What Does Zechariah 1:14 Mean?
So the messenger who spoke with me said to me, Call out, saying, Thus says the LORD of hosts, I am zealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with great zeal.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
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.THE KEY
The same Hebrew seed holds jealousy and zeal together: Jerusalem is met with a fierce, active regard.
THE MEANING
God’s regard is not distant or indifferent: Jerusalem and Zion are held within a great intensity of care. The verse speaks of that attachment as present and directed toward the city associated with wholeness.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that Jerusalem is forgotten or beneath God’s concern: the verse names a fierce regard for her.
THE ROOT
קִנְאָה
qinʾāh
GROWS FROM
קנא
q-n-ʾ
To be jealous or zealous; to burn with ardor.
“zealous” in this verse is qinʾāh. Within this root, jealousy and zeal share one seed: ardent intensity toward a bond or claim. The verse repeats that seed in “I am jealous” and “great jealousy,” making the intensity itself the force of God’s regard for Jerusalem.
ALSO GROWS
qannāʾ: Jealous, zealous
קַנָּא
Exodus calls the LORD “Jealous,” showing the same root as a name for this ardent attachment.
qinʾāh: Zeal, jealousy
קִנְאָה
Isaiah uses this noun for the zeal that brings the promised order into being.
יְרוּשָׁלַיִם
Yerushalayim
GROWS FROM
שלם
š-l-m
Wholeness, completeness.
The name Yerushalayim carries shalom, wholeness; the verse places the city’s wholeness within the force of divine zeal. Naming Jerusalem alongside Zion makes the object of that regard unmistakable.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness, well-being
שָׁלוֹם
This is the wholeness carried in the name Yerushalayim, the city named in the verse.
shalem: Whole, complete
שָׁלֵם
This branch makes the connection between the city’s name and wholeness audible.
THE PATTERN
What is bound to God meets not indifference but active, consuming zeal.
For you shall not bow down to another god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.There shall be no end to the growth of his governance and wholeness, upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom, to set it firm and to support it with judgment and with alignment, from now and into the ages. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.And his disciples remembered that it was written, The burning for your house eats me up.THE THREAD
There shall be no end to the growth of his governance and wholeness, upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom, to set it firm and to support it with judgment and with alignment, from now and into the ages. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.Isaiah’s “zeal” is קִנְאָה (qinʾāh, zeal or jealousy), the same root as Zechariah’s “great jealousy.” Zechariah names Jerusalem and Zion as the focus of this intensity; Isaiah shows that zeal bringing order and justice into being.
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