12 for the seed shall be prosperous, the vine shall give its fruit, and the ground shall give its produce, and the heavens shall give their dew; and I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all these [things].
And of Joseph he said, Blessed of Jehovah be his land! By the precious things of the heavens, By the dew, and by the deep that lieth beneath,
then I will give your rain in the season thereof, and the land shall yield its produce, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit; and your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing-time; and ye shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land securely.
Blessed shall be the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the offspring of thy kine, and the increase of thy sheep. Blessed shall be thy basket and thy kneading-trough. Blessed shalt thou be in thy coming in, and blessed shalt thou be in thy going out. Jehovah will give up, smitten before thee, thine enemies that rise up against thee; they shall come out against thee one way, and by seven ways shall they flee before thee. Jehovah will command blessing on thee in thy granaries, and in all the business of thy hand; and he will bless thee in the land which Jehovah thy God giveth thee. Jehovah will establish thee unto himself a holy people as he hath sworn unto thee, if thou keep the commandments of Jehovah thy God, and walk in his ways. And all peoples of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of Jehovah, and they shall be afraid of thee. And Jehovah will give thee abundance of good, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground, in the land that Jehovah swore unto thy fathers to give thee. Jehovah will open to thee his good treasure, the heavens, to give rain unto thy land in its season, and to bless all the work of thy hand; and thou shalt lend unto many nations, but thou shalt not borrow.
But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.
Therefore over you the heavens withhold their dew, and the earth withholdeth its fruit.
Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, when the ploughman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop new wine, and all the hills shall melt. And I will turn again the captivity of my people Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; and they shall make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be plucked up out of their land which I have given them, saith Jehovah thy God.
I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall blossom as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon.
And I will multiply the fruit of the trees and the increase of the field, so that ye may receive no more the reproach of famine among the nations.
And I will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in its season: there shall be showers of blessing. And the tree of the field shall yield its fruit, and the earth shall yield its increase; and they shall be in safety in their land, and shall know that I [am] Jehovah, when I have broken the bands of their yoke and delivered them out of the hand of those that kept them in servitude.
Instead of your shame [ye shall have] double; instead of confusion they shall celebrate with joy their portion: therefore in their land they shall possess the double; everlasting joy shall be unto them.
And he will give the rain of thy seed with which thou shalt sow the ground; and bread, the produce of the ground, and it shall be fat and rich. In that day shall thy cattle feed in large pastures;
And Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year a hundredfold; and Jehovah blessed him.
My doctrine shall drop as rain, My speech flow down as dew, As small rain upon the tender herb, And as showers on the grass.
So that let no one boast in men; for all things are yours.
Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: If it be wonderful in the eyes of the remnant of this people in those days, should it also be wonderful in mine eyes? saith Jehovah of hosts.
In that day, saith Jehovah, will I assemble her that halteth, and I will gather her that is driven out, and her that I have afflicted; and I will make her that halted a remnant, and her that was cast far off a strong nation; and Jehovah shall reign over them in mount Zion, from henceforth even for ever.
But upon mount Zion shall there be deliverance, and it shall be holy; and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions. And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau for stubble; and they shall kindle in them and devour them; and there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau: for Jehovah hath spoken [it]. And [they of] the south shall possess the mount of Esau; and they of the lowland the Philistines; yea, they shall possess the field of Ephraim and the field of Samaria; and Benjamin [shall possess] Gilead; and the captives of this host of the children of Israel [shall possess] what belonged to the Canaanites, unto Zarephath; and the captives of Jerusalem, who [were] in Sepharad, shall possess the cities of the south.
And it shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, saith Jehovah, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth; and the earth shall hear the corn, and the new wine, and the oil; and they shall hear Jizreel. And I will sow her unto me in the land; and I will have mercy upon Lo-ruhamah; and I will say to Lo-ammi, Thou art my people; and they shall say, My God.
The king's displeasure is as the roaring of a lion; but his favour is as dew upon the grass.
Honour Jehovah with thy substance, and with the first-fruits of all thine increase; so shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy vats shall overflow with new wine.
And Elijah the Tishbite, of the inhabitants of Gilead, said to Ahab, As Jehovah the God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, except by my word.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Zechariah 8
Commentary on Zechariah 8 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 8
The work of ministers is rightly to divide the word of truth and to give every one his portion. So the prophet is here instructed to do, in the further answer he gives to the case of conscience proposed about continuing the public fasts. His answer, in the foregoing chapter, is by way of reproof to those that were disobedient and would not obey the truth. But here he is ordered to change his voice, and to speak by way of encouragement to the willing and obedient. Here are two words from the Lord of hosts, and they are both good words and comfortable words. In the former of these messages (v. 1) God promises that Jerusalem shall be restored, reformed, replenished (v. 2-8), that the country shall be rich, and the affairs of the nation shall be successful, their reputation retrieved, and their state in all respects the reverse of what it had been for many years past (v. 9-15); he then exhorts them to reform what was amiss among them, that they might be ready for these favours designed them (v. 16, 17). In the latter of these messages (v. 18) he promises that their fasts should be superseded by the return of mercy (v. 19), and that thereupon they should be replenished, enriched, and strengthened, by the accession of foreigners to them (v. 20-23).
Zec 8:1-8
The prophet, in his foregoing discourses, had left his hearers under a high charge of guilt and a deep sense of wrath; he had left them in a melancholy view of the desolations of their pleasant land, which was the effect of their fathers' disobedience; but because he designed to bring them to repentance, not to drive them to despair, he here sets before them the great things God had in store for them, encouraging them hereby to hope that their case of conscience would shortly determine itself and that God's providence would as loudly call them to joy and gladness as ever it called them to fasting and mourning. It is here promised,
All these precious promises are here ratified, and the doubts of God's people silenced, with that question (v. 6): "If it be marvellous in the eyes of this people, should it be marvellous in my eyes? If it seem unlikely to you that ever Jerusalem should be thus repaired, should be thus replenished, is it therefore impossible with God?' The remnant of this people (and God's people in this world are but a remnant), being few and feeble, thought all this was too good news to be true, especially in these days, these difficult days, these cloudy and dark days. Considering how bad the times are, it is highly improbable, it is morally impossible, they should ever come to be so good as the prophet speaks. How can these things be? How can dry bones live? But should it therefore appear so in the eyes of God? Note, We do both God and ourselves a deal of wrong if we think that, when we are nonplussed, he is so, and that he cannot get over the difficulties which to us seem insuperable. With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible; so far are God's thoughts and ways above ours.
Zec 8:9-17
God, by the prophet, here gives further assurances of the mercy he had in store for Judah and Jerusalem. Here is line upon line for their comfort, as before there was for their conviction. These verses contain strong encouragements with reference to the difficulties they now laboured under. And we may observe,
Zec 8:18-23
These verses contain two precious promises, for the further encouragement of those pious Jews that were hearty in building the temple.