What Does Zechariah 14:15 Mean in the King James?
And so shall be the plague of the horse, of the mule, of the camel, and of the ass, and of all the beasts that shall be in these tents, as this plague.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The repeated word “plague” binds the animals to the same blow already falling on the people.
THE MEANING
Every animal in the camps falls within the reach of the same plague named in the surrounding scene. Horses, mules, camels, asses, and all the beasts bear the blow too; its reach extends through the whole encampment.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that the blow falls only on people: the verse includes every animal in the camps.
THE ROOT
מַגֵּפָה
maggephah
GROWS FROM
נ־ג־ף
To strike or smite; a blow that strikes down.
The word translated “plague” grows from a root meaning “to strike.” Zechariah 14:12 uses that same root for both “plague” and “smite,” linking the affliction named here with the act of striking.
ALSO GROWS
nagaph: To strike or smite.
נָגַף
In Zechariah 14:12, this verb shares its root with “plague,” showing the action and the affliction as one word family.
negeph: A blow, calamity, or plague.
נֶגֶף
This related noun makes the root’s concrete sense visible: maggephah is a strike that has fallen.
THE PATTERN
Sweeping divine action can reach nonhuman life, in both devastation and preservation.
Behold, the hand of the LORD is upon thy cattle which is in the field, upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the oxen, and upon the sheep: there shall be a very grievous murrain.Thy righteousness is like the great mountains; thy judgments are a great deep: O LORD, thou preservest man and beast.And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed.THE THREAD
And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.The English calls the noun “plague” and the verb “smite,” but both come from נָגַף (nagaph, “to strike or smite”). That verse names the blow as an action; this one names it as a plague reaching even the animals.
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