◄ Zechariah 14:13 ►
On that day a great panic from the LORD will come upon them, so that each will seize the hand of another, and the hand of one will rise against the other.
Study Bible
On that day
This phrase is a recurring motif in prophetic literature, often referring to a future time of divine intervention or judgment. In the Hebrew, "yom hahu" signifies a specific, appointed time when God's purposes will be fulfilled. This eschatological term points to the culmination of God's plan, emphasizing the certainty and divine orchestration of the events described.

a great panic
The Hebrew word for "panic" is "mehumah," which can also mean confusion or tumult. This term is used in the Old Testament to describe a divinely induced chaos among enemies (e.g., Exodus 23:27). The "great panic" indicates a supernatural disturbance, suggesting that God Himself is orchestrating this confusion to achieve His purposes, demonstrating His sovereignty over human affairs.

from the LORD
This phrase underscores the source of the panic, attributing it directly to Yahweh. It highlights God's active role in the unfolding events, reinforcing the theme of divine judgment and intervention. The use of "LORD" (YHWH) emphasizes the covenantal relationship between God and His people, reminding readers of His faithfulness and justice.

will be among them
The phrase suggests an internal disruption within the ranks of those opposing God. The Hebrew preposition "b" (among) indicates that the panic is not just external but deeply embedded within the group, leading to internal strife and disarray. This internal chaos serves as a divine tool to dismantle opposition.

so that each will seize the hand of another
This imagery of seizing hands conveys a sense of desperation and confusion. The Hebrew verb "chazaq" (to seize) implies a forceful or violent action, suggesting that the panic leads to irrational and aggressive behavior. This reflects the breakdown of social order and trust, as individuals turn against one another in fear.

and the hand of one will rise against the other
The phrase paints a picture of mutual hostility and conflict. The Hebrew word "alah" (to rise) can imply an aggressive or hostile action. This internal conflict is a common theme in biblical narratives where God intervenes, as seen in the account of Gideon (Judges 7:22). It serves as a reminder of the futility of opposing God's will and the inevitable self-destruction that follows.

Persons / Places / Events
1. The LORD
The divine initiator of the events described, emphasizing His sovereignty and power over the nations.

2. The People
Refers to the nations gathered against Jerusalem, experiencing the panic and confusion sent by the LORD.

3. Jerusalem
The central place of the prophetic events, representing God's chosen city and His people.

4. The Day of the LORD
A prophetic event characterized by divine intervention, judgment, and the ultimate establishment of God's kingdom.

5. Panic
A divinely induced confusion and fear that causes disarray among the enemies of Jerusalem.
Teaching Points
Divine Sovereignty
Recognize that God is in control of all events, including the actions of nations and individuals. Trust in His ultimate plan and purpose.

Protection of God's People
Understand that God can use even the confusion and conflict of enemies to protect and deliver His people.

The Day of the LORD
Be aware of the prophetic significance of the "Day of the LORD" as a time of both judgment and salvation. Live in readiness for God's intervention in history.

Interpersonal Conflict
Reflect on how God can use even human conflict to fulfill His purposes. Seek peace and reconciliation in personal relationships, knowing that God can work through all circumstances.

Faith in Uncertainty
In times of panic and confusion, maintain faith in God's promises and His ability to bring order out of chaos.
Bible Study Questions
1. How does the concept of divine-induced panic in Zechariah 14:13 challenge or reinforce your understanding of God's sovereignty?

2. In what ways can the events described in Zechariah 14:13 encourage believers facing opposition or conflict today?

3. How do the themes of confusion and conflict among enemies in Zechariah 14:13 relate to other biblical accounts of God's deliverance?

4. What practical steps can you take to live in readiness for the "Day of the LORD" as described in Zechariah and other prophetic scriptures?

5. How can you apply the lessons of divine protection and intervention in your personal life, especially during times of uncertainty or fear?
Connections to Other Scriptures
1 Samuel 14:20
This passage describes a similar panic sent by God among the Philistines, causing them to turn on each other, illustrating God's ability to protect His people through confusion among their enemies.

Isaiah 19:2
This verse speaks of God stirring up Egyptians against each other, showing a pattern of divine intervention through internal conflict among adversaries.

Ezekiel 38:21
God promises to call for a sword against Gog, with each man's sword against his brother, highlighting the theme of divine-induced chaos among enemies.

Matthew 24:7
Jesus speaks of nation rising against nation, which can be seen as a reflection of the chaos and conflict described in Zechariah 14:13.

Revelation 16:14
The gathering of nations for battle in the end times, where God ultimately intervenes, parallels the events in Zechariah.
Sermons
The Elements by Which the Divine Government Punishes SinHomilistZechariah 14:12-14
The Punishment of God's EnemiesT. V. Moore, D. D.Zechariah 14:12-14
The Elements by Which the Divine Government Punishes SinD. Thomas Zechariah 14:12-15
People
Azel, Benjamin, Uzziah, Zechariah
Places
Azal, Corner Gate, Egypt, Gate of Benjamin, Geba, Jerusalem, Mount of Olives, Rimmon, Tower of Hananel
Topics
Another's, Attack, Destruction, Fall, Fear, Fellow, Hold, Lay, Lifted, Man's, Neighbor, Neighbour, Neighbour's, Panic, Pass, Raised, Rise, Seize, Seized, Tumult
Dictionary of Bible Themes
Zechariah 14:13

     4045   chaos

Zechariah 14:12-13

     9220   day of the LORD

Zechariah 14:12-15

     4843   plague

Library
Light at Evening Time
This, then, shall be the subject of my present discourse. There are different evening times that happen to the church and to God's people, and as a rule we may rest quite certain that at evening time there shall be light. God very frequently acts in grace in such a manner that we can find a parallel in nature. For instance, God says, "As the rain cometh down and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, even so shall my word be, it shall not return unto me void, it shall accomplish that which …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 3: 1857

Light at Evening Time
AS WE read the Scriptures, we are continually startled by fresh discoveries of the magnificence of God. Our attention is fixed upon a passage, and presently sparklets of fire and glory dart forth. It strikes us; we are struck by it. Hence these bright coruscations. Our admiration is excited. We could not have thought that so much light could possibly lie concealed within a few words. Our text thus reveals to us in a remarkable manner the penetration, the discernment, the clear-sightedness of God. …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 62: 1916

A Peal of Bells
The text, as you perceive, deals with horses which were unclean under the Jewish law yet, in the day spoken of in the text, the horses themselves shall be purged from commonness or uncleanness, and their harness shall be dedicated to God as certainly as the vestments of the High Priest himself. It will be a happy day indeed when the men who deal with horses, too often a race anything but honest and upbeat shall exhibit in their common transactions a consecration to God, so that on the horses' furniture …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 7: 1861

24TH DAY. Eventide Light.
"He is Faithful that Promised." "At evening-time it shall be light."--ZECH. xiv. 7. Eventide Light. How inspiring the thought of coming glory! How would we rise above our sins, and sorrows, and sufferings, if we could live under the power of "a world to come!" Were faith to take at all times its giant leap beyond a soul-trammelling earth, and remember its brighter destiny. If it could stand on its Pisgah Mount, and look above and beyond the mists and vapours of this land of shadows, and rest on …
John Ross Macduff—The Faithful Promiser

That all Troubles are to be Endured for the Sake of Eternal Life
"My Son, let not the labours which thou hast undertaken for Me break thee down, nor let tribulations cast thee down in any wise, but let my promise strengthen and comfort thee in every event. I am sufficient to reward thee above all measure and extent. Not long shalt thou labour here, nor always be weighed down with sorrows. Wait yet a little while, and thou shalt see a speedy end of thine evils. An hour shall come when all labour and confusion shall cease. Little and short is all that passeth …
Thomas A Kempis—Imitation of Christ

Sanctified Commonplaces
In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, Holiness unto the Lord; and the pots in the Lord's house shall be like the bowls before the altar. Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto the Lord of hosts.' (Zechariah xiv. 20, 21.) What I have to say may not strike some of you as setting forth any very high or exalted truth, but I am satisfied as to its being a very important matter. I want to talk to you about the sanctification of the commonplace things in life. …
T. H. Howard—Standards of Life and Service

The Girdle of the City. Nehemiah 3
The beginning of the circumference was from 'the sheep-gate.' That, we suppose, was seated on the south part, yet but little removed from that corner, which looks south-east. Within was the pool of Bethesda, famous for healings. Going forward, on the south part, was the tower Meah: and beyond that, "the tower of Hananeel": in the Chaldee paraphrast it is, 'The tower Piccus,' Zechariah 14:10; Piccus, Jeremiah 31:38.--I should suspect that to be, the Hippic tower, were not that placed on the north …
John Lightfoot—From the Talmud and Hebraica

The Evening Light
This chapter is an article written by the author many years after she had received light on the unity of the church. It will acquaint the reader with what is meant by the expression "evening light." "At evening time it shall be light." "And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark: but it shall be one day which shall be known to the Lord, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light" (Zechariah 14:6,7). The expression …
Mary Cole—Trials and Triumphs of Faith

Three Inscriptions with one Meaning
'Thou shalt make a plate of pure gold, and grave upon it ... HOLINESS TO THE LORD.'--EXODUS xxviii. 36. 'In that day there shall be upon the bells of the horses, HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD.'--ZECH. xiv. 20. 'His name shall be in their foreheads.'--REV. xxii. 4. You will have perceived my purpose in putting these three widely separated texts together. They all speak of inscriptions, and they are all obviously connected with each other. The first of them comes from the ancient times of the institution …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The River of Egypt, Rhinocorura. The Lake of Sirbon.
Pliny writes, "From Pelusium are the intrenchments of Chabrias: mount Casius: the temple of Jupiter Casius: the tomb of Pompey the Great: Ostracine: Arabia is bounded sixty-five miles from Pelusium: soon after begins Idumea and Palestine from the rising up of the Sirbon lake." Either my eyes deceive me, while I read these things,--or mount Casius lies nearer Pelusium, than the lake of Sirbon. The maps have ill placed the Sirbon between mount Casius and Pelusium. Sirbon implies burning; the name of …
John Lightfoot—From the Talmud and Hebraica

The Prophet Amos.
GENERAL PRELIMINARY REMARKS. It will not be necessary to extend our preliminary remarks on the prophet Amos, since on the main point--viz., the circumstances under which he appeared as a prophet--the introduction to the prophecies of Hosea may be regarded as having been written for those of Amos also. For, according to the inscription, they belong to the same period at which Hosea's prophetic ministry began, viz., the latter part of the reign of Jeroboam II., and after Uzziah had ascended the …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament

In the Temple at the Feast of Tabernacles.
(October, a.d. 29.) ^D John VII. 11-52. ^d 11 The Jews therefore sought him at the feast, and said, Where is he? [It was now eighteen months since Jesus had visited Jerusalem, at which time he had healed the impotent man at Bethesda. His fame and prolonged obscurity made his enemies anxious for him to again expose himself in their midst. John here used the word "Jews" as a designation for the Jerusalemites, who, as enemies of Christ, were to be distinguished from the multitudes who were in doubt …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

The Evening of the Third Day in Passion-Week - on the Mount of Olives: Discoures to the Disciples Concerning the Last Things.
THE last and most solemn denunciation of Jerusalem had been uttered, the last and most terrible prediction of judgment upon the Temple spoken, and Jesus was suiting the action to the word. It was as if He had cast the dust of His Shoes against the House' that was to be left desolate.' And so He quitted for ever the Temple and them that held office in it. They had left the Sanctuary and the City, had crossed black Kidron, and were slowly climbing the Mount of Olives. A sudden turn in the road, and …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah

A vision of the King.
ONE of the most blessed occupations for the believer is the prayerful searching of God's holy Word to discover there new glories and fresh beauties of Him, who is altogether lovely. Shall we ever find out all which the written Word reveals of Himself and His worthiness? This wonderful theme can never be exhausted. The heart which is devoted to Him and longs through the presence and indwelling of the Holy Spirit to be closer to the Lord, to hear and know more of Himself, will always find something …
Arno Gaebelein—The Lord of Glory

The Promise to the Patriarchs.
A great epoch is, in Genesis, ushered in with the history of the time of the Patriarchs. Luther says: "This is the third period in which Holy Scripture begins the history of the Church with a new family." In a befitting manner, the representation is opened in Gen. xii. 1-3 by an account of the first revelation of God, given to Abraham at Haran, in which the way is opened up for all that follows, and in which the dispensations of God are brought before us in a rapid survey. Abraham is to forsake …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament

The Prophet Joel.
PRELIMINARY REMARKS. The position which has been assigned to Joel in the collection of the Minor Prophets, furnishes an external argument for the determination of the time at which Joel wrote. There cannot be any doubt that the Collectors were guided by a consideration of the chronology. The circumstance, that they placed the prophecies of Joel just between the two prophets who, according to the inscriptions and contents of their prophecies, belonged to the time of Jeroboam and Uzziah, is …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament

Zechariah
CHAPTERS I-VIII Two months after Haggai had delivered his first address to the people in 520 B.C., and a little over a month after the building of the temple had begun (Hag. i. 15), Zechariah appeared with another message of encouragement. How much it was needed we see from the popular despondency reflected in Hag. ii. 3, Jerusalem is still disconsolate (Zech. i. 17), there has been fasting and mourning, vii. 5, the city is without walls, ii. 5, the population scanty, ii. 4, and most of the people …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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