Zechariah 14

11. no more utter destruction--( Jeremiah 31:40 ). Literally, "no more curse" ( Revelation 22:3 ; compare Malachi 4:6 ), for there will be no more sin. Temporal blessings and spiritual prosperity shall go together in the millennium: long life ( Isaiah 65:20-22 ), peace ( Isaiah 2:4 ), honor ( Isaiah 60:14-16 ), righteous government ( Isaiah 54:14 , 60:18 ). Judgment, as usual, begins at the house of God, but then falls fatally on Antichrist, whereon the Church obtains perfect liberty. The last day will end everything evil ( Romans 8:21 ) [AUBERLEN].

12. Punishment on the foe, the last Antichristian confederacy (Isaiah 59:18,66:24'Ezekiel 38:1-39:29'Revelation 19:17-21'). A living death: the corruption ( Galatians 6:8 ) of death combined in ghastly union with the conscious sensibility of life. Sin will be felt by the sinner in all its loathsomeness, inseparably clinging to him as a festering, putrid body.

13. tumult--consternation ( Zechariah 12:4 , 1 Samuel 14:15 1 Samuel 14:20 ).
lay hold . . . on . . . hand of . . . neighbour--instinctively grasping it, as if thereby to be safer, but in vain [MENOCHIUS]. Rather, in order to assail "his neighbor" [CALVIN], ( Ezekiel 38:21 ). Sin is the cause of all quarrels on earth. It will cause endless quarrels in hell ( james 3:15 james 3:16 ).

14. Judah . . . fight at Jerusalem--namely, against the foe: not against Jerusalem, as MAURER translates in variance with the context. As to the spoil gained from the foe, compare Ezekiel 39:10 Ezekiel 39:17 .

15. The plague shall affect the very beasts belonging to the foe. A typical foretaste of all this befell Antiochus Epiphanes and his host at Jerusalem (I Maccabees 13:49; II Maccabees 9:5).

16. every one . . . left--( Isaiah 66:19 Isaiah 66:23 ). God will conquer all the foes of the Church, Some He will destroy; others He will bring into willing subjection.
from year to year--literally, "from the sufficiency of a year in a year."
feast of tabernacles--The other two great yearly feasts, passover and pentecost, are not specified, because, their antitypes having come, the types are done away with. But the feast of tabernacles will be commemorative of the Jews' sojourn, not merely forty years in the wilderness, but for almost two thousand years of their dispersion. So it was kept on their return from the Babylonian dispersion ( Nehemiah 8:14-17 ). It was the feast on which Jesus made His triumphal entry into Jerusalem ( Matthew 21:8 ); a pledge of His return to His capital to reign (compare Leviticus 23:34 Leviticus 23:39 Leviticus 23:40 Leviticus 23:42 , Revelation 7:9 , 21:3 ). A feast of peculiar joy ( Psalms 118:15 , Hosea 12:9 ). The feast on which Jesus gave the invitation to the living waters of salvation ("Hosanna," save us now, was the cry, Matthew 21:9 ; compare Psalms 118:25 Psalms 118:26 ) ( John 7:2 John 7:37 ). To the Gentiles, too, it will be significant of perfected salvation after past wanderings in a moral wilderness, as it originally commemorated the ingathering of the harvest. The seedtime of tears shall then have issued in the harvest of joy [MOORE]. "All the nations" could not possibly in person go up to the feast, but they may do so by representatives.

17. no rain--including every calamity which usually follows in the East from want of rain, namely, scarcity of provisions, famine, pestilence, &c. Rain is the symbol also of God's favor ( Hosea 6:3 ). That there shall be unconverted men under the millennium appears from the outbreak of God and Magog at the end of it ( Revelation 20:7-9 ); but they, like Satan their master, shall be restrained during the thousand years. Note, too, from this verse that the Gentiles shall come up to Jerusalem, rather than the Jews go as missionaries to the Gentiles ( Isaiah 2:2 , Micah 5:7 ). However, Isaiah 66:19 may imply the converse.

18. if . . . Egypt go not up--specified as Israel's ancient foe. If Egypt go not up, and so there be no rain on them (a judgment which Egypt would condemn, as depending on the Nile's overflow, not on rain), there shall be the plague . . . . Because the guilty are not affected by one judgment, let them not think to escape, for God has other judgments which shall plague them. MAURER translates, "If Egypt go not up, upon them also there shall be none" (no rain). Psalms 105:32 mentions "rain" in Egypt. But it is not their main source of fertility.

19. punishment--literally, "sin"; that is, "punishment for sin."

20. shall there be upon the bells--namely, this inscription, "Holiness to the Lord," the same as was on the miter of the high priest ( Exodus 28:36 ). This implies that all things, even the most common, shall be sacred to Jehovah, and not merely the things which under the law had peculiar sanctity attached to them. The "bells" were metal plates hanging from the necks of horses and camels as ornaments, which tinkled (as the Hebrew root means) by striking against each other. Bells attached to horses are found represented on the walls of Sennacherib's palace at Koyunjik.
pots . . . like . . . bowls--the vessels used for boiling, for receiving ashes, &c., shall be as holy as the bowls used for catching the blood of the sacrificial victims 1 Samuel 2:14 ). The priesthood of Christ will be explained more fully both by the Mosaic types and by the New Testament in that temple of which Ezekiel speaks. Then the Song of Solomon, now obscure, will be understood, for the marriage feast of the Lamb will be celebrated in heaven ( Revelation 19:1-21 ), and on earth it will be a Solomonic period, peaceful, glorious, and nuptial. There will be no king but a prince; the sabbatic period of the judges will return, but not with the Old Testament, but New Testament glory ( Isaiah 1:26 , Ezekiel 45:1-25 ) [ROOS].

21. every pot--even in private houses, as in the temple, shall be deemed holy, so universal shall be the consecration of all things and persons to Jehovah.
take of them--as readily as they would take of the pots of the temple itself, whatever number they wanted for sacrifice.
no . . . Canaanite--no unclean or ungodly person ( Isaiah 35:8 , 52:1 , Joel 3:17 ). Compare as to the final state subsequent to the millennium, Revelation 21:27 , 22:15 . MAURER not so well translates "merchant" here, as in Proverbs 31:24 . If a man would have the beginnings of heaven, it must be by absolute consecration of everything to God on earth. Let his life be a liturgy, a holy service of acted worship [MOORE].