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Zechariah

About this book
Chapter 14

1 A day of the Lord is about to come when your possessions will be divided as plunder in your midst. 2 For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to wage war; the city will be taken, its houses plundered, and the women raped.⁠ Then half of the city will go into exile, but the remainder of the people will not be taken away. 3 Then the Lord will go to battle and fight against those nations, just as he fought battles in ancient days.⁠ 4 On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives that lies to the east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in half from east to west, leaving a great valley. Half the mountain will move northward and the other half southward.⁠ 5 Then you will escape through my mountain valley, for the valley of the mountains will extend to Azal. Indeed, you will flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of King Uzziah of Judah. Then the Lord my God will come with all his holy ones with him.⁠ 6 On that day there will be no light—the sources of light in the heavens will congeal. 7 It will happen in one day—a day known to the Lord—not in the day or the night, but in the evening there will be light.⁠ 8 Moreover, on that day living waters will flow out from Jerusalem,⁠ half of them to the eastern sea and half of them to the western sea;⁠ it will happen both in summer and in winter.⁠ 9 The Lord will then be king over all the earth. In that day the Lord will be seen as one with a single name. 10 All the land will change and become like the rift valley from Geba to Rimmon, south of Jerusalem. Jerusalem will be raised up and will stay in its own place from the Benjamin Gate to the site of the First Gate and on to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the royal winepresses. 11 And people will settle there, and there will no longer be the threat of divine extermination—Jerusalem will dwell in security.⁠ 12 But this will be the nature of the plague with which the Lord will strike all the nations that have fought against Jerusalem: Their flesh will decay while they stand on their feet, their eyes will rot away in their sockets, and their tongues will dissolve in their mouths. 13 On that day there will be great confusion from the Lord among them; they will seize each other and attack one another violently. 14 Moreover, Judah will fight at Jerusalem, and the wealth of all the surrounding nations will be gathered up—gold, silver, and clothing in great abundance. 15 This is the kind of plague that will devastate horses, mules, camels, donkeys, and all the other animals in those camps. 16 Then all who survive from all the nations that came to attack Jerusalem will go up annually to worship the King, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, and to observe the Feast of Shelters.⁠ 17 But if any of the nations anywhere on earth refuse to go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, they will get no rain. 18 If the Egyptians will not do so, they will get no rain—instead there will be the kind of plague that the Lord inflicts on any nations that do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Shelters. 19 This will be the punishment of Egypt and of all nations that do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Shelters. 20 On that day the bells of the horses will bear the inscription “Holy to the Lord.” The cooking pots in the Lord’s temple will be as holy as the bowls in front of the altar. 21 Every cooking pot in Jerusalem and Judah will become holy in the sight of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, so that all who offer sacrifices may come and use some of them to boil their sacrifices in them. On that day there will no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.

Texts in conversation

Compare Zechariah 14:4 and Mark 14:26

Hebrew Bible · New Testament

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Summary

Mark describes Jesus on the Mount of Olives after sharing a final meal with his disciples, a location with eschatological expectation in Jewish tradition. Zechariah depicts the mountain splitting apart when God brings the heavenly army to rescue Israel.

Passages

Zechariah 14:4

Hebrew Bible
1 A day of the Lord is about to come when your possessions will be divided as plunder in your midst. 2 For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to wage war; the city will be taken, its houses plundered, and the women raped. Then half of the city will go into exile, but the remainder of the people will not be taken away. 3 Then the Lord will go to battle and fight against those nations, just as he fought battles in ancient days. 4 On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives that lies to the east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in half from east to west, leaving a great valley. Half the mountain will move northward and the other half southward. 5 Then you will escape through my mountain valley, for the valley of the mountains will extend to Azal. Indeed, you will flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of King Uzziah of Judah. Then the Lord my God will come with all his holy ones with him.
500–401 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Zechariah

Mark 14:26

New Testament
23 And after taking the cup and giving thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank from it. 24 He said to them, “This is my blood, the blood of the covenant, that is poured out for many. 25 I tell you the truth, I will no longer drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.” 26 After singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. 27 Then Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away, for it is written, “‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’ 28 But after I am raised, I will go ahead of you into Galilee.” 29 Peter said to him, “Even if they all fall away, I will not!” 30 Jesus said to him, “I tell you the truth, today—this very night—before a rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times.”
60–75 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Mark

References

"... Here Jesus looks ahead to the great messianic banquet in the new age, when the shroud of death will no longer cover the nations, and death will be swallowed up forever (Isaiah 25:6–8). All of this will come about because of his atoning death, because of the blood of the covenant. As Jesus looks ahead to the kingdom of God, this once again reminds the reader of the expectation of the coming of the Son of Man, for, according to Daniel 7, the kingdom will be given to him. But the evening passes without the fulfillment of this expectation. After singing a hymn, they once again find themselves on the Mount of Olives (verse 26), presumably around the midnight hour. As they stand for the second time on the eschatological mountain (compare Zechariah 14:4), Jesus delivers what could be called a ‘mini-apocalyptic discourse’, in which he informs his disciples that they will all fall away, fulfilling the apocalyptic prophecy of Zechariah ..."
Peter G. Bolt, The Cross from a Distance: Atonement in Mark's Gospel (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2004), 106.

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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Zechariah 14:4 and Mark 14:26

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