What Does Zechariah 14:8 Mean in the King James?
And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be.
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 waters called alive do not stay at the source: they flow toward both seas and continue through summer and winter.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks of life flowing outward from the place of wholeness toward both horizons. Its flow holds in summer and winter, so its source is not defined by a favorable season.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that life can flow only when conditions are favorable.
THE ROOT
חַיִּים
chayyim
GROWS FROM
חיה
To live, be alive.
The waters are described with the word-family of life itself, not merely as water that happens to move. This same family describes living beings, giving the image a vitality that flows outward.
ALSO GROWS
chay: Alive, living.
חַי
The waters carry the quality of life, not just the presence of water.
chayyah: A living creature.
חַיָּה
The same root names life in a living being, linking the waters with what lives.
יֵצְאוּ
yetse'u
GROWS FROM
יצא
To go out, emerge.
“go out” in this verse is yetse'u. The waters do not merely exist at Jerusalem; their defining action is to emerge from it. The root links the scene to an outlet, picturing life as a source that flows outward.
ALSO GROWS
yetzi'ah: Going out, departure, exit.
יְצִיאָה
It carries the same movement from an interior place to what lies beyond it.
motsa: Outlet, point of origin.
מוֹצָא
The related word joins emergence with its source, sharpening the image of water flowing out from Jerusalem.
יְרוּשָׁלַיִם
Yerushalayim
GROWS FROM
שלם
To be whole, complete.
“Jerusalem” in this verse is Yerushalayim. The name carries the sense of shalom, wholeness; here, wholeness is a source from which living waters flow outward. Reaching both horizons and persisting through both seasons gives that wholeness an expansive, enduring shape.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness, completeness.
שָׁלוֹם
It illuminates Jerusalem as the place from which the waters flow.
shalem: Whole, complete.
שָׁלֵם
It gives the source of the waters a quality of wholeness that extends beyond itself.
THE PATTERN
Life flows outward from a source and reaches beyond it, carrying vitality across places and seasons.
And it shall come to pass, that every thing that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall come, shall live: and there shall be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters shall come thither: for they shall be healed; and every thing shall live whither the river cometh.He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.THE THREAD
For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.Jeremiah calls God the fountain of living waters; Zechariah shows these waters going out from Jerusalem toward both seas. The shared image moves from source to flow: living water issues outward, while broken cisterns cannot hold it.
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