Zechariah 14:2
For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
Study Note
Study Note
The apocalyptic vision 'I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity' presents Jerusalem's penultimate devastation before the final divine intervention in verse 3-4. The structure follows the classic prophetic 'before-and-after' pattern of final distress (cf. Joel 3; Ezekiel 38-39; Daniel 12:1: 'a time of trouble such as never was') followed by divine deliverance, presenting deepest crisis as the threshold of eschatological salvation. The theological problem — God gathering the nations against his own city — follows the pattern of Isaiah 10:5-6 (God sending Assyria) and Habakkuk 1:6 (God raising Babylon): the nations become God's judgment-instruments before becoming themselves judged. Luke 21:20-24 applies the pattern to the Roman siege of 70 AD as its historical fulfilment within the broader eschatological framework.
Other Translations
For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
And I have gathered all the nations unto Jerusalem to battle, And captured hath been the city, And spoiled have been the houses, And the women are lain with, Gone forth hath half the city in a removal, And the remnant of the people are not cut off from the city.
For I will get all the nations together to make war against Jerusalem; and the town will be overcome, and the goods taken from the houses, and the women taken by force: and half the town will go away as prisoners, and the rest of the people will not be cut off from the town.
Cross References
The Lord shall establish thee an holy people unto himself, as he hath sworn unto thee, if thou shalt keep …
And thou shalt not go aside from any of the words which I command thee this day, to the right …
And he will lift up an ensign to the nations from far, and will hiss unto them from the end …
Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives ravished.
Behold, it is written before me: I will not keep silence, but will recompense, even recompense into their bosom,
And I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains: and …
But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, …
The word which came unto Jeremiah from the Lord, when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and all his army, and all …
The adversary hath spread out his hand upon all her pleasant things: for she hath seen that the heathen entered …
They ravished the women in Zion, and the maids in the cities of Judah.