What Does Zechariah 14:5 Mean in the King James?
And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.
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 same moment that sends you fleeing is the moment the LORD comes with all the set-apart ones.
THE MEANING
The verse meets you in a moment of rupture: you flee toward the valley as the fear of upheaval returns, and the LORD comes with all the set-apart ones. Urgent flight and divine arrival occupy the same scene.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that escape means abandonment: the flight unfolds in the very scene where the LORD comes with the set-apart ones.
THE ROOT
וְנַסְתֶּם
venastem
GROWS FROM
נוּס
nus
Flee, escape, take flight.
“flee” in this verse is venastem. The same verb names both flights in the verse, so the body’s escape repeats as the upheaval returns. The related מָנוֹס (manos), refuge, shows that flight can be movement toward shelter, not only movement away from danger.
ALSO GROWS
manos: Refuge, place of escape.
מָנוֹס
This branch opens flight toward a place of shelter, fitting the verse’s movement toward the valley.
henis: Cause to flee, drive away.
הֵנִיס
This causative form shows the force of flight: upheaval can drive a person from one place toward another.
הָרַעַשׁ
hara'ash
GROWS FROM
רעש
ra'ash
Shake, quake, tremble.
Ra’ash holds both the shaking itself and the tumult it produces. The remembered earthquake is not a quiet backdrop: its force returns in the present flight and shapes how the valley is reached.
ALSO GROWS
ra'ash: Quaking, tumult, commotion.
רַעַשׁ
This noun carries both the earth’s shaking and the disturbance that drives the flight.
hir'ish: Shake, cause to quake.
הִרְעִישׁ
This form makes the root’s motion active: the ground is shaken, not merely described as unstable.
קְדֹשִׁים
qedoshim
GROWS FROM
קדש
q-d-sh
Set apart, mark as distinct.
The ones accompanying the LORD are named from the same root as set-apartness and sanctuary. “Saints” therefore carries the sense of people marked as belonging to what is set apart, present within this scene of flight and arrival.
ALSO GROWS
qodesh: Set-apartness, sacredness.
קֹדֶשׁ
This branch names the quality carried by the people who arrive with the LORD.
miqdash: Sanctuary, set-apart place.
מִקְדָּשׁ
The same root names a place set apart, linking the accompanying people with a space marked for belonging.
THE PATTERN
When upheaval displaces the ground, scripture shows escape opening within the disturbance and refuge remaining present.
Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground: and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left.There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.THE THREAD
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 preceding verse shows the mountain splitting into a great valley before the flight described here. The same rupture that unsettles the ground opens the route toward which you flee.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us