What Does Zechariah 8:20 Mean in the King James?
Thus saith the LORD of hosts; It shall yet come to pass, that there shall come people, and the inhabitants of many cities:
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 future takes shape as people arrive from many distinct homes, not as an abstract promise floating above them.
THE MEANING
What is still ahead reaches beyond the people and places you can see now. People from many cities enter the scene, and the promised future takes shape through their arrival.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that the future is limited to the people and places already in view loosens here: the verse opens it to arrivals from many cities.
THE ROOT
יָבֹאוּ
yavo'u
GROWS FROM
בוא
come, enter, arrive
The Hebrew יָבֹאוּ (yavo’u, “they will come”) grows from בוא (bo, “come, enter”). The same root forms words for bringing and entrance, so this promised future is expressed as a movement into view, made concrete by people arriving from many cities.
ALSO GROWS
hevi: bring, cause to come
הֵבִיא
This form carries the same movement from the side of bringing: coming and bringing belong to one root family.
mavo: entrance, entry
מָבוֹא
This branch makes the root’s sense of arrival visible as entering a place.
וְיֹשְׁבֵי
ve-yoshevei
GROWS FROM
ישב
sit, dwell, remain
The inhabitants are יֹשְׁבֵי (yoshevei, “dwellers”), from ישב (yashav, “sit, dwell”). They are not an abstract crowd but people already settled in many cities; the promised movement begins from within established lives and places.
ALSO GROWS
yashav: sit, dwell, remain
יָשַׁב
The verb names the settled state of the people who are now described as coming.
moshav: dwelling, settlement
מוֹשָׁב
This branch gives a dwelling or settled place its name, echoing the cities from which these inhabitants come.
THE PATTERN
A promised future widens the scene as people from many settlements arrive.
Yea, many people and strong nations shall come to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray before the LORD.And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;THE THREAD
Yea, many people and strong nations shall come to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray before the LORD.The same root בוא (bo, “come, enter”) appears in both verses. Verse 20 names inhabitants of many cities; verse 22 shows their arrival as many peoples and nations coming to seek the LORD.
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