◄ Zechariah 9:16 ►
On that day the LORD their God will save them as the flock of His people; for like jewels in a crown they will sparkle over His land.
Study Bible
On that day
This phrase often signifies a future time of divine intervention or fulfillment of prophecy. In the context of Zechariah, it points to a time when God will act decisively for His people. This is a common prophetic expression found throughout the Old Testament, indicating a significant event in God's redemptive plan (e.g., Isaiah 2:11, Joel 3:18).

the LORD their God will save them
This highlights God's role as the Savior of His people, emphasizing His covenant relationship with Israel. The deliverance mentioned here can be seen as both physical and spiritual, reflecting God's ongoing commitment to protect and redeem His people. This echoes earlier promises of salvation found in passages like Exodus 14:13-14 and Isaiah 43:11.

as the flock of His people
The imagery of a flock underscores the pastoral care and guidance God provides. It reflects the intimate relationship between God and His people, akin to a shepherd with his sheep. This metaphor is prevalent in Scripture, with Psalm 23 and John 10:11-16 illustrating God's protective and nurturing nature.

for like jewels in a crown
This simile conveys the value and beauty of God's people in His sight. It suggests honor and glory bestowed upon them, indicating their transformation and exaltation. The imagery of jewels is used elsewhere in Scripture to describe the preciousness of God's people (e.g., Malachi 3:17, Revelation 21:11).

they will sparkle over His land
This phrase suggests a visible manifestation of God's glory through His people. The land, often representing the Promised Land, is a place of blessing and fulfillment of God's promises. The sparkling signifies the radiance and testimony of God's work in His people, reminiscent of Isaiah 60:1-3, where the light of God's glory shines through His people to the nations.

Persons / Places / Events
1. The LORD (Yahweh)
The covenant-keeping God of Israel, who is portrayed as the Savior and Shepherd of His people.

2. His People (Israel)
The nation of Israel, often referred to as God's flock, whom He promises to save and protect.

3. The Day of Salvation
A prophetic reference to a future time when God will deliver His people, often associated with messianic expectations.

4. Jewels in a Crown
A metaphor for the value and beauty of God's people, indicating their preciousness and honor in His sight.

5. The Land
Refers to the Promised Land, which holds significant covenantal and eschatological importance for Israel.
Teaching Points
God as Savior and Shepherd
Recognize God's role as both Savior and Shepherd in your life, providing guidance, protection, and deliverance.

Value and Identity in Christ
Understand your identity as a precious jewel in God's crown, valued and honored by Him. This should shape your self-worth and purpose.

Hope in God's Promises
Hold onto the hope of God's promises for future deliverance and restoration, trusting in His faithfulness and timing.

Living as God's Treasured Possession
Live in a way that reflects your status as God's treasured possession, displaying His glory and righteousness in your daily life.

Community and Fellowship
Embrace the community of believers as part of God's flock, supporting and encouraging one another in faith and love.
Bible Study Questions
1. How does the imagery of God as a shepherd in Zechariah 9:16 enhance your understanding of His care and protection in your life?

2. In what ways can you reflect the value and beauty of being a "jewel in a crown" in your daily interactions with others?

3. How do the promises of God in Zechariah 9:16 encourage you to trust in His future deliverance and restoration?

4. What practical steps can you take to live as God's treasured possession, both individually and within your community of faith?

5. How does the connection between Zechariah 9:16 and other scriptures, such as John 10 and 1 Peter 2:9, deepen your understanding of your identity in Christ?
Connections to Other Scriptures
Psalm 23
The imagery of God as a shepherd who cares for His flock is echoed in this well-known psalm, emphasizing God's guidance and protection.

John 10
Jesus refers to Himself as the Good Shepherd, connecting the Old Testament imagery of God as the shepherd to His own ministry and mission.

1 Peter 2:9
The concept of God's people as a treasured possession is reiterated, highlighting their identity and purpose in God's plan.

Revelation 21
The imagery of jewels and precious stones is used to describe the New Jerusalem, symbolizing the beauty and glory of God's redeemed people.

Ezekiel 34
God promises to rescue His scattered sheep and be their shepherd, a theme that resonates with the promise of salvation in Zechariah 9:16.
Sermons
The Lord's PeopleWilliam Jay.Zechariah 9:16
God Works Amongst the Nations in the Interests of His PeopleHomilistZechariah 9:13-17
God Works Amongst the Nations in the Interests of His PeopleD. Thomas Zechariah 9:13-17
People
Aram, Javan, Jebusites, Zechariah, Zidon
Places
Ashdod, Ashkelon, Damascus, Ekron, Euphrates River, Gaza, Greece, Hadrach, Hamath, Jerusalem, Philistia, Sidon, Tyre, Zion
Topics
Crown, Displaying, Ensign, Flock, Giving, Glittering, Ground, Jewels, Lifted, Save, Saved, Saviour, Shine, Shining, Sparkle, Sparkling, Stones, Themselves
Dictionary of Bible Themes
Zechariah 9:16

     4342   jewels
     5280   crown
     6511   salvation
     7021   church, OT anticipations
     7130   flock, God's

Zechariah 9:16-17

     9220   day of the LORD

Library
Messiah's Entrance into Jerusalem
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: He is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass. -- And He shall speak peace unto the heathen. T he narrowness and littleness of the mind of fallen man are sufficiently conspicuous in the idea he forms of magnificence and grandeur. The pageantry and parade of a Roman triumph, or of an eastern monarch, as described in history, exhibit him to us …
John Newton—Messiah Vol. 1

And the Manner of his Entry into Jerusalem, which was the Capital of Judæa...
And the manner of His entry into Jerusalem, which was the capital of Judæa, where also was His royal seat and the temple of God, the prophet Isaiah declares: Say ye to the daughter of Sion, Behold a king corneth unto thee meek and sitting upon an ass, a colt the foal of an ass. [233] (Isa. lxii. 11, Zech. ix. 9) For, sitting. on an ass's colt, so He entered into Jerusalem, the multitudes strewing and putting down for Him their garments. And by the daughter of Sion he means Jerusalem. …
Irenæus—The Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching

Caesarea. Strato's Tower.
The Arabian interpreter thinks the first name of this city was Hazor, Joshua 11:1. The Jews, Ekron, Zephaniah 2:4. "R. Abhu saith," (he was of Caesarea,) "Ekron shall be rooted out"; this is Caesarea, the daughter of Edom, which is situated among things profane. She was a goad, sticking in Israel, in the days of the Grecians. But when the kingdom of the Asmonean family prevailed, it overcame her, &c. R. Josi Bar Chaninah saith, What is that that is written, 'And Ekron shall be as a Jebusite?' (Zech …
John Lightfoot—From the Talmud and Hebraica

History of the Interpretation.
1. AMONG THE JEWS. This History, as to its essential features, might, a priori, be sketched with tolerable certainty. From the nature of the case, we could scarcely expect that the Jews should have adopted views altogether erroneous as to the subject of the prophecy in question; for the Messiah appears in it, not in His humiliation, but in His glory--rich in gifts and blessings, and Pelagian self-delusion will, a priori, return an affirmative answer to the question as to whether one is …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament

Hosanna!
Assuredly, this honor paid to our Lord was passing strange; a gleam of sunlight in a day of clouds, a glimpse of summer-tide in a long and dreary winter. He that was, as a rule, "despised and rejected of men", was for the moment surrounded with the acclaim of the crowd. All men saluted him that day with their Hosannas, and the whole city was moved. It was a gala day for the disciples, and a sort of coronation day for their Lord. Why was the scene permitted? What was its meaning? The marvel is, that …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 37: 1891

And thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, too little to be among the thousands of Judah
"And thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, too little to be among the thousands of Judah, out of thee shall come forth unto Me (one) [Pg 480] to be Ruler in Israel; and His goings forth are the times of old, the days of eternity." The close connection of this verse with what immediately precedes (Caspari is wrong in considering iv. 9-14 as an episode) is evident, not only from the [Hebrew: v] copulative, and from the analogy of the near relation of the announcement of salvation to the prophecy of disaster …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament

The Christian State
Scripture references: Matthew 22:17-22; 17:24-27; Acts 23:5; John 6:15; Matthew 4:8-10; John 18:36-38; Mark 14; 61,62; John 18:33; 19:19; Isaiah 9:6,7; 60:3; Zechariah 9:10; Daniel 7:14; Matthew 26:64; 26:53,54; 16:16,17; 25:31,32. CHRIST AND THE STATE The Relation of Christ to the State.--He was an intense patriot. He loved His country. The names of His great countrymen, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joshua and David, were ever on His lips. He offered Himself as the national Messiah (Matthew 21:1-17), …
Henry T. Sell—Studies in the Life of the Christian

Jesus' Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem.
(from Bethany to Jerusalem and Back, Sunday, April 2, a.d. 30.) ^A Matt. XXI. 1-12, 14-17; ^B Mark XI. 1-11; ^C Luke XIX. 29-44; ^D John XII. 12-19. ^c 29 And ^d 12 On the morrow [after the feast in the house of Simon the leper] ^c it came to pass, when he he drew nigh unto Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount that is called Olivet, ^a 1 And when they came nigh unto Jerusalem, and came unto Bethphage unto { ^b at} ^a the mount of Olives [The name, Bethphage, is said to mean house of figs, but the …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

The First Day in Passion-Week - Palm-Sunday - the Royal Entry into Jerusalem
At length the time of the end had come. Jesus was about to make Entry into Jerusalem as King: King of the Jews, as Heir of David's royal line, with all of symbolic, typic, and prophetic import attaching to it. Yet not as Israel after the flesh expected its Messiah was the Son of David to make triumphal entrance, but as deeply and significantly expressive of His Mission and Work, and as of old the rapt seer had beheld afar off the outlined picture of the Messiah-King: not in the proud triumph of war-conquests, …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah

The Formation of the Old Testament Canon
[Sidenote: Israel's literature at the beginning of the fourth century before Christ] Could we have studied the scriptures of the Israelitish race about 400 B.C., we should have classified them under four great divisions: (1) The prophetic writings, represented by the combined early Judean, Ephraimite, and late prophetic or Deuteronomic narratives, and their continuation in Samuel and Kings, together with the earlier and exilic prophecies; (2) the legal, represented by the majority of the Old Testament …
Charles Foster Kent—The Origin & Permanent Value of the Old Testament

The Blessings of Noah Upon Shem and Japheth. (Gen. Ix. 18-27. )
Ver. 20. "And Noah began and became an husbandman, and planted vineyards."--This does not imply that Noah was the first who began to till the ground, and, more especially, to cultivate the vine; for Cain, too, was a tiller of the ground, Gen. iv. 2. The sense rather is, that Noah, after the flood, again took up this calling. Moreover, the remark has not an independent import; it serves only to prepare the way for the communication of the subsequent account of Noah's drunkenness. By this remark, …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament

The Quotation in Matt. Ii. 6.
Several interpreters, Paulus especially, have asserted that the interpretation of Micah which is here given, was that of the Sanhedrim only, and not of the Evangelist, who merely recorded what happened and was said. But this assertion is at once refuted when we consider the object which Matthew has in view in his entire representation of the early life of Jesus. His object in recording the early life of Jesus is not like that of Luke, viz., to communicate historical information to his readers. …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament

Fifthly, as this Revelation, to the Judgment of Right and Sober Reason,
appears of itself highly credible and probable, and abundantly recommends itself in its native simplicity, merely by its own intrinsic goodness and excellency, to the practice of the most rational and considering men, who are desirous in all their actions to have satisfaction and comfort and good hope within themselves, from the conscience of what they do: So it is moreover positively and directly proved to be actually and immediately sent to us from God, by the many infallible signs and miracles …
Samuel Clarke—A Discourse Concerning the Being and Attributes of God

The Gospel Feast
"When Jesus then lifted up His eyes, and saw a great company come unto Him, He saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread that these may eat?"--John vi. 5. After these words the Evangelist adds, "And this He said to prove him, for He Himself knew what He would do." Thus, you see, our Lord had secret meanings when He spoke, and did not bring forth openly all His divine sense at once. He knew what He was about to do from the first, but He wished to lead forward His disciples, and to arrest and …
John Henry Newman—Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VII

The Gospel of the Kingdom.
"This is He whom Seers in old time Chanted of with one accord; Whom the voices of the Prophets Promised in their faithful word." We have seen that, in the providence of God, John the Baptist was sent to proclaim to the world that "The Kingdom of Heaven" was at hand, and to point out the King. And as soon as the Herald had raised the expectation of men by the proclamation of the coming Kingdom, our Lord began His public ministry, the great object of which was the founding of His Kingdom for the salvation …
Edward Burbidge—The Kingdom of Heaven; What is it?

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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