigns under Christ; 'Judah' refers to faithful Christians of nations outside the New Israel.

This Period is structured as a series of 4 chiasmi. The topics alternate between the defeat of the Beast's army and Israel's role as spiritual centre of the world.

Chiasmus 1: The Beast army attacks Israel and Christians around the world

The passage below in 12:2-9 is structured as a chiasmus. The pivot, X [12:5-6], predicts the state of affairs after the war. The subunits, A1 [12:2-4] and A2 [12:7-9], are regarding the attacks on Israel and Christians around the world.

Subunit A1: The Beast army attacks Israel and Christians around the world (12:2-4)

Chapter 12 2 “I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling. Judah will be besieged as well as Jerusalem. 3 On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will injure themselves. 4 On that day I will strike every horse with confusion and its rider with madness,” declares the Lord. “I will keep a watchful eye over Judah, but I will blind all the horses of the nations.

At the start of Christ's Millennial Reign, the New Israel ('Jerusalem') is attacked by the Beast army alliance (this is the Gog and Magog war of Ezekiel 39, Rev 19:11-21, Rev 14:17-20), but the New Israel will not be defeated ("immovable rock"). The coming Messiah will prevail over the mighty Beast army with divine help, for God will implant a spirit of confusion in the Beast army's soldiers (both "horses" and "riders" refer to the soldiers). So the New Israel will be a "cup" that sends its attackers "reeling", as though drunk.

At the same time, faithful Christians around the world ('Judah') are also besieged by Satan's forces, but God will protect them. He will defeat their attackers by blinding them ("horses of the nations" refers to the military personnel of the alliance).

Pivot X: The state of affairs after the war (12:5-6)

Chapter 12 5 Then the clans of Judah will say in their hearts, ‘The people of Jerusalem are strong, because the Lord Almighty is their God.’

Christians groups around the world ("clans of Judah") will be encouraged when they see that the New Israel is strong because it has their God's protection.

Chapter 12 6a “On that day I will make the clans of Judah like a firepot in a woodpile, like a flaming torch among sheaves. They will consume all the surrounding peoples right and left.

Christians will preach the Word to the people around them, so that Christianity spreads quickly (Matt. 24:14), like a fire in a woodpile or among sheaves.

Chapter 12 6b Jerusalem will once again be inhabited in her own place.

The Israelite diaspora from around the world will gather into their own nation, the New Israel ("Jerusalem").

Subunit A2: The Beast army attacks Israel and Christians around the world (12:7-9)

Chapter 12 7 “The Lord will save the dwellings of Judah first, so that the honor of the house of David and of Jerusalem’s inhabitants may not be greater than that of Judah.

God saves the Christians from the Beast army before He saves Israel, so that the Christians, who faced great tribulation during the Beast's reign, have the honour of defeating it first.

Chapter 12 8a On that day the Lord will shield those who live in Jerusalem, so that the feeblest among them will be like David,

During this attack from Satan's forces, even the weakest defenders of Israel will, with God's help, appear as strong as that mighty warrior, the original king David.

Chapter 12 8b and the house of David will be like God, like the angel of the Lord going before them.

The coming Messiah ('the house of David') will lead the battle against these forces that attack the New Israel (Rev 19:11-21). He will have the help of God and his angels in this battle, and so he will appear supernaturally powerful ("like God, like the angel of the Lord").

Chapter 12 9 On that day I will set out to destroy all the nations that attack Jerusalem.

The peoples that join this Beast army to attack the Israelites are defeated and destroyed.

Chiasmus 2: Israel is a spiritual leader to the world

The passage below in 14:8-11 is structured as a chiasmus. The pivot, X [14:10a], predicts that the world outside Israel will be a spiritual desert. The subunits, A1 [14:8-9] and A2 [14:10b-11], indicate that Israel will be a towering source of spiritual wisdom to the world.

Subunit A1: Israel is a source of spiritual wisdom (14:8-9)

Chapter 14 8 On that day living water will flow out from Jerusalem, half of it east to the Dead Sea and half of it west to the Mediterranean Sea, in summer and in winter.
9 The Lord will be king over the whole earth. On that day there will be one Lord, and his name the only name.

The New Israel ("Jerusalem") will be a source of divine wisdom ("living water") to the world at all times ("summer and winter") (Joel 3:18). God's word and law will cover the earth from east to west (the two "seas" represent the east and west directions), and so the God of Israel will be Lord of all the earth.

Pivot X: The rest of the world is a spiritual desert (14:10a)

Chapter 14 10a The whole land, from Geba to Rimmon, south of Jerusalem, will become like the Arabah.

Geba and Rimmon formed the Northern and Southern borders of Judah; so "Geba to Rimmon" refers to all of Judah from north to south, which, in this Period, represents the whole world from north to south. The entire world will be figuratively "flat" like the desert of Arabah, as opposed to the spiritually elevated Israel (see more on the metaphor in subunit A2 below).

( Taken together, the two seas of vs 8 and the Geba and Rimmon of vs 10 cover the borders of Judah in all 4 cardinal directions, and they represent the whole world in all directions - East, West, North, South.)

Subunit A2: Israel is a source of spiritual wisdom (14:10b-11)

Chapter 14 10b But Jerusalem will be raised up high from the Benjamin Gate to the site of the First Gate, to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the royal winepresses, and will remain in its place. 11 It will be inhabited; never again will it be destroyed. Jerusalem will be secure.

Israel alone will be spiritually elevated above the "plain land" that is the rest of the world, because Israel will be a source of God's spiritual wisdom. Israel will be protected and its status as spiritual capital of the world will be preserved ("remain in its place") by God and Christ throughout the Millennial Reign (see also Isaiah 2:2, Isaiah 61:6).

The locations in Jerusalem specified in this passage represent the length and breadth of the city. We believe the Benjamin Gate (the gate to Benjamin's territory) and the site of the First Gate (this gate was no longer standing) were at the north-eastern and north-western corners respectively of the eastern half of the city (the eastern half juts out to the north); the Corner Gate was at the north-west corner of the city (cf. Jer. 31:38) and was located approximately south-west of the First Gate. So these three gates mark the northern border and represent the east-to-west width of the city. The span from the Tower of Hananel at the north-east corner (cf. Jer. 31:38) to the royal winepresses at the south-east corner (probably near the king's garden) represents the north-to-south length of the city. So taken together, the length and breadth of the city refers to all of Jerusalem, which, in this Period, represents all of the New Israel. This New Israel will be figuratively elevated above the rest of the world.

Chiasmus 3: The Beast army is utterly destroyed

The passage below in 14:12-15 is structured as a chiasmus. The pivot, X [14:13-14a], is regarding the defeat of the Beast army. The subunits, A1 [14:12] and A2 [14:14b-15], predict the destruction of all that remains of the army.

Subunit A1: All that remains of the Beast army is destroyed (14:12)

Chapter 14 12 This is the plague with which the Lord will strike all the nations that fought against Jerusalem: Their flesh will rot while they are still standing on their feet, their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths.

Those of the Beast army that remain after the war all suddenly die through a horrible plague sent by God ("flesh will rot while they are still standing...").

Pivot X: The Beast army is defeated (14:13-14a)

Chapter 14 13 On that day people will be stricken by the Lord with great confusion. They will seize each other by the hand and attack one another. 14a Judah too will fight with Jerusalem.

When the Beast army attacks the new Israel, God afflicts its soldiers with a sense of confusion, so that they attack each other and their army is destroyed (the Gog and Magog war of Ezekiel 39, Rev 19:11-21, Rev 14:17-20). Christians around the world ("Judah"), with God's help, also fight Satan's forces at the same time. ( This passage expands on 12:4 above.)

Subunit A2: All that remains of the Beast army is destroyed (14:14b-15)

Chapter 14 14b The wealth of all the surrounding nations will be collected—great quantities of gold and silver and plunder. 15 A similar plague will strike the horses and mules, the camels and donkeys, and all the animals in those camps.

The Israelites will collect vast quantities of plunder from their defeated enemies (see also Ezekiel 39:10). The "mules, camels, donkeys and other animals", ancient modes of transportation, represent the motorized transport of this army. These vehicles will also be struck by the same "plague" that affects the gold and silver - they will all be plundered.

Chiasmus 4: All nations will worship God

The passage below in 14:16-21 is structured as a chiasmus. The pivot, X [14:18b-19], predicts that a plague will affect the nations that do not celebrate the Festival of the Tabernacles. The subunits, A1 [14:16-18a] and A2 [14:20-21], indicate that all nations will go to Israel to worship God.

Subunit A1: All nations worship God in Israel (14:16-18a)

Chapter 14 16 Then the survivors from all the nations that have attacked Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the King, the Lord Almighty, and to celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles. 17 If any of the peoples of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord Almighty, they will have no rain. 18a If the Egyptian people do not go up and take part, they will have no rain.

During the Millennial Reign, representatives from all the nations of the earth, even previously hostile peoples, will honour and worship the God of Israel; those nations that fail to do so will not receive economic blessings ("no rain").

The Feast of the Tabernacles was originally a commemoration of the Israelites' escape from Egypt to live according to God's will in the wilderness (Leviticus 23:42–43). It may that these events are types of the events of this Period, so that this festival is now a celebration of freedom from Satan cruel reign and thanksgiving for the blessings of the Millennial Age under God.

"Egypt", in this Period, represents the Western Empire (the 6th "king" of Rev 17:10, see our parse of Isaiah 18 [4]), one of the leading nations of Satan's Beast empire. So the "Egyptian's" worship of God particularly represents the defeat of Satan's empire.

Pivot X: A plague affects the nations that do no worship God (14:18b-19)

Chapter 14 18b There will be the plague that the Lord inflicts on the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles. 19 This will be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles.

Those nations that refuse to honour God by celebrating the Festival of Tabernacles will be punished by a plague (the nature of the plague is not specified).

Subunit A2: All nations worship God in Israel (14:20-21)

Chapter 14 20 On that day holy to the Lord will be inscribed on the bells of the horses, and the cooking pots in the Lord’s house will be like the sacred bowls in front of the altar. 21 Every pot in Jerusalem and Judah will be holy to the Lord Almighty, and all who come to sacrifice will take some of the pots and cook in them. And on that day there will no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the Lord Almighty.

The Israelites and all their belongings (the "horses" etc.) will be dedicated to God ("Holy to the Lord"); even the cooking pots of ordinary Israelites ("Lord's house" and "Jerusalem and Judah" refer to the New Israel) will be as sacred as the bowls set before the altar in ancient Israel. All outsiders who come to celebrate the Feast of the Tabernacles in Israel will borrow the cooking vessels of any of the Israelites for their worship ("sacrifice" in vs 21 refers to the prescribed form of worship of this Period). For there will be no idol-worshippers or those who do evil ("Canaanites") among the people of the New Israel ("house of the Lord" refers to Israel) (see Exodus 19:6, Isaiah 61:6).

5.3 The Attack on Jerusalem (70AD) during the First Jewish–Roman War (66AD–73AD) (Ch 12 Vs 10-14, Ch 14 Vs 1-7)

For this Period, 'Jerusalem', 'the house of David' and 'Judah' take on their more common meanings. 'Jerusalem' is the city of Jerusalem circa 70AD and 'the house of David' is the clan of the royal line of David, a subdivision of Judah.

This Period is structured as a chiasmus. The pivot, X [14:1,2], details the destruction of Jerusalem around the fall of 70AD. The subunits, A1 [12:10-14] and A2 [14:3-7], are regarding the beginning of the assault on Jerusalem around the spring of 70AD.

Subunit A1: The Christians flee when the Romans arrive in Jerusalem (Spring of 70AD) (12:10-14)

Chapter 12 10 “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son. 11 On that day the weeping in Jerusalem will be as great as the weeping of Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. 12 The land will mourn, each clan by itself, with their wives by themselves: the clan of the house of David and their wives, the clan of the house of Nathan and their wives, 13 the clan of the house of Levi and their wives, the clan of Shimei and their wives, 14 and all the rest of the clans and their wives.

The Roman General Vespasian and his son Titus began the campaign to crush a Judahite revolt by attacking the Judahite centres surrounding Jerusalem in 67AD (see our reconstruction of Daniel 9 [2] for a more detailed history of the period). A large number of Judahites in these towns fled Roman punishment to take refuge in the fortified city of Jerusalem. Jerusalem became a cramped refugee camp, where each clan presumably had its own camp and women lived in separate camps for their protection.

When they heard about the approaching army and what may be certain death, the Judahites may have realised that they were about to be punished for the death of Christ; they were moved to regret their behaviour and to mourning - a mourning as great as that for the death of King Josiah at the hands of Necho II (see 2 Chron. 35:20-27, cf. John 19:37). They mourned as clans, each clan in its own camp and the women separately. They also pleaded for deliverance from the dreaded Romans. Those who turned to Christ fled with the other Christians when the Romans arrived in Jerusalem ("grace" of vs 10).

The clans of David and Nathan belonged to the royal line and the clans of Levi and Shimei belonged to the priestly line. These were the prominent clans of the capital city with its temple, and as clans of 'leaders', they were primarily to blame for the state of the Judahites at that time (Isaiah 3:14).

Pivot X: The Romans destroy Jerusalem (Spring of 70AD) (14:1-2)

Chapter 14 1 A day of the Lord is coming, Jerusalem, when your possessions will be plundered and divided up within your very walls.
2 I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem to fight against it; the city will be captured, the houses ransacked, and the women raped. Half of the city will go into exile, but the rest of the people will not be taken from the city.

The Roman army, with the help of allies and client states, plundered and then destroyed Jerusalem. While the Christians in Jerusalem escaped at the start of the siege, those remaining were horrifically tortured and killed, and those who were not killed were taken away as slaves (we take the word 'half' in vs 2 to mean 'a part' ).

In vs. 2, God says that He Himself will mass an army to destroy Jerusalem; this supports our position that the 'covenant' of Daniel 9 was between God and Titus [2]. God used the Romans to destroy the wicked Judahites who refused to believe in Jesus. This devastation through the Romans is one of the three great "Days of the Lord" of Joel (see Joel 1:15).

Subunit A2: The Christians flee when the Romans arrive in Jerusalem (Spring of 70AD) (14:3-7)

Chapter 14 3 Then the Lord will go out and fight against those nations, as he fights on a day of battle. 4 On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley, with half of the mountain moving north and half moving south.

Under Titus, the armies of the Romans and their allies approached Jerusalem from the north and from the west and set up their main camp to the west of the city. They tried to set up a smaller camp on the east of the city on the Mount of Olives but were initially repulsed by bands of soldiers from within the city. This was vitally important to the Christians who fled the city to the Jordanian mountains to the east, as Christ had instructed them (Matthew 24:16).

The sense of the passage is that the Lord will create a figurative east to west "divide" on the Mount of Olives. That is, He will enable troops from Jerusalem to keep the enemy soldiers at bay to the north of the Mountain, so that the Christians, the elect, can flee by the Kidron valley that lies along the west and south of the Mountain. ( Note that the word 'valley' is used figuratively in vs. 4 and literally in vs. 5 below - one of the reasons this passage is difficult.)

Chapter 14 5 You will flee by my mountain valley, for it will extend to Azel. You will flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. The Lord my God will go, and all the holy ones among you.

The Judahite Christians will exit Jerusalem on the east and escape by the Kidron valley from Azel (Azel, outside the eastern gate of Jerusalem, is at one end of the Kidron valley) to the Transjordanian mountains. The sudden exodus of a large part of the city will block up the valley, just as the Israelites jammed up the valley while fleeing the earthquake (Amos 1:1) in Uzziah's days (see Septuagint Translation of verse 5) . The Lord will then guide His "holy ones", the Christian Judahites, to their refuge in the mountains (Rev. 12:14,6).

Chapter 14 6 And it will come to pass on that day, that the sunlight will not be bright - it will be dimmed. 7 It will be a special day known only to the Lord - it will be neither day nor night. But at evening, there will be light.

God will partially block the sunlight over Jerusalem on that day, so that the Judahites can flee under the cover of reduced visibility; there will be just enough light for the Christians to make their escape. Once the Christians are safely out of the city and out of the reach of the Romans ("by evening"), God will restore normal light to the region. We take the phrase, "known only to the Lord", to mean that God will take complete control of the visibility around Jerusalem on that day. In Matt 24:20, Jesus exhorts his followers to pray that this flight does not occur on the Sabbath, which implies that this exit from the city took place in one day.

Conclusion

With this chiastic reconstruction of the text, we show that the passage contains three interwoven prophetic passages. The first Period in this reconstruction is on Jesus' ministry and death during his First Coming, and the last Period focuses on his victory at the start of his glorious Millennial Reign.

The prophecy has two passages that are quoted in the New Testament as being about Jesus: Zech. 12:10 is quoted in John 19:37 "They will look on the One they have pierced."; Zech. 13:7 is quoted in Matthew 26:31 "I will strike the shepherd,...". With this reconstruction and interpretation, it is more apparent that the verses are about Jesus.

References

[1] A Definition of Cryptochiasmus
[2] A Chiastic Reconfiguration Of "The 70 Weeks Of Daniel"
[3] A Chiastic Reconfiguration Of Daniel 8
[4] A Chiastic Reconfiguration Of Isaiah 18





* First version published on 7 January 2020.