What Does Zechariah 14:7 Mean?
But it is one day, known to the LORD, neither day nor night; and at evening there is light.
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
But it shall be one day which shall be known to the LORD, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light.THE KEY
Light arrives while evening is still evening; it does not wait for night to end.
THE MEANING
This day is known to the LORD even when it cannot be placed neatly in the categories of day and night. Light is present as evening comes, so the dimming hour does not mean illumination is absent.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that light can only be present while things still feel like daytime.
THE ROOT
אוֹר
’or
GROWS FROM
אור
To be light; to shine.
Hebrew keeps “light” and “shine” in the same root family: the verse names the light, while Psalm 139:12 uses the verb “shineth” for the night. The verse’s claim is not that evening disappears, but that light is present while evening remains.
ALSO GROWS
ya’ir: He or it shines; will shine.
יָאִיר
This is the same root as the verb “shineth” in Psalm 139:12, where night shines as day.
ma’or: Luminary; lamp or light-bearer.
מָאוֹר
The root includes both shining light and a body that bears it, giving the evening light a presence rather than making it merely the absence of darkness.
orah: Light; illumination.
אוֹרָה
This noun form from the same root also appears in Esther 8:16, where light is paired with gladness.
יִוָּדַע
yivvadaʿ
GROWS FROM
ידע
To know or perceive; knowing by encounter, not information alone.
“known to the LORD” in this verse is yivvadaʿ. The Hebrew form means “is known” and comes from yada, to know or perceive. The day is held in the LORD’s knowing even while its boundary resists the familiar names of day and night.
ALSO GROWS
yodea: Knowing; one who knows.
יוֹדֵעַ
This form keeps the verse’s “known” within an active family of knowing.
daʿat: Knowledge; perception.
דַּעַת
The related noun carries knowing as perception, letting the day be more than a label on a clock.
THE PATTERN
Divine light is present within darkness, not only after darkness has passed.
Even darkness does not darken from you; the night lights up like day, and darkness is as light to you.Do not rejoice against me, O my enemy. When I fall, I will rise; when I settle in darkness, the LORD will be a light to me.And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not take hold of it.THE THREAD
Even darkness does not darken from you; the night lights up like day, and darkness is as light to you.The Hebrew word translated “shineth” in this verse and Zechariah’s “light” share the root אור, to shine. Psalm 139 says night shines as day; Zechariah says light is present at evening, loosening the boundary between them.
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