Zechariah 14:9

And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

14:8-15 Some consider that the progress of the gospel, beginning from Jerusalem, is referred to by the living waters flowing from that city. Neither shall the gospel and means of grace, nor the graces of the Spirit wrought in the hearts of believers by those means, ever fail, by reason either of the heat of persecution, or storms of temptation, or the blasts of any other affliction. Tremendous judgments appear to be foretold, to be sent upon those who should oppose the settlement of the Jews in their own land. How far they are to be understood literally, events alone can determine. The furious rage and malice which stir up men against each other, are faint shadows of the enmity which reigns among those who have perished in their sins. Even the inferior creatures often suffer for the sin of man, and in his plagues. Thus God will show his displeasure against sin.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And the Lord shall be king over all the earth - Such should be the influence of the living water, that is, of the Spirit of God. God who has ever reigned and will reign, "a great King over all the earth" Psalm 47:3, Psalm 47:8, shall be owned by His creatures, as what He is.

There shall be one Lord - More exactly, "The Lord shall be One, and His Name One." He had before prophesied, "I will cut off the names of the idols out of the land" Zechariah 13:2. The Church being thus cleansed, no other lord or object of worship should be named but "Himself." This is one of those prophecies, of continued expansion and development, ever bursting out and enlarging, yet never, until the end, reaching its full fulfillment. Dionysius: "Since in this life we contemplate God in His effects, in which His whole perfection shineth not forth now we know Him obscurely and imperfectly, His perfections being in divers diversely represented. In our home we shall see Him as He is, face to Face, through His Essence. Therefore then He will be represented by one name, as He shall be beheld by one gaze."

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

9. king over all … earth—Isa 54:5 implies that this is to be the consequence of Israel being again recognized by God as His own people (Da 2:44; Re 11:15).

one Lord … name one—Not that He is not so already, but He shall then be recognized by all unanimously as "One." Now there are "gods many and lords many." Then Jehovah alone shall be worshipped. The manifestation of the unity of the Godhead shall be simultaneous with that of the unity of the Church. Believers are one in spirit already, even as God is one (Eph 4:3-6). But externally there are sad divisions. Not until these disappear, shall God reveal fully His unity to the world (Joh 17:21, 23). Then shall there be "a pure language, that all may call upon the name of the Lord with one consent" (Zep 3:9). The Son too shall at last give up His mediatorial kingdom to the Father, when the purposes for which it was established shall have been accomplished, "that God may be all in all" (1Co 15:24).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The Lord; God, Father, Son, and Spirit,

Shall be King; acknowledged to be, men shall confess, that as he only is, so he ought to be owned, only true God, and King of his church.

Over all the earth; over the heathen. the Gentiles or Roman empire, as well as once over the Jewish state.

In that day of deposing idols, and advancing the true God, all his churches shall east off idolatry, and agree in worshipping one God, in one way of spiritual worship and hearty obedience.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And the Lord shall be King over all the earth,.... This refers to the spiritual reign of Christ in the latter day; upon the success of the Gospel everywhere, there will be great conversions in all places; Gospel churches will be set up and ordinances administered everywhere; the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord; his kingdom will be from sea to sea, from the eastern to the western one, and his dominion will reach to the ends of the earth; Popish nations, Mahometan kingdoms, Pagan ones, and all the kings of the earth, will become Christian, and submit to the sceptre of Christ's kingdom:

in that day shall there be one Lord; there is but one Lord in right now, and there is but one in fact that is owned by real Christians; and there will be but one in the spiritual reign, among all that are called Christians; there will be but one Lord and Head to Jews and Gentiles, Hosea 1:11 the pope of Rome will be no more owned as head of the church, nor any other:

and his name, one; this refers not to any particular name by which Christ shall be called; but rather to that by which his people shall be called; all names of distinction being now laid aside, and only that of Christians retained; though it chiefly designs unity of doctrine, uniformity of worship, one and the same way of administering ordinances: it signifies that there will be one true, spiritual, uniform worship and religion; there will be no different sentiments and principles in religion; nor different practices and modes of worship; nor different sects; but all agreeing in the same faith and practice, under one Lord and King, Christ Jesus. So the Targum,

"they shall serve before the Lord with one shoulder; for his name is firm in the world, and there is none besides it.''

This passage is referred by the ancient Jews (l) to the times of the Messiah.

(l) Zohar in Deut. fol. 110. 2.

Geneva Study Bible

And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one {k} LORD, and his name one.

(k) All idolatry and superstition will be abolished, and there will be one God, one faith, and one religion.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

9. the earth] Rather, the land, as in Zechariah 14:10. The wider scope is virtually included, but is not here directly under consideration.

shall there be one Lord, &c.] Rather, Jehovah shall be one, &c., i.e. He shall be one in the recognition and worship of men, as He is unchangeably in His essence and in fact.

and his name one] i. e., as Calvin who discusses this clause at length points out, not only shall one supreme God and fountain as it were of Deity be acknowledged—for many even of the heathen acknowledged that—but His manifold revelations of Himself shall no longer be regarded as so many distinct and inferior deities, but as parts and aspects of the one sole Name by which He makes Himself known to men. Even the Three Persons of the blessed Trinity are included in the One Name. Matthew 28:19.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 9. - All the earth; all the land of Israel (vers. 8, 10) - a type of the kingdom of God in all its extent (Revelation 11:15, "The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign forever and ever"). Shall there be one Lord; rather, Jehovah shall be one. He shall be universally acknowledged as "the blessed and only Potentate" (1 Timothy 6:15). His name one. Idolatry shall be abolished, and the one God shall be everywhere adored (comp. Zechariah 13:2; Deuteronomy 6:4). Men shall no longer attribute operations and effects to various heavenly powers, but shall see and confess that all are derived from and centre in him, and are only different revelations of his ineffable nature and attributes. We do not, indeed, see this prediction yet fulfilled, but the grace to accomplish it is ready and operating; it is only men's perverse wills that impede the gracious purpose of God. Zechariah 14:9

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Zechariah 14:8. "And it will come to pass in that day, that living waters will go out from Jerusalem; by half into the eastern sea, and by half into the western sea: in summer and in winter will it be. Zechariah 14:9. And Jehovah will be King over all the land; in that day will Jehovah be one, and His name one. Zechariah 14:10. The whole land will turn as the plain from Geba to Rimmon, south of Jerusalem; and this will be high, and dwell in its place, from the gate of Benjamin to the place of the first gate, to the corner gate, and from the tower of Chananeel to the king's wine-presses. Zechariah 14:11. And men will dwell therein, and there will be no more curse (ban); and Jerusalem will dwell securely." The living water which issues from Jerusalem, and pours over the land on both sides, flowing both into the eastern or Dead Sea, and into the hinder (i.e., western) or Mediterranean Sea (see at Joel 2:20), is, according to Joel 3:18 and Ezekiel 47:1-12, a figurative representation of the salvation and blessing which will flow out of Jerusalem, the centre of the kingdom of God, over the holy land, and produce vigorous life on every hand. According to Joel and Ezekiel, the water issues from the temple (see at Joel 3:18). Zechariah adds, that this will take place in summer and winter, i.e., will proceed without interruption throughout the whole year, whereas natural streams dry up in summer time in Palestine. To this blessing there is added the higher spiritual blessing, that Jehovah will be King over all the land, and His name alone will be mentioned and revered. כּל־הארץ does not mean the whole earth, but, as in Zechariah 14:8 and Zechariah 14:10, the whole of the land of Canaan or of Israel, which is bounded by the Dead Sea and the Mediterranean. It by no means follows from this, however, that Zechariah is simply speaking of a glorification of Palestine. For Canaan, or the land of Israel, is a type of the kingdom of God in the full extent which it will have on the earth in the last days depicted here. Jehovah's kingship does not refer to the kingdom of nature, but to the kingdom of grace, - namely, to the perfect realization of the sovereignty of God, for which the old covenant prepared the way; whereas the old Israel continually rebelled against Jehovah's being King, both by its sin and its idolatry. This rebellion, i.e., the apostasy of the nation from its God, is to cease, and the Lord alone will be King and God of the redeemed nation, and be acknowledged by it; His name alone will be mentioned, and not the names of idols as well.

The earthly soil of the kingdom of God will then experience a change. The whole land will be levelled into a plain, and Jerusalem will be elevated in consequence; and Jerusalem, when thus exalted, will be restored in its fullest extent. יסּב (imperf. kal, not niphal; see Ges. 67, 5), to change like the plain, i.e., to change so as to become like the plain. הערבה is not a plain generally, in which case the article would be used generically, but the plain, so called κατ ̓ ἐξοχήν, the plain of the Jordan, or the Ghor (see at Deuteronomy 1:1). The definition "from Geba to Rimmon" does not belong to כּערבה (Umbreit, Neum., Klief.), but to כּל־הארץ; for there was no plain between Geba and Rimmon, but only an elevated, hilly country. Geba is the present Jeba, about three hours to the north of Jerusalem (see at Joshua 18:24), and was the northern frontier city of the kingdom of Judah (2 Kings 23:8). Rimmon, which is distinguished by the clause "to the south of Jerusalem" from the Rimmon in Galilee, the present Rummaneh to the north of Nazareth (see at Joshua 19:13), and from the rock of Rimmon, the present village of Rummon, about fifteen Roman miles to the north of Jerusalem (see Judges 20:45), is the Rimmon situated on the border of Edom, which was given up by the tribe of Judah to the Simeonites (Joshua 15:32; Joshua 19:7), probably on the site of the present ruins of Um er Rummanim, four hours to the north of Beersheba (see at Joshua 15:32). To וראמה וגו we must supply as the subject Jerusalem, which has been mentioned just before. ראמה is probably only an outwardly expanded form of רמה from רוּם, like קאם in Hosea 10:14. The whole land will be lowered, that Jerusalem alone may be high. This is, of course, not to be understood as signifying a physical elevation caused by the depression of the rest of the land; but the description is a figurative one, like the exaltation of the temple mountain above all the mountains in Micah 4:1. Jerusalem, as the residence of the God-King, is the centre of the kingdom of God; and in the future this is to tower high above all the earth. The figurative description is attached to the natural situation of Jerusalem, which stood upon a broad mountain ridge, and was surrounded by mountains, which were loftier than the city (see Robinson, Palestine). The exaltation is a figurative representation of the spiritual elevation and glory which it is to receive. Moreover, Jerusalem is to dwell on its ancient site (ישׁב תּחתּיה, as in Zechariah 12:6). The meaning of this is not that the exaltation above the surrounding land will be the only alteration that will take place in its situation (Koehler); but, as a comparison with Jeremiah 31:38 clearly shows, that the city will be restored or rebuilt in its former extent, and therefore is to be completely recovered from the ruin brought upon it by conquest and plunder (Zechariah 14:1). The boundaries of the city that are mentioned here cannot be determined with perfect certainty. The first definitions relate to the extent of the city from east to west. The starting-point (for the use of למן, see Haggai 2:18) is Benjamin's gate, in the north wall, through which the road to Benjamin and thence to Ephraim ran, so that it was no doubt the same as Ephraim's gate mentioned in 2 Kings 14:13 and Nehemiah 8:16. The terminus ad quem, on the other hand, is doubtful, viz., "to the place of the first gate, to the corner gate." According to the grammatical construction, עד־שׁער הפּנּים is apparently in apposition to עד־מקום שׁער הר, or a more precise description of the position of the first gate; and Hitzig and Kliefoth have taken the words in this sense. Only we cannot see any reason why the statement "to the place of the first gate" should be introduced at all, if the other statement "to the corner gate" describes the very same terminal point, and that in a clearer manner. We must therefore assume, as the majority of commentators have done, that the two definitions refer to two different terminal points; in other words, that they define the extent both eastwards and westwards from the Benjamin's gate, which stood near the centre of the north wall. The corner gate (sha‛ar happinnı̄m is no doubt the same as sha‛ar happinnâh in 2 Kings 14:13 and Jeremiah 31:38) was at the western corner of the north wall. "The first gate" is supposed to be identical with שׁער היּשׁנה, the gate of the old (city), in Nehemiah 3:6 and Nehemiah 12:39, and its place at the north-eastern corner of the city. The definitions which follow give the extent of the city from north to south. We must supply מן before מגדּל. The tower of Hananeel (Jeremiah 31:38; Nehemiah 3:1; Nehemiah 12:39) stood at the north-east corner of the city (see at Nehemiah 3:1). The king's wine-presses were unquestionably in the king's gardens at the south side of the city (Nehemiah 3:15). In the city so glorified the inhabitants dwell (ישׁבוּ in contrast to going out as captives or as fugitives, Zechariah 14:2, Zechariah 14:5), and that as a holy nation, for there will be no more any ban in the city. The ban presupposes sin, and is followed by extermination as a judgment (cf. Joshua 6:18). The city and its inhabitants will therefore be no more exposed to destruction, but will dwell safely, and have no more hostile attacks to fear (cf. Isaiah 65:18. and Revelation 22:3).