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LXX Zechariah

Septuagint

About this book
Chapter 14

1 Look, the days of the Lord come, and your captured goods shall be divided in you. 2 And I will gather all the Gentiles to Jerusalem to war, and the city shall be taken, and the houses plundered, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, but the rest of my people shall not be utterly cut off from the city. 3 And the Lord shall go forth, and fight with those Gentiles as when he fought in the day of war. 4 And his feet shall stand in that day on the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall split apart, half of it toward the east and half of it toward the west, a very great division;⁠ and half the mountain shall lean to the north, and half of it to the south. 5 And the valley of my mountains shall be closed up, and the valley of the mountains shall be joined on to Azal, and shall be blocked up as it was blocked up in the days of the earthquake, in the days of Uzziah king of Judah; and the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with him.⁠ 6 In that day there shall be no light, and cold and frost; 7 and it shall be for one day, and that day shall be known to the Lord, and it shall not be day nor night: but toward evening it shall be light. 8 And in that day living water shall come forth out of Jerusalem; half of it toward the former sea, and half of it toward the latter sea: and so shall it be in summer and spring. 9 And the Lord shall be king over all the earth: in that day there shall be one Lord, and his name one, 10 traveling around all the earth, and the wilderness from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem. And Ramah shall remain in its place. From the gate of Benjamin to the place of the first gate, to the gate of the corners, and to the tower of Hananel, as far as the king's wine presses, 11 they shall dwell in the city; and there shall be no more any curse, and Jerusalem shall dwell securely. 12 And this shall be the overthrow with which the Lord will strike all the nations, as many as have fought against Jerusalem; their flesh shall consume away while they are standing upon their feet, and their eyes shall melt out of their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth. 13 And there shall be in that day a great panic from the Lord upon them; and they shall lay hold every man of the hand of his neighbor, and his hand shall be clasped with the hand of his neighbor. 14 Judah also shall fight in Jerusalem; and he shall gather the strength of all the nations all around, gold, and silver, and clothing, in great abundance. 15 And this shall be the overthrow of the horses, and mules, and camels, and donkeys, and all the beasts that are in those camps, according to this overthrow. 16 And it will happen, that whoever shall be left of all the nations that came against Jerusalem, shall even come up every year to worship the king, the Lord Almighty, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. 17 And it will happen, that whoever of all the families of the earth shall not come up to Jerusalem to worship the king, the Lord Almighty, even these shall be added to the others. 18 And if the family of Egypt shall not go up, nor come there; then upon them shall be the overthrow with which the Lord shall strike all the nations, whichever of them shall not come up to keep the feast of tabernacles. 19 This shall be the sin of Egypt, and the sin of all the nations, whoever shall not come up to keep the feast of tabernacles. 20 In that day there shall be upon the bridle of every horse Holiness to the Lord Almighty; and the cauldrons in the house of the Lord shall be as bowls before the altar. 21 And every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holy to the Lord Almighty: and all that sacrifice shall come and take of them, and shall boil food in them: and in that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the Lord Almighty.

Texts in conversation

Compare LXX Zechariah 14:4 and Matthew 27:51

Septuagint · New Testament

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Summary

Matthew describes an unusual earthquake and opened tombs at Jesus’s death. This recalls Zechariah, where an earthquake marks God’s appearance with holy figures. Zechariah has no resurrection, but its language shapes Matthew’s story.

Passages

LXX Zechariah 14:4

Septuagint
3 And the Lord shall go forth, and fight with those Gentiles as when he fought in the day of war. 4 And his feet shall stand in that day on the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall split apart, half of it toward the east and half of it toward the west, a very great division; and half the mountain shall lean to the north, and half of it to the south. 5 And the valley of my mountains shall be closed up, and the valley of the mountains shall be joined on to Azal, and shall be blocked up as it was blocked up in the days of the earthquake, in the days of Uzziah king of Judah; and the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with him. 6 In that day there shall be no light, and cold and frost;
100–1 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Zechariah

Matthew 27:51

New Testament
51 Just then the temple curtain was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks were split apart. 52 And tombs were opened, and the bodies of many saints who had died were raised. 53 (They came out of the tombs after his resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people.) 54 Now when the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and what took place, they were extremely terrified and said, “Truly this one was God’s Son!”
70–90 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Matthew

References

"... Despite the parallel between Ezekiel 37:12 and Matthew 27:52, there is another Scripture that lays claim to bear directly on our text: Zechariah 14:4-5. The affinity between the two passages has probably gone largely unnoticed because, in the Christian tradition, Zechariah 14:4-5 has not been interpreted as an account of the resurrection ... Such an interpretation gains some support by (1) the Targum on Zechariah 14:3-5: the passage is introduced with God blowing the trumpet ten times to announce the resurrection of the dead ... later rabbinic uses of Zechariah 14:5 the "holy ones" of Zechariah are more than once identified not with the angels but with the ancient saints, specifically the prophets (for example, Midr. Rabbah on Song of Songs 4.11.1) ... Once Zechariah 14:4-5 LXX is read as a prophecy of the resurrection, its relation to Matthew 27:51-53 becomes manifest. In both texts (1) a resurrection of the dead takes place immediately outside of Jerusalem (contrast Ezekiel 37, where the resurrection takes places in the Diaspora); (2) there is an earthquake; (3) the verb schizo is used in the passive, in connection with a mountain (Zechariah) or rocks (Matthew); and (4) the resurrected ones are called hoi hagioi. These parallels are sufficient to permit the conclusion that Matt. 27:51-53 is based in part upon Zechariah 14:4-5 and not, as Senior holds, solely upon Ezekiel 37 ..."
Dale C. Allison, The End of the Ages Has Come: An Early Interpretation of the Passion and Resurrection of Jesus (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1985), 44.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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LXX Zechariah 14:4 and Matthew 27:51

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