The Lord comes and reigns
A day of the LORD is coming when your plunder will be divided among you.
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.
3Then the LORD will go out and fight against those nations, as he fights in the 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. Then the LORD my God will come, and all the holy ones with him.
6 On that day there will be no light, no cold or frost. 7 It will be a unique day, without daytime or nighttime—a day know to the LORD. When evening comes, there will be light.
This last chapter of Zechariah is prophecy that falls into the same description that previous prophecy has fallen. (See comments on 13:1.)
It is obvious that the Lord is speaking figuratively in this last chapter when he speaks of mountains splitting, of days without light, of time with no cold or frost, when the normal course of nature is reversed with light coming at evening, of living water, and of bells on horses and cooking pots. The prophetic pot of these verses is seasoned with familiar seasonings to give us a flavor of what is coming: the great day!
During Israel’s long history, the Lord often used surrounding nations to punish his people. After these nations punished his people, he in turn punished the nations. This is a pattern that he established, and it is a pattern that extends into the future. After the evils of siege and destruction and the evils that warfare brings with it (plundering and rape), there follows the great reversal when the Lord turns and defends his people.
The descriptions given here do not fit any particular historical event; the phrase “half of the city” shows this because we know of no historical exile in which half of the people were taken and half left. But the fact is clear from these verses that, whatever evil would overtake God’s people, he was going to fight for them. Thunder accompanied his approach, the kind that made the mountains shake. This was the way he came to rescue. It happened at Mount Sinai (Exodus 19:16). The Lord spoke through the prophet Isaiah, “Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken” (Isaiah 54:10). John the Baptist, the great forerunner of Jesus, proclaimed, “Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low” (Luke 3:4). And Zechariah, in these verses, spoke about the mountains being split and about resulting valleys of safety and escape.
Jesus is coming, and Zechariah was right: “Then the LORD my God will come, and all the holy ones with him.” “We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him” (1 Thessalonians 4:14).