What Does Zechariah 14:4 Mean in the King James?
And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.
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 mountain beneath the standing feet opens into a passage through itself.
THE MEANING
The verse places you beside ground that opens beneath the standing feet: the mountain splits east to west, and its two halves move north and south. The rupture makes a great valley, turning the landscape itself into a passage.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that what seems fixed cannot become a way through: the mountain itself is split and displaced.
THE ROOT
וְנִבְקַע
wĕnibqa‘
GROWS FROM
בקע
b-q-‘
Split, cleave, break open.
“cleave” in this verse is wĕnibqa‘. The mountain is not merely moved; it is split open. The same root also gives the Hebrew word for a valley or plain, so the opening and the passage belong to one word family.
ALSO GROWS
bāqa‘: Split or break open.
בָּקַע
The sea is split with this same root in Exodus 14:21, where the KJV says the waters are “divided.”
biq‘ah: Valley or plain.
בִּקְעָה
This branch lets the valley carry the shape of an opening: the split mountain becomes the passage.
יְרוּשָׁלַם
Yerushalayim
GROWS FROM
שלם
sh-l-m
Be whole, complete, intact.
“Jerusalem” in this verse is Yerushalayim. The city’s name echoes shalom, wholeness, and its -ayim ending carries the dual form: twofold wholeness. The split mountain stands before a city whose name holds wholeness in the same frame.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness.
שָׁלוֹם
The name’s echo of wholeness sharpens the contrast between the divided mountain and the city before it.
shalem: Whole, complete.
שָׁלֵם
This branch makes completeness part of the name’s resonance, not just a label for a place.
THE PATTERN
When divine presence enters a blocked landscape, the barrier is split or altered and a passage appears.
And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the LORD caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain:And the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom.THE THREAD
And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the LORD caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.Both verses use בָּקַע (baqa‘, split open): here the mountain is cleft, and there the waters are divided. The same Hebrew action opens a barrier into a way through.
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