What Does Zechariah 4:7 Mean?
Who are you, great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become straight ground, and he will bring out the cornerstone with shouts of favor, favor to it.
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
Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain: and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it.THE KEY
The mountain becomes level ground for the finishing stone, and the work’s arrival is greeted with a doubled cry of favor.
THE MEANING
The verse places זְרֻבָּבֶל (Zerubbavel, “seed of Babel”) before a mountain, and the mountain loses its height until it becomes a plain. The headstone comes forward as voices repeat favor over it. Whatever towers before your work can become level ground, while its completion is met with favor.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that a towering obstacle proves your work cannot reach completion. Here the mountain becomes plain, and the headstone is brought out beneath cries of favor.
THE ROOT
מִישׁוֹר
mishor
GROWS FROM
י־ש־ר
To be straight, level, or upright.
“straight ground” in this verse is mishor. מִישׁוֹר (mishor) is level ground from the root יָשַׁר (yashar, to be straight or upright). The mountain’s obstruction gives way to an even surface, so the work can proceed on ground made straight.
ALSO GROWS
yashar: Straight; upright.
יָשָׁר
The same root names the straightness that emerges when the mountain is leveled.
meysharim: Level places; uprightness.
מֵישָׁרִים
This branch holds level ground and uprightness together, echoing the plain formed before the finishing stone appears.
אֶבֶן
even
GROWS FROM
א־ב־ן
Stone; a building stone.
“cornerstone” in this verse is even. The word אֶבֶן (even, stone) carries אָב (av, father) and בֵּן (ben, son) in its sound-shape. The headstone brings the work to completion with the image of father and son held within the stone.
ALSO GROWS
avanim: Stones.
אֲבָנִים
The plural shows stone as material assembled into a structure; here the singular stone marks its completion.
even pinnah: Cornerstone.
אֶבֶן פִּנָּה
The cornerstone sets a structure’s alignment, extending the verse’s movement from level ground to a finished building.
חֵן
chen
GROWS FROM
ח־נ־ן
To show favor; to regard with favor.
חֵן (chen, favor) is joined to חָנַן (chanan, to show favor). The repeated cry places favor over the emerging headstone, voicing welcome as the work reaches completion.
ALSO GROWS
chanan: To show favor; to be gracious.
חָנַן
The verb gives favor as an action, voiced over the stone as it comes forward.
chanun: Gracious; showing favor.
חַנּוּן
This form describes the character of one who gives favor, illuminating the doubled cry spoken over the work.
THE PATTERN
What towers over the way is lowered, and roughness becomes level ground for passage.
Every valley is lifted, and every mountain and hill is brought low; the crooked is made straight, and the rough places become a plain.Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth.THE THREAD
Every valley is lifted, and every mountain and hill is brought low; the crooked is made straight, and the rough places become a plain.The Hebrew מִישׁוֹר (mishor, level ground) that Zechariah calls a “plain” is the word Isaiah uses where the KJV says the crooked shall be made “straight.” The shared root joins a mountain being leveled with a crooked path being straightened: what obstructs becomes a way through.
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