What Does Zechariah 8:2 Mean in the King James?

Thus saith the LORD of hosts; I was jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I was jealous for her with great fury.

Zechariah 8:2 · KJV

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

God’s zeal for Zion is repeated and named as great heat, leaving no room to read divine concern as detachment.

THE MEANING

The LORD’s relation to Zion is fiercely engaged: the verse says “jealous” twice, then names “great fury.” For you now, it presents divine attention as intense and present, not distant or indifferent.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that God’s concern for Zion is passive or emotionally neutral; here the text names an ardor that burns.

THE ROOT

קִנֵּאתִי

qinnēʾtî

GROWS FROM

קנא

q-n-ʾ

To be jealous or zealous; to hold something with ardent concern.

The verb ⁨קִנֵּאתִי⁩ (qinnēʾtî, I am or was jealous) and the noun ⁨קִנְאָה⁩ (qinʾāh, jealousy or zeal) grow from the same root. English can make “jealous” sound like private insecurity, while the root also carries zeal; the neighboring ⁨חֵמָה⁩ (ḥēmāh, heat or fury) gives that zeal the verse’s own image of burning intensity.

ALSO GROWS

qinʾāh: Jealousy; zeal.

קִנְאָה

The verse names this same-root quality as “great jealousy,” making the repeated verb’s ardor explicit.

qannāʾ: Jealous; zealous.

קַנָּא

This same-root form describes the LORD as “jealous” in Exodus 34:14, showing that the word can name a quality of divine commitment.

qinnēʾ: To be jealous or zealous.

קִנֵּא

This verbal form shows jealousy as active engagement, matching the verse’s repeated “I was jealous.”

THE PATTERN

Scripture portrays divine jealousy as ardent, active commitment toward a people or place.

For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:

Exodus 34:14 · KJVThe same root names jealousy as part of the LORD’s own character.

Then will the LORD be jealous for his land, and pity his people.

Joel 2:18 · KJVJealous concern for a place and its people appears alongside compassion.

Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? are we stronger than he?

1 Corinthians 10:22 · KJVThe New Testament also presents the LORD’s relation to divided allegiance through the language of jealousy.

THE THREAD

So the angel that communed with me said unto me, Cry thou, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy.

Zechariah 1:14 · KJV

The same Hebrew root ⁨קנא⁩ (q-n-ʾ, to be jealous or zealous) appears in both declarations. This verse names Jerusalem and Zion together, letting the repeated “jealous” in Zechariah 8:2 read as an intensified form of that same ardent concern.

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